Night Vision

In Media Res, as usual. I am with a group of people, exploring a large underground area. We’re on a sort of high-up walkway that has passages leading to other areas. I’m leading the way, but at some point, I notice that the others aren’t actually following me - rather, they’ve taken one of the side passages, a hanging metal stairway leading up somewhere. I double back and follow.

I find them stopped in front of the entryway of what appears to be a church - a windowless version of one, anyway. There is a rather video game-ish obstacle, a retractable spike floor, blocking the way in. They seem adamant that it’s too dangerous to pass, but I’m not so sure. Those spikes look pretty puny - I kind of suspect I could just walk on top of them without any harm done - and there’s probably a way you’re supposed to go to avoid them, anyway. I find it pretty easily, by going around on the left. The others seem content to wait for me to return, so I head further in.

There are three rows of wooden pews, and as I head towards the aisle on the left, a man stops me to give me an admission stamp. I hold out my left hand, and he stamps the back of it - five small blue dots, in a pattern that looks a bit like braille. I head forward, looking and listening to my surroundings. It is fairly full, and seems to have a wilder vibe than I would associate with a church. There may have been music playing, but I can’t remember many details. I take the other aisle back around. Maybe because of the better angle, I can see that among the people there are several couples having sex, either on the pews or just on the floor. Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be spending too long in here. I’m glad I ended up going because of the stamp - I’m sure this will also get me admission into other places further on as well, although given what I’ve seen here, there may also be places where I won’t necessarily want to admit to having been here to get it….

21.5.25


I am walking down a hallway when it occurs to me that I’m aware that I’m dreaming, and if I want to have a lucid dream, I need to take a moment and actually consider the implications of the situation. Having done so, I continue, interested in exploring my environment.

My memories of this are unusually unclear for a lucid dream, quite possibly because there was a period of NREM sleep and another nonlucid dream before I woke up from it. But it appeared that I was in a university of some sort, and the early part of the dream mostly consisted of walking around and talking to two people. I remember that the second introduced herself as Caroline Friend (which I might be tempted to consider the most unimaginative name for a dream character ever if I didn’t know there was an entry way back in my archive featuring two characters called Bob and Not-Bob…).

Still lucid, but interested in playing along, I have been tasked with going to Burger King King Walmart, where I will be starting a new job. (That is not a typo, and I thought it was pretty weird in the dream, too.) The university leads directly into a mall, and the place I’m looking for is apparently here somewhere. It looks like a pretty nice mall - really, unrealistically nice for one. I think to myself that it’s the second dream I’ve had of being in a mall recently, which is kind of interesting since I don’t remember having had any others, but perhaps my dream self could.

The store doesn’t seem to be on the floor I’m on, and so I have to find a way downstairs. Maybe there’s one hidden somewhere in the back of the arcade, which I’ve discovered on the far end. The first couple machines I pass seem to be out of order, but further in, it’s clear that the first impression was misleading, and it’s a pretty lively place. Various enticing electronic noises and snatches of music fill the air. I’m not going to let myself be distracted from what I’m looking for - but maybe I’ll be back here later….

Turns out there were indeed stairs back there. It takes a bit of walking before I finally find the store that looks like the right one - no sign, but I wouldn’t expect to find more than one big everything store here, and this looks like it. There’s what looks like a customer service counter right in front, and I approach one of the people behind it and say I’m here to start a new job. She immediately responds by getting out from behind the counter to take me somewhere. The dream is getting a bit unstable by this point - I’ve been wary of it fading even before that point, since it’s been going on for what feels like a long time - but I manage to pull it back. However, there aren’t any memories after that point, except that I remember it didn’t last for much longer.

—

I am in an arcade - guess I made it back after all - only where I am now looks more like a computer lab. There are long tables with various old computers lining both sides - and I sit down in front of an unoccupied one and turn it on. Apparently, only some of these have games on them - all of them have only one program each, a different one that’s no longer accessible on more modern machines. There’s a paper by the monitor that apparently says what’s on this one, but I don’t even look at it.

The computer is taking forever to boot up. A blond guy wearing dark blue walks up and presses two buttons on the keyboard. I figure he knows more about these than I do and is doing something necessary to get it going, but nothing happens. The screen is still dark. Turns out it really just is that slow. We talk briefly, and that’s all I can remember.

22.5.25