Masks and Mirrors

There's a masked man standing outside, hand up as if he's about to ring the ornate bell again.

He makes a squeak not unlike the creepy birds around town and jumps up as if startled. As if he should be the one scared!

“Hey man what the hell what’s up what’s good my man my bro-”

“Aiden… Toliver?” Damian tilts his head stupidly as if that’ll help him remember

“yes! Hovis bro! little Hovis!” Aiden, still wearing an oversized pumpkin mask scurries right past him, still mumbling different variations of his name.

“What are you- it’s been years. Do you still live here?” Damian follows him inside to the kitchen where Aiden is making himself a sandwich… that can’t be hygienic.

“Yes yes yes yes there we go”, he’s squirreling below the sink and messing with pipes and makes a satisfied sound, “yes I still live in the town. no longer with my parents mind you, messy divorce, neither of them wanted the bad memories, can you pass me the the thing the thingy?” Damian kicks the sandwich closer before also kicking a wrench to the expectant hand” yeap thank you Hovis bro”

Damian sighs “Thank you for the help with the water, what are you doing here?”

The masked man gets up and shoves the sandwich whole inside his… pseudo head. He’s still muttering and as Aiden makes himself smaller and titters about the weather and whatnot Damian is reminded of how hard it is for Aiden to actually talk with people. He might as well let him off the hook for now. Really taking him in now, his pumpkin mask covers his whole head in a way his childhood plastic masks couldn’t and his clothes look clean though ragged, he looks significantly better fed than when he was a kid as well. Damian can’t keep looking at him after this.

He peers over at his room, thoughts running through his mind, “I have a game going on, it’s a popular one, I'm doing exploits. Do you wanna come see?” It's been years but hopefully Aiden tastes haven’t changed as much.

“Oh sure!” and Aiden Is already halfway to the room. Damian can’t help but be a bit peeved, even though it was his own sentimentality that got to him.

“Silent Witness Enigma, i'm not sure if you’ll be able to play it,” he’s feeling a bit awkward mentioning it,” it’s uhhh a vr, needs a headset, but you can watch me play and help me out with the exploits i suppose’.

There’s a loud thump inside the room

“Oughgh did you say SWE? man there’s no wayyy small world, small world.” or at least that’s what Damian focuses on after a bunch of muttering around how nice the room is, it isn't, and how much it hurt to fall, it probably didn't. He squints suspiciously at Aiden.

“Small world?“

“Oh, haven't you heard? that used to be my game!”

“What do you mean by that?”

“The company bought off my crappy indie game, isn’t that a nifty thing?” he says while scratching a notch into his mask.