Shannon Matthews

"If we get caught, we'll be kicked out for sure!"

- Shannon about investigating Leafmore after hours

Shannon Matthews is one of the main characters in the ObsCure game series. She has appeared as a main playable character in both ObsCure and ObsCure II. She also appears in the non-canon spin-off Final Exam as a minor character.

In the short film inspired by the saga, ObsCure: The Uncertain Truth, she's played by Elise Arndt.

Appearance
Shannon has medium length blonde hair. She sports a loose neckline orange 3/4 length top with a colorful heart and matching stripes on the sleeves. Words are underneath the heart graphic on her shirt. She wears a very short green camouflage miniskirt, exposing her white underwear in some instances. This is coupled with brown lace up boots and white socks. For accessories, she wears a red bracelet on each hand and red glasses pulled up on her head.

In her alternate outfit, her hair is blue on top and more orange colored at the ends. She wears blue eyeshadow and blue lipstick. She has a blue shirt with a black and white girl graphic on front and back. Her miniskirt is black with a shiny look. She now dons black fishnets with blue boots. Her glasses are olive green and her bracelets are black.

In ObsCure 2, her style has undergone drastic changes, approaching the dark goth style characterized by dark colors and piercings, but without abandoning her traditional miniskirt.

Her hair is dark red. She now has a nose stud and an eyebrow piercing. Her outfit is a burgundy red and black slashed long sleeve top, a black skirt with an 3 o-ring belt, burgundy knee high slouch socks and black zipper buckle biker boots. As for accessories, she wears a black, gothic lace choker necklace and a black buckle bracelet. She also wears red lipstick.

Personality
Shannon is strong-willed, intelligent and calm and, alongside Josh, was the brains of their original group, probably smartest in the group.

Her nature is completely opposite to that of her brother, Kenny, while he is impulsive, arrogant, irresponsible, weak-willed and insecure, Shannon is mature, responsible and judicious; her only excess is in the way she dresses. She dresses in a slightly provocative and rebellious fashion to downplay her brains and to look older and more mature.

She's shown to be very kind and tries to help her friends every time possible. She was always looking out for her older brother, even trespassing onto the school grounds after hours to search for him.

In the second game, after the experience at the Leafmore, her character changes radically. She embraces a dark goth style and is more forceful and bossy, but also more protective of Kenny.

Aptitude
In ObsCure, even though she can't run very fast, Shannon has a healing bonus (25%) to herself or a companion. She can use her ability to give the player a clue on what to do in the area, how to solve a puzzle or what their next objective should be. Her default line for using her ability is "Let's check this place out!".

In ObsCure II, Shannon has new dark powers, but does not retain any of her old abilities. Now, she can influence and absorb Mortifilia, as well as to cope with it without medicine. She says that she has adapted to it and that Mortifilia is a 'part' of her biology.

Pre-Leafmore Incident
Born in the City of Fallcreek, Shannon Matthews is Kenny Matthews's younger sister and a student in Leafmore High, perhaps the best student of Leafmore High, on a school newspaper it can be read that she won the local TV quiz: Champion Genius.

Leafmore Incident
Shannon is the fourth one to have an introduction in the game's first cutscene. Depending on if the player is playing Shannon at the time, will depend on what cutscenes she comes in at in the main game play.



At the school's closing time in October 9th, Shannon watches her brother and several of his friends and possible teammates play practice basketball while sitting in the bleachers. She gets up when most of everyone but her brother leaves the court. She complains that Kenny said he would come home early, and Kenny brushes it off as he said that to "Mom and Dad" and not her. Josh Carter, a journalist and her friend, offers to walk her home, which she declines. The next day while walking to school with Ashley Thompson, Kenny's girlfriend, they starts up a conversation about how Kenny stood Ashley up the very last night. Shannon then worries because Kenny did not return home either. In class, they bring this issue up with Josh. He then comes up with the idea of staying in after school to look for Kenny.

The trio begins to investigate in the school corridors, soon discovering that some monstrous creatures roam at large. Saved by their biology teacher Daniel Walden during an attack of some Biters, Josh, Ashley and Shannon access to the central courtyard of the school. After meeting with Stan Jones and Herbert Friedman, they try to find the janitor to leave the building, however, is devoured by monsters and they decide to get to the infirmary, to assist the nurse Miss Wickson.

After Walden gives them the key of the theater, they come to Leafmore's underground and find the imprisoned Kenny. The group is, however, drugged by Friedman and in their sleep infected with the Mortifilia, the plant that gave birth to the monsters in the school. They manage to escape from prison and reach surface. In the Friedman's room, in the library, they discover the truth about him and his twin brother Leonard, who discovered Mortifilia in Africa and were convinced that they could use it to achieve eternal life. They also find a map of the underground, but is stolen by Walden, who's also infected. They go to Wickson, but it's too late, as she has been attacked and mortally wounded. Before she dies she tells them about the antidote and they decide to go underground to find it.



There, after activating a mechanism that opens a big door, they witness Walden shooting Herbert, after, which, Walden is killed by Leonard. The group severs his branches that support the ceiling, thus making it collapse on him. By now completely exposed to light, Leonard dies in the school gym. After this, the group takes the serum against Mortifilia and Shannon approaches Josh, who's broke down by all the events in that nightmare of night, and embraces tenderly with him.

Fallcreek Outbreak
After the events of Leafmore, Shannon eventually adapted to Mortifilia, allowing her to not need the medications to battle it, thus becoming able to influence and dissipate it. Shannon argues that it is her desire to have domesticated Mortifilia in her body, but Kenny and Stan disagree. At some point, Shannon enrolled at the Fallcreek University with her brother Kenny. When Corey and Mei arrive at Sven's room, Kenny comes by and sniffs Mortifilia, much to Shannon's disgust and irritation and she drags him away.

During the outbreak, she meets Kenny and comes with him at Fallcreek Hospital to get pills for him; however, they are not able to find them. Eventually, Kenny is no longer able to control the Mortifilia in him, succumbs to it and mutates. When Corey and Amy enter the room, Shannon tells them to run as the Mortifilia engulfs her, Kenny and the room and begins to move crashing throughout the hospital, destroying everything in path.

Later, Shannon finds Amy at the bottom of the dam and confronts Kenny on what he's done. After Kenny happily says that he had impregnated Amy with his child, Shannon becomes very angry and states that she wishes to kill him. Before she can act, Kenny is hit by crates and falls into a hole. Shannon then travels with Corey for a while, then they hear from Sven on their radio that they should regroup on Turtle Stone Island.



Corey teases Shannon about her having a crush on Stan. There, they regroup with Richard James and Stan. On the way to finding Amy and Sven, Shannon becomes unsure about the future and why they are fighting all the time just to survive instead of live. Stan tells her they didn't survive adolescence just to die here. Shannon and Stan decide to share a kiss, then comments she has a better reason to fight now.

Eventually, Shannon and Stan find themselves exploring Leafmore's underground, then head to the surface which confirms they are in the ruins of their high school. The two find their old school records, Shannon having an A+ on average and Stan having an F. Shannon jokes that despite their difference in grades, their grades mattered very little throughout their lives, both of them winding up in awful situations anyway.



The two regroup with Corey, Amy and Richard. After Amy suffers contractions, Shannon becomes horrified by the thought of her brother actually raping Amy. Shannon and Stan make their way through a Brotherhood building, learning more about its history. Later, Shannon meets up with Kenny along with Corey at the Lincoln Stadium. After Corey kills himself, Shannon and Stan battle Kenny and eventually kill him. Following the final battle and the presumed deaths of Professor James and Amy, Shannon tells Stan that she is going to 'cut family ties', before walking off with him into the sunrise while the Mortifilia engulfs the entire sky and begins to spread over the land.

Quotes

 * "I can't believe that he chose to become... that thing. Forgive me." (about her brother)
 * "Killing a person has never benefited anyone." (to Corey)
 * "Kenny can whine all he wants, but I experienced my fair share of horrors at Leafmore too!"
 * "I'm not a baby anymore, Stan. I shoot just as well as you now."
 * "If there's such a thing as destiny, I want to exchange mine for a better one!"
 * "You mean a date without guns? That'll be strange." (to Stan)

Trivia

 * According to her biography on the website, she had a diploma in first aid.
 * A copy of the school newspaper can be examined in the Leafmore cafeteria. On the first page, there will be the photo of Shannon and the news of his recent victory on the television show Champion Genius.
 * In ObsCure, if you don't have her on your team and continue to patrol an area without proceeding, the remaining characters will complain that they wish Shannon was there, since she "always knows what to do".
 * During the development of ObsCure II, Shannon has changed several features such as hair color and possible clothes several times. Initially, she should have been blonde but then blue, bright red and finally black hair was tried.
 * In her sound files, she has a dialogue hinting about the dynamite.
 * It's possible that she was supposed to be played in the hospital.
 * Shannon doesn't have underwear in her alternative costume in ObsCure 1.