dunhaven; ic community.

I really often wonder where people get their ideas from, because I stumbled upon a everyone has a bone that matches their personality quiz.

I took it, regardless. If anyone is wondering, I am the distal phalanx (index finger). "For you, the devil is in the details! You are the navigator during road trips, the instructor while putting together IKEA furniture, the disciplinarian when someone makes a mistake and the reader during board games and anything involving “Terms and Conditions.” Accuracy matters to you, especially when getting the exact doughnut you pointed to in the case, or retrieving that errant piece of lint."

It isn't wrong.

WHO: Nina Deforest and Rupert Shield
WHEN: End of April!
WHERE: Their home
SUMMARY: Nina experiences a final battle through Tauriel's eyes and she doesn't react well. Luckily Rupert is there to help. This isn't quite complete, yet.
WARNINGS: Death :(

( Then, finally, Nina gripped onto her mind tight enough to think of someone other than Kili, though one might have argued that they were one and the same. )

I have an idea. And maybe the first part of the idea is to admit to you that I'm sharing memories with someone I thought was fictional. Lily Evans Potter lives in my head. I think by now it's probably a reality that most of us on the network (and maybe in the town?) have these memories. It isn't up to me to understand why. That's not my thing.

What I'd like to do is give you a spot to tell your story. I'm a writer -- honestly, I'm just a really bad unpublished poet -- but I spend my day taking care of my parents. We've got a really big living room. There's space out back. What I'm proposing is something akin to a writer's salon. You could come over, no questions asked. We'd have set times where we could gather.

You can talk to people? But most of all, you can write down your experiences. We can collect them physically or on GoogleDocs. I'm a democratic soul and am happy to take a straight up vote. But what I really want to get down to is by telling our stories, we might help other people. We might make it easier for them to live with these memories and emotions inside them. What I'm thinking (and hoping) is that this is meant to connect us. So, instead of living with trauma and I don't know ... shame? We can work it out together.

Would anyone be interested? Or should I shut up forever?

EDITED TO ADD:
Anonymous thoughts and commenters welcome!

WATERS FAM, RUPERT, NINA

I just want it to be known that the professor who told me I wouldn't have a personal life while in my residency was wrong and I have an upcoming date to prove it. 🙌

You know you're knee-deep in your residency when you go into the employee lounge to try and catch a quick nap on your break, notice that both the bunks are occupied, and crawl into one of them, anyway. Sharing is caring!

You're welcome, Dunhaven

RHYS/LYLLIA'S FRIENDS & FAMILY

Just wanted to let you all know that Lyllia was just admitted into the hospital and it looks like the newest Stone will arrive in the near future. We're at the hospital here in town and I'll give updates as things progress!

Has anyone else had embarrassing moments they can only explain by the presence of these dreams, or whatever you want to call them?

For example, this morning when I ordered my coffee at Java Chip, I ordered in Khuzdul.

As grateful as I am for the opportunity to learn here in Dunhaven, I do still wish that my prior education was enough for a medical license here. I could have gone immediately into research from where I was, but my passion has always been with the patients themselves, not locked away in a laboratory (although, of course, I appreciate all of the work that happens in the labs as well). And it has been helpful to learn about the education system here and about how hospitals operate, if I'm to stay in this country. But - as my father would say - there are moments when it feels as though I'd wasted many years this way. Usually at about 5 am during a night shift in the emergency department.

I'm halfway through, however. By next summer, I'll be done. It's hard to believe how fast the last year and a half have gone by.

Though I wouldn't call this my specific area of medicine, I still want to issue a general reminder to make sure you're washing your hands and covering your mouths when you sneeze/cough and doing all of the different things we can all do to keep our germs to ourselves. Because it's officially straight into flu season and I think we all know that flu season doesn't just include flu, but all the other sorts of creeping crud (that's an official medical term) that's out there. If you're not feeling well, don't hesitate in coming down to the clinic.

Do you know who went to the clinic today? This doctor, as a patient. I have bronchitis and I'm a bit sore about it. But I promise to keep my germs to myself and my poor fiance who has to live with me. Sorry, Rupert.

WHO: Nina Deforest and Rupert Shield
WHEN: Backdated to Thanksgiving
WHERE: Their home
SUMMARY: Nina and Rupert spend Thanksgiving with her parents and she's left feeling a bit wedding stressed, thanks to her mother's enthusiasm. Chatting, planning, and cute ensues.
WARNINGS: None!

( 'I'll try my best not to just talk you into hopping a flight to Vegas and eloping, but no promises.' )

I took the Christmas tree out of storage this morning and the dog has managed to knock it over three times while trying to investigate it. Luckily there were no actual ornaments on it, but the last time it sort of landed on him in enough of a way that it apparently freaked him out and now he seems to be leaving it alone. Whether this will be prolonged or not is still up in the air, but I have a feeling we're going to end up having to tie the tree to the wall somehow or Sam is going to spend most of December outside of the living room. (Which would be devastating, because he's a very good couch cuddler.)

Also, let's keep the decorating-before-Thanksgiving antics to ourselves. My mother has a sixth sense about this sort of thing, even from a city away, and she has a lot of opinions about decorating for Christmas before the turkey has been consumed.

Guess what tomorrow is, boils and ghouls? National Half Price Candy Day. Yours truly has been saving money all year, not for Christmas presents, put for all you can eat Reese's. What's the point of being an adult if you can't make bad choices without remorse?

EVE

You-know-who was in a narwhal onesie today. Tell me that's a coincidence.

GIRLFRIENDS

Who's up for a wine night?

I bet you all were thinking, "Oh, good. Charlie is going to stop asking random questions about our dream lives because it's an uncomfortable and awkward topic most of the time." HA HA. No, not quite. I'm too curious for my own good and I think, eventually, all of this information will be of use to us. So here's the next topic for discussion for all you second-life dreamers out there!

What is the best part about your dream life? What is the worst?

You can answer anonymously, or not. Totally up to you.

At the risk of sounding like my mother, the colors are starting and that makes me so very happy. The trees in the backyard are going this beautiful yellow and I can't wait for the oranges and reds to dot in there. I'm less excited for when they fall and I have to break out the rake.

RUPERT

Do you think we could swing a mini vacation? Just a long weekend somewhere? [...] I feel like I need a recharge.

FRIENDS

( Cut for image! )

Check out what Rupert got me.

WHO: Nina Deforest and Rupert Shield
WHEN: Evening of September 24
WHERE: Walking around town, specifically by Dunhaven Park
SUMMARY: Questions are popped!
WARNINGS: None!

( 'So is that a yes?' )

As much as I like things like getting to dive into my collection of knitware (I should be banned from buying scarves) and consuming pumpkin spiced everything and cooler temperatures in general, Sam and I aren't completely ready for summer to be done.

( Cut for image! )

But still, I could do without the highs in the 90s and the humidity. I really do like my scarves.

TEXTS TO RUPERT

-- I love you.
-- You know, in case you'd forgotten.

WHO: Nina Deforest → Tauriel
WHEN: Evening of August 20
WHERE: Her kitchen
SUMMARY: Nina has another helping of Tauriel interacting with Thranduil.
WARNINGS: None

( 'What do you know of love?' )