"Messing with how you perceive the world around you to what extent?"

He shrugs. "Don't really know. That guy was bad news according to everybody I ever heard from, so I mostly just tried to keep my ear to the ground in case he came to town but didn't go looking too far into it."

"Understandable."

"I suspect the survey crew are going to be disappointed with what you can tell them." He smiles a little. "Then again, they usually are."

Azzy slumps and sighs a bit, with a mixture of faux and genuine dejection. "Oh well."

"Eh, they're always hoping to get enough data to conclusively establish how various events affect the course of history. Which is actually rather ambitious of them, and most of the people they interview don't know enough to give them that data. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you."

He isn't great at not worrying about things, but he'll try. "Fair enough."

Then after having another bite of bread with mystery-vegetable spread, he gets a brief look of realization. Once he's swallowed he asks, "So, I've heard about the refuge's doc, Ton'guni, might also be the best person to ask about where to start on getting some better control over my power. How would I go about setting up an appointment with him? Or just finding him, really."

"I can show you where his office is when you're done eating. He has a sign on the door that says when he's busy. Usually either he's available for walk-ins, or he's working on something but can make an appointment, and if he can't talk to you at all the door will tell you when to come back."

"You can also sometimes find him here at dinnertime, but not consistently."

Levron briefly looks around.

"He's not here now."

Azzy nods along. He's not sure he'd want to talk about this sort of thing over dinner anyway. "Anything I should be on the look out to tell if I'm getting close to his office? Like with the library."

"Oh, it's close enough to the great hall that the route there is pretty stable. Down that hallway, take the second left, then look for the sign on his door. I was going to show you there so I could explain what the sign is trying to tell you, but it's not difficult to navigate there."

Azzy sets down his bread for a moment to bring out the notebook and pencil he brought with him to add a brief transcription of the directions as short as they are. It wouldn't do to forget, and he's managed to forget simpler things.

"Thanks for thinking of me." He looks to be putting them away when he's interrupted by another look of realization. "Oh! Another thing I was kind of surprised and curious about: when I met her over lunch earlier, Tasha also mentioned that some of the cats are good 'matchmakers'?"

"Ah, yes, there are always some cats who like to talk to people and gossip, and they gather enough information to make pretty good guesses about who would be a good idea to introduce to whom. Not that there aren't plenty of other people who like to talk to people and gossip"—he smirks—"but they seem to be the most... systematic about it. These days, I believe it's mostly Pakhet, Ryuka, and Argent... Ora, am I missing anyone?"

"Minori recently became their apprentice. They'll probably introduce themselves to you eventually, Azzy, but if you'd like to meet them sooner than that I can let them know."

He scribbles down the names and a reminder to himself about them in his notebook as he nods along. "I don't know. They sound like they've got their own thing going on, it feels weird to try and jump ahead if they've probably got their own idea of when and how to make contact." The blush appearing on his cheeks might indicate there's a significant elements of embarrassment or shame involved in his decision making as well. His eyes' briefly darting around, as if scanning for something, might hint at some fear as well.

"Very well."

He eats his way through the rest of his bread-and-spread quietly and maybe a little mechanically, before he remembers one more question. "James also mentioned stuff like hobby groups being how most people spend their time, but I didn't really have a hobby before I got here, so I was wondering if you might have a recommendation for a group that's open to someone who's kind of starting from square one?"

"Off the top of my head, there's the fashionable society—they collect clothes and do sewing and tailoring—the engineering group, several book clubs and scholarly associations... a lot of people do cooking and some of them would probably be happy to teach you, and the library proper is always eager for volunteers, although I don't know if you'd consider that work a hobby. What else... there's refuge football. I had a lot of fun doing that when I was younger." He chuckles. "It's a game that's full of surprises. And of course many of us enjoy playing games in here in the evenings—cards, mahjong, chess, yul'ma, that kind of thing."

Lydiar chimes in.

"Some of us get together every couple of days for martial arts. Mostly grappling. Nothing very formal. There are a lot of other sports that people play sometimes, but none are as popular as football."

"There are probably plenty of other things I'm forgetting, because they aren't very popular or only happen sporadically or both. And many I can think of which would not be the most open to a newcomer, but you could probably get into if you really wanted to. I think most of the refuge's musicians, for instance, knew how to play an instrument before they arrived, but you probably could get someone to teach you if you really wanted. It just wouldn't be as straightforward as the other options we mentioned."

Azzy considers the options presented. He doesn't think he has the wherewithal for picking up an instrument, if his recollection of piano lessons and music class in school are any indication. He's simultaneously attracted and a bit worried about refuge soccer, since it'd be nice to have something to do that burns some of his energy, but it being 'surprising' sounds like it might also be a bit unpleasant for him, and might provoke the angel. The mention of card games does make him think. "Do you know if there's a roleplaying game group? For, like, D&D, if that's a thing people know about?"

"I haven't heard of D&D, but there are some people who do roleplaying games—I don't know exactly who or how many, but I believe Jorjif and Zula play fairly regularly, and they would probably know everyone else who does."

"Uh..." he briefly looks around, just in case either of those people happens to be around and visibly reacts to hear their name, then looks back Levron. "Any idea where I could find either of them?"