Miles was a bit more surprised when he actually got into the large room where new members were instructed to go after dropping off their applications. But it was the lecture they got before they actually got their assignments that really stuck with him.
"Animalia Ambassadoria is, above all, NOT one of those trashy gossip magazines that focus more on scandal than actual news." said Mrs. Brown. "We do not focus on things like 'so-and-so's fashion disaster'."
But afterward, each would-be new member was given a few assignments to do either stories or interviews on certain things. Some of these were assigned according to age, and some had some more protests from certain people than not.
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There were a few people who were very surprised that they wouldn't be out in the field. But these were ones who were getting assigned to the "overseas" department. These were people who were getting stories from Animalia's other colonies. Some of them were experts at video editing for adding other kinds of clips to news stories, mainly for amusement purposes.
The very first one was Huoxing's dinner with Gang. While everyone thought it odd that he was mainly looking at the ground and not at Huoxing, making only brief eye contact at best, one member managed to place a clip from one of the earliest Spongebob Squarepants episodes where Patrick comments, "You're just being shy.".
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After interviewing Lyre's mayor, Miles had to interview Miss Fabina, much to his surprise. He had heard of Miss Fabina's reputation as Animalia's "top dog", though of what he wasn't quite sure what that meant. Fortunately, Miss Fabina was at Claw Coliseum practicing tennis so he didn't have to worry too much about it. But it was her top that was a bit more surprising because it mentioned that Miss Fabina had taken part in the 1984 Olympics. While she didn't talk much about her past, she did confirm that she had won gold at Solo Court Tennis.
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At the end of the day, the number of applicants were reduced by a quarter, but there were still a number of tests still to go. But there were a few announcements that helped relieve some anxiety about whether or not they would join.
Sophie and Roland were opening an office of Animalia Ambassadoria in Dino City and were looking for applicants there, but they were focusing more on Dino City locals, so they were doing something similar to what was going on in Lyre/Animalia.
There were also some benefits to being a member, such as being allowed to miss classes. While it was clear that some had joined for that specific benefit, they were a bit disappointed when they were informed that they would be required to do make-up work.