Volume 1

**Volume 1** of Little Beirut focuses on Walter Jung, a TV Journalist in Portland, Oregon. It establishes the cast and setting, as well as a variety of story arcs. It is slated to contain 15 books. Two have been released.

## Structure

The structure of Little Beirut is loose, without a single, unifying plot. Instead, the story skips across multiple plots at once, as if it were a LiveJournal blog written in narrative third person. The storylines are meant to ebb and flow as days pass by, as more important things come up or others get forgotten.

Primarily slice of life fiction, the story focuses on the mundane just as much, if not more than the more extraordinary, supernatural elements. Many of the fantasy-geared elements are treated as if they are incidental, and just a normal part of life.

## Plot

During a day off, Walter has an increasingly bad day. He leaves to go to the gym, and while working out is nearly hit by a thrown dumbbell, and barely avoids injury. He decides he's safer if he leaves, and returns home, where he finds part of his neighbourhood has slid down the hill. Helicopters fly above his house, surveying the damage, and raising paranoia about the integrity of his own property. After cleaning up, he goes back into town to get his hair cut, and do some quick shopping. While at the salon, he is mistaken for a raccoon by the stylist, making the rest of the appointment awkward and uncomfortable.
After the salon, Walter wants to pick up some new gym shoes. On his way to the shoe store, he is rear-ended at a light. While he is uninjured, his car is damaged and needs to be repaired. The driver that hit him is uninsured, further rising tensions.

Later at the shoe store, Walter realises he has been recognised by an employee. This is the first indication in the series that Walter is a public figure. He ignores the employee as she low-key stalks him through the store, and buys his shoes. While standing outside on, answering a message on his phone, Walter is sucker punched by a teenager. He fights back, realising too late that he is being filmed. He informs Nichola over text of the incident, and demands the footage be recovered and deleted.

After getting lunch, Walter heads home again. By now, it has begun raining. As he arrives home, he finds a feral dog has torn apart his trash, and spilled it all over the floor. Walter spends the next hour cleaning up the mess in the rain, before going inside to get cleaned up.

Following his assault, Walter appears on a regional morning news show to discuss his assault. Over the course of the weekend, his team have spun the story and changed tack. Instead of eliminating the footage from the internet, it has been slightly edited to remove the shot of him punching the teenager. He uses the spot to promote his own show, where he plans to do a feature story on internet pranks.

Later in the week, he confronts his girlfriend, Penny over the fact that she stood him up the night before. After a minor, playful squabble, Walter goes back to his dressing room to resume work on the week's episode. Before he can get started, he is confronted with complaints about new hires, interns, and ratings. Once he chases all the complaints away, Walter is able to work on his show. That evening, he returns find Penny waiting for him. After another brief squabble, they get into Penny's car together and head into town to a batting cage. They get kicked out early when Penny accidentally throws her bat. They leave for dinner, and stop at a drive-thru, before heading up to Mt Tabor. While they start on their dinner, Penny produces a small stash of cocaine, which the two finish off together. Moments later, a police officer arrives, attempting to intimidate them while lying about the park's hours. Penny manages to convince him to leave.

Once his dinner is eaten, Walter leaves the car, complaining of boredom. A proper squabble breaks out, with Walter wanting to find something to do, and Penny wanting to stay where they are. Walter falls off a steep ledge and tumbles down the mountain, breaking his jaw and cutting his chest open. Penny manages to help him back to the car and takes him to the ER, where Walter is given a prescription and told to go home.

Penny takes him home, and the two fall asleep in the living room. When Walter wakes the next morning, he bathes, and breaks up with Penny before leaving for the studio.

## Books

Day OffMt TaborWaterfrontWendigo1. ↑ Twitter 2020-12-08