Epic Gamer Momence

Charlie had just gotten back from an aggravating work day, takeout in hand. He set out his food on the side table, then turned on his gaming console and tv, giving it a minute to boot up while he gets a drink from the kitchen. As he caps the juice carton and puts it away, he notices a pop up on the side of his screen.

 mail3r.daem0n69 invited you to join their party.

It was Damon, of course. Charlie walked over, checking the notification as he got settled in. He saw Damon was playing one of the battle royale shooters he'd gotten roped into a few times. It was one of the free ones, but he thought the way some of the cosmetics stuff was marketed was kinda shitty. Not that he cared too much, especially not once he unlocked the cowboy guy. He could probably use a game or two to blow off some steam, but he'd just spectate for now while he ate. He moved the selection to 'Accept Invite.'

Without even a second passing, a message popped up on the screen.

 mail3r.daem0n69: get on mic numbnuts

 mail3r.daem0n69: whatchu waitin 4

Charlie rolls his eyes, and opens up the keyboard on the screen. He could just hop onto the call, but he was inclined to take his sweet time after Damon tried to rush him.

 mail3r.daem0n69: -_- bitch

 grimhawk_4: Some of us have lives, Damon.

 mail3r.daem0n69: Well one of us does

 mail3r.daem0n69: and it ain't you

 grimhawk_4: Wow.

 grimhawk_4: Huh, you know what

 grimhawk_4: Something just came up.

 mail3r.daem0n69: s2g

Charlie hit the join button, mid bite as he started tearing into his takeout. Damon's voice came over the speakers over the chaos of the game he was playing.

"Hey Charlie, you finally decided to join us, I see."

"Who else is on right now?"

"Nobody really, I was using the royal we. Playin' solos right now anyways. You down or just spectating."

"I'm eating dinner right now, but I'll hop on in a minute, probably."

"Cool, cool. Just delaying the ass kicking you're gonna get, I get it."

"Once I finish this lo mein, you're gonna eat those fuckin' words."

"Uh-huh." Anyone could sense the smirk just by the way he said it. "Enjoy the view for now, Charlie." He said just as smugly, as he sniped a guy across the map.

Charlie ate his food fairly quickly. Once the match was over, which didn't take long at all, Charlie picked up his controller to join the lobby for the next match. His food is only half finished, but it's not his first time taking bites between shooting guys in a game like this, not by far.

"Oh, did you finally get that cowboy skin you wanted?" Damon's avatar was doing a little dance in front of Charlie's.

"Yeah, took a bit but I refuse to spend actual money on this shit."

Charlie started shooting at him, chasing him around as he ran off.

"Can't relate, I love spending rich people's money on absolute bullshit. I could just get you a points card from GameStop or some shit."

"I'm fine, thanks. This was pretty much the only cosmetic I gave a shit about."

The screen switched from Charlie's cowboy avatar chasing Damon around to the overhead of a new map, with the countdown timer on the screen for them to launch down into it.

"Where we droppin' boys?"

"Why do you have to say that every time?" Charlie shoves some food in his mouth before the countdown ends.

"Cuz it's funny." They launch into the map, scattered about with all the other rank players. Charlie immediately goes looking for weapons. 

"So, what I miss the last few days? Anything fun, or interesting?"

"Not really. Alistaire had some scheme that sort of blew up."

"Oh yeah, I saw that image he posted a few days back where he hit you with one of his stupid sci fi guns. Funny as hell."

"Yeah. That was stupid as hell, I don't even remember what that was about. What else... Oh, work's been annoying, I swear to fucking god, my manager is such a--" Charlie cuts himself off, focusing his energy into killing some other players and stealing their vehicle.

"Maybe you should quit? You've bitched about her like the last 4 times you logged on."

"Nah, I don't have anything else lined up right now, really. I need to ride this out maybe another month." Charlie groans, considering the prospect. "Whatever, done with work talk, I don't feel like getting pissed off again."

"Fair enough. Oh, you been on tumblr today?"

"No, why? Did you give another kindergarten teacher a nervous breakdown?"

"Psh, no, that was one time. And that guy was a dick, anybody would be better off without whatever bullshit he would've fed to their kid."

"Right. So?" Charlie strapped in mentally, it's hard predicting the directions Damon's internet adventures will go in. Sometimes he does something really good, shutting down freaks and taking action on people that avoided it elsewhere. Sometimes he just gives malware to an annoying old white lady on Facebook.

"Alright so, man I already forgot his username, but you know the guy who thought you, Zappy and Litebrite were rp-ing real people like weirdos?"

"Oh right, yeah, that guy. What about 'em? You didn't swat him or something, right? They seem kinda dumb but mostly harmless. "

"God, Charlie, I'm not a monster."

"But."

"No, yeah, I sent them about 40 asks pretending to be at least 5 or 6 different people and started some kind of weird discourse about supervillains and superheroes. It was funny as hell. It got kind of intense, actually."

"...Probably gonna regret asking, but how?"

"It like, spilled out from his account somewhat and there was like hundreds of actual people that weren't even my puppet accounts talking about kinning or some shit, since I had some of them arguing about the fictionality of the personas created by superheroes and supervillains, something about wrestlers I think not gonna lie I completely lost track of it. The weird serial killer simps came out the woodwork at some point down the line."

"You're just saying words to me now, none of that meant anything. Oh, by the way." Charlie looked across the map at Damon's avatar through the scope of his character's weapon, then sniped him. "Gotchya."

"What the fuck are y-- oh goddamn it."

"So much for getting my ass kicked, huh?"

"Sniping me in my moment of vulnerable storytelling, ess em aych." 

"Can't take the fuckin' heat..."

"Ess Em fuckin' Aych, Charlie. Hurry up and kill the last guy so we can rematch."

"Yeah, yeah. He's hiding around here somewhere." Charlie hops around through the buildings in this part of the level, before finally finding and taking out the last other person. The screen goes slow-mo and congratulates him for being first place. Both him and Damon go back to a new lobby, messing around for a bit with items and emotes before being sent into a new game.

"You wanna team up for the first 50, then go all Most Dangerous Game later so we don't have to deal with as many randos?"

"Yeah, sure, why not." Charlie drops in a similar area of the map as Damon, and the both of them scout for weapons together after locating the other.

"Oh, on another note. I got some other updates for you."

"Yeah? Anything interesting?"

"Interesting's an understatement. You know the docs you had me look into? Real rough shit. I honestly needed to watch myself a biiit more than normal, their security is no fucking joke."

"But you got something?"

"Who do you think you're talking to, of course I got something. Basically a whole filing cabinet worth of shit." Finally, some good fucking news. This whole thing was leading to a lot of dead ends, so Charlie was glad to get a new lead. 

"There was a lot of technical whatzit to sort through, which is why I'd been AWOL a few days. I know you know my processing speeds are top fucking notch so if that clues you into how much there was..." He'd been offline for nearly a week, but Charlie hadn't realized he'd been doing this the entire time. Usually, when Charlie needs some kind of info, he sends it within the same conversation. At most, maybe the next day. If it takes longer than that it seemed to usually be because he didn't feel like doing it right away.

"Jesus fucking christ, man."

"He wouldn't have the stomach for half of this shit, truthfully But yeah, I narrowed it down toooooo a couple folders worth of condensed info the Gunslinger and his super pals can use a bit more easily. You're welcome."

Charlie watches Damon's character did a little bowing emote in the game, then immediately gets sniped. Normally Charlie would laugh at Damon's stupid character death, but he was too caught up in the news of what he'd found. This could be big.

"I told you, you need to stop mentioning him when we're playing."

"And I told you, there's no channels safer than the ones you talk to me through."

"What if someone was here?"

"Uhhh, then you'd be a shit host?  And also, okay just consider this, what if you invested in a decent headset?"

"Damon."

"Fine, you're right. Wasn't an explicit thing this time, but I'll be better on it. I promise I'm not trying to fuck up your scene, never slipped up when there's other people in the party, right?"

Charlie grunted.

"Not to mention, a social media data breach will slip you up before anybody manages to eavesdrop on me. But..." he trails off.

"You might have a point, Charlie."

"Yeah, no shit." He knows he does, but it's rare that Damon agrees that quickly.

"No, we're past the voice chat thing, shut up about that. Listen, I got total faith in the fact that I got in and out of their systems without any problem, right? But I don't know who else they have bugs on, if I send this to anybody else, I could be painting a target on them. I gotta do this analog. Gotta..." Charlie could hear clattering in the background of Damon's audio. "Right, alright. I need you to do something for me first."

"Damon,  what the hell are you doing?"

"Don't worry about it. Hey, you a satchel guy or a backpack guy?"

"What? Damon, can you focus?!? What does that have to do with--" Charlie's avatar gets shot by an enemy player from behind. "Damnit." His character point of view switches to one spectating the other player, with text on one side of the screen pointing out his rank.

"This isn't the kind of thing I'd fuck with you on, Charlie. I'll try to organize a dropoff, just trust me on this first." Charlie's more than a bit wary, but Damon's always come through on the serious shit, so he really has no reason not to.

"Fine. Satchel, I guess."

"Sick. I have to go set something up. I'll message you in the morning with the details."

"Tomorrow morning? Damon, you know I have to work tomorro-" Charlie's cut off by a little blip sound as Damon disconnects from the call. A pop up shows up in the corner of the screen

mail3r.daem0n69 has left your party.

"Great. Guess I'll run over to a file dropoff on my fuckin' lunch break, then. Perfect." Charlie slumps into his couch and continues playing. 

---

Charlie wakes up early in the morning after barely an hour or two of sleep to someone ringing his apartment buzzer. He checks his phone, groggily, in case there was some kind of emergency message he missed. There were a couple alerts at the top of the screen.

5:43 am

Missed call from Damon

5:44 am

Text Message from Damon

wake up shithead. you got a package :)

"God, I'm gonna fucking kill him. It's too early for this shit." Charlie rubs his eyes and grabs his apartment keys (he was Not about to get locked out at ass o'clock in the morning) before running downstairs to pick up the apparent delivery. There's an amazon box with his name on it, despite him not ordering anything. Wouldn't be the first time Damon's done something like that, but generally he doesn't pester him about it this early.

Charlie wasn't worried about it right now. He tossed the package down next to the couch before flopping down, hoping to get back to sleep for a little bit.

He laid there for another 40 minutes, unable to fall back asleep. Supposedly, just laying down is supposed to help more than getting up and doing shit, but Charlie would much rather do anything else with his time. He sat up, rubbed his eyes a bit and looked at the box he'd tossed down. Tearing off the tape, he opened it to find a large, dark brown satchel with a long shoulder strap. Fairly nice looking one, all things considered. There was one of those gift receipts inside, though there was nothing in the primary text box. Despite that, at the bottom it was signed off from Damon. Unsurprising,  but still cryptic. What was he up to?

Charlie picked up the bag and inspected it a bit. Inside was a second note from Damon. It listed an address and instructions below it.

"'Take the bag with you, go as soon after your shift as you can manage. I'll message you once you clock out.' Huh."

Charlie doesn't even bother to ask how Damon would know things like when he clocks out, or how to sneak a note into a seemingly random pre-packaged bag from an Amazon warehouse. Better not to think too hard about it at this point. He looked at the time on his phone and groaned, he had first shift today. Might as well get up and start getting ready. He put the bag next to his keys so he wouldn't forget it.

---

Charlie had only just clocked out minutes ago when he got the message from Damon, right on time. He had been taking a moment outside the back entrance to look in his maps app to figure out where exactly the listed address was when he saw the message from Damon drop down on the top of his screen.

u like the bag? Lol. anyway however u get over there, just make sure nobody follows you. trust that u know how to spot + lose a tail

Received 3:45

Charlie rolled his eyes a bit and opened up the messaging app to reply.

Of course

Read 3:47

cool cool. dont expect nobody but can't be too safe w this.

Received 3:47

There's a part of Charlie that feels that Damon's being a tad bit paranoid, but he also doesn't know what he found. Damon's not one to get spooked easily, so it had him curious. He opened his map back up and zoomed in on the address. This must not have been updated recently, since he knew the restaurant that was listed to be here shut down months ago, but he saw that it was on the Rocosa Research Institute campus. Not his first choice for a dropoff, but he wasn't complaining. He decided to save on transit fare and just walk over. 

He looked at the spot on his map again and double checked it to the street he was on. There was now a Starbucks in the place of the restaurant that closed down last year. Guess that's the stage of gentrification this area's reached now, not that he's surprised.

Outside. Now what?

Read 4:14pm

go in2 the starbux, duh??

Received 4:15pm

oh and while you're there, u can pick up a mobile order under my name

Received 4:15pm

I’m not your doordash guy, Damon

Read 4:16pm

relax i got u a cakepop

Received 4:16pm

Great

Read 4:17pm

Charlie tucked his phone away in his pocket, and walked inside the starbucks. He kept his head down a bit, walking to the mobile order counter. Glancing at the different cups and paper bags, he saw a handful that were marked as being for "D4M0N," and one being marked as "Hi Charlie :)." He checked inside, and of course that had a little birthday cake flavored cake pop in it. No sooner did he start picking up the orders did he feel his phone buzz again. He checked it, knowing it'd be more instructions from Damon.

cool, don't go anywhere

Received 4:21 pm

there's an empty table in the back corner of the dining area, u see it?

Received 4:21 pm

Yeah, the one by the employees only door?

Read 4:22 pm

yea that one

Received 4:22 pm

Guessing the bag sitting on the chair is from you?

Read 4:25 pm

good eye ig but can u stop texting in front of the counter like a dickhead and just walk back here

Received 4:25 pm

Charlie rolled his eyes.

don't roll ur eyes at me

Received 4:25 pm

Stop watching me through cameras. It's creepy.

Read 4:26 pm

lol 

Received 4:26 pm

Charlie grabbed the handful of order items from the corner and headed towards the back table. He sat in the chair with the bag that was, as far as he could tell, completely identical to the one Damon sent him this morning. This wasn't the first dropoff Damon had orchestrated for him, but something felt different here. Something Damon wasn't telling him, but he figured he'd understand once he looked at the files. Charlie leaned back into his chair, taking a bite out of the cake pop Damon had apparently ordered him. It was almost sickeningly sweet. He checked his phone, Damon was always so particular about how long he had to wait before leaving public drops like this. Charlie knew he had a good sense of what makes people turn their head and what doesn't, but it was easier to just wait for the go ahead.

He was scrolling for a few minutes, when someone suddenly pulled out the chair across from him. But instead of just nabbing the chair to sit with someone at another table, they just sat down at the table as if they didn't care that he was already occupying this spot.

"Hey, asshole, I don't care if you take the chair, but I'm clearly already--" Charlie cut himself off as he looked up from his phone to speak to the guy. The other person had a cloth mask over their nose and mouth, as well as an odd visor-like mask covering the top half of their face, but he recognized the snake tattoo that stretched and wrapped around this person's entire left arm, onto the neck, and likely under the mask on their face as well. Though he'd not ever shown his face, he'd seen the tattoo in the only image of himself Damon had ever sent Charlie.

"What, you don't wanna sit with me? I'm hurt, Charlie." Despite his face being covered, Charlie could hear the grin in Damon's voice. If he hadn't recognized the tattoo, the voice was identical, down to the slight tinniness when he spoke, something he found odd to hear in person, as he'd always attributed it to the television speaker. 

"Damon?" Charlie kept his voice low, leaning forward as he spoke.

"No, I'm Santa Claus." He leaned back in his seat. "You like the gift I got you?"

"I thought we were doing a drop-off."

Damon shrugged. "I never said that."

"Well, you could've said something if you wanted to meet up. I didn't even know you were in Rocosa."

"What? I live here."

"No shit?"

"No shit. Few blocks away." Damon reached across to grab the coffee and the couple pastries he had Charlie pick up. "Thanks for grabbing my scones for me by the way." 

He broke off a piece from the paper bag, briefly pulling down the cloth mask with his other hand to pop it in his mouth, then immediately covering up again. Charlie could see the slightest bit of the snake's head peeking from beneath the visor, as well as taking note of how Damon's face was pierced to hell and back.

"So were the files real, or was that just bullshit for your big reveal?"

Damon held a finger up while he finished chewing before he spoke. Charlie crossed his arms, sitting back in his chair again.

"Hanging around Alistaire really hasn't given you a flair for the dramatic? You'd think he'd rub off on you a bit more at this point."

"Not really an answer."

"This is why you suck at stealth games. Be patient."

"I don't suck at stealth games."

"Oh, is that why you haven't touched Dishonored in two years?"

"Okay, first of all, I have a job, amongst other things, not all of us have time to blow on every game ever released. Second, are you really grilling me on fucking video game completion right now?!"

"Wow Charlie, getting tilted already?"

"It's somehow even worse when you say shit like this in person."

Damon laughed, and as he did, Charlie saw a >XD emote popped up on his visor in blue LEDs. He rubbed his eye a bit from the brightness.

"Anyways, no, the files are real. I was serious about the shit I said. I.." He trailed off, clearly rethinking how he was going to phrase something. It was almost surreal, Charlie had gotten so used to all of Damon's vocal habits and quirks over the years on mic, but he'd just never had the visual to go alongside it. Seeing it in action still felt a bit odd, especially since he still couldn't really actually see any of Damon's expressions under the mask.

"...I'll tell you on the way."

"To?"

"My apartment?" Charlie waited for the punchline, but Damon didn't say anything else.

"Wait, what, you're just gonna walk me over to your apartment, just like that? You never even showed me what you look like aside from the tattoo thing, and suddenly you're just taking me to where you live?"

"Uh...yeah?" He said it like the answer was obvious. Charlie narrowed his eyes.

"What's the catch?"

"No catch, man. I don't trust anyone else with the information I'm about to give you, I wanted you to have it personally. Plus, this way I can maaaaybe adjustyourphoneabittomakeitmoresecure?"

"Damon, there's no way in hell I'm giving you my phone."

"Oh, please, like I need you to let me."

"Damon." Damon sighs, backing down. The display on his visor switches to a ":/" emoticon.

"Fine, maybe next time."

"Not gonna happen then either, but alright."

"Phone fuckery aside, I figure..." He sighed a bit, resigning to just go ahead and say what was on his mind. "This shit seems serious... And I've been able to look at all kinds of shit that you and your friends get up to, we know privacy isn't exactly..."

"Respected? Acknowledged? Remembered?"

"..my strong suit, I was gonna say. If you're really gonna trust me... sometimes you can't just be an avatar on a screen. Mind-boggling concept, I know. But, I dunno. I know more about you than is maybe comfortable just because of how I am." That got an eyebrow raise, but no interjection. "I just figured, how can I expect you to trust me if I don't try and even the playing field even just a little bit?"

"Huh. That was...surprisingly thoughtful of you, Damon. This must be serious."

"Yeah, don't get used to it. I just know how much you love getting all mushy."

Charlie made a face in feigned disgust, making Damon chuckle a bit. Damon peered around, seeing the people still in the shop. He looked visibly uncomfortable, but it was hard to say whether he was uncomfortable from having to be real for once, or being around strangers while doing it. They got up to their feet, clearly getting ready to leave. Charlie followed suit, standing from his chair. As he did, he noticed the twin shoulder bag that he'd yet to swap for the one he arrived with.

"So, if we're going back to your place, what's in the other bag, then?"

"Oh, right, don't touch that. I'll turn it off once we're out of the shop." There were few things he could've said that would've been less alarming to Charlie. He immediately stepped away from the table, then shot Damon a look as he started putting his food in the bag.

"Turn it o-- Damon, what's in the bag?"

He shrugged. "Don't worry about it right now." He picked it up off the chair and headed towards the door.

"You realize saying that only makes it more alarming, right?"

"Yep."

"You're really just not gonna tell me?" He asked as they approached the door.

"Hm. Dunno yet."

Charlie pinched the bridge of his nose. He made a mental note to make sure Damon doesn't start collaborating with Alistaire on bullshit anytime soon. He might not be responsible for what he does in response.

Charlie follows Damon out of starbucks and down the street, not taking his eyes off of the exact kind of bag that the public transit recordings warn you about hanging at his side.

After a couple blocks, Damon takes a hard left into a fairly dark alley between two shopfronts. Once they were out of sight from the main sidewalk, he stopped and started fiddling with whatever was in the bag.

"Oop, there it goes. Turned it off now."

"It being...?"

"Nunya."

"What are you, 6?"

"Give or take a year, I guess."

"Sounds about right."

They continue walking, now mostly through a handful of connected alleys. This isn't generally Charlie's turf, so he doesn't quite recognize some of these buildings back to front as much as some others in the city, but he can mostly get a bearing on some of the places he passed walking over to the meeting spot from work. Eventually Damon stops at one of the back entrances. The building looks like any of the cute little shops with apartments above them on this block, but unlike the last few they'd just passed, this one has a large steel backdoor with a keypad lock. Charlie waited as Damon punched in an unnecessarily long keycode before finally opening the door. 

Not really sure what to expect, he followed Damon inside and up the backstairs after he re-locks the steel door. The door at the top of the stairs had an electronic lock. There was no obvious biometric component, but it seemed to open once Damon touched it. For a small shop apartment on a college campus, he clearly took security seriously. Looking at it again, though, there was no obvious manufacturer either. The question of "could Damon make this kinda stuff himself" was answered pretty quickly as they went through the front door. Damon turned on the apartment lights, but Charlie hadn't needed them to see all the gear strewn about. Anyone could immediately tell that Damon was a big tech guy, even moreso than Charlie had initially realized. 

The space was quite a bit bigger than the main room of Charlie's place, but it was essentially all one big room. The majority of the room was taken up by desks with at least half a dozen large monitors, and a large wood work table near the kitchenette.  Damon tossed the (potentially volatile??) shoulder bag onto the pile of half-crafted tech on the worktable, next to what appeared to be part of a large drone, then plopped in his rolling desk chair with his coffee from earlier. He kicked off his boots, then unhooked his cloth mask from either ear, dropping it on the desk by his keyboard, but left the visor on. Odd. Damon pointed with his chin towards the worktable, where there was another wheeled chair, though this one looked a little bit less like it belonged in a twitch streamer's setup and a bit more office cubicle. Nevertheless, Charlie rolled it over to the more desk-focused area by Damon to sit down.

"Sooo..?" Damon gestured his hands at the open area, looking at Charlie expectantly.

"Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect, but this seems about right."

"Yeah, that’s fair. This setup’s been working pretty well for me so far.."

"Where do you sleep, though?" Charlie hadn't noticed a bed anywhere in the studio, though there was a small couch and TV off in the corner.

"Huh?"

"Sleep? You know, that thing humans do to function."

"Oh, yeah, I just wasn't sure if you knew what it was."

"Ha."

"Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week. Or til whenever my lease situation runs out, I guess." Charlie rolled his eyes, but there was a smirk there, the slightest hint of a smile.

Damon takes a big drink of his coffee, then rolls his chair back, past a few monitors, immediately moving on from the question. As he did, the dormant screens lit up as they each woke up. Once he got to the end of the desk, he reached in a side drawer, pulled something out and tossed it to Charlie, who caught it before even realizing what it was. He looked down at the item, realizing it was a USB drive, probably the files that Damon mentioned.

"This is it, then?" Charlie unsheathed the drive, then clicked it back into place. Damon nodded.

"Huh, feels almost a bit anticlimactic to just get a tiny stick of data after all of this."

"It’s ‘bout out the journey, Charlie. I considered printing them out, but I don't wanna waste paper." As he said that, he pulled out a thick folder full of papers, rolled back over to Charlie, stuffing them into his shoulder bag.

"...Right."

"A distraction. Keep the stick in your pocket, preferably an inside one if you got it. If anyone tries to steal it off of you, they'll back at base too far into decoy before they know they got the wrong shit. And speaking of the right shit, I installed some stuff for you on your laptop while you were at work"

"Damon--"

"Relax, it's nothing stupid this time. But if you're gonna be looking at this stuff, your security needed some beefing. I can't be keeping an eye on your shit all the time. And I installed some auto-encryption software I made, make it easier for you to actually look through everything. The initial password is just your social security number, hard to forget."

Charlie shot Damon a look. He put his hands up defensively as the visor display switched to "^^;;" emote.

"Kidding, kidding! I'll walk you through how it's set up when you get home."

Charlie fidgeted a bit with the USB in his hand, then tucked it away in his jacket pocket.

"You really thought this through. It's that serious?"

"It is."

"Should I be worried?"

"Oh, man, we're way past that and you know it. You should've stopped poking this hornets' nest ages ago if you didn't wanna worry."

Charlie grunted. He had a point, they'd had a couple run-ins looking into this Neo Dominus stuff so far. 

Charlie's also known Damon awhile at this point, he was always intense about his privacy. Charlie definitely clocked him as a bit paranoid from the start, but who wouldn't be, with the information access Damon seems to have? At this point he'd never been sure if they'd ever meet up, truthfully, and he was fine with that. But for it to happen like this… they must've been spooked by something they found.

"Are you gonna be alright, man?"

A question mark flashed across Damon’s visor.

"Who, me? Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"You seem on edge, Damon."

"I'm always on edge, Charlie. It just doesn't pick up over mic."

"No, it does."

"Huh. But yeah, I'm fine. This is just new to me, but like I said. I need you to trust me going forward."

"If I didn't trust you, I think you'd know by now."

"I guess."

"...I appreciate it though. Plus, now I know where to find you when you're getting on my last fucking nerve." Charlie smiled, and despite being kind of a threat, the humor eased the tension that had started to build. Damon put his hands up, jokingly defensive. They both chuckled a bit, then were quiet for a long moment. Charlie took the minute to take in the details of the apartment a bit more. All the windows had one-way screens on them, tinting them for outside viewers, there was an old scheme gadget of Alistaire's under the worktable, and in the corners of the room, he noticed the slight glint of small security cameras. In hindsight, there must have been one in the stairwell as well.

"So." Damon broke the quiet. "You want some food, or did you fill up on that cake pop?"

"I could go for something, yeah."

"Cool, I'll order pizza. In the meantime..." Damon grabbed a controller and tossed it to Charlie. As he caught it, the monitors that surrounded them flickered off, and the tv turned on in the corner of the room. Damon got up, pointing towards it with his head. "Now I get to kick your ass in real life." He grinned, walking backwards towards the couch.

Charlie scoffed. "Oh, you're fucking on." He followed them, leaving his jacket and bag on the chair. 

The two quickly fell into their usual banter as the game started up, for once sharing a screen instead of being separated by it.