Network

Since I keep getting pushed towards this, by old friends and new acquaintances, I should introduce myself. I'm Alaric Saltzman. The new history teacher at Huntington Beach High School.

I recently moved here to the OC for personal reasons, but I'm sure that I'll end up staying and enjoying the place, as well.

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.

I guess my alter ego has taken the loss of Sofia pretty hard. Refused to go into town with Lori, blew up at Carol. It's like, I don't know. Losing that little girl was a hard blow to all of us, but I put so much into trying to find her, I nearly died trying to find her. And to have it end the way it did, I guess it's not unexpected that I'd lash out. But dreaming it? Seeing myself act that way? It was awkward.

One, certain Grounders suck. Like a LOT. Two, being shot with an arrow hurts like a bitch. Three, my big brother is starting to see reason. And four, well... see number two. So needless to say, shit ton of pain but Bellamy sent me off with him to stay safe and so he could help.

We can add shape shifters to the catalog of monsters I've encountered in the dreams. Really didn't need that experience.

I guess it's a good thing Raven is still in hospital. Means I was here when I woke up from another dream torture session. Dream me is also learning some of the grounder language. Which is fascinating to real life me. Especially since I'm deaf, but I hear just fine in the dreams.

You know those little ceramic houses people collect to make christmas villages to decorate with? Apparently they make Halloween versions of them, because Nico just bought every piece Micheals had and is busy trying to find outlets for them all in our living room.

So, like, does everyone only just talk about dreams? I want to talk about hot guys!

Dream me is an idiot. I should have left but nooooo. I stayed to film Ladybug and Cat Noir fighting the supervillain The Pharoah. And who gets kidnapped by him? ME. And what does he want to do with me? Sacrifice me. I swear dream me is so single minded sometimes. Always about the latest scoop.

I'm definitely counting it as a win even with all the conditions they're putting on it - my parents agreed to buy me a bike instead of a car. Frey's taking me to pick it out this weekend. I'm not sure which argument finally convinced them but I'm not going to question it too much.

We've already got one shop we're going to check out. Any other recommendations?

At least my latest dream was anticlimactic.

We buried Sofia, and I sat around whittling some bolts out of branches.

Feels like a reprieve, and I have a feeling it's gonna be short lived.

Still ain't haven't found the little girl, Sofia, in the dreams. Went looking for her in the middle of the night, in the woods. Found some poor sap who opted out, hanged himself. Wasted an arrow to put him out of his misery. Wasn't even anything worth scavenging in his camp.

By morning, we moved on, heading up to the farm where Rick was with Carl. I went out again, looking for Sofia. Found a farmhouse, looks like she might have been there. I took a Cherokee Rose back to her mother and tried to give her hope, but fact is I'm not sure how much more hope I've got. I ain't giving up on that girl, but it's been three days now. Her chances ain't looking so good.

Woke up feeling like road kill. So that's fun.

I don't sleep in my dreams.

Sure would be nice if that carried through here.

My dream life just never gets a break. This time, when the group of us was headed back to the highway, some chick rides up on a horse just in time to save Andrea from a walker, and she's looking for Lori, says Rick sent her because the kid's been shot. The boy, Carl. Not the girl we're looking for. So Lori goes off with her, and the rest of us head back to the highway. Group's split up now, and we gotta make a choice. Go to the farmhouse where the chick on the horse took Lori, or stay and keep looking for Sofia. Ain't no easy choice, and me? I'd rather stay and look for that little girl, but I think we're gonna go to the farmhouse a few miles away.

My real life isn't so high adrenaline. The restaurant is doing well, we're making a decent profit. But I got a couple positions I need filled. So. Yeah. Anybody's looking for employment in the restaurant business, I might have something for you.

My sister took me to fireworks on the beach and it was amazing.

And I woke up with more dreams. Man the Auradon kids are so stuck up. For a place that invited Villain Kid's over…they sure try and blame them for everything. Granted I caused all the problems apparently. I stole a Mal's bracelet. A suit if armor mascot uniform and left the bracelet in it's place. Stole Audrey's dress. Kicked the couch while Mal was pouring tea and spilled it on Ally's dress. And a magic carpet. A magic freaking carpet. Cut the wire to the music. But that one was so Freddie could sing. And I might have kidnapped King Benny.

[Maren/Vanessa]
The same carpet turned up in my room this morning. I haven't checked it out or anything. But it looked exactly like the one in my dream! I figured maybe tomorrow since today was the fourth.

So, in the dreams, the group is moving on, trying to get to Ft Benning. Honestly, I don't have much hope. But at the moment it doesn't matter. We got caught by a hoard, most of them had to hide under cars and hope for the best. The asshole who left my brother cut himself, and I ended up saving his sorry ass by dragging him down and throwing a corpse over him. Not a fun time. Then one of the kids caught a walker's attention and she ended up bolting into the woods and I tried to track her. Apparently dream me is a survivalist or something, because I know my way around hem woods. Didn't find the girl, though, and by mid afternoon a bunch of us headed back to the highway, Rick and Shane and Carl stayed back to have another look around for Sofia. What chance does a 12 year old kid have, alone in the forest that's infested by walkers? It don't look good for her.

After a few days of having Cesare looking at us like we betrayed him by bringing another puppy in the house, we gave my dad a golden retriever for Father's Day yesterday. I know I know, you're never supposed to give anyone an animal as a present without discussing it with them first. But. It's been awhile since Sunny passed, and I knew how much she meant to him. And.. it felt right. And I am really, really glad we did it. You can tell while he was in no way expecting it, that he was a good surprise. Ziggy's going to miss his playmate I know, but it's not like we're not going to take the boys to go visit him.

I don't know if I've joined the ranks of the dreamers ot what, but last night I dreamed about a different place. I lived in Oz.

I lived in a little shack, and across the way there was a house built into the mountain, and that's where my best friend lived, only he wasn't allowed outside. Whenever Mombi would go into town, Tip would throw rocks at my window and I'd come over and try to find a way to get him out of the house.

It felt very real. It still feels very real. I don't know what to make of it.

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.

So happy to be back in California and settled in one place for a little while.

Anybody out there know how to handle a crossbow?

I could use some lessons I've got a bow.

I had another dream. The camp got over run with walkers, we some people. And Jim got bit. We had to leave him behind when we moved out. One of the families decided not to go with us. There's still too damn many of us to travel quietly, and I really don't like the cops in the group.

Still haven't found my brother, but we made it to the CDC. Supposed to be help and resources there. Just a bunch of dead bodies and walkers. Seems like we're screwed six ways to Sunday. If it were a TV show, I'd expect my brother to come running out of the shadows to save the day, but I don't think it's gonna happen that way.

Most people like to start their school year off buying new art supplies. I mean.. I guess I do too, being that I'm an art student. But I like to end the school year getting to buy supplies I haven't tried yet, because I'm going to have time to just experiment with them and maybe try new techniques without it affecting anyone but me. And Nefertiti, who has decided to claim one of my brushes as her own permanently. Don't worry, it's clean. I'd never give her one with paint of any sort on it.

[Friends and Family of Hazel, Nico, and Will]

So the three of us decided since we have a pool, maybe we should use it and invite everyone over to celebrate surviving finals. Nico's going to be cooking, but if anyone wants to bring any sides or snacks, feel free. Not this Saturday, but next Saturday, starting at roughly noon?

Also be aware that Ziggy loves to swim and will shake his fur at you. Maybe bring some extra towels.

Like anyone would have to twist my arm to use this thing. Kind of the highlight of my day when I'm not pestering the big grumpy bear. Something that he'll just have to get the hell over and he knows it. He loves me anyway.

Also, getting a bit bored. Might decide to head out on a midnight hike.

So what is this new astrological sign nonsense? One of my friends from high school just posted about it on Facebook and this is the first I'm hearing about it. Personally, I have no intention of being anything other than a Leo even if it is a fire sign and I'm the son of Poseidon.

I've already seen enough here to know that the dreams were real, but I guess that I really have been getting them myself. It's the only way I can explain the bracelet from my dreams showing up on my wrist today. I really wish I dreamed of some space utopia instead of what I wound up with though.

I guess in my dreams, superheroes are real. But they don't come and save you when you need rescuing. They just crown themselves kings and queens of the new world order, and throw themselves a victory parade every year to celebrate the day they murdered the man who had tried to set us all free and to remind everyone that they're in charge now. I can't believe how many people believe the lies the churn out.

[Nathaniel]

I... owe you an apology. For before.

I'm still not convinced ghosts or whatever exist, but... well, I guess there's a lot of things that I didn't think were possible that are.

So, Johnny pointed me to this thing. Otherwise, I probably would've ignored it like a crazy person. Hello, I'm Raven.

I love watching movies, reading and writing novels. Not that; that has gone anywhere lately. I also work for the local newspaper. Wooohoo me, right? Anyway, I figured I'd say hello. So, this is me saying hello. Anything I haven't divulged, I'm sure Johnny will have fun spewing to everyone. Kidding. He wouldn't do that to me.

So if dream me finally got his driver's license does that mean that I finally have a driver's license?

Had another zombie apocalypse dream last night. Didn't find my missing brother, but found proof he's alive.

And the crossbow I use in the dreams was propped up against the wall beside the bed when I woke up.

So hi. I'm new here. New on the network, not the OC. I've lived here my whole life. Lucky me, right?

Summer's just starting and I'm already bored. Anyone got any recommendations? Nothing physical. I don't do sports or anything like that. Books, music, movies, shows to binge, foods to cook. Stuff like that.

So now I know who it is giving out fliers looking for me - my cousin Annabeth and her dad, my Uncle Frederick. And apparently it’s not just my cousins hanging around in my dreams but Blitz’ friend Hearth is there too, which doesn’t surprise me all that much considering how close the two of them are here. As I’m getting ready to take off from the Public Garden Blitz tells me to go see Hearth in Copley Square but I’m a genius and instead head toward Beacon Street which is where I find out who’s handing out those fliers. It’s kind of weird for me to see them there since apparently the last time I saw them in the Dreams was a decade ago when my other Uncle had everybody at his house for Thanksgiving. I don’t get too close to them there but I do listen in on their conversation - apparently my life is in danger which is a shocker I know since I’m a teenager living alone on the streets of Boston. But the day she died there - the last thing my mom told me was to run and hide and not trust anyone. And whatever else - not to go to her brother Randolph for help. That she’d find me which...didn’t work out.

I know she told me never to go to Randolph, and knowing him here I can’t really blame her because the dude’s a complete dick, but dreamMe has to know why all of a sudden my family cares whether I’m safe or not so I head off to his house in Back Bay since I know for a fact that Randolph is out. Just because she told me never to go near him doesn’t mean I can figure out his schedule and loot his house when I need food right?

So. This is a network of Dreamers. Guess I'm one of you now.

Dreamed up the zombie apocalypse last night. Me and my brother (what?) were part of a group of survivors outside Atlanta (what the what?). I was tracking a deer, my brother went into the city with some of the others. He's a loud mouthed bigot, and he got left behind, handcuffed to a roof. The just left him there, and I? Didn't handle it well.

I didn't grow up with my brother, have had little to no contact with him my whole life. Never felt like brothers, really. He's from my father's first marriage. But in this dream, there was something more familial between us. As intense as the whole zombie apocalypse is, the fear I felt for my brother chained up on that roof was very real.

I'm really glad I have the restaurant grand opening this weekend to distract me.

Just as I thought, you send a bunch of delinquent teenagers somewhere without adult supervision and all hell breaks loose. We went back to the drop ship to tell the others what happened to Jasper and two of the guys are fighting. With knives. I can't even.

After that I gathered supplies so I could go back out and find Jasper. I asked another boy named Bellamy to come with me and Wells since he had a gun. He asks Murphy to come, which is fine cause we're probably better going in numbers anyway. Later on Bellamy tries to get me to take off my wristband, which is stupid because our wristbands tell the ARK that we're still alive. I told him that the only way the Ark was going to think I was dead was if I were actually dead. Another boy named Finn shows up then and suggests we split up. Eventually we find a trail of Jasper's blood and it leads us to Jasper who is tied up. Stupid me, rushes forward and I almost fall into a pit. It takes three of the guys to pull me out, which makes no sense cause I don't weigh that much!

In the end we got Jasper down and went back to the drop ship with a dead jaguar in tow for dinner. I don't see how this whole situation is going to work out. Everyone is taking off their wristbands, making the Ark think we're dying and they won't come down to Earth if they think it's not safe. Why am I surrounded by idiots?

I think I must have cut myself in my sleep last night, but I can't actually find any injuries. I woke up with blood all over my face though, so maybe it was a nose bleed or something. And the same damn dream I have every night, except with more details, and this time I could put people to sleep by touching them and...

Sweet Rot, Nova, no one needs to know about your dreams.

So what is there to do around here in the summer? And if anybody suggests I take up surfing because I ‘have the look’ I’m going to scream.

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.

Someone remind me that if I'm ever kidnapped by a masked, megalomaniac that I really shouldn't sass them. They really don't like that. Also, what kind of name is Kylo Ren? How does one even come up with something like that? I know it's not his real name, but still. It's just bad.

I also finally figured out why Rey and Finn are with BB-8 and I'm not.

Oh, and I have an entire space ship now. I got the rest of the pieces of my X-Wing last week. I haven't flown it yet though. I still can't quite believe that I'll be able to go into fucking space in it!

I have no idea exactly what Nico's video game did to him, I just wish it didn't involve a character I share the same name as apparently not doing anything. Because there's nothing like reading next to your significant other when all of a sudden he's yelling at Will Turner. Because I thought he was telling me I was totally useless at first. And all I'm doing is just. Studying.

It's interesting how in all of my dreams from The Shadowhunter Academy, we end up getting told some sort of story about past Shadowhunters and sure, that's more or less what happens in regular school, you learn stories from the past, but it's even more interesting here because practically everyone we learn about has some connection to my friends.

In one dream we learned about an ancestor of Jace's who was half warlock and he was expelled from the Academy. I also realized that if I ever decided I wanted a parabatai, it would be Clary. Of course I need to survive becoming a Shadowhunter first in order to even ask her. I also decided to write letters to Isabelle and Clary, wanting to know more about the things I couldn't remember.

Clary wrote back and we started exchanging letters regularly. Isabelle however, sent my letter back. Our next guest speaker after that was none other than The Inquisitor Robert Lightwood, Izzy and Alec's father. He came to talk about Valentine and their time at the Academy and how Valentine formed The Circle. Izzy ended up coming with him, but she wasn't happy about it at all and she didn't want to talk to me. In fact, she spent a lot of time flirting with Jon and George. Then out of the blue she says she wants to summon a demon, which I really didn't think was a good idea t all.

I wanted to tell Catarina and the others, but I also didn't want to get them in trouble. In the end, another student got there first, but it turned out the whole thing was a test to see how many of us were vulnerable to repeating something like with the Circle. Everyone failed, but me and Julie. Then after Izzy and her dad talked, which wasn't really the best of talks, me and Izzy talked and turns out she was flirting with Jon to make me jealous and she apologized for sending my letter back unopened. Things are looking better for us.


Now as for real world news, Rock Solid Panda have a show Saturday night at [name of club]. I'm really looking forward to it cause we haven't had a show in a while. We were supposed to have two in March and had to postpone them, this is one of the postponed shows actually. So come on out and see us.

I guess I can’t claim to feel left out by not having any Dreams of my own anymore. That was a nightmare and a half. Nothing even that bad happened in it just a lot of shit got dropped on me as having already happened which I’m honestly glad I didn’t have to see. Like my mom dying in a fire at our apartment, not having any clue who my dad is, being homeless at 14 because they were gone. It wasn’t all bad though. My cousin Blitz was in my dream - he’s the one who tracked me down to let me know someone’s after me, passing out flyers with my name and face on it. Got to be the police right? That’s what I thought too and then I woke up to find one of the flyers on my pillow. This was definitely not put together by the cops.

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?

When I left California ten years ago, I went as far as I could get with the thought to never look back. I started a new life in New York, and it was a good life. It's my life, you know?

I never intended to come back to California. But now that I'm here, I'm thinking about staying. Why the hell would I do that? My childhood was miserable, there's so few good memories here for me.

I came back for my mother's funeral. I didn't come back to stay. But there's something...holding me here. I can't rally explain it even though I feel it. It's like I've already forgotten my life in New York.

So, yeah. Hi. I'm Alex. And I'm staying.

So I laid low took a nice vacation for a couple of months. No dreams, which was nice, even if I do miss some faces from them.

Did I miss anything interesting?

So it occurred to me that with everything that happened over the last couple of weeks, the quarantine and my brother turning into a woman, which was the most amusing thing I've ever seen in my life, I never actually introduced myself. So, here I am doing just that. I'm Helen Blackthorn, I'm 23, like making new friends and I'm an exhibit designer at the National History Museum of Los Angeles and it's so good being back to work. I was missing the museum during the shelter in place and was itching to finish the exhibit we were working on when everything closed down.

After an 80hr bus trip and three changes I am vowing to learn to drive and never travel via greyhound again. Now I've been able to put my stuff in the closet, sleep and eat something that's not greyhound station food I'm feeling slightly more human.

What's up OC? I'm Christy.

Well I officially made it to the kingdom in my Dreams we're not gonna talk about it being named Corona, nope and there was a huge celebration going on. It was so much fun! Dancing, some little girls braided my hair, flowers, food, and it was just so much fun. I'm actually kind of impressed with it and glad that the version of me in my dreams actually got to see what real human interaction is like.

The best part was in the evening Flynn took me out on a boat so we could see the floating lanterns on the water. I got chills watching all the lanterns float up from the kingdom. It was absolutely beautiful. and we're also not going to talk about that song full of feels

When your Captain is telling you need to socialize and not just work, that's bad right?

....How did George get out of the hutch and into glitter?

I'm not going to lie, I've kind of enjoyed this week. As always, there are days I identify as more feminine, days I identify as more masculine, and days that I fall somewhere in between. The inbetween days are the ones I experience the most often. But on my more boy days, it was kind of nice ...not to be perceived wrong. Not that the people closest to me have ever had a problem with asking which pronouns I prefer any given day.

I don't know where I'm going with this. Just, I understand how some people haven't been enjoying this and why. But it's been sort of a nice experience on my end.

So what exactly is the timeline before we can safely assume those damn soldiers are gone? I want to know when I can feel safe going to check on people that are on the ground and not expect to look up and be surrounded by soldiers with their weapons drawn on me.

Am I the only one who's more amused than annoyed over the fact that the coins we got from those boxes turned into chocolate once Mar10 Day was over?