Dream Journal

Context: I'm working at Mailchimp.

I was adventuring with this guy for a time, and then. . . . I’m riding on a bike, escaping. Perhaps I’d stolen something? But I pass a tank on the road. It turns its turret around and fires at me. Focusing in on the moment, I see the explosive canister pass by my head. In slow motion it continues forward ahead of me, then explodes. The explosion is cloudy rather than fiery. A circular hole is left in the ground, and beneath it a 2-3 story drop. I watch as my body plummets to the bottom. I think this must be where I die. But the body is fine, undamaged. My focus on it draws me down to it, then into it. I stand up. I’ve fallen into an underground building. I can see the holes in the floors above me. I begin to explore down a hallway. I again feel like I’m one of two people. It’s dimly lit. We’re in an abandoned old area, and it feels like it was from the 1950s or 1960s. There are red and black signs all around on the walls, and they’re about some kind of competition among astronauts. There’s a long hallway down the middle, and we go from room to room, exploring.

At some point I’m pulled out of the scene, possibly by Rebecca waking up Holly and talking with her.

The next thing I remember I’m back at the bottom of the hole. This time, there are two bodies at the bottom. I’ve brought a bunch of people with me to show them the building. They mostly stay behind me, out of my direct awareness. As we go out to explore, things are slightly different. The initial hallway is now decorated with a huge colorful Mailchimp mural, but then it changes to what I imagine much older versions of Mailchimp murals would look like. After passing through this section, it retains the mysterious feeling of the astronaut competition, but without the astronauts.

In one room, there is a door slightly ajar, and I imagine that inside is a crazy man with wolf ears, patches of fur, claws and dark eyes. I see him now, fully imagined, and the wall is like a panel of glass. The doorway is just around the corner, so I go in. The wolfman is inactive. The walls are covered with shelves containing jars and things. I’m aware at this point that I’m editing the story. I narrate that “at this point, something small happens, but it’s the most important moment of his life”. I zoom in and time slows as the wolfman picks up one of the jars to look at it, and a tiny spider climbs down onto his hand and bites him. The bite makes him indestructible. That scene finished, I mentally unleash the wolfman and I (as the character I’m inhabiting) do battle with it. I end up outside the room, with the door cracked, giving the wolfman a neck massage. He calms down and joins us. We explore other interesting rooms.

I enter a room that’s more like living quarters. The others have gone ahead a little bit. I go into a larger, open living room with natural light, then outside to a big, beautiful scene. I’m on the bank of a river. The river is about 20 feet wide, with big rocks beneath the surface. To the right it curves away outside the exterior of the building. To the left, it descends very steeply about 30 feet from above. In the physical this would be a waterfall but here the river has just bent downwards. To my left is Jessie, smiling. Beyond her and up the bank is Rebecca, and maybe someone else. Roxann is there somewhere. Beyond the river is a hill sloping up, with patches of woods and grass. At the top of the hill is a large rounded structure made of red pipes, like a playground structure but as big as a building. I remember that Rebecca had wanted to go up and explore this earlier, and she was hoping we could go now. I wondered if I could play in the river a little, in the downward slope to the left but got a warning from Rebecca that it was too dangerous, and I slightly agreed. Then someone suggested some funny prank to do when Ed showed up (I saw this idea playing out in visual form), and I turned towards the door to see Ed coming outside to join us. I gave him a hug, but then realized I was naked. I asked if anyone had packed my swimsuit and someone said yes, so I went back inside to the living quarters to get dressed.