Message in a bottle optional cipher puzzle

[PKPenguin]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2887512889

I fished up a message in a bottle at the boardwalk. Not sure what it could mean. Feel free to take a crack at it if you're good with this sort of thing

[PKPenguin]

Found another bottle with this text:

BAKES
OPERA
DIARY
HANOI
INERT

[The Author]

If I find any more, I will post them here. Subscribing, because I am very curious to figure out what happens with these.

[Dazeychain]

I wonder if this has anything to do with the SIT puzzle ring from the Hilbert House? Haven't found a use for that yet...

[sarcophington post]

I have these two, and I'm not sure if there's any more. Each of the rows read down as columns, to more or less readable effect. I also noticed that when placed next to each other, the bottom row reads "YO GAS INERT" or "INERT YO GAS" - so maybe something with "inert gas"? the row also contains the letters that make up "ARGON" which is an inert gas. other rows make less sense to me. not sure if any of this is the right direction but i've been staring at it periodically the last couple days.

[Vent]

I guess this thread's a bit dead but on day 2 I have one that is
OCTAL
TAHOE
ACORN
RANTO
YOGAS
This has to be some kind of grid based puzzle, every word in the bottles is 5 letters long and there's 5 of them right
I also think the fact that each of these words has an A and said A is in a different position of the word is relevant, the big puzzle is just where it's used? Maybe the book void portal at the end of SIT??? bleagh

[SilvanasMax]

A 5x5 grid of letters could be associated with Boggle, but the sheer number of words that can produce is ridiculous. Could be Words With Friends, but it doesn't look like that kind of sequence. I have found "AXIOM" on the ferris wheel people's heads at the Boardwalk and PBUME on a poster in Hilbert House. Been trying to find more (the village in the past had the code to get in the basement...could be one?)

[very_much]

A quick google search reveals that "octal" is apparently a base-8 numbering system. I have no idea how or even if that plays into this, but it's something? Here's the Wikipedia page for octal. [en.wikipedia.org]