Play@YSDC

You jump back in the car and head east and then north. You are getting used to the different faces of the city by now. The brilliant Hollywood and the darkness of its shadow. The huge estates with view on the ocean, and the dirty house of a sister remembering a dead brother. Everywhere, the long boulevards and the palm trees, the salty touch of the breeze and maybe, just maybe, the far sound of crashing waves.

Now you're about to see yet another face of LA. Born in the twenties, the UCLA is still a young, albeit rapidly growing, institution. An institution quickly gaining a certain reputation, too, as it has been recently defined "the worst hotbed of communism in the U.S.". Built around the original Royce Quad, where the first buildings were completed (the College Library, the Physics-Biology Building, the Chemistry Building, and obviously Royce Hall), it already counts several thousands students - and more each year.

For some of you, this might feel like being back into a familiar environment. The chattering of the students, running late to lesson, sometimes kissing each other quickly in a corner. There is movement, and activity, and talking, and debating. This is, indeed, how an university should feel, at least while it's still young and unbridled.

You remember Job, back in Joy Grove. He was a student here, once. Then he fell from grace. The memory snaps you back to reality. You're got something important to do here, and not much time to lose. You might not be in imminent danger, but the enemy knows you're getting close, and is already moving. You don't know how many resources this organization... this cult... has at its disposal, but you should certainly act fast, while the giant is still half-asleep.

And right now, you are on the traces of someone who certainly was, and possibly yet is, an important part of that group, maybe even a leader. Will he be able to shed some light on your enemy? On what happened back in 1924, and since then? As your steps take you through the Quad, you start feeling a familiar excitement... now it's time to find your prey.

"Perhaps we should start at the main office," suggests Holly. "We can find out his schedule and where his office is. It might be best to pay a preliminary visit to his office when we know he isn't there before we speak to him."

"Good idea Holly," Clarence says with a smile.

"We should maybe also scope out the Maths department to see where the so-called prodigy did his stuff before he fell from grace."

It's not hard to find a university directory inside Royce Hall, and you quickly locate the office of Professor Ayers, G., Room 27 inside the Human Sciences Building. You stop a student to ask where it is, and you get directions to a neoclassical building inside the main campus.

"Maybe we can find a course schedule while we're at it," suggests Holly. "It would be good to know when he has a class to teach, and if possible when he holds office hours."

You look at the course schedule for the semester, but can't find any course teached by Professor Ayers.

"He may just be doing research and not currently teaching anything," says Holly. "Let's just go to his office, then. What's our story if he's there?"

You follow the directions to the Human Sciences Building, then up to the second floor to find room 27. On the door, though, you don't find the name you expected, but an unknown one - Dr. Miles Roman.

Christopher Fontana

Christopher stops in front of the door, "Well, that's odd..." Christopher says as he double checks the number "... we didn't take a wrong turn, did we?" he shrugs and raps his knuckles on the door, "Might be a shared office..."

"Maybe he moved to a new office," says Holly. "If so, Dr. Roman will probably know where to find him. We can't be the first to come here looking for Ayers."

A moment after Christopher knocked, you hear a voice from inside: "Come in!". You open the door and enter a large office, with a library on one wall, a desk suitably placed under a big window, there's even a couch with a couple of armchairs in one corner - although they look cheap, and have definitely seen better days. Two paintings, reproductions in the style of the Italian Renaissance, give a touch of colour to the room. All in all, it looks like a nice and well-ordered working space.

A tall, skinny man, with black hair and beard, blue eyes, is sitting at the desk. He has a book open in front of him and seems to be taking notes while reading it. He looks at you, and quickly stands up, saying: "I'm sorry, I thought it was a student visiting. Good morning, I'm Miles Roman. How can I help you?"

Christopher Fontana

Christopher takes the other man's introduction to step up to the desk and offer his hand... "Dr. Roman, please excuse the intrusion... my colleagues and I were looking for Dr. Ayers, but this isn't his office?" he asks, shaking the other man by the hand.

OOC,Looking around.. is it apparent that this office is shared or not?

"You wanted to meet with Dr. Ayers?", he asks surprised, then seems unable to control himself and starts laughing, only regaining his composure a few seconds later. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. God. Ayers... they still haven't corrected that. Unbelievable. Well, so, Dr. Ayers. He hasn't been a professor here for years. Or to be more precise, I think he technically still is a professor, but the fact is, he has left more than a decade ago, to go digging somewhere in Africa, and no one has ever seen him since".

Christopher,The office doesn't seem to be shared.

"Do you know where in Africa his expedition was, or who might know?" asks Holly. "Was he actually lost?"

He shrugs: "Considering how long he's been gone, it would be a surprise, let's say, to know he's back. But I don't know what to tell you, honestly. You should check out at the History Department, on the third floor. They should know more than I do".

Christopher Fontana

"Well, we won't take up more of your time Dr. Roman, thank you for your help."

... [once we're out of the office] ...

"The History Department secretary should be our next port of call, with any luck she'll have been here long enough to remember Ayers."

"I think he was on the level in what he said." Clarence says with a wry smile. "Well on to the history department I guess. I think the stairs are this way." I point towards the central/nearest staircase

"Agreed, let's go," says Holly, heading for the stairs.

You walk up the stairs to reach the third floor, walking along a silent corridor to reach a door with a plate on it, saying "Department of History, Secretary", and under that, "Samantha Burnish". You knock on the door, and after a couple of seconds a woman comes to open and welcomes you in. She looks to be past her fifties, wearing simple black clothes, auburn hair turning white and a friendly expression on her face.



When you ask about Ayers, she seems to be a little surprised and says: "Yes, I remember Dr. Ayers. He left more than 10 years ago... 1925... no, no, it was 1924. I arranged his trip to Ethiopia. He went to participate in a digging expedition, something about his research work, whatever it was. Should have been a semester or two of leave, but he never came back in the end. These professors, they can barely find their way around the campus without help, one would think they should know better than traveling on the other side of the world, but no, they never do", she says, emphatically.

"Thank you," says Holly. "Do you know when in 1924 this was, and where in Ethiopia his expedition went? Or are there records here of it? Was Dr. Ayers actually lost on the expedition?" She has a strong feeling that he went to Ethiopia shortly after the deadly shootout in August 1924.