Silent Hill: Requiem to Shephard's Glen

[Silent_Wolf]

Shephard's Glen: A little quaint town in Nevada. It's one of those towns that takes you forever to find; it's harder to find than the middle of nowhere. It was founded about, oh, I think 200 years ago now; we're coming up on the bicentennial anniversary and there's a big party and parade planned.

But see, what a lot of the townspeople don't know is that the founding families' ancestors - Shepherd, Holloway, Bartlett, and Fitch - brought with them an oath from Silent Hill. They and numerous other families fled, but the God followed; to keep the newly founded village safe, they pledged that every fifty years, one child from each founding family would be sacrificed.

"We, the Family Shepherd, in order to ensure our continued protection and prosperity, do enter into this Holy Contract with our God, accept our duties as Master of Arms and willingly consign our child to the water in God's name."

"We, the Family Fitch, in order to ensure our continued protection and prosperity, do enter this Holy Contract with our God, accept our duties as Master of Rites and willingly consign our child to the blade in God's name."

"We, the Family Holloway, in order to ensure our continued protection and prosperity, do enter into this Holy Contract with our God, accept our duties as Keeper of Lore and willingly consign our child to the noose in God's name."

"We, the Family Bartlett, in order to ensure our continued protection and prosperity, do enter into this Holy Contract with our God, accept our duties as Executor of Law and willingly consign our child to the earth in God's name."

The Bartlett line has always been full of mayors. Holloways, they are the judges. Fitches are doctors and nurses and surgeons more often than not, and the Shephard family goes either into war or into police service. No one knows why; it's just how it is. There's no influence on the children; they grow up and that's what they want to do, continue the family tradition.

Of course, the children usually aren't told of the town's darkest secret; sacrifices to appease an unforgiving God happen every fifty years. Fifty years ago, this was broken by an accident; the wrong Shephard child was killed in water and a terrifying mist overtook the town. This matter, of course, was fixed and the town renewed itself. Soon, everybody who knew what had happened had passed away; the families continued on.

As the Bicentennial Celebration approaches, the parents of each chosen branch of the families has to prepare for this. It doesn't matter if they have only one child or two; infant or adult, it doesn't matter. There are other branches of the families in Shephard's Glen; they can continue the family line. It's a brutal way to live in a messed up place.

You've noticed that the 'chosen' kids - though you obviously don't know this - are becoming more and more withdrawn, less people-friendly and they no longer come to school. They haven't been told of their forecoming fate; and only the Keeper of Lore generally knows about it. Maybe you are one of these kids; maybe your parents have more or less treated you as a pet: fed you, clothed you, washed you, put you to bed as though it were a mere chore. Of course, if you're an only child you may have noticed your parents spoil you considerably.

Suddenly, one day both the Bartlett kids vanished. A mysterious fog has wrapped the town in a shroud, and it seems like no matter how hard you try to leave, you just enter the town on the other side. Scary creatures haunt the shadows, and the safest place to be is either the school building or your home.

Whenever you're out walking around, sometimes you hear an eerie grating noise, like metal on the pavement behind you; yet you see nothing when you turn to look around. However, it brings to mind an old fable-song you heard as a child:

Where is Steven, mommy? He can't play and I'm sad.
You mustn't ask, my darling- Steven has been bad.

Billy too, and Sally? Did they do something wrong?
I'm afraid it's true, child- all your friends are gone.

Beware of he who took them- he goes by many names.
The Bogeyman, the Shadowed One, but all are he, the same.

For every sin a child has, must be a punishment to bear.
Your friends are now beyond our reach; trapped deep within his lair.

And if they take what is not theirs, there can be no doubt.
He'll stretch their skin until it snaps, and all the blood drains out.

Remember to always behave, for sins he won't abide.
He wields a rusty, jagged blade, to cut out your insides.

The lying little children, with souls selfish and small.
Will find their wriggling tongues cut out, and nailed to the his wall.

The bullies and their spiteful wrath will find torment as well.
Soon he will strike them where they stand and drag them into hell.

Child, you must obey your parents; do everything they say.
Little ones who do otherwise, he tortures in the flames.

Beatings cleanse the soul, they say, and that is what he'll do.
If you don't control your anger then you'll feel his anger too.

You are your brother's keeper, remember it always.
Or else, the Bogeyman will chain you underneath the waves.

And while good children live, bad ones cannot escape their fate.
For once you hear his screeching wail, it's already too late.

So do not cry aloud at night, stay hidden in your bed...
Or the Bogeyman from Silent Hill will come chop off your head.

As hell breaks loose here in Shephard's Glen, you'll fight monsters of horrendous countenances, see nightmarish landscapes unfold before your very eyes - and you are not the only one who witnesses these beasts and terrors. However, you've got your own nightmares to deal with, whatever they are...

Shephard's Glen has become Hell itself; can you survive it?

--------

Rules:

1. Only Miranda, Sarah_K_O_M, TheHayleyDoll, and myself. Do not PM me begging to join, this is set due to the amount of new users coming on.

2. The monsters specifically in this RP are as follows:
Swarm (Bugs, can be smashed on the floor)
Ferals (Dogs, appear to be missing some flesh)
Lurkers (Humanoids with tail-like appendages that appear to be legs that are bound together; have no faces, only a wide, toothy mouth stretching vertically from their forehead to their chin)
Nurses (Humanoids with heavily bandaged faces and rather trashy uniforms. Feel free to yell 'Get some pants!!' when you kill some. Usually are seen only in the hotel and hospital nightmares.)
Schisms (Humanoids with a fleshy pendulum-like appendage for a head; said appendage is split down the middle with what appears to be a mouth)
Siam Siam (Humanoids, I can't exactly describe these so well so look images up on Youtube. Avoid at all costs if able. O_O)
Smokers (Humanoids with no arms, lungs expand to spew nasty smoke. Avoid at all costs.)

3. Don't godmod, auto-hit unless it's one of the listed monsters, blah blah. Read the RPG area stickies. >>;

4. Nightmare realms are mostly occurant in dreams; however, as the town dives further into da.mnation (or so the Order calls it) they begin to occur in real life. Usually it takes form in starting out as a regular dream, but the longer it goes, the more everything begins to peel and decay. Things age and rot and rust, and then you wonder if you're even in the same place - especially once it starts happening while you're awake.

5. You will have a nightmare monster. Whether it is an event, person, flaws about yourself that you absolutely despise for whatever reason, or a heavy fear, only you can see it in the Nightmare dreams; in the real world however, everyone can see it. It can be anything from a normal-looking rendition of it to a completely mutated freak of nature.

6. We are all starting in Shephard's Glen; either you've lived there your whole life or you moved there several years ago for whatever reasons your parents had.

---

Character sheet (optional, but I'd prefer if you did use them.)

Name: (Note, you can be from any of the 4 founding families but I'd prefer if you were not from the selected branch for sacrifice. O_o)
Age: *can be from 8 to 50*
Appearance: (typed please, no pics)
Bio:
Personality:
Nightmare Monster if your character has one and the story behind it:
Etc.:

Opening paragraph and my character sheet will be in the next post. Stupid character limit! X.x

[Silent_Wolf]

Name: Tanith Fitch (not selected branch)
Age: 17
Appearance: Black hair tinted purple with hair dye, yellow eyes. Has a scar across her right eye and eyebrow as a result of an accident in her welding class; she is not blind in that eye but she is astigmatic in that eye and has to wear a single contact lens to try and correct it. Has two small tattoos on the outer corner of her eyes and temples; it looks vaguely like purple dragon scales.
Bio: Tanith grew up in Shephard's Glen; born there, raised there, she'd probably die there too if the monsters didn't stop appearing. When she was sixteen, a piece of metal was flung from another welding booth in her class and cut a line down her face, narrowly missing her eye; she quit the class but continues welding as a hobby and job, she also occasionally helps out at the car repair when they need someone to weld. Her father is a doctor and her mother is a manager at the local grocery mart. In the past several years she's noticed her younger cousin, Martha, had become more withdrawn; the reason why was beyond her, though it may have been to do with the fact she was an only child... Tanith has one older brother who left Shephard's Glen for a university outside of town and she hasn't heard from him since the mist enshrouded the Glen. As a result of her worry and anxiety, she has occasional anxiety attacks where her heart beats irregularly and they usually settle down on their own; she hasn't had to go to the hospital for them yet but if she has another one, her father'll probably drag her kicking and screaming. She hates hospitals.
Personality: Tends to be more a realist than a pessimist, though if the occasion calls for it she's definitely more pessimistic than anything else. Her fear of hospitals is unfounded; she's just always been scared of them, ever since she was little.
Nightmare Monster if your character has one and the story behind it: It's a vaguely dragon-esque beast with sharp pieces of metal for teeth; in its chest, when it stands up on its hind legs, you can see a cage sticking out of the left side and what appears to be a bird/butterfly monstrosity inside that flaps its wings erratically. Its claws and the end of its tail are various surgical apparati. It stands for her heart's anxiety-caused flutters, her fear of hospitals and metal shrapnel, and for some reason her adoration of dragons.
Etc.: Has a mild allergy to various kinds of flowers, and is allergic to one specific breed of dog which unfortunately is the same one that created the infamous Lurker dogs. Also is very stubborn and has a 'my way or the highway' attitude.

--

Another gloomy day in Shephard's Glen. Population: 353- cancel that, 347. The Summersons disappeared last night. Tanith wrote down the names that had been posted on the board; more and more people kept going missing, just disappearing in the dead of night and barbed wire, for some reason, appeared on the doors and windows of the houses of the missing families, barring entrance from all sides. She took a black permanent marker and drew it across the listed names, shaking her head in mild despair, and she stuffed the notebook and marker back in her bag, walking away from the oversized corkboard-like billboard; it was pretty low to the ground, low enough to pin things to. Wonder if anyone's bothered going to school today. Probably not. Teachers're all gone, so's the principals. She rubbed her right eye, pushing the contact lens back in place, and she stuffed her hands in her pockets, still walking down the misty road; nobody drove cars anymore, the gas station having dried up, so it was fairly safe.

The school loomed up ahead, a three story brick building covered in dead and decaying ivy and moss. ...On second thought, maybe I'll go see if Dad needs any help today. She gulped, staring at the building; it just gave her the creeps now. Even before the weird fog had rolled in overnight, sometimes in the dead of night you could hear metal grinding on the ceramic tiles of the floor. She could definitely hear it now; a low, grating, grinding wail vaguely reminiscent of nails on a chalkboard. She crossed her arms, pulling on the sleeves of her jacket, and shivered, not because of the cold. "Come on, 'nith, the Bogeyman isn't real," she mumbled.

[Miranda_]

Name: Jeff Brooks
Age: 16
Appearance: Brown hair, blue eyes. Fairly tall and average build.
Bio: Jeff's mother lived in a nearby town with her son. She and Jeff's father had separated before he was born; his name was Marcus Shepherd and he'd told Leanne, Jeff's mother, that she had a choice, namely she could have an abortion and he'd stay, or keep the child and he'd go. Leanne chose her unborn child over her lover, and he left. She didn't regret anything, but grew very close to her son over the years.

When Jeff was six, she met another man, this one named Acario. It was a whirlwind relationship and they married very quickly. However, Acario had married Leanne for just one thing; to get at her son and began sexually abusing Jeff soon after. Leanne suspected nothing til, four years later, she arrived back from work early and caught Acario in the act of abuse. The subsequent court case, despite the fact that Acario was sentenced to ten years in prison, broke Leanne completely and she had a nervous breakdown. Now, Jeff resides with a foster family, the fifth one he's been placed with, and Leanne is currently in a mental hospital, unable to care for either her son or herself. The foster family he lives with lives in Shephard's Glen, near the school.
Personality: Can be arrogant and very nasty on occasion. Jeff also hides his feelings, and won't talk to people readily. He is also very pri'ckly and takes offence very easily, resulting in a lot of people not liking him.
Nightmare Monster if your character has one and the story behind it:Jeff's nightmare monster is Acario, as Jeff remembers him from when he was a child and suffering abuse. As in, Acario is a giant, and with a twisted malevolent face. It stands not only for the still remembered abuse at Acario's hands, but also for Jeff's secret fear of Acario once he finally gets out of prison.


Name: Justin "Infri" Blake
Age: 15
Appearance: Black hair, hazel eyes. Slightly below average height, skinny.
Bio: Justin, or Infri as he's mostly known as, vanished into Silent Hill around ten years ago. Back then, Silent Hill was certainly known of amongst the teenagers, but was mostly considered an urban legend. One day, Infri and his friends had been playing Truth or Dare, and Infri was dared to go into Silent Hill. To prove he wasn't a coward, he went... and never returned. The teenagers went back to the town in fear, and the police searched all over the place, but never found him. Now, the teenagers who were around at that time are now in their twenties, but Infri remains the same age he was when he was trapped in Silent Hill. He has no idea how long it's been since he went there, but recently he was able to escape. Silent Hill and Shephards Glen share Toluca Lake; somehow, Infri was able to cross the lake and enter Shephards Glen.
Personality: Stubborn, rude, very immature, but can be nice to those he considers his friends.
Nightmare Monster if your character has one and the story behind it: Infri had a troubled childhood. His mother left his father before he was born, and he's never met her. His father physically abused his son and neglected him, mainly cuz he just didn't care about him. Infri spent a lot of time in hospitals cuz of what his father did; broken ribs, broken arm, cuts from broken glass were very common. Infri was frightened of hospitals, partly cuz of having to go so often, but also cuz his father had instilled in him from an early age a fear of hospitals, saying that if he told the doctors and nurses anything about how he'd gotten injured, they'd take him away and put him in prison. Infri's nightmare monster is a shadow creature with a head that's roughly the shape of a horse's head, but without ears or eyes. It's wrapped in bloodstained scrubs, and has syringes for claws. It represents his fear of hospitals as well as his buried fear of his father.

~~~

Jeff was hanging outside the school, smoking listlessly as he sat down on the ground. He only went to school cuz it was still better than being at the house; he didn't consider his foster parents' house to be a home. Over the years of being shunted around foster homes, Jeff had lost a lot of school and had ended up being kept down a year. He barely even noticed Tanith's arrival at the school and continued to stare down at the ground.

~~~

A soaking wet figure crept away from the lake and towards the large building he could see. Infri shivered in the mist, but kept on walking. He didn't know this place at all, nothing seemed familiar and he could recognise no-one. He was frightened, not just cuz of the place he'd left and cuz he was was sure that he'd never really be free of Silent Hill, but of the unknown place he was entering with no help in sight.

[Silent_Wolf]

Tanith sniffed a bit and covered her nose, wincing, and turned, seeing Jeff. "How can you not hear that?" She paused and looked back at the school; the keening of metal on the floor had stopped. ".. Nevermind." She shook her head and sat down on the ground, staring at the building. "Place keeps getting creepier by the day."

Joey Shephard, the town's 49-year-old sheriff, was walking past the lake on his rounds and noticed Infri walking across the road. "Hey, kid, you're supposed to be at home, not wandering ar- Who are you?" He blinked; he'd never seen this guy before.

[Miranda_]

"I was trying to ignore it. If I looked up, who knows what I might see? This place gives me the creeps, but it's still better than being at the house." Jeff stubbed his cigarette out. "Not really as tho there's really a school to go to; no teachers for one thing."

Infri turned at the sound of Joey's voice. "I'm Infri, um, Justin Blake," he replied nervously.

[Silent_Wolf]

"Yeah, guess not. .. I feel like making an exploding pumpkin for some reason." She yawned and scatched the back of her head, looking bored.

"How'd you even get here, kid?" Joey walked over to him. "You look scared to death."