Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Thanks," Dash laughed. Against what? He had no idea what Dema was doing with his sides until it was too late. "What? Nooooo!" Dash had never been tickled before. He coughed out a laugh, which became incessant laughter, and kicked the air ineffectively. What was this move! He had to try it. Through tear-mucked eyes he tried to reach for Dema's sides and tickle him back.

"Weak! Nooo!" Dash couldn't string a sentence together if he wanted to, he was laughing too hard. He couldn't keep tickling (trying) Dema any longer, either. He tried to pull the offending fingers away but was unable. Catastrophic fail! "Okay! Yes! Yes!"

"Easy... easy for you... to say..." Dash huffed, still incapable of a full sentence without panting. But he was chuckling still as he pulled himself up and sat kneeling and facing Dema. "What now? Have any more diabolical moves?" He was definitely going to practice this tickling thing and try to get him next time.

"True," he smirked. There probably would be a next time, yes. "Usually I go swimming in the afternoon. Today I was probably going to train inside instead."

"I was outside during the rain before lunch. That's what the poncho was for. I just never took it off when I came in to eat. I was in the woods looking for things that come out when it rains, so I could draw them." With a big grin, he held up a tablet that had a touch screen and stylus. "I went down to the lake because I felt like it and was coming back inside to train." Sometimes he just did not think things through and he was not going to try to defend that.

"Sure," Dash said enthusiastically. He pulled up the directory that held all the pictures and put it into a slideshow format that he could swipe back and forth. He showed Dema how to swipe it, then handed it to him. "I want to explore outside the dome when I grow up. I thought knowing how to draw would be helpful if the tablet ever broke. But the tablet can upload drawings or photos to the computer in the library so anyone can reference them whenever they want." He watched Dema look through them. They were good drawings for his age. "I discovered a plant that blooms when it rains. The petals close up if the rain stops falling." He had also found some amphibious creatures that had sticky feet and a long tongue. They had gill slits in the back of their neck. "There's just so much out there to discover," he sighed but wore a happy smile. "I don't know if he draws. I wonder if he does? Maybe you can ask him."

"Let me see." Dash swiped down on the picture of the amphibian without taking the tablet from Dema. Below the image were some notes: This creature had climbed up the stalk and perched on the broad blade of a large-leaf plant and repeated a rhythm of little squeaks as it sat there, gills flaring in time with the "tune." It crawled to move. "I can show you where I found them now, if you want. I have no trouble finding these places, but I could definitely use a map to mark down where I have found them." He did not know how to make an accurate map but he was willing to try!