Rabbit, Wolf, and Gnome Working on a Plan

“A test run? Before we start work on the atelier? What did you have in mind? I’m curious,” said Althana to Usagi; both were in nothing but lingerie at a private booth at the back of the diner with no real name; the only thing with names in this town were the people, everything else, including the inn and the town itself, didn’t really have a name. It was a given in their situation; this community was barely over a decade old and had nothing outstanding about it, be resources or figures, really stuck out before Yuri’s arrival at this place. That was another thing in Athana’s favor; she had no idea a figure like Yuri was even in this town; it was quite likely his arrival happened sometime after she was on the road, and wasn’t really able to get news before she arrived in the town.

“This place needs a public bathing facility; it can get frustrating waiting to use something as small as a tub, especially since it takes far too much time for the people with tubs to empty the whole thing and then have the next person wanting to bathe fill it up with water, even if they can do something like that with water magic. If there was a large enough hot spring in the area, it probably wouldn’t be that much of an issue, but we have no such luck. So, what about building a structure that is basically a giant bath?”

“That could work,” said Althana, “how familiar are you with these houses of bathing?”

“They’re called bathhouses,” said Usagi flatly, “they’re a facility that houses a giant bath and facilities for your belongings; some even have refreshment stands at the chamber designated for cooling off after you’ve spent time in the hot waters of the bath. I’m sure you could work out a system for circulating the water so that it both stays clean with its maximum projected occupancy and the right level of hot for bathing to really sell the sensation of spending time in hot water to clean yourself off. Of course, guests need to go through a prewash as well, and there is a room in the facilities for that as well. Mind you; this is all a general summary of how the structures are supposed to work. And my clan is pretty well-versed on hot springs and bathhouses; we actually keep a bit of a record on where each is and how well it meets our twelve most important points; the higher the rating the more likely we are to suggest the facilities to others when we’re in that area.”

“Makes sense; I do need to get a proper read on the materials available in the area… I think I have a few ideas on how to make use of this concept; I just need to get my hands on some samples of the various native materials to figure out the best way to optimize everything. How long do you think something like that will take to build, after all the resources are acquired?”

“Depends on how big you want to make it and what sorts of extra features you want to include.”

“We’ll need some special features, like a special bathing chamber for Yuri, and his ‘special partners’ and maybe some chambers for smaller and larger demographics.”

“Oh, absolutely,” said Althana as she began sketching, “we’ll need to find a way to circulate the water for purposes of cleanliness. Creating a proper water filtration system for water circulation will be…tricky, but I’m confident I can figure something out. After we get that all squared away, I can create a similar water system for the town, right down to scaled-down versions of the filtration system for each facility we give running water.”

“Well,” came Selvina’s voice with amusement as she slipped into the booth next to Usagi, “making plans for the town without me?”

“More like hammering out a proposal before bringing it to you,” said Usagi, “ateliers tend to be rather complex facilities; having something a bit simpler to build will give the construction crews some experience with those more complex facilities. And if it leads to some new amenities for the town, that’s just a bonus.”

“Makes sense,” said Selvina, “what are you trying to hammer out the details for? I already greenlit the atelier, even if you haven’t found the right location for it yet.”

“A bathhouse,” said Usagi, “I’ve made use of such facilities before, and they’re great helping improve community morale and relations.”

“Always good,” said Selvina, “what is the status of contact with your village?”

“I’ve had to make use of a more roundabout method than usual,” said Usagi, “if my calculations are right…it should be getting there in the next few days; I probably won’t get a response for my letter for about a week, at the earliest.”