This is a dream from a good while back, but I think it's one that'll never leave my mind for reasons you'll understand if you see it through.
I was in a strange world where I was a bug, anthro tiny, etc. It was a world of bug people so there's no giant humans or whatever walking around, just a odd setting thing. Me and a few close friends were charged with sneaking through this mafia boss's base to find some documents and we were crawling through the vents slowly just making our way forward. The mob boss was this giant black beetle in a a pinstripe suit. He had a desk in front of a harsh red siren light and he cut a imposing silhouette.
Protection money, hits, he was in a meeting and me and my team watched quietly until it was time to slip in when he left. I lowered a string front the vent and one by one we infiltrated the r-
Ring. Ring. It's almost time for this Jason to wake up.
Ah. Damn, times up. I'm going to wake up.
The setting froze and I stepped out of the bug!Jasons body, normal human me just folding my arms annoyed as the dream was just getting good and I wanted to see where it was going. Similar, my friends stepped out too. "Well we left them in a good place" "Yeah, they can take over from here when we swap back." "Wonder if we can figure out a way to check in and see if they accomplished their mission." "I dunno I died in one of these and hearing that always freaks me out."
We just casually talked as we walked through the mafia dons walls and approached a strange train station. We climbed aboard and kicked back as the train took off, the group of us just chatting about how this world was pretty wild. I mean, we were bug people for some reason.
As the train sped along it's line I looked out the window, hand pressed on my cheek as I stared at this giant diamond shaped structure. It was bigger than comprehension. It was also pulsating, changing shapes to squares, a circle, back to a diamond. Just various odd movements that were normal to me, and eventually the train took us inside.
There was a sprawling metropolis, almost endless. Shopping malls, hang out spots, arcades, literally everything you can think of. I waved bye to my friends and started walking around past other versions of myself. Not too many, some looked identical, others were just different. There were multiple versions of every single person ever. It's hard to describe but if you were there, there would be multiple versions of you as well although not all assigned to the same place. This was treated as normal and no one made a big deal out of it. It was whatever.
I walked down the steps of a nearby cafe and got a drink, there was another version of me just zoned out in the corner and a handful of people I never met that confused me for other versions of me and we all just kinda laughed.
"I still don't know what this place is called even though we've been here forever." I mentioned, one of the patrons just shrugging and calling it 'the hub'
"It's basic and boring but iunno. Hey you waking up soon?" One patron asked me, I nodded along. "Yeah- was visiting another timeline and got called back. My own body is waking up soon." I mentioned, the group making jokes about how it was hopefully a dull timeline so I wouldn't miss much, which just made me grumble as it was a cool bug spy thing.
"Dude that sounds hilarious out of context, I haven't been able to hang out in any interesting timelines of myself, it's usually boring stuff with barely any changes." One of the guys groaned. I mentioned how most of the time my alternate selves are stuck in nightmare worlds and it sucks shit. I wish I had more normal selves. We all had a laugh and continued talking until one of the patrons noticed that I had a small blinking light on a band on my wrist. "Wait, did the train not block the hub out?"
I froze and looked at the light I hadn't noticed
"Oh shit. I'm going to wake up and know this stupid place exists." I began to panic.
You see, you, me, every person on earth was in this place. Each with countless versions of themselves all tied to a unknown number of alternate realities. When you fall asleep your dreams are actually you looking through the eyes of another version of you- one that's very much real, and when you're about to wake up you hop on a train to the hub, and simply wait to be called back to your body. The hub itself having a rule that you are NOT supposed to remember that it exists, and that the train itself has the ability to seal memories of it away.
In short, it's just a big multidimensional waiting room for a possibly infinite version of people to chill out in before waking up and resuming their timeline. And for whatever reason the trip back from bug world it malfunctioned or something and I was retaining everything I saw while waiting to wake up.
I began to panic as 'shit are there rules against this? Am I gonna get punished?" I rubbed my forehead as one of the other versions of me approached "Nah calm down, it was a problem from the operator so it's not your fault. It'll get written off and it's not like you're going to remember any visits after this. It's a one off thing."
"It's really going to bug me though." I grumbled as one of the guys at the bar just scoffed. "Dude you're going to wake up and be weirded out and thats it. You're not actually going to believe any of this is real. Don't sweat it." They assured. "Besides if you decide to tell anyone no one's gonna believe you that a dream hub thing exists. It'll just be taken as a possibly interesting story at best."
I was still pretty uneasy but they had a point. Nobody was going to believe this, hell I probably wasn't going to and I was just overthinking things again.
Fine, fine. "Yeah thanks guys, I can get in my own head about stuff like this. God it's going to feel weird though. I wonder how long I'll be thinking about all this?" being the last thing I muttered to myself as a light ringing could be heard. "Ah, there's my call. Seeya guys later."
I then woke up in my bed and just kind of sat there very confused. "...That was just a dream right? Like obviously..."
I haven't dreamed about the hub ever again but to this day it stuck out to me due to the whole nature of the conversations I had, and how my own dream was like 'nah you're going to gaslight yourself on this lol'. Just 'that was so bizarre no way it was real... unless...'
