The start of the dream followed an opening ceremony of an auditorium, only it was the Spongebob sweet victory rendition. From there the dream turned to a dream of a protagonist going through the hotel - I was distinctly not the protagonist but following the protagonist, occasionally offering directions or criticism from the background (including one jarring moment where the dream was tense and severe, yet I was in the background offering criticism regarding the main lead's poor imitation of Key and Peele's comedy. I somehow annoyed myself in my own dream). In this hotel our protagonist opens one of the door and accidentally stumbles into a hotel room with four people in bed, clearly in the afterglow of a foursome, one of whom being a Hapsburg Archduke. Our protagonist apologises for intruding before noticing that indeed one of them is a Hapsburg Archduke, and questions what they're doing in this timeline and in this hotel; the Archduke says nothing, but one of the four instead comments that it's safer in this timeline than it was back then for the Hapsburgs. Our protagonist briefly steps forwards to notice a bottle of Japanese gin sitting in the sun on the windowsill, and chastises the revelers for storing it in the sun (I commented on how much we were getting paid for product placement, evidently this was a dream as a film).
Satisfied, our protagonist goes off to work in a marine biology job, remarking that they were lucky to get the job considering there were 20,000 applicants for 5 roles. They go diving down in the ocean with some seriously snazzy scuba gear, going well below 80m, eventually reaching a sick 400m where bioluminescent plateaus of corals hinted at far greater things below far greater depths. That's when they're all attacked by fish people who nearly tear everyone apart, but fortunately everyone manages to release their weights and do an incredibly painful emergency ascent faster than the fish people can follow them. Everyone nearly dies but after a pleasant day of excruciating pain recovering from flesh wounds or super bends, a scientist with big white hair comes in and she alarms everyone by pointing out they were accidentally exposed to fish people substances. Our protagonist is naturally livid arguing that you can't accidentally experiment on a large group of people with potentially lethal substances but alas, the scientist insists she is sincere, and they didn't expect there to be fishmen - the objective was explicitly to study the ocean floor, not get attacked by fishmen. She holds up a vial of clear liquid which is attracted to fishmen substance, the higher the concentration the higher the attraction of the liquid. She holds it up to the various affected divers but whispers "oh no" when it reaches the protagonist, who dodges her ineffective attempts at hiding her dismay by snatching the vial and observing its reaction to him. It splurgs out all over the place indicating super high fishmen substance concentration.
Protagonist asks scientist what this means, at which point scientist is all "dunno lol, I'm not sure why you're alive so I'm guessing you're terminally ill ~(o.O)~"
Enraged but still a marine biologist at heart, protagonist grabs a sword and in a preparation montage, sharpens it to go explore the depths regardless of the consequences, figuring at least this way their death would be meaningful. At this point they're intercepted by men in black, who reveal they are part of a secret government agency who regularly sends death row convicts to the depths of the trench to find out what's going on. As he's the only one who knows what's down there and has VOLUNTEERED to go down there, they ask if he's willing to lead the team of murderous convicts into the depths.
Naturally he says yes. They go down the depths in a submersible and avoid disturbing the local fishmen in a tense scene full of comedy which ends when the tone shifts and one of the convicts nearly gets them all killed by accelerating into a weird giant centipede fish buried in the sand, resulting in their summary execution. Realising morale is at an all time low, the protagonist ascends shocking the men in black, as the team briefly go to land to pick up nandos. After the men in black complain every minute spent above water is $750,000 wasted, the protagonist responds by saying they're just getting takeaway and shouldn't be too long. Before I got to see this riveting plot development concluded, my friend called me in the morning, waking me up
*The night after I had two dreams. In the first, Wei Yan (a general from Shu-Han, ancient China) was teaching Liu Shan (a child heir to the Imperial throne and generally regarded as incompetent by history) life lessons through swordsmanship. Wei Yan was trying to teach Liu Shan a basic strike, but Liu Shan kept getting it wrong. Growing frustrated, Liu Shan kept trying harder and kept getting worse and worse at it. Wei Yan stops Liu Shan and tells him to stop, slow down and breath. He takes Liu Shan to the armoury where he asks the armourer for a misforged, brittle sword for a demonstration.
Taking the sword, he motions to Liu Shan and strikes an armoured dummy with it, the sword shattering in half. He then draws his own sword and does the same strike, cutting through the dummy. He asks Liu Shan why his sword is stronger than the first. Liu Shan responds by answering, "because it's Wei Yan's sword." Wei Yan shakes his head and says no. "The first sword tried too hard to be strong, and so it shattered. My sword is stronger because it can bend." At this Wei Yan demonstrates by bending his sword, which returns to its original shape once Wei Yan stops flexing it.
Liu Bei (father to Liu Shan) walks in and tells Wei Yan he is needed in the army camps, and Wei Yan salutes Liu Bei before walking off. Liu Bei tells Liu Shan to keep practicing before leaving.
The next dream involved me praying at a temple, culminating in a monk asking me to meditate there until I see the lion in the picture. The picture has a sun with a face on it, some flowers and grass, and altogether looks like a very childish drawing. I sit there pouring over every detail for hours and hours, unable to see anything close to resembling a lion. Eventually the monk returns and asks if I have seen the lion, and I respond saying I have not. They reverse the painting showing the white canvas at its back, and looking closer I see all the indentations caused by the mark of the pencil and brush have created the faint outlines of the lion. Only when not searching intently for it could I stand back far enough to clearly see it.
*EDITX2
Today's dream I was at a party, everyone was dressed formally and it was like a ball - but everyone conducted themselves as if it was a casual party. Myself and a group of my friends sat at a table where a bewitching lady was handing out what tasted like plum vodka, but the dream ended early here because I was awoken by the sound of a relative's cat I'm currently looking after trying to eat some of my prized plants