Play@YSDC

"Very well, she should be here in around ten minutes," says Ms. Walsh. "Good bye."

"Goodbye," says Daniel. Because Charles Hubert was early for the first interview, he has plenty of time before the next one. He starts out by reviewing the files on the site in Kamchatka that is the expedition's destination, going over its history and the strange phenomena that have been observed there.

A set of information on his laptop identified the various macarbe locations where the Liltian Tablets have each been found, largely by accident. In the top desk drawer, sits a copy of the newly published Translations of the Kamchatka Expedition Diary that Carter has read on several previous occasions. There is also a sheath of papers that give the run-down on the well-known bizarre scientific phenomena in the region.

Irina Chaikovskaya? thinks Daniel as he reads the diary. She's probably related to Natasha Chaikovskaya. I'll have to ask her about it the next time I see her. Next he takes out the notebook he keeps of his experiences in the Room and rereads it. In the unlikely event that anyone else read it, it would merely seem to be a diary of a recurring nightmare, but he knows there is more to it than that.

The first time it was like fainting away, or the world fading away, and he was standing facing a door in a room with pink wall paper. There was a scent to the air - not stale, not like one would assume. It had that smell that rooms often got after being vacuumed with just a hint of perfume in the air. He still hadn't managed to trace exactly what brand of perfume, but it had smelled exotic. Before the moment where he faced the door, he had been making himself a coffee in his home, with the thoughts of that lady's death echoing in his mind but no expectations. Not of this. It felt so real.

OOC: Let's play this out, flashback-style. Give you a chance to experience it.

Is this a dream? thinks Daniel as he looks around the room in wonder. Did I pass out? Must be the power of suggestion that inspired this, what Angela told me before she died. Was it really just a day and a half ago? It feels like so much longer. He starts by examining the door before him, then looks at the wallpaper and checks for any furnishings or other things of interest in the room.

The door doesn't just seem locked. It seems sealed. As though it weren't attached to the door frame, so much as existing as a part of it. The pink wallpaper is merely striped. It looks like the kind of thing you would see in a young girl's bedroom. Turning, he sees the creamy ceiling, the creamy curtains hanging shut in front of what he presumes is a window. There is a four-poster bed, draped in pink-and-cream sashes. The pillows have gold tassels at the corners. The blanket is a bright red, tucked beneath the mattress. There is a ginger tabby kitten sitting curled up in the middle of the pillows.

Opposing the bed is a white desk with a high-backed chair pulled in front of it, and an open coloring book with an image of a tree on one page and a ginger cat with large red eyes on the other. Crayons and pencils sit next to it. The brand names seem to have been scraped off of them. The pencil peelings, and a cigarette butt, sit in an otherwise empty wire wastepaper bin beside the desk. There are no drawers on the desk.

There is a white wardrobe. A white dressing table with only a tube of lipstick and a blush compact sitting before the mirror that reflects the room somewhat blurrily.

The floor is covered in a plush, red carpet.

The overhead light had a gold-edged, creamy-colored shade.

There is a seat beside the bed with a glass of what appears to be water sitting on top of it. There is another cigarette sitting beside this.

There is also a coat rack containing a long, red coat.

And standing before the bed is a tripod, much as one might mount a camera upon, though there is no camera in sight.

This can't be a little girl's room, thinks Daniel, not with the cigarettes. He tries to open the door experimentally, not really expecting to be able to do so. Then he walks over to the window, pulls the curtains open, and looks out.

The door doesn't open. The curtains can't be shifted - they are hard and unyielding - and they seem to be bunched up well enough to block his view when he tries to peer up from underneath. All he can see is the darkness of the window glass and nothing beyond it.

Daniel looks at the cat on the bed next. "What's your name?" he asks, checking to see if there's a name on its collar. "Are you the same kitty in the coloring book?" He looks to see what color the real cat's eyes are and if it resembles the one in the drawing before turning to the wardrobe and trying to open it and look inside.

On closer inspection he sees the kitten is a stuffed animal, albeit one that radiates warmth much as a real kitten might. Its eyes are closed and cannot be opened. The drawings are largely of a mundane nature - mostly wild life and happy families. All are drawn as though with a child's hand.

Daniel tries to open the wardrobe and look inside.

The wardrobe contains two coat hangers, a small pile of cigarette butts in the corner and nothing else.

Shrugging, Daniel turns away from the wardrobe. "Hello?" he calls loudly. "Is anyone here?" He examines the coat next, checking its pockets to see what, if anything, is in them.

There is a piece of red tinsel, a piece of gum in its individual red wrapper and a playing card. An ace of diamonds. It seems to be very small - perhaps belonging to a child of around eight years?

Daniel crouches down and peers under the bed to see if there's anything there.

A scrunched up piece of paper. A pair of wire frame glasses too big for even Carter's head. A red mobile phone.

Daniel reaches under the bed, retrieves tha piece of paper, and opens it up to see what's written on it. Then he takes the mobile phone and flips it open.

The piece of paper is smudged with splatters of water that has long since dried. It has the words: I love you, written on it, along with a lipstick kiss the same color as the piece of lipstick on the dressing table. The mobile phone flips open but there doesn't appear to be any bars -- you must be out of range.

Daniel checks to see if there are any saved messages or other files of interest on the mobile.