DATE: January 8, 2025

It was late in the afternoon, which in this winter meant night (it took place on new years eve) and we were driving around the downtown block, called the "square", when we saw a sign on the front of the game store we have in my town reading "all games 50% off". This captured my attention quickly. I asked if we could go, but my mom (who was driving) said that we could go to the other game store in the franchise (there is no franchise) across town which was on the way. I accepted the compromise. We drove down the road into this weird, nonexistant part of town. It resembled what I remember of Arizona, except it was basically just a southwest version of that image thats like "this is what all of America looks like" (or so they say), and all of the sudden it was a hot summer day (hmmm... I wonder what state that temperature reminds me of). We entered the other game store and there wasn't very many video games as I expected. It took the form of a Bookman's, just way smaller and in a wooden building. I entered the store with a friend of mine (he was not in the dream previously) and we looked around for anything, but we couldn't find much. There were a lot of pulp paperbacks, various rulebooks for tabletop RPGs (although no Shin Megami Tensei, I would have bought that). There was one section which had a whole bunch of scripts and sheet musics for musicals, although I didn't find any music I would have liked to learn. I did find one mysterious gadget (I don't remember what it was that I found, but it was one of those things that you don't really need, but it would be rude to leave without anything, no?) which I ended up buying (again, I felt compelled to do this as for some reason my anxiety kicked in to protect me from leaving the store with nothing I wanted emptyhanded). We left and I looked back at the mysterious other side of my city that for some reason I had never seen before (again, it doesn't exist).

I went back to the Square, alone this time, and tried to see if I could check out the other game store's selection, as it actually had stuff that I would have liked. Unfortunatly, the store was closed due to the special event (although in real life, the store has awkward hours). I got a little panicked as I was worried that everything I wanted would've been sold out. I calmed myself down though, and continued on the road until I got to the sign shop. For reference, in my town there is a sign shop in our downtown that is owned by my family (the ownership rotates but is currently owned by my uncle), and it's really not too serious of a place. I went in there because I knew that I was welcome anytime. They were having a faux new years party and so I stuck around. There was this new young guy who worked there (who doesn't actually exist, as opposed to everyone else there) and we made some banter. Somehow I ended up looking up weird big bugs, just hopping through Wikipedia articles without trying to truly creep myself out too much (I don't like bugs). Suddenly, my older sister (who I barely see, usually like twice a year, to my dismay), came down from the upstairs with this weird gear skateboard that I seemed to remember. When it turned, the place where you planted your feet turned, and I remembered not liking it because I'm bad at skating goofy. The skateboard with gears was connected to another, regular skateboard, and I tried to hop on. My sister warned me, and she expressed that she didn't want me hurt, so I didn't stay on for too long. I was worried about getting ankled as if with a Razor scooter.

Then, for some reason, I felt compelled to check downstairs, which took the form of my Grandma's basement, but unfinished (as it was ~8-10 years ago. It was also really unkempt. A long cobweb ran like telephone wire from the door to the top of the "threshold" of the basement (although there was no threshold, it is just stairs down to an open floor) and part of the cobweb took the form of the Hanzi for person "人". Somehow I was able to mentally open the Wikipedia articles for the different giant bugs there, hanging from the cobwebs. After opening the articles for the bugs and the names they redirected to, the names that I saw (a la Minecraft nametags) changed to the actual title of the article, as if I had a web browser in my mind. I tried to peak down there multiple times, but the giant bugs scared the shit out of me. One of the bugs resembled a mantis shrimp crossed with Beelzebub from SMT.