Glade Park (Of Machines and Men)

Glade Park is a tourist town in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Founded sometime during the 1800s, it was originally established as a mining town, with its major export being silver and coal. However as the mines began to run dry, the town's economy changed focus and began to rely on tourism. There are essentially two halves of Glade Park: the residential and the business. The residential, as its name suggests, is where the residents of the town live, attend school, and enjoy themselves. Where as the business is where you will encounter the most tourists (with restaurants, gift shops, directories, and novelty stores), throughout all seasons though there are spikes during the summer and winter.

## Landmarks

### The King Hotel

The King Hotel is a very famous landmark for the town, surrounded with legends of it being haunted. The site is over a century old, and superstitious folk from all over the country try to book rooms in hopes of encountering some sort of supernatural phenomenon. However, that is not the only reason. The hotel had also heavily inspired horror novel author, Estebe Stanley, with his novel "The Luminescent". The hotel was also used to film the movie adaptation of said novel. Fans of Stanley's works give the hotel business for this reason.

During October, the hotel holds halloween tours to further capitalize on the rumors of supernatural activity.

### Asimov Park

While not having that large of a significance, Asimov Park is a public park particularly beloved by the residents of the town. It is placed in the center of the town, has an assortment of plant life, a playground, picnic area, and a statue of the town's founder. During the summer months, the farmer's market is held in the park. Fun fact, the town is not named after the town's founder. Instead it was named after the science fiction author, Isaac Asimov, as the mayor who funded the creation of the park during the 1960s was a fan of his work.

### Silver Mines

The dried up Silver Mines from Glade Park's early days. While it is out of use in the present day, the equipment and tunnels themselves have been preserved and made into a tourist attraction and a site of historical relevance. There are some tunnels that are not open to the public, but this is mostly because said tunnels are too dangerous and unstable for an ordinary person with no training to explore.

### Haven Kindergarten

While once a functioning kindergarten in decades past, the facility has been abandoned, and currently nature is overtaking it. The cement walls still stay strong, but there are all sorts of plants growing along the walls, and it has been covered in graffiti by teenagers who have come across the place in the woods. No one really visits the place and there have been no efforts made for demolition, so it stays in the forest becoming more overgrown with each year.

### Glade Graveyard

Glade Park, of course, has its own graveyard. Although being a small town there is only a sparse number of graves. There aren’t very many things that make this place unique from other graveyards, other than the fact that it’s strangely prone to plant overgrowth, even if the groundskeeper works hard to prevent it. There are myths that it’s the work of the spirits residing there, but truthfully it’s nothing supernatural.

On Veteran’s day it is custom for townsfolk to place flowers and/or flags on the graves of service members.

Marigold Loveland often visits the graveyard. However, she has not lost a loved one. When asked about this behavior, she’ll say she was just “saying hello and catching up with everyone”.

## Residents

### Anzlovar Residence

A small family of three, consisting of a single mother, an adult son, and a child daughter named Dani, Signe, and Agil respectively. Dani is well liked among the community, but is rarely seen due to her working very long hours each week. Signe is also rarely seen, a known recluse who focuses more on his own work and family than developing a social life. And then there's Agil, who while still a child, has a bad reputation among the other children for being a former bully, and many other parents believe she could be a bad influence on their kids. However, there are also a few parents who pity her for essentially being a “latchkey” kid and having her only froend be a robot.

### Loveland Residence

A very happy and respected family of four. The husband and wife of the family are known for being very understanding and compassionate, and they have two children, Marigold and Kele. Marigold, Mari for short, is their biological daughter with a strong interest in the supernatural and occult, meanwhile their adopted son Kele is her close friend, and is also known for a lack of confidence. He is also dubbed "the bird kid" by other children for his pet cockatiel, Rosey.

### Dalton Residence

The Daltons consist of a single father who is known for being very doting and having a hobby of baking, and his son Quinn who is a rather stressed, but has a strong sense of justice. A mother was once in the picture, but after discovering that she had been cheating on the father, had divorced, relinquished all custody of Quinn, and moved to another state with her boyfriend. This is still a very sensitive topic for the both of them, but the father and son still love each other and are trying to power through this struggle together.

### Forester Residence

An odd family situation at the very least. The Foresters are currently separated, with the mother Karen and son Brayden living Glade Park, while the father and daughter are living in Denver for the time being. The family of four previously lived in the suburbs of Aurora, but the teenage daughter had fallen on extremely hard times and developed a drug problem. They were originally planning to all move together, but the daughter had run off to the city, and the father stayed behind to get her back and find her therapy and rehab. Brayden and Karen moved on to Glade Park and check in very often with the father, who has currently found the daughter but is not well enough to move away.

### Clemons Residence

Only having lived in the town for two years, Copper Clemons is a woman who arrived alone, that very few people know much about due to her reclusive and awkward nature. She runs the only robot mechanics shop in town. Recently though, she has adopted a child-like robot whom she has named Pin, who is considered an anomaly, but is actually well-liked among the children of the town. In fact, his outgoing nature is the only reason people around town are starting to know who Copper even is.

### Chevalier Residence

The Chevaliers are easily the richest family in Glade Park. The father is an important businessman, bilingual in French and English, and immigrated from France during the 1990's. The mother, a professor at the University of Colorado, and already from an affluent family in the American South. Their daughter, Sabrina, being only ten years old, is not as accomplished as her parents, but shows some promise in the performing arts. However, she is held back by a heart condition she has had ever since birth. Since the Chevaliers can afford it, they have a personal Caretaker model robot named Lucy for Sabrina who cares for her physical and mental health.

## Trivia

* Glade Park is heavily inspired by real world Estes Park and also Colorado history.
* For example, the King hotel is a reference to the Stanley hotel, the location that inspired the novel The Shining.
* And there are also numerous towns across the Colorado Rocky Mountains that had their start as mining towns for silver.
* The residents and community of Glade Park are heavily inspired by games such as Stardew Valley and the Sims, as they are very community-focused games in the slice of life genre.