Chapter 223: 224: House hunting

“Were we really standing outside of this house for hours, just to watch people?” asks Basil, annoyed. “I thought we were waiting on someone to bring the key or something,” says the priestess, stepping into the large, front area. Immediately on the right-hand side when entering is a wall. The whole left space is a large, open space however.

“Like I said, we were observing our customer-base,” says Jubilee, inspecting a window-sill. The large downstairs room has one large window that looks straight out towards the beach and a second, tiny one in the corner, down by the foot of the staircase outside, heading up to a higher tier in the city.

“It was really good for product-development, Basil!” says Fresh, looking around the house. Sand is everywhere in this downstairs room. But it has potential. She lifts her fingers, framing the space. They could do a long ‘L’ shaped counter here on the left and she could open up the windows. They could offer their wares through them, like a beach kiosk. Drinks, snacks, equipment. All such things, ready to go without anyone ever having to leave the beach or step inside. “Can we afford this place?” she asks. “It’s right on the water.” Fresh looks around nervously. “It isn’t haunted, is it?”

“Not yet it isn’t,” says Jubilee, walking to the end of the front-door-wall and looking around the corner. “Don’t worry about that. We’re cov- What the fuck?”

“What’s up?” asks Fresh, looking at the small room behind it. This seems to be it. “Only two rooms?” she asks. “It’s a little cramped, but we could make it work.”

Jubilee nudges her with their elbow, pointing up towards the ceiling where there is a square hole carved into it. If there was once a staircase here of some kind, it’s gone now, for whatever reason. She racks her brain. “Shamrock?” asks Fresh. “Can you give us a boost, please?” she asks. Before she can finish the sentence, Shamrock is already lifting her up towards the hole. Fresh grabs the stone ledge, clambering up to the second floor. A second later, Jubilee and then Basil are foisted up after her.

“Uh…” Fresh looks down at the giant, not having any idea how to get him up here. The three of them combined couldn’t lift him and even if they could, she isn’t sure he would fit through the hole in his armor.

“I’ll wait,” says Shamrock.

Fresh nods. “I’ll tell you how it is!” she says, getting up and looking around the upstairs area. It’s essentially a giant, open loft that covers the entire span of the floor. The ceilings are really high and there is a large window with a reading-nook facing out towards the beach. To the side, on the corner that would be just above the theoretical counter-top below, is a square balcony. She steps out onto it, feeling the fresh winds coming over the ocean, reaching her face.

“It’s certainly roomy,” says Basil. “We’d have to do a lot with it. But there’s potential.”

“The weird hole thing is kind of fucky though,” ponders Jubilee, stepping out to the edge of the balcony and looking down over the railing. They have a perfect view from here of the chaos below. “AH!” Jubilee hits their fist into their open palm, coming to a realization. “Crabs can’t get up the hole.”

“Aaaaah,” says Basil, realizing now too. “Very pragmatic.”

Fresh blinks. “…Crabs?”

Basil nods. “Sure. The house is right in the crab-zone. I’m sure they get inside sometimes.”

“That’s not great,” says Fresh, not keen on having intruding crabs in her home.

“Yeah,” says Jubilee. “Just imagine you’re asleep,” they say, turning around to face her. “And then one of them climbs up to your room and -”

“- GETS YOU!” yells Basil, pinching her in the side. Fresh screams, not having expected their cooperation in this attack. She jumps back, swiping her hands over her body to remove any pinchy-fingers. Foot-demons are bad enough, but foot-crabs? This doesn’t seem acceptable.

Basil and Jubilee laugh, giving each other an approving nod. “That’s why the hole is there,” explains Basil. “There’s probably a ladder or something stowed away somewhere. Crabs can get up stairs, but not a ladder.”

“It doesn’t have a washroom, does it?” asks Fresh, looking around the area.

“Nope,” says Jubilee. “Ocean’s right there.”

“Ew!” says Fresh. She would obviously have to build an entire washroom if they take this house. She’s willing to put in the hours for this critical project, however. The three of them head to the hole and slowly drop back down with some help from Shamrock.

“It needs a lot of work,” says Fresh to Shamrock, who simply nods in return. “But the view is nice!” Kicking some sand out of the way, she closes the door to the sky-blue, anti-crab house behind them. “Now what?”

“Now we’re looking at house number two,” says Jubilee.

“Huh? Really?” asks Fresh. “We get to choose?”

“That’s how buying a house works, dummy,” sighs Jubilee.

“I’ve never bought a house before, Jubilee,” says Fresh, looking at Basil and Shamrock who exchange a glance and then shrug, neither of them having done so either.

They head right, from out of the door, past the staircase and the first row of four houses, stopping at the next staircase immediately after. They’re still across from the dungeon, but now they’re just… to the left side of it, instead of the right side of it. Well, at least if you’re looking at them from this way. But if you were coming from the city -

Fresh turns around in the spot she’s standing in.

- Then it would be on the… right?

No, uh…

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She looks around, having confused herself.

“Are you having a heat-stroke?” asks Jubilee, staring at her quizzically from up ahead. Fresh laughs, running after her friends to the next house which is next to the other staircase, down to the beach. There are essentially two main-traffic routes in the city down to the beach and to the dungeon and apparently both of their choices are attached to them. How… suspiciously convenient.

She stares up in delight at the spring-shine yellow house, it also has a very pleasing, vibrant color. The front door is ahead of them, between two large wooden beams that stick deeply into the ground, suspending an overhanging, wooden balcony above them.

Fresh points to the ground. “This could be a great area for a patio,” she says. “If we make a wooden floor here,” she suggests, pointing at the sand below them. “Then we’ll have shade from the balcony too,” says Fresh. “Maybe we could put up some tables and stuff and make a little eating area?”

“We’re not making a restaurant,” sighs Jubilee, opening the door.

“No, but for the ice-cream,” says Fresh. “It would be a nice place to relax and people sitting outside of our store would attract even more people to come by when they see them.”

“It makes sense,” says Basil, stepping inside. The first thing in the yellow house is a small incline that heads upwards, only for a single step, but it seems to be enough to keep the sand out. She stops, looking around. “It’s uh… it’s very spacious.”

Fresh blinks, staring at the entire downstairs area which is simply one giant, entirely empty, square room. The front wall has a large window towards the beach and the right wall has a raised, half-window towards the staircase. There is a single door in the back. She heads towards it, their steps echoing around the empty space and looks inside. It’s a stairwell that goes up.

“Stairs!” says Fresh, relieved. She isn’t sure how she feels about having to climb a ladder every day in the other house. Though maybe she could convince her friends to let her install something like a fireman’s pole in it, if they take that one.

One thing that both of the houses seem to lack though is a basement. She supposes that makes sense though, right on the beach, a basement would probably be less than ideal because of the wet, soft ground. To her relief, this house has a wash-room to the right, half-way up the staircase. Racking her brains about the logistics of it, she realizes that this room must be inside of the cliff, just below the road of the next tier. It doesn’t have a convenient stream of always-hot mountain-water like their old house, but it does have something Fresh has never seen before in this world. A shower.

Granted, it looks like some madman had cobbled it together out of old bronze pipes and the water is apparently all seawater. But it’s a shower alright. The others are fascinated by the thing and surprised at Fresh’s ability to explain what it is. She can’t help but wonder who made this? The last owner of this house must have been pretty inventive.

As for the upstairs, it’s simply another entirely empty room. The biggest feature is the double-glass door to the wooden balcony that hangs above the entrance that the four of them head out onto, looking over the anarchy below them.

“Well… it certainly has a good skeleton?” suggests Basil. “There’s lots of space to add our own walls and rooms.”

“It’s not crab-proof though,” says Jubilee.

“Is that going to be a real problem?” asks Fresh, not liking this concept of nightly crab-attacks.

“If it wasn’t, they wouldn’t have built the blue one like that,” says Jubilee.

Fresh looks at Shamrock. “Crabs fight fiercely,” is all that he says, seeing her worried expression. Apparently, these two houses are their choices. Both of them will need a lot of work in different ways, but both of them also offer opportunities that the other doesn’t.

“Sleep on which one you like more,” says Jubilee to them. “We’re going to have to make a decision soon.”

Razmatazz

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