Vanishing suddenly

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid Lucid #167: In the Game My friend "<PERSON>" and I are meeting with another programmer at a restaurant to discuss a video game design decision. We are seated outdoors having an animated discussion about some finer point of the design of a first-person shooter video game. The dream turns from a discussion of the concept into the three of us actually in the game, all armed with sci-fi style weaponry and fighting for our lives against some kind of menacing cyborgs. There is one particular boss character that can warp in from out of nowhere, making him especially dangerous. and we are debating the best way to face him down. At first we talk about hunkering down somewhere kind of back to back, but in the end decide to get to higher ground and try to ambush him. I believe on some level that this is a video game and as the three of us storm up a gently turning ramp, I marvel at the "graphics" of the game. I wonder how the game would look with lower graphical detail, and immediately everything looks pixellated and 90s. This is enough to make me realize that this is a dream. I continue to the top of the ramp. <PERSON> is still with me but the other programmer has vanished. We are in a high-ceilinged room with organic, alien-looking walls, perfect for the setting of the game we are in. Everything feels far less threatening now and I feel sure that the cyborg is not coming after us any more. My youngest son ARE (2 years old) is running around here. He runs into me, bounces off my leg, and goes sprinting happily away again. A girl from my oldest son's class wanders by with her mother. She looks like she is a couple of years older than IWL and her hair is twisted into an unusually long braid that encircles her head. The girl takes R's hand and begins leading him toward a downward ramp. I step in front of them and sort of herd them back onto the platform, feeling uneasy about them wandering off into the world of a first-person shooter. Then other kids start showing up, some that I recognize, others that I do not. They start wandering in various directions and I fretfully start trying to keep everyone together. It takes me a moment, but I finally realize that I need to just let this go. I watch as the kids wander off various directions. The girl with the braid leads R out of sight down a ramp. It feels strange to just let this happen, but I sense that if I just relax, everything will be all right. As the kids disperse all around me, the dream transitions into a false awakening in my bed. I roll out of bed, grab my journal, and prepare to write down the dream. Just as I am doing this, I hear my oldest son E shout over the baby monitor that "Daddy!! I! Need! Water!!" I put the journal down, hoping that I can remember the lucid dream for later, and head off to help E. I perform a few mundane steps of this before the dream ends.