BTC01 (Aug 9, 1988)

BTC01

Summary of Receipt

Baltimore (signing off as J.C.) decides to theme the business after a 'Cafe and Diner' and sets up some basic code works - Coffee refers to both 'general paranormal work' and misdirection; Customers are the CaD's targets; Tourists are those not aware of the paranormal; Patrons are those who are aware, but aren't affiliated with - or against - the CaD; Baltimore can reference a 'truth' contrasted to Coffee's 'lies'; and Friends are the CaD's enemies, competitors and rivals, with one of such - Salt and Pepper - being Astoria 23, also called the Lighthouse.

Transcript

DINER RECEIPT
RECEIPT NUMBER: BTC01
RECEIPT DATE: X 9 19XX
MANAGER TITLE: BALTIMORE
RECEIPT NOTES:

And now the fun begins. We can begin brewing the coffee, so to speak. Of course, we aren’t actually going to run a real combination Cafe and Diner. The market is over-saturated, and I worry that it would distract us from our true goal—serving customers. Customers, of course, is a code word I have developed alongside mon amour. If we are to truly attempt this crazy idea, we’ll need to develop quite the lexicon of codewords. Still, I doubt we can maintain the charade of a Cafe and Diner for long. The Lighthouse has eyes everywhere.

Still, I think it will be worth working to maintain the atmosphere of a Cafe and Diner. Organizations of our type tend to be a dime a dozen, yet they tend to lack a theme. And themes are fun, aren’t they? It adds a nice sense of levity to what tends to be very dark and messy work. Seeing as mon amour and I met in a sleepy little diner during a sleepless summer in Long Beach, it only feels right that we should try to milk that nostalgia for all that it is worth.

So, here are some code words I’ve worked out so far: Coffee is an obvious one. I feel Coffee can stand in for the general work that we intend to do, but it could also mean a sort of misdirection in general. Customers, who we plan to serve, I’ll go into that more later. Tourists, can be those not in on our Coffee game. Patrons, can be those who are not customers, but still interested in our business. Baltimore, my title, I feel, could also represent a sort of “truth” that coffee doesn’t. Friends, in a not-so-clever twist, can be our adversaries and competitors. And Salt & Pepper can stand in for our “friends” at the Lighthouse. See? Already this “cafe speak” is proving to be quite the fun linguistic game.

Yours in Baltimore,

J.C.