Researcher: Stefan Broche

[Laraqua]

The alarm on his mobile phone goes off with insistent directness, calling him into a bleary awakeness that his mind tries to resist. His sleep had been restless last night despite how tired he had been from staying up late reading the Epigrapher, Lilechka Romashkova's, article on how she had managed to break the code. The instructions were exceeding complex, so much so that other epigraphers had expressed doubt that the strategies she used made enough sense to work.

OOC: Describe where you're staying and your morning routine.

[yellowsigh]

Stefan scratched his head, and tried to collect himself. He was in a cheap little Russian hotel, but his window looked out over one of the more busy public thoroughfare. It was noisy, the sounds from the street ill-blocked by the windows, but it was conveniently placed. If he'd not been up late with his reading materials, he'd no doubt have been kept awake by the clamour of noise that accompanied the evening.

Stefan reached for his glasses and slipped them on. He made his way to the kitchen and poured some local cereal into a box, the cartoon character smiling from the box unfamiliar but welcome, a symbol of the everyday, of shiny happy comercialism. Cold milk on the cereal and a drop in a mug of coffee to start the day. Stefan absent-mindedly flicked on the TV, finding a news channel, then all but ignored it whilst he sat down to his cereal, and glanced over the notes he'd made the previous night, trying to find the method to what other experts considered Lilechka Romashkova's madness.

[Laraqua]

As he considered things, while eating his cereal, his mind drifted over the notes on Natasha Chaikovskaya that he'd managed to locate through a lot of legwork. Ever since he'd heard the rumors at her university, he'd started trying to track down that information. Now he finally had it.

[yellowsigh]

Stefan had always been intrigued about her case since he first heard of her. The story of how she'd been raised made a fascinating backstory for the girl with an amazing insight into The Liltian Tablets. Although he'd heard of autistic boys developing incredible analytical and mathematical abilities, Natasha was the only girl he could recall demonstrating a similar talent.

The events of her life were, of course, terrible things for anyone to have undergone, and Stefan felt pity for the girl. At the same time she seemed more than a little disturbing, in that she seemed to have little regard for herself – the idea of progressing his investigations through a meeting made him feel uneasy.

[Laraqua]

Her behavior at university was exemplary unless she was forced to do an oral presentation - which she never attended. Always polite and shy, sometimes to the point of stuttering, she seemed to have an incredible grasp of multiple languages and could speak with a fluency she had never been expected to attain in any language.

[yellowsigh]

It was astounding. Stefan finished his breakfast, hovered around the TV to see if anything spectacular had made the morning news, then took the bowl to the kitchen. Returning to finish his coffee, he glanced at a clock and tried to put the rest of his day into some sort of order.

[Laraqua]

THE NEWS DRONES
"Nicolai Lebedev, a registered member of the Kamchatka Expedition, disappeared last night from the air port. Air port security cameras have recorded his approach by a man with red hair. The official representative of Ophidian Enterprises who was meant to greet him at the air port was inexplicably detained in traffic as a vicious car accident brought a Berlin highway to a standstill. Police are attempting to find the other members of the Kamchatka Expedition who are in Berlin to publicize the expedition to the German populace..."

[yellowsigh]

(OOC: Sorry, long weekend!)

Stefan stopped sipping his coffee, and watched the images flash up on the screen, noting the photo of the missing man and the stills from CCTV. The news story repeated much of the generally publicised information about the expedition, and Stefan wondered if there were any new clips, or whether it would be a familiar sequence of sound bites and shots of the tiles. Regardless, he couldn't take his eyes off the screen until the item was finished, and even then lingered until the end of the news to watch the summary. It wasn't that he thought there'd be any breaking news added on to the end, but the sight of the tiles was usually captivating in it's own right.

Stefan wondered whether any of his contacts might know anything beyond the news story. Strange events seems to trail the tiles, and investigations into them. God willing that was just superstitious nonsense, but the patterns that were emerging seemed to suggest something was going on. A missing person was still a missing person, and that was worrying enough.

[Laraqua]

He didn't currently have any contacts in Berlin but there was a tabloid newspaper over there who was affiliated with a tabloid newspaper over here whom he had contacts within. It would also be an easy enough matter to hire a private investigator to do a search for him.

[yellowsigh]

Stefan figured it'd be easier to get information via the papers, as if on the grape-vine, rather than get someone snooping around. Cheaper too, come to think of it. But that could wait for later. Stefan cleared up after his coffee, got dressed, had a last look at the news, then prepared to leave the house. He checked his mobile for the number for his local newspaper contact, planning to invite him out for a quick bite to eat at lunch-time, perhaps a drink.

[Laraqua]

His newspaper contact, Delaine Senbongi, always seemed to have time for Stefan Broche. The two shared an abiding passion for the Liltian tablets. It wouldn't be difficult to acquire a lunch meeting with her.

[Laraqua]

His newspaper contact, Delon Senbongi, always seemed to have time for Stefan Broche. The two shared an abiding passion for the Liltian tablets. It wouldn't be difficult to acquire a lunch meeting with him. Last time Stefan had heard, Delon Senbongi was looking into the recent occult activity that had surged through the city in the wake of the tablet exhibit. There were also rumors of a cult that followed the tablets, setting up in each city that possessed a tablet, and then packing up and moving on afterwards. There were also rumors of an infectious meme, but that was more something his tabloid contact was looking into, and was probably just an urban legend that had nothing to do with the liltian tablets. His tabloid contact had refused to elaborate on the subject.

[yellowsigh]

(OOC: Sorry about the delay, am mid-house move now. Will resume normal service soon... )