Network

I didn't even realize it was this close to the end of the school year until my English teacher today reminded us that we needed to have the first draft of our final paper in to her by the end of next week. I haven't even finished the book I picked so I guess that's what I'll be doing this weekend with my time off since the shoot got cancelled.

Superstorms and hostage situations. Always a fun time. But hey, at least I was the inside man, and even though I did get caught eventually, I didn't get hurt for once. And there were no Wraith involved in this adventure, which is a nice change of pace.

So Natalie's brothers are coming for another visit next weekend so Frey and I are looking into where we can go to get out of the house and away from them to keep the peace for her. We're thinking about going up to my Aunt's property on our bikes to camp and maybe do some climbing if anybody wants to come. Freya never minds us showing up with extra people and Frey's always willing to share his knowledge of camping/climbing/survivor skills with people who want to learn more.

Well, that was an interesting dream. We went to a planet that seemed to be covered in a mist. The energy readings were off the charts. Rodney assessed it to be powerful enough to allow us to dial Earth and go home through the stargate. Almost as soon as we got there, I got a weird feeling about it all. I took Teyla shopping, and then we went back to my place, an upscale bachelor pad on a lake, complete with a pool and a view to die for. I introduced Teyla to beer, and then a couple of my buddies from the service showed up.

I couldn't put my finger on what was wrong, until I got to the house. I never lived in a house like that, and the Johnny Cash poster I have in Atlantis was there on the wall. And then when Dex and Mitch showed up...Turned out, the mist on that planet is a race of noncorporeal beings with the ability to get inside our heads. They allowed us to think we made contact with earth, and that we could worm hole back to the Milky Way. It was all an illusion.

Apparently whenever that stargate is activated, some of their race is sacrificed for the energy that is used. So in order to keep us from killing them, they provided illusions that were based on our thoughts and what not, and therefore not entirely accurate. I was the first to figure out something was wrong, which hey. Kudos to me.

In the end they accepted our promise not to use their energy to try and get home, because as I told him yeah, we want to go home, but not at the price of all those lives. Besides, we volunteered for the Atlantis Expedition, and I for one am not ready to turn my back on it. Not to go back to Earth, where there isn't all that much to go back to besides like football, pizza, and beer.

The good news is we rescued my friend in my dreams. We even picked up a new friend. This part was pretty familiar from the last time, except the mad scientist was even creepier and the implications of his work a lot more disturbingly clear.

We also discovered a handy holodeck type history of the world program that talked about Aerith's people, the Ancients. She's... the last one.

And our new friend gave us some new info that I don't really know how to process.

I woke up and the program was on my desk. I'm just not sure how to make it actually play.

Well, that one was fun. Thought we had an ally. They were just trying to use us for weapons and intel. We met a population of people called the Genii. Cowen is their leader. I have a feeling letting him live was a mistake.

Great... So Jericho is gonna get hit with radiation from a damn nuke. Which means clearing out the fallout shelter under medical center. On second thought, that shelter didn't pan out. There wouldn't of been any air. So, we had to take the critical patients, which was about 11 people, to the fallout shelter under town hall and the rest of us to a mine shaft.

... Where we're going to blow the entrance to trap us inside from the radiated rain.

Of course my dream self is crazy and heading off to his best friend's ranch because there's assholes there with a gun. So, he blows the entrance to the mine up. Dad can't be found either. This is turning crazy, on all fronts.

ALSO, BEING SHOT AT SUCKS! Guess, it's a good thing that I'm a damn good shot and took care of the idiots. Now? We need to head into the storm shelter from this damn radiation rain. Luckily, we got inside before the rain started coming down.

Supposedly, it's never safe around me. You hear that, Sheppard. NEVER safe.

I had another dream last night. Really starting to feel like some kind of weird alt reality I'm living.

So we captured a Wraith and I tried to establish a relationship with him. Gave him the name Steve since he wouldn't tell me if he had a name. I don't even know if Wraiths use names. Anyway. We went to this planet where the scientists there were working on a blood alteration to fight off a Wraith feeding. Our doc went to help them and we used Steve as a guinea pig to test it and it seemed to work, he was unable to feed off the test subject. That guy died a little while later, but he was terminally ill so his death could have been from his illness. Except Steve died too. And by the time Carson could warn the lead scientist, half the population of these people had been inoculated, based on one test run result. So yeah, it wasn't perfected, or even close, and all those people started getting sick and dying. And their leader was like, so we lose a few, the Wraith won't mess with us. I do not understand that mindset in my dreams, and I do not understand that mindset in the real world.

Speaking of the real world, I'm running a 50% off flash sale on for flying lessons. That includes 6 lessons. Under 18 requires a parent or legal guardian signature. If you're interested come on down to [location] and ask for John.

The mission in my dream last night took us to a planet where the jumper completely failed and we crashed. No one was hurt, a testament to how skilled a pilot I am, no doubt. But we found a bunch of kids, they took us to their 'elders' which were just more kids, because there are no adults. These people think by sacrificing themselves at the ripe old age of 25, they're keeping the Wraith from culling their people. In truth, it was a Zero Point Module powering a shield that rendered anything electrical dead in its tracks upon entry.

We were able to prove this to them, and give them the change to live longer lives, breaking a 500 year tradition of ritual suicide on the eve of the 25th birthday. It's something of an eye opener to encounter that kind of people. Reminds you how precious life really is.

Well... I guess the whole dream thing was bound to happen sooner or later.

Looks like I'd been traveling around the world training with combat and survivalist specialists, just so I could join the Crows. My old man says that I'm just like my cousin, Bruce, except that I'm actually going somewhere with my life.

Also, my cousin's been gone for three years and I decide 'Hey, lets break into the place.' Because my step-sister calls me saying that Sophie was kidnapped. Which brought me back to Gotham early. Also, Luke is something else.

I think, right now, I'm glad that my sister is off in Italy. Considering these damn dreams, but I plan to check on her anyway.

On top of all of that. OW. Guess it's a good thing I know someone good at stitching up wounds, so I'm probably going to have a scar on my left shoulder. Along with a bruise along my cheek, but that's neither here nor there.

Took a train to Denver, Colorado to get a car and then drove to Kansas from there.

So DreamJake knows sign language. Which means that is no different from what I, myself, know. But he's been gone from Jericho for five years. Told his best friend that he had been around in the Army, but was only there to see his grandpa.

Well, his mom is better at understanding than the old man. Something about money for a clean start, grandpa gave the old man control over it. But DreamJake didn't stick around, he had to leave to go to San Diego the next day or be there by then, at any rate.

ALSO, OW. DreamMe had his car hit by someone because we both saw some kind of smoke off in the distance.

Car crashes suck. Also, those injuries? Slipped through the dreams. So, even more OW.

Dream!Jake is limping around, found a school bus full of kids. Wherever he was at before all of this? He has some kind of medical training. He did a tracheotomy on a little girl and used straws taped together to help her breathe. Supposedly he learned it in military school.

He did, however, manage to get the bus back to town. Despite the injuries.

[Sheppard]

We might need a hospital.

Seemed like someone was giving information to the Wraith, because on average, half the off world missions my team went on we encountered them. Interrogations were done, feelings were hurt, and it was all a misunderstanding. In the end, my team managed to capture a wraith and bring it back to Atlantis. Because that's going to end well, I'm sure.

In real world news, the flight school is doing well. Opening a second location seems to have been a good idea.

So. Dying in the dreams. Pretty sure my heart stopped. So that was fun. Whole dream was just a joy ride, for sure.

OC's a bit warmer than Jericho, I'll give it that. Not too bad of a place either, so far.

Looks like DreamRaven has gotten used to the brace.

Finn is also out looking for Clarke, despite the fact that she's in the camp with us. She was brought in the night before and Bellamy showed up in the morning. But Finn wasn't with him.

There's an electric fence around the camp. Bellamy, Clarke and Octavia are going after Murphy and Finn. Seems I have connections with Wick. In order to kill the electricity in the fence. Go us. Even if by Johnny's count, things have gone to hell already where Finn is concerned.

Yay for heart to hearts with Abby that aren't really heart to hearts. The adults need to realize that we're not kids anymore and haven't been since the day we were sent down to the ground to die.

My dream persona has settled right in to his new life. In another galaxy. Where we had a kid go missing and apparently he activated a containment vessel and let loose an ancient 'entity' that wanted to suck the life force right out of everything around it. We tried to trap it but it was too smart, and we ended up sending it through the Startgate to an uninhabited planet. Sounds anticlimactic now that I put it down in words, but it was pretty intense when it was happening.

I was told people on this network tend to have intense dreams. I guess I've been initiated. The dream I had last night was crazy. I was flying a chopper and we were attacked by a drone. Somehow managed to evade it, landed without incident. Went on to our destination, a military base on Antarctica. They'd figured out how to get to the Pegasus galaxy, where a race of people called The Ancients lived millions of years ago. Turns out a few people have the Ancient Gene, and I'm one of them, so I got tapped to go on this mission. We went through a Stargate, and ended up in a city called Atlantis. It was under water, and the shields protecting it were failing due to our arrival so we needed to find somewhere else to go.

I went with a team back through the stargate to another gate in the Pegasus Galaxy because there wasn't enough power to get back to earth. Because I have that gene, I could fly the puddle jumper. That thing was super cool. It could like read my mind. Very handy when flying. The people we encountered were nice enough, told us of an enemy called The Wraith.

And of course the Wraith showed up. And took some of the people, including my commanding officer. So we had to try and rescue them. Col. Sumner was killed by this enemy, but we recovered most everyone else, and got back to Atlantis after a shoot out. Turns out the puddle jumper had drones of its own and I just had to think about attacking the enemy and the drones deployed.

I feel like I watched an action movie in 3D. I also feel like I lived through it.

A little birdie told me this is a happening place. So of course I couldn't resist checking it out.

Name's John Sheppard. I answer to either. I've got a successful flight school a few miles up the road. I've just endeavored to open a location here in the OC. If you want to learn to fly, we should talk.

Yeah, I know I'm super bad at these intro things. Sorry about that.

Sheppard out.