For me, there are two types of terrible dreams:

a) The first is the obvious, nightmares where terrible things happen and I wake up literally sweating, heart racing, etc

b) The other is where there’s a happiness that is near-absolute, usually involving somebody who loves and accepts me completely. Those dreams are generally pretty simple, but waking up is like stepping out from a warm house into a cold night, and wishing I could go back only to find the door shut behind me.

That’s the plot behind Lorna Shore’s album “Pain Remains”: The narrator realises they’re lucid dreaming, takes control of the dreamscape, shapes an alternate reality to become lost in, crafts a lover for themselves… then at some point painfully realises that lover is nothing more than a mirage, fading away:

A wrinkle in time
Take what is left of my life
Before you go
Show me what it’s like to finally know
The face behind the silhouette
In this world I made to be infinite
But within the expanse, I finally see
A world without you isn’t meant for me

Where do you go when I close my eyes?
What do you see looking back at me?
Am I just a ghost just like you?
Caught between the seams of two intertwining melodies

At this point, the narrator remembers? understands? that it’s just a dream and they - the Ego of this dream - will disappear along with it, agonises over this existential crisis of their own unreality, the memory of that “life”, mourning the loss of that love and finally decides to destroy the dream-world along with themselves:

I’ll salt the earth in a crimson blaze
The world will burn in my fall from grace
Witness the death of God, hear the Devil’s choir
As I leave the stage in a sea of fire

I’ve had this happen twice and the effect is so profound, I still think about both of them from time to time.

It’s freaky waking up and seeing my wife next to me. Like, I didn’t choose to make those decisions.

Aaaaayyeeee, i have those video game dreams. Not just about love but lots of stuff.

There was one where i had a wife who worked in the military and there was a zombie outbreak. Fucking military was the one who had an experiment gone wrong. She tried to save us, but got stuck there and I just wanted to see her, just once. We (her and my families all together) went through so much just to get to her. On the way i got bit and i was hiding it from everyone because I wanted in that moment was to see her just once before i became a full on zombie. We did eventually made it, but time was running short and i needed to say goodbye and right before that i fucking woke up because of all the emotions. I still remember her green eyes in the waking life.

There was one in medieval setting where i was an advisor to a king. There was another kingdom and their princess was destined to marry our prince (both children like 10). Anyways their marriage was set before they were even born but shortly afterwards the relationship between the two kingdoms started to go bad. I kept telling both of them how they both had way more in common than their differences but you know how those kings are, their conflict got worse and worse to the point that there was an all out war. And just when both the kingdoms were at their lowest, our common enemy attacked. Turns out they were the ones that started the wedge between the two kingdoms but alas it was too late. It was certain that both kingdoms will fall and royal families will be murdered. And so the final royal decree was signed between the two kingdoms that I would be the one to take the young prince and princess and leave the village so they can come back one day and reclaim their homeland. In the final part of the dream there I was on a horse with these two kids, in a cave that led to the way outside and as i stood watching the burning houses and incoming armies, the soldiers started putting rocks and rubble on the entrance so I could escape.

There are so many more honestly but i don’t have the time to write.

I’m doing it right now.

An old story on Reddit, could have come from other sources, about the guy who had a whole life, career, wife, kids, and one night at a party or something he noticed a light was flickering wrong. Looked closer at it to figure it out, woke up.

It’s fine. I’ll see them in another life, when we’re both cats…

No, because I was so incredibly lucky to have found my perfect partner over a decade ago… no dream person can come close. I don’t, for a single day, take them for granted.

Used to then found them. Real version is more complex but definitely real and good. Worth sticking around for.

I think it’s a good idea, trying to find them. Just be aware that pursuing the new dream often entails giving up many that came before, then growing from scratch many new parts of your self, which is often difficult and painful.

You ever wonder if that other person was real too and they had the same dream somewhere else in the world?

Final Fantasy X

Ah, the roy videogame from Rick and Morty

Dammit, I was just talking about this a few weeks ago on lemmy, and it was surprising how many other people have had this happen, and how hard it can be to grieve the loss of that dream life

Yup