TGB ENTRY 07: THE FOOTWASH

*Everything is a WORK IN PROGRESS *

THE GREAT BUILDER FAN BLOG by IVAN P.

ENTRY 07: THE FOOTWASH BUILDING

Today we are going to explore the fascinating story of how a simple tradition of our nation become an enterprise that generates a considerable amount of work and income for our compatriots. Tradition that goes without saying includes the star of this blog, the Great Builder.

For people who are not from Guardia this may sound odd, but since hundred of years our people have adopted the tradition of thanking our giant by healing, washing and messaging his feet. This activity is usually carried out in dedicated buildings/structures on most cities of Guardia.

Today these structures are called Giant’s Hygiene Center, but we more ofter refer to them as “the footwash” or worse, depending if you stand or not the stench. However, they are recognized as one of the many temples erected in gratitude to the giant Guardians of Guardia.

Today we will focus on a particular installment: located on the western side of the city of Alnorte, it operates every day of the week in the afternoons and hundreds of people work inside it. This is ‘Squeaky Clean Toes’, the most recognized Giant’s Hygiene Center in the eastern region of Guardia.

THE SQUEAKY CLEAN TOES, THE NEXT GENERATION FOOTWASH

This facility was inaugurated more than thirty years ago, created and designed by the Great Builder himself. He was in charge of most of the construction, except the small details where he needed the help of the Guardinean, whom he directed as an expert foreman.

It is divided in two major buildings, the main building where the Great Builder’s foot are cleaned on a daily basis and the secondary building where the giant sits.

This is the building where the magic happens, the building is operational if any of two criteria meet: if any Guardian is in the city or if it is the afternoon, they must be prepare in case a surprise visit from a giant occurs.

Most personnel in duty will remain within the facilities until they are called by the giant monitoring team on the top floors (B) who will remain on watch until the working protocol have to be initiated. The workday is fairly short, but it is intense once they get to it.

The building counts with a Sliding Hatch Roof (A) designed and used by the Great Builder once he wants his feet cleaned, below is the main Washing Room (D) where all the action happens.

The installment counts with a manual water supply system (F) that the giant installed, he stated before that we humans have a poor water managing system because we could grab so little at the time. So he decided to go for his more upfront approach and installed a giant water can for him to detach, refill and attach again.

Also referred as “The Armchair”, this building consist of massive heavy plates of metal to withstand the Giant’s weight while the main building work on his feet. The peculiarity of this building are the small apartments that the mayor of Alnorte decided to build around it.

The population of Alnorte were afraid that the giant would react badly at the idea of humans living inside his creation, but after a tense pause, he snorted to himself with a small smile on his face.

Once the building resisted the first foot cleaning sessions of the Giant, the construction of the apartments began, they sold incredibly fast. And go figure, the people didn’t want to miss the chance to see and feel the massive behemoth of the Great Builder perform the most ritualistic tradition the entire nation had. All the flats’ prices ricocheted, with the most wanted views at the top of the armchair building becoming virtually impossible to buy but for the most wealthy elite of Alnorte.

On other note, how and where the Great Builder managed to get such pristine metallic base for his armchair remains a mystery, one of many the Giant Guardians still hold.

WORKING PROTOCOL, FEET MUST BE CLEANED

A kind friend of mine who works monitoring the giants in the Squeaky Clean Toes shared with me the protocol that is followed when operating at these facilities, it goes like this:

• When the Guardian is in the city, an alarm is turned on in the building to prepare the team to work if its needed.

• If the monitoring team notices the giant heading to the building, an external alarm is activated to alert the citizens of the imminent arrival.

• Once the Giant is present, he takes off his footwear (usually his work boots), opens the ceiling hatch and sits on building 2 (the armchair building).

• The giant is given a few minutes to adjust correctly and comfortably, introducing his massive feet through the ceiling hatch into the washing garage. Then another siren will sound to inform him that the footwash work will begin.

• A plaque of high pressure hoses go through the top of the feet, wetting and wiping the loose dirt (usually debris).

• The platform below raises exposing the soles of the giant’s feet, a team prepare their hoses with more pressurized water to clean the most difficult scatters of dirt below.

• Then the platform is lowered, and as is tradition, the workers continue to cleaning manually, with tow, rags and sponges. Cleaning between the toes and under the nails.

• Fans or hot air (depends on the seasons) dry the massive feet.

• At this point the feet washing process has concluded and has taken approximately 30 minutes. The main cleaning team may leave the garage now.

• The team must wait a few minutes for the Giant to leave, then the maintenance team prepares everything for the next day.

• (If the Giant stays on the platform longer than usual or if he requests it verbally, a different alarm will sound. A special team of select and highly paid employees will enter the washing garage. This team is in charge of pleasing the Giant old style, massaging and licking his feet until he is satisfied).

OUT OF GRATITUDE AND RESPECT, THE ORIGIN OF THE TRADITION.

As the story goes, the Guardinean always felt indebted to the giant Guardians for saving them from the ruin so many hundreds of years ago, and so decided to erect temples to pay homage to them. Temples were usually designed as an open-air, no roof structure with a tribute plate, and were built near a place where the giant could sit (such as a large rock or hill). Food and water, music and fanfare were the usual offerings at the time.

Interacting with and trusting a giant always had its risks, and for this reason the idea of a temple began with a great misgiving because of the response the giants could get, the last thing they wanted was to end up crushed by their anger. But it was well received by the guardians and eventually similar temples were built in most of the villages in Guardia.

The Great Builder adored the idea and enjoyed the offerings, for him the temples became a place where he could stop work, rest and drink something. The recurrence to the temples led the giant to spend more time in human cities, resulting in him getting closer to his civilizations of humans. But the people still kept their distance from the giants, partly out of respect and partly out of fear.

One afternoon, during the visit of the Great Builder to a village in the mountains, a young Guardinean who was unloading a container of vegetables for the giant, noticed that the giant’s big toe was bleeding, he had been injured with a splinter of a pine trunk that he had stepped barefoot that day.

The young man approached him carefully and with a brittle voice offered to clean the wound, after a few seconds considering it, the giant accepted. The young man hastily left and came back with enough water and alcohol. In addition to some clean sheet from his house to treat the wound.

He focused on cleaning the wound first, it was fairly covered in dirt. He removed the remaining splinter and then disinfected the impressive wound the best he could. Finally, he tied the sheets from the corners and with great effort covered the giant’s toe as if it were a compress.

The giant waited patiently for his wound to be treated, never taking his eyes off the little human who had offered to help him. His face did not show it so much, but it is believed that he was proud that a human from his territory were brave enough to offer his help to him, that was uncommon for the giant.

The brave young man move backwards to make room for the giant, who checked his bandaged toe for a minute and then stood up. He didn’t say a word, but the grin on his face showed he was pleased. He then retired to continue working in the village fields, he worked energetically that day, and much longer than he used to.

The actions of that young man had an impact on the town and then on the entire territory of Guardia. That year the harvest of the town and the surroundings were abundant and of great quality, enough to feed the entire region.

Over time, the towns of Guardia started to clean and heal the giant’s feet when he visited, in the end it benefited both humans and the giant.

Together with the guidance of the Great Builder, humans and giant perfected infrastructure and technique, erecting entire building dedicated to this tradition. Nowadays, cleaning the giant guardian’s feet became a common task in any city where it is needed and although it is considered a job, the honor and devotion of serving the giant remained in the blood of the Guardineans.

EXTRA FACTS:

> The surroundings of the temples for the giants are very safe places to live, neighborhoods where there is generally a better life status, less crime and low casualties by the giants. The Guardians respect the temples and its surroundings, they recognize it and maintain them. Even unforeseen human intakes are almost nil in these areas.

>  Except to operate machines, any inhabitant of Guardia can go to collaborate in doing foot cleaning duty, this was a rule established by the Great Builder. In addition, the mayor of Alnorte arranged a fund to pay those who wanted to collaborate, the waiting list is pretty long though.

IN CLOSING

The tradition of cleaning our Giant’s feet are a part of our history, something we Guardineans carry with ourselves. In this world were we humans were forced to live under the shadow of massive giants we were lucky to have Giants caring for our welfare, it was and it still is only logical for us to return the favor to them in any way we can, or in any way they see fit. I’m aware that not everything is as beautiful as it can be, but I’m just glad we live in a Giant’s territory that is not a wasteland due to their negligence.

That’s all for this time, I hope you have found the origin of the footwash interesting, or even better encouraged you to participate in a gratitude ceremony yourself. Look for any temple nearby you to know when a Guardian usually visit it, or if you are in Alnorte go visit Squeaky Clean Toes! You could even get some cash out of it!

That was all for now, stay tuned to my blog for more news and information about our Great Builder Guardian!

See you later!

Written by Ivan P. (me!)
Photos taken by Marcos (Thank you very much as always!)
Poorly graphics put together by me! (haha, ☹)