Maid's Mess

Purpose / Function

Like the other stations in the Remnants, Maid's Mess is a point in the open sea that offers:

• A chance to rest on a cot instead of in a boat
• A place to sell/purchase supplies without leaving the region
• A point of collecting news from the main lands
• A store place for residual catches
• A cafeteria that offers food/drinks and a sense of a temporary community

Design

Main Hall

A high rising slanting cube of re-piled ocean rocks and coral fragments nestled into a central location between two or four coral reefs. The main hall (the titular water hall) has managed to remain tall and upright in spite of the seasonal hurricane storms expected to have demolished it long ago. Its size is possible because its four walls are each braced sturdy reefs and anchored deep into the sea bed.

Columns

Nine thin columns uphold a thick thatch wooden roof which inturn have various debris piled atop it.
The columns are of cracky sandstone with some algae growing on near the bottom.

Cafeteria

These columns are positioned like a 'U' with the inside area of that 'U' welcoming patrons into a common area for people to eat together.
The floors are flooded to the knees with salt water from stone pipes and grass grills connecting to the merrows outside.

Reserve Areas

The outside area is quartered off from public viewing in order to service the seedier aspects of the Mess' reputation.

Just try not to think about the water too much

— patron at the water hall bar

Entries

Floating Docks

There are long walkway platforms from which fishing folk latch their boats onto to park and venture onto other services in the Mess.

Denizens

Finkin

Finkin are not domesticated, but they can be trained

— Animal Trader

Curators, who run the establishment overall, have trained the only school of finkin docile enough to let a human near them.
This is particularly noteworthy because unlike with other species, sex among the finkin is not a dance or some cooperative. It is a battle, with the loser certain to die horribly months later.

The finkin are generally free to come and go through the hall as they like. But most would not venture outside the atoll's reefs for fear of predators. Patrons to the hall and lesser huts tend to drive off and disway these creatures and wilder finkin from targeting the hall's kin. As a result weaker kin have learned to associate this particular atoll with protection.

They use the men as much as the men use them

— Blue Diva

Other Shore Creatures

Birds, fish, crabs and other marine life, either accidently or purposefully find their way into the flooded halls. They are nominally there to feed the finkin but the fishers can also request of them to their next meal. Though they tend to be more expensive than the rest of the menu. Otherwise, they are allowed to swim and nibble on the toes of everyone walking in the large, shallow salt pool.

Alterations

Stilted Bridges

Year-long residents build more permanent structures directly onto the sea floor, where the bed is sufficiently shallow, to prevent the regular jostling motion as experienced on the floating bridges and docks during minor storms.

Extra Huts

From the main hall, a web of walking platforms connect to many branching buildings characterized by square rubble bases with wooden huts built on top.

Architecture

Coral and Stone

The majority of the semi-permanent buildings and huts have some amount coral inlaid into their façade. Either deeply imbedded into the walls or hanging from the ceiling like a beaded curtain.

History

Shifting Ownerships

The first foundations laid for maid's mess began with prospectors from the northernmost continent.

We know nothing of exactly who these people were, but their kin continue to hunt and fish in the merrows as our people do.

— Green Diva

At the center of a shallow atoll, they had moved existing rocks and sand into a somewhat level dais. On which, the outer walls were built, but never really finished.
The unfinished construction site was randomly abandoned for a period of decades; with the occasional fisherfolk squatting under the open roof of the main hall in-between trips. It was finally completely taken over by the Divas of Cuīcani as a means of earning alternate revenues.

Tourism

Fisherfolk

Even outside of the hurricane season, unexpected surges will force fisherfolk to seek for shelter. They may hurry to Ark End if they're close enough to the Northern Range, to Phantom Base if they're further out on the Pearl Sea or to Maid's Mess if they're in the direction of the storming sea.

Maid's Mess is by far more elaborately decorated than any of the other. Perhaps bigger too. But don't let 'em fool ya. Almost all those to find their way there, do so to sample the taste the kin.

— veteran fisherman of the storm strait

Purchasables

Alternative Names

Water Hall

Type

Brothel / Whorehouse

Parent Location

Sinking Remnants

Environmental Effects

The coral foundations and underwater opening are often used as a safe haven by initially wild finkin.

Owning Organization

Cuīcani

Tahitian mermaids by Daniel Landerman