We had been waiting around the little shack, to be honest most of the planning was done by Niki and Myc with the occasional suggestion from John. She was a control freak and Myc was smarter than most of the people on the planet. So we sat, I continued to talk to Cat and Nate as they finished making plans for the new buildings we would be putting up.
“So now that we know you can bond to the tree, given enough time we can start a small production floor for cellulose planks and another for adhering them into their crosshatch patterns.” Niki was writing down and crossing out plans and ideas on a sheet of paper. It was an attempt to get a centralized plan done and ready to make sure that no resources went to waste.
Very well, they should be easy to store and simple to make. Although we may need to develop a stronger adhesive, the one we are using now won’t be enough for permanent structures. We will also need to plan out a more permanent house structure so that we can find a simple system with limited ‘specialty ‘ parts needed.
“Alright that should be easy enough, simple measurements, relatively square spaces and minimal angles. We should create large sections for pigment so people can decorate their own houses.” Niki was scratching out some lines, and writing into new ones on certain plots.
“Uhhhhh, this is boring, do we need to be here for this?” Nate groaned and slid down in the little stool.
“You are doing most of the planning Niki, I know we are connected but that doesn’t mean we are intellectually inclined in city planning.” I tried not to sound like an ass or imply that she was a control freak. Granted it was hard because I kinda was being one and she kind of had a problem letting anyone else be in charge.
“Seriously, I know we have kinda found our routine here guys, but if this thing is gonna grow into something more than half a dozen people campaign in the woods. We are going to need a real plan and soon or else we will just be reacting to everything.”
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“I have to agree with Niki, while she is more oriented to this type of thing. She cannot do this alone, we will need everyone's help and input to make sure there are few mistakes and minimal changes needed in the future.”
“Fine.” Me and Nate agreed in tandem. It was boring and tedious to go through every little thing but it was also needed. Looking over the chicken scratch that was becoming of the new map as nearly everything was scratched out and rewritten. I looked for the single thing that nearly every small town needed and we didn’t seem to have.
“Hey, why are there no sports fields?” I looked all over the map, there were parks and gardens but no fields. Most things for entertainment could easily be specially made by Myc, instruments, canvas and paints, puzzles, even sports equipment. But most of those needed little space, most sports needed a large area to play.
“Ohh, hmmm. I hadn’t thought of that.” Niki looked at the map, mostly in confusion of what space to quarantine for a large enough field.
“I thought she used to play sports?” Nate whispered to me as Niki continued to nearly cross off sections of the map but never committed.
“I used to do track and swim. Both of those you don’t need large flat fields for.” Niki commented, still questioning where to put something big enough for soccer or lacrosse.
“Nice catch Scarlette.”
“Thank you.” I got up and curtsied as a little joke, only Cat laughed. Sitting back down we did little for the rest of the discussion, a few ideas were flung out. However, with Myc 90% of a city's infrastructure wasn’t needed.
Plumbing could be done by trees for those not bonded, while the lake was used for drinking water and bathing. Communications and political buildings weren’t necessary, the only thing we really needed were houses, factories, storage, and food buildings. We would eventually need to account for electricity once we had enough capital to buy parts or Myc figured out a natural way to do it. So while we used some of the more general ideas of city building most of it was new and different. A mix of more medieval cities combined with modern day efficiency.
So since Niki was taking over again, I focused inward. Relaying through old memories and feelings, it was peaceful and helped alleviate the boredom of sitting through a conference. Checking over to see how Rein and Liz were doing, I caught a glimpse of something that should probably have stayed private.
“Woah.” I sat up trying to not let anyone else know, although John gave me a look that meant he knew what I had seen. Well at least they were having fun.