Inda

Stillwater Vale Asylum

Nancy smiled. Her first patient was one of her favorites. She couldn't help having favorites and didn't try to. It was part of the nature of the job, and it came with a bittersweet sense of wishing them to be out of the hospital where she would never see them again. But that only meant they had gotten better, and wasn't that the point of her job?

"I have arrived for my daily dose Miss Nancy, got anything new and exciting for me today? LSD perhaps?"

"Good morning, Xander." She said with a laugh. "No LSD today. But..." she added in a whisper. Conspiratorially, she reached into the pocket of her blue and brown scrubs and pulled out a tiny bag of jellybeans, which she tore open and poured into a second pill cup. She held out the one with the actual medicine before giving him the jellybeans. She winked at him, and let her voice go back to business.

"Swallow all the pills and then open your mouth, please."

She had noticed that not once in her small amount of time here did any mail come in for the patients. Or maybe she just didn't see it. In a mental facility she had interned at, there were daily mail calls and care packages from loved ones were handed out, containing treats, letters, and simple things like favorite soaps. That kind of thing was important to the healing process, and she wondered why that wasn't something that seemed to happen here. She just hoped she had somehow missed them. In the meantime, she was testing what her limits were supposed to be by bringing in tiny tokens like that to a select couple of patients. It was one of the only things she had found to look forward to lately.

Abandoned Souls (Full for now)

Cedar watched, a little confused, as a young man walked up the drive toward her. He wasn't much younger than her. He couldn't be the one in charge of this whole thing, could he?

"Hi... I'm Ryker. Are you the person I'm supposed to meet?" She stared at him for a long second as the implications slowly dawned on her. The pills and alcohol from the night before had left her feeling ill that day, despite her elevated mood, and it made her mind just a little sluggish. She shifted the black portfolio she held against her chest uncomfortably, noticing that Ryker didn't have one.

A moment later, a second man came up, this one older looking with more of a beard than the younger man. "Hey. You get one, too?" He asked, showing what looked like the same letter Cedar had tucked inside the portfolio.

“Ah I see there are others here. Is this everyone or is this more so just the beginning? And has the master of the establishment arrived yet?” Cedar jumped a little when the third voice floated to her from beyond the second man that came in, this man looking about the same age as Ryker. At least the third person was carrying papers, though they didn't look like photographs.

"Uh... Hi. I'm Cedar Collins. I hadn't realized this was a group interview-"

Just as she started speaking, her watch flashed to 9:00 and the door swung open.

Standing in the doorway was an elegant and voluptuous woman, aged somewhere in her thirties, with waving copper hair and a sultry black dress that covered everything but seemed to suggest an innate sensuality. She wore impressively high strappy heels which looked perfectly natural on her.

"Welcome! I'm Nina, Nina Valetti. You all must be here for the interview. Please follow me into the parlor." She said with a wide smile that seemed to flirt with every one of them.

Cedar stood for a moment in shock. She hadn't even knocked yet. Seemingly just by Nina's invitation, Cedar found herself following along down a richly decorated hallway, hung with still life paintings and lined with expensive vases full of fresh flowers that looked to be cut from the garden outside, and turning abruptly into the second door on the left. The parlor was a large room colored in rich burgundys, browns, and creams, with hints of rose and chestnut. The furniture was upholstered wood with antique New England style chairs around the old wooden card tables that lined the wall. A longer coffee table surrounded by equally old looking sofas, wing back chairs, and a chaise was off to the right upon entering the parlor. In the far left corner was an antique bar, shelves lined with cut glass bottles of various liquors. An antique brass and glass absinthe fountain set rested on the counter of the bar, along with a metal cocktail set etched with flowers.

The center of the room held a table laden with multicolored petit fours, macaroons, fruits, chocolates, sugared violets and even chocolate dipped rose petals. A gentle fire flickered in the hearth that was set into the right wall. The scents in the room were heady, homey, and intoxicating.

Cedar stared in awe of everything. There were no paintings in here, but tapestries and shadow boxes that held a variety of antiques, from fountain pens to combs to books to instruments. A piano sat to the left of the doorway. Above the fireplace, mounted like a hunting trophy, was the head of a giant bird.

"Please, help yourself," Nina said, gesturing to the dessert table as she passed it while walking to the bar.

"What would you like to drink?"

Stillwater Vale Asylum

There was no response. Nancy sighed. Maybe he wasn't in. Maybe he didn't want to talk. She wasn't sure. Another nurse had informed her that there were some papers she needed to sign. Documents committing to confidentiality or something like that. Apparently there were levels of these documents new employees had to sign due to the nature of the patients, and she had no idea who it was she needed to see to get the forms from. There didn't seem to be any administrative assistants in this place. She hoped the other nurses weren't just hazing her in some weird fashion. They didn't seem like the kind of people with a sense of humor, though, so it seemed unlikely.

That's unfair. She told herself. They probably just try to keep things professional here. Who knows what they're like socially?

She glanced down at her watch. Breakfast was well under way. Nancy rolled her eyes, determining to come back later and figure out what the story about these forms was. Now, though, she had to get the morning medication ready. Most of the pills had to be taken with food, and she was apparently the best on staff at sorting the pills.

Yeah, right. More like no one else wants to do it. Nancy's back pain was causing her sour mood to boil over, no matter how hard she tried to contain it. And sorting pills was tedious, boring work. So was making sure they were taken. She had to look in the mouth of every. Single. Patient. Multiple times a day.

She hurried down to the mess hall and entered into the little pharmacy right next to the doors. Inside it was a small room with shelves of pill bottles, trays, and tiny paper cups. A binder kept a one-sheet log of every single patient, including a picture, what pills at what dosage needed to be taken with what meals. The pages had to be updated every time a patient met with a doctor, just in case the prescriptions had changed. It was a huge binder, all in alphabetical order. Of course, the patients never came up in that order, just making everything that much harder to handle. Breakfast had only just started, really, and thankfully the overnight crew helped out by getting the breakfast pills as sorted as they could. Last night they had gotten them mostly done. It must have been a quiet night.

She smiled, her mood lifting a little a this favor, and she arranged the pills in the paper cups. They reminded her of the ones she would put ketchup in at the Braum's, her grandfather's traditional birthday restaurant.

Nancy took a moment to ready herself, and unlatched the sliding metal grate that secured the tiny pharmacy at night. Her back yelped in protest, but it was over in a second and now she could just wait for the patients to come get their meds.

The Cannibal

What the... HOW?! Hazel thought about anything that might make the totem work, terrified that she was going to do it wrong. She grabbed it out of her pocket and held it by the leather cord, letting it hang from her fist. She felt foolish and her instincts were screaming at her to run, that this wouldn't work.

"What do I do?" Hazel shouted back at Amos. "I'm not a keeper of the faith, I've never led a ceremony!"

OOC: Keeper of the Faith

"Keepera of the faith" are Iriquois spiritual leaders, men and women who spent only part of their time conducting religious ceremonies for the tribe. By saying she's not a keeper of the faith, she isn't saying that she's an atheist or that she abandoned Iriquois teachings. I just thought that might be a confusing term for some.

Abandoned Souls (Full for now)

Forgetfulness is a sign of a lack of coffee....

@Kote

A truer story about me never was told. Lol

The Cannibal

"AMOS!" Hazel screamed, and she snatched up the drill near her feet. She turned the thing on, shining light down on the creature.

She hoped she would see Paulie standing down there, laughing at the two of them. That had already happened once before that night.

Hazel went back down a couple of steps against her better judgement as the drill whirled to life, making racket, and grabbed at Haley's wrist. "Pay attention to where you're putting your feet!" She shouted, years of rock climbing training causing frustration to well up inside. She didn't care how she sounded. She would apologize later. Hazel tried to yank Haley to her feet. "Eyes at the top of the stairs. Come ON!"

Abandoned Souls (Full for now)

Got it added to the list above! Feel free to post in the RP whenever you're ready!

The Cannibal

Hazel nodded, her breath rasping in and out through her nostrils over Haley's hand. She held up the drill with the light to give to Haley, pointing to the button that would activate both the drill and the light. Hazel herself had that eagle, and she hoped her own family pendant would add to the safety offered. It was the Tree of Peace, after all.

She turned as soon as Haley began to let her go and ran for the stairs.

Crestwood Hollow - A Superhuman Roleplay

Interested! Have some errands to run over the next couple of days that will limit my availability online, but please don't take that as me deciding not to take part. I'll get my info to you as soon as I can.

The Cannibal

Hazel kept her eyes on the door every time she looked backward. In the darkness she couldn't see the footprints in the snow. Hurriedly, she rushed over the shelves in the basement, finding some power tools (a drill with a built in light!) and other things someone might find in any basement. After moving on to the second shelf, she found what seemed to be camping equipment? Or maybe emergency equipment... she couldn't quite tell. A strange, crinkly fabric that felt like it could be a thermal blanket or a tent... ah ha! Lanterns! She grabbed the lanterns she found, followed quickly by some candles stored near to them.

"Haley? Are you almost ready to go up? We should go together." Hazel called into the expanse of the basement, her yes turned nervously toward the destroyed door once again.