Welcome to the
I am playing an odd japanese action game with obtuse quick time events. The character models are also bizarre and funny to my friends and I. I wind up playing it repeatedly throughout the dream because it is so strange to me, sometimes I'm alone and sometimes people watch me play it. The art direction is very appealing, it is a PS1 era aesthetic with very eccentric presentation. The buttons on the quick time events often aren't even on my controller, such as two circles in one button, and trying to progress seems pointless.
I am sitting down for a family dinner, there is some sort of roast meat. Someone keeps playing copyrighted music as we worry about the legality of it.
I'm walking through a gym/stadium and come across an old friend, her and I talk briefly and I continue to another group. There is a variety of exercise and athleticism going on around me, some of it seems like ballet. I am dressed formally and am also tipsy. I am shown some of their techniques and am instructed on how to perform one of their twirly moves. Immediately after, I fall to the ground exhausted and feel completely drunk. Everyone is well-humored and we make jokes about my inebriation. Within a moment I'm sobered up and go to leave the gym. On my way out, I rendezvous with my old friend again and we laugh about how tired I am.
...
I'm walking around in the snow with my mom and a sister. We are walking around an unfamiliar downtown with many interesting shops. My mom is drinking an iced beverage and I make jokes about it since it is so cold outside already. We enter a sort of concrete underpass area with a variety of food stands and open-air kitchens. The one we sit down at serves noodles and bulgogi, by the time I get to order my own the kitchen is closing down for the day. Luckily, for some reason the stand also sells instant noodle packs so I get some of those, some sort of tea-like beverage, and head back home with my mom and sister. I also have a ramekin, perhaps to prepare the noodles in. When we get back we are at my grandma's place, she has a cozy townhome with a small kitchen where I begin to boil water for my noodles. Before I can eat them, the dream ends.
At some point I was slowly eating a chick-fil-a cookie.
There is a situation about potential nuclear war, but I can't remember much else. I was working in a command center with a team around the clock trying to deter it.
I am walking outside in the ice and snow on the nearby bike trail. At first, I go with two friends to a coffee shop, after this I am walking alone on the trail. Around the entrance to the trail are giant sharp icicles in some of the trees, I carefully avoid these as I continue onward.
Curiously, in the distance behind me I see a house beyond the trees upon a hill. Two people enter the trail from that direction, each walking a dog on a leash. Suddenly, a large dog catches up to me and bites onto my arm and jacket sleeve, though it doesn't seem to hurt. I find it amusing and play into it a bit. The owner, a lady, comes up and apologizes to me for the dogs behavior. I know her from somewhere, but I'm not sure where. She invites me to some sort of winter event in "Uriville" which I'm unfamiliar of.
I tried to look it up on Google Maps, but it wouldn't let me because I was signed out of Google.
...
I'm at my job, but I can't remember much of what I was doing other than going between places. The layout seems like a blended mess of various schools and campuses I've been to in the past. At some point there was a visiting technician in a hallway, I saw him breifly as I hurried along. I felt stressed.
At one point I'm sitting down on a sort of couch, possibly an old van seat from my childhood. I wondered if I could smoke my pipe, which I obviously couldn't as I was still at work. Despite being "at work", the environment was like my childhood home in California, and at random times some of the students from the tech office were sitting on the couch as well. I felt at ease.
...
Later on, I am arrested and taken into custody for some sort of fraud, though I don't remember anything about the crime. I was taken to a hospital or mental ward and was told something was wrong with my brain. Despite the circumstances, the tone seemed lighthearted and there was a lot of banter. They decided I needed a test ran on me and produced a strange device. I was suspicious, and they said it could result in lack of balance. I stated that a stroke could result in lack of balance, this comparison seemed rock-solid at the time. They placed the device against my forehead and it felt like it was scrambling my brain, or more specifically like there is a surge of electricity going through my head.
As the "test" concludes, an ambient voice tells me that I have been fixed. I am asked whether or not I want further treatment... I believe I accepted.
A group of handicapped spies try to scale a christmas tree.
...
I'm in a sort of slum. I'm recruited by an elderly hispanic lady in an alleyway to help with something tech-related. I have no recollection of what it was, possibly malware. I think I was getting food at a fancy restaurant (or attempting) with some friends earlier, and in general we were just walking around a city. There was a lot of appealing architecture, interesting characters, and evidently an expansive slum. I have no other idea how to describe that latter other than that, but there it felt almost comforting.
Ther is a beautiful lush riverside area that has been abandoned. There was an odd context in discovering it, I think there was some sort of youtube channel that visited the area and I managed to trace it back to the actual place. It was very difficult to access and the local government was not fond of visitors, for some reason it seemed we were in China. Either way, I initially visit this place with Matthew and occasionally some other friends. There is a worn down shed that we settle in at, set up a kitchen and fire, and we are just amazed looking at the river. The geography was like a small lip of land sticking out in the water and surrounded by a high wall of soil and thick forest. It is like the grove was sunken down just to the river surface. The dilapidated hut faced the water directly. The total size was likely about that of the West Fork river park, though it was as long as it was wide. Surreal circumstances occured but I can't actually remember them, likely to do with trange sealife and the vegetation nearby. I spent most of the time alone foraging around the grove, showing off my progress to friends as they visit. I don't know how long Matthew was there past the beginning, he might have periodically appeared. I cooked various meals of even more varying levels of edible. The hypnoptic motion of the river was captivating.
I'm running around some sort of department store as an employee, but I can't remember anything very specific.
There is some sort of outage at the school and I am living there round the clock.
Before this, there seems to be some extreme blizzard that strands myself, Rob, and some others in a building with few ammenities. Eventually we get to the school for shelter.
Occasionally another person shows up but I'm mostly alone. My tasks mostly consist of diagnosing various things and making tea with a massive old kettle in Mr. Hays shop. At one point McIntyre shows up and wants to be in the tech office, I let him in and he turns on only one dim light, I tell him he can turn them all on and I don't mind.
Something about a rubber duck occurred before I awoke.
There is a strange movie of sors I'm watching, I don't remember how it starts. At the end the protagonist is holding a glowing metallic cube while a gentle female voice is speaking almost ambiently. She says that we can place the box on top of our chest. Doing so, the character sems to be immediately ripped from physical reality as you hear distorted noise interlaced with their screaming, while whrithing geometric forms fainly appear. After a moment of this our prograonist appears again, standing now. The female voice talks about something else, some other requirement to completely release the confines of their potential. Whatever it is, we fulfill it (another voice seems distressed toward our decision) and enormous doubly terminated quartz-like structures fall from the sky to cover the expansive and now alien terrain. Bright red streams of energy are cast between them each as though it were lightning, and the voice seems to suggest we have restored a sort of godlike entity/force. After this, the character is still alive and has newfound purpose, but I remember little else that happened.
My grandmother is a devout wiccan apparently, and helps me locate a small polished box with something I need.
Me and some friends are exploring an abandoned building that still has a great deal of stuff within. There is time-worn furniture, various small trinkets, books, a wardrobe of eccentric high-end fashion, and much more. We look through it extensively until we are ready to move on. Outside we are walking along a deep ditch, an older man who is supposed to be our guide seems to have just defecated in the bushes before pulling his trousers back up. He draws our attention to another man, bald and stout, who is fishing from a drainage pipe flowing with dirty brown water. Despite the small size of the drainage pipe, the man is catching sizeable fish at a brisk pace, and tossing them directly in a shallow foil tray that seemed to be filled with hot oil.
Later, I am visiting some family and eating cookies with cranberries.
I was part of some sort of competition, some of the events are blurry and it made little sense. At one point I'm attacked by a dog, and immediately after I'm in a room filled with large and angry rats. There were other contestants in the room but they seemingly weren't harmed by the rats, however I had to actively avoid being chewed on. Next there seemed to be a pedestal under a tree with a relief for some sort of key. The ultimate goal semeed to be to place the key, and words on the pedestal warn someone not to trust whether the puzzle has already been completed. I descend into a nearby cave to retrieve the key. I am successful, and I can't remember what the obstacles were, but placing the key led to something pretty cinematic. I don't remember what it was.
A particularly tense dream. I'm living in a sort of metro apartment building and going about my day, a couple friends are over. Out of one of the windows, on top of a bulding I notice a large object that looks like a statue head but with a face devoid of features. It is next to a vehicle on the roof of this building, and it immediately strikes me as strange. Shortly after I notice a glint of light from that spot and then I see a red laser dancing across my apartment. I tell my friends to get down and carefully move to the hallway, they haphazardly shuffle that way while the laser tracks them. I get very upset trying to explain the situation. The lighting outside seems to change significantly at times, it turns to evening and street lights behave erratically in sync with actions of the unknown threat. At one point a loud shot rings out, not hitting the apartment but greatly alarming me. The laser seems to occasionally return and skip around, through my curtains and across the walls. Eventually I bend and stick a sort of metal duct across the window and move it around, within seconds it is compeletely satured with bullet holes. I have one of the others call 911 and order everyone to carefully hunker down in the hallway. For some reason, the sniper only seemed interested in firing at what it thought was myself.
There was a lot going on, honestly. I was living in a small camper with multiple friends. There was some sort of event going on, it wasn't New Years but it had that vibe. I was walking through vast crowds of people and odd buildings while being dressed in various outfits. I think I was tasked with apprehending someone at one point. I saw Rob, he looked disfigured, but otherwise was doing well and we talked for a bit.
There were also strange games in my dream, but one specfic one was almost like a more oneiric version of Rune Factory. There were haunting visuals of spirits and an overall odd art direction.
A lot has happened, but mainly I remember being stuck in some sort of dreamlike labyrinth which had variosu benign and malignant beasts. I was often outside following strange trails that led to specific locations. There was also an actual labyrinth inside a structure which required me to carefully navigate puzzles to progress, though I often just cheesed my way through.
...
I am at a department store in a large mall location at one point, taking a break from the adventure in a way. I see a staircase going up, but I'm not sure where it woudl go since the entire story is on the one level. I am stopped and greeted by a friendly man, I notice the room is laid out with tables now and many guests are seated. He tells me about a project he is working on which will simplify homicidal investigations and track weapons used for murder, it is some sort of digital ecosystem he is pitching, and I affirm my interest in the subject. I share my two-cents about a website that lets you query information on specific individuals deaths, a lady seems to make note of this, and the conversation ends.
I am now dressed in business casual and ahve a seat at a table further along the room, it is a conference and the man across from me is playing a game in a comptuer browser. There is a row of monitors on the side of the table with people doing the same. I stand up and walk through the room, the other tables are not playing games, and I notice some sort of guest list with interesting names. For one, Linus Torvalds was talking to one of my coworkers and I awkwardly join the conversation. I fumble all of my words, and leave.
...
Elsewhere, on a high road, I was pulled forcibly away from the path by a sort of plant creature. I was then placed on a section I was previously unable to access (I should note it was like navigating a game with a fixed camera). I have to climb down some vines on a sheer tone wall, I am successful in reaching the bottom unscathed. I see a white and a black dog-like creature, the white one with a simple, friendly face; the black one with a disheveled sillhouette and wild, fierce eyes. There are several aisles of mossy vine-ridden stone and I can see the white dog faintly guiding me forward. The black dog is terrifying in the darkness as I can hardly discern it's shape and it seems to quiver with excitement. I try to play with the black dog and it isn't fond of my attempt, I think I woke up shortly after it mauled me.
I keep getting recurring dreams where I visit family in these unfamiliar homes, usually after driving down various urban streets that are also foreign to me. I found a couple of persimmons so I visited the house and gave them to the cats (apparently they aren't toxic).
There was definitely more that happened but I cannot remember.
The atmosphere throughout is often dark and rainy, though at other times it can briefly be bright and sunny. The locations are ususally labyrinthine yet oddly familiar to me.
I've noticed there is a weird theme of locations in my dreams. For stores there are two distinct types, first there is a massive mall-like supermarket with layers of parking lots and an indefinite content of aisles and department stores. Oddly, I never find anything to purchase here, I wander through intricately decorated rooms staffed by well-dressed attendants. I have no interest in the items and have no money here in this place but it usually seems to act as a gateway to other places.
The second is a smaller corner store, hardly larger than the store in a gas station. There is almost exclusively discount food, and while the quality varies it has a comforting quality. It is like food you find in an older relatives pantry, or what you might drag back to a hotel. The lighting is always dim, and it is late at night, but the few shelves that are there seem nearly 10 feet tall and are nearly overflowing with cheap meals. The clerk is almost always a pleasant yet unattentive middle-aged lady.
Giant store, parking lot, and looking after a young boy.
I remember little except that I was at a massive grocery store and there was a strict queue to get in, I did not have a masket. I was there for something specific, maybe coffee? I am not certain.
Waterlogged "books" and a father's blessing
(I had previously bought a bunch of old books at a strange sort of antiques and knickknacks store in some nook or cranny of town.)
For some reason, on a certain property I spy a large stack of books that interest me which are covered in frost. I start to pick them up but it will take a while, two young lads that live there approach and I have them help me grab as many books as possible. They question I why I want them, since they aren't books, and at this time I realize they are those faux books that are just little containers. I ponder for a moment and then just decide I don't need any, and proceed to talk to the father. I'm not sure what pleasantry I said but he claims I would be a good partner for someone, he has a daughter my age but I don't pursue this link.
...
Struggled to find my apartment.
...
Tagged along with cops, found brutalist architecture.
As I was struggling to get back home I come across a couple police officers (?), for some reason a coworker of mine is a cop. I shoot the breeze with them for a minute and then basically just tag along. We go to an abandoned industrial complex which is called "D--- ----" (Dream something? It was a very pleasant title.) It is extremely brutalist, dilapidated, and overgrown, and looking to my left I see a massive mural of a city that appeared very realistic, the cops make small fun of my not knowing it is painted at first glance. After my own brief trespassing I break off from the group and pin the location to my map.
Antics with friends, got soaked
A friend hit some crazy maneuvers on a rock studded road and I warned that we were going to get stuck in the water of the lake. Matthew was riding shotgun. Surely enough one of the rocks sends us over the edge and into the water. We are all out of the car, but we must retrieve it now. I climb up to the ground to dry off a bit, and my friend just seems to pick up the car himself and set it down on the ground. I split from the group at this point but it was a fun time.
At some point I've smoked a pipe and, having cleaned it, I've also removed the fired finish from within it. I would have to fire it again before another smoke.
I had been staying in hotels with a friend while traveling. This hotel was confusing, the floors were split between numbers and letters, we went to the "E" floor to find rooms to stay. For some reason booking a room required finding a receptionist on the specific floor, specifically on one that is a nurse. Perhaps it was a hospital.
I had some luck finding a room but decided instead I was wanting to stretch my legs a bit and explore. Heading out, I had my belongings on me and was dressed quite warm as it was very snowy outside. I had a horse or perhaps a mule that was very stubborn and seemed hell-bent on playing rather than walking with me. We walked for a good while and came to a fine house. I could let myself in somehow. It was the evening, the home had hardwood floors and beautiful aesthetics, solid wood doors to each room. I sat in a chair to not disturb anyone. Simon the cat was with me, I was puzzled on how I brought him but he explored to his hearts content. One of my sisters entered the living room and was shocked to see me, and we talked for a brief moment. I had nothing else to do here and moved along.
Walking further still, the landscape is fantastic and treacherous. There was at one point a massive lattice of steel pipes, surely 20 feet in diameter a piece. It was all overgrown with vegetation and there was a sort of canopy overhead from massive trees I'd assumed. The ground was not solid, but was rather a massive dump of things. Primarily it was a pile of explosives, long inert from exposure to the elements I hoped.
There was a beautiful view of this pile. I reach a second home, with more of my family aware of my arrival. We go to a local diner/restaurant, I am eating a massive plate of steak and noodles, and am waiting for a small cake to take with me when I leave.