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He found one conversation about television and another about sleeping. Strangely, that second one was so mundane that it actually held his attention for a bit before he moved on. He soon found a third one about toilet paper and then a fourth about muscle cramps.

All in all, he wasn’t terribly surprised. He’d been eavesdropping on these people for the last few days, and this was about the same level of intrigue that he’d come to expect. He did manage to learn a couple more names, though, in the increasingly unlikely event that anyone ever bothered to question him.

Really, though, he was just looking for someone named “Leo.” From everything he’d heard, that name belonged to the person in charge, which meant that was probably who he wanted to talk to.

But then again, he had to wonder... maybe this was just a waste of time. Even if he did convince these people to return with him to Atreya... would they even prove themselves useful? They hadn’t exactly inspired much--

“YOU ARE A DISASTER!”

Roman winced. He held his forehead and waited for his right ear to stop ringing. When it did, he shook his head, blinked a couple times, and then searched for that conversation again, making sure to reduce the volume. It had come from a few floors above him, he was fairly sure.

“--a mess! Honestly, Leo! What the hell have you been doing here?!”

“Just, y’know, man. Relaxin’. Takin’ it one day at a time. I don’t see what the big deal is, inspector-man.”

“The big deal?! The lava isn’t supposed to be IN the compound, you moron!”

“Yeeeaah, but it’s kind of a hassle to clean up, y’know? And besides, it looks pretty gone, don’t you think?”

“Pretty what?”

“Gone. Y’know, like, outta sight. Cool as ice ‘n beans, man.”

“Argh, it’s not cool! It means the structural integrity of your perimeter is compromised! And what if you ever have guests who aren’t immune to lava, huh?! I shouldn’t have to explain this to you!”

“I think you just need to take a chill pill, daddy-o.”