[ ᴠɪᴅᴇᴏ ]

[admemoriam]

[The video comes on, just a bit crooked, to show a scrawny teenager sitting in tall grass. He gives the camera a business-like nod, and then holds up a piece of paper, covered in blocky, red writing, to the lens.]

This is my bucket list.

[Self-explanatory, from the title.]

Who can help me with any of it? [He tilts it back to scan the list again.] Like, I'm pretty sure fireworks will be pretty easy, but I don't really know where to find a red panda. [A little nose wrinkle.] ... Or a volcano.

[That's it. That's the broadcast. He gives the camera a boyish smile and a thumbs up.]

Comments

[admemoriam]

It's not about being good at it. [He starts in on the feathers, making sharp little gestures between lazy, soft ones.] It's just about expressing what you're thinking.

[dreamkid]

[ Matthew's usually not thinking about a whole lot. But he nods as though it makes sense, and watches as Noah flicks the details onto the paper, like it's just that easy. ]

You still have to get the shapes right though, don't you? And the-- mm, what's it called. Like, the shading.

[admemoriam]

Yeah. Which is a lot easier to do when you have a pencil.

[He sticks his tongue out a little in concentration.]

I made a big banner, once, for Raven Day. They hung it in front of the office.

[dreamkid]

[ Matthew leans back on his palms, still careful not to move his leg and disturb Noah's drawing. He doesn't have a pencil, or he'd offer it, but the other boy seems to be doing just fine with the pen, to him. ]

You did? That's so cool!

[ He doesn't remember that. Then again... He 'hmm's pleasantly. ]

I don't see you at school.

[ Which is strange, he thinks, because Noah is both Ronan's friend and an Aglionby boy. But it could be just coincidence that Matthew has never run into him, as far as he remembers. ]

[admemoriam]

[Noah doesn't look up - he keeps working on the drawing, thinking through his next words carefully.]

I skip a lot.

[Maybe not a current truth, but a past one.]

[dreamkid]

Oh.

[ Matthew accepts this easily, and without judgement. It slips past his power on a technicality. ]

Ronan does that a lot, too.

[admemoriam]

[Pleased by his lie's success, Noah continues a little more boldly.]

Who do you think he skips with? [A rhetorical question, not a lie!] I'm just better at hiding things from Gansey. [Also not a lie.]

[dreamkid]

[ Matthew 'hm's again, thoughtfully. He's not getting any straight up pings from his power but, well. Noah's treading a very thin line. ]

Why don't you like going? It's not so bad.

[admemoriam]

[Noah shrugs - a gesture that, in his current position, looks more like he's working out a neck pain.]

I couldn't pay attention, [he repeats.] And, like, I always knew Barry'd help me with it later. So it wasn't a big deal.

[He doesn't even stop to think about calling Whelk by name - his mind is fully in the past, for the moment.]

[dreamkid]

[ Matthew nods again, like this makes sense. Though it's a little different, he has trouble paying attention too, sometimes. In fact, just then a dandelion seed floats past his nose, and he's distractedly watching it fly away when he asks-- ]

Barry?

[ He doesn't think he knows any boy at Aglionby with that name. ]

[admemoriam]

My roommate, before I lived with Gansey.

[He can feel Matthew's mind trying to place the name, so he adds, ] He doesn't go there anymore.