B1ue

Whenever I dream of a new monster, I feel compelled to write about it here. Which, odd, but I'll own it. Now I don't recall all the details of how this worked, but the dream started as a mystery that I was apparently trying to solve. Bodies were piling up in the town I lived in. And, weirdly, even though the bodies did not look much alike, they seemed to share the same DNA. Or, at least, partly shared DNA. Sort of a chimera. At least, half of them did. The other half were simply murder victims, obviously murdered by the chimera, but the chimeras had no real cause of death, They just...stopped. Helping me in my inquiries was a young, blonde woman from some Nordic country (I'm not certain which). Let's call her Annika. She aided me not because she was qualified, but because she'd been at the scene of one too many of the crimes for it to be a total coincidence, but she was certainly not the culprit, proved by physical, metaphysical, and even video evidence. She claimed that her twin brother, long dead, was manifesting around her and attacking random strangers. Indeed, the chimera DNA was very close to her own, close enough to have been a match for her brother, although why the bodies didn't share his face and where they came from in the first place was still a mystery. Sadly, much of this middle parts of this story are lost to my memory, but for some reason we wound up trapped in a locked house scenario. And, as in all such scenarios, people began dropping like flies. Naturally, Annika was nearby with all of them, but I too saw one or two of them. And what I saw astounded me. Out of thin air, her brother would spring into being, and suddenly attack another person. Usually with a knife. And because they were caught totally by surprise and off guard, his first stroke was fatal. Then, after, he would stiffen, the face would change utterly, and his body would collapse. Dead. Annika, meanwhile, was not helpful, curling into a ball and getting as far out of the line of fire as she could get. This would obviously not do. I was a minor spell caster in this dream, and conducted a seance to contact her brother. Nothing. Then I did another spell, one that would allow me to see into the spirit world (probably taking some pills in the process, which made real me nearly wake up in horror). Annika assisted in the first, but not the second. So she was not aware I could see what was happening the next time her "brother" appeared. Didn't know I could see her spell take shape, form a body out of random ether, and see her consciousness channel through that construct. It wasn't her brother's spirit killing people. It was her, forcing his body to form again and again while she controlled it to kill. I dismissed the construct next time it started to form, knocking her back into her own body and throwing her off for a moment, which I used to place a magical lock on her abiltiies. She smiled. "My brother tried that too, you know." She told me. "Just before I killed him. Turns out, if you kill your own twin, their echo stays with you. And you can force the doppelganger into existence." Someone else had showed her how to do it, because he too had killed his own twin, and had found in her an apt pupil. Right up until he became the first victim of the current murder spree. She then fought the binding, and used the innate connection she had to her twin to put her magical abilities into another spirit, evading my lock. I managed to shut down the doppelgangers as fast as she formed them, but let it distract me too much. Because she had a knife too, all this time. And managed to confuse me so much with the magical attacks I forgot to watch the physical.

Huh. I hadn't even noticed, but almost every mental picture I have of the 70s (which admittedly I only know through TV) features someone blonde. And that's despite "That 70s Show" being primarily brunette.

I didn't go off, Mark did. Or possibly Tim. What the hell do I know about upper class people? I did agree though, and contribute that a GED is a less than optimal route for Californians. I could have been talking about Brad's kids. I.E., the one who got into Annapolis, the world class figure skater, and Will, who refuses categorization. And needs to spend time with kids. Hey, maybe if like you keep pushing and he does go into charity in a big way, he can volunteer at a daycare.

I don't think this family comes with that setting.

I don't recall it being all that bad, but I also didn't live in the area at the time. Chino when I was growing up was a blue collar area, though, yes.

Well, I guess Admiral Carmichael called for a pow-wow at the perfect time, as it seems to have saved Brad's life. ..or did it? Was the good admiral in on it, and they missed the plane switch? o.O

I think you're forgetting how convenient facebook was during its early years when it was restricted to college students. It was a great tool when you needed to find someone in your class and organize a study session, or even better, find someone who is in the class NOW with the same professor who can tell you to avoid the class until someone else teaches it, or to sign up for next quarter. This was especially true of larger schools, where there could be 600 other students in your class but you might know 3 are there, and never notice that 15 other people you also know are taking it too. But, anyways, I don't think he'll get invested for his own sake. I think he'll seek out "Things that will annoy JJ," and send them on to JJ with a note attached "another picture of you on the 'net today!" Hmm, Buzz. What are you doing? All three of the brothers need more experience with kids. Yeah, JJ shouldn't have grabbed Maddy like that, but neither should WIll and Darius have just taken her at her word. Not that the conversation would have gone any better any other way. Even if he hadn't grabbed her, Maddy would have cried "JJ yelled at me," and both Darius and Will would have thundered in with the same righteous indignation that totally ignores that none of that would have happened if someone was watching the kids in the first place. Tiffany and Wade probably thought they were safe enough running around the house, but that house is hardly baby-proofed. Unlike several commentators, it totally worked for me that JJ slept with Alex again. I mean, he hasn't forgiven Alex, or expressed a desire to get back together. They're having a holiday, and in a couple days Alex will go back to his wife and neither of them will contact the other until they absolutely have to again. Look at how JJ describes their afternoon: No stars in his eyes, no descriptions of tenderness. Just fun and friendly. I think he'll be fine, but of course we'll have to see how it works out when Alex is ready to leave.

You might be surprised. I'm continuously told I look younger than I really am, which has reached the point of annoying me when I hear it. My hair is not greying fast enough, apparently. So not all of us want to look 12 once we're past 30. Where I think JJ might be envious is at their ability to perform. No amount of botox is going to recapture his technique. No plastic surgeon is going to restore the ability of his joints. And unless he dedicates himself to staying in condition, no amount of apple martinis are going to let him shake off minor falls and bruises the way he did at 16. He'll still be able to perform well, if he wants to and works at it. But well is not "among the best in the world." But he also might consider the amount of crap he went through at 16, and that his fellow 16 year olds lived through, and order that martini anyways, serene that his dink and his companion won't affect his career. I'm kind of liking him more as a character lately. I imagine everyone slowly realizing that, no, he's not to be overlooked or taken as weak. He's just as willful as the rest of them, and can dish it out. I also imagine Will sending him angry kitten gif's during their late twenties, with a cute little gatito captioned "I am full of rage and destruction!" Because no one annoys you like your little brother. We receive manuals on the subject.

Ah, yes. The song that encouraged drunk frat guys everywhere to start stripping at parties. I like that song.

I'm not going to watch that video, because its a nice day and there's no need to raise my blood pressure. That and I have no further desire to hear what that f**k nugget has to say on any topic whatsoever. He hates LA so much, move. He's not like me, with familial and historical ties to the area. Further, remember how I said the way he presents facts and creates a narrative are often lies? Same is probably true in this case. I'm guessing that he's presenting LAX as buying up all the property in Manchester Square, and then linking it to the upcoming metro expansion? With maybe a few "Whoa"'s thrown in to bemoan the modernization that isn't taking people in consideration? Well, there's a couple problems with that. LAX and MTA are completely different companies. They work in somewhat different businesses, use different unions, and fall under different oversight. They can work together, but they aren't one big company joining forces to screw the little guy. Big companies don't actually do that all that often. In my experience, big companies have trouble getting more than one of their own internal departments to join forces, let alone manage cooperation across different corporate mindsets and traditions. Publicly managed companies are usually worse about that, not better. The airport has been buying up properties in Manchester Square since the 90s. The first Metro line opened in 1993. They didn't even expand in that general direction for a good decade, the funding that is making the current expansion to LAX possible wasn't even available until 2008. I'm sure the airport was on board with a possible expansion in their direction, but that early? With their own money? With the light rail and subway systems not even proven in concept yet? Isn't it much more likely that the airport was slowly buying properties in order to solidify their hold on the area against possible future needs? Disneyland is an object lesson to all of Southern California business, let me assure you. When you have a project on that scale, you buy what you need, and then buy more in the areas surrounding it. Even if you don't need it today, or in the next ten years, you buy it, and hope you don't wind up needing the property across the street as well in thirty year's time. Because otherwise you wind up leasing the property from the owner forever, and that's if you're able to use it at all. The railroad I work for has an entire department that works on this. I assume that LAX is no less forward thinking than railroad companies. I suppose I may be being unfair to this guy, since I'm guessing based on what you said and the past two videos you got me to watch. But I don't feel bad about it. He looks around LA and sees beauty in what LA can be. I look around and see beauty in what it is. How it works, despite the flaws or even because of the flaws. He reminds me actually of the apocryphal people who buy property in the shadow of an airport runway, because its cheap, and then band together to force the airport to reroute the planes. Sure, they get a nice house out of it (that they're probably going to sell anyways, because they have no real attachment to the area), but everyone else that uses that airport now has to suffer decreased safety and decreased capacity.

Busy. Yeah, its pretty neat to have that open, although the line I'm REALLY interested in is the one that will stop at LAX without needing a shuttle bus. Eventually, there will be a people mover running from the train platform to the terminal areas, which will also be cool. I look forward to that line seeing a lot of use, as people opt to use Metro instead of parking near the airport. Not everyone will, but maybe enough that parking/driving in and around the airport will be slightly less insane. Slightly, anyways.

I liked the ending line of this chapter, and I'm curious what will happen next, This feels unfinished, yet like we're wrapping up this particular storyline.

Which is what I mean by burning Trevor. He was either going to suffer a mischief, or he was going to be bound tight enough into their web instead of hers that she wouldn't be able to use what leverage she had on him effectively.

And as Tim pointed out, the odds of it actually sticking to Zach is minimal. No, the only one who would be hurt would be Trevor, as the focus of Will's entire ire.

The only part that makes me question her role is Trevor. Why would she burn him like that? Yes, he had some authority as Wade's cousin, and his skill was helpful with handling Zach, but was that enough to offset losing him as an asset? He only had a small part in the diversion, not even a big part, and not even the main event. And clearly she (or whoever) knew Trevor would be exposed, because they had back ups and contingencies already in place. It just seems sloppy, and I expect better of my villains. Edit: Something I missed a couple chapters ago, but I'm curious why they were dismissive of John being in a band? Yeah, they might not be good *now*, but like anything else, only way to get good is by being persistently bad long enough to get better. And John might just have the tenacity to do it, since this would be something he'd have that was wholly his, not given to him by his family.