City of games

Date: 8/25/2018

It was in this huge city like NYC or something, but in the future. And during the day it was all rich business people working and making money but nobody had any emotion and it was all just so stiff and sterile. But then at night, all those rich people would lock themselves away in their fancy apartments with all the blinds drawn, or they’d go to the “party halls” or whatever but they never went outside. At night the city would transform. All the lower classes would come out into the streets, and everywhere you looked there were these like arcade game type things set up, but they were huge contraptions and very elaborate. All kinds of neon and holographic stuff would be projected on the buildings, like pictures of whichever two players were competing at the moment and whatnot. So I go to one of the games and put in my little tokens and quarters and whatnot. I also had one quarter that wouldn’t fit in the slot because it was too big and I’m all “well this is strange” and then I see it has its own special slot that is only for “2014 quarters” because those were bigger, naturally. The other guy playing is this really heavy set older guy that looks like he lives in his moms basement and trolls people for fun. He’s been there for a while acting all arrogant and taunting people to come play against him because he knows none of them can beat him. I know a secret code that if you push the coin return buttons really quickly in a certain pattern or whatever that it’ll make it so you win, so that’s why I decided to play him. I wanted him to stop making people feel terrible. He laughs when I come to compete against him, all he sees is a young girl with no experience in the games, but pretty quickly he realizes he’s entirely out of his depth because I’m just crushing him and he is totally decimated. I win all his credits because that was the bet he’d put up and why he was trying to get inexperienced people to play against him. Anyway, because I got such a high score in the game, it took me into this bonus round and the guy couldn’t believe it. He was so mad but he still watched. It was this huge board th at looked like candy crush or something, but there was this huge eyeball thing hovering at the top that would try to catch you as you tried to work your way up. (Like the eye of Sauron) It was like this huge hologram that went into the sky and the game was VR ish I guess. No one had ever unlocked this secret level before, and the voice from the eye that narrated the game was so loud and the board so big that inevitably anyone on the surrounding streets came to watch. I pulled my hood up to to hide my face. I don’t really remember playing the actual game but I became one of the famous players after that. I win so many credits from the bonus round that now I could play the really big games with the big stakes and I played against the elite players that everyone knew by name. These were the games that the daytime NYCers would watch from their party halls and gambling parlors and they’d place bets on the competitions and stuff. I made friends with some of the other famous gamers, particularly this one other guy who we became labeled as “Frenemies” because we were best friends but it was always a toss up who would win because we were evenly matched. We didn’t actually hate each other at all, but we would always pretend like we did so that it would draw more crowds. Often we’d throw our matches so that it was always a toss up of who’d win. Neither of us needed the money anymore. The rich daytime people would invite me to go look at their marvelous buildings, and they buy me expansive glamorous clothes and shimmery, silky, dresses covered in sequins that reached to the floor and looked around my feet. (The dress still had a good because f-yeah that’s cool af, and that was like my thing—I never showed my face) Everything was so extravagant like Vegas hotels. I never liked it. I thought it was wasteful, unenjoyable, fake. And I hated that these people threw their money away on frivolous things while everyone who’s lives took place at night we’re barely able to find food or shelter for the next day of being exiled and shunned by the city. Whenever I’d come out of the fancy buildings and nighttimers would see me they’d all come beg me to tell them all about it and how beautiful everything was. I always told them is was terrible, that I’d never want to live there even if they paid me millions of dollars. That much was true. They always offered to pay me if I’d come live in their hotels. They wanted the pride of saying they had me (I had some sort of title but idk what it was) at their place because then everyone would come spend their money there in hopes of catching a glimpse of me. Anyway, one night after touring more luxury buildings, I sat with my other gamer friend out on this balcony eating ice cream or whatever. (His name was Jesper because my brain is still stuck on Six of Crows but like it wasn’t actually Jesper, that was just his name) I was complaining to him how absurd it was that people could live like this while others were struggling to survive down there. I said something about how they “lock themselves away in here, and they shower us with luxury and party their money away and yet never realize that it’s our faces that shine on the outside of their walls at night.” (I often would play games without my hood and under a false name to keep up my identity) It sounded way more cooler in my dream but you know And then Jesper was like “well how will they ever know? How will they know the conditions everyone else lives in unless somebody show them? The two worlds are so separated. It requires someone with access to both who can break down the barrier and show them.” (It was reeeally deep and thoughtful sounding okay and he looked like robin Williams when he said it and I almost cried) Anyway, I realized he was saying that I had to be the one to do it. He couldn’t ever live amongst the nighttime street crowd because he was known by his face. And no one down there could ever experience the life up here unless they became famous like us. Only I had true access to both. And then I started coming up with a plan with him of how we would do this but I woke up before I actually did any of it 😔

AI generated interpretation This dream seems to be about two different worlds, the one of the wealthy, successful and powerful during the day, and the other of the creative and marginalized at night. It suggests a feeling of inequality and a desire to bridge the gap between the two worlds. The dreamer is presented with the challenge of using her unique access to both worlds to create understanding and connection between them. The dreamer is seen to be a leader in this challenge, and her friend Jesper provides her with the support and encouragement to take on this challenge. The dreamer is also presented with the opportunity to be seen and to have a voice in the larger, wealthier world, and to be rewarded for her efforts. Ultimately, the dream suggests that the dreamer has the potential to be a force for positive change in the world.