Inbox

[itsjustabaddream]

INBOX OF NEIL WEST

Neil would be happy to hear from you. Leave a comment below to reach out. You can pay him a visit at home, or send him a letter any time.

GAME NAV ✦ THE OCULARUM

Comments

[itsjustabaddream]

What surprises Neil most is the smell. Olfactory cues can be very strong memory triggers, but it's not often they're so pervasive that they reach dreams. But between the scents, the beating, the sonorous bells, Neil immediately recognizes the utility of this place and its sensory intensity.

This is a religious space. Filled with hypnotic stimuli intended to dull the senses to all but spiritual ecstasy.

He follows the hallway, unfazed and focused.

[misbegottendreamer]

There’s something following him.

Or at the very least, there’s something else here, moving around, that sometimes comes close to him. Its footsteps, heavy and laborious, are accompanied by an intensification of the bells and a harshening (but not brightening) of the glow.

There’s a muffled choir rising up from within the walls. It sounds like dozens of people, begging, chanting, wailing, weeping.

[itsjustabaddream]

Neil does not bother to spare a glance at what is behind him. It will reveal itself when he is in the main space. As he moves through the dream, there is almost a floating quality to his own stride, as if his feet touching the ground at all is a formality. There is no sound or weight to his footsteps. He is in complete control of himself, and how much the dream notices his presence, even the environment.

He follows the sound of the choir.

[misbegottendreamer]

The sound leads him nowhere. He turns a corner and it beckons him back the way he came. It seems like it’s coming from within the walls themselves-

-which suddenly stretch as hands reach out for him, claws just barely not piercing the membrane-stone of the architecture.