True Words

Sometimes, those words do have meaning...just listen...

As a member of the faculty at The Salem Premise Facility, the largest asylum on the west coast of the United States, you will be caught in a miraculous tale only fit for the truly fantastic, not fit for the threads of the mundane. A famous author by the name of Jonathan Hesway has been committed to this asylum recently. He was found in the woods nearby and taken to the facility by a hooded stranger who was never seen again after dropping Hesway off and has yet to be found by the town officials. Regardless, a primary group that you are apart of has been tasked to observe Mr. Hesway as he wrote what one of the supervisors, Ms. Meakley, believed to be a future novel in the making.

We shall begin in the room. You shall watch. Hesway shall write. You have orders to take the paper over to the lab for psychological analysis afterwards, so don't forget. Also, make sure Mr. Hesway doesn't stab himself with the pencil. That's your prime directive.

Little do you know that your little job here at the asylum is about to come to an abrupt halt...

Here's the character profile:

Code:

[b]Name:[/b] What your name is.
[b]Gender:[/b] Male OR Female.
[b]Age:[/b] You have to be old enough to work at the loony bin.  Late teens (18-19) at the youngest.

[b]Appearance:[/b] What do you look like?
[b]Personality:[/b] How do you act?  Who do you get along with the best?  Pet peeves?  Likes?  Dislikes?
[b]Reason for Joining The Premise:[/b] Why did you join this amazing movement and how did you end up at the Salem Premise Facility?
[b]Biography:[/b] Before working at the asylum, what did you do with your life?  Just include important things to know at the minimum.
[b]True Word:[/b] This is a special field.  Leave it blank.  I'll explain in detail at the end of this profile.

[b][u]Word Form - I[/u][/b]

[b]Weapon:[/b] What kind of weapon do you use?
[b]Armor:[/b] This should be based on your role in battle.
[b]Accessory:[/b] Quirky charm or trinket or whatever your character carries around.  Doesn't have any special effect at the moment.

[b]Battle Role:[/b] What things do you specialize in during battle?
[b]Word Blessing:[/b] An innate ability based on your True Word.  You'll come up with it, but it still has to be tied to the True Word I assign your character.
[b]Skills:[/b]

+Skill One: Insert description of skill and what it does.

+Skill Two: Insert description of skill and what it does.

+Skill Three: Locked.

[b]Word Limit:[/b] None.

*ahem* LEAVE ALL YOUR WORD FORM STUFF BLANK. Thank you. You can edit it in later when your character actually obtains a Word Form. Now. I suppose I should explain Word Form. The world you get sucked doesn't automatically make you an expert fighter. You'll be struggling in the beginning. However, by learning your True Word and chanting it, you'll be able to enter a form much more suitable for fighting. Now, your True Word. This is one I will assign to you when you send me a profile. If I return the profile to you with that field filled, then you are accepted. I will place the word in the field, but it will be in Hesway's weird language. You will only know what it means if it is mentioned in the role play. You will see what I mean when I say you learn what it is. In the meantime, you can't just suddenly chant the word I gave you expecting results. You'll have to know what it means to draw power from it~ It's also not going to be anything like 'and' or 'to' so don't get any bright ideas. -.-

You'll also note that your Word Form is at level I. It's the most basic form and you'll have the ability to expand your powers by building your True Word into a True Phrase. There are 4 Word Form Levels. Each has a larger room for skills and the last form grants an extra Word Blessing, however, as the level of the form increases, the more energy it takes from you resulting in staying in that form for a lesser amount of time, so be careful. Also, to enter a particular Word Form, you'll have to physically chant the True Word or Phrase. No chant; no form. If you get to a higher Word Form, you'll be able to enter the weaker forms under it by just thinking the word or phrase or even feeling the resonance.

I think that covers everything. Send profiles if you want. I'd like to have at least 2 other staff members besides my character. If you're not interested now, I'll be accepting profiles for a while, even after the role play starts. Just let me know because the character profile will have to be edited for you a bit since your character didn't work at the asylum.

Thursday, June 16, 2024. 1:34 PM PST...

Fumbling with a small silver key, a young man hastily unlocked the door in front of him with shaky hands. It was a plain door, and on a plate on the wall next to it was posted a number: 507. The man ushered the others behind him inside along with a rather peculiar individual who didn't match the rest. He wore white pajama like clothes, the two top buttons of his shirt undone and his pants rather wrinkly. The young man halted the what had to be a patient and fixed him up a bit. The man's hair was wild and tangled. Some of the other caretakers found it impossible to fix from the day the man was committed. The best they could do was get the leaves and twigs out of it. He had a slight beard that needed trimming and his blue eyes were filled with a strange light this day, when on days prior, they were vacant.

"Come on, Mr. Hesway. You look good enough, I suppose," the young man said and led the patient, Jonathan Hesway, into the room, shutting the door behind him. He led Hesway over to a small table and sat him down in a chair. Both pieces of furniture were bland and gray in hue. The room was empty save the table and chair. No posters were on the wall. No curtains were hung on the window which let in the light of the afternoon sun full force. The young man took a pen from out of the front pocket on his white lab coat and clicked the top. He looked to the others.

"Which one of you brought the paper?" he asked his colleagues with a nervous grin. He knew one of them had it. Or so he hoped.

Behind the group, a woman stood patiently as the man worked with the door. Hastily he opened it and ushered them in, she followed behind the others as she had been doing. Moments after they were all situated, her colleague turned to the patient, beginning to fix him up as best he could. She pursed her lips for a brief moment, remembering having to fix him up herself prior to today. He finished quickly, grabbing a pen from from his lab coat and turning to the others in the group.

"Which one of you brought the paper?"

"Right here."

A rather warm voice with the slightest hint of an exotic accent responded to the man's question. The voice having belonged to the woman who had entered the room last, a few sheets of printer paper laying on top of her clipboard. As she spoke, the paper was held out to the man who had asked. However her eyes caught on the detail that the paper didn't have lines. Uncertain if it mattered, she began to pull the small stack back to her side, but halted. If there was something wrong, he would say so, and surely someone else had brought the correct paper. If it was wrong that is.

The man turned to the colleague of his that had spoke and took the paper that was offered to him with no hesitation. "Thank you very much, Adelina," he told the woman kindly with a slight bow of his head before rushing back over to the table. Hesway was gripping the table firmly, his body shaking in some sort of weird anticipation, almost as if this moment would be the most important one of his life. "Relax, Mr. Hesway," the man said to the patient, patting his back and setting the paper down in front of him. "See? We have some paper so you can write." The man offered his pen to Hesway who snatched it away in a hurry and immediately began to scrawl furiously on the paper. The man backed away from Hesway as he wrote, the former author having the appearance of a wild animal.

"M-my word...someone's...er, enthusiastic," he said nervously watching Hesway write. He didn't seem to be interested in stabbing the pen into his veins or anything. "I think we have our work cut out for us. I remember Ms. Meakley mentioning Hesway wasn't a suicide risk, but it never hurts to be cautious," he said and looked around before adjusting his name tag. It read "Bryan Mosher, Psychological Researcher and Caretaker." "They could have put some chairs in here for us. Sheesh," he said and laughed. "Guess they figured they wouldn't be the ones to watch so it didn't matter." He knew that wasn't the case. It had been a while since this room had been used. That's why it was so bleak--it had been completely empty just the other day.

Gwendolyn had kept herself completely silent the entire time, she had nothing she needed to say or respond to. Or maybe she was just completely ignoring her co-workers, it could be a possibility. She had never been one to give much thought on her co-workers' opinions on anything. And currently the woman seemed more focused on observing the mental author's actions than anything else, for she held the clipboard that she carried around everywhere and was jotting down notes with her own pen and paper. She already had a few pages worth of notes on just this patient alone from the few days he had been here. But his case was very interesting.

June 16, 2024,

Today we tried to get whatever information we could out of the subject through writing. Upon receiving paper and a pen, the subject immediately stopped his rambling and went to work. Perhaps the subject had a difficult time multitasking. It seems that the subject has at least retained the ability to write, and extremely well, as it seems. But the pace that he is writing at is incredible. It seems rather odd though, that he cannot even form a complete sentence in English yet is able to write so well.

Gwendolyn returned her gaze at the man. He was still writing. She was curious what exactly the patient was transcribing onto the piece of paper but her vision was blocked by the patient's hand, she couldn't see a word. She sighed knowing that this meant she would have to wait for the author to finish writing before she could add more to her notes. She quickly wrote down one last line, Further observation will be required. Then she placed both her pen and clipboard into the large pocket of her white doctor's coat.

No one seemed to be interested in idle chatter and made themselves as comfortable as they could get. All eyes were on Hesway it seemed. It was like he knew exactly what to write. He didn't pause for a single second, the pen not leaving the paper once excluding making spaces between words. A few minutes passed and Hesway slammed the pen down on the table, crawled out of the chair and into a corner where he assumed the fetal position and continued muttering as he had before. His hands clutched at his head. There was something seriously wrong with him.

"Thank you for your compliance, Mr. Hesway," Bryan said, making his way to the table. Only one page was covered in writing. He glanced at it and his jaw dropped slightly. Picking up his pen and placing it in his lab coat pocket, he turned and walked to the others to share the results of Hesway's furious writing. "It's absolute nonsense," he stated and held up the paper for them to see, making sure to keep his voice down so Hesway wouldn't hear him. The page was covered in words that were sure not to belong to any of the human languages on the planet. None of it made any sense whatsoever.

"I've seen this kind of language before though," Bryan mentioned, thinking back a bit. "It's a language Hesway uses in some of his fantasy novels which are really good by the way." He grinned. "Anyway, we'll see if the lab technicians can't figure out what it says." Bryan reached into his pants pocket and pulled out his cell, fiddled with the buttons to get to his contacts, found one, and hit dial. "Dr. Waterford, we'll be delivering the results of the Hesway session shortly. Mhm. No, I was going to handle that. Okay. See ya in a few." He hung up and selected another number before hitting the dial button. "Dr. Meakley, could you send over a nurse to keep an eye on Hesway. Yeah. We did. He did. Yeah. Just a page. None of it made sense. I know. That's where we're headed now, but-- Yeah. I understand. Bye." He hung up again and looked at the others. "We good to go?"

Adelina turned her head to the side just a centimeter as she stared at the page. It was incomprehensible. No human language on the planet matched anything she saw, which was rather strange. But then Bryan mentioned something about the patient's novels... or the novels he had written prior to his coming to the hospital. That was rather interesting to her. Had he made it up himself? Or could it just be gibberish that he repeated when necessary to entertain the masses?

Having not been a Hesway fan, or really having heard much of his works prior to his coming to the hospital; Adelina was unfortunately unable to come to a right-minded conclusion. But it didn't matter much, it wasn't for her to interpret. That was someone else's job, and she was sure they would be able to handle it with relative ease. How hard could it be to decipher a code used in several books, fiction or not? That was when a question was poised to the group as a whole.

"We good to go?"

"It would appear so. Unless they need us to take care of anything else regarding Mr. Hesway, I'd say we're ready."

Bryan took one last glance at the mentally unsound Hesway, muttering to himself in the corner. It was a sad sight for someone who revered the man for his work. He shook his head. "I believe we're done with Mr. Hesway for the moment," Bryan replied, opening the door to let the nurse that he had called for into the room. He nodded his head briefly and let her scurry over to Hesway. "To the lab then," he stated and made his way out into the hallway gesturing for the rest of him to follow, even though they knew where the lab was. The group progressed to the elevator, and once everyone was inside, Bryan hit the 2 button on the panel. The elevator descended its three floors without playing music. The head of the facility found music in elevators to be an atrocious idea, not to mention not all of the patients responded positively to music.

Exiting the elevator, they walked along a few hallways before reaching a hallway with a large room with a single glass wall that bordered the hallway itself. The rest of the walls were stone like the other walls in the building. Through the glass wall, the group could see a few technicians reading over material and doing research on the numerous computers within. A couple of others were messing with a rather large machine that seemed to be having some complications. Bryan opened the glass door only to be stopped dead in his tracks by a man larger than himself, extremely burly with relentless hazel eyes and spiked white hair. His appearance was gruff, and his skin was much more tan than Bryan's.

"Ah, Dr. Waterford. I see you were sure to make yourself ready for our arrival," Bryan addressed the gentleman and smiled.

The man peered over the group and blinked a few times. "It took all of you to watch one man do some writing?" he asked bluntly in a deep voice.

"We were all assigned to this group Dr. Waterford. We weren't needed to perform the task, but we all made observations that could prove important."

Careful with her words, Adelina tried to make it seem like they had reason to all be watching the man perform the simple task. Surely two or even just one of them could have gotten him to write and gathered what was written. But having four different sets of observations and ideas on what had been written and how it had been written was helpful.

Science, especially in this case, wasn't all facts. Opinions and points of view regarding a patient's mental state came into play. One might observe something another might disregard and the two could come up with two extremely different conclusions. So, while it was unnecessary for them all to be there for the task itself, it was necessary for the hopeful development of Mr. Hesway.

Gwendolyn reached into her pocket and took out her pen and clipboard as soon as the author finished writing. He was only able to write one page before returning to the state where he was babbling about nonsensical gibberish. She bit her lower lip, studying the author for a moment before beginning to write. This man was certainly very strange, she wondered what kind of trauma or mental illness he would have to have suffered from in order to enter a state of mind like this.

The subject went back to mumbling incoherent things after writing one page. He may have suffered some sort of serious brain damage, but I still can't figure out what exactly is wrong with him. What befuddles me even more are the 'words' that he wrote on the paper. It appears that like his speech abilities, his writing abilities were also degraded into spewing a bunch of nonsense. I don't know what they say, nor do I have any idea how to decipher them. But I know that they are not of this world. Perhaps my co-worker was on the right track when he said this language had something to do with the stories the subject writes. It may be in my interest to look into one of the subject's books sometime soon. Maybe this co-worker of mine has a book I could borrow. I will ask him about it later tonight.

With that Gwendolyn finished writing and looked back at the patient. He was probably going to stay this way for the rest of the day. There would be no further point in observing him today. She had gotten quite a lot of information anyway, and she was rather pleased with herself. She simply followed her co-workers to the lab, making not a a sound during the way there except for the sounds of her sandals hitting against the floor as she walked.

"Yes, I'm questioning that part as well." Gwendolyn replied in a monotone voice to the bulky man, speaking for the first time all afternoon, "I believe it would have been far more productive if we had one of us keep an eye on the subject while the rest of us went and tended to our other patients for a while. The way we did things was not exactly the most efficient, I must say."

"Yeah, there's no telling what Dr. Meakley was thinking in this case...I guess she just considered the task to be really important or something," Bryan suggested, placing a hand on his chin and rubbing it a bit. He whipped out his phone real quick and checked the schedule. "It doesn't look like we're scheduled for any other observations of Hesway. Guess it was a one time thing." Bryan tucked his phone back into his pants pocket. "We'll just pick Dr. Meakley's brain about it when we turn in the lab results to her," he added with a smile.

"Speaking of lab results, I can't do them without materials," Dr. Waterford grumbled. "Give me that," he said and snatched the single piece of paper away from Bryan, glancing over it. "I see Mr. Hesway was not in the mood to make this easy on us." A look of disappointment fell upon his face. "Oh well. I do enjoy a challenge."

"I....er, I know you guys know what you're doing in there, but I have a bit of a hunch," Bryan's voice resounded suddenly, tainted with what seemed to be...anxiety and maybe a bit of...fear?

Dr. Waterford looked up from the paper with an eyebrow raised.

"Check Hesway's novels. He uses a made up language in them as well."

"I see. Very well then," Dr. Waterford replied after a few seconds of contemplating something. "This is going to take a while. Stop by first thing tomorrow morning and the results will be ready. Understood?"

"Of course."

Adelina nodded politely, a small smile to show off her approval and understanding. Tomorrow would definitely be most interesting if the writing was able to be deciphered, now all they had to do was wait. With no other assignments at the moment, the oldest of the group felt strangely out of place. That was all she had actually planned for today, which left her with quite awhile until tomorrow. A slight frown crossed her face for only a moment before she quickly returned her lips to their minor upward curve.

She supposed she had the day to do as she pleased then, of course she would still be working. But with the entire day rather loosely organized, she figured a short break might be in order. Looking over her colleagues, she noticed them really not moving much either, perhaps one of them would like to join her before they all set out to do the typical work of the day.

"I'm going to take a walk down to the other wing of the building. Would any of you like to join me?"

Bryan nodded and moved out of the doorway so Dr. Waterford could close it. Through the glass walls, he could be seen rushing to a computer and getting some extra paper and a pen. It was obvious that he was researching ancient languages from all the letters on his screen. "That guy really loves what he does, and that's something I can understand to quite a magnitude," Bryan said mostly to himself, a sense of relief lacing his voice. He turned to the others. "I'm afraid walks are out of the question for me. Though not scheduled because of this observation, I still promised a couple of patients that I would see them if I had the time. I'll see you guys around. If not, just know that we'll meet up here first thing in the morning, all right? Best not to wait to get the results to Dr. Meakley." With that, he bowed his head and went on his way.

Evading the elevator, Bryan chose to take the stairs. He liked climbing stairs anyway. His endeavors took him up to the sixteenth and final floor of the main building. It was here that one of his older patients, Bernice Hawthorne, resided. As he reached the top of the stairway, however, he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. He took it out quickly and answered. "Hello? Mr. Mosher speaking. Oh, hey there, Mom. What's up? You sound upset." He paused. "No, I'm fine. Why? Oh, I hate feelings like that. Yeah. Don't worry. You still want me to come over for the 4th of July right? I know. It has been a while. Busy with work, as usual. I see. And how's Dad? Seems like we're in the same boat," he continued talking to his mother, laughing out loud. "Of course. Well, tell him I'm doing well, will ya? Cool. Yeah. I know. Love you too. Bye." He hit the end call button and tucked his phone away, scratching his head a bit before walking down the hallway to room 1619.

It seemed no one wished to accompany her. So be it, she knew the others likely had patients of their own to tend to scheduled or not. With a polite nod, she turned to watch Bryan leave for a moment before turning herself. Beginning to walk to the elevator, she moved rather quickly; strange considering she had wanted to take a walk.

The elevator was still on the current floor from the group's coming here, so it opened immediately. Stepping in, Adelina waited for anyone else who wished to enter the elevator, but none came. The doors closed themselves and she ended up hitting the three button, the elevator ascending at a slow pace. The doors opened shortly after, having only ascended a single floor, and the therapist walked out quickly.

Originally she had meant to go down to the other wing of the building, but she paused upon passing room 308. Mr. Hesway's room. While he was not her patient specifically, she had been a part of the observation earlier, she should have permission to visit. Turning around and moving back to the door, she knocked lightly.

"Mr. Hesway?"

Waiting a few seconds for an answer, despite knowing there wouldn't be one, the nurse stayed silent. When no answer came, as she knew one wouldn't, she opened the door slowly and entered the room. She once again found the patient she had been working with only several moments ago. She pursed her lips for only a second before speaking again this time with a little more care.

"Mr. Hesway?"

Maybe now that he could see her, she might be able to get him to talk with her.

From inside room 308, no sound could be heard except the crazed mutterings of the crazed author, Jonathan Hesway. If one looked in, they would see Hesway curled up in a ball against the wall with the window on it. "Vaz na doljn mahagrl conous masajhate induil basse roneo....," he muttered miserably, his eyes weary and his hands clutching his hair for dear life. He looked up at his visitor, but didn't cease his ramblings.

* * *

Taking a deep breath, Bryan knocked on the door. "Mrs. Hawthorne, are you in?" Several minutes went by without a response. He checked the doorknob to find that it was surprisingly unlocked. Turning it, he opened the door and was shocked. The inside of the room lacked Mrs. Hawthorne's belongings. It was just a spare bedroom now awaiting a new patient. He felt someone tap him on the shoulder and he jumped. It was a nurse about the same age as him. "Do you know what happened to Bernice Hawthorne?" he asked her.

"You haven't heard? She was checked out just 30 minutes ago," the nurse explained.

"I see. She was improving quite a bit. To think we've made it to the point where we can fight off dementia. I'm sure Mr. Hawthorne must've been greatly pleased," Bryan said with a large grin.

The nurse smiled back at him. "From what I heard, he was. I've got to be off now, Mr. Mosher. Do take care," she said kindly and continued her brisk walk down the corridor. She waved back at him and he returned the gesture.

Adelina recomposed herself for a moment mentally upon hearing him speak to her in the twisted babbles. Closing the door behind her without turning, she smiled at Mr. Hesway, nodding her head as if she understood what he meant. Though she didn't, she reasoned that a little positive reinforcement might do the mentally ill man some good. If he thought maybe she understood him, he might open up to her a little more, possibly enough to speak English.

"How are you feeling Mr. Hesway?"

Bryan checked his wristwatch. It was a little after 2pm. "Just a few more hours and it's homebound for me," he whispered with a sigh. He was eager to get home, go to sleep, and wake up to see the results of the analysis of Hesway's writing. Now, he was at a loss as to what to do with himself. The last patient scheduled for the day only needed an administration of some medication along with an evaluation of progress, but that was going to be closer to the end of his shift. "Guess I'll go patrol the recreation center. Maybe there's something good on the tv," he said to himself, shrugging his shoulders and tucking his hands into his pants pockets as he made his way back towards the stairs, his destination the recreation center on the first floor.

* * *

"Averjn tezal voa sideva ilnem, deva ilnem. Li unrej conduvol nas ernte." Hesway was clearly looking at the asylum staff member who had come to visit him. There was no telling what was going through his mind, but he looked very tired. Yet, he continued to mutter nonsense, almost as if he were directly talking to Adelina.

* * *

From inside the room, nothing could be heard. The knocks resounded slightly in the hallway, and still there was silence. "My apologies. Come in. The door is open as usual," a voice called out from inside room 712. It was that of Dr. Meakley's. It was firm, yet gentle. Everyone who worked under her knew she had high expectations of her staff, but that didn't stop her from being a kind person overall.

Gwendolyn went on her way as soon as she was excused to tend to her own business. She had other patients to take care of, or rather, take notes on, and then she'd have to go to her office and sort out all the notes she had taken today. Morning was the only time when Gwendolyn allowed herself the luxury of taking a short break. With the exception of her special assignment today was just like any other day, doing the same thing as any other day. As boring as it may seem, Gwendolyn enjoyed her job and her daily routine. It was the most efficient way for her to do her job, and the interaction with her patients funds Gwendolyn information to further her own research.

As she rode on the silent elevator, Gwendolyn took out her clipboard and pen. She was feeling a bit tired today for some reason, perhaps she will go out for some coffee later. Gwendolyn scribbled it down in a corner of her notes, before walking down the hallway and turning to open the door of one of her patient's room.

"I see."

Adelina nodded slightly, more for herself than for him, but for him all the same. He seemed stable enough, perhaps it was just his speech that was wrong. But... was it wrong technically? What he had been speaking, were it the same as what was on the paper, it could be a language. Maybe one he used in a novel he had written; One he was using in place of English for some other reason.

Moving over to him slowly, she took her time to watch him carefully for negative responses. But when he seemed alright with her coming closer, she did and in turn eventually was within arms length. At this point she kneeled and smiled slightly once she was on his level. Though this smile turned into a frown upon noticing how tired he looked.

"My, you look tired; Would you like me to help you to the bed? I think the rest would do you good."