the animal crossing dream

part of the contents of this blog are taken from an informal dream diary i keep. the rest is further iterated on in line with the dream setting itself.

i keep having dreams about an animal crossing game that doesnt exist

it's wild world esque - two-screen gameplay - usually the same map each time, usually with a gnarled forest path to the south and many open cave formations in the north

the cave formation feels mazelike, i often get lost looking for items there - mushrooms are the only ones that come to mind - often feels like i am not visibly progressing in exploring it and i always have to be back home by nightfall, or i will get lost in the caves, or something bad will happen

the caves aren't natural, either;

they feel like, smoothed, bored into the rock, in really surreal, non-euclidean ways.

they dont go deep,

but they do stretch outwards,

sometimes with brush covering up different entrances.

the tunnels go for miles

traversing them feels paradoxically too open and too enclosed, like i am trapped or being watched

in contrast, the forest path is a lot more pleasant; not nearly mazelike enough to be worried, it's a spindly deer trail that goes downhill roughly, maybe tripping hazards of roots and stuff from nearby oak trees, ends in some kind of creek or reservoir

some body of water

the path ends abruptly at the water's edge

it feels remote. introspective. brisk dawn air, dim light

the path back leads to a beaten dirt road that eventually leads back to town; it takes longer to go back than it did to arrive, somehow

in this game, not every town has both the forest and the caves. in last night's dream i was resetting a few times and got one or the other or both.

the fruits change sometimes in these dreams. last night the fruit was some kind of mango or raisin or plum. in other dreams they were cherries or apples. usually the time is late in the evening, the twilight hour

nook's shop is small, with four items centered on a block, and i never have enough bells for anything he sells

my house continues to change each time i go into it

there are villagers but i feel like they aren't a key part of the dream at all. occasionally i will talk to one but they tend to say very strange things to me, nothing disturbing or scary, mostly an outlet of some thought ive been having lately whenever i can remember

there is a long river, and it goes across and down. the trees are denser around it

it always sticks in my mind when i wake up how strange it all was../