We see a close up from a boombox, lit by the soft morning sun. The light makes dust flying around visible. A hand enters the frame, picking up a cassette. The cassette says in handwriting “Songs for the sad and silent”. The player chooses one of these 3 tracks:

• The Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored

• boâ - Duvet

• Cracker - Low

 As the music kicks in, we meet Oasis Thorne; an alternative looking girl teenager, lying on her bed.

Oasis

Another day in paradise.

 She gets up and wanders freely her room. Alternative band posters cover her walls, books about witches cover her floor. Soft smoke is coming from an incense on her night stand. A letter she once wrote her father tells us he left her when she was 5, and that she never understood why he left.

 Her stomach growls.

Oasis

(Muttering:) Tell me about it. I better go downstairs.Mary, Oasis’ Mother, makes you breakfast. The usual. She’s in a rushthough and she comes off hasty. When trying to have smalltalk withOasis, it goes a bit stiff. Oasis is distant, mentally preparing for another day of school.

Aside from Vista, Oasis doesn’t really have friends. It’s not that people don’t like her. It’s worse; people don’t notice her. Even when the player tries to interact with people, they can’t hear her.  Even the teacher doesn’t respond to her presence.

She has her first vivid dream, where she meets her long-lost father. In this vision he’s warm, incredibly involved and understanding. He makes her feel things she never had in the real world. For the first time, she feels seen, heard and that she actually matters. In these dreams, Oasis explores warm childhood memories guided by her father. Sometimes even reliving them through her father’s eyes.The player chooses what memories they miss most, and father gives them exactly that.

Where reality feels grey, this dreams feels like the most beautiful, colorful rainbow. No wonder Oasis can’t wait to go back. When she gets the chance, she falls asleep to see her father again. By choice, this time.

When Oasis wakes up from another long dream, the world feels even colder. Trees start to look like monsters. The sun doesn’t come out anymore. Even her room feels slightly off. Her mother has no time at all for her now, and Vista neither. The school hallways feel even more hollow. Oasis can’t wait to get out of here. 

In class, she drifts off intentionally during class. Her father is waiting for her at a lovely campfire in the Salem forest. Smiling and loving. He assures her: none of this is her fault. She just sees the world as it is. Exactly what she wanted to hear. But if the player chooses not to hug father, he gets a bit colder. The player can choose to wake up at any time.

When she wakes again, everything feels pointless. Reality slips through her fingers. She doesn’t feel like she exists here anymore. So she skips school. Closes the blinds. Crawls under the covers and falls asleep again. But this time, she’s interrupted. Her mother is pounding on her door. She missed a test. Vista has called her, multiple times. And something strange happens: details from the dream have followed her. 

For the first time, Oasis realizes her dreams are bleeding into reality. And escaping comes with consequences.

At school, smoke fills the hallways. Oasis follows it, and ends up at a campfire. The exact campfire she just hung out at with her father in her dream. Her father then appears. Oasis is a little bit scared and doubts what’s real and what isn’t. And what her father has got to do with this. But he reassures her that he is just there for her, and that he needs to show her something important. Through her father’s eyes she relives the most amazing memory, where they play witch in the Salem forest. That used to be her favorite. She feels alive again.

When she wakes up, she is filled with love from the memory she just visited. She tries to find the picture that was made back then. But when she finds it, her heart skips a beat. Her father was nowhere in sight. It was her mother who played witch with her. She decides to ask her mother if her father used to lie. Her mother tells her that wasn’t the case at all. She wonders where these questions come from and reflect her worries for Oasis.

At night, Oasis goes to sleep to speak to her father about this. But, she is still in her room.   From her bed, she looks around her room.With a jump scare, she suddenly sees her father standing in a corner. The telephone starts to ring with a muffled sound. Oasis hesitates. The player can choose to wake up to take it, or to keep dreaming. 

Oasis’ safe haven is starting to feel not that safe anymore. 

If the player wakes up, there’s no one on the phone. Oasis goes back to sleep to see her father again, as she feels something is up. He takes her to the forest again, to play hide and seek. But it’s not your regular hide and seek. It’s in a scary forest, with whispering voices coming from each angle. Shadows appear behind trees and in the distance. The player can choose to wake up any time. The dream world grew incredibly eerie and unpredictable. Oasis reaches her lowest point, as these dreams were what made her feel seen. She wonders what she would be without them.

And while she was away dreaming, time slipped through her fingers once more. Oasis missed Vista’s birthday. And even worse; her mother fainted and collapsed on the kitchen floor. Oasis now realizes that escaping reality is no option and that she must confront her father. She returns to the dream world. Not to stay and wander, but to end it. For good.

Oasis confronts her father, but he resists. He manipulates, once more. When father takes her hand, the whole world starts tumbling. Bricks fall down and loud thunder rumbles all around Oasis. The player can choose to let go of his hand anytime, while father speaks to Oasis.

Oasis wakes up in her room. Everything went back to normal, but even better. There are soft rays of sun shining through. The player is now offered fewer options. 

When Oasis sees Vista at school, she hugs her tightly and asks if she wants to get ice cream after school. The teacher doesn’t notice your presence once again. But this time, Oasis laughs and smiles to Vista.

She no longer needs other’s confirmation to feel worthy and make choices.

Oasis reads a book under in her bed, with soft candle light glowing up her witch book. She is reading about lucid dreaming. She puts away her book, blows the candle and lays down. She smiles gently while she closes her eyes.

The screen goes dark.