Ember gently opened her eyes to another gorgeously sunny morning. It shone rays into the room, providing a nice warmth, perfect to wake up to. She gently raised off her bed, rubbing her eyes and yawning.
"Morning, Wade." she said.
No response came to her. Confused, she raised an eyelid. She got up off of her bed and walked over to his. She leaned over the edge, looking through the water for him.
"Huh." she sounded.
She dozily stumbled over to her PPE uniform, gradually putting it on. As she put the last piece together, she took a deep breath, stretching her neck.
She gradually tiptoed downstairs, looking toward the kitchen to her right for her dewdrop. To her pleasure, he was right where she thought he'd be. He stood in the kitchen, making breakfast for her and the Sea-Nears. Both Aunty and Uncle Sea-Near sat at the table with their kids; two extra seats vacant for the lovey-dovey elementals.
The moment he saw her at the stairs, Wade waved overzealously. She chuckled as he did, shaking her head.
"Morning, Ember!" Wade wished.
Ember could only giggle at his cuteness, making her way down.
"Morning, Wade." Ember replied, beaming.
She gently entered the pool with PPE on, unharmed as she made her way over to the table. She remained afloat for three swimming strokes before faceplanting in the water like the first night. The Sea-Nears chuckled to themselves, looking at each other. Finished with making breakfast, Wade gently put it aside. He slowly swam over to help her, getting her upright and guiding her by arm to the table. He helped her up onto her chair, her looking at him gratefully. He returned that prideful smile to her before going over to retrieve breakfast for everyone.
He came back with plates aplenty, handing one each to the Sea-Nears and placing one at his seat. Ember - the only one not to get a plate - looked over at him, curious as to where hers was. He gently went back to the kitchen, taking out a hidden plate. He swam over and placed it in front of her. To her genuine surprise, it was one of her favourite dishes; kindling topped with ash.
"Whew... this was a piece of wave to make." he quipped.
She raised an eyebrow at his curious remark, chuckling.
"What?" she queried.
Wade could only return her a blank stare, totally missing the point that she herself missed the point. As it finally came to him, he chucked in embarassment.
"Oh! I guess you'd say it wasn't a 'pain in the ash'!" he corrected.
Ember let out a laugh, smiling with her eyes.
"Gotcha." she understood.
He gave her a nice appreciative smirk. He leaped up to his seat beside her, picking up his cutlery. Before Ember took a bite, she gave him a cheeky loving side-eye. Moments from scarfing his face, he looked to her, the two exchaging a warm, loving gaze.
In the midst of scarfing their own food, Uncle and Aunty Sea-Near stared knowingly, smiling at the two.
Ember gently took a bite of her kindling... before beginning to inhale it.
"My flame, Wade. Why so good?" she asked eagerly.
He looked over at her aloofly.
"Huh?" he sounded.
"You're like a culinary fire whiz judging by this!" she admired.
Wade chuckled in a burly manner, holding a hand on his stomach.
"Oh-ho- no. It's pre-made. But thanks for thinking I did it all myself." he quipped.
Suddenly, Ember let out a loud snort as she laughed. It caused Wade to cackle at her as she looked around in embarassment. She pushed him on the arm in tease, frowning playfully. He laughed even harder, givingg the Sea-Nears to chuckle or two in tandem.
"So, Ember! How're you feeling with day 2?" Uncle Sea-Near asked.
As Wade laid his head on the table cackling, Ember fanned her hands at her face, trying to compose her laughing.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry- yeah! I'm feeling really good." she answered.
She instantly looked over to Wade only gradually composing himself. As he calmed, he looked over to her, framing his face leaning on his right arm. Ember returned him a cutesy giggle as he did.
Suddenly, a sharp vibration came from her right pocket. She sharply went to grab her firephone whilst still a bit giggly. An alarm notification read on the screen; 8:30 am.
"Flame. I gotta roll." she said.
She put it back in her pocket, scarfing the last of her plate and shuffling out of her seat. She leaned in to Wade and sweetly gave him a gentle peck on the cheek goodbye, followed by a hand on his chest.
"Love you." she said.
He sat utterly speechless as she got out of her chair, retreiving her stuff and promptly heading toward the door.
"Have a good day, Ember!" Uncle and Aunty Sea-Near wished.
"Thank you!" she replied.
She headed out the door, leaving Wade stunned in his chair, staring.
"That's the first kiss goodbye." he admired.
The Sea-Nears chuckled in admiration as an arrow of love penetrated his seas unlike anything before.
Following a few minutes of travel, Ember arrived to the Aquatecture site - a part of her still in marvel of the gorgeous front courtyard. She approached the entrance, being let through by the ground floor security guard.
"Hiya, Mr Blob." she wished.
"Mornin', Ms Lumen." he returned.
She headed through the lobby with bag on back, and PPE suit already on. The front desk lady looked up as she checked in.
"Good morning, Ms Lumen." the desk lady, Gladys, said.
"Good morning, Gladys." Ember returned.
Gladys allowed her through the lobby toward the Glassitect department at the end of the left hall. Before she went in, she turned to her left to the break room and locker quarters. She gently opened the locker room door, walking up and slinging her bag to her front. She opened a locker and put it in, unknowing of the company she had.
"Lumen." a coworker said defensively.
A group of three unkempt Watermen stared her down wearing dirty expressions. She closed the locker shut, locking it with padlock. Given their quasi-disrespectful manner - perhaps feeling threat as a result of her prowess - she respectively nodded to them good morning, turning to leave.
"Did you sleep in the suit or something?" the second coworker queried.
Ember slowly turned to them wearing a fake smile and folding her arms.
"Why should you know?" she questioned rhetorically.
The three let out a passive-aggressive chuckle, looking among each other.
"Nothing- nothing." one snarkily replied.
Ember let out a sharp guffaw. She slowly strutted past the three, fanning her hand close to their faces in tease, thus making them bubble profusely. She smirked to herself with her back turned to them as she made her way into the Glassitect department.
Ember approached her trainer Phil's desk in the Glassitect department. He sat at the desk, legs up on it and reading the paper.
"Morning." she said.
Phil slowly looked over to her with a lazed expression.
"Morning, Lumen. Sleep well?" he asked.
Ember put her tools, utensils and materials on the desk, taking a breath.
"Yup. The new scenery takes a bit of getting used to, though." she remarked.
Phil could only chuckle whilst his head was buried in the paper, partly ignorant.
"Outta town girl, huh?" he queried.
She sharply raised an eyebrow in confliction, her mouth slightly agape. She shook her head, chuckling in disbelief.
"So are you ready to kick learning's ash?" Phil quipped.
Ember lit up in her growing confliction.
"What do you mean by that?" she queried.
Phil chuckled sharply. He swung his legs off the desk, retrieving a clipboard and handing it to her.
"Seeing your hands-on knowledge with glass handling is deep, I figured we'd get a move on with the theoretical side." Phil reckoned.
Ember's eye remained raised, an air of fluster in her. She looked down at the clipboard, reading it through.
The 7 principles of Glassitecture.
She chuckled in nerves, slightly daunted. She looked over to Phil, who was sat with another clipboard for himself.
"I told you yesterday if you were up for a lot of learning." he reminded, smirking.
Ember took a gentle breath, closing her eyes and nodding to herself.
"You did say that." she acknowledged.
Phil leaned forward, an arm on his knees.
"You ready?" he queried.
After a moment or two of getting mentally ready, Ember seated herself right across from Phil, roughly a few feet away. She sat, nervous with legs crossed. Phil leaned back in his seat, pen in mouth.
"Alright. Glassitecture - and architecture in general - consists of 7 basic principles. Do you know what they are?" Phil began.
Ember slowly shook her head.
"Right. It's balance, rhythm, emphasis, contrast, visual, proportion and scale. Or, if you're lazy, BRECVPS. Write that down." Phil told.
She lit up educated, writing down notes, tongue out of her mouth.
"Definitions. Balance; the mark of stability of your design. When one draws up a design, any aspect of the design - whether it be objects, colours, what-have-you - is distributed evenly; hence it's namesake." Phil said.
Ember jot the point down, leaning in.
"Principle #2; Rhythm. Defined as characteristics of your design that unify it, such as a pattern or a motif." he continued.
A small, appreciative smile adorned as she jot more notes down, enjoying herself.
"Principle #3; Emphasis; the focal point, the eye-catcher or the attention-grabber. Whatever word you find suits best." he continued.
She looked up momentarily, nodding and putting it down.
"#4; contrast. This rule's mainly utilized to differenciate urban landscape. As in; what does your design have to stand out from the rest?" he continued.
Caught a little off-guard by a sense of vagueness, she raised an eyelid, shrugging and putting it down anyway.
"That one's tricky, but moving on. #5; visual. You want to create a clear idea of what your design will take to realize. Down to every detail; the height of a step, the height of a roof to the floor. Nitpicky stuff." he continued.
She took down notes once again, taking a breath in focus.
"#6; proportion. AKA; the boring stuff. It's the link between artistic and mathematical. You want your design to look a certain way, but you must consider the mathematic implications of your choices. Otherwise, you got a collpased building on your hands." he continued.
Ember let down a hearty gulp, jotting it down.
"And lucky last, #7; scale. How do parts of your design measure to one another? Is it spread out? Is it close together? Is it roomy? Is it suffocating?" he continued.
Ember pursed her lips at the odd choice of words, taking a moment to think of a better way to describe it to herself.
"And there we have the 7 principles." Phil concluded.
Ember took a long breath, leaning back and shaking her writing hand.
"Wanna read back what you got for me?" Phil requested.
Ember took another breath in preparedness, holding her clipboard up with legs crossed.
"Okay. So #1, Balance?" she began.
Phil nodded in approval, closing his eyes as he did. Ember took it as a sign to move forward.
"#2; Rhythm-" she continued.
Suddenly, Phil sharply halted her with a hand gesture.
"Let me stop you right there. Define." he enunciated.
Ember's eyes bulged in embrassament, letting out an anxious chuckle.
"Oh! Right- hehe." she recognised.
She cleared the lump in her throat, pursing her lips once more.
"Balance; the stability of the design?" she defined.
Phil nodded slowly once more in approval. She looked up at him once more in query.
"Need more, or-" she said.
"Just brief will do." Phil allowed.
Ember nodded, slightly flustered.
"Phew- okay. #2, rhythm. A pattern, or unifying element of the design." she continued.
Phil nodded slightly faster in growing approval, gradually beginning to fill Ember with confidence as a result.
"#3, emphasis. The attention-grabber of your design?" she stated.
Phil looked at her, raising an eyebrow.
"Don't ask me. Pretend like I don't know." he advised.
She raised both eyebrows in understanding, nodding.
"Okay- okay... #4; contrast. A unique aspect of your design to stand out from others." she said.
She looked back up to him once more, still not quite fully confident in herself. Phil nodded politely, slightly unconvinced by her delivery. Ember's eyes darted back down to her notes, her confidence wavering. She sensed it doing so. After recognising it beginning to affect her delivery, she stopped herself, taking a paced, long, deep breath.
"#5; visual. Showing what your design will look like, to the minutest of detail." she assuredly stated.
"Excellent use of 'minutest'." Phil recognised.
Ember chuckled from his approval, a smile gradually building.
"#6; proportion. The principle linking the artistic and mathematical aspects of the design." she continued.
Phil nodded sharply in recognition, slowly filling the balloon that was her confidence.
"And... #7; scale. What's the size of your design in relation to real world margins?" she finished.
She put her clipboard in her lap, exhaling in relief. Phil put his in his own, raising his hands in the air with a smile.
"Marvellous work, Ms. Lumen." Phil recognised.
He stood up off his chair, smiling proudly. Ember remained seated, her body language closed from nerves. Phil gently extended a hand out to her, causing her to look up at him in confusion.
"I believe we can move on to phase 2 now." he quipped.
She continued to stare in query, her eyes beginning to glisten.
"Phase 2?" she queried.
Phil let out a gentle smirk, nodding.
"Putting it to practice." he clarified.