“Yellow,” says Fresh. “I want to have an ice-café!”

“What’s a café?” asks Basil.

“Blue,” says Jubilee. “Not interested in any crab-fuckery.”

Fresh raises a finger. “It’s like a restaurant, but you can only buy coughee and cake there,” she explains. “But in our case, it’ll be ice-cream!” She looks back towards Jubilee. “But the ladder is going to be so annoying!” she protests. “How are we going to get all of my crafting supplies upstairs?”

Jubilee points at her. “If you had been doing push-ups like Veli probably is right now, you’d be able to handle that problem.”

“I miss Veli,” says Basil. Fresh nods in quiet agreement.

“Will you people focus for five seconds?” asks Jubilee, placing their hands on their hips. They look up towards Shamrock.

“Yellow,” is all that he says.

“Fuck!” barks Jubilee.

Fresh nods. “I bet Shamrock doesn’t want to climb the ladder all the time either, right, Shamrock?” she asks smugly.

He turns his head, looking at her. “Ice-cream.”

“Huh?” Fresh blinks.

“Ice-cream,” he repeats, turning his gaze back towards the circle. Fresh and Jubilee both sigh at the same time. Of course. Basil laughs quietly off to the side.

“Well?” asks Jubilee, looking at Basil. “What’s it gonna be?” Fresh and Shamrock turn towards the priestess. She has the deciding vote now. Sort of.

“Uh…” Basil crosses her arms, thinking. “I like the idea of not getting crabbed in my sleep for sure,” she says, moving a step to the side to avoid Fresh’s pinching fingers. “But there’s no wash-room in the blue house,” she remarks. “I think I’ve gotten spoiled in the west,” explains Basil with a sad expression. “It was such a nice house. We really made a home out of it in such a little bit of time.”

“I bet it looks like shit now,” says Jubilee. “Damn kids.”

“I’ll say yellow,” says Basil. “On the condition that we crab-proof it.”

Jubilee groans. “Fine. But I want my own room,” they say, crossing their arms.

Fresh nods, having expected as much. “It’s really open. We can put up a few walls,” she explains. “So you don’t want to share a room?” she asks, a little sad.

“No,” replies Jubilee plainly. “Because if I share a room with you, then I’d have to share it with all of you,” says Jubilee, looking at Basil and Shamrock who seem to avert their gazes for a moment. “You know what I’m talking about,” says Jubilee accusingly to the two of them.

“Oh, please,” says Basil, rolling her eyes at Jubilee. “We’ve already shared a bed more than once.”

“It sounds weird when you say it like that,” says Jubilee, taking their turn to look away now.

Fresh shrugs, sure she’s missing some context again. Oh well. “The downstairs area is really big. Should we use it all for one big store-area? Or should we wall some of it off?”

“Let’s use it all,” says Jubilee. “The east has a lot of different materials to work with, you’re gonna be busy filling those shelves here.”

“We’re gonna be busy,” corrects Fresh, lifting a finger.

“Sure, whatever.” Jubilee rolls their eyes.

“What about you guys?” asks Fresh, looking at Basil and Shamrock. “If we’re making rooms upstairs, do you want your own too?” she asks. “There’s space now.”

Basil fidgets with her sleeve. “I’m fine with sharing,” she says. “With everyone,” notes the priestess, looking at Jubilee.

“No,” says Jubilee, making a point of it. “I’m not interested in being kicked all night.”

Basil lifts her nose. “I sleep better when I have something to hold.”

“Don’t you start too with that weird, touchy shit!” exclaims Jubilee. “I refuse to be treated like some fucking teddy-bear!”

Basil lifts her hand. “All in favor of making Jubilee share a bed with us?” Fresh raises her hand immediately and so does Shamrock.

“Vote fucking DENIED!” barks Jubilee, glaring at them. “I’d rather sleep on the beach with the crabs.”

Basil laughs. “Sorry,” she says, waving her hand at Jubilee. “I couldn’t resist.” She nods. “So, yellow it is?”

Jubilee sighs. “Looks that way,” they say looking at the others. “Yellow?”

“Yellow,” says Fresh.

“Yellow,” agrees Shamrock, nodding once.

“Yellow,” reaffirms Basil.

After everything is settled, the four of them return to their work. Fresh is glad that she managed to hide the hat and broom in her inventory before the others came back home. She isn’t sure why the fountain wanted her to make such obvious implements of ‘witchery’. But she’s sure that she isn’t going to like it when she finds out. She just hopes that her friends don’t. Or she’s going to be the one who has to sleep out on the beach with the crabs.

Half an hour later, Jubilee returns with the key.

“That was fast,” says Basil.

“Money talks,” says Jubilee, throwing the key across the room to Fresh who fumbles to catch it. Jubilee sighs, shaking their head. “You better pull this off,” they say to her. “Or we’re fucked.”

Fresh nods. She can’t let the barkeeper down now that she’s upheld her end of the deal. “I’ll ask tomorrow if the herbs have arrived,” she says. “How much did we pay?”

“Under market price,” says Jubilee. “Don’t worry about the numbers.”

Fresh thinks for a moment, tapping her chin. “Isn’t that the exact thing I should worry about though?”

“You should worry about how many boxes you’re gonna carry through the city,” says Jubilee, clapping their hands together once. “We’re moving people. Let’s go.”

“What about Thyme?” asks Fresh.

“Fuck Thyme,” says Jubilee waving her off. “He’s staying here.”

“I’ve already arranged everything,” says Basil, shooting Jubilee a mean look. “He’ll be staying under the care of the adventurers’ guild for a few hundred Obols a week.”

Fresh nods. The four of them start packing up the things that they can carry and will need right away and start to leave the guild. Fresh looks back at their room in the cut-off space one more time. It’s always so sad to leave these rooms behind, but somehow, they never really needed them apart from being a temporary retreat when they arrived in a new place. It would probably be a lot more useful if they were a more ‘traditional’ adventuring party.

She closes the door behind herself, adjusting her bag and steps out into the blue fog. It’s time to get to work.

“So what’s the plan?” asks Basil, as the four of them make their way through the city together.

Fresh lifts her hand, counting off her fingers. “We need a counter and shelves,” she explains. “We need to make the upstairs area ready to live in.”

“We need to crab-proof the house,” says Basil.

“We need to crab-proof the house,” repeats Fresh, lowering another finger. “Oh and I need a workshop,” says Fresh. “Or uh, we all do, actually,” she notes. “We’ll have to figure out something with your planters, Basil.”

Basil nods. “I have an idea about that, actually.”

The city is as busy as always. Adventurers and laypeople and sailors returning from their voyages all run around in every possible direction, ducking into every store and alley. Regarding foot-traffic, this is certainly the busiest city that they’ve been to. She feels like there are just more people here in general as well. She hasn’t seen any of the fairies though, not since they ran into them on the beach that one time. She hopes they’re alright. But it’s a big city, they’re probably just somewhere else.

Climbing down the busy, right-hand staircase, Fresh lets her fingers run along the wall of their new house as they make their way down past the lowest tier. Maybe there could be some kind of… staircase shop-window? Hmm… no, there’s no really good way to stop here and they would be blocking foot-traffic. But maybe some kind of display? Or advertisement? It’s certainly a usable space in some way.

They round the corner, stepping out onto the beach and then into the yellow house, dragging some beach sand in with them, making their very first mess in their new home.