Tom decided to go to the lobby for breakfast.
But first, he was going to this supply room that he'd heard about to get a wetsuit hood. But he'd never been to the supply room.
"Hey, where is the supply room?" he said out loud based on a hunch that whoever was listening would answer.
After about a minute, the text appeared in the heads up display in the visor "DOWN THE HALL, THEN RIGHT, THEN LEFT."
"Damn that's creepy." Thought Tom to himself, definitely not out loud.
Tom got to the supply room and as promised, it opened for him.
There were shelving units along the walls, rows of clothing racks, and plastic bins with open tops. It seemed to be roughly organized; diving equipment on one side, general equipment like tents and sleeping bags on the other, and a couple racks of camouflage clothing and dress uniforms in the middle.
Tom circled around the general equipment before checking out the diving section, just out of curiosity. One thing he noticed is that even though there was a variety of equipment, there were no guns or explosives laying around "Makes sense they would keep that more secure." he thought to himself.
In there diving section there were scuba tanks and boots, and yes a rack with wetsuits. And drysuits too. Some were new, some were used. Maybe the people taking diving classes here use these suits too; or they get a lot of military people through here. They looked like ordinary suits though, none were the special kind that Tom had.
In a nearby plastic bin, he found some neoprene hoods. He tried one that looked promising, and tried it on. It fit fine, covering up the area where it looked like his existing hood faded into his face without a seam.
As he left the room, he thought about what he had seen: "Even though I got turned on by all that neoprene and uniforms, I didn't see anything that could *only* be used for kinky purposes. I'm guessing that whoever runs this doesn't see gear in a kinky way. Or they're really good at hiding it."
Tom headed to the elevator and took it down to the lobby. Hot and cold breakfast was set out buffet style. Some of guests did double takes when they saw Tom's appearance. Tom felt self-conscious about that and wondered to himself if he should have come down. Some of the guests pointed out the signs in the lobby about scuba classes, to whoever they were with, and everyone mostly went back to having breakfast.
Tom started to heap breakfast onto a plate. He didn't see any other divers, as was suggested he might see, so he took his plate to a table by himself.
Tom was partway through his breakfast when he saw another diver come in and head for the buffet. Tom took some glances at the diver as the diver got his breakfast. He was wearing a black and red drysuit with an attached rubber hood. He definitely had come from somewhere wet, as he had one towel wrapped around his waist and other over his shoulders in an attempt not to drip too badly. He wasn't wearing a mask or air tank. Tom tried not to stare and to just let him have his breakfast.
"Mind if I sit here?" the other diver said as he motioned toward the other chair at Tom's table.
Tom almost jumped as he was just letting the other diver be and he didn't see him approach while he was eating his own breakfast.
"No. No, it's fine. You have sit here. You can sit here, I mean." said Tom.
The other diver set his plate down at the table.
"Haven't seen you at the pool." said the other diver, "Name's Jerry."
"Tom." said Tom. Tom got an closer view of Jerry as he talked to him. Jerry looked like an older man, like someone in their 40s.
"Really? So we're like Tom and Jerry! Hahaha, that's hilarious." laughed Jerry.
"Yep, sure am." said Tom.
"Yeah, nice. So you going to the pool later?" asked Jerry.
"Probably." said Tom.
"Nice. Who you with?" asked Jerry.
"Military." replied Tom. "Contractor."
"Oh nice, yeah I see those military guys around. I'm with the underwater welding class. Got a couple weeks left of it." Jerry said between mouthfuls of food.
"Yep. Cool." replied Tom. He had a couple more bites of breakfast.
"That's a nice rig you got there," said Jerry.
"Thanks. It's custom." replied Tom, "... Made." Tom wasn't expecting to have a conversation about gear. He was just choosing his words carefully.
"And nice high tech goggles too." admired Jerry
"It's ... a dive computer. And my glasses. Can't see anything without my lenses, yup." said Tom.
"I can tell that you're the shy type and not sure about me. That's fine." said Jerry "I gotta get back to the pool; maybe I'll see you around."
"Ok... Bye." said Tom. Then gave a little wave goodbye.
Tom looked at Jerry's plate. It was empty. Even though Jerry had arrived later, he had just come up to grab a quick bite and had scarfed down his food. Tom finished his breakfast. Tom was feeling shy about being out in his gear, so he decided to go back to his room.
As he was headed back, a new message appeared in his visor's display: "GOOD JOB KEEPING TO YOUR NON-DISCLOSURE."
When Tom got back to his room, he flopped into bed, to let him stomach digest and also to go over how he had totally flubbed that conversation.
"So could I go to the pool if I wanted?" Tom wondered aloud.
After a couple of minutes, the answer appeared in the display of his visor "YES, BUT WE RECOMMEND NOT USING YOUR EQUIPMENT FOR BREATHING UNDERWATER UNTIL YOU'VE TAKEN THE SAFETY CLASS."
"So I just sit around the room all day otherwise?" Tom asked out loud again.
After a few minutes, Tom read the reply. "YES, WHILE THE BONDING IS OCCURRING, WE CLOSELY MONITOR YOUR SYSTEMS WITHOUT SUBJECTING YOU TO STRENUOUS ACTIVITY FOR THE FIRST COUPLE DAYS."
After a few minutes: "THEN THE INTENSIVE TRAINING COURSE STARTS."
Tom thought about what to do next. He could go to the pool, but there'd be plenty of opportunity in the future for that. Or he could just stay in his room, and save up his energy for now.