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Tom raised an eyebrow. "Might be fun?" He then laughed. "That's quite the outlook. And yeah, it could be fun...but it's quite the responsibility, too."

Meanwhile, Alex had turned his curious gaze to Cirri's belly, guessing where this 'pouch' was...he'd seen a kangaroo in one of Tom's books, and he had been told about their pouches. "Down here?" he asked, pointing.

He paused briefly to collect the word to answer the boy's question...it was a hard word. "I'm a...nubibrant." He nodded triumphantly for getting it "right."

Tom shrugged. "I'm sure I don't know, but I doubt he'd get too, uhm...close. Alex has obviously decided he's not afraid of Cirri, but he usually sticks with touching faces and hands." To the other statement, Tom had nothing else to say.

Alex nodded in reply to the boy's explanation about the pouch.

"It means," he answered in an I-know-what-I'm-talking-about sort of way, "That I breathe on the outside," he then hunched slightly. "I think..." He flipped around in place idly. "That's what Tom said. So, it might mean that I'm squishy, too...since I am squishy."

Alex shrugged slightly, like he had seen Tom do whenever he didn't answer something. He then said, "When I'm in the water, Tom says I breathe with those thingies, yeah."

Tom did just about the same motion Alex did under the water, but his was directed at Kali. "Well, for such small children, there are only two real ways to react to being licked, I guess...shy away, or poke the licker back." He exhaled noticeably, then asked, "Planning on going for a swim too, or were you just going to watch him?"

Tom nodded slowly, giving Kali an odd look. There was something in her tone... "Well, alright," he said pleasantly after a moment. "There's dive equipment over in that building there," he pointed to one, "I've you've got the certification... if not, there's that class for all Mer Co's new...parents next week." He may or may not have been trying to get a reaction.


Alex shook his head in answer to the question, "does it hurt?"

He then drifted back over to Tom's legs and somewhat mimicked Cirri's motions of wrapping around things...except that he wasn't nearly as capable of that, so he wrapped most of his body around a leg to do it. "Uh-huh," he said once he'd done that.

Tom just looked down at the squishy one.

Tom shrugged. "It certainly helps to be underwater with him," He pointed down, just as his other leg got wrapped around. He raised an eyebrow and waited to see what would happen.


Under the surface, Alex carefully observed Cirri's demonstration, then gave a try himself. After a few seconds, he shook his head and replied, "Nope...I can't do that. I'm squishy, not flexible..." He gave up and grabbed ahold of one of Tom's fingers which were underwater, and "hung" from that while looking at the little (okay, huge) seahorse.

Tom nodded knowingly. "Yeah, the water's pretty deep in this bay... it only goes down to about 12 feet over on that side of this area," he pointed across the blocked-in space he and the two kids were in with his un-grabbed hand, "But in a couple of years, a swimming pool probably won't be enough space for these guys."

"Games?" Alex grinned. "I like games!" He nodded, and twisted around in place a bit, keeping a hold of Tom's finger. Tom sank down a little bit to prevent his hand from getting hurt. Continuing on, Alex said happily, "Tom's got a game where I find a place to hide in the dive tank, and he has to find me..." he pointed in the direction of another part of Mer Co's enclosed water areas, a much deeper part. "And...sometimes he tosses a bunch of little toys that sink out in the water, and we try to see who can find the most and..." There were so many games to talk about, he didn't know what to say next.

Tom blinked, and almost didn't hide his shock at Kali's admission. "I...I see," he said slowly after a couple of seconds. "Well...that might be a bit of an, um, issue that we might want to work out some time soon."


Alex listened to the explanation of tag. "No," he shook his head slowly after he'd heard what it is. "I've never played that..." Tom had not yet told Alex this, but his 'dad' had noticed that Alex was, while perfectly proficient at swimming (given his...abilities), was not very fast-moving in most cases, so Tom usually avoided games that involved chase.

Looking quizzically at Cirri, Alex asked, "How do you play hide and seek out of the water?"