The main problem of summer rain is that after it comes back the Sun.
That's what you're thinking while you wander in your concrete jungles like camels with no water; the illusion of breathable air brought by the rain makes life outside the walls of your houses even more tragic. But life doesn't stop. The Sun also rises, said Hemingway, with a slightly more positive accent than yours perhaps.
You're wandering in your lives like electricity running through circuits until you see a mirage! That's what you think, at least: that particular door was not there in your office yesterday, no new shop has opened in your region (usually they close). Nonetheless, you're irresistibly attracted to that door, if only for the nice chill air that comes from beneath it. You run to it, it's written push, so you pull the door with hope in your hands and eyes, and the door doesn't open.
Yes, it stays closed, of course.
Nobody saw you, there's still hope to gain that mysterious chill little spot for yourselves, so (as you were rightly doing before) you run through the door, losing your balance and ending face to the floor of...snow? Also, you notice, when you fell to the ground of this mountain you had some kind of...faint? Like a vertigo from a dejavu, but of course you can't quite understand why... The good news is, it's not humid hot; in fact, you can't even see the Sun. Nor the Moon! Your eyes seem to know what and where to search, there's an enormous telescope, a simple observatory building and what seems to be...a hangar, perhaps. There's the familiar sign with the inn's infamous name.
The view from outside that door.
Transformative drinks.
"Welcome back to the Crippled Capricorn! Today in a new layout, but with the service you've learned to love!" While Sora quickly hides some visible cables with her feet you wonder what love is she talking about, given you didn't talked of it to anyone. You shiver.
"You'll wonder what are you doing here and most importantly how did you get here. Well, that's the magic of...magic. Like Howl's Moving Castle, but bigger and definitely less quirky. This way, the Inn is always open, ready, and near to whoever needs it!" Needs, now, lets not get ahead of ourselves...
"Today we're gonna take a trip to lands unknown by humanity as we intend it, maybe finding something in-human in the meantime? Follow me!" The Locandiera signals you to enter with her the Inn, under the perplexed look of the barista.
Sora starts with the elephant in the room: the giant telescope. Through neon-light corridors in the characteristic colors of the Inn, where metal and wood seem to meld together and play who occupies the most space, you enter a completely transparent room, which you didn't notice while entering the Inn; the telescope seemed a part of the "usual" construction, you thought before. You almost lose yourself in the view of the infinite starry sky: to think how small human buildings are when they're confronted with the immensity of the night sky. Small and unimportant. You almost feel the gravity lessening its grip on you, your feet rising on the tips, you're ready to fly...until Sora's voice, which noticed your drifting perhaps, shakes you from that dream.
She takes you to the telescope to look through it while she adjusts the coordinates of what she wants to show you. As you observe the constellations, her voice from outside guides your eyes.
Heaven Will Be Mine by Worst Girls Games
"You should now see -from the left- the three constellations of Luna-Terra, Pluto and Saturn. Yep, it's their names, though the terms are already in the "actual" astronomy. Legend says, from the main source, the visual novel Heaven Will Be Mine, originally those constellations were three girls from three different human factions during 1981, at the twilight of the Space Program. Each faction was pursuing its own idea of space colonization, and the center of the conflict was the lunar gravity well, the necessary structure to pilot the Ship Selves, gravity-and-culturally powered mechs, around the Solar System."
Usually stars don't have lines to form the constellations we see from our planet, yet on this occasion you see something like a...trail? Do you, though? It seems it's connecting the stars among them...although "usually" constellations form real things' pictures!
"That's the best part" says Sora. What why is she replying You didn't speak out loud...did you? It's actually creepy but she doesn't give you time to reply. "The three girls had no intention whatsoever of being used by politicians; born, raised or created for the specific goal of the Space Program, they were determined to break free from a humanity which first used them as tools, then treated 'em as aliens. Life in space, away from the gravity of Earth and very near to each other, had clearly shown what lied beyond the thin veil of "us and them". Eventually, once arrived to the gravity well, they pushed it to the overload, creating a unique...inside-out phenomenon, which fused human and machine to the point of becoming one with the universe, part of what we define as void."
...your head hurts a little bit. You just wanted some drinks, not an intensive course in transhumanism. And yet you wonder if those literal stars managed to actually become completely alien, if even for defining alien-ness one has to use the cathegories we, humans have. Maybe the very idea of alien is just a way to create use(less/)ful dinstinctions?
An entrée from the future.
While you exit the telescope room, your mind still a bit funny, you look one last time the night sky. Who knows how many people, after serving humanity, have been rejected by their same masters, superiors, even parents, unable to recognize those people as fellows, too changed, even mutated by the experiences they had? How many unlucky mortals have become gods or demi-gods only because other human beings couldn't see them as human anymore? How many Poe's Maelstrom stories lie behind those bright lights? And what does this teach us? You can't find it out now, if only because a sudden motors' noise abruptly breaks your thoughts. You see a foreign object coming from the sky, then slowing down towards the hangar. Was that...? Sora nods proudly.
In one of the corridors you run into who you guess might be the pilot of that giant: slim and high, somehow wearing elegant even under the suit, with numerous black curly hair and black sunglasses. You stop by while Sora asks about the state of the machine. "It can fly, we flew up to Syrius to get that ice you needed from the market." He says with a subtle, tight voice and a Mediterranean accent, you think. "Great job Franco, thank you very much! You arrived just in time to serve out dessert to the guests. Whenever you want you can take it again for a ride through the space if you want." "Thank you Sora, but I prefer to explore it from here, on the mountain. Also, I can't smoke in the cockpit." You say goodbye to the person while the Locandiera cackles, and finally you get to enjoy the dessert. It's nicely chill outside, so you choose a table which allows you a view on the valley: stars are cool, but also getting back to the ground...whatever planet is this.
In the end, this day's passed too: you saw a lot of things, and yet you can't ignore that your stomach is not full, on the contrary it feels more hungry. You don't feel to be completely satisfied, and the Locandiera noticed it. "Don't worry" she reassures you "tis but a scratch, an entrée, a mere taste of the adventures to come; soon the main course will be ready to be experienced! In the meantime, process and digest fully what you just saw! Think about it...think..." she repeats endlessly the last word while ghastly walking backwards, hitting a chair, losing balance, and avoiding a ruinous fall for a split second.
Check please: pay me in visibility!
The Internet asks for a non-paid traineeship period, so I'd be really grateful if you could spread the word of my humble establishment! If you liked it, of course.
