Line #93 Webcomic/SilentHillPromise


1	[[quoteright:290:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Silent_Hill__Promise__45__by_Greer_The_Raven_3849.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:290:''What do I do now?'']]
3
4	->''>>Enter Command Here''
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6	''Silent Hill: Promise'' is a FanSequel ''Franchise/SilentHill'' [[InteractiveComic interactive]] [[FanWebcomics web comic]] created by Greer-the-Raven, currently hosted on both on deviantART and its own website. An attempt to create a full-fledged ''Silent Hill'' "game," ''Promise'' uses the faux AdventureGame style of ''Webcomic/MSPaintAdventures'' to [[AudienceParticipation involve readers]] in deciding what the heroine should do next.
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8	Vanessa Sunderland is asleep in her bed in the early hours of the morning when her cellphone starts to ring. Picking up the phone, she recognizes the area code for the vacation town, Silent Hill, and picks up, hearing static before the voice of her missing Uncle [[VideoGame/SilentHill2 James]] crackles through the line. He had been gone for three years, most thought he was dead and the phone dies before she can figure out exactly where he is.
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10	Knowing exactly that this is what she had been waiting for, she throws on her clothes and heads straight away to Silent Hill, taking along the old wedding photo he had signed for her as a good luck charm.
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12	When she arrives, the town seems normal on the surface, but the darkness is always creeping in...
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14	''Promise'' was updated daily and has an archive of 1178 pages. It [[OrphanedSeries stopped updating in late 2015]], but resumed updating in June 2017. The ending was released as a game on on Halloween, 2019.
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16	[[http://greer-the-raven.deviantart.com/gallery/?folder_name=Silent-Hill Read it on DeviantArt]] or on its [[https://promise.rookerystudios.com/wp/ dedicated archive]] which is finally up again. A readthrough of the comic is also available on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0h1SDas9bo&list=PL38yKe91xd7qvE1Lww-wkOnQeO9_cN5R1&index=1 Youtube]].
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18	With Silent Hill: Promise concluded the creator has begun work on another interactive horror comic Webcomic/BlackWardEmptyChambers.
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20	----
21	!!''Silent Hill: Promise'' provides examples of:
22	* AbandonedArea: The Otherworld of Silent Hill, with its thick fog and empty buildings. The actual town is actually pretty lively, as it is a tourist location with other hotels and stores.
23	* AdventureGame: The comic strives to imitate this, many options coming from “fight or flight” responses from the viewers who help Vanessa along.
24	* AllJustADream: When Vanessa arrives in Silent Hill, the town is already covered in the thick, ashy fog. She is immediately cornered in a shop by two creatures when she tries to investigate, but is awakened in her car by an officer telling her she can't park there. She had fallen asleep.
25	* AmusementParkOfDoom
26	* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: After Vanessa gets through [[spoiler: the amusement park and gets stabbed by Pyramid Head]], we get to follow Evelyn.
27	* ArtEvolution: The first few screens do not have colored backgrounds and have a sketchier art style. The more recent comics have fully colored background, massive detail and still look sketchy, adding to the style.
28	* AuthorAppeal: Vanessa has a somewhat curvy physique, although that could just be from eating too much cake.
29	* BadEnd: Vanessa has suddenly 'died' quite a few times in her trip to Silent Hill. However, there is an 'autosave' function, lampshaded by the author after her first death [[spoiler: at the hands of the Mannequins with half of their faces missing]].
30	--> "What's a Franchise/SilentHill game without the character dying at some point?"
31	* BerserkButton:
32	** Vanessa doesn't like being told by Marissa that James didn't love her or that she won't be able to find him. Infuriating puzzles or MindScrew also earn her ire.
33	** Evelyn doesn't like his name being talked about, taking even a curious question if it's seriously his name as an insult.
34	* BagOfSpilling: Almost everything Vanessa picked up in the hotel has disappeared with no explanation. This has happened a few more times since.
35	* BigNo
36	* CallBack: [[spoiler:The wedding photo that Vanessa is carrying is starting to warp like the letter from Silent Hill 2. James' expression has changed, as has Vanessa's and Mary's, as well as the message on the back changing repeatedly.]]
37	* CanonCharacterAllAlong: As seen in the ending game, Marissa is revealed to be [[spoiler: Maria. Who is also Alessa Guilespie, as well as the Order's God, who happens to be the spirit of Silent Hill itself]].
38	* CellPhonesAreUseless: Vanessa's cell phone hasn't worked normally since she arrived in Silent Hill, with the exception of [[OhCrap her mother calling to ask why she hasn't shown up for their lunch meeting yet.]] The only time its been of use is as an improvised flashlight and [[spoiler: Marissa telling her clues how to get out of the hotel, while being a complete bitch about it]].
39	* CharacterPortrait: Used for dialogue and inner monologue for every person. Marissa was a special case, as when she's seen she is too far away to tell details, so she starts as a pixel version of herself talking on the phone from when Vanessa could see her from the hotel. She's gotten a more detailed one now that her and Vanessa have actually met, though.
40	* CompositeCharacter: The ending game reveals that [[spoiler:Maria and Alessa Guilespie]] are the same person, and they're both [[spoiler:the spirit of Silent Hill itself]].
41	* ContinuityNod: Vanessa wears the same coat as her Uncle James. This is HandWaved early in the story.
42	* CouldntFindAPen: In the RoomFullOfCrazy. All the writing on the walls is written in pink lipstick.
43	* CreepyDoll: The kewpie doll. Much to Vanessa's displeasure, they seem to be everywhere, especially at the carnival. [[spoiler: Her acting violently towards them has only made things worse, even coming out of strange places like a popcorn machine.]]
44	* CreepyCathedral: St. Stella Church
45	* DistractedByTheSexy: The gag ending where Vanessa promptly forgets all about her search and jumps Borje, leading to a long, satisfying relationship with him.
46	* DistressCall: A cell phone call years after her uncle's disappearance leads Vanessa to Silent Hill.
47	* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Played straight when Vanessa, in a NonStandardGameOver, sorta forces herself onto Borje but he goes with it. [[spoiler: Which is a fine bit of foreshadowing the Aversion in the backstory. Vanessa did a BedTrick while drunk out of her mind on an equally drunk James. This is not treated in or out of universe as anything but a horrible act.]]
48	* DreamBallet: Evoked when Vanessa pricks her finger and hallucinates that she is trick or treating as a literal ballerina.
49	* EldritchLocation: [[Franchise/SilentHill Where do you think?]]
50	* EvilPhone: See CellPhonesAreUseless.
51	* {{Expy}}: Borje is described as looking like a more attractive version of James, just like Maria was a HotterAndSexier Mary. [[SarcasmMode Probably just a coincidence.]]
52	* EyelessFace: This is a trait for a few of the monsters, who seem to use their tongues or other limbs to find their way around instead.
53	* FairCop: Sergeant Vaan.
54	* FanSequel: A pretty large one, with how long it's been going on.
55	* FlayingAlive: This appears to have been the fate of a corpse Vanessa finds.
56	* FollowTheLeader: The comic apes the "play" style of ''MS Paint Adventures'', though not the plot style.
57	* GenderBlenderName: Evelyn. He's [[BerserkButton touchy]] about it, getting really angry with Vanessa when she asked him if he was serious.
58	* GeniusLoci: Par for the series, Silent Hill is alive and intelligent, directing everything. [[spoiler: In the ending, it is revealed that Marissa is a voice for Silent Hill itself, incarnating as Mary over and over in order to "play house" with James Sunderland.]]
59	* GravityScrew: The RoomFullOfCrazy hotel rooms is upside-down; when you leave, gravity reasserts itself (and erases the messages), leaving Vanessa with vertigo. [[spoiler: When Vanessa returns and contemplates going back through the small door she came from, the room decides for her by turning on its side so she falls in.]]
60	* HarassingPhoneCall: Vanessa is continually harassed by "Weird phone lady" in the hotel, who turns out to be a woman named Marissa, who wants her to leave town, being really snippy and cold towards her.
61	* HellHotel: The Lakeview Hotel from ''VideoGame/SilentHill2''. When Vanessa arrives in the normal world, the place is burned down with its first two floors inaccessible. When she goes to investigate, she falls through the ground floor... And ends up on the third floor in the Otherworld.
62	* HyperspaceArsenal: Averted. There have been multiple mentions of Vanessa's pockets getting full. In a recent update, she even had to toss some of the things in her pockets to make a key fit in there.
63	** Though she does have infinite cigarettes now.
64	* ImprovisedWeapon: The first weapon she ever tried was a curtain rod. It didn't work too well, she ended up bending it, snapping that end off and using the pointy end to stab a monster one good time.
65	* IncestSubtext: Becoming more and more prominent [[spoiler: with regard to Vanessa and James]]. Becomes less 'subtext' and more 'text' with the [[spoiler: abortion document]].
66	* INeedAFreakingDrink: Vanessa visits a bar for a stiff one (or a few) after her horrible ordeal in the hotel.
67	** In the ending game, this is an option [[spoiler: taking a drink forces you from any of the good endings to the neutral one]].
68	* InsistentTerminology: Pages are referred to as "screens."
69	* ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime / ViolationOfCommonSense: The artist isn't above allowing some of the more outrageous suggestions, but will typically include a snarky comment mocking the protagonist for making such an absurd decision. More to the point, the action will usually be spun in a way that [[RailRoading the story can still continue]], such as kicking a locked door in frustration having the unintended consequence of knocking a key item off a shelf.
70	* KillItWithFire: Vanessa's response to the booth at the amusement park that's ''full'' of kewpie dolls.
71	* KonamiCode: In the hotel, Vanessa contemplates using this on a box near the elevator, but decides against it.
72	* [[LockedDoor Jammed Door]]: Vanessa faces these quite often, being locked out of several rooms she had to find keys for in the hotel (some being literally jammed, by the world and by an object), and the water park being locked up at the carnival.
73	* LovecraftCountry: See WhereTheHellIsSpringfield, below.
74	* MaleGaze: The comic often gives a nice view of Vanessa's large chest or butt. Additionally, her character portrait is never shown wearing the heavy jacket she always has on.
75	* MeaningfulName: The "Weird Phone Lady"'s name is '''Mar'''issa. Following the names of '''Mar'''y and '''Mar'''ia from ''VideoGame/SilentHill2''.
76	** Borje's name apparently means "help" or "save." [[spoiler: James, who Borje suspiciously resembles, had his name's origin in a name meaning "may God protect."]]
77	* MrFanservice: Borje, whose only appearance is him wearing a towel around his waist.
78	* MurderousMannequin: In the [[HellHotel Lakeview Hotel]] Vanessa comes across two Mannequins who need new halves of their faces and uses a porcelain mask that broke cleanly in two to solve a puzzle. One comes to life and tries to kill her after the other falls apart. [[spoiler: They flee into the bathroom, her first death coming from opening the door and them dragging her in and violently murdering her.]]
79	* NonStandardGameOver: Yes really. Alternative ends and Bad Ends happen due to reader's suggestions. Though the Author will then allow the player to 'load a save game' to keep the comic going. Examples include kissing Borje and starting a very passionate relationship with him, getting killed by a boss, and pulling a ScrewThisImOuttaHere and just driving away.]]
80	* NunsAreSpooky: There's something a little off about Sister Edith. It's hinted at that she is developmentally challenged. [[spoiler: It turns out she can see into the Otherworld, where Evelyn and Vanessa get constantly separated into their own places and use her to communicate to each other. ''Why'' she can see into the Otherworld has yet to be revealed.]]
81	* OhCrap: When Vanessa gets cornered by monsters and doesn't have a weapon or a way to fight back, her only option is to find a door and block it. Whether or not she's safe is debatable.
82	** When Vanessa's mother calls her to ask why she hasn't shown up for their lunch date yet.
83	* OminousFog: After falling through the floor in the hotel, Vanessa finds this to have descended over the town, despite it having been bright and sunny before.
84	* OminousMusicBoxTune: Swan Lake, which puts Vanessa on edge.
85	* OriginalFlavour: With the creepy monster designs, the symbolism and the shifts into the violent Otherworld, ''Promise'' tends to hit this for ''Franchise/SilentHill''.
86	* OrphanedSeries: In 2015, the series briefly had its own website and Patreon page, but both of these fell through, and the series stopped mid-storyline.
87	** Resumed as of 2017 on Deviant Art.
88	** Satisfyingly concluded October 2019.
89	* OurMonstersAreWeird: Par for the course in Silent Hill, but special mention goes to the walking rotary phone/mother and fetus-based ''[[http://greer-the-raven.deviantart.com/gallery/25628173#/d3fa78s thing]]'' in the church.
90	* PatronSaint: Vanessa swears by an increasing number of saints, in different situations.
91	** One of the puzzles in the Otherworld church involves identifying four particular saints (although one of them isn't officially canonized as such) based on what they are the patron of.
92	* PeekABooCorpse: Happens several times. In the tub of a hotel bathroom, chained to a wall, two [[{{Squick}} curled up together on a bed]]....
93	* PointOfNoReturn: Marissa warned Vanessa that if she didn't leave Silent Hill as soon as she escaped from the church, she wouldn't get another chance. Vanessa chose to ignore her and keep searching.
94	* PsychologicalHorror
95	* RealityWarper: The town itself. In a subtle case, [[spoiler:it's starting to warp Vanessa's memories and a photo of James' wedding]].
96	** [[spoiler: More like making her confront her actions.]]
97	* ReligiousHorror: Shades of this in the church.
98	* RoomFullOfCrazy: Played with in that unlike [[Roleplay/RubyQuest most]] [[VideoGame/ChzoMythos examples]], the writing isn't blood, it's hot pink lipstick. Ruins the effect a bit.
99	* SecondPersonNarration
100	* ShipTease: A bit between Vanessa and Evelyn, especially [[spoiler: in the Tunnel of Love at the amusement park]].
101	* ShirtlessScene: We first meet Borje right after he's come out of the shower. It's quite distracting, both for Vanessa and the readers.
102	* ShoutOut: There's a ''Webcomic/ProblemSleuth'' poster in Vanessa's bedroom.
103	* SmokingIsCool: Vanessa smokes Lucky Strikes. The supposed cool factor is [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]], especially when commands are used.
104	* SolveTheSoupCans: Silent Hill is famous for this, so naturally the {{Fan Webcomic\|s}} version would follow the same rules.
105	* SpookyPainting: The disturbing, twisted take on ''Art/TheLastSupper'' in the church.
106	* SurvivalHorror: Silent Hill, although it definitely seems the survival part is ramped up against Vanessa. She doesn't find many weapons on her own, most being handed to her by others or difficult to get.
107	* TearsOfBlood: Both of the mannequins, once activated by their masks being put on.
108	* TownWithADarkSecret: It's ''Silent Hill''.
109	* UnCancelled: Was abandoned in 2014, but Greer came back and restarted the comic in 2017, completing the story on Halloween 2019.
110	* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: In the ending game, you are allowed to solve all your problems with your gun. Doing so does net a bad ending.
111	* WallsOfText: The comic, like an old graphical text adventure, supplements the images with narration. Although how much of it there is tends to sway from two or three sentences to two or three paragraphs depending on what's going on.
112	* WhamEpisode: Episode 1049-1050. [[spoiler: Vanessa got drunk and pretended to be Mary in the dark. And got pregnant.]]
113	* WhamLine: ''James didn't really love you.”
114	** The final description of the ever-changing photo. "[[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness The photo has always looked like this]]".
115	* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: Silent Hill has no canonical location. The area code Vanessa sees on her cell phone puts it somewhere in upstate New York.
116	* WolverinePublicity: Where would a Silent Hill fan comic be without Pyharmid Head showing up? More Justified as this is a fan sequel to Silent Hill 2. [[spoiler: And by all accounts Vanessa does seem to want to be punished for her actions.]]
117	* WorldOfSymbolism: From the items in the world, to the enemy designs, to scenes replicated by mannequins and puppets, it gives a slight perspective into Vanessa's backstory as [[spoiler: revealed by Angela in ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'', people in Silent Hill experience their own personal torment.]]

Context Webcomic / SilentHillPromise