Things on Mieni Atoll had heavily related to tourist attractions ever since Animalia had purchased the atoll and began setting up the colony there. Some of it made sense in that Mieni was warm, sunny, and generally was a good vacation spot to begin with, and really hadn't been a vacation spot before because of how the atoll had been used as a small air base for maritime patrol after World War II for the US military in partnership with the various countries that made up the Pacific Ocean. Much of it was Cold War related adventures and protecting the nuclear testing done at Bikini Atoll, but it still left Mieni in a zone where tourism and fishing couldn't be done. However, when Horizon and Animalia bought the leases to the atoll from the military, things changed and changed rapidly.
Horizon's interest was getting more access to study the ocean and to a degree see how the Animalia Virus effected sea life and what the new Animalians would look like. There was also the theory that newly uplifted Animalians would be able to provide Humanity with information on the sea that they could only speculate on otherwise, similar to how Animalians in Animalia relayed a lot of their opinions on their lives and the world as they saw it. That then made established the hospital and lab area easy to set up on Mieni, but the rest of the colony couldn't survive on that basis. Particularly as not all the residents of Mieni were scientists, and this lead to Mieni becoming something of a tourist hub fairly quickly, for many of the reasons that many Pacific atolls became good tourist hubs. Though it also included the fact that a great many Humans had seemed to take an interest in Animalians, even if it wasn't to become one, thus Mieni set up a tourist trap where people came for enjoyment of the beaches and swimming but also getting some chance to look at and interact with Oceanic Animalians. Which ultimately lead to Ran and Gaz taking something of a leadership position over the atoll as they managed the hotel where most of the atoll's guests stayed.
Though this often meant that certain elements of that industry had things naturally slow at Mieni during certain times of the year. Most tourists came in during the summer months in the Northern Hemisphere, and Animalia's version of the Olympics made things even bigger for Mieni the previous summer. However, things often slowed down during the winter months, often because most of the "holidays" that time in the year had more "family" elements to them and not "vacation" elements. Though it wasn't necessarily unwelcome as it gave Ran and Gaz and Mieni's other residents more time to relax themselves, take care of their own local fishing needs and so on, and that was in a normal year. The previous year had been unnormal with the pandemic hitting the globe and restricting travel. Which left Mieni very quiet for the entire year, and what travel that did come in had been heavily regulated. The regulations remained, but as vaccines began to help many countries start to curb the spread of the pandemic, that allowed 2021 to be closer to "normal" for Mieni than 2020 had been.
Though even in a more "normal" year, there was always the potential for some surprises to show up and this happened late one morning while Gaz was looking over the front desk and noted a collection of Human women come in through the front doors. They had some bags with them, which was fairly normal though there were a few things that stood out. Namely that they were all very well endowed Human women and that they seemed to be discussing something related to "the future." To a degree, Gaz had learned that it wasn't impossible for there to be Human women with the chests this family appeared to have, as Humans seemed to have a great deal of variation in body types in comparison to Animalians which largely had one body type. They approached the front desk and the specific station that Gaz was standing at.
"Hello, and welcome to Mieni, I trust you have reservations and meet our health standards?" Gaz spoke as they approached.
The lead woman nodded and presented the test results from the flight down. Gaz noted that they were negative and then nodded, and did the same with the rest. All of them seemed clean. The presentation also gave her a name to work with and "Angelyn" was on the rolls for a stay at the hotel at present, though there was no expected "end" date to the stay, which made Gaz a bit curious.
"So... what brings you and your very healthy family to Mieni, Ms. Angelyn, if I may ask?" Gaz asked politely while going through the process of readying the key cards for the rooms that the woman and her daughters would have.
"Hopefully starting a bed and breakfast!" one of the daughters said off hand, which made Gaz blink and earned a more stern look from the lead woman, Angelyn. Eventually Angelyn spoke to clarify the answer.
"My family has run a fairly nice bed and breakfast in Kentucky for years with fine services, food, and even conversation," Angelyn explained, "and we always seemed to get a fair number of customers and repeat customers."
"Cuz Maggie always hangs out the washing in the summer in a bikini," one of the other daughters teased another.
"Do not!" the first daughter protested.
"Even so... Animalia is fairly familiar with Humans coming to see curvy women and well muscled men," Gaz commented.
"Anyway," Angelyn picked up after glancing back to her daughters, "I've monitored a lot of the success Animalia has had over the years, and I must say I'm impressed."
"Thank you," Gaz answered.
"The one thing I think has been missing is a sort of bread and breakfast... something small and cozy that people would like," Angelyn continued, "and that's something that I figured my daughters and I could add. We'd even convert to meet your rules to set things up."
Gaz blinked and then said, "I think it might be best if you come with me. There will be some other things to discuss."
"As the desk clerk?" Angelyn asked.
"As one of the leaders for the local "government" for the atoll," Gaz answered, "my mate is another."
Gaz then moved over and opened on side gate that was normally kept closed to make sure guests couldn't easily behind the desk. Angelyn and her daughters followed and then came to the door that was behind the desk. Gaz lead them into which, which started with a break room and then to another hallway that then came to office where Ran was seated at the desk and looking over some of the reports for their successes over the summer. There was a bit of surprise, but Ran let Gaz run the explanation of the business at hand and that got him to accept things.
"Well... the idea of a bed and breakfast actually isn't bad," Ran commented, "and Mieni generally gets more than enough tourists in a good year for it..."
"I sense a "but" coming," Angelyn said slowly and sounding a bit defeated.
"And there is," Ran said, "mostly in relation to the size of the islands here on the atoll. Most of them are pretty small, which makes sense given that it is an atoll. The main island here is the largest, and that's why the Japanese put a base here in the thirties and into World War 2 and why the Americans then took over the base after World War 2. But the facilities take up MOST of the main island here and as such there wouldn't be room to build anything like a bred and breakfast on top of the island."
"What about the other islands?" another of Angelyn's daughters' asked.
"In terms of land area... they're all much smaller and too small to really have any large structure on," Gaz answered, "above water."
"Above water?" Angelyn asked.
"Yes," Ran nodded, "above water. But one of the islands has had a surprising amount of space UNDER the water level and we found that while mapping and setting up Mieni as an Animalian colony years ago. That then allowed for us to carve out an underground hotel on that island that is also connected to the sub tours that take visitors to see the USS Pennsylvania. Technically that hotel is part of this facility here, and you can check into either at any time from one location, but also has its own desk and one can check in there as well."
"You're not...?" Gaz asked to her mate.
"I am," Ran nodded.
"Am what?" Angelyn asked.
"While there isn't the room to build a "bed and breakfast" above ground," Ran answered, "we could give you and your daughters the lease and ownership of the underground hotel. It'd mean we'd compete against each other for guests, but Mieni already does plenty of business in a good year and you wouldn't have any construction costs as you'd essentially be taking over an existing structure."
"There might be maintenance costs though," Angelyn pointed out.
"And we have those too," Gaz commented, "it wouldn't be a bad option... as it does have a sort of dining area. You could use it like larger size bed and breakfast."
"And the conversion rule?" Angelyn asked.
That made both Gaz and Ran look to each other.
"To our knowledge, Animalia has no conversion rule," Ran commented, "in fact most of the scientists that work for Horizon and run the hospital here are Humans. If you WANT to convert, that's something that can be done, but we have no rule that says any of you have to."