Who: Xerxes Break and you
What: Break's Silent Hill dimension, courtesy of this player plot!
When: Backdated to the end of January
Where: Break's personal Not-Trench

Content warnings: Monster-fighting, serial killers, grief, drowning, struggling to breathe; others to be added as I think of them



Prompts to write your own starters with:

Monsters: The primary monsters of Break's world are demons of a sort known as Chains, all of which are based on creatures and figures from Lewis Carrol's Wonderland stories. They follow the typical demon trope of seeking out a sucker with a wish, and convincing that person to make a Contract with them with the promise that their wish will be granted if they can help the Chain grow strong enough to bring them to the center of the Abyss. Spoilers: You accomplish this by sacrificing humans to the Chain, and you are never going to have your wish granted. Unless you have certain special qualities that enable you to take a Chain as a partner rather than becoming bound to its whims, once you make a Contract you are essentially damned to become a serial killer, and if you don't get taken down by the Pandora organization before you can murder too many innocents, you'll die when you're dragged into the Abyss and your body is warped into a whole new Chain.

They are present in Break's Silent Hill world because he is the one sucker who actually survived all this and did indeed have his wish granted, and after this only made life much worse, he spent the next fifteen years working with Pandora...for Break reasons, but in part to take down other Contractors. They represent his drive to prevent people from making the same mistakes he has made, and the way his understanding of just what makes a Contractor has been of use to him in Trench. The beauty of using them in this setting is that every Contractor attracts the Chain that suits them best and each Chain has its own individual special power, so anyone who'd like one gets something custom-made especially for their wish baggage. If you're interested in working with wish baggage or simply fighting a monster with a certain power, get in touch with me here and we'll sort something out!


The Pool of Tears: Here and there throughout the false Trench, there are patches of black ice that aren't ice at all. Step on one of these by accident and it will open up beneath you into a pool of saltwater, and you won't be getting out of it alone. It's not that the water is that deep. Rather, once it has you, the abrupt weight of intense grief holds you underneath the surface -- because grief is an emotion that strikes without warning, immobilizing. Once pulled out, whoever has fallen to it will struggle to breathe until enough hurt/comfort has been applied.


The Safe Rooms: These will be marked by gold butterflies rather than blue, because of Break's strong attachment to Ange Ushiromiya.

- The Rainsworth garden: A door in a stone wall opens up into the sort of magnificent garden you might find in the estates of the wealthy in Europe, all perfectly tended rosebushes and beautiful marble statues and even a nice gazebo. The temperature is pleasantly warm, the sun is shining, and there is a pleasant little table with a pleasant little tea setting waiting to go. The tea is gently flavored and delicious, and there are all sorts of cute little sandwiches and cookies. Honestly you should probably just stay here. This is where you're most likely to catch flashes of various Rainsworth ladies, if you'd enjoy drilling Break on the family he left behind -- the woman he loved, who passed away ten years ago; that woman's young daughter, who Break ultimately came to consider his own even though he was "officially" her big brother; and the grandmother of the family, a fine duchess Break felt safe showing vulnerability to.

- The Pandora House movie room: This is just straight up a piece of Break's house in Trench. They keep a room set up with a screen and such for frequent movie nights -- movies are terribly exciting when you are a rich Victorian and in your own time if you want to see a show you have to put on your nice pants and go to the theater. The couches are fantastic for napping, there are cookies and hot chocolate on the coffee table, and an omni projecting onto the screen cycles through some of Break's favorite comfort movies: Beauty and the Beast, Pride and Prejudice (The Version With Miss Knightley), and Sleeping Beauty. There is no exciting dirt to be found here, unless you consider a forty-one year old man enjoying musical princess movies to be a juicy deet. Break does not, and isn't sorry.

- Ye olde generic tavern: A blast from Break's distant past, this is where Break used to hang out with his knight buddies in his early twenties. There's a warm fire, cozy lighting, and hearty stews and warm bread set out if you need something more substantial than tea snackies. There's also a certain table that seems drenched in shadow, though it shouldn't be. And, though the tavern is empty, now and again the echoes of fiddle music and laughter drift past. Listen long enough and you may find that the voices solidify, turning into familiar voices from your younger days. Fortunately, this is a safe room, so those voices are most likely offering words of comfort -- whether you want that comfort or not.