The crippled capricorn inn

Inauguration day

March 2026

This month's menu

1. A welcoming appetizer.
2. The main course: art and chatters.
3. The Dessert: tips and reviews.
4. Check please!

A welcoming appetizer.

Being in the middle of summer means only one thing to you: sudden rainstorms.
Clearly you had different plans when you got out of home, like living the season of possibilities, but that's Earth 2026 for you. You didn't take your umbrella, of course, and the rain is so heavy you can't even see its drops; your eyes desperately search for some repair, and you find yourselves running towards a building from which come warm lights and dishes' sounds.

"Clients!? So early? But I just finished deciding tonight's menu!" A voice echoes from behind the counter, probably from the kitchen. The bartender without even turning to the voice replies "We all heard you!" and as she finishes the phrase a figure emerges from the kitchen: a body apparently confident of its place in the world, hosting a face desperate to control the situation by frantically looking everywhere. To mimic this mood, her hands try to fix every moment her hair, showing an undercut style on the left on which ear you can see lots of piercings and earrings. Her cooking apron is already quite dirty.
She runs to welcome you and hits against the counter, swearing by mistake; as you try to check on her, though, she quickly recomposes herself and, finally, welcomes you.

"Sorry for the curfuffle! I forgot to lock the door...surely I can't kick you out with this storm though...it'd seriously harm my business ah ah ah!"
Her laugh falls in an awkward silence, as you feel like you're in a JRPG where the protagonist never talks and you're a mere puppet forced to hear all of people monologues...as soon as the Innkeeper sees your (non)reaction, picks back the discourse:
"My name's Sora, your Locandiera...as we'd say in Italy, soreta, if you wish! Here you'll find some nutriment for your mind! I'll be here to give you respite from the wear of our modern society, with some chatting about what we watch, play, listen to...how we live, in brief. My specialty drink, as you can guess, is baloon juice! Ah ah ah!"
Well...as long as she doesn't ask for money...

The main course: art and chatter.

Sora brings you to a table near a quite remarkable windows, with a view to the street. The sunset lights the simple and clean cutlery and the glasses, combined together on a white tablecloth with light floreal decorations in purple, orange and even a touch of black. While you make yourselves comfortable, the Innkeeper brings a panel with an illustration printed.

"In my free time I relax with some illustrations. Given the labor market and a quite precariously balanced -but progressively deteriorating- mental health, I've taken my artistic life in my hands and started dedicating myself more seriously to it."
"Ideally, this space would exist to establish a more...direct contact with people who could be interested in my endeavors, to have more space and freedom of speaking compared to media where not even a marketing degree could save me from oblivion. Like how it was when Facebook was born." She conclused with a somewhat amused face.

Probably she was expecting at least some sympathy from you, instead a silence falls on the table, stretching time indefinitely: you don't quite find the words to meet her expectations, she can't think of any non-embarrassing way to recover the conversation. The sweat drops you feel going all the way down your face seem more indicative of a Mexican standoff than a simple awkward lapse of conversation. The question is the same: who'll make the first move?

"Anyway!" the moment ends and so Sora's explanation. "As a birthday present to a friend in this exibit you can see how I tried for the first time to make a comical portrait, with a discretely satisfying result! In some Italian cities with an academic tradition, like Padua, it's tradition for the just-graduated to read a particular text in rhyme, wrote by their friends; this piece of poetry is decorated with the portrait, some fun photos of the "protagonist" and dares which can be quite peculiar, I can assure you."

As you observe the portrait Sora taps on the window, which glows projecting on the wall a perfect quality copy. "The nice part of 300dpi" she whispers while you watch this illusionary trick.
"I'm quite satisfied of this part: despite its simplicity -basically its grey rectangles, waves and a circle- I managed to represent the main features of the Gulf of Naples. I love that city, and truth be told I didn't use any reference, it's all as my tiny little heart remembers it." This time you can guess Sora's metaphorically gone to swimming in the coast or walking through the streets. After a moment the seems to come back to you:
"Obviously it can always be improved, I could work on the clouds and the sky in general...I kinda felt the pressure of having my friend's birthday as a deadline, but seeing how the inspiration slowly took form was really exciting! In the end, I finished it only a week later!" You're not sure she was so calm at the time.

While you're still concentrated on the Gulf, the Locandiera apruptly changes the view on other images quickly excusing herself "SORRY I STILL NEED TO LEARN HOSPITALITY".
"Speaking of silly things, lately I've been drawing like crazy, I could like, make some monthly sketchbooks, as a takeway meal..."

You observe the drawings in silence, unsure if Sora is expecting some feedback from you, or she's dedicating this moment to respectful pondering. Of this you're sure, as it's happened many times, no one seems willing -or capable- to fill this void.

The dessert: tips and reviews

Dulcis in fundo, here I'll give you some little desserts or sours which will give you a little hint about next month's menù!

Next time, I'll focus on a couple of things I recently played which inspired me: I'd like to recommend them to you and if you already know them why not having a chat about it?

Today we have an RGB sorbet: from magenta to green to blue, a triangle of perfumes and flavours highly strangers to you, surely new, barely something humans would like or even conceive...but, if we cannot but look at the world with our human eyes and mentalities, does the concept of "inhuman" exist? Must be a rather existentialist sorbet, this one...

At the end of the meal the Locandiera comes to your table: you can well see how the cooking effort has left its scars on her, judging by the sweat which reflects the light of the Moon. Luckly for her, you think, she came out of this alive and well, as she frees her pink and too long hair.

The Locandiera takes a deep breath and with a tired smile places a little check on the table: "gentlepersons, congratulations for getting to the end of the meal! I hope you enjoyed my cuisine: I'm open to all kinds of feedback, but I'm quite sensible you know, I kindly ask you to use a moderate tone!"

A glimmer on her hips catches your attention: are those kitchen knives?

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. Share