It’s about 8:30 AM at The Living Depths Aquarium. Amari, along with several other unrecognizable kids her age gather in the educational center. Amari was rub the sleep out of her eyes as she took a seat on a cold folding chair far away from the majority of her peers. Some were already giving her strange looks as she covered herself with huge jackets and hiding her hands.
Last thing she needed today was for anyone to find out that there were bruises and still healing cuts from her previous night as Spider-Glass.
“... Are you sure you still wish to continue this erm... program? You don’t seem fit to be doing much today.” Akavishiel asked telepathically.
“I’d much rather be here than in my house, Akavi. Besides, I’ll be fine. This isn’t the worst thing I had to recover from.” Amari replies as she tries to stretch her arms upward to get a crick in her neck.
Before Akavishiel could respond, Amari’s attention was snapped into reality when she she saw some staff (or possibly interns) beginning to set up the upcoming introductory presentation for the new education volunteers.
It wasn’t before long that the director and head scientist herself walked up to the stage in from of the seats and stood at the podium in the center with some notecards on hand.
She was a woman just shy of her 30s—about five foot five if Amari had to guess—sporting a paunchy belly and curly black hair tied up in a ponytail. Her lively brown eyes seemed to excitedly study the room from behind her huge circular glasses, taking note of all the new faces in the vicinity. The most noticeable thing about her endearing visage seemed to her aquiline nose and the central tooth gap in her grin that pleasantly pulled her attributes together.
Neatly dressed in a white fish print button down shirt, black dress pants, oxfords, and a fish shaped tie, her fashion was just about as ready as her to share her lifelong passion for marine biology.
She adjusts the podium’s microphone before beginning to speak as her staff projects a PowerPoint onto the screen wall behind her.
“Hello and good morning to you all. My name is Dr. Odyssia Octavius, I’m the head scientist and administrator for The Living Depths Aquarium and Research Center. I’d like to warmly welcome all of you to our educational volunteer program and to personally congratulate you for getting accepted into this prestigious and valuable learning opportunity.”
She pauses to allow for her audience to clap for a moment. She chuckles to herself as she moves to her next card of points and the presentation moves on to next slide detailing some expectations.
“Now, today will be focused on laying down the groundwork on what your responsibilities are when you are here as educational volunteer, showing you around the premises, training you so you can be prepared for your first day next week, and finalizing schedules and any potential needs regarding the program. I—along with the staff here—will be overseeing today’s meeting as we want to make sure that you get the best out of this experience. We’re all very excited to have you here today and we can’t wait to work with you.”
As Dr. Octavius continued with her presentation, Amari seemed to be enthralled by her, already leaning forward in her seat at her sheer enthusiasm and invigorated manner of speaking... As much as Akavishiel was working overtime to secretly tend her last night’s wounds and her exhaustion, she seemed to forget about her aches and sores as she was intently listening to what she had to say.
A desire to learn more from her and to hear more from her had embedded itself in Amari’s mind.
