How Green Becomes Wood

Milo looked at Xander, but didn't ask any of his own questions. The last time he asked Xander a personal question... "Anyway, that's his bass. I thought I told you he played in a band? We were talking about band names."
 
"Damn, that's right," Xander frowned. "I forgot. Um. Egregious Lizard?" He was trying to ignore the significant looks Alec was giving him.

"No, it was Fat Peace!" Alec corrected uncertainly. "I think..."

"Nah, that's not right," Xander scowled. Then he snapped his fingers. "Fat Lizard! And Egregious Peace! One of those names came first and then the other. Your dad played bass under those names, right?"

Alec tried bouncing his eyebrows at Xander, but he was still ignoring him.
 
"They hit their stride with Egregious Peace." Milo confirmed, looking his shoulder at the instrument, "He told me bass isn't glamorous and nobody goes after the bassist, but you notice when it's not there."
 
"That's true. The same goes for the second guitarist, I think," Alec grinned. "Bass is truly important for the sound."

Xander shrugged. "I've been considering moving to bass guitar, but don't want to spend the money. I might be able to get one at a pawn shop, maybe." After Alec gave him another significant look he gave in and admitted off-handedly, "Our dad went off to get milk before we were born. Dunno if he's in a band, but I doubt it. It'd be too much commitment. You know how to play?"
 
"Oh. That sucks." Milo said, not wanting to make a big deal about it. "No dad club, I guess. Well. No, because you have a foster dad. And it's a dumb joke anyway." He looked at the bass again, "I play a little. I've brought it around with me for eight years. I thought I should probably learn to play. I'm not great."
 
"It's alright. Met him once, and he was an ass. Better none than him," Xander said flatly. "But... Mr. Dark's not half-bad. Anyway."

"Anyway," Alec said, picking up Xander's cue to change the subject, "that's really cool you can play. Maybe sometime we could jam together? Well, maybe I should ask you what style of music you like first."
 
"I listen to a lot. Mostly alternative and indie, I guess. And midwest emo... I like a sort of unpolished, raw sound." He shrugged, "I like Gorillaz, too. I really like their song Clint Eastwood. And I guess we can play together, sometime, but I'm serious when I say I'm just okay."
 
"I don't know Gorillaz," Alec said thoughtfully. "I'll have to look them up later. You might have a lot of musical taste in common with Mr. Dark, actually, but I really enjoy alternative and Indie stuff, too. That, and pop stuff. And soft rock. Really anything bouncy. Our friend, Peter, the drummer? He's into jazz mostly, and Xander likes harder stuff."
 
"I mean, I pretty much listen to everything except for country," Milo said, scratching his arm, "I'm also a big fan of experimental. Pop and country are pretty much the only genres I don't really listen to. I just don't like over produced music, really."
 
Alec placed a hand to his chest and pulled a mournful face. "Alas, I am heartbroken. Truly heartbroken. How could you say such harsh things?"

Xander ignored his brother's dramatics and scooted closer to one of the piles of scrapbooking materials. He didn't touch, just looked, craning his head this way and that as he tried to see as much of the piles as he could.
 
"I like more than four chords." Milo replied sheepishly, "There's nothing wrong with pop or country, I just sort of... I don't know, I've never found any pop that feels authentic to me." Turning his head, he looked at Xander, "That's all my grandma's scrapbooking stuff."
 
"That's fair, though I have to say I've found a fair amount that resonates with me. Although I have to admit, I mostly look for happy music, stuff that makes me feel good," Alec chuckled.

"You ever use it?" Xander asked, shifting to see a different section.
 
"Sad music is what makes me happy." Milo responded, "And no, not really. I'm not creative like that. My grandma keeps offering to make me a scrapbook of all my pictures but it'd be harder to carry."
 
Alec sighed. He would never be able to understand that. How did listening to sad music make a person happy? It made no sense, but it seemed to work for some people. He just wasn't one of them."

"It'd look cool, though," Xander remarked, peering at some of the many paper options. "You take rad pictures." He poked at one that looked vaguely - to him when it was mostly buried - like really short cut grass.
 
"Yeah, I guess. But if you look at Grandma's scrapbooks, they're all annotated with cute little descriptions. And I don't think what I've got would be... good, for that. It'd probably just depress anyone who looks at it." He very much did not move to get the box of pictures, it stayed perfectly hidden underneath his bed, where it couldn't be accessed, because nobody knew where it was.
 
Xander snorted and moved on to another stack. "I thought scrapbooking was about expressing yourself, so wouldn't a depressing theme be just fine? And I thought they were just for yourself, so who's going to look at them?"

"I dunno. I think I see his reasoning," Alec mused. "Any representations of scrapbooking I've seen are all very... cute. That or deliberately emo, but still in a weirdly cute way, and I think they might be for sharing?"

"Guess a box is easier, anyway, but they might last longer in a book," Xander commented, still idly browsing.
 
"Maybe. But I keep them pretty safe from light exposure in the box, and that's the real concern. And I don't know how I would arrange them. By time, I guess. But that's not really how I see them. They're all such different stories." He shrugged, "and if it's unfinished when I move, I either have to buy and lug around heavy supplies, or leave the scrapbook unfinished."
 
"Maybe if you ever choose to settle down, you can do a photo book," Xander commented. He realized he was leaning on something crunchy and looked up to see he was nearly under the bird cage. The floor had seeds and shells under it from where he guessed they tossed them.

"So, you sort of play the bass guitar, listen to alternative and emo bands, and you like to take candid photos," Alec remarked. "What else do you like to do?"
 
"Not much else, I guess. I read. I have a laptop, I play some video games. That's about it. I told you once that I'm only interesting if you don't know me. Once you do, there's really not much there." He replied awkwardly, "I used to have a bike, but we ended up selling it a move or two back."
 
"You know, I never learned how to ride a bike," Alec admitted. "It just sort of... never happened."

"Our mum did try to teach you once and you bawled for half an hour about how you didn't want to get lost because you moved too fast," Xander pointed out dryly.

"Is that more or less embarrassing than the fact that you rammed straight into a car?" Alec retaliated. "A parked car on an otherwise empty street."
 
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