This is NOT happening.

Objectively speaking here, as the most accomplished person at Stockbridge Academy, the entire prospect of ‘zombie apocalypse’ is nigh impossible. It’s fiction. Allegories for society, politics, public health, and the distrust between people in general. It’s not real. It can’t be real. I wish it wasn’t real. But it is.

I should’ve known it was bad when the teachers told us we weren’t going home two weeks ago. That CDC had flagged our homes as host to a dangerous pathogen that needed to be rooted out. Our rights went out the window from there and the school went into super lockdown–the state of emergency that investors and the school board signed off on when the point of discussion about school shooters came up. Turns out, a school shooter would be a good distraction right about now.

Not that they would do much against the entire 9th Grade Class being infected.

We were in the auditorium when it became clear that somehow, that sickness the CDC was worried about decided not to be outside anymore. I’ve never seen someone die before, let alone seen a half-a-dozen 9th graders turn into feral animals in a snap. Mr. Toolsey was an idiot and nobody (and I mean nobody) liked him, but nobody deserves to go out like that. After seeing all of that? Well, everyone ran. The infected got who they got and I’m still thinking about all of the teachers that followed in Mr. Toolsey’s example and those that didn’t try to protect any of us. Hard to blame anyone in a state of emergency, but now I know Mr. Jeffries is willing to throw us on the floor to save his own skin.

Not that I did much better. I found the first classroom to hide in and didn’t look back. A small handful of students are here with me and I can’t even fathom what we are all going to do.

All I know is we have to find a way to reverse the lockdown and get out of here. Even if the world is fucked, I’d rather be out there than stuck in here.
_{- Hera González-Jones}

For the last three decades, the Stockbridge Academy for Higher Learning & the Arts has been the pride and joy of the State of Michigan.

Initially seen as just another roundabout attempt at creating another new age private school to prey upon the growing dissent toward public schooling, Stockbridge has become a name that is known nationwide despite its humble roots in the folksy suburbs of eastern Michigan.

Perhaps a lot of the school’s success has been on its investors, but the current Principal and Headmaster, William R. Nielsen, Jr., insists that the prestige comes from the success of its students and not that of its board of investors that have helped provide most of the top shelf academic facilities. A distinct athletics program has even allowed students interested in golf, football, basketball, soccer, hockey, baseball, and softball to have the opportunity to play their sport of choice and compete competitively at a state-level. A few state championships deck the trophy case at the front of the main building before the administrative offices.

As of the present date, Stockbridge provides quality education for grades six-to-twelve with various outreach programs, partnerships, and scholarships. You do not need to be “the best of the best” to get into Stockbridge. All you need is potential to show the world that the best was inside you all along. It is for this reason that the teaching staff of the multiple departments are as varied as any other. As a member of this faculty it is your responsibility to bring out the best of your students. Some notable members of this teaching staff have come from the finest universities in the world, though others are from less finer distinctions, of lesser colleges and even community ones. Imperfection can often lead to the best results.

Stockbridge’s facilities are varied, though principally based on a repurposed (and modernized!) structure near the center of the city of Alpena Heights.

As the story goes, Alpena and Alpena Heights transformed from townships to cities in the early sixties, similar to other major fixtures of the downriver area. With a population of around 13,000, The City of Alpena Heights prides itself in keeping itself down-to-earth and locally-grown. Common public areas include a fruit market, older theater (that has since been renovated into a community center), metropolitan park, and a mall. Basically, its the boring picture of the idyllic middle class.

- Shelter is a small group collaborative story focusing on a group of High School Students from Stockbridge Academy as a zombie outbreak occurs at their school at the tail-end of the Michigan Winter Season in 2023.

- In Part 1, players may create characters who are any composition of trope, class, or determination. A fourteen-year-old freshman is just as fair game as a eighteen-year-old senior. Players are encouraged to figure out how their character interacted pre-outbreak.

- The location of Alpena Heights is a fictional determination, but it is loosely based on the metro suburbs of Detroit such as Dearborn Heights, Farmington Hills, Wyandotte, Woodhaven, and Royal Oak.

- Players are expected to be productive and hold each other accountable in terms of activity. The posting expectations is two weeks to maintain activity, though communication of availability is also paramount. GMs do not play by special rules. They are expected to communicate and be active as well.

- Writing Level should be consider middle-of-the-pack Casual. Flexible, but not too time consuming. A focus on character and substance will be more important in character review than extensive composition and exposition.

- Keep drama to the minimum and keep in line with site policy. No Emmanuelle Arsan novels, please.

- Faceclaims are to be based on real actors rather than anime or artistic renditions.

- Applications in OOC in a hider. Accepted ones in CHAR without a hider.