To Do With Human Will Power

In the Town Hall foyer:

What do you think? says Unni, pulling out the military cap.

Impossible! says Captain Louttit. I might as well continue to wear a barnacle! Where are they, by the way, those barnacles?

We let them go, says Unni. At Cemetery Rock.

Go? says Captain Louttit. My crew! You had no right to.

You didn't own them, says Unni.

I was in charge of them, says Captain Louttit.

Well, they're better off, says Unni. There was heavy wave action, and probably a tube worm zone as well.

No hat, no crew, sighs Captain Louttit. What else can go wrong?

I can't help noticing, says Unni, that you have a lovely mask on. Where did you get it?

Made it myself, says Captain Louttit, sulkily.

It's very nice, says Unni. It matches ...well it would have matched.... your carapace.

Silence.

I suppose you'll grow a new one, says Unni.

Silence.

Well, says Unni. I'm off now. Brrr! I bet it's cold outside.

She rummages in her back pack for a scarf or something.

And out drops the pale blue cloche.

Captain Louttit's eyes are out on stalks. Whoop! A pale blue cloche hat, made of wool, with a bit of cotton hanging off the side.

Oops! says Unni, the flower has fallen off. Who cares though.......stupid hat.

Don't you want it? asks Captain Louttit.

........

Outside:

Even more freezing.

Gaius has wandered down towards the Franklin Wharf, to have a go at manipulating one of the levers in the Articulated Intersect searchlight installation.

Schopenhauer, less scientifically minded, remains on the bench beside the Mexican-Canadian.

You seem to know a lot about it, says Schopenhauer.

It's my installation, says Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.

Quite simple I imagine, says Schopenhauer.

Not at all, says Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. There are the locations, and the angles, not to mention that the levers sometimes act against the will of the operator ......but perhaps you are not technically minded.

As a matter of fact, says Schopenhauer, I am deeply interested in anything to do with human will power.

Then why are you sitting on this bench my friend? asks Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. And why is it your companion who has gone down to the wharf to try and operate the lever?

I have always been something of an armchair philosopher......begins Schopenhauer.

But Rafael Lozano-Hemmer has stopped listening.

He is looking at the passing parade.

The passing parade at this moment is particularly interesting.

A tall young woman in a military cap and thermals, followed by a lobster in an over sized blue cloche hat, with a red horned mask just visible under the brim.

Behind them, a man in a black studded cloak and a mask of fractured mirrors, another man in a trench coat and red pitted plague mask, and a younger man in a red beret with eye holes, a black Bossini jacket with a Johnny collar, and Brave Soul Paisley Skull shorts, and whose knees do not look in the best condition.