The Brief

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“These are the children’s sleeping nooks,” announced the client, indicating the three-lobed cave offshoot with a wave of her pale hand, while her red hair trailed in the water flow.  “No strong currents but we need to maintain the water quality.”

“You have just the three?”  The interior designer made a notation on her slate, the one with a koi pattern matching her tail on its back.

“Yes,” the client gave a flick of her own red and gold tail.  “Simon’s at that age where they all think they’re going to be great warriors – he’s got a remora because its ‘cool’ and what he thinks is a war eel.”

The designer made notations for “Simon’s nook: eel cranny, weapons rack?”

“Medea hasn’t started colouring up at all yet,” said her mother, “Which reminds me, absolutely no anemones, anywhere.  We think she’s allergic, although it could be to clown fish...”

The designer flicked her black hair and its decorative red coral strands out of the way and made a “No anemones!” note at the top of the slate.

“And Jason is our baby,” the client went on with a fond smile, “His sister is looking after him at the moment.  I was thinking, some sort of night light?”

“There are several things we could do to get that,” the designer’s note on the slate read, “Soft bioluminescence.”

They moved on.

“And this is the main living area, of course,” the client gestured grandly.  “As you can see, it’s a little dark.  We were hoping you could do something to bring in more natural light while keeping predators out.  Also, Jason is already a little more active than his brother and sister were at that age...”

“Child proofing then,” said the designer, noting her slate.  “Have you thought about ornamental molluscs?”