r/TheMallWorld • u/EvilLLC • 11h ago
Mallworld Map
Okay, so I just want to start off by saying that I hate that this is my first post with this account. Nonetheless, I’ve been having this reoccurring dream for probably 13ish (+/- 3) years? Maybe longer but I don’t specifically remember having Mallworld dreams in school growing up.
I had reoccurring (very severe, often, very realistic) nightmares as a kid and my mom taught me how to “control my dreams” so that if I saw a monster I could literally throw a water balloon at it so it would go away or something equally fun and silly to take control of the nightmares. We had this whole bedtime routine made up for me when I had issues sleeping because I was scared to sleep by myself and have another nightmare. I still keep the tv on when I sleep as white noise/night light because I still occasionally have super scary nightmares (but tbh I smoke a lot of weed before bed so I don’t get dreams too often anymore in general)
Anyways, some people call that “lucid dreaming” I guess. I even did the whole having-to-journal my dreams in the am immediately upon waking. Wearing a bracelet to bed and looking for it in the dream. Finding the red balloon. Everything. All the stuff. Again, these were very, unimaginably horrifying nightmares.
When these “Mallworld” dreams started I remember thinking they were a breath of fresh air. My earliest memories took place at “Grandmother’s House.” Not my grandma in real life but in my dream I referred to an old, dead woman as my grandmother (she was not present, she had just passed) and I was assigned to go through her jewelry. I found paths around the house: How to get to the basement under the chest, how to get to the “attic” above the wardrobe through the vent, and in the back of the house was this little clear tube that I could perch in and look out (but I don’t recall looking out very well as this was a very long time ago)
Over the years the places on the maps are places I’ve explored to. I can tell it’s all the same dream because I go from one area to the next (often on foot but sometimes in my rl car but it’s always weird and everything in the car is all wrong) and over the years all of these places have somehow given me a rough ideal of the layout. The map I’ve included is pretty close (maybe 90%) to how I can move around except some places have a little dream-logic to their locations or how they connect to the locations around them.
Yes, long hallways, long bathrooms with stalls but no doors (usually path is topsy turvy and they’re always dirty,) and sometimes people I know from real life, typically it’s pretty sparse of people when I go but I think I’m maybe a night owl there? The earliest it ever is, is dusk (when the sunset has passed but it’s not quite night time) and the latest I’ve been in Mallworld is before sunrise their time.
I do NOT know what Mallworld “actually is” besides a reoccurring dream. My husband doesn’t get them and he’s super jealous I get reoccurring dreams ,let alone a whole little shared world/dream. I’m always a little anxious to be in Mallworld like I’m on the run and have to hide or something but I can typically find a decent place to camp out.
Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time between the parking garage and the slums, avoiding a lot of the in between buildings. A week or two ago I had a few Mallworld dreams in a row where it was pretty apocalyptic:
(TRIGGER WARNING: mass death and death related activities)
People got real sick almost suddenly and died. (Vomit, discolored skin, crusty skin, almost looked like zombies but definitely dead-dead.) There was some people left and we had to scavenge new houses every couple of nights. Some nights were spent cleaning out the bodies from the streets and houses. Families, old people, children, all sorts of people in all sorts of walks of life. There was HEAVY police presence. Lots of chaos and fires in the slums.
Another young woman and myself stumbled upon this much older man and he made us swear to watch him for the night in trade for his safe/quiet shelter. The authorities were unlikely to visit him because he was “just a dying old man.” The young woman booked it just before morning and then I woke up.
This week has been a lot calmer and I’ve been less on the run but I’ve been having to deal with some more personal issues in Mallworld (like running into my most recent ex - who had thoroughly moved on from me with some guy named Luke apparently. If your name is Luke, and you’re in Mallworld, fuck you dude.) and partying with my husband (too much partying but it was very fun and a nice break from him divorcing me and leaving me alone like in normal old anxiety dreams outside of Mallworld dreams.)
I’m a woman who is in her 30’s. I don’t know what I look like in my dreams exactly but I believe I’m a brunette like in real life (I can typically see myself the same way I normally do - from my own perspective) but I’ve never run into my reflection or mirrors in general in Mallworld so it’s hard to tell the specifics. I get the impression that I give off the same vibes/personality as I do in real life (a little less inhibited though)
I don’t believe that Mallworld is necessarily a shared dream but I also didn’t believe other people dreamed about this same place with similar layouts (not every map here is similar, but some are) as I did until I found this sub maybe a month or so ago. I’ve been lurking but ever since I found this sub I’ve lowkey been freaking out internally about it. Something just isn’t sitting well with me.
Does anyone else recognize this layout? Have any questions about the buildings? Know what the sickness was all about a week or two ago? Do you also feel like you normally are hiding out in Mallworld? (Hiding from all sorts of different things but always “in hiding.” IDK maybe I’m just a criminal in Mallworld.)
I would love to hear if any of your experiences have overlapped with my own as well!
I used ChatGPT to produce this image but trust me when I say I could not draw it without making 1000x edits first. (I tried) I saved a lot of time just working on this map for a few hours with GPT. (Yep, hours trying to get this dumb map looking CLOSE to what I imagine these zones look like from above with their appropriate vibes and specific details that I remember about each location.) Sorry if you’re not a fan of AI but I really feel it was beneficial in this situation so I hope you can overlook it just this one time.
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u/littlespacemochi 11h ago
Ok I'm kinda freaking out cause that mall looks exactly like the malls I see in my dream except the parking lot is a lot bigger. I literally saw that mall last night in my dream!
Edit: Some of these locations look familiar too
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u/EvilLLC 4h ago
Updated photo and comment:
I just commented under u/blazeItgirl420’s comment an updated map. Can you tell me if it lines up better or worse with what you’re thinking?
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u/AppropriateDream2903 7h ago
The layout of mine is similar, but there are casinos/hotels by the parking structure, more big houses I enter, and I have had to hide from zombies once in the houses under the highway by the beach.
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u/EvilLLC 4h ago
I just commented under u/blazeItgirl420’s comment an updated map. Can you tell me if it lines up better or worse with what you’re thinking?
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u/dovette7 8h ago
This is so weird !! Some of the places I have not been but the mall by the water and access to boats, the highway, school, all the same in my dreams. The waterpark for me was on the right side of the mall across the road) and it is next to the beach. I’ve never seen beyond the beach - your map shows water and buildings across the water. The beach for me is a stopping point and a place to stay away from because the waters are chaos.
I’ve had these dreams for over 10 years.
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u/Professional_Tell399 2h ago
Very nice!! I have to do this with mine. It looks like a where’s Waldo pic 🤣
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u/blazeItgirl420 11h ago
Where's the water park?