10th August 23 - Shops (some NSFW)

I'm staring at the map of a region, though most of it but certain urban areas are whited out, in a very video gamey 'you haven't explored this area' or 'you aren't allowed here' kind of way. I focus in on one part of the map, it's close to the centre of a city, and I'm suddenly looking into a small indoor market. A central walking space is surrounded by around 12 different small businesses. I scan over them from above, as the details of each become clearer. Most of them seem to be alcohol related, with a few craft beer stalls and one devoted to mead. I'm inside the market space now, and I go to check the meads where I sadly find that none are vegan.

I leave the market and find myself in a European style city, lots of old grey stone, and cobbled roads. I am standing next to a shop with a wooden door and iron fixings that my two housemates (J & L) enter. I realise that this is the leather shop they were telling me about recently (dream stuff), that has a somewhat-secret sex shop in the basement. I follow them in, and watch as they head straight through an unassuming door on the far side of the shop, descending downstairs. I continue to follow, and see that the stairs lead down to a room that seems like a giant barn. There's a central walkspace where the floor is covered in hay that leads to a laddery set of stairs at the other end, and a few staff members dressed like stereotypical american farmer types. Along the sides of the walkspace are several double beds, most of which are occupied by people fucking. 

I'm a little shocked, and see my housemates continue down the path, seemingly heading upstairs. As they progress, one of the male staff members starts checking out J and says 'I'd like to get him involved ASAP!'. J starts milling around looking pretty pleased with the attention, and for some reason his appearance is somewhat Kenny-Omega-heel-arc-coded, as he is wearing aviators and has mutton chops that lead into a moustache. I follow L after checking the alt-looking fem staff member out briefly, up the stairs at the far end of the barn. We ascend into a small set of rooms that look like a somewhat empty living space with some fitting rooms hastily put together in the middle. She's looking for documents, though I don't know what for.

I mill around a bit as she's doing her thing, and start looking around. There's a small and seemingly unused kitchen off to one side, and there's another door slightly ajar that's leading to other rooms. I stare through the crack, making out details on the other side when someone (actor Nathan Lane) walks past, notices me staring, and then stares back confusedly. He then hurries away and I start chuckling. L appears and I show her the door which she looks through from the same position I did, as somebody else is brought to look through by the person that saw me, and they both see L in the same position as me instead. I find this hilarious and start cracking up, the idea that they see me standing absolutely still, staring through with a weird expression on my face, and then when looking again it's someone else doing exactly the same thing must be so weird and creepy. 

I laugh myself awake.

6th August 23 - Tapestry

I'm travelling via bus through a city I've dreamed of before, with narrow roads and a seafront that this bus travels down. I know the driver, he's someone I know online that DJ's an independent radio station - D. I ask D, who at this point is an unrecognisable blonde woman, why when we travel though the narrowest part of the city does the bus always play Plush by the Stone Temple Pilots? She laughs, and responds 'because it's good!'

Night arrives and I flit around several rooms in several buildings on the seafront. Time blurs and it becomes night, most likely due to a fair amount of alcohol consumed; I'm at one or several interconnected parties. I have my instax camera, and I've been taking disposable pictures but there's something wrong. The details have become hazy, but something bad has happened, and I may have taken pictures that contain more information, maybe even evidence of crime. I run back into the city, where it seems to be soaked in perpetual daylight. I struggle to remember what happened, and after feeling into the city and seemingly losing any potential tail, I decide to make my way back to the party aftermath.

The main building is at the end of a road running next to the beach, parallel to the shoreline, a two storey apartment building with a very old but studenty vibe. It's dark inside, blues mix with red lighting to provide an aesthetic that feels comforting to me. As I make my way upstairs, a police officer spots me and requests my assistance (IRL she is someone who runs a plant nursery nearby). She has spotted my instax camera and has intuited that I may have pictures of whatever crimes may have been committed. At this point I realise that I have a collection of photos from the party, quite a few of them are nudes of partygoers, and I would rather the cops not get a hold of anything. 

I do my best to rebuff her attempts at gathering evidence, and I flit from room to room picking up pictures I've taken whilst the police officer attempts to follow whilst surveying the various scenes. Eventually she corners me in a room and asks to see the film roll of my camera rather than the photos. I realise this is bad, and that any pictures I've taken will be visible, but I have no choice but to hand it over. Inside the film canister is a piece of cloth, which we slowly unfurl into a huge tapestry roughly 2m x 15m in size. Printed along the tapestry are the pictures that this roll of film allowed for, taking up roughly 2m x 1m each. They are gorgeous, artistic, colourful images of varying styles. Some are straight photographs, and some seem like photoshopped pieces of artwork.

We do our best to fold the tapestry back up, but it is understandably huge and won't fit back into the tiny canister. There were no incriminating images, so she requests to see my other 'spent' canisters. I find one, and instead of a tapestry to be unfurled I find a traditional roll of tiny film, which has created a grid of all the pictures I have ever taken with my camera. We both look through and find just pleasant normal pictures everywhere, nothing bad or incriminating, and the police officer even compliments me on my photography skills. 

I leave and head back into the city proper and find that it is snowing, I believe it is late December in what I now understand to be Liverpool. There seems to be a parade marching through the dark snowy streets, people having a good fun time. I decide to see the march for myself, and hop into a small flat platform thing with wheels and a steering column, not unlike a scooter with a square base. It zips me around quite fast and surprisingly safely considering the slushy and icy nature of the streets. I ride past countless shouting jovial people, and even spot some old friends (P & H) towards the front of it. I eventually reach the front where people seem to be getting a little angrier, and continue onwards to the square they seem to be approaching. I see some people advertising various shops and bars nearby, one sign advertising vegan brandy at a nearby Bratislavan bar catches my eye.

I decide to double back along a different street to catch the middle of the march, only when I get back to the main road nobody is to be seen. I continue back to the main square and find the whole city seemingly deserted. Have they all gone inside the various shops and bars nearby? I enter a small cosy arcade around the corner and find a single person that I know - she's not quite human? I get the impression that she's from an ancient time, some kind of Neanderthalic person that has found herself in modern society, and that I have been tasked with taking care of her. She's standing outside of the Bratislavan bar, which is also empty aside from a cowering barkeep.

The barkeep has a chunk of hair missing from the side of her head, and I realise that the ancient woman must have gotten confused and attacked her. I apologise and explain why this was wrong to the neandertal, and order her a diet coke. As I do more people seem to finally start filling into the arcade and to the bar. One group of posh people walk up and start talking to us, and indicate outside where there is a giant game being played in the square. Various country borders are visible in the snow, and the objective is to take nations one by one. The ancient woman immediately claims a huge amount of territory, surprising the posh knobheads.

I woke up.

6th August 21 - Island

I'm on an island at night. It feels vaguely tropical, and my senses are screaming danger. There are vampires on the island, multiple factions of them. I get the feeling that I am the only human here, and that I belong to the only faction that doesn't want to tear me to shreds. Something is holding the other factions back though; every faction is accruing votes and if mine doesn't gather enough, I will be torn apart. The votes for the factions are all going up, mine going up the slowest though. Vampires sensing the direction things are going in start circling and I rush to the safe haven of a nearby camp.

As I get to the camp, dawn hits. The camp looks like a collection of tree-houses, ladders, and the occasional hut on the ground. There are about 20 or so people here, all humans. There are no vampires on this island, but there are dinosaurs, and the camp is waiting for the next incursion. The dinosaurs on this island travel in packs, and attack often. The next attack is theorised to come soon, and the camp is feeling like it may very well be the last attack they have to suffer. My vision shifts to a zoomed out view of the island and I can see waves of dinosaurs approaching the camp, multiple different species. It's clear that we can't stay there, we would be easily overwhelmed. On a distant part of the island though there is a bridge, and I believe it is about time we were rescued.

The bridge leads to a city that looks a lot like New York. I get the feeling that I have been trapped on this island and that this bridge is new, but it looks solid and old and the city easily approachable. I have to wait for something to cross first though; King Kong. He is easily large enough to crush the bridge with a flick of his hand, but my brain tells me that he crosses the bridge by foot, and disappears into the island to presumably fight the waves of dinosaurs. The bridge itself now has several large black deposits, remnants of Kong's passing.

I choose not to cross the bridge, but only because his passage had rendered the state of this island as 'safe'. I turn around and there is now a small modern tropical village following the road that the bridge leads to. There is an airport present, smaller on the outside than it is on the inside, which I discover as I head in. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go starts playing and various comedic scenes play out as I go through airport security and board a plane. The vibes are 'early 00s romcom credits scenes', small humorous moments played out over 15-20 seconds before flashing straight onto the next. One of the people involved in these scenes may have been a young Woody Allen, another being a blonde Carrie-Anne Moss.

Safe on the plane, I then wake up.

26th August 20 - Bowling

I'm standing in a small bowling alley. It's darker than it should be, and there are only a few people around me. I know them all, friends and ex-coworkers. The bowling alley is closed for the public, but open to us. I realise that I'm at a wedding party, and that they have booked the bowling alley for this use alone, though nothing has started up yet. I have been to this bowling alley before, in a dream a few months ago, but right now I just know it feels familiar. There aren't any staff members around and I realise we are waiting on more guests to arrive, I've probably gotten here rather early.

I head outside with my cousin (R), we figure we have time to kill. We get on silvery chrome hoverbikes and head out across the city. It's an old metropolitan area, and I get strong New York vibes from it, lots of metal beams and suspended railways. I've been here before too, in a previous dream, though I only know that the place feels familiar.

We reach a parking lot, it's empty and wide, and surrounded by chain link fences. At one end there are red hoses, and I go over to interact with them. Gasoline starts spraying around the parking lot and after covering a lot of the surface area, I set it on fire. We watch the flames rise high and then slowly die down, leaving little trace of their existence. I knew my cousin would like this place, and he is eager to set some fires of his own. I decide to return to the bowling alley and leave him to it, leaving on the hoverbike.

I reach the bowling alley and the atmosphere inside is dire. There are a lot more people, and they all look subdued. The lights are still dimmed and no machines are turned on. The bride approaches me, she's an ex-coworker (BMac), and she looks disappointed. I realise without her having to say anything that I'm the reason nothing has started yet, they were all waiting for me to arrive. I hastily begin to explain that my cousin and I only nipped out for a few minutes, and that he would be back shortly.

As I say this I scan the crowd of people who are listening in uncomfortably. One of them looks like Aidan Gillen, only his face begins to change as I glance over. His face continues to change until realisation hits me, his face is changing into my cousins. He starts to grin at me, and I notice that his face is incredibly pale, almost as if he's covered in makeup or flour. I turn back to the bride who says 'Your cousin is over there though...' pointing to the man who changed as she says this.

I smile, because I recognise that this makes no sense. 'That's not my cousin, because this is a dream!' I state. And I start to attain lucidity. I can feel my control wavering, my perception of what's happening around me getting spotty. I remember various techniques and start slapping myself on the arms and telling myself  'I'm gaining control'. It works to a degree, and I feel like I start to stabilise. I try to look around and feel myself move twice. Am I waking up? Is my lucidity just me basically daydreaming, and to move is to actually move in real life, waking myself up properly?

I slap myself in the legs and take more control of my situation, I look around and in doing so I feel like I'm sat in a chair in a dark room, sleeping. This makes me struggle to think of a way to solve this problem - can I get lucid and not wake up? I close my eyes and try to center myself. Something clicks and I feel a rush of sensation and vividity like I've never felt in a dream before. I open my eyes and I am fully lucid.

The remaining dream did not last long, and was controlled by myself, and as such I would rather not write it up as it was a bit personal.

15th July 20 - Flask

I’m in a dark room, with a few desktop computers set up. The monitors are on and the towers glow with that lovely chroma set of colours, and there are sleeping bags on the floor, a few of them have people in them. There’s a party on in the house, and I show my step cousin (G) that I have FIFA installed and ready to play on my laptop – which I know will please him. I leave him to it, because I think I’m sort of hosting this house party?

I head into the hallway and realise I’m at my nans old flat. It’s quite busy, and I head into the garden where there are about 40 people all playing hide and seek. The garden isn’t at all large though, so practically the entire border is filled with people avoiding the seekers in the centre. Somehow one of the small trees on the lawn snaps at the base of its trunk, and so I do my best to resolve this. It looks like it had been planted in concrete at first glance, but it seems there’s a grey plastic covering that was on the floor around the trunk. I lift it up to find a perfect square hole around 3 feet deep, with a small pile of wet earth at the centre, upon which rests a pristine silver and gold watering cannister. I place the earth in the canister and get the broken tree inside, but then remember the plastic cover. I thread the tree through that, place it in the cannister and close it all up.

The tree immediately falls to one side, crooked. I leave it. The garden is still incredibly busy and people seem to be having a fun time playing hide and seek, even given the space constraints. I want in, and ask people what the rules are and how to play – are we allowed to go into the house, are you a seeker once you’ve been caught, is it eyes closed? Nobody is really interacting with me though. I spot my dad and at that point I realise that the game is influenced by discord roles. I ask my dad if I have these roles assigned and he’s like ‘yeah of course’. I don’t though, so I press him further, and he continues to insist that I do until I spot the roles on another person (just floating above them) and ask about them specifically. My dad finally admits I didn’t have them, and reluctantly assigns them to me.

I still don’t know the rules to the game, but I hurry to the border like everyone else as the round starts. An elderly man hobbles towards me, arms outstretched and pupils white (the discord role effect?). I don’t know if I’m allowed to move or not, so I plant my feet and do my best to dodge his clumsy gropes. I manage to avoid consecutive attempts to grab me, and it’s clear that he can hear me moving as I’m hitting the bush next to me and breathing hard with the exertion. Several other hiders watch on appreciatively and I feel somewhat proud. The elderly man is finding this humorous at least, and eventually gives up and the round seems to end.

I still don’t know how this game is meant to be played so I decide to leave them to it and fix myself an alcoholic drink. I procure a weird green vase/flask thing that does not seem suitable as a drinking implement, but I start pouring in vodka and some sort of fruit juice regardless |Sex Education (Netflix) reference here|. One of the partygoers comes over as I’m doing so and decides to tell me just how wrong I’m making this drink. I ignore them, taste it, am happy with the taste. Another partygoer comes over to tell me that my drink looks nice.

8th July 19 - Howler

I am given the role of giant hunter. I don't want to be a giant hunter, and I don't know why I'm being given the role of giant hunter, but this is the only explanation I'm given for being ripped out of my own reality and flung into the far future.

Disjointed images, everything different shades of green, a girl who seems to know more than her age might suggest tells me to keep hold of two items that she gives me, one for each hand. They're small orange whips, and they're used for casting ice magic. I'm so disoriented that I lose one immediately, I'm being taken through the green lens of time and space and it's presumably gone forever.

It's dark now, black and green, the green still bright and now solid, reaching high up on three sides of me. "Here is where the ice magic is best used," explains the girl. we're in-between the green toes of a giant, and this is where we strike. Ice magic materialises with several crunches and I'm tumbling through green space and time once more, no comprehension of where or how.

I'm in the far future now, though it's hard to tell. A megacity, stretching miles high and further wide. All green and overgrown by a tropical jungle, trains suspended in midair on just the railings travelling along wide and impossibly deep avenues. I can't quite comprehend distances or scale and retreat back to a close building. Green everything again.

I'm made sport of by the locals of this era, demented parties where they play games I don't know the rules to and find impossible to compete in. I can't get away though, I have nowhere to run to. The girl appears every so often, as if to guide me but ultimately she is of no help.

I'm given a puzzle. Enter a building locked by a sliding timer, and retrieve a few items from two mounds in the rear yard. I open the timer with my orange whip and discover I can re-open it from the inside, removing any time obligations. It's a green house with a green yard, no plants or grass though. Two mounds of dirt as tall as I but twice in diameter sit on the yard floor. They're covered in a clear tarpaulin and there are a couple of holes on each about the size of my fist - entry points.

I'm to collect large jewels hidden inside the mounds, but it's not so simple. There's rustling under the tarpaulin and I eventually discover that they're guarded by a howler monkey. This howler monkey is a viscous shit and attacks me without warning. I can feel the burning amusement of those future denizens as they watch and laugh, not even caring to pay full attention. The monkey is ferocious in it's attempts to bite and claw, and I struggle to prevent any damage. I grab it's throat hoping it would stop the onslaught, but it only makes it worse.

I run, being attacked relentlessly, back through the house, sliding open the lock and flinging the monkey as far as I can. It gives up attacking me and lopes off into the distance. I half heartedly try to follow, 'I can't leave something like that to go out and hurt people can I?' before remembering the mounds. I head back inside and pause in the empty green kitchen before I do.

The furniture is all wooden, old wooden table, chairs, cupboards, drawers, counters, and there's nothing adorning any of it. I open one of the drawers to find a few books and leaflets, they're all trash though, and the books feel completely devoid of meaningful content, as if they were video game shelf-fillers.

I head back into the yard to find the mounds still there but looking different. There are people playing tennis nearby and not giving a shit about any peril I may have been in. I turn my attention back to the mounds and discover that the defence this time is the job of multiple large insects. They look like red ants, but about two inches long and featuring a fat claw blade each. I get close and to my horror realise they have placed another mound on the floor, disguised so I would not see it.

I fall into the tarpaulin and soil, feeling numerous mega-ants frenzy and cover me, doing their best to bite and slice. I shriek, moving as quick as I can to regain my balance and to fling and swat as many ants as I can away from me. I get away from the mound and remove the last of the terrifying swarm from me. The girl is back, she informs me that I'm unhurt, but that I have numerous shallow cuts, which sounds just great.

I woke up.

6th July 19 - Aquarium

I'm in a dingy and dark dormitory. Rows of empty beds suggest that people aren't currently around, though I am here with at least one other. His name is Heboric, and he is a burly bald guy who I get the feeling has some sort of mental deficiency. I head outside, it's a bright day in a small but very close-built village. The person running the dormitory is nearby. I'm not sure if he's in charge of us, owns us, or just responsible for us, but it seems he has the power to decide who is let out, and Heboric has been told he is not allowed out today.

I catch up with the boss, and it turns out it's Mr Burns. I ask him if Heboric would be allowed out today and the response is a simple 'no'. I decide the best way to overturn this is to be an annoying twat and start singing loudly and making banging noises. It works, and Burns says he can leave, great!

I head back to the dormitory and try to tell him the good news, I can't quite say his name correctly though. My brain keeps slipping back to a friend's name (H) instead, and there is somewhat of a similar feel between them. I get it right and let him know he can leave. As I do so it seems I'm annoying some people who are present. Looking around it turns out that the dormitory is just half of the large room I'm in, the other half seems like some sort of modern conference room and has a few people milling about performing financial work. There's a girl in a red dress who is looking at me with minor irritation, so Heboric and I leave promptly.

We head out into the town and wander about. It's just small alleyways and the occasional market stall with very few people around. I do come across a few more friends (J&L), and J tells me that there's something really interesting just round the corner. I continue on and find another stall, this one is selling toy bow and arrow sets, which I think it pretty cool. I search through them all and try to find a good cheap one, but they're all very childish unfortunately. J catches up and tells me that this isn't what he meant, and that the interesting thing is further on.

I continue on further and eventually hit an alleyway with a door at the end. We head in and a co-worker (Pa) is inside sat on a couch smiling at me. It's a small white room with some generic furniture, the couch is facing the wall directly opposite which features a massive aquarium.

The aquarium stretches from the ceiling to about 1 foot from the floor, where it rests on a small section of wall, it covers the entire wall from side to side. It's a light blue and there are only a few small fishes swimming in it, but it's incredibly striking. The more I stare at it the more I feel that something is off about it, and I wonder if the other side is in fact  an alternate reality. I start becoming somewhat convinced that it's actually a mirror dimension, where everything is completely swapped, and the idea that it's right in front of me starts to consume me.

I'm snapped out of my concentration when J and Heboric start pushing wedges of wood into the sides of the aquarium, presumably to see if it moves. Whilst they do so I start playing with some black thread and a needle, throwing it at the aquarium for some reason. Enough wood is being pushed into the sides of  the aquarium, that it starts to move slowly backwards. I get tense wondering what is about to happen, as it starts tipping backward. The aquarium finally reaches the tipping point and topples backward, shattering on the floor behind and sending glass and water everywhere.

It turns out the room behind is just a regular room, the aquarium wasn't hiding any secret alternate realities at all, and we all realise that we'll be in some big trouble if we stay here. We scarper back out the way we came and head back into the maze of alleyways, eventually emerging on some sort of main road. There's a billboard here offering payment for dragon eggs, depending how old they are. 1 day old 700, 2 days 900, 3 days 1400. It seems dragon eggs sell based on how much time has been put into them, and I remark to J that it's not much money, before realising that dragons are (apparently?) very common these days. I actually have a hatched dragon back at the dormitory I believe, though I don't recall knowing this 5 minutes ago.

I start to consider that the dormitory building has enough space to house a dragon hatching area and recall once again that it actually does have a dragon hatching space. It's a steam room below the dormitory filled with eggs getting enough heat for incubation.

I woke up.