Had a fucking doozy this morning. The beginning part I can't really remember. I'm in the back of the building, in a kind of garden area. I move forward into the building because my old boss is in there somewhere.
I'm inside. It's an ultramodern urban condo-sfyle building with white, stone-textured walls, hardwood floors, and big frontage windows. The kind popular with yoga studios. Lots of natural light. I'm in a maybe 400 sq ft studio space with a door on the far wall. There are people I don't recognize (by face), but I know them to be my "friends" for some reason. They're fighting. I go to break up the fight and their attitude changes, like they're amused because the fight is staged, and I'm doing exactly what they expected (I used to bounce at a nightclub). I call for my boss. As I pull them apart, the three of them become four, four becomes ten, ten becomes twenty, same bemused expression. They finally listen to me and stop fighting, to get on the floor in neat rows (like a yoga class) just as my old boss walks in (big, old school goth guy. imposing at first, but really nice once you knew him). I apologize for calling him, but he says it's okay as long as everyones safe. The fake friends all start doing military-style exercises (from a pushup position, but I know they're not pushups) and I join them in my spot, while my boss just looks on like "what the hell?" and laughs.
There's a missing bit where I went through the door into the main area of the studio building, larger foyer area, still no furniture anywhere. Then another missing bit where were outside.
We all get in "the" truck. Looks like a '00s Nissan Frontier, brown/beige with fat, off-road tires. Boss is driving (he's trying to help us I think), everyone is crammed in the seats and bed, I'm sitting on the tailgate. We go down a snaking 2-lane raised highway running downhill, like starts 100 feet up, with steep embankment on the sides of patchy grass and white rocks. Toward the bottom (suddenly 3rd person), there are rows of bodega shelves to the right, lined up perpendicular to the highway and at the bottom (front) is a beachlike bar/restaurant/snack bar with tons of rich assholes milling around. We get to the end of the ramp/highway, pass a parking spot in the right lane (I know it's one because of the car-sized sand patch), have to weave around more tourists, to to spot at the end of the left lane. The truck slows to park, suddenly accelerates, and the front wheels bounce off the curb like 5ft in the air, the back wheels hit a second later, and the whole truck flies ass-over-teakettle and falls perfectly down a big, concrete storm drain. Midway, I switch back to 1st person as I'm thrown clear. I get up and see that the tourists are dressed for the beach, sipping drinks, but there's no beach just concrete. Most haven't noticed the accident,a couple snicker here and there like it's "expected" and turn back to their conversations. I think my conscious mind took over for a minute, because I turned fron the "beach" to the drain, to try and find survivors. I climbed down the ladder (stopped partway because I found a whole cigarette), and found everyone was dead and the truck nowhere to be found.
I climbed back up and some tourists roll their eyes at me. I think I can still save my boss and my "friends" if I can find the right exit, so I go to the bodega area. The shelves run for miles and there is a far wall at jagged angles with doors in the corners, but the shelves are still straight. There are guys there that look Mediterranean, like you used to see running liquor storres years ago. mustachioed, balding, hairy arms, kinda leering like you're trespassing. I walk up inspecting the doors, trying to find the right one,but the store guys are following me like I'm trying to steal something. I double back toward the front counter/deli case to ask a question. I stop because the bodega guys are huddled around a red cup of something with cream on top (brain tells me both "coffee" and "milkshake"). They look at me with predatory expectancy; they want to hurt me once I "steal" the cup, but I know that it's not stealing. Instead I leave back to the beach area (they're disappointed) but all the tourists are gone.
Missing bit; I think I may have asked how this accident happened?
I'm suddenly in a dark, casino-like place (with no actual games I think, but a lively susurrus) that I vaguely know is back up the hill. It's all bar-style lighting on countertops and tables. There are no humans here, but short people (like the gnomes from Dungeon Meshi or Pathfinder, but real and with big ears and mousy buck teeth). At one table a black-vested gnome table staff is giving a demonstration of how they can arrange special precious stones on what looks like a DJ's chaos pad and "force" the probability of dice rolls. They do this for everything,they say, and it's why their "people" are so rich and successful. Im vaguely aware that this is how my friends were all taken out and that I was supposed to die with them. I go to the bar (to the right) where a gnome bartender is giving a drink to her customer. The customer is old (I can see her wrinkles vividly), with an expensive dress and jewelry and green twintails. Like she's trying to look young, gave up halfway, but nobody says anything because she's loaded. The bartender (with a short bobcut like Mathilda from the Professional) complements the rich lady on how beautiful her ears are. The matron sort of coos in response and idly strokes her massive earlobe. She looks like she's drawn back to old memories. I roam the casino until I find a way out.
The last area is like the first: open-concept ultramodern space with hardwood floors and stone-textured walls, but they're unpainted grey instead of white. I'm on the first floor and there are stairs to the back, some glass-walled empty offices to the right. There's a sofa and game system set up where they're going to film an episode of Game Grumps. Something tells me the world is ending so The Powers That Be want to at least give a good send off with this GG episode. They found a way to pull Dan and Arin through time for this one episode. I start to ask about Jon, but a tech industry hipster (who were hidden around the room) tries to change the subject. "It's so nice that DAN and ARIN can come, isn't it?"
He goes to the base of the stairs. There are metal rollers running along the staircase (like you see in a warehouse for moving boxes between tables). He places a can of Mike's Hard Lemonade on the rollers and it starts going UP to the second floor. He says something about how this is how to bring Arin and it's just a fraction of their power. I realize it's related to the probability control from the casino, but much more powerful. Then the can gets caught on the stone-textured wall and they're trying not to panic. They take up the camera view and one by one start talking about how innovative, diverse, and next-gen they are. I get bored, so I walk up the stairs to the top floor. About halfway up, I glance back and Dan and Arin are on the sofa, trying to record the episode, but the tech hipsters are still self-aggrandizing around the room, and it's all just a mess of noise. I know the fans are going to be upset, but they just keep going.
On the top floor, it's finally quiet. It feels like a holy place. There's a cute hapa chick at the top of the stairs. She pulls me down next to a black river and tells me in hushed, excited tones about some band who's here, how they'd "played their part this whole time", and how we get to "see it all unfold." She might be referring to the end of something or it's beginning. We quietly step around the car, and the "camera" turns with us back toward the stairs. There is a tech-hipster standing there, facing us, palms out, and another gets out of the car and takes the same pose next to him. She says the band's name, but I can't remember it. The first one has short sleeves, a thin beard, and a grey beanie, the second has a red hoodie, a goatee, and an undercut. Both are white, and I know that they're more white than anyone could be. I zoom in on their faces and they both have copper or gold taking up the pupil and iris of their eyes but normal sclera. Aside from this, I realize they're the most human thing I've ever seen, but I know that theyre better than humans. They're also not tech hipsters, it was a convenient appearance for them, but I don't feel it was a deception. They're doing something great by being here. The hapa girl stands up, and I realize she's an awkward tomboyish type and my ideal mate. She goes to stand next to them. Then a skinny black nerd stands next to me and asks about her. I tell him to "go find out" since at least he's a black guy who's respectful enough to not just assume (I'm mulatto). He goes and stands next to her. I'm vaguely aware that I may have been needed for something, but that I may have also skirted another trap. I watch the four of them as this "great thing" is about to unfold.
Then the dog woke me up.