“Twisted Adventures: Burrs, Beards, and Futuristic Escapes”

Set in near future, I’m on a trip somewhere foreign but still speak the same language. There is recurring imagery of Burrs in my face like beard stubble. I got them from getting too close to a shrub. I normally have a short beard but shaved it prior to this trip. So on the outside it just looks like my regular beard but it’s little bits of twigs embedded in my face, not hair. I’m picking at them and trying to take them out. It’s a painstaking process whe I get one out it’s as long and thick as a little twig. Someone I respect from work is there and a girl I was friendly with in high school but have not seen in 20 years as well. I’m with my family. My parents are there too. There is a general store that is closing soon. There is an old woman who runs it but won’t let me in until she’s done with the current customer. I’m there looking for something for my face. The woman is pretty rude. Eventually she just closes down for the night so I can’t get anything to help my face. I’m walking around aimlessly, trying to find a pharmacy for some cream for my face. All the while I’m still plucking these out one by one as much as I can. Everything is closed. But they have this massive dance floor where people are line dancing. I try to text my wife to see if she wants to dance. I bump into my parents and mention the dance floor. They say they know, they’ve been here before. I check my phone to see if my wife responded and none of my messages have sent. There’s a new version of the texting app and it seems one message didn’t send, blocking the rest. The new interface is white and looks more modern than the current green one. In the future I’m in the middle of some kind of capture the flag type strategy game where we need to sneak around and take out opposing forces before they get us. Similar to paintball or laser tag. It’s non lethal. I go through this exercise multiple times but it’s not clear what the result is or whether im any good at this. My strategy is to quietly sneak around the side and behind enemy lines then take control of their turret and use it as cover. In the distant future I’m captured along with several other people I was with. We’re some kind of secret resistance against whatever power controls the universe. We’re lined up single file along with other low class people and each person is assessed individually to determine if they’re in the resistance and what they know. It appears one of us is in some kind of spell or trance and is spouting off all this stuff about us while he’s being interrogated. We can sense our captors getting suspicious as they hear more from him. Me and one other find an opportunity to escape the line and make a mad dash for a train-like transport. While we’re riding on that, there are all kinds of guns and self defenses around the track, aimed at us. We have guns and are trying to shoot those out before they get to us. It’s pretty action packed and tense There is a store that sells at least furniture and guitars, perhaps other things. They have some gimick in their merchandise that’s pretty cool for guitars. I gravitate there but my wife reels me in and directs me to the furniture. The employees are very suspicious but it’s not clear why my guard is up. My wife finds the furniture also has some benefits from whatever the store’s gimick is and is now sold on the idea of buying something, possibly including one of the guitars (which is exciting for me). She vanishes and I get a premonition this store visit was just a ruse and that we have an ulterior motive. I spring into action and start making my way out of the store which is now suspiciously vacant. I know there is a trap being set for me somewhere and prep myself as I open each door. My goal being to get out of there and either help or meet up with my wife. We end up washed ashore on remote island. We have no money, no possessions. There is An inn owner with a dog that we initially try to swindle then we feel bad. The inn has a very strange testicle cleaning appliance in the men’s bathroom, almost akin to hearing about a bidet for the first time. This island uses some Weird currency like brass bolts and colored rocks and there are many machines “gacha “ style that you can crank in order to get some random currency back. At the inn i use one of those machines and end up with a ton of currency. I’m feeling a little guilty because I think I may have rigged it somehow, it feels a bit like a gray area. Some locals see my windfall and I pay them with some of the smaller rocks I can’t carry anyway as hush money.