video

[aglonby]

[ the feed comes on to show a boy with very tall hair and a much shorter girl with scratches on her face over her eye, one looking rather cheerful and the other less so. ]

Hi hi hi everyone, I have an important question. [ he holds up a finger, tilts his head as if a thought had just occurred to him. he's so preoccupied he was going to launch himself into his spiel without even introducing himself. ] I'm being rude. I am Henry Cheng, and we were wondering —

[ the not so tall and in fact very short girl interrupts. ] We're looking for someone we know! [ she pulls a little face, looking over at Mr. Henry Cheng. ] A few people, actually. [ okay, maybe that was a little rude. she murmurs something unintelligible and takes a step back. please, proceed. ]

And that was my lovely friend Blue. [ he gestures with a flourish toward her, shoots her a wink, absolutely unbothered by the interruption or her outburst. ] As she said, we are looking for someone. Multiple someones. I'm sure this place has a list of sorts, yes? A quick way to CTRL-F a friend's name and find out their status?

[ he looks a bit more serious, then, like underneath the cheerfulness he's exhausted. his next words are very earnest. ]

We would appreciate any info. Thank you.

[ in the background, Blue begins tromping away, shedding dead leaves for some reason, and can be vaguely heard to say 'maybe we should've mentioned Gansey by name' before the video ends. ]

Comments

[oceiteres]

[ Henry is a very special and valued member of this team, Noah!

And yet, Blue seems pretty interested at the sight of Noah. Her heart is full of a complicated cluster of emotions. They're all sort of at war with one another. She's also looking pretty leafy again.

That's leafy! Not... weepy. We'll not draw attention to her face, where the remnants of angry looking wounds still linger. ]

Noah-- you're here? [ That probably came out less sure than she meant. ] I mean, someone said they talked to you... but I didn't think...

[ Blue Sargent is sort of speechless? ]

[admemoriam]

[He's certainly trying not to look at that eye! That sure is an angry scratch right there!]

I got here last month. [Close to the camera, she can make out each freckle on his nose. His eyes have never looked more solid, lit up with hesitant adoration.] Time doesn't work right - Adam and Gansey have been here for months, but I'm... [A slight pause. His eyes flick to the scratch, and then back.] I'm from later.

[Which is definitely a thing that makes tons of sense. He fidgets, then stills.]

Ronan dreamed up a pretty cool house, and we have a bunch of chickens.

[oceiteres]

[ She should've gotten an eyepatch. Being a pirate would've been... better. ]

Some people have tried explaining that to me. I don't understand it. [ She says, 'I don't understand it' like she means, 'I'll figure that out later, mark my words, but I have other concerns now.' There's a list. It's getting longer the more she looks at Noah... ]

Later. [ That's really non-specific. But she's not sure where to go from there. Later than what? What's the "latest" things can be? She doesn't know. It's weird to ask. It's weird to wonder. ] Of course he did. He has a house and a car. [ Hands! On hips!! ]

Who's here, exactly?

[admemoriam]

[He ticks off on his fingers - ] Ronan, Adam, Gansey, Matthew, and Kavinksy. But no one talks about him.

[oceiteres]

[ She pulls a face, frowning. ] That's not even-- [ What? Possible? ] Right.

[admemoriam]

Yeah. [Voicing agreement, understanding, and annoyance, all in one word.] But I can't really talk.

[He wants to tell her what this place did for him - that he's got a pulse now, and warm skin - but he's waiting until he can surprise her with it in person.]

[oceiteres]

[ There's something a bit mixed up about her expression for a second or two, but it gets smoothed away when she goes to fiddle with her hair and flicks tree litter toward the screen, interrupting the video for a second. ]

Noah... [ Yeah, okay. It feels like some things need to be said in person. Let her just change tracks a bit? ] So, Henry and I are the last ones here.

[admemoriam]

[He looks away from her, uncomfortable with the momentary silence, and finally backs up from the camera. More subtle differences become clear - the Aglionby uniform is gone, replaced by a black T-shirt, and his hair is dark with lake water.

When he hears Henry's name, he finally remembers that Blue didn't make this broadcast alone. Ah, yes. That guy Noah doesn't know. That guy who can't even see Noah.]

Yeah. But don't worry - there's already a room for you.

[Henry can find his own.]

[oceiteres]

[ This is weird. It's like there's a disconnect, but it's hard to follow the thread back to where it got frayed. Is it because he's been here awhile or something else? Blue's sort of running on adrenaline a little, so her thoughts seem to race around and in the end... well, she doesn't make much sense of what she's seeing. ]

Right... because I was here before. [ Her brow furrows a little. ] Someone who says they knew me said hello.

[admemoriam]

[He nods sagely.] It was the same with me. This is my third time, but I don't remember either of the others.

[oceiteres]

Third? [ She sounds vaguely distressed. This is all pretty weird for Blue. Any other day, she'd be stomping her feet and demanding to talk to whomever is in charge, etc.

But... ] This isn't possible. We've seen a lot, but this just doesn't feel real.

[admemoriam]

[Honestly, Noah didn't think too hard about it. He realized he was alive, and his friends were here and didn't hate him, and he just went with it. All he can offer now is a shrug.]

It feels real enough to me. We all even have jobs. [He leans back in conspiratorially.] Gansey takes pictures of babies.

[oceiteres]

[ At some point, Blue's going to have to wonder if Noah and Gansey are having the same thoughts. And that's not going to be too pleasant to think about...

But for now! ]

He's a baby photographer? Funny, he didn't tell me that. [ ... this statement subject to retcon. ]

[admemoriam]

He didn't tell me, either. I had to hear it from Adam.

[His grin is positively devious.]

He has to use little toys to make them look at the camera.

[oceiteres]

[ She's clearly trying to hold a straight face here. ] Adam told you and you're telling me... that Gansey interacts with babies all day and gets paid for it. I almost wish he had a less interesting job, so I could focus on him having one in the first place.

[ Not a typical Blue reaction, but... she's allowed to be glad she can poke fun about something that means Gansey's alive, right? Tomorrow, she'll adopt a more tea sandwich and sensible platypus type attitude.

Maybe. ]

[admemoriam]

You can focus on Ronan's instead. I think he's something boring, like a paper boy. If he even does it.

[The likelihood of that is slim, but it's still amusing to imagine Ronan on a bike, throwing papers at people's cars.]

[oceiteres]

[ She does look momentarily surprised, but then crosses her arms. ] I think I got cheated. Apparently I'm a waitress here too.

[ What, you wanted to be a baby photographer slash paper boy, Blue? ]

[admemoriam]

[He has to agree that that sucks, but he can't not give her a wide grin in response, because-]

Hey, I'm a waiter here!

[oceiteres]

[ Okay, that's... cute. ]

Tell me it's not a pizza joint.

[admemoriam]

Nope! It's spooky-themed. I have to dress like a vampire.

[oceiteres]

You're kidding me. [ She holds her forefingers over her mouth with both pointing toward the ground. ] You have fangs?

[admemoriam]

Yeah, hold on. [He dips out of the frame for just a moment, to rummage through his bedside drawer. When he reappears, there's a row of plastic fangs fitted over his top teeth. They're just a measure too large, but he looks delighted as he grins to show them off.] Ta-da!

[oceiteres]

[ Noah, please. Cease and desist with the cuteness. ]

Very spooky. Do you do the full Dracula, with the voice and cape or are you a different kind of vampire?

[admemoriam]

I just talk in my regular voice. [And it's apparent why - with the too-big mold, it sounds like he's talking through some ghastly ortho-dental appliance.] It's kind of hard.

[oceiteres]

[ She nods. Well, that makes sense. ] You have to repeat orders like that?