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Ever, at least, was left blinking at the idea of college courses: something he'd abandoned years before as not possibly with my income, and then again more recently as not possible for those who are technically dead. The possibility opening again made his eyebrows knit, slowly, and his expression go from 'moderately uninterested' to 'very focused on Lex'. It was almost enough, in fact, to make him wish he had the same level of initiative and experience, to add his voice to the idea.

Not that it would have mattered, with Management so thoroughly uninterested. All the same: to him, Lex was more interesting than Leon, and he couldn't help the slow curve of a smile that claimed his mouth at the young man's not-quite-snide sideways look to the rattling noise.

Habits of an insufferable teacher's pet died hard. In the case of the meeting, those habits happened to collide with the drilled-in importance of punctuality in Mimsy's mind, which meant that she was in attendance well before the meeting started. The chair she chose to sit in had mysteriously gravitated closer to the chair occupied by Robert, maintaining an appropriate (yet politely possessive) distance. A thick folder and two large moleskine notebooks were placed on the table in front of her as she patiently waited.

When Dr. H cleared his throat, she sat up straight and readied her pen, expression eager and attentive. When that attention was then directed by her Division Leader to someone who was most certainly not him, a little spark went out in her expression, and she began to impassively take notes on every point addressed.

But the longer the discussion carried on, the more visibly uncomfortable she became - namely during Lex's presentation. She crossed and uncrossed her legs several times, shifted her weight from one side of her seat to the other, and finally caved beneath the clearly incessant need to say something. To avoid the negative repercussions that passing notes often received, as this was already incredibly naughty of her to do, she subtly slid her hand to briefly write in the bottom right corner of the notebook page: 'I want to retrieve my doctorate.'

When she finished the short message, she nudged Robert's foot to call his attention towards it, and paused momentarily before drawing a symmetrical : ) face beneath the words. Then her pen shifted upward, and she resumed her diligent note-taking without any further commentary.

Melvin slowly stood up, looking worn and tired. "While it's not my project, I'd like to take over the greenhouse that has renovated and continue work on completing the water system and other maintenance of that project in the previous project lead's absence." He said, not in the least bit being long winded with such a basic, simple proposal. The greenhouse had already gone into disrepair with the original group that letting it go ignored could easily see it happen again. He needed to keep it thriving for Rin's sake and that required some funding to show that it was still a legit project. "I've been reading over Ms. Adler's notes and hoping to continue her work to the best of my ability."

And now it was off to his own project.

"I'll also be discontinuing my own project with artifact studies and wish to move on to assist the runic department. If it hasn't already been done extensively, I'd like to explore the caves under Deus with equipment that doesn't last 2 hours so that I can dive for longer than the required time that the Sun equipment that is borrowed allows." He had been curious to a possible hoard of some sort and finding out more about what the mermaids were guarding.

He did not address this to Dr. H, but kept his eyes to the Hawaiian T-shirt guy instead. It was the only way he could prevent himself from glaring.

If Lex was looking at her, Ami wouldn't know. Her eyes were already intently on the next proposal.

She had to hide a laugh with her hand when Melvin, as a trainee, wanted to take on not one but two projects. It was admirable, she supposed, the ambition, but laughable at his level, as he was not yet a full hunter, nor specialized. Not just two projects, but also announcing he was dropping his current one- that definitely looked good on his record.

Mostly she wondered what Melvin would follow up with to prove his worthiness.

Ami mirthfully waited for Dr. H's response. It was odd that Melvin chose to look at Mary and not H, but then, Ami could understand the pressure one felt whilst being stared down by the doctor. Intimidation was indeed existent.

Ever's eyes lingered on Lex as he sat down, instead of flicking to the nerdy-looking kid talking about the greenhouse: something he cared much less about than the possibility of classes. And it was in this moment, his eyebrows knitted together in a thoughtful and puzzled sort of way, fingers strumming against the back of the chair, somewhat-obviously not paying attention at all, that he realized his interest meant that he probably actually was in the right division. The realization left him making a soft noise, finally turning back to watch the crew up front for their reactions again.

Online courses shouldn't have been that bad, of course. People talked about it, got perfectly good educations that way -- but it was, still, easier said than done. Barriers that wouldn't be there, were he able to enter a real classroom: the first, of course, being his own lack of computer.

That was the easiest to overcome. Harder was figuring out how to use the damned thing, giving him flashbacks of the first few weeks at the bar, punching helplessly at a monitor that was supposed to be so easy teenagers could use it. Ever rubbed at his face, eyes gone distant, no longer paying attention to anything but his own thoughts.

The doctor smiled kindly at Melvin, as if their last meeting held nothing beyond normal pleasantries, and nodded, "If you think so little of her work that you feel confident to not only take it over but create a new one for yourself in addition, well, who am I to argue with that assessment?"

The doctor gestured toward Mary who nodded in turn and wrote down a few notes before looking up toward Melvin, and sincerely giving his condolences, "She seemed a good woman, sorry to hear she passed."

Another pause, and then an apologetic smile, "Using the fancy pants equipment will mean whatever you find down there goes to the division, so thanks in advance for the effort."

And that's when Melvin looked at Dr. H and narrowed his eyes at him. "I never said that. I never said her work was easy. I never said her project was easy. I would never say she in turn took it easy or created work that was easily taken over by anyone. I'm just up for the challenge of taking over her project despite whatever struggled I may face, and am willing to sacrifice all my free time to work on that project including one I show a personal interest in. If you feel that I might be overwhelmed, unable to face that challenge, or might take it easy despite my record of hard work in the past, then I would be willing to drop the underwater exploration project and dedicate myself solely to prolonging the future of the greenhouse."

His tone was strained and tense, restraining himself from shouting at the man who so pleasantly smiled at him, soaking up his position and rank.

a*****e.

He looked back to Mary and only gave her a short nod. "She is...and I didn't expect to keep anything I found." He hadn't even been keeping the stones he collected to himself aside from a small handful for emergencies. The hundreds had already gone to other hunters and America's Town Clearing project. It was the experience of being under water and away from it all that he valued more. Now it was curiosity to what the mermaids were guarding, but if that meant he couldn't do both, he'd resign himself to the greenhouse.

Noah had intended to follow up Melvin's statement about the greenhouse with his own, but after the exchange between Melvin and the doctor, he shrank back quietly in his seat, all his courage crumpling down into a tiny dismal ball that sat uselessly in his stomach. There was no way he could speak up now. Maybe he could turn invisible if he tried hard enough.