Event Log: The Hills Are Silent

[hadrielmods]

Who: Everyone!
What: The Silent Hill event
Where: Throughout the city
When: June 15th-20th
Warnings: Silent Hill comes to Hadriel, and with it, a few personalized monsters

On the morning of June 15th, a thick fog rolls into Hadriel. There's nothing quite terrifying about it yet, but it manages to drain the city of color, forcing a grey backdrop onto everything behind it. Feel free to go try to check it out if you want, just be careful, because it won't be too long until the sirens start blaring.

There's not exactly a reasonable explanation for where the sound is coming from: Hadriel doesn't have a speaker system, or any warning sirens in place for when something horrible happens. But you'd better find cover quickly, because shortly after the sirens start wailing, the city begins to change. Walls and furniture start to peel, revealing a bloody, hellish version of the city that you once knew. In addition, the monsters from the bestiary will roam the city, as well as a few other monsters that might hit a little closer to home.

Some characters may run into monsters which embody their own sins or insecurities. Some characters may be pursued by their friends' hellish mirrors. One thing is clear: you don't want any of these things catching you. Luckily, it isn't long before Hope makes a post, declaring the god temples as safe zones from all the creatures that are now loose upon the city.

The sirens will fade within a few hours, and the city will fall back to normal, the monsters will retreat back into the fog as if they were never there, and everything seems to be fine again, as if that terrifying experience was just some kind of twisted dream. You can tell yourself that, if you like... but that won't help much the next time the sirens start again.

► This log covers June 15th-20th.
► Feel free to make your own logs as well!
► Please tag headers of threads with content warnings where they apply
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!
► Any number of things could murder you here. If you wind up on the unfortunate end of Pyramid Head's chain, please remember to hit up our death post!

Comments

[tongueamok]

[Carlisle shouldn't have gone back to his apartment, but, of course, he did. His notes got left behind in the (literal) mess with the inky monster that had chased him from his home in the first place, and though he felt like a complete and utter fool for doing so, he returned. He needed to know they were still there, needed to have them back in his possession. They're tied to that control he craves in his life; they're a tangible sign that, at some point in time, he existed, survived as he was drawn into a completely different world from his own. Maketh had said they were important, as well, as though the information held in the pages was somehow worth more than his own life.

And maybe it is, but only if he has them. That's why he returned; that's why he's there now, digging through his various notes and tucking them into his badger-pelt bag. The trek up the stairs had been uneventful, the inky demon having disappeared from the building for the time being. If it reappears, at least he knows some way of handing it.

It's as he's digging through his things and shoving them into his satchel that he hears a voice from outside. It's not his own from the oozing creature he'd encountered, nor was it one he recognized, but it's a voice nonetheless. Correction: a voice calling for Kate.

Knowing good and well that she's not home, Carlisle considers ignoring it, just in case it is a trick, something trying to lure him out of the safety of his apartment -- what little safety it provides, apparently. He turns back to his things for a moment, only to pause; his nose wrinkles as he curses to himself.]

Desth. This is the kind of behavior that is going to get me killed.

[He tears across the room and opens the door, deciding to get what suicidal notions he's having over and done with. What he's met with is not at all what he expected: it's neither monster nor man, but what he can only assume is something akin to the Forest Folk that live back home. What he is or isn't is not really the important part, not when he's clearly injured -- he's burned badly in some areas, blisters forming where the fur has been seared away.

Carlisle grits his teeth. He can't let this creature just die. It'd be a strike against his conscience, for one. And for two, said creature apparently knows Kate, and Kate would be beyond peeved if he allowed one of her wards to perish on her doorstep.

So Carlisle kneels beside the hedgehog, keeping his voice low as he speaks. "She's not home," he explains, but before he can offer his help, he spots movement on his periphery. His eyes dart to it in an instant: there, in the corner above them, is a dark blot on the wall. It's not big yet, but every passing second allows it to manifest more.

Desth.

Not wanting to find out just how long it will take the nightmarish ooze to fully form, he decides to skip the formalities and lets the words just tumble from him.]

Right, no time. Hold your breath this might sting here we go.

[And with that, he yanks his hands free of his gloves, places them on the fallen warrior, and pushes energy through him.]

[tongueamok]

[Praying his patient doesn't screech, panic, or whatever it was Glacius did when he was healed, Carlisle steels himself and expels his energy, channeling it through his palms and into the wounded hedgehog. Normally, he'd be more cautious, more wary of how much effort he's spending to get his ward back on his feet; however, with the inky monster forming on the wall, already worming its way into his mind and feeding off the guilt it finds there, he doesn't have the luxury of time.

Though Shadow's fur remains patchy, still gone where it was burnt away, the blisters and burns mend, scorched skin prickling and coming together like new. Carlisle has no time to search for internal injuries; he just needs this creature, this friend of Kate's, to be able to run.

He ceases his channel once the burns are gone, putting a hand to his head as he straightens out. His other hand goes for the hedgehog's arm, hoping to pull him to the relative safety of the next floor down, his eyes darting to the ooze on the wall -- it's beginning to form hands once more, reaching, grasping, clawing.]

Good enough! Let's go!

[tongueamok]

[Carlisle glances back at the hedgehog's question, still moving. His mouth apparently tries to keep up.]

Look, Kate's not here and I don't know who you are, but you can ask all you want when we're not running for our lives! Don't look at it!

[tongueamok]

[Too late -- he's tripping. Carlisle looks over his shoulder at the hedgehog's touch, wondering just what it is he's doing, and suddenly, he's outside and the step he thought he was going down is no longer there. What is there is the ground, and it catches his fall well enough.

And by 'catches his fall,' he slams into it, his arms taking the brunt of the fall. At least he mostly seems startled rather than hurt as he starts feeling around to find his glasses, which slipped from him in the trip to the pavement.]

Wh- what happened? What did you do?

[tongueamok]

[Carlisle is surprised again as he's picked off the ground and handed his glasses. It only takes him a moment once he has them to realize where he is.]

We're outside. Apparition. Wasn't aware the Forest Folk had an aptitude for magic, but I suppose this world has many strange things, doesn't it?

[So much for not asking questions, though that one is more or less rhetorical.]

[tongueamok]

[This is indeed not the time to be standing around, but the fog is obscuring the rest of the city's buildings. He turns in the approximate direction of the stores, hoping to grab a few supplies before heading to one of the temples. He'd like to delay going there as long as possible.]

I live there. Lived, rather, before this mess started. Why were you there, looking for Kate?

[tongueamok]

I don't know where she is, but I'm not going to the temples yet, if that's what you're insisting.

[Which is what he's sure the talking hedgehog is insisting.]

[tongueamok]

It is not my own life that is important, but what I do with it. And I would rather not be fodder for the false gods.

[He says that now, but give him something that scares him enough, and his cowardice will force him to reconsider. It always does.]

[tongueamok]

The people at the temples are in need of supplies. If I am going to be out here risking my life, I might as well make myself useful.

[Useful to someone else, at least. He got his notes, which is what he wanted for himself.]

If nothing else, the stores can shelter us from what wanders in the streets.

[tongueamok]

[Carlisle utters a word of gratitude, following along. He holds his tongue for a moment, trying to remember the traditional greeting of the Forest Folk, but most of what he knows in their language slips from him for the time being. It's probably the fog and the fact that they're not entirely safe just yet.

An introduction will have to do, then. Perhaps his ill manners can be forgiven.]

I am Carlisle Longinmouth. [He'd include the rest of his title, but given this hedgehog knows magic, he assumes he's not from the woods around Bear Den, and as such, formalities would probably be lost on him.]

[tongueamok]

I don't know. I suspect it is a demon that is following me.

[He'd seen it once or twice before, after all, usually out of the corner of his eye when he was alone. The fact it was made primarily of ink could not be a coincidence.

Speaking (or thinking, rather) of ink, he coughs a few times into his hand.]

It wasn't what burned you, was it?

[Because if so, that was a new development.]

[tongueamok]

I see. I don't [cough] expect the gods would come out of hiding to face it.

I haven't seen Miss Kate in a few days now. I hope she's all right.