Some time ago I thought I’d conceive work-set stories that were more to my liking than the weekly hijinx with poor management—that is, more likely to take my mind off the brutal reality of it, like identifying a co-worker as a JAV actress, suspecting another of fighting crime at night or being kidnapped and experimented on by aliens for years during a lunch break. Or from even further back, taking time off for one job-seeking adventure after another.
This morning I had a dream I wandered into an office building exploring each room as I would in a FPS and finding all of the empty ones in a state of squalor, but still well-equipped enough for me to hide among them in a maintenance role. On the ground floor I came across a garage of company cars, among them a red 60’s Mustang coupe I would eventually make my escape, but not before flashing back to some of the more memorable moments from my Kramer-like tenure.
IT staff wore red polos, and once while attempting to resolve an issue for an employee named Kazuto (a woman, I was surprised to learn), the real team responded to her original request, so I had to disappear downstairs to a connected subway line and remove the stolen uniform to avoid their pursuit.
Update: I might have intentionally used the videogame analogy because The Stanley Parable had been sitting on my Desktop (behind interminable updates from the Epic Games Store, who can blame me) for so long without even a single walkthrough, and while the narrative interplay lives up to its reputation, it’s the desperate search for some sense of fulfillment—take that as you will—that reminds me how disappointing my dreams often are. Not to mention the contrived frustration behind the experience, corridors or doors that go nowhere, episodes that end abruptly and if you do find someone, you’re left to convince yourself that the fantasy is realer than the medium is capable of rendering.
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