Timetwists

We are trying to change the timeline through music. More specifically, you and I have joined a band. The other members are younger than we are—substantially, like, in their twenties. Most of them are nonbinary femmes, one is nonbinary masc, who is the lead guitar player and is the primary songwriter structurally.

While we are working on this project, I am staying with a girlfriend in a rented flat that feels a lot like a dorm room. It’s the energy of the place, and the non-capitalistic, communal nature of how the rooms are sorted; it’s similar to a dormitory system in that way.

When she and I arrive in the room, we find another woman in our bed, under the covers. It’s our friend, Vrila, who has large black frame glasses and curly black hair. She says that her new room isn’t working for her, that the bed is too small and flat. It’s a room she had once before, apparently, and it worked for her then but not now.

I jokingly say that she can stay in our room for sex, and she and my friend quickly agree. Vrila adds that she will be insincere, though; and I—again, jokingly—say that will be fine—preferable, even.

But once everyone is tucked into bed and I can feel sexual energy starting to flow, I feel very uncomfortable about it, like perhaps they were taking me seriously and think we’re now in some kind of a sexual transaction situation. So I get up and go to the kitchen to try and clear my head. They may be fucking in there; I’m not sure. But I’m not really wanting to be a part of it, given how I’m feeling and the potential misunderstanding that could be unfolding.

There are two other dreamfronts, and perhaps these are why we are trying to change the timeline.

The first is situation wherein there is a kind of AR game site that may actually be killing people and trying to reanimate them for warfare.

The second: a battle is already underway by one group of people against another. I cannot speak either language, and so I am doing my best to try and help them reach a peaceable conclusion in my limited involvement; however, it soon becomes evident that one side will utterly decimate the other if military assistance is not provided. So we end up trying to clear this pathway for tanks to be hauled up and over this mountain, the road upon which is effectively paved with smashed chicken, since there was a poultry slaughterhouse there that was pulverized by bombs and shells.

Another place I’m staying—perhaps while working on these fronts—is a house that is next door to one I lived in during my twenties. It causes some painful nostalgia for that house, and it is both heartening to see what has been done to it (because it looks quite nice) and frustrating that I no longer live there.

Play procedures

• Pick which front you want to address. If you don’t want to mess with any of them, simply slip into the next dream. If you have unlocked the dreamwalk secret, you can just do this. If not, I will help you.
• Have you been in a band before? You can tell us about it if you want. And if not and you’ve always wanted to be, you can flesh out this band a bit.
• How about some awkward situation that started out as a joke but then turned weird? Write it on your journal, in the comments, or just reflect on it privately.