Case No. 39
CAFE & DINER FIRST CAFE · LONG BEACH, CA · WITH OPEN DOORS
RECEIPT #001
FILED UNDER: DINER-CIC
DATE: 09/05/95
EMPLOYEE #62
Got a bizarre hit on the board today. Seems like a patron of ours has had a run-in with an unorthodox customer. Apparently, our patron saw this customer place their order entirely online. Obviously, customers tend to come in to pick up their orders, or at the very least, we go to them, but this sounds like a fully digital affair. Which, I suppose, isn't out of the realm of possibility, but it is... well, it is something different. I'll have to keep looking into it, but here's what I know about our new customer.
I'm going to guess their title is Mr. for right now, but I might need to bump it up to Mrs. as we get to know them. Doubt this is a Miss., but we can't rule anything out at this moment. Based on the board post, the last name is something along the lines of Xulfa. So, Mr. Xulfa. Odd name for an odd customer, I suppose. As mentioned earlier, Mr. Xulfa seems to only place orders online. Probably hard to track down, so we might need to send him an e-vite to the Cafe if we want to get a hold of him.
All that is currently really known about Xulfa is that wherever he goes, he leaves a particular message either in source code, image data, ciphers, or other means of hiding data. So far, it seems to always ask the same three questions.
"Do you see this? Can you see this? Can you enter Hell?"
As far as I, or our patron, knows, there's no obvious way to respond to him just yet. But I wouldn't be surprised if we'll have to answer those questions if we are going to take his order. Also not sure what the difference is between the first two questions. "Do" and "can" are different, I'm sure, but I can't quite place how yet. Perhaps first we have to see the message, then we have to see the message. If that makes sense. Well, I'll do some digging and probably up our internal security while I'm at it. The last thing we need is Mr. Xulfa getting into our systems, Mr. or not.
Caffeinated Report:C-BBVR02
"Saw the disks of fire in 1479–1425."
UAP Trivia | 2 Words
Caffeinated Report: C-DIS02
"Ten years from 1995 'Tom' will return."
Sci-Fi Trivia | 2 Words
RECEIPT #003
FILED UNDER: DINER-MOP
DATE: 09/09/95
EMPLOYEE #35
So, uh, that was weird. Very weird. 1313 did a pretty good job covering what happened, and I don't really have much to add. Other than that, I'm fine, by the way! I appreciate 71 checking in on me, but it's not the first time it has happened. If I look at a postcard for too long, it tends to wear me out, gives me eye strain, or whatever.
I figured I'd add on with some extra details that 1313 just didn't know because, well, she's not me. So, she thought it was a birch tree in the postcard, and I also think it was a birch of some kind. It was white, but it had these like eye patterns on it, but instead of being dark, like a birch, they seemed to be golden? Or something yellowish and shiny. The leaves were also very yellow and shiny, for that matter. Then I feel like the eyes pattern on the tree blinked at me. Or maybe just the light got in my eye weird. Anyway, that's when one of the branches turned into a snake thing, but I'm pretty sure it had wings too.
The snake with wings slithered around the trunk of the tree, and it just kept going, and going, and getting longer and longer. It was so long it almost seemed like it was the tree. Or a part of the tree? But, anyway, the weird part was it raised its head and looked at me. Like I locked eyes with it for sure. I guess it could be a coincidence, but I totally got the feeling that I was being watched. Being observed. Then the snake sort of slithered down off the tree and went behind me, and then I got really dizzy and passed out from looking at this crazy interactive and animated postcard. The future, am I right?
So, I'm not sure what, if anything, this all means. Ottawa is a weird place that makes weird postcards. Sometimes, I can only assume things are normal for them and very weird for us. The main question is whether or not that snake could see me or if it was looking at the person taking the picture of the postcard. If you get what I'm saying. Also... snakes are weird, right? I remember 44 telling me about that once. Or maybe I'm just misremembering.
Caffeinated Report: CD-MOP04
"Dangerous large graceful unleashing mysterious eerie hissings gracefully hypnotic? Indeed? Gracefully gliding or interweaving yet zigzaging snake."
Cipher | 2 Words
Caffeinated Report: C-CIC02
"Venture to guess we will ↵ @ 3 o'clock… Usually. Sometimes."
Reference | CaD Knowledge | 2 Words