C-DTHS06 (Nov 25, 1988)
Puzzle
"A Cafe owner, in a time long since passed."
See: DTHS05 | 2 Words
Clue
Hover over the clues if you require!
Clue 1: Was there something in the past?
Clue 2: 15th Sphere might help.
Clue 3: The Name of the Owner of the Cafe in the 15th Sphere is...
Answer and Explanation
Answer: Jean-Marc Chausson
Explanation: This is the alluded-to 'Cafe owner' in the Fifteenth Sphere - Jean-Marc himself.
Summary of Receipt
Summary
Transcript
CAFE RECEIPT
RECEIPT NUMBER: DTHS06
RECEIPT DATE: 11 25 1988
MANAGER TITLE: BALTIMORE
RECEIPT NOTES:
Out of the Diner and into the Cafe… I suppose I can be a bit more open here. The Oracle’s words have stuck in my mind like a thorn. I dismissed them publicly—as you all should, too. The best way to defeat Fate is to wave away its riddles and rhymes as if they’re meaningless. But no amount of waving can clear the smoke from a room long since burned. I’ve hinted at it here and there, but, my dear allies of the Coffee Trade, I am Fated to die. Sooner rather than later. Left on the wrong side of a door.
October 31st, 1999—that was the night the Cafe and Diner burned down with me inside. No prophecy led me to my end then, just a single match—lit by hands I can only guess at. Padre Santos, perhaps. The Astorians? Likely. The Nain Rouge to finish the job… or maybe even Lucifer’s father, reaching far beyond his cage. I stayed behind that night. I told myself it was out of duty—that someone needed to lock up, to see the very end of the late night of the Open Doors Church.
But the truth? I didn’t want to face the noise, the masks, the small talk. I let them all go to that wretched Halloween party, and by the time I realized I wasn’t alone in the Cafe, it was too late. The fire spread quickly, unnaturally so. Smoke filled the air—thick, acrid, choking. I remember the heat, the sound of wood cracking like bone. I remember the door. Locked. By whose hand, I’ll never know.
And I remember the calm that washed over me as the flames took hold. Not because I was ready to die, but because I thought—this is what it takes. I didn’t die that night—my Ego did. My fear. It burned away, and in that moment, I became what God needed me to be. And now, here I am. Human again. The Cafe and Diner lives, rewound into existence like the rest of this strange, cyclical Universe.
But the Oracle’s words… they feel like a replay of that night, another flame licking at the edges of what I’ve built. I suspect I’ll die again when the Open Doors close. I will still find myself on the wrong side of that Door. And that is why I need to speed things up. Why I need powers I don’t currently have.
…Powers I can only get from a higher source.
Like a Phoenix,
Baltimore