Chapter 226: 227: Grump

“CRAB!” yelps Fresh, jumping up onto the construction-site that is their new counter. She swings a perfectly-normal broom around at it. Trying to shoo it out without getting too close to it. “Go on! Get!” she yells at the giant-crab, poking at it with the bristles of the broom. “SHOO!”

The crab, reaching easily up to her knees in height if she were standing on the ground, snips the broom with a massive claw and the head of it falls off to the ground.

“JUBILEEEE~!” she cries in distress.

“Fuck off!” yells Jubilee from upstairs. “It’s just a crab! Sweep it out of the door or something!” Fresh looks at the broken broomstick in her hand.

“It’s a really big crab though, Jubilee!”

There is a rattling noise upstairs and Jubilee sets down whatever it is they were working on. Fresh can hear their grumbling, even from here as they make their way towards the staircase. The crab snips at her again and she yelps, trying to push it away with the broken broomstick.

“Fucking bullshit,” mutters Jubilee audibly, taking on a sarcastic tone as if trying to copy her voice. “Let’s take the yellow house!” they squeak. “I like ice-cream!” they mock. “Crabs? Who cares about crabs, Jubileeee~?!” asks Jubilee. Fresh is certain she can hear the rolling of their eyes, even down here. “I have more free space to be annoying in the yellow house!”

“I don’t sound like that!” argues Fresh. The crab snips the rest of the broomstick in half. The broken piece of wood falls to the floor, rolling away to the side. “Leave me alone!” she yells at the crab that stands there with its pincers raised up high into the air, snipping at her menacingly.

Jubilee snaps their fingers, throwing some beach sand down to the ground. A second later, the crab vanishes, having been skewered straight up towards the ceiling by a single piece of glass.

Jubilee shakes their head, heading back upstairs without bothering to look twice. “A crab-proof house? We don’t need a crab-proof house!” they say in a voice that Fresh assumes is supposed to be Basil’s, given the cadence of it. “Ooh, let’s take the yellow house! I don’t actually want it, but I’m desperate so I’ll agree.”

Desperate? Did Basil really want to move out of the adventurer’s guild that badly or something? She hadn’t noticed. Fresh shrugs, scratching her cheek and looking at the broken stub of a broom left in her hand. Jubilee is apparently feeling a little snarky today. “Thanks, Jubilee,” calls Fresh up after them. “Do you want a hug? Will that help you feel better?”

No response. Fresh gasps, realizing. They must be copying Shamrock now.

Deciding to let Jubilee be, she climbs down off of the counter and waves to her reflection in the glass. It waves back and the pillar shatters a second later, sending a wave of glass out over the floor, together with the body of one, very dead, crab. Fresh assumes that she’s going to have to be the one to clean this up. She sighs, looking at the broken broom. Oh well, nothing that some glue and some metal can’t fix.

She could loot the crab, but…

Fresh quietly scoots the dead crab out of the door with the side of her boot. Unfortunately, the process is not as subtle and quick as she had hoped it would be. It was a big crab.

Grabbing their glue and a long metal rod about the same length as the broomstick, she sets everything down. First she simply glues the broken pieces of the handle together and then, using some straps, she fastens the small metal-pole to the broomstick, like a brace.

1 DMG

+1 DMG against [CRUSTACEAN]-type

Quality Effect: +1 WATER DMG

Weight: 1.1kg

“Uh…” Fresh looks at the menu that just appeared, this is clearly not what she was expecting. “Jubilee,” she calls up the stairs, cupping her hand by her mouth. “I made a battle-broom!”

“Shove it up your ass!” yells Jubilee from upstairs.

Fresh frowns. Maybe she really should leave Jubilee alone today? They seem really grumpy about something. “Sorry,” she calls up the stairs quietly. “I’ll leave you alone, Jubilee,” she relents.

Jubilee doesn’t reply.

Fresh scratches her cheek, deciding that maybe her friend will be able to fall into a better mood if she works really hard to get this place ship-shape, whatever that means. Using her new, odd, broom, she sweeps all of the glass and remaining pieces of crab together. Interestingly enough, the water damage from the broom seems to apply to sweeping and it always leaves a tiny bit of damp wherever she sweeps. It’s almost like a broom and a mop in one, but also, it’s terrible because of exactly that. All of the dirt clumps together and sticks as she sweeps over it with the damp bristles.

She considers asking Jubilee if she can go and buy a new broom, but she decides against it, opting to take the hard way instead of bugging her friend again, during their bad day. She wonders, are they really that upset about them not taking the blue house? No, she can’t imagine that. Jubilee was pretty on board with the yellow house too. Plus it’s not something that they would get this upset over.

Maybe Jubilee really likes blue, though?

Fresh blinks. No, no… that doesn’t make sense. People don’t get this upset about stuff like that. Jubilee is probably just having a bad day because they slept weird or something. Maybe they have a headache? Then again…

Fresh considers the possibility. Jubilee had once said that their favorite color was green, but -

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Her eyes shift around the room as she continues to ineffectively sweep-mop.

- but she remembers when Jubilee had their ‘great day’ back in their northern house. They wore a clean, untattered, blue outfit and then, when they had made Fresh’s cherished blanket, they had also opted for blue fabric. The pieces are all coming together… Fresh nods to herself. So that means, Jubilee secretly loves the color blue! Green being their favorite color was a lie! She gasps.

No, no… That’s dumb. She shakes her head again. Would Jubilee lie to her about something as banal as their favorite color? She thinks about it, not coming to a satisfactory answer and then just shrugs. Whatever. It’s not her business. She’ll finish her work here and then maybe she’ll start on Jubilee’s room, so they can have some quiet.

…Maybe it’s their birthday?

Fresh gasps again, ‘realizing’. Is Jubilee mad because nobody thought about their birthday today?

No… no… that can’t be it either. None of them know each other’s birthdays to begin with, as far as she knows. They all share a rather odd, half-secretive, half-deeply-open friendship. It’s nice, but also weird. That can’t be the reason for their sour mood.

…Can it?

“Nah,” says Fresh, finishing up and setting the battle-broom to the side, but within arm’s reach, in case another crab shows up. She shakes her head, focusing on the task at hand.

Lifting her hands, she frames the big window where the counter is supposed to go. They’re going to need to put a cooling cabinet there, underneath it, so they can sell ice-cream right out through it to the people sitting outside. Maybe snacks and drinks too?

She nods.

Then here, inside, they could have all of their equipment and other items. People would get lured in by the crowds outside of the window, stop by for a refreshing snack and then while they’re already here, they might as well sell their drops and maybe buy a thing or two too.

It’s the perfect strategy. This shop is going to do great! She’s sure of it.

She already has the layout planned in her head. The room is large and square. The front door is in the middle of the room. So that means they’re going to have the counter on the left, by the door and by the big window to the beach. Customers entering the shop will move down the shelves towards the right and follow the entire layout of the store, until they get around to the counter, ideally with their hands full with…

With… wait. Their hands?

Fresh stops again, thinking for a moment. This building is big. Easily twice as big as any of their other stores. That means people are going to have to walk a lot and they’d have to carry everything they want from the shelves through the whole place, likely while dripping wet and covered in beach sand.

“Shopping carts!” she exclaims, her fist hitting her open palm. They needed shopping carts! People will not only have a much more convenient time that way, but they’ll tend to simply buy much more in general. Of course!

Something skitters down at her feet.

Fresh yelps, jumping away towards the counter as the new crab snips at her and misses. “CRAB!” she yelps, grabbing her battle-broom.

Razmatazz

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