OOC: everything you need to know about the aquarium is right here

IC:

Raina stood at the Aquarium etrance looking pretty profesional today. She was wearing a short yet profesional black shirt with a white blouse and black vest over top of it. Her red hair was pulled back in a tight pony tail high on her head and she was even wearing some hoop earings. Keeping truer to herself she was wearing black flats- comfy yet still stylish. She held in her arms a clipboard and a package.

She had convinced Dr.Gray to let her bring Leila along today- to see if maybe she was the right kind of mutant to work here. With her extensive knowledge via her own mutation she could provide valuable information indeed. Dr. Gray had even admitted that though he knew so many mutants he'd never once met one who could turn completley into a sea creature much less a dolphin.

He was more excited about this prospect than he was letting on and checked in on Raina often all day. "You'll just read her thoughts and know right away if she's any good for the job." Raina had nagged. But Dr.Gray had insisted that just because he could read someone's thoughts didn't mean he'd know if they'd be a good worker to which Raina replied, "Isn't that what you did with me?"

Now she was waiting for Leila to arrive. She had butterflies in her stomach hoping the young woman would fit in here and excited to show her this whole other world. Things had been so crazy at the mansion it was about time Leila had a bit of stability in her life and Raina had high hopes this would provide her with some.

Leila was driving about ten over the speed limit as she hurried to the Aquarium. She had totally forgotten about this, having been distracted by other things these days. Leila had been at the Mansion for two weeks and a half now, and she was getting on fine with everything and everyone. She had nearly gotten the Battle on Raina's birthday out of her mind, until today. It was the second time the blonde was meeting the Mermaid, and it brought back some pretty intense memories. Some good, some... Not so.

Leila was wearing her favorite pair of faded blue jeans and a grey hoodie with the word "KNICKS" etched in bold blue writing. It was probably the last thing you'd see Leila do, but she was a pretty good Basketball Player, and actually never missed a Knicks game. Apart from that, she was wearing her usual blue extentions, tied up in a messy ponytail, along with the rest of her hair.

Leila parked her car where she had been told too, and started walking towards the Entrance, where she knew Raina was waiting for her. Today was actually going to be a fun day, Marine Biology was Leila's Major in College right now, and she was actually in her last year, Finals coming soon too. Finally she caught sight of Raina, her red hair visible, even in the pony tail. "Hey!" she said loudly, waving her hand.

With a smile, she walked the 5 feet that seperated them. "Thanks again, you know, for inviting me here." she said, looking around at the place.

Raina perked up when she saw Leila. "Hey - right back at ya!" she called as the woman approached her. Raina smiled from ear to ear. She was so excited to show Leila everything in the aquarium.

"Leila, this is my boss Dr. Gray." she said motioning for Dr.Gray to come over. He'd been standing at the information desk trying to look like he wasn't listening in when of course he was.

"Hello Leila, is simply wonderful to meet you, I've heard a lot about you." said the older man with brush of his gray hair. "Knicks fan I see? You never miss a game do you?" he smiled coyly at the young woman.

"Dr.Gray is a telepath." explained Raina. "He can read people's thoughts. Don't mind him, it's how I got the job." she joked.

"Indeed." added Dr.Gray. "We've been employing mutants for nearly as long as the building has been here. Raina has told me a bit about your gifts... I'd love to chat with you about them someday...."

Raina took Leila by the hand and said, "well, I get her first." she grinned. "I'm going to take you on a tour of the facility and show you the work that I do." she chimed in. "You'll get a backstage pass!"

OOC: funny story, I named him Dr.Gray because his hair is gray and I couldn't come up with anything interesting... I completley forgot about Jean Gray the original telepath.... lol

Leila grinned at Mr. Gray. "Nice to meet you too," she said simply, holding out her hand to shae the Man's. "Oh yeah, I love Basketball, I enjoy playing it more then watching but.... Hey how did you --" Leila raised an eyebrow, suddenly wondering... 'Was this guy a Mutant too?' Leila didn't go further with questions, she knew better then to ask people if they were Mutants or not; maybe Dr. Gray didn't know about Raina and Leila's Fish Problems. But then again, he seemed to know about her Basketball interest, she gazed down quickly at her shirt, it could of had been a wild guess.

Then Raina confirmed her beliefs, Oh, Leila must be careful what she thinks about when around this man then. Great. "I see," she said, hoping she was doing a good job at this, she had never really met someone that didn't live at the Mansion -- or didn't want to kick their butts. The memories of the Order Fight came into her mind, quickly fallowed by Sam saivng her. 'Dammit!' she thought, now Grey knew her Love Life too. Quickly, she tried to think about something else, something like... Marine Biology. She started thinking about her courses, how she loved the subject. "My mind tends to be a little crowded you know." she smirked at Grey, hiding a blush.

Leila grinned as Raina took her by the hand. "I'dd like to talk too you too, Dr. Grey!" she said cheerfully, but before she could say anything else to the man, Raina had stolen her away. "This is seriously a great place, better then the Café I work at right now." she said, walking alongside the Mermaid, greatful for maybe having a chance at working here someday. It was her final year of School before Graduating too, then she could really be good for the place, especially with her Mutation, which had never been an added bonus before.

ooc: Sorry Leila, I replied last night but it clearly didn't go through. Had to retype it!

IC:
"My mind tends to be a little crowded you know." said Leila

"Well I apologize." replied Dr. Gray. "I promise to not purposly listen in on your thoughts any more. Sometimes I can't help it, but I'll be turning this off." he tapped his forhead.

"Oh to listen to a young woman's thoughts...." he chuckled as he headed back toward the info desk. "Be sure to stop in before you leave Leila, and Raina be sure to introduce her to the others."

"yes sir." replied Raina as Dr. Gray resumed his position at the info desk. "Im so excited!" she said. "I do a lot here and I'm excited to show you. There's not much to see here in the entrance way... a lot of what I do is behind the scenes. Sometimes it's as unglamerous as cleaning up penguine poop and feeding fish, but other days I'll use my ice call to fix up some of the enclosers or I'll go all fish on everyone and hop in a tank for a unique perspective. I don't need to surface so I can stay down for a while."

She lead Leila through the decorated lobby. "I have to check the levels in the tanks pretty routinely, sometimes I get to get in and play with Duke the sealion, and some days I'm just clad in the biggest rubber gloves doing whatever chores needed to be done."

She rattled on as she walked pointing out various touch tanks and the gift shop."You're more educated in this stuff than I am, but I'm really passionate about their rehabilitation work and relief stuff. I like to work on the field, and between you and me Dr. Gray has been hoping I'd put on some shows to help raise money for the relief efforts." She used the word shows loosely. Leila might think they wanted Raina to work with the sea lions or something- when really Dr. Gray had asked Raina if she'd consider going mermaid to draw in a crowd. Raina had flat out refused and nearly decided not to work at the aquarium- Dr. Gray knew he had crossed a line and apologized. But told her the offer was always open should she change her mind.

Raina had to admit she toyed with it... but that was something she'd think about a long time before making any decision.

"Kulu the walrus is through that corridor to the outside." she said pointing. "You might have seen him on the TV adds..." she rumidged through a few papers she had and handed them to Leila. "These are the profiles of all the animals open to the public."

She spun around on her heels to face Leila. "Am I going too fast for you? I was thinking we could go check out Spooke's area... he's the oldest captive sealion. I bet he'd like to meet you. Is there any specific things you want to see or ask?"

She was so excited about showing Leila everything she worried she was moving too quickly.

Leila grinned at Grey, slightly amused. She watched him as he walked away, feeling a little odd, how could Raina do it? I mean, know he could read everything about her personal life, good and bad at any given time... Didn't she feel a little open? As if she was a book, ready to be read? She'd have to work here to find out. Raina was the one to break Leila out of her thoughts, she turned her head quickly, only to be bombarded with Raina's exitement.

"I know, I am too. And you're Job sounds really cool, even the Unglamourous part." Leila admitted, not as exited, but really happy and hopeful. Then Raina started talking about what she did with her Mutation. "I see, so you can Breath under water then?" she asked, a little exited at learning something new about someone. Anyway, Leila didn't really have much more to say here, so falling in step alongside her red-haired friend, the two walked towards what looked like the Main Room, neatly decorated and very welcoming.

"Hmm, fun." she said, but really, this did seem fun. Leila watched as Raina talked, showed and explained things. What really did stun her was that Raina was okay with Dr. Grey wanting to show her like she was a Creature. She didn't say anything though, simply nodding and such. Leila listened some more and took the papers. Only to be cut short.

"Oh no, I got it." she said, really, she did get it. This wasn,t so hard, it was the domain she was good at anyway. "You're better at this then my Boss at the Café a few streets down. When I was hired a few months ago, she went at full speed, explaining a list of things I had to do in two minutes, then handing me my vest and name tag." she said, grinning.

"Spooke's place seems nice. But I didn't bring an extra pair of Clothes, if I shift in Salt Water... Well, my clothes usually get torn off." she said, grimacing slightly. She hated that, usually she'd just full out undress herself before going under, but sometimes she forgot and then it left her in a pretty bad position. Especially when she was in a very public place.

"And for Specifics, I was just wondering... When do I start working?" she grinned, "No seriously, this place is awesome! I could really do with a change of work scene." she smiled again, this was simply amazing. She took a look at the papers Raina had given her a few seconds ago, "I see you got Dolphins, mind if we check them out later? I begun practicing some Communication, I can talk to them without being Shifted too. I never tried on other Dolphins before, maybe they'll be easier..."

Raina listened to Leila and nodded her head. "Don't worry about getting wet or anything. I don't think we'll be doing anything that requires you to be submurged so you shouldn't have to worry too much about your power. Dr.Gray will never force you to use anything. It's all up to you. I keep a lot of clothes in the locker room because I have no choice. Even a drink of water if I don't position it the right way can make me fishy. but yes- I can breathe underwater, I get gils and everything." she motioned to her kneck forgetting about the red band that ran around it from the camps.

"Well, you can start now! I'll have to be your boss for a little bit... but I think you'll surpass me with your education soon enough." she laughed. "Training should only take today and one more day. You can do the basic stuff or if you like you can let Dr. Gray decide on a helpful way for you to use your power- like me with my ice call. The janitor here is a mutant too I'll introduce you later... but mostly we use our powers behind the scenes or when the aquarium isn't open."

She listened to Leila explain about her dolphin communcation. "'Oh wow that's so neat, I bet Dr. gray would love that! Sea animals are as weary of me in the wild as they woud be of anything else. Here they're tame so they don't mind... but I've never been able to commuicate."

She paused for a moment to reflect. "I bet this is all rather crazy for you- you didn't know about other mutants till you came to the mansion right? The idea of using your gifts for work must seem a little weird. But I promise this'll be better than any waitressing job!"

Leila nodded too, "I don't really mind using my Powers," she admitted, "I used to, but now I sort of like it." she added, playing with the bunch of papers a little, she was pretty nervous, but as of now seemed to be good. She and Raina seemed to get along well, maybe they'd end up close friends in the future. "Yeah, that must get annoying, I tried pouring salt in tubs of fresh water and that works too, so I don't need to be near Oceans, just need water and salt."

Then the next news actually shocked her. "Are you serious? I don't need to go through Interviews?" she smiled, "Thanks a lot! You don't know how much this means to me." she shifted the papers to free one arm and hugged Raina slightly. "I think I'll have to talk to Dr. Grey, let him know I'm really interesting in working here, and stuff." she added, "But I wouldn't mind doing basic stuff, how hard could it be to feed Fish?"

"I think he probably knew about my Comunication Skills, I was thinking about that a bit as I drove over here... He seems like a cool guy, I'll never get used to the feeling of being so open though, I mean... It must be a little annoying to know he knows your entire life secrets." but she shut up, hoping she hadn't really done any harm saying all that.

"Yeah, I only noticed being able to talk to Fish last week, everytime I past Aquariums I heard whispers... So I bought two Goldfish for my room and practiced with them. Pretty strange what they'll end up revealing." Leila said, realizing she may be the only one to discover secrets from the underworld. How great would that be?

"Crazy is an understatement." she said, chuckling slightly. "But I'll get used to it, I got used to other people's Mutations pretty easily, a lot easier then I'd expected it to be." she added, "I guess I was just glad I fitted in somewhere, some place where I didn't have to hide half my life." she felt weird now, revealing all of this to Raina, she hadn't even told Sam half of this, she hardly knew if he knew what she could do.

Raina smiled as Leila opened up to her. "Well, Im glad i'm getting to know you Leila." she said slinging an arm around the young woman's shoulder and motioning with her other free arm in front of them "I think you'll fit in quite nicely!" she laughed. "Let's head to the locker room. We'll drop our things off, pick up some water protection gear as I call it, and head to the penguin exhibit. We've got some work to do there then we can check out all the other areas and I can pick you up an employee manual as well. Soon you'll be able to just show up and do your own thing without me bossing you." she laughed.

She lead the way to the lockeroom and once inside she gave Leila a combination lock and a locker and advised her to put her papers in there. She brought out rubber boots and rubber insolated gloves. For herself she had to wear ugly yellow plastic cover-alls but it was the best way not to get wet and once she got them on she made a joke to Leila about looking like a lobster fisherman.

She led the way to the penguin housing. "obviously we go in through the back. Watch out for poop." she laughed showing her the entrace. Once inside all the penguins stopped what they were doing, blinked a moment, and then rushed toward the girls in a tightly packed giant moving penguin organsim. Raina's laughter echoed like bells. "They like new people!" she yelled to Leila over the chirping and squaking of all the excited penguines checking her out.

She handed Leila a nearby bucket of fish. "here!" she yelled. "why don't you feed some of them!"

Leila simply nodded as Raina put an arm around her. "Alright," she said, as she also told her what the next part of the little trip would be. Locker Rooms, then Penhuins. She could keep that in mind. She smiled at the thought of working here, actually being an Employee here. How great it would be, how... helpful it would be to help with her Mutation growth. Seriously, she really hated the fact that she couldn't really defend herself or friends against many people. Unless she had some kind of weapon, she'd be vulnerable, just like a Human.

Leila was a little stunned when they had reached the Locker Room. So soon? It seemed they had just started walking again. She took the combination, scratching it in her mind. She had a good memory, and a few numbers weren't hard to forget. She gently put her purse and papers inside, closing it afterwards. "Thank you." she said as Raina handed her boots and gloves. Leila laughed, "Or a Rubber Duck." she laughed a little more, looking at her own yellow hands and feet. She was sort of glad she didn't have to wear a full-body suit yet.

Leila had certainlky paid attention as Raina brought them to the Penguin's exibit. She didn't want to be so clueless the next time she'd have to do this on her own. So with a step over some near Penguin Droppings, she could see, and hear, some penguins coming their way. She didn't even move as they came along quickly, being scared of animal stampeeds wasn't really her thing. "Alright!" she said cheerfully, taking the fish bucket. She threw one in a brisk movement towards the closest Penguin. "Tell me if I'm doing it wrong. Iv'e never really fed Animals other then Gold Fish and a few others at School." she said, grinning. Penguins, those were definately a first.