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He had wanted to comment he was asking because if she was going to school, he wanted - nay, NEEDED - to show her the fine art of making a rubber band launcher. However, Quinny may as well not have spoken as his full attention was now on the squirtbottle, giving it a mighty crush between his palms so that a gout of water cascaded into the bucket with the sand with a noise that sounded somewhere between horrible gas, and a balloon deflating.

....and then he, too, erupted into cackles. Let it not be said the young man was not easily entertained...

Yes, hilarious, isn't it? What you've reduced me to...

Arkie blinked, looking over his shoulder as if he'd just been bitten by something. Nothing there. Nothing over the other shoulder either. Hunh. Oh well, back to more important things.

"And once its done," he told Addie "the AWESOME part is Godzillaing that mother to the ground!"

What did you do with the bucket now? You were supposed to turn it...over, right? Just like--

Splorp!

A sludge of sand and water seeped from the pail, making not a well-formed castle turret but what could only be described as gross.

If he'd had doubts before, this. THIS. cemented for him that Addie was pretty damned awesome. The ooze was great....but as it formed an amorphous blob in the sandbox, it occurred to him it was missing something...

Extending a finger, he prodded it at the 'face' of the monstrosity, outfitting it with two eyes and a sharp toothed smileyface that immediately became distorted and gooey. There. NOW it was perfect.

"Do ya?" was his response to this, giving her a lopsided grin. One that seemed to be a placeholder to wondering what he was supposed to say to that. .....uhhh....

Bah, screw what he was supposed to say.

"I kinda like you too." he told her, giving the little hand in his a squeeze. What WASN'T to like? Get her yelling some select four-lettered words and he'd be proud to tell whoever'd LISTEN she was his daughter.

Aw, she was leaving? She'd been the first person he actually UNDERSTOOD since he'd gone home. ....and given that she was probably barely out of diapers that was not saying much on his part.

Well, if she had to go, she had to go. No sense in both of them getting sniped at. "See ya, kid." he said, giving a clumsy salute that almost made him poke himself in the eye.

....though he DID light up at mention of the card, snaking it from Quinny to look it over. A phone number. Awesome. If it occurred to him, he'd need to remember to make a note somewhere on there that this was not a number to call after eight drinks to see if anybody who answered felt like hucking rocks into traffic at three in the morning.

Clearly that was to be saved for Addie's birthday.

He opened his mouth to say something else....what that something was, however, the world would never know as it was lost even to him a moment later.

Kill it.

He blinked several times. Huh...?

It is only an infant. Surely even you can see how easy it would be. Take back from it what belongs to us.

Arkie made a frustrated noise, scratching at the side of his head. Maybe hearing this voice was some sort of normal thing for people who had a kid. It would explain why Ma sometimes looked at him like she wanted to back a steamroller over him.

As that thought crossed his mind, he allowed himself a glance at the little dark-skinned girl being picked up to be placed in her stroller. He didn't get why anybody'd want to hurt Addie.

....even though it would be easy. His mind did not trespass to a darker corner so much as it felt like someone had grabbed it and shoved it there, wanting to show him that, yes, it WAS easy. So very easy, didn't he see? Children had such soft bones. Soft, precious bones that snapped with such little effort.

....

......

....come to think of it, maybe HE ought to get going too. The response to this rusty thought rattling itself off was a cheated hiss from somewhere within the cage of his skull.

Worthless...!! whatever-it-was nearly screamed in a voice that sounded like someone ripping a piece of burlap in half. And just as quickly, whatever was speaking had gone again, leaving a sick, dizzy sensation in its wake.

"So uh..." he muttered when it had passed, shifting a look to Quinny, who seemed occupied with getting Addie situated, and Addie who seemed occupied with being such. "....so I'll see ya later, I guess. I gotta go do...uh..."

....he'd think of something, he was sure. Preferably that something would be somewhere loud, where you couldn't hear your OWN voice let alone weird ones in your head. "Anyway, bye!" the kelpie said hastily, scrambling to his feet and kicking up small fans of sand in the process. Half-walking, half-shambling, he somehow managed to pick himself out of the sand and get headed off of the playground.