The siren song of an impulse trip to Costa Rica with a good, handsome conversationalist convinced him to leave his patch of very ecologically important woods and fields alone for a weekend. But it didn't happen, and Paul doesn't need to know those details, so Aster keeps them to himself.

"If it weren't for food and mail getting into town, I wouldn't think anything is getting in or out." Except that Aster hasn't yet confirmed how the food and mail is getting into and out of town, no more than he can confirm anything about Cygne's sponsored kids. Something must be covering the food shipments and the mail shipments. Aster stares into space for a moment as he thinks. "Cygne owns all the grocery stores around here, doesn't she? She gets kids out and food in."

Past the monsters. He doesn't say this to Paul. He's going to have to go tell Dan immediately.

But first.

"When did you get here anyway?"