Awaken

Awaken

Awaken was a quest by Driblis, about a scared girl running away from things she didn't understand. She was in a seemingly dark world, running from goatman-looking Things and a strange woman naked Doctor K-----.

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The quest ended rather quickly, but is still the most pretentious quest on the board.

Characters

This article contains spoilers! You were warned.

She (Jessica)

Only referred to in-quest as "She", it can reasonably be assumed that this girl is named Jessica. She is the protagonist of the quest. Finding the door to her cell open one day, she attempts an escape of the building that she finds herself in.

Through the quest, she's shown to be relatively fast, if a bit childish and strange, and physically weak. She has certain stimuli that put her into weird mental states. She showed quite an affinity for fire, glass, and her mother. She tends to crawl around instead of walking or running, and thinks in a very stilted, strange manner.

Her few moments of actual vocalization made it clear that she is not very good with words, grammar, or even basic syntax.

Things

First spotted walking away from Jessica's cell door, Things are seemingly everywhere.

Only one of them ever had any particular memory associated with him; the one with the burning stick that Jessica remembered hurting. They universally pursued Jessica when they spotted her. She has commented that they have large, rough hands, and that the hands mark her where they touch. The Things mostly tried to capture and subdue her, and occasionally spoke to her as well.

Jessica generally had a fear of them.

Doctor K----

Doctor K---- was a purplish looking woman that Jessica encountered a couple of times.

She tried to speak to Jessica calmly, but had little success slowing Jessica's escape. Jessica remembered Doctor K---- as someone who helped and hurt her. Unfortunately, she also remembered being strapped to a chair and asked questions, after each answer she would feel pain in her head, until she stopped answering due to either fear or inability.

After this memory, Jessica showed fear towards Doctor K----. Doctor K----, for her part, tended to try to sedate and capture Jessica, with the Things' assistance.

Spoilers

This section is whited because I don't want everyone to know things that weren't even revealed in the quest per se.

Jessica is a schizophrenic, characterized by auditory hallucinations ala voices in her head, compelling her to do things, as well as catatonic periods and schizophasia. She suffers a thiamine deficiency and has for quite a while, due to her father's strange dietary requirements for her. This has lead to a rather acute Korsakoff's Syndrome. She has widespread retrograde amnesia due to Post-traumatic stress disorder and the aforementioned Korsakoff's. She also really enjoys fire and has for as long as she can remember.

As she was being raised, her somewhat overbearing but well-intentioned father tended to view her strange behavior as indicative of a spiritual shortcoming. He lectured her constantly on the virtues of innocence and the wages of sin. Despite his disapproval of her condition, he was a very loving and caring father to her. Jessica did her best to live up to what she saw as proper behavior.

Jessica's mother was a very attractive woman, and a woman dissatisfied with her marriage. Though she cared for Jessica, there wasn't much love between her and her husband. She tended to cheat. She'd get all dressed up, and head out to various social events. Her husband was typically too focused on other matters to pay much attention. Jessica's mother had a particular fondness for rubies and red lipstick.

One night, Jessica's mother went out. However, her father had been paying attention recently. As her mother returned, there was a loud argument. Jessica didn't know how to interrupt, and knew that silence in children was a virtue. Her father shouted at her mother that women shouldn't act as she had, that she was a sinner and a whore. The argument grew violent, and ended with Jessica's mother unconscious. Her father went up the stairs, telling Jessica to stay there with his mother and to be good for a moment, while he went to calm down. Jessica tried to be good, but the fire in the kerosene lamp was dancing. She picked up the lamp, watching the fire. Holding the lamp near her mother, she tried to touch the fire, but instead touched the hot glass surrounding it. Shocked, she dropped the lamp. The old wooden floor of her home was suddenly covered in flaming kerosene. The old fashioned wooden furniture and straw-filled cushions of her father's make caught fire quickly. Jessica ran. Her parents did not survive the ensuing fire.

Jessica later was brought to court regarding the accidental fire. The judge, faced with Jessica's condition, told the court that though she was old enough to be tried as an adult and not just ruled innocent as a child, she was plainly incapable of standing trial, or discerning right from wrong. She was committed to Mayfield Psychiatric Institute for treatment, with an indefinite timespan.

Therapy had marginal progress with Jessica, anti-psychotics were prescribed and had some success. However, given her chronic condition and the orderlies' low pay, a lot of her medication was not actually administered, instead being sold to acquaintances. She suffered occasional physical abuse at the hands of the orderlies, but nothing terribly severe. After a few years of slow progress, Doctor K--- tried a form of Electroconvulsive therapy, as a sort of last resort. Instead of having a positive effect, it only served to worsen Jessica's amnesia and schizophasia. It was shortly after this attempt that the quest started.

Suffice to say, Jessica's prognosis is a bit grim.