Boiling [Open]

[morphitudinous]

When life gives you lemons, the solution is simple in Billy's world: get to work!

With a restlessness perhaps more intense than his usual construction mode, Billy had located the agreed-upon site of the bathhouse in the City and begun preliminary work over the past few days. The contributions were collected, labor was pitched in, and by now the ground was level and the water was just about ready to flow in as soon as the heating system was installed. Soon enough, walls and fixtures would begin to appear.

On the outside perimeter of the work area were the different design sketches, all kept there on easels for reference and comments. A blank paper was left for anyone to propose additions if they wanted to. Whatever happened, Billy would work day in and day out to finish construction as quickly as possible. He still spent hours in the lab at his original job each day, but every spare moment was spent here, including two that were once for sleeping. Even his slop was grabbed to go and eaten here while he adjusted the blueprints or shaped some gathered wire.

He would need some help gathering and moving the scattered material for the walls, but he was confident that it could be done soon. Some of the crew members were celebrating the winter holidays again, weren't they? This would be his gift to the ship, as it was about the most he could contribute right then.

((ooc: This is pretty much to establish that the bathhouse/onsen construction is underway. Tagging in for the volunteers is totally optional and handwavable, of course, this can just be one big handwave 'this is happening' post. I still need to clear when it'll be done, but I'm hoping by maybe a week/week and a half after podpop. Billy's showing small signs of depression---bags under eyes, lined face, more closed-off than usual---but they can be missed or chalked up to a bad day if you just want a light thread. I'm not sharing angst with anyone unless you want that direction!))

Comments

[killsfengshui.livejournal.com]

Mei-Xing examines the plans one more time, glancing over the hinted additions. She sketches a few more additions, then sets to work figuring out how to support it all in. "I notice that we have quite a few requests, and not a whole hell of a lot of people turning up to help."

She, of course, isn't lifting a finger other than altering the plans to work with everything they wanted to add in. Kang's orders, she said to anyone who asked. Rebelliously, she eliminated all trace of Japanese architecture that were slipped into her plans, replacing them with a 'more sensible' Chinese design that worked well with the feng shui of the city. A steam sauna, a hot box, hot tubs, showers, fake 'hot springs'... So much drek to pack in.

[morphitudinous]

The design, Billy thought, was coming along fairly well! He quirked an eyebrow at the...pattern of Mei Xing's deletions, but he'd let it go if no one complained. She was at least partially right: the people who show up to work on the project have some degree of creative control over it.

"It's all right, I know everyone's occupied with their own work. I'm pulling late night shifts to make sure everything in the department is still done, but I don't mind the requests. We can pick whatever works best with your design, since it's a facility for everyone."

[killsfengshui.livejournal.com]

"Too bad we don't have that little kid of yours around." The amusement park one. She'd be damned if she knew how to make his robots do stuff. Some of that anti-gravity tech he apparently had would make this go a lot quicker. "We can get everything everyone's requested in. It's just a matter of how big we're gonna make this place."

Not that she minded big, but making sure the qi of the City flowed smoothly, making this a place of positive energy, that was a major priority of hers.

[morphitudinous]

"I hope Rock's all right down there," Billy always worried. To date, crew members had always died on the ship, never on a planet, but he was sure there would be a first time. "If he comes back before we're finished, though, I might ask if his robots aren't all occupied with his own work."

Billy nodded approvingly at the sketches. "That's great. As far as size...I don't think everyone will make the effort to shower down here every day when their plantsuits or their sonic showers can keep them clean. I estimate that most visitors will come about once a week, so I don't think we'll see huge crowds. There's also the issue of wanting privacy, so people will probably try to stagger their visits throughout the day."

Personally, Billy planned to use the baths at the on-ship equivalent of 5 AM. Hopefully it wouldn't be too crowded then. "So it shouldn't need to be much bigger than the size needed to handle 30 to 40 crew members at a time."

[leafonthewind]

A bath house.

A real bath house with real water.

The place was little more than a foundation right now, but Wash practically had stars in his eyes when he walked up to the site and found that yes, ground had been broken and yes, this was actually happening.

"You, sir, are a saint among men," he said. "I can take the food, I can take the humidity - I can even take the plant suits to a point, but you're giving us baths. Shiny."

[morphitudinous]

Billy ducked his head, still modest as ever.

"I had to do it at some point," he answered. "A friend of mine reminded me of the unused water we had waiting here, and a year of dirt-eating suits and sonic showers hasn't exactly been ideal." He was already dreaming of how good it would feel to relax once it was done.

When Billy bobbed back up to check the pipes he was laying against the master plan, though, his brain caught the familiar word. No one said that, except...

"You're from Kaylee's crew, right?"

[leafonthewind]

It was a little odd to hear 'Kaylee's crew,' but he was getting used to it. The ship was definitely more hers than anyone else's, anyway. "Yep, I fly the boat. And the Quarter, now, but that's more of a part-time thing. Serenity is home."

He stepped up onto the foundation, looking around. "If there is anything at all I can do to help speed this process along, you let me know. I'm not the best physical laborer... person... ever, but I can lift. I have musculature." If Jayne were around, Wash would conscript him, but he didn't know where Jayne had gone to.

[morphitudinous]

'Serenity is home'. Yes, this man and Kaylee were definitely from the same crew. Billy had heard that plenty of times before.

He nodded, looking down at the vast network of pipes before him, awaiting connection to the main body of water. He was just about done with the ground-level work: all that remained were the under-floor heaters that Angie had requested. After that, he could start to build up.

"I've started to lay out the under-floor heaters. Some of our crew are insisting that our feet stay warm in the bathhouse, and I'm happy to oblige. On this end, I'm finishing the sealing on the pipes. You're welcome to do either if you'd like, or start moving wall material when we put up the frame."

Crud. What was his name? Kaylee had mentioned it once or twice, Billy thought. Mal? Jayne? No. The pilot, he was pretty sure, was Wash. "It's good to finally meet you...Wash, right? Or is there a title you prefer?"

[leafonthewind]

"Just Wash," he said. He'd been insisting on it so long that even the thought of a title made him smile. "Kaylee talks about us a lot, I take it."

He rolled up the sleeves of his plantsuit without really thinking about what he was doing - they seemed to be pretty resistant to dirt and tearing but it was just an automatic motion. "I'll lay out the heaters - what was your name?"

[morphitudinous]

"She was so much happier when you appeared," Billy replied with a look that was almost a smile. "And we thought she was our department's bowl of sunshine before!"

Yes, he was quite fond of their chief happiness officer. He'd be less receptive to that cheer than usual at the moment, so it was probably for the best that he was dealing with Wash instead.

"I'm Billy, and everyone calls me that except the ship. The wiring's laid down for them, we'll just need to connect everything when the generator's complete. It's still in the shop."

He kept working as he talked, convenient occupation as it was.

[leafonthewind]

"The ship full-names me too. I even corrected her and she still does it," Wash said. He worked steadily - despite Jayne's frequent jibes at him, he was perfectly capable of the whole lifting thing. He was happy to do it, after being laid up in the infirmary for a while after the Steve incident.

"What is it you do, on the ship? Seems like everyone's got a job except the kids."

[curiousredsoul]

It was not a long flight from her abode to the construction site and thus had decided to take her time, taking in the sights of the city in between the tower that served as her abode and her destination. As she closed in the dragon circled over head once, getting a good look at the site and surrounding area, not a bad choice of location.

Though she had not had the chance to help in the preliminary work on the site, she had spent the time constructing a few small devices to help with power should Billy require them. The devices now stored securely in a few pouches attached to her upper forelimbs.

Picking a suitable location to land, not far from the construction site the dragoness came in for a graceful landing. Folding her wings in against her sides as she would pad easily over to the easles set up, looking through each design in detail cheerfully enough before she would pad passed them to find the one who had decided to take on this idea, "Greetings Billy, a fine idea you have come up with here, I am sure the crew will greatly appreciate it,"

[morphitudinous]

When a shadow passed overhead, Billy instinctively looked up. Ah, it was Celena. He waved to her as she approached, noting the items she carried. This was going to work a little better.

"Greetings to you too, Celena," he replied, inclining his head. "That's all I really want. If the others are happy, I'll have done my job."

He looked at the sizing of the various plans again---there were the wider doorways and larger central chambers if dragons ever had need of hot water.

"What have you brought?"

[curiousredsoul]

Celena dipped her head in turn to his returned greetings, "That is fine thing to desire indeed," She would reply with a soft smile on her snout as she watched the other for a moment as he looked over the plans.

"The devices I mentioned over the network, power cells of sorts you could say, to help power the generator or anything else you may require for them," she would reply easily as she reached up to unhook the pouches containing the power cells, a soft glow of her markings and they floated over to Billy, not the largest of devices, each not much more than half a foot in length. Each consisting of a crystal power source integrated into a power circuit to provide a constant flow of electricity when plugged in.

"Hopefully they may be of use in some manner," The dragoness dipped her head before peering over the plans that Billy had been looking over, "Hmm if you wish, I could provide something more of an interactive view of how each plan may look in reality?"

[morphitudinous]

Billy nodded, as satisfied as he could be at the moment. He was grateful that the plans appeared to be going well. He caught the offered power cells, studying them with interest. It was impossible to tell exactly how they worked with just a cursory glance, but he seemed to get the general idea.

"Interactive view? I'd like that, please. I'm not a stranger to unusual methods of transferring information."

In other words? It's very difficult to surprise him anymore.

[curiousredsoul]

Celena watched him curiously a moment, watching as he looked over the power cells before giving a smile and turning her attention to the plans, looking them over once more for the smallest details and information on the layout.

"It would be my pleasure to then," she dipped her head before taking a step toward the building site, orienting the plans in her mind to the ground on which they would be built. Constructing in her mind what they would look like when fully constructed, letting her energies flow, her markings taking on a slowly growing glow.

Out ahead of them, the lines of walls, pools and doorways formed as Celena worked the illusion, with a thought the Bath house appeared to build itself within moments, accurate to the millimeter to the plans that had been layed out. After less then half a minute the projected plan of the bathhouse stood there, looking no less real than any other building amongst the city around them. Though if he were to touch it his hand would pass through it like a mist.

It would not be unlike having it constructed in the sensorium if one were to compare it to something. "I can easily change the layout to any changes given in plans, if desired I can make it a appear more solid, or even transparent to degrees,"

[morphitudinous]

"Amazing." To actually see their plans alive was a great help to him, and his gaze bounced eagerly between the plans and the illusion of their completion. He started jogging back and forth, carefully doing a 'walkthrough' of the place in pieces.

"Yes, we can do this---what's your opinion on the size, Celena? I'd like heated water to be available to everyone who will make use of it while also considering future crew members."

If she personally didn't need the water, he thought, maybe someone with a similar size would.

Once they had the specifications nailed down, so to speak, he could choose the power cell.

[curiousredsoul]

"I'm glad I can put my illusions to some use," she replied with a soft chuckle, smiling at his reaction as she watched him jogging back and forth. Padding to the entrance and through sections of the illusionary bath house herself. Taking her time in examining the sizes of most rooms and projected pools and showers.

"Hmm..the size should prove suitable to most who should wish it, some of the individual bathing areas may prove..restricting to those of larger stature, though a remedy to this could be including a number suited for those of larger size, whether tall or more as I am that could perhaps serve a secondary purpose of small group ones, when not in use by those who would need such," She would explain, pointing out one such bathing area and making an example by standing next to it before summoning up an example of a bathing area designed for larger occupants placing it in such a way that it would fit with the existing design.

SOOO sorry for the lateness of this after I volunteered Katara!

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

Katara, like Billy, had a desire to do some busy work, and she had said she would help him with this. She had looked over the plans a bit, and had some ideas of her own: both seemed to have a bit of Chinese and Japanese influences, but if anyone were to ask her about that, she would just stare blankly. She hadn't read up enough about those cultures to know how similar they were to her own, and had also no idea that there was a sort of rivalry on the ship with that either. Even if she had, she would have disregarded it as more nonsense to separate the crew anyway.

But the part requiring work Katara was all ready for. She had stripped down to her skivvies, and was starting to help him move the water and the materials. She worked diligently: after all, she had a part with moving Haku's water too, and this was
nothing different, except she had the pleasure of helping her Bonded put together something good for the crew. She was already more than pleased with the help Mei-Xing, Wash but especially Celena, had provided. Anyone who had helped Billy on this was ok in her book.

"How long until you think we'll be finished?"

No worries, I know how busy you are

[morphitudinous]

Working with Katara had started to calm Billy's mind. Staying near a Bonded felt like a cool balm against the pain he felt, and the two of them were very productive. By this point, they might be finished with another few days if the larger crew could move the walls into place. The frame was already there.

"I think a few days will finish it if we keep up this pace, at most we'll need a week. When we're done I'll really need to visit," he admitted in a way that would have been a laugh in a happier time.

Holy crap Christmas pictures, shoveling, working two 11 hour shifts ::DIES::

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

Likewise, Katara felt a lot calmer now that she was with Billy: there was only one other person bringing that feeling about, and she doubted Billy wanted to offer comfort that way. Thinking of Matt colored her cheeks, but that was fine, considering she was helping Billy lift heavy things anyway, Hopefully he wouldn't notice.

Then again, she was dark skinned and usually didn't redden even working, so he might have caught that a little.

"I'll be happy to help. I was even planning on making a little snow mountain thing right outside of the Outsider hotel if the ship will allow it. Making the crew happy...it helps me," she confessed. "I know Christmas is usually a time people give presents and things, but I liked the whole 'helping those in need' part more, you know? Where I'm from, giving gifts usually wasn't an option unless you were pretty wealthy."

She did put her hand on his shoulder though. "Yeah. I know."

[morphitudinous]

"A snow mountain?" Billy was intrigued. "If you can do that...yes, I'm sure they'll be thrilled. Live snow." It would be a treat.

He nodded, agreeing with her. "It's the best we can do for everyone, and it does help. That and time."

Billy sat up, looking at her curiously. She was there with him, being his ever-watchful sister, but if he looked carefully he could tell that some of her thoughts were elsewhere. On her boyfriend, if that blush was any indication.

She should probably spend more time with Matt, no doubt that he could help her more than Billy ever could. Romantic love was special, and it helped to be with someone detached from the situation.

"Don't worry, there's not much more to do. I can handle the rest myself."

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

She nodded, smiling. "There are a lot of things I can feel bad about, but I'd never miss the chance to be able to make things better. There are a few people on this ship still worrying about those sent off of the missions: I'd like to help them have fun, be happy for a little while."


She shook her head. "I don't think so, Billy. I'm your Bonded: that means I'm doing this until the end, ok?"

She smiled. "Anything you want to talk about, while we do this?"

[morphitudinous]

"Right, that's what we have to do. The group that went on the mission---they'll keep each other safe somehow." He wasn't as wholly confident as he would have been before, but he trusted his Rangers.

Billy said nothing to that, only nodded solemnly. So the Bond was still in full effect---he'd felt it too, but acknowledging it was strange. It was hard to describe.

Should he say that? He continued the work, agreeing that he should. "When Renne left, I worried that our Bond would dissolve or become silent like his is. That he was the glue that held us together. I'm incredibly relieved that it's not the case."

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

"I hope so," Katara said. "The last time that they went on an away message, that boy Hiccup had an alien come out of his stomach. Luckily, he was still ok, but I'm sure he had a pretty poor idea of Stacy's way of sending people on missions at the last minute."

Oh yes it was. Even if it had wavered a little bit, Katara wouldn't have acted like that understanding between the two of them had never taken place. She was just glad that Billy felt the same way.

She nodded. "You were definitely a friend of mine, but you're right: Renne was the one that got us much closer to each other. Even though he's not here right now, it might be because he's still only repodded that we're able to still be as close as we were then."

Not as close, but still much closer than when they;d simply been friends.