Its been a while, I've been pretty engrossed with the euros, and soing my own activities, but hopefully can continue writing this. i sorta whipped most of this up without a plan, but I think I've got some ideas now however. Also happy birthday to me! Anyways Enjoy
Frederica, Ram and Beatrice left the Manor to go out and search for the materials required for the ball. Ram checked the blueprint again, only to realise how meticulous it is in certain areas yet vague in others. The noon sun was oppressive, bathing them in a warm, loving embrace.
Frederica shields her eyes from the glaring rays, her long hair sticking to her forehead from the sweat. She looks over at Ram, who is carefully examining the blueprint for the soccer ball, noticing the slight frown on her face.
"Is something wrong, Ram? You seem to be examining that blueprint quite carefully."
She doesn't even look up from the blueprint, letting out a frustrated sigh as she responds.
"It's nothing. Just this damn blueprint. Barusu has listed quite explicitly, how the ball should be made. Yet, there are some details he's left vague... It's irritating."
"I see what you mean. Perhaps Subaru is leaving certain details vague on purpose? It could be that he wants us to have some creative licence when it comes to the construction of the soccer ball."
Beatrice pouts, not at all amused by Subaru's vagueness.
"Creative licence, hmpf. More like he wants us to figure out the details on our own. It's beyond obnoxious, in fact."
She huffed, crossing her arms and grumbling under her breath.
Ram rolls her eyes, silently agreeing with Beatrice's annoyance, before speaking
"Exactly. It's as if he expects us to read his mind. It's infuriating."
Ram clenches the blueprint in her hand, feeling her frustration mounting. The heat doesn't help her sour mood. As she looked over the necessary materials and tools, Ram realised that Subaru had left some parts of the even the materials and tools open-ended and subjective, especially the part about the animal bladder as a base. She sighed, annoyed at Subaru's vagueness once again. She rolled her eyes, noting Subaru's winking face next to the mention of powerful scissors or accurate wind magic.
"Hmpf, he thinks he's so funny. 'Powerful scissors or accurate wind magic', what kind of useless advice is that? How are we supposed to know exactly what he means by 'accurate wind magic'?"
Frederica chuckled lightly, amused by the frustration and annoyance displayed by Ram and Beatrice. She stood over them, her eyes skimming over the blueprint, before speaking.
Frustrated, Ram grumbled under her breath, her rising irritation evident in her voice
"That idiot is going to be the death of me, I swear. "Trust in our abilities', more like he's too lazy to give clear instructions. We have no idea what kind of scissors he wants, or how exactly we're supposed to use wind magic for this. It's infuriating."
There was a brief pause before Ram took charge, listing out the steps they needed to take. After that, she moved to the first attainable items on the list.
"We'll need threads and scissors. We can get those from your arts and crafts drawer, Frederica,"
Frederica nodded along, making mental notes of the materials listed. Upon hearing the mention of threads and scissors, Frederica nodded again
"Yes, I have a vast supply of threads and scissors for my craft projects. We can head to my room to get the necessary supplies."
"Sounds like Subaru wants us to use our own ingenuity to figure out the rest. Typical of him, I suppose."
"We can castrate him for it later, right now, we gave a job to do... In addition, I have a few ideas as to where we can get some of the other materials, In the meantime, let's check Frederica's supplies."
"Sounds good. I have a wide range of materials and tools in my room that we can make use of. Let's go and see what we have."
Ram led the way to Frederica's room, still annoyed by Subaru's lack of clear instructions, but trying to remain focused on the task at hand. Ram entered the room first, followed closely by Frederica and Beatrice. The room was tidy and well organised, reflecting Frederica's meticulous nature. The walls were lined with shelves filled with various craft supplies. There were spools of thread in every colour, scissors of different sizes, rolls of leather, and various other tools.
"Here we are. Everything is neatly organised, so it shouldn't take us long to find what we need."
Ram quickly surveyed the room, her eyes taking in the vast assortment of supplies. She headed straight for the section of the room dedicated to threads, while Frederica and Beatrice began rummaging through the other supplies.
"Hm, a nice selection of threads here," Ram remarked as she picked up spools of varying sturdy thread sizes. "We shouldn't have any issues with this."
Frederica smiled as she watched Ram move towards the threads, her eyes scanning the room as well. She nodded in agreement, glad her hobby was coming to fruition.
"Yes, I always make sure to have a variety of threads and colours in case I feel inspired to make something different."
Meanwhile, Frederica and Beatrice began searching through the other supplies, looking for scissors that were adequate for the task at hand. After a few moments of searching, Beatrice triumphantly held up a sharp, sizable, pair of scissors, the blade glinting in the light. She brandished the scissors in the air, waving them like a winning lottery ticket.
"I found some scissors, they look sharp enough to do the job. Now, what's next on the list?"
Ram glanced over at Beatrice and the scissors in her hand with a nod of approval, before she consulted the list once more, running her eyes over the scribblings. She thought for a moment before responding.
"The next item on the list is leather."
She looked to Frederica, half expectantly.
Frederica nodded, and began searching through the shelves and drawers, looking for some leather that could be used for the ball.
"I should have some leather stashed away here somewhere," Frederica mumbled as she sorted through the supplies.
She rummaged through various pieces of leather of different thicknesses, inspecting each one carefully, trying to find the best option. Ram mused to herself as she watched Frederica search through the leathers, a realization dawning on her suddenly. She shared her thoughts out loud.
"We should take some leather of varying thicknesses," Ram suggests thoughtfully. "Subaru's instructions on this task are less than helpful."
She shakes her head, still in disbelief at Subaru's shoddy, slapdash sheet of instructions. Then she turns her attention towards Beatrice and Frederica.
"We'll have to experiment to figure out which thickness is best for making the soccer ball."
Frederica silently agreed, and continued to search through her supplies, gathering leather of multiple thicknesses, ranging from thin and flimsy to thick to inflexible.
"Now, we need the final material on the list," Ram's eyes scanned over the last item. "An Animal's bladder."
Beatrice groaned in annoyance, her patience wearing paper thin, eroding with every passing moment. In actuality, all of their 'patiences' were wearing thin, at this point they all wanted to clobber him over the head.
"Of course, Subaru didn't specify what animal's bladder. That idiot, I swear, he's trying to annoy us on purpose, I suppose!"
Ram nodded, her irritation specifically beginning to boil over. She could already picture the various forms of revenge she wanted to inflict on Subaru for his frustrating planning ineptitude. However, she swallowed her rage and 'locked in' on the task at hand.
"We'll get the animal bladders from the icehouse used for food storage," she said through gritted teeth.
"Subaru may not have specified which animal, but we should be able to find something suitable there."
"Alright, the icehouse it is. Let's head there and see what we can find." Frederica added, remaining composed and professional.
Frederica led the way out of her room, and towards the icehouse, the others following behind, still grumbling and muttering under their breaths in anger. As they walked, Ram's thoughts were still swirling with creative methods of payback for the trouble Subaru had caused.
They soon reached the icehouse, a large, cool building where food and supplies were stored in chilled conditions. There were varying tomahawks, briskets, chained sausages and full bodies of domesticated, lean meat animals. As they entered, the cool air immediately chilled their skin, and a temporary, collective "ahhhhh….." could be heard, in relief from the oppressive heat outside. The sight of the meat sent a twang of hunger through Frederica's stomach, but she quickly suppressed the feeling, staying focused on the task at hand. Ram's eyes darted around the room, taking in the various carcasses and meats hung on hooks. She looked over to Beatrice and Frederica, a frown etched on her face.
"All right, let's get this over with. We should be able to find an animal bladder somewhere here."
Beatrice wrinkled her nose in distaste as the strong smell of meat filled her nostrils. She held her breath as much as possible, trying to avoid inhaling too much of the unpleasant odour.
"Ugh, this stench is bending my nose. Let's find that bladder quickly and get out of here."
Ram nodded in agreement, equally as repulsed by the strong smell as Beatrice. She covered her nose and mouth with her hand, trying to block out the stench as she scanned the room for an animal bladder. With a few precise gusts of wind magic, Ram carved out the bladder of a pig carcass, carefully holding it away from her body with some disgust. She walked back over to Beatrice and Frederica, holding up the bladder for them to see.
"I found one," she said curtly. "Not exactly pleasant, but it'll have to do."
Beatrice wrinkled her nose in disgust, looking at the pig bladder Ram was holding.
"Ugh, that's disgusting. But we have it now, so let's hurry back and start working on this blasted soccer ball already."
Ram rolled her eyes at Beatrice's disgust, but she secretly agreed with her sentiment. Holding the bladder made her feel a little queasy.*
"Yeah, you're right. Let's get out of here."
They quickly made their way out of the icehouse, relieved to leave the cold, meat-filled room behind. As they walked back towards Frederica's room, Ram thought to ask something that had been nagging at her.
"Frederica, I have a question."
"Of course, Ram. What is your question?"
Ram looked over at Frederica, her expression a cross between annoyance, causticness and curiosity.
"I was just wondering how you stay so calm in situations like this? Dealing with Barusu's antics and Beatrice's complaints can be
frustrating, to say the least."
She said, purposefully loud enough for Beatrice to hear.Beatrice snorted in response, uncharacteristically dignified, a smirk appearing on her face at Ram's words, unable to help but comment
"Oh, are my complaints bothering you, Ram? I didn't realise my irritation was such a burden to your delicate sensibilities."
Ram shot a glare at Beatrice, clearly unamused by her sarcastic remark. Beatrice, however, simply stuck her tongue out at Ram playfully. Frederica chuckled involuntarily, amused by Beatrice's sarcastic retort and Ram's annoyed expression. She found the two of them amusing and charming at the same time.
"Oh, you two, behave yourselves. And as for your question, Ram, I'm just used to dealing with difficult situations and handling my emotions. It's all part of the job, I suppose."
She chuckled, mimicking Beatrice.
Beatrice couldn't help but pout a little as Frederica mocked her, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Hey, I refuse to be mocked by mortal beings such as yourselves!"
She protested, earning a smirk from Ram, who found the situation amusing despite her earlier irritation.
"Hmpf, it's true. You're both annoyingly good at dealing with difficult situations and annoying people. Especially Barusu."
She said derisively now copying Ram's own speech mannerisms.
Ram's irritation returned at Beatrice's mocking words, but she couldn't help but acknowledge the truth in it. She chuckled dryly at Beatrice's mimicry of her. Subaru could be quite aggravating, no doubt about it.*
"Don't remind me," she muttered. "Dealing with him can be a pain sometimes. But you're no picnic yourself, you know."
"What's that saying, 'the pot calling the kettle black?' I may grumble and complain, but you're not exactly a ray of sunshine yourself!"
At this point, through the bickering, they'd arrived at Frederica's Room. Frederica smiled at the friendly banter between Ram and Beatrice, but also knew they needed to stay focused on the task at hand.
"All right, all right, you two. As much as I enjoy these back and forths, let's keep this banter for another time, shall we? We still have a soccer ball to make."
Beatrice huffed, clearly not quite done with the chatter, but ultimately relented to Frederica's words. She crossed her arms over her chest again in defiance, pouting a little as she did so. Ram rolled her eyes, secretly amused by Beatrice's stubbornness, but quickly composed herself.
"Right, let's get back to work. We have all the materials we need. Let's make this damn soccer ball and get it over with."
As they set down their equipment, Ram looked back through the blueprint before freezing in her tracks once again, her eyes skimming over the blueprint repeatedly. Beatrice and Frederica both raised their eyebrows in question, before simultaneously saying
"Is something the matter?"
Her hands seemed to tremble in anger, before clenching the paper, tightly.
"These instructions...suck."