I'm going to be scuttling around here like a four-legged Metal Crab on the beach until I can get all your signatures.
Elderly Shopkeeper
Fine, scuttle on then. I'm packing up, going home and having a drink.
Costa
Be my guest.
Elderly Shopkeeper
I bought this new gadget at the market today, this 'Originium Microwave Massager' something or other. Columbian thing. Can't make sense of it, but it works wonders. Feels like real relief sticking it on my back.
Costa
It's not bad trying something new.
Elderly Shopkeeper
Was that shaggy beckbeast riding a surfboard on the roof one of your funnies too?
Costa
Shaggy beckbeast? No, that's not...
Elderly Shopkeeper
Shame about that, I liked it. Entertainment that good has been rare ever since we lost the Obsidian Festival.
Costa
I'm glad it made you happy...
Elderly Shopkeeper
Right, got something for you.
Costa
...A kalimba?
Costa
Did you pick this up from the same market?
Elderly Shopkeeper
Congrats on the marriage, sonny.
Costa
......
Elderly Shopkeeper
You got a safe job for your family. A boring one, but you've got a sense of responsibility.
Elderly Shopkeeper
I can understand you like stability, but life's full of ways. Don't live out the hound days, son.
Costa
Each day lived is a hound day... you just have to roll with the punches.
Elderly Shopkeeper
I used to gamble with your grandpa, if you'll remember. We said you'd always come back from Obsidian with the grand prize one day.
Elderly Shopkeeper
Honestly... what a waste of all that musical talent.
Costa
If you're interested, I can still bring my guitar out sometime. Play it for you again.
Elderly Shopkeeper
If you'd played us a number on that thing sooner, your letter might've been the first to have my signature on it.
Mrs. Harley, we recovered the surfboards that went missing here. Can you check if that's all of them?
Adele
I'm so sorry about this...
Harley
You helped me here. What are you apologizing for?
Adele
Um...
Harley
I didn't think these old things would ever get used again. It's funny—just who would've taken them?
Adele
Oh, well, I'm not too sure either...
Harley
That's alright, girl. It could be some tourists just picked them up while they were having too much fun—no harm, no foul. How are you? Did you have fun today?
Enis
You mean getting drenched in hot spring water?
Harley
Didn't it bring back a little of that seaside fun? It hasn't been so lively in forever—even the customers here to drink were all smiles.
Harley
Those owners were always frowning day in and day out. Even the drink was starting to taste bad...
Harley looks towards the tourists outside who still haven't scattered. Sunset gradually dyes the sky. Every single person's feeling merry.
A man listlessly heads for the old cafe, and pushes open its door once again.
He feels for the light switch. Carefully, he uses a rag to wipe the dust from the counter, then pulls the equipment out from the cupboards, before pulling a pouch out of his chest pocket. Fresh coffee beans, brought back from the office.
Like so many years ago, he boils, he grinds, then attentively, he pours.
Costa
Huff...
Costa
Flavor is... I guess I've gotten rusty.
He looks out of the window. One after another, people make their way home while it's still dusk. The street grows gradually more desolate, until there's no one out at all. Only then does he chuckle to himself, bitterly.
Costa
Seriously... what the hell am I waiting for?
He finishes his coffee, and prepares to tidy everything away and get out of here.
A knock comes from the door. Costa remembers he never even shut it.
Mr. Dolly, you promise you've made it clear to the Little Black Sheep? Not to cause trouble like this anymore?
Dolly
Yep... any more mess, and I'll disavow them as my clones.
Dozy Creature
(Tumbles about in the air)
Agitated Creature
(Headbutts walls in the street)
Adele
Mr. Dolly!
Dolly
Fine, I'll try as hard as I can...
Dozy Creature
(Attempts to walk calmly)
Dolly
See? Much better.
Adele
But they still caused plenty of chaos at the trade fair today...
Dolly
But the air was full of the smell of joy, you mean. Mmm, it's sugary sweet even now. It's just like the first time I took a walk across the 'countries' you talk about.
Dolly
Where there's hilly areas, you can glide. Where there's watery areas, you can surf. I even had a couple of bastard annoying animals chasing me all over the wilds. Every place produces something different.
Dolly
Knowing how your human race can't just tour the whole place, getting to see such interesting things must be novel for you, right?
Adele
Why do I get the sense you're showing off, Mr. Dolly?
Dolly
Busted.
Dolly
Did you have fun today then, Adele? Hot springs let you relax, skateboarding's a thrill, and that loud-ass penguin's loud-ass music got you pumped up, didn't it?
Adele
Mr. Dolly, those children could see the lambs!
Dolly
*sigh* How is it this hard to cheer you up? There's that 'brooding' flavor in the air again, bitter and tart!
Adele turns away to hide a little giggle, then recovers her straight face.
Adele
Mr. Dolly, we're here. I need to leave the owner a note saying we've found the exhibit, and thank you for worrying about us.
Adele
I have the pen and paper in my bag...
Adele
Oh, is this cafe... open again?
Dim yellow lights perfuse the interior. Through the windows, the cafe's furnishings can vaguely be made out.
Costa pours hot water, the sound breaking the silence between him and his customer.
Condensation fills the windows. Adele gently wipes the hot springs' white mist from the glass, and finally catches a proper glimpse of the customer.
Dolly
What did we stop for? Aren't we going in for coffee?
Maybe we should go, Mr. Dolly? Today doesn't seem like the right one to leave a message.
Dolly
Aww, but the coffee smells so good. Can't we have some...?
Agitated Creature
(Prepares to charge headlong into the cafe)
Adele
Hey... hey!
The closed glass door blocks the lamb's strike, and it hardly makes as loud a noise as she expected. It simply turns tail and shoots back into the street, where it tumbles around.
Adele nervously observes how the two inside react.
When you study volcanoes, you're always visiting new places.
Costa
I remember. You met each other in here a lot.
Keller
Mm. And if they came, you'd plug your guitar in, and off you went with your heavy metal racket.
Keller
Magna always felt 'that boy at the cafe' never seemed to welcome them too much.
Costa
Aah... I was just a little too willful of a brat, back then.
Costa
It wasn't meant at them specifically...
Keller
I know. And they didn't take it to heart.
Keller
You gave them coffee soda to try once, and make us swear to secrecy that we wouldn't tell Grandpa Mockingbird.
Costa
He couldn't stand the drinks I came up with. Every time I added them to the menu, he'd wipe them off... They were just as bizarre to him as my axe, and my drumkit.
Costa
By the way, that wasn't just your average coffee soda. It was called 'volcanic coffee.'
Keller
Alright, alright, yes, 'volcanic coffee.'
Keller
It was a nice drink, in any case. After we went to Leithanien, Katia would follow your recipe to recreate the flavor for himself.
Costa
How are... Katia, and... Magna doing?
Costa
I remember when you left Siesta, you said, you'd be visiting every volcano across the land with them.
Keller
......
Keller
I spent a long, long time with them on our travels.
Keller
But a few years ago, we strayed apart.
Costa
Strayed?
Keller
Yes.
Keller
And we're never to meet again.
Costa
......
Costa
Was it...? I'm so sorry...
Keller
Hence why I came back. Opened that museum. Hoped I could preserve all the research they'd done.
Costa
When I—saw you at the museum that day, it completely... totally blindsided me.
Keller
It was a great surprise to me too. You're nothing like the noisy little child I remember.
Costa
You, too... You're a museum curator and everything.
Keller
Mm. I suppose I've turned an old ideal or two into reality. No matter what, though, the conviction that keeps me going now isn't... really what drove me in the first place anymore.
Keller
Still, change isn't always a bad thing, wouldn't you say?
The trade fair? I did. Tourists were profuse, proprietors were in high spirits—much like the Siesta of old.
Costa
Maybe once this place is all rebuilt, and the tourist influx comes, I'll have an idea or two about what's next for me.
Keller
For example?
Costa
Who knows...? I'll probably keep running a cafe, but maybe a rock 'n' roll cafe, or just a music shop, filled to the walls with drum kits and guitars. Lots to try. Always someone out there who'll enjoy it.
Costa
Just like you say... just like the Siesta of old.
Costa
Oh, something very funny that happened today too. I was at the trade fair, and I saw this soft drink from Columbia. The recipe was one-for-one with my 'volcanic coffee.' The exact same.
Keller
Well, I didn't leak your secret recipe!
Costa
No, no, it was a year ago when I was planning to shutter the shop. I told somebody else about how to make it.
Costa
But honestly... it's just coffee plus soda water. Of course some Columbian could've come up with it on their own too.
Keller
Hand-brewed coffee and soda water. How did you come up with it at first?
Costa
When I was young, I thought coffee was so bitter, I was convinced I had to add something to even make it drinkable!
Keller
You shook the whole cafe playing your rock 'n' roll, and yet you were bad with bitter.
Costa
Who'd care about something like that, back then?
Keller laughs, downing the last gulp of coffee in her cup. The aroma lingers lazily in the cafe air.
Costa
So, want soda in this cup too?
Keller
Sure.
Keller
But after this one, I may well genuinely spend the whole night awake.
Adele, let me just be upfront. I told them what I told them, but the lot of them are dying to go inside, probably to taste the volcanic coffee.
Dolly
To make up for the owner's losses, I can leave a product from today's trade fair in exchange!
Adele
A product from the fair? Where'd you get it?
Dolly
A lovely little child gave me it!
Dolly
Honest!
Adele
......
Adele
Ah! We can't go in now!
Agitated Creature
(Sniffs in corner)
Dozy Creature
(Turns over a box)
The restless lambs drag a case of glass bottles out from the junk to Adele's side, and zealously churn through it for something.
Eventually, they get a few bottles of carbonated water clamped in their mouths and pull off the metal caps, acting like they've found treasure.
Adele
What are you doing? Didn't you want to a soda?
The lambs bounce about, each one with a shiny bottle cap on their head. Then they line up together, and playfully scamper away.
Dolly
*sigh* I said to wait. What makes them even more impatient than me?
Adele
What was all that...?
Dolly
Oh, that's the 'seed' they were after!
Adele
What about these bottle caps... makes them seeds?
Dolly
The world as they see it isn't quite the world you all see.
Dolly
This—itty-bitty little round thing—gets taken by fowlbeasts to places far far away, where it takes root and sprouts, and becomes something completely unlike before.
Dolly
Some become soda caps, some become sauce lids, each one has a different flavor, but they all have their own charms.
Dolly
I assume at least one of them drank that sort of volcanic coffee in Columbia before, so this rings that bell in them particularly loud.
Dolly
Isn't it more than fascinating to view the world that way?
Left-Behind Creature
(Digs at the soil)
Adele
But all that granted... *sigh* Just because you planted the bottle caps doesn't mean they're going to grow into drinks.
