"Mm-hm," is the only response Aidan gets at first, absorbed as Riley is in reading through -- of all things -- the paper.

Or rather, the fourth in a stack of newspapers he'd quietly asked to be supplied. He'd been gone a long time, it was important that he caught up with things in the world as they were now, before backtracking the last four decades.

He finishes one last paragraph and makes a small mark with the pencil twirled idly in one hand, lifting his gaze to greet the Voidseeker. "Are you sure the children won't be disappointed to find their playground gone?"

He might have been relegated to house-arrest, but that didn't mean he hadn't had resources at his disposal to look around and check up on friends.