[ So very weird to suddenly hear a voice in his head. He's been thinking of saying something to the other people that somehow reach him, but nothing he can think of saying is the best given the situation. ]
-- this still is really weird. [ To put lightly. ] I guess settling in as well as a fish man can. At least the water is apparently purified now? Hate to think how things would be wandering around in -- well, don't need to finish that thought.
[ The Murmur can be off-putting, too much psychic juju for the average man, but people adapt quickly. Mostly. Murphy will get there. ]
Just don't jump into the rivers, Fish Man. We might have the purification plant running, but nasty shit hides in the waters. Pretty sure there might be weird, mutated Hosts in them. [ She's seen glimpses of something big beneath the water. Could be trash, but wiser not to risk it. ]
I'm doing... okay. As well as I can be given the situation. These slips in reality got me a bit worried, but... [ What can you do? Worry won't fix a thing. ]
Don't worry. I'm not that dried out. [ Yet? Yet? Hopefully not yet. ]
It's really like that town I came from. [ He clicks his tongue. Everything feels like that town. ] 'Course none of the people there ever talked about Sleep or One or anything. They just talked about how a person needed rituals to do anything.
Her heart jumps when he mentions that it's familiar. Worse, a sudden alert wariness rises at talk of rituals. ] What town did you come from, Murphy? [ She attempts to pass it off as idle curiosity, but the Murmur makes it clear: this is uncertain suspicion. Fear. A desperate desire for all of this to merely be trauma-induced paranoia. ]
[ He lightly shakes his head. ] Sorry. I'm not from it, but more like stumbled into it? It's -- [ It's a sensation of him waving his hand to dismiss how he actually got to where he was. ]
[ It's a good thing Murphy isn't from Silent Hill, but that knowledge does little to stop the dizzying surge of panic. Her breath catches, vision narrowing. Logic tells her there are probably a dozen Silent Hills out there. Town names aren't exactly unique, especially small ones.
Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out. ] Say that again? [ Maybe she misheard him. ] You're not in some crazy cult, are you?
[ Murphy doesn't strike her as a cultist, but it wouldn't be the first time she'd put her trust in the wrong man. ]
[ Murphy pauses. This whole Murmur thing is still new to him, but he thinks he feels something through the connection - fear? Recognition? He isn't sure. All he can do is frown in confusion, not sure if what he's feeling is anything at all.
That's just the name of the town. Silent Hill. It doesn't have anything to do with cults. Just a really fucked up town that made you have to carry out rituals to do anything. [ Wait, that sounds cult-like. ] I don't mean like - well, I don't know what cult rituals would be.
But like there was a door that was locked, but it was only being held shut by a chalk drawing of a lock. It'd only let me open it when I found something to clean away the drawing. That sort of stuff... a person I talked to called all that rituals. I just call it a lot of bullshit that got in my way.
[ A beat. And he thinks he should apologize for all the swearing, but it isn't like she's a kid-kid - so he bites his tongue about it. ]
Fuck no is a good answer. That helps. Maybe she should've asked Vincent that before climbing into the car with him, but hindsight, or whatever. ]
Rituals isn't... [ Sharon never experienced Silent Hill as an outsider. The few people she met from the outside, like Suki, never stuck around long enough for her to really learn what it looked like from that angle. ] I mean, I never had to erase a chalk drawing just to go somewhere, but that doesn't not sound like the Silent Hill I know. [ Rose had been sent on her adventure by Alessa. Back then, it had almost felt like a game. ]
The world changed sometimes, right? One moment it would be almost normal, and then it would be all wrong, like someone peeled the skin off reality. [ He said the voids reminded him of the town, just like they reminded her of it. ] And then there were the monsters.
[ It's through the Murmur that a rush of fear is felt. His own. The kind he's kept shoved down boils out through everything. Yeah, he knows one moment the town seems almost normal and everything starts to fall apart. ]
... how the hell did you end up in a place like that?
[ Sharon knows fear, recognizes it through the Murmur, and she feels a pinch of guilt. ]
I, uh... I was born there, and the crazy cult that used to run it thought I'd be able to free them and birth a god. Sent people after me, kidnapped my dad. It was a whole thing. [ No lies detected, but it's only half the truth—she'll keep it that way, too. ] Jokes on them, though. That town will be their judge, jury, executioner, and grave.
Did... [ a moment of hesitation and then: ] Did you get out?
[ A rush of anger hits him. A wave of fury. Just what the hell is going on in that town? It wasn't bad enough that it was some fucked up place with some bizarre people, but cults? Seriously? ]
Yeah, it will be... [ He'll try to keep this in mind. He'll remember this; maybe he'll do something about it if he gets back there. Why not? Lots of reasons "why not," but people that try to hurt others? Not worth his time. ]
[ But the anger starts to fade at her question. Slowly. Too slowly. ]
[ Sharon can't quite stop the dark flicker of satisfaction that coils in her chest at the feel of Murphy's anger. He should be angry. He should be furious. Maybe Alessa's life might have turned out differently if more people had seen the cracks forming and felt that same heat—if they'd cared enough to let themselves get mad about it.
And more than that, he understands. He sees what that town is. There's only so much horror a place can swallow before it stops being coincidence and starts becoming something else entirely—something alive. ]
Not yet. [ She echoes softly, the words tinged with something close to grief. He got out, technically. But he never really escaped. She wonders if he still believes that's possible.
She hesitates, then presses on. ] Can I—can I ask about the people you met while you were there?
[ The anger is still there; boiling as it always does. But he doesn't have anything to take it out on. His fingers clench as he breathes out the rage so that he can answer the question. ]
Met a postman. [ He frowns. ] Said his name was Howard. And a JP that was part of the Devil's Pit tragedy. A DJ by named Bobby Ricks. [ His chin dips down. ] Some nun. Two kids. I didn't learn their names. They were part of some orphanage. Said that an earthquake or some disaster hit it. Figured it was the town doing town bullshit, but the whole area was still ruined.
[ His eyebrows furrow. ] They were all ... weird. Howard was cheerful and acted like he knew more than anyone. But was just delivering mail. Mail that told me where I had to go next. JP said... he was being punished... and would see me around. Bobby was the one who told me that the town operates in rituals.
[ He runs his tongue along his teeth. ] The nun said she knew me, but -- [ Shakes his head. ] I didn't know her. The kids were acting like everything was normal. They talked kind of cryptically, but acted like kids. [ Murphy swallows. He decides not to tell her a monster got them. A cold anger settles in his stomach. ]
That nun talked to me some more... just like Howard. Acting like she knew me. Knew anything that was going on. But she just faded into the darkness after.
[ Sharon listens closely, combing through the names for any thread of recognition, any echo of the Silent Hill she remembers. Alessa hadn't known much beyond her own grudges, and she'd paid even less attention to the cult's shifting ranks. ]
Can't say I recognize any of them. [ There's a flicker of something like disappointment beneath the words. Maybe she had been hoping for a familiar name to surface, even if she hadn't allowed herself to expect it. Silent Hill changed as the years dragged on. The town warped. The people warped with it—crueler, unhinged, weirder. ]
But I do think anyone who survives that place for long is bound to come out of it weird— [ She pauses abruptly, grimacing. ] Not that I think you're weird, Murphy. You're... [ She huffs a faint, awkward breath. ] Honestly, you feel more normal than most of the people I met there. [ It is meant as a compliment, and she hopes it lands as one. ]
The thing about the postman is wild, though. It almost sounds like you were pulled there on purpose. Like something wanted you there. [ Alessa had once told her that everyone finds their own personal hell in that town. ]
[ Murphy huffs out a laugh at being told that he's normal. He thinks that he is, too, honestly, but it's nice to have some confirmation on it. ]
There was someone there. [ Hesitation slips through their connection. He doesn't like the idea of talking about Cunningham, since it might mean he'll have to explain more, and he doesn't want to lose Sharon's trust.
Funny thing that - hiding information to not ruin someone's perception. Moving on, he can't pause to think about that. ] She said that the town was showing her things. It was trying to tell her something about her past. I kept trying to tell her that we needed to get the fuck out of the town, but she wouldn't listen to me.
[ He hesitates, and she can see it, something unspoken sitting just beneath the surface. Personal. Maybe tied to whatever thread Silent Hill tugged on to draw him in the first place. ]
In my experience, it's not really something you're supposed to get. [ Gently. ] It sounds like she was chasing answers. Trying to understand what it was showing her. [ Her mouth tightens faintly, a tug of a frown in the Murmur's waters. ] I was doing the same thing before I ended up here. And there wasn't anyone in the world who could've convinced me to leave. No one but my dad.
[ Murphy might not have been enough of a reason for her to walk away, no matter what horrors she faced, no matter how sound his logic, and Sharon understands that more than she probably should. ]
Yeah, I'm still not sure what answers she was looking for... and can only hope she got them.
[ It's been weeks since he came here. Murphy hasn't thought of Cunningham much since he came to this place. While it makes sense, it makes him feel oddly guilty. Like he abandoned her. But she's the one who shot him to keep him in that fucking town.
He doesn't know how he should feel about her. Sorry, maybe? Pity? Anger? It all wraps up into something he isn't even sure how to process, but -- ]
If not, what happens? Does she just stay there with everyone else?
I think so. There aren't a ton of ways to get out. [ It wasn't meant to be a place to escape, but not even Alessa understood how it worked beyond her limited scope of power and the little she'd heard over the years. ]
My mom had to do some—ritual or something to get me out, had to steal a seal from the prior leader of the cult, a man named Leonard. She only got half of it, so she remained behind.
You can try, if you'd like. I don't know if she's... [ Alive, but she can't bring herself to say it. ] Her name is Rose. [ Through the connection, a hazy image of a woman comes through. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2026-02-08 05:30 am (UTC)[ So very weird to suddenly hear a voice in his head. He's been thinking of saying something to the other people that somehow reach him, but nothing he can think of saying is the best given the situation. ]
-- this still is really weird. [ To put lightly. ] I guess settling in as well as a fish man can. At least the water is apparently purified now? Hate to think how things would be wandering around in -- well, don't need to finish that thought.
[ ... ] How're you doin'? You okay?
no subject
Date: 2026-02-09 02:51 am (UTC)Just don't jump into the rivers, Fish Man. We might have the purification plant running, but nasty shit hides in the waters. Pretty sure there might be weird, mutated Hosts in them. [ She's seen glimpses of something big beneath the water. Could be trash, but wiser not to risk it. ]
I'm doing... okay. As well as I can be given the situation. These slips in reality got me a bit worried, but... [ What can you do? Worry won't fix a thing. ]
no subject
Date: 2026-02-09 03:41 am (UTC)It's really like that town I came from. [ He clicks his tongue. Everything feels like that town. ] 'Course none of the people there ever talked about Sleep or One or anything. They just talked about how a person needed rituals to do anything.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-09 04:11 am (UTC)Her heart jumps when he mentions that it's familiar. Worse, a sudden alert wariness rises at talk of rituals. ] What town did you come from, Murphy? [ She attempts to pass it off as idle curiosity, but the Murmur makes it clear: this is uncertain suspicion. Fear. A desperate desire for all of this to merely be trauma-induced paranoia. ]
no subject
Date: 2026-02-10 02:33 am (UTC)[ He lightly shakes his head. ] Sorry. I'm not from it, but more like stumbled into it? It's -- [ It's a sensation of him waving his hand to dismiss how he actually got to where he was. ]
Anyway, it was called Silent Hill.
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Date: 2026-02-11 04:23 am (UTC)Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out. ] Say that again? [ Maybe she misheard him. ] You're not in some crazy cult, are you?
[ Murphy doesn't strike her as a cultist, but it wouldn't be the first time she'd put her trust in the wrong man. ]
no subject
Date: 2026-02-11 06:46 am (UTC)But the question gives him even more pause. ]
No? [ Uh - that sounds dismissive. ] Fuck no. [ Better. ]
That's just the name of the town. Silent Hill. It doesn't have anything to do with cults. Just a really fucked up town that made you have to carry out rituals to do anything. [ Wait, that sounds cult-like. ] I don't mean like - well, I don't know what cult rituals would be.
But like there was a door that was locked, but it was only being held shut by a chalk drawing of a lock. It'd only let me open it when I found something to clean away the drawing. That sort of stuff... a person I talked to called all that rituals. I just call it a lot of bullshit that got in my way.
[ A beat. And he thinks he should apologize for all the swearing, but it isn't like she's a kid-kid - so he bites his tongue about it. ]
no subject
Date: 2026-02-13 03:16 am (UTC)Fuck no is a good answer. That helps. Maybe she should've asked Vincent that before climbing into the car with him, but hindsight, or whatever. ]
Rituals isn't... [ Sharon never experienced Silent Hill as an outsider. The few people she met from the outside, like Suki, never stuck around long enough for her to really learn what it looked like from that angle. ] I mean, I never had to erase a chalk drawing just to go somewhere, but that doesn't not sound like the Silent Hill I know. [ Rose had been sent on her adventure by Alessa. Back then, it had almost felt like a game. ]
The world changed sometimes, right? One moment it would be almost normal, and then it would be all wrong, like someone peeled the skin off reality. [ He said the voids reminded him of the town, just like they reminded her of it. ] And then there were the monsters.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-14 06:12 pm (UTC)The Silent Hill you know?
[ It's through the Murmur that a rush of fear is felt. His own. The kind he's kept shoved down boils out through everything. Yeah, he knows one moment the town seems almost normal and everything starts to fall apart. ]
... how the hell did you end up in a place like that?
no subject
Date: 2026-02-16 04:11 am (UTC)I, uh... I was born there, and the crazy cult that used to run it thought I'd be able to free them and birth a god. Sent people after me, kidnapped my dad. It was a whole thing. [ No lies detected, but it's only half the truth—she'll keep it that way, too. ] Jokes on them, though. That town will be their judge, jury, executioner, and grave.
Did... [ a moment of hesitation and then: ] Did you get out?
no subject
Date: 2026-02-16 04:19 am (UTC)Yeah, it will be... [ He'll try to keep this in mind. He'll remember this; maybe he'll do something about it if he gets back there. Why not? Lots of reasons "why not," but people that try to hurt others? Not worth his time. ]
[ But the anger starts to fade at her question. Slowly. Too slowly. ]
Not yet.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-17 05:20 am (UTC)And more than that, he understands. He sees what that town is. There's only so much horror a place can swallow before it stops being coincidence and starts becoming something else entirely—something alive. ]
Not yet. [ She echoes softly, the words tinged with something close to grief. He got out, technically. But he never really escaped. She wonders if he still believes that's possible.
She hesitates, then presses on. ] Can I—can I ask about the people you met while you were there?
no subject
Date: 2026-02-17 05:50 am (UTC)[ The anger is still there; boiling as it always does. But he doesn't have anything to take it out on. His fingers clench as he breathes out the rage so that he can answer the question. ]
Met a postman. [ He frowns. ] Said his name was Howard. And a JP that was part of the Devil's Pit tragedy. A DJ by named Bobby Ricks. [ His chin dips down. ] Some nun. Two kids. I didn't learn their names. They were part of some orphanage. Said that an earthquake or some disaster hit it. Figured it was the town doing town bullshit, but the whole area was still ruined.
[ His eyebrows furrow. ] They were all ... weird. Howard was cheerful and acted like he knew more than anyone. But was just delivering mail. Mail that told me where I had to go next. JP said... he was being punished... and would see me around. Bobby was the one who told me that the town operates in rituals.
[ He runs his tongue along his teeth. ] The nun said she knew me, but -- [ Shakes his head. ] I didn't know her. The kids were acting like everything was normal. They talked kind of cryptically, but acted like kids. [ Murphy swallows. He decides not to tell her a monster got them. A cold anger settles in his stomach. ]
That nun talked to me some more... just like Howard. Acting like she knew me. Knew anything that was going on. But she just faded into the darkness after.
Like I said, it was full of weirdos.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-20 04:46 am (UTC)Can't say I recognize any of them. [ There's a flicker of something like disappointment beneath the words. Maybe she had been hoping for a familiar name to surface, even if she hadn't allowed herself to expect it. Silent Hill changed as the years dragged on. The town warped. The people warped with it—crueler, unhinged, weirder. ]
But I do think anyone who survives that place for long is bound to come out of it weird— [ She pauses abruptly, grimacing. ] Not that I think you're weird, Murphy. You're... [ She huffs a faint, awkward breath. ] Honestly, you feel more normal than most of the people I met there. [ It is meant as a compliment, and she hopes it lands as one. ]
The thing about the postman is wild, though. It almost sounds like you were pulled there on purpose. Like something wanted you there. [ Alessa had once told her that everyone finds their own personal hell in that town. ]
no subject
Date: 2026-02-22 05:48 am (UTC)There was someone there. [ Hesitation slips through their connection. He doesn't like the idea of talking about Cunningham, since it might mean he'll have to explain more, and he doesn't want to lose Sharon's trust.
Funny thing that - hiding information to not ruin someone's perception. Moving on, he can't pause to think about that. ] She said that the town was showing her things. It was trying to tell her something about her past. I kept trying to tell her that we needed to get the fuck out of the town, but she wouldn't listen to me.
[ He shakes his head. ] I still don't get it.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-23 04:41 am (UTC)In my experience, it's not really something you're supposed to get. [ Gently. ] It sounds like she was chasing answers. Trying to understand what it was showing her. [ Her mouth tightens faintly, a tug of a frown in the Murmur's waters. ] I was doing the same thing before I ended up here. And there wasn't anyone in the world who could've convinced me to leave. No one but my dad.
[ Murphy might not have been enough of a reason for her to walk away, no matter what horrors she faced, no matter how sound his logic, and Sharon understands that more than she probably should. ]
no subject
Date: 2026-02-23 06:16 am (UTC)[ It's been weeks since he came here. Murphy hasn't thought of Cunningham much since he came to this place. While it makes sense, it makes him feel oddly guilty. Like he abandoned her. But she's the one who shot him to keep him in that fucking town.
He doesn't know how he should feel about her. Sorry, maybe? Pity? Anger? It all wraps up into something he isn't even sure how to process, but -- ]
If not, what happens? Does she just stay there with everyone else?
[ What a horror show that would be. ]
no subject
Date: 2026-02-25 04:22 am (UTC)My mom had to do some—ritual or something to get me out, had to steal a seal from the prior leader of the cult, a man named Leonard. She only got half of it, so she remained behind.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-25 07:05 pm (UTC)[ For some reason, he looks around. ]
I don't know if it'd work, but did you want me to try to look for her?
[ He isn't sure if he wants to try to drag Cunningham out, but Sharon's mother? Yeah, he can drag himself through that town to find her mom. ]
no subject
Date: 2026-02-25 09:28 pm (UTC)