Network

Think I've sort of found a new hobby, been taking photos recently. Starting to get the hang of it I think. Landscapes are fun and all but I think people might be more interesting, anyone want to be a guinea pig and have a photoshoot at some places in town?

I wish I could keep up with what Livvy wants to be for Halloween. First it's a princess, then a banana, then we went back to princess and now she wants to be a princess pirate angel. Whatever that is. I have no idea where she comes up with this stuff.

I have a seperate music playlist for when the kids are listening. It's mostly the same music as I usually listen to, just with some things removed the girls are too young for. I guess I didn't think over the songs on my twin safe list too carefully, because I forgot a few lines in "Sugar, We're going Down" (because no, my taste in music hasn't changed since I was in high school). I was worried they were going to ask what it meant and start a conversation I didn't want to have without both Amycus and I there, but instead Laurel just asked what language the song was in.

Thank you, Patrick, for singing the way same way that doctors write.

...Well that black box brought nothing good in my dreams. I released information - Division secrets - to the public and chaos. I released footage of a United States government ordered assassinations of a public leader. All to locate the remaining black boxes. I definitely didn’t think about consequences of these actions in these dreams but Nikita says that’s because Division teaches you to ignore those consequences. Division framed a CIA agent for what I released. Now we’re on our way to Chile to rescue the guy.

My plan was to release the footage so that Percy had no choice but to call the Engineer in. The Engineer is the one that built and encrypted these boxes. It worked just not in the best way.

Nikita does not like working with a partner. I don’t like playing by their rules. Our rescue mission goes to tell. Division shows up to murder us but we get saved by getting taken into custody by the US Army. Our day keeps getting better and better. 30,000 feet in the air and Division cleaners waiting for us on the ground. So the only way to avoid the cleaners was to jump out.

At least there were no injuries this time. Looks like I’m off to London to search for the Guardian of the next box.

I am happy to announce that after that dreadful experience last month several years of going back and forth, I finally decided to buy a boat.

( A photo )

I've named her The Temeraire, and the irony of naming her for a dragon that I had originally named for the ship is not lost on me.

I've spent the last couple weeks making sure she's seaworthy and decorating the cabin to my liking, and I think that she's finally ready to hoist the sails and head for open water.

[Pidge]
What do you say? Would you care to be her first passenger and take a morning/afternoon sail with me?

[Clara]
Are you free this evening? I was hoping you might take supper with me on her. She's outfitted with a kitchenette that I've not yet had the chance to use.

Marcel brought a new friend to the attic. A vampire named Josh. He said he was going to kill him but that would be breaking his own rule not to kill another vampire. Vampire with a code? Josh was compelled and Marcel wants me to break his compulsion since he was sent to spy on Marcel by Klaus. This hurts Josh a lot.

Marcel wants me to make Josh forget about me, the attic. The first friend I’ve had since the Harvest and being locked away in the attic and he wants me to make him just forget. Josh promises he won’t say anything and again I go behind Marcel’s back. I wish Josh were here. And Cami. They were the first two people I’ve met that are just truly nice in these dreams.

All in all it wasn’t terrible.

[Ozma]

Hey. What are you doing right now?

Let’s see. Dream number three. I created jobs for us. PI business. First case is a missing girl. My part in this case? To go undercover. In a sorority. Just where I always wanted to be. Not. Cheering and hugging. And so much pink.

Girls night is code for drinking wayyyyy to much. For sorority girls they could drink. So not the torture fest I was imagining. I left to go snoop around and got caught. They didn’t seem mad though.

Turns out the sorority girls weren’t the killers. Bo went missing and I called Dyson. I knew I was outmatched. This fae was called a Kappa. Some Japanese fae that was completely hollowed out its victims. Gross. Dyson killed it. Weak spot? Tea pot like head. Seriously weird.

Um, right. So I'm Harry, and was told to introduce myself on this thing. Hello? I like afternoon tea, a good book and more tea. Basically, bring me all your tea recommendations for Orange County? And maybe a good diner. I do like the occasional sweet.

( Personal Entry )

I've got five to eight more weeks until the California Bar Exam results are released. If I don't receive a letter, and I'm on the website, then I passed everything. I'm side-eyeing my mailbox now, though, just in case.

[Marguerite]

Help me relieve this stress of waiting. Sibling dinner?

Aslan, Chip, and Apollo would all like to let you know that I am in fact the world's worst dad because there were strangers in the house and I closed them in a room to keep them from running out to inspect/greet/trip said strange people. It doesn't matter that they had food, water, and a litterbox dragged into the room for the small time they were in there. I apparently deserve the shunning I'm getting.

In other news, when people come to deliver things to your house, does anyone else feel awkward? Like am I supposed to offer them coffee? Would it be weird? Or is it rude not to?

Well this was an interesting night. While Regulus was cooking dinner I was playing with the girls at the table when all of a sudden I heard this...only word I can think of to describe is crackling noise coming from the stove. Normally I stay as far away from it as possible for everyone's sake but that worried me so I went over to see what happened and found that one of the burners had popped a hole in itself. I immediately turned all of the burners off, moved the pots and pans off it, bundled him and the girls into the car to go to dinner and then to buy a new stove. They're supposed to deliver and install it tomorrow while I'm at work. And I already told the clerk at the store - I don't care what they do with the old one so long as they remove it from the property.

I don't understand why people have children and bring them to stores if they're not going to watch them. I was shopping today and there were these two little obnoxious kids running around and hiding under the racks. Where was their mother, you ask, she was in one of the fitting rooms and didn't come out until her fucking devil spawn pulled down an entire rack of extremely expensive dresses. This was also after they had run into me multiple times. I was tempted to use magic on them, but I thought that might be going a little overboard. I think that shows growth. But honestly, people who aren't going to watch their kids shouldn't take their children out.

So looks like in the dreams we do have a game plan after all. The mechanic that tased me in the last dreams I had, Rose, she and I figured out that if we can get onboard Snoke's ship and disable their hyperspace tracking the Resistance can survive to fight another day. And who gets voluntold to go? Me and Rose. I still can't believe you couldn't come with us, Poe.

Anyway, a lot of stuff happens. Gotta find a codebreaker on this gambling planet, Canto Bight, and before we know it we're locked up for illegally parking on the beach?? WHAT?

We bust out of there, end up riding these really weird alien horse things called Fathiers, manage to escape on a stolen ship and our cellmate the codebreaker - he's a coward and a backstabber. We escape Canto, manage to get onto Snoke's Dreadnought, and we're like TEN FEET FROM THE HYPERSPACE TRACKER WHEN THIS DUDE TURNS ON US.

Now me and Rose are at the mercy of all FRICKING PEOPLE, CAPTAIN PHASMA (HOW DID SHE SURVIVE STARKILLER?) and it's not looking good.

Exactly how many times do I almost die in these dreams? I'm losing count, man.

How do you manage to lose an entire sibling in the craft store?

Could someone please explain people to me? Part of my closing tasks at the end of the night is cleaning the restroom. Which isn't a job anyone really likes to do, but has to be done. I've seen my share of weird things, like the one time I went in and someone completely TPed the bathroom (just. why?)

Last night, though, I went in and someone took the lining out of the trash can and filled it with empty packages that look like they were from the game shop a couple of doors down. And poured what looks like an entire energy drink out on top of it all. I... what? What was even the reason for any of that? Did they think a can of red bull was going to destroy the evidence for them?

So....that just all happened.

I've been dreaming more of the Fourth Coalition over the last few weeks. I'm afraid joining the war with the Prussians has gone about as well as I suspected it might; we have been thoroughly Routed at every Turn. Temeraire has attempted to point out some Weaknesses in our aerial tactics, though the Prussians will not listen to him on account of his Dragonhood. They even scoff when they learn that Lien, a dragon who'd sworn vengeance against Temeraire whilst we were in China is commanding the French armies, and refuse to listen when I attempt to warn them of her intelligence and cunning. With the fall of Prince Ferdinand, however, I believe the Prussians will be more willing to listen to Temeraire's Wisdom, which I can only be glad for.

Most interestingly tonight, my dream self has lain eyes on Napoleon himself for the first time. He's not at all what my Dream Self thought he would be, I think. Lien has taken him as her companion as well, which is a truly harrowing thought. The Napoleon in our own history was formidable enough; I'm afraid with Lien's Insights he may be near unstoppable.

So I got a call to come by the stable this afternoon because they needed to talk about one of our horses. My immediate thought of course was that Shadowdancer took a bite at someone again but no. While he is involved in the situation it's not because of biting. It seems that the reason he's always been calmer with Regulus' mare near him is that he fell for her and now she's pregnant so we're about to have our first foals.

I was hoping to be able to put off that particular talk with the twins until they were closer to being double digits at the very least.

These dreams suck. I'm going to go dig out ice cream and make a sundae and watching something stupid and ridiculous.

Movie or show suggestions? Must be funny and must definitely not be horror or gore.

Dream me is pretty good with kids. That part is similar at least. I have to say I'm a pretty awesome uncle. Not to brag or anything but I've even been called the best on occasion. This was one of those dreams though where it felt like more people were dying than we helped.

And woke up to the necklace I wear in them. These random gifts will never not be weird.

Away from the Network, I don't use the twins' names, ages, or anything to identify them online. That's a decision Amycus and I made a long time ago, because the girls' digital footprint should be entirely theirs when they're old enough to have them. Not something their friends can google when they're teenagers to find embarrassing stories about them later on.

So if I have to mention them at all, I call them Thing One and Thing Two. Before anyone says anything, the girls know this and they're okay with this, except that they disagree on who is one and who is two. Our animals, however? I've got their pictures and names. The dogs, the cat, and the horses.

I had a fan on twitter today ask me what species Thing One and Thing Two are, and I'm just at a loss of words on how to handle this. I finally said my kids, and apparently they now think I have pet goats?

Yes, this sounds about right. I thought we were overdue for freakish weather.

Why is it snowing? It's June. It shouldn't be snowing.

Can anyone recommend a good dog groomer? I've been managing pretty well on my own but Nora's shedding and I think I need professional help now.

I phoned my father today to wish him a happy Father's Day, though unfortunately, he was too busy to make it to the phone. My mother assured me she'd pass on my regards, however.

I hope all the Fathers on this network had a splendid day, and that those of you with positive relations with your fathers were able to spend some time either with them or speaking with them.

[Amycus and Regulus]

I wish you both a happy Father's Day, and I hope the girls were able to celebrate with you without causing too much mayhem.

The CDC was a dead end. There was one guy left. He let us in, gave us food, a place to sleep, hot showers. And then he locked us in, and sentenced us to die. One of the guys went nuts, they think I'm a loose canon but he's out of his mind. Rick talked him down, and Rick got through to the doctor and he let us out with less than five minutes to spare. Turns out the glass at the CDC isn't entirely unbreakable. Rick had a grenade, and that was our way out. We ran, and then we watched the whole place blow sky high. It was pretty damn impressive from my dream perspective, and I guess we all lived to fight another day. I guess I'll see how that works out when I have another dream. I'm still holding out hope that my brother is out there.

Well, after seeing a shelving unit fall on a couch Jim and I were on and barely managed to avoid, I can now understand why my ex was always worrying about my bookshelves and how they could be lethal..... Oops?

The things Mr. Xanatos makes me do

I’ve heard some interesting things about this network. Figured I’d check it out. Name’s Winn and no I’m not about to name my likes and dislikes.

So, what’s with the interest in dreams?

I am quite grateful that my life here does not involve millennia-long power struggles. Nor do I need to worry about my past revisiting me quite as harshly in this world as it does in the dream world.

I know I’ve read about getting dream tokens and stuff. But still weird to wake up and find one. What’s the strangest one’s some have you got?

[Sam Winchester]

I’ve got something you’ll want to take a look at.

I haven't had any dreams for two weeks, as of tonight. I'm probably asking for trouble by posting this, but. I haven't been dreaming, and there are two people here having dreams incredibly similar to mine. One of them I've known for years, the other I just met since I started dreaming.

So I guess, my question is, is it common to have the same dreams as someone you know, and someone you don't know? I'm just trying to understand how the dreams work. The three of us have almost nothing in common in our real lives, and yet in the dreams we're all thrust into this unconventional situation where we've been sent to the ground after living in a space station our whole lives. And there's like 100 of us who were on that drop ship. So apart fro the two who died on impact, where are the others? Are there like 98 people out there having these dreams too, and we just don't know it because they're not on the network?

I'm probably thinking to much on this, but these are questions that keep me awake at night.

I'm considering putting together an additional summer reading list for the girls - any recommendations of children's books to put on there for them? Normally Regulus would be the one doing this but I'm trying to take some of the load off him to help with his stress.

Things went rather poorly in my Dreams in Turkey, though knowing what I know of History, I cannot say that I am Overmuch Surprised. I doubt very much that our Decisions in Turkey will have much improved Relations between the Turks and the British, but I'm certain that we couldn't have made them much worse than they were already.


I will say that there are many Things that I take for granted in this time that I may not have otherwise thought about if it weren't for the Dreams, chief among them being that most Nations no longer send children to War. I hope very much that that is something I never grow used to, either in the Dreams or in my Waking Life.

When you are married to a really nice guy in your dreams, but divorced from the same guy who is a raging asshole in real life.

What the fuck happened.


I think today is a wine o'clock day.

Laurel decided today that the best way to convince us to agree to take her and her sister to Disney Land every day of summer vacation was to sit us down and give us a presentation on exactly why it would be a waste of money to not go to Disney every day. I'm kind of impressed that she did her research. We've got seasonal passes, because we do go that often and it just made more sense to get them. She did her research on how much it costs for all of us, how much it would cost to buy it individually, and how much money we'd be saving by going every day.

The answer is still no, Disney is a privilege and not an expectation. And she didn't take food and souvenirs into her math. But she is in elementary school and there were hand drawn graphs. So I'm still impressed.

I always love running into old friends from University because I get to have this conversation with them: "How are the wife and kids?" Which I have to answer by saying we got divorced and I got full custody. "So you're single now? I could set you up with someone!" No. I'm not single. I got married last summer. Never been happier. "Oh so you got a trophy wife?" No. I went for the trophy husband. Much better for me.

The look on their faces is priceless.

Dream me is a right P.O.S.

Ir's weird waking up with feelings of self loathing, but I really don't like dream me very much.

I PASSED

I'm officially able to practice law in California!


Also got a job interview later this week.


Win/Win for a Tuesday!

Oh dear, where did the day go? It seems that Alexander and I completely lost track of time today. ;)

It’s that time of year again - Laurel and Madison have put their countdown calendar up onto the fridge with how many days there are until the end of the school year. And I am honestly hoping that mum and dad will be willing to take them for a few weeks again this year so that Regulus doesn’t go completely insane.

So, this is the Orange County I've heard so very much about. California really is a beautiful state, and much warmer than where I've come from. I think I could get used to this.

My name is David Xanatos, and I just arrived in your lovely state this afternoon, among all sorts of rumours of Ewoks and Stormtroopers battling it out in the streets. I've heard of plenty of rumours of strangeness here, though I find them hard to believe. Surely there can't be any truth to the things I've heard.



On a side note, I've decided to host a bit of a party, where I'm hoping I can meet some of the people who've lived here for a while, so I thought the best way to do that would be to invite everyone who reads this. Tomorrow night, at my home in Laguna Beach. I hope I'll see you there.

I've been typing most of the night since the girls went to bed, and I decided I really needed a snack break. I go to make a sandwich and something to drink. And I came back to my cat curled up asleep on my laptop keys. And of course he added his own words to the story, but given he's a horrible speller, he'll have to forgive me for not including them.

This is exactly why I'm paranoid and back up my work every time I step away from the computer.

My first day here and I bugged my sister to do all the things. We ate at this cafe, Izzy’s. It didn’t take much persuasion to hit the beach or get ice cream and all kinds of junk food. I’ve gotta figure out what sights we should see tomorrow. Any suggestions?

Oh and heyyyy. I’m CJ.

My neighbors are precisely the reason I keep a copy of my dogs veterinary records at home. While I know that it's tempting to claim that my purebred is responsible for your dog's pregnancy instead of telling the truth about it being the mutt down the street who got in your yard while she was in heat, it's actually impossible for Aslan to be the father. He was neutered as a puppy because I wasn't going to breed him. It's also impossible for our mixed shepherd to be the father - he was fixed before we brought him home from the shelter. Pick a target that isn't so careful with their pets if you're not going to be adult enough to make sure your don't get pregnant by keeping them indoors when you're not at home.

So, this is where all the cool kids hang out these days, huh? I can't believe I let Leroy talk me into making one of these things. So, hi? I guess. My name is Nova, and I'll be starting at USC in the fall.

Honestly, this whole 'online journal' thing seems a bit like a waste of time. Why do you guys do it?

Hogwarts is massive...I never thought I would get to these dreams, Ams talked about and now I get to dream them.

The sorting hat was a little daunting, but I knew where I belonged, I knew where Amycus belong, same house as our father.

Life is certainly different and when I woke up, I was disappointed, till I discovered...my wand!


I can safety say I haven't blown anything up.

There are lots of things that I've been using magic for that I used to do the old fashioned way, since I became a warlock, because it's just faster to do it with magic, but one of the things I still do the mundane way is go to get manicures and pedicures. There's just something about having it done that's so much better than just using magic. It's much more relaxing to go and get it done.

Any other magic users have something you still do the regular way that you could do with magic, but you don't?

It appears that Aslan has started a new game with our neighbors children. Everytime they knock a ball into our yard he takes it over to a basket that he used to hold his balls in until Chip destroyed the last one. And at the end of the week he drags the basket over to the fence and one at a time picks them up in his mouth, stands on his back legs and puts it back into their yard. I'm glad he's not annoyed by the balls anymore and his method of returning just reinforces my belief that he is the brightest dog I've ever been around. Fairly certain mum's always just claimed the balls for their own when I knocked them into their part of the yard.

I love my mum - more than almost everyone else on the face of the planet. I do. But if she calls or texts or emails me one more time to plead for me to allow her to use my horse as stud for her mares I am going to scream. Shadowdancer is not a stud horse. He has not been gelded that's true - the people responsible for him before didn't do it and I don't feel the need to. Part of the reason I chose him was his spirit and gelding him could change that. If he ever fathers foals it's going to be his choosing. Not mine.