Kingdom Lost - Episode 1 "Pilot"

[barsoomcore]

Dan is grateful for the drink and buys one for Sakura so they can toast their successful foray.

"That's great. Selene must be the singer I heard about. There's a big frat party up here on the weekend, maybe she'll be at that but I bet Dave won't be. If we want to check her out when he's not around, that might be a chance."

He shrugs and grins, knowing he's had kind of a crappy day but always too positive about things to get gloomy. He pitches his voice quietly.

"At least nobody's going to suspect me of being any sort of investigator. If I keep showing up here, well, I'm, you know, just trying to check her out. Maybe Dave gets jealous, lets something slip. I'm blown already, if they see me sneaking around they'll just get suspicious. If I'm hitting on Selene, then it'll seem more normal."

 

[Tokiwong]

The Next Morning...

Santa Monica, CA
0815 Local Time, March 9th, 2004

That following morning seems like a repeat of the previous morning, with Alicia reading the current issue of Maxim and laughing every few minutes. She points out some of the funnier stuff she sees to the rest of the people in the office. The weather is misty, and Graham’s car is not present out front.

Alicia speaks when asked on the subject, “Graham said he has an appointment with a friend, some case he is working on, he said he might be away from the office for a few days. But he bets that you guys can handle things without him. Oh before I forget, Dexter, a man dropped this letter off for you. He stopped me just before I opened the place up, kind of a strange guy,” she eyes the letter suspiciously.

“But I did not open it, he said it was for you,” she finishes. Alicia just sighs and takes a seat, and starts reading some more.

 

[Festy_Dog]

James wakes with a start, finding himself asleep at his desk when Alicia comes in.

"Nnf, this doesn't look like my place. In fact it looks suspiciously like where I work," he says with a tired smile, "Guess I fell asleep at my desk, at least I won't be late."

James stands up and brushes himself off, vainly attempting to unwrinkle the clothes he slept in. He disappears into the toilet and re-emerges with his hair wet down, fixing its previously unkempt state.

"Time for breakfast," he says, and a cup of coffee later he's back into paperwork. The document he slept on put aside until the saliva on it dries.

 

[JimAde]

Santa Monica, CA
0815 Local Time, March 9th, 2004

That following morning seems like a repeat of the previous morning, with Alicia reading the current issue of Maxim and laughing every few minutes. She points out some of the funnier stuff she sees to the rest of the people in the office. The weather is misty, and Graham’s car is not present out front.

Alicia speaks when asked on the subject, “Graham said he has an appointment with a friend, some case he is working on, he said he might be away from the office for a few days. But he bets that you guys can handle things without him. Oh before I forget, Dexter, a man dropped this letter off for you. He stopped me just before I opened the place up, kind of a strange guy,” she eyes the letter suspiciously.

“But I did not open it, he said it was for you,” she finishes. Alicia just sighs and takes a seat, and starts reading some more.

Dexter takes the letter gingerly between two fingers and examines it. "How do you mean 'strange', Alicia," he asks turning the envelope over. "Did he say who he was?"

(OOC: is there any writing on the outside of the envelope? Return address, or anything? If there's nothing, Dex will go ahead and open it up.)

 

[Tokiwong]

Dexter takes the letter gingerly between two fingers and examines it. "How do you mean 'strange', Alicia," he asks turning the envelope over. "Did he say who he was?"

(OOC: is there any writing on the outside of the envelope? Return address, or anything? If there's nothing, Dex will go ahead and open it up.)

Alicia thinks, “Uhh no names, he just said, ‘Give this to Dexter’. He was sort of tall with shaggy hair; I was kind of scared so I just agreed. I figured you knew him, maybe an old college buddy or something?”

The letter itself is unmarked and white. When opened he finds a slip of paper neatly folded. There is writing in English on one side of the paper. The other side is blank. The writing is in black ink and is as follows:

Forget what you saw on that paper.

Everything you have seen; you must step away from.

Accessing forbidden knowledge is the first mark of the devil.

Resist your curiosity, or you will step through the glass.

No one will believe, until they see the truth.

Only the truth can set you free.

Throw off your shackles, if you travel this path.

Hell and heaven are two sides of a coin, created by man.

Insight and insanity, perhaps one in the same?

Nothing matters but the quest for reality.

God is dead, replaced by men with divine ambition.

-M

 

[JimAde]

Dexter carefully sets the paper on his desk, his face rather pale. He gently places his Einstein mug on one corner of the paper and a stapler on the other to hold it open then pushes back from the desk.

"Um...James? Can you take a look at this," he asks shakily. "We should probably avoid touching it any more than I already have." He leans forward again and carefully re-examines the words.

"This is pretty disjointed. Seems to contradict itself, too," he observes. He turns to Alicia. "Can you give me a better description the guy who delivered this? What color was his hair? Was he white, black, asian?" Dexter pauses. Then he asks slowly with a faint note of hope in his voice, "Did he look anything like me?"

(OOC: Does Dex recognize the handwriting?)

 

[Tokiwong]

"This is pretty disjointed. Seems to contradict itself, too," he observes. He turns to Alicia. "Can you give me a better description the guy who delivered this? What color was his hair? Was he white, black, asian?" Dexter pauses. Then he asks slowly with a faint note of hope in his voice, "Did he look anything like me?"

(OOC: Does Dex recognize the handwriting?)

Dexter does indeed recognize the handwriting as that of his cousin.

Alicia pauses, "Well now that you mention it, if you grew a shaggy beard, and let your hair grow out, you guys did look similar. But then again, all white folks seem to look alike to me," she says with a grin, "oh that reminds me of this great skit from the Chapelle Show... I mean, uhh yeah does that help?"

 

[JimAde]

Dexter does indeed recognize the handwriting as that of his cousin.

Alicia pauses, "Well now that you mention it, if you grew a shaggy beard, and let your hair grow out, you guys did look similar. But then again, all white folks seem to look alike to me," she says with a grin, "oh that reminds me of this great skit from the Chapelle Show... I mean, uhh yeah does that help?"

"Damn it!" Dexter shouts. He stalks across the room and takes Alicia by the upper arms. "Think, Alicia! Did he say anything else? Do you remember every single word? Are you sure 'Give this to Dexter' was all he said? And what time did this happen?" He is looking intently into Alicia's face.

 

[Shalimar]

Sakura shows up early as usual, but spends most of the mornng out in the parking lot with Danny, looking over her bike. She misses the excitement about the letter, and comes in at the tail end of all of it.

"Guys, me and Danny got a major lead on this last night, Selene is suppoused to be dating an older-man who always shows up at her band's performances, and her group has one tonight, so I'm gonna be heading there, but I want someone there who has all the toys so we can catch him in the act and finish the case in record time." she says smugly, dropping onto Dexie's desk.

"So what where you able to find out in cyber-space about them?"

 

[Tokiwong]

"Damn it!" Dexter shouts. He stalks across the room and takes Alicia by the upper arms. "Think, Alicia! Did he say anything else? Do you remember every single word? Are you sure 'Give this to Dexter' was all he said? And what time did this happen?" He is looking intently into Alicia's face.

Alicia shakes Dexter off her, "Geeze take a chill pill," she says aloud before thinking, "Oh he said one other thing, but that is it, he said like read between the lines... yeah 'Read between the lines, the truth is there...' that was it. I am sorry okay, it was wierd I was just a little scared, do you know this creep?"