How Green Becomes Wood

"It's... better than people could guess." Sloan said, looking down at the table, "I mean, sometimes it's horrible, because sometimes you just can't get the new skills down, and you're sore, and you're tired, and you've fallen on your face a hundred times, and you've got blisters on your hands, but there's something about flying that... I don't know. I love it. It's not even about the competitions, for me, it's not the applause, or the medals, or winning, it's how it feels to be in the air like that. I probably won't be able to walk by the time I'm thirty, but I wouldn't trade it."

~~

Milo didn't freeze, and instead just looked confused at Alec, "The lighting in my pictures," he said flatly, "it will look special."
 
Rumy rested her chin on her hand as she watched Sloan. "Huh. That sounds... I don't have good words for that beyond that sounds amazing," she admitted. "Despite being good at dance, I've never been particularly good at things like that. My mom tried to get me into karate when I was little, and I kneed myself in the face. Flying like that sounds like a dream come true."

~~

"Especially if you took a picture on the dance floor, or had someone take a picture of you on the dance floor," Alec pointed out overly casually.

"Right, on to the next spot, and we're not hoping the disco ball comes on anymore," Xander said, starting forward. He glanced back at Milo. "Even if the lights would make your pictures look really cool."
 
"Well, I can't say I've never kneed myself in the face," Sloan replied with a little grin, "so I think you'd still be taking that risk. You can get really badly hurt in gymnastics, but... I don't know. That's why we have spotters and mats. I really love being able to just... flip. It's so fun, and it makes my cousins think I'm so cool when we go to a trampoline park for a birthday party."

~~

"Standing on the floor, maybe, for angles," Milo said awkwardly, following Xander to the next spot, "But not a picture of me. I know what I look like, and if I gave someone my camera to take a picture of me, then it would require me to pose, and that---defeats the entire purpose, it doesn't work that way. It can't---it doesn't---the integrity of it---"
 
"Well, now i want to have a trampoline party just so I can invite you to show off your skills, but I'm not allowed on a trampoline after the last incident," Rumy admitted. "That's okay, though. I make a great sideline cheerleader!"

~~

"I think I'll end up.on the dance floor at about the same time as Stitch gives up his camera, and you give up brightlycolored clothes," Xander drawled, interrupting Milo's stammers.

Alec sighed in defeat and held up his hands. "Okay, okay, I get it. Dance floor and pictures no fun. I'll stop teasing you two."

"Thank you. How about here?" Xander asked Milo, indicating another spot to stand for pictures.
 
"The incident?" Sloan asked, leaning in, "You can't just say 'the incident' and leave it at that. What happened?"

~~

"It's hard to find a camera like this," Milo mumbled, "this place is fine. I mean, really anywhere can be, it just depends on, you know, what is happening there, you know? And what I can see. And what the camera can see."
 
"Weeeeelllll," Rumy said, drawing it out as long as she could. "That's a long story. Are you sure you want to hear it?"

~~

Xander looked at him uncertainly. "So, you do like this spot for further pictures?" he ventured.
 
"Yes I want to hear it!" Sloan said, failing to bite back her curiosity, "You're teasing me with it, now."

~~

"Yeah, no, it's good, it's good," Milo replied, "it's just, they're not ready yet. The people. They're not doing anything, so we have to wait until they do." He didn't know how to explain the moments he watched for, he just knew them when he saw them.
 
"Alright," Rumy gave in. "I'd been on trampolines before this, and I'd always hurt myself in the usual smaller ways, but when I was thirteen, it was truly spectacular. I'm not exactly a tiny little thing, and when I was younger, I weighed a bit more. My friends liked to play that game where one person was an egg or something and everyone else tried to bounce them until the egg broke. You know that one? Well, I was the best egg of my friend group, but it helped that my much smaller friends had a hard time bouncing me. They did really like me as a bouncer because I could really get people going. So, this particular time, it was shortly after I'd had a growth spurt, and I'd evened out a bit more in height to weight ratio, but I wasn't used to not being the chubby one. I was playing with my friends when a couple of my older cousins decided to join in. Well, they were big boys, and they bounced me clean off the trampoline, and I didn't break egg form until I landed on the grass. Thank goodness it was grass. But it didn't stop there."

~~

"Oh, okay," Xander said, accepting the comment without need for further explanation. He leaned against the wall to wait.
 
"What happened?" Sloan asked, eyes wide, "Did you roll? Was it on a hill?"

~~

Milo watched the crowd for awhile, with a careful, focused expression on his face, which wasn't all that different from Sloan's when she was competing, Daizi's when she was reading cards, or Dark's when he was in his shed. The exact placement of all of their features were different, they didn't have all the same lines and creases, but it was that look as they were absolutely focused on their passion. Occasionally, he did raise the camera to his eye and press the shutter button, but much of it was still waiting. "I think this is probably what hunting is like," he remarked, "but this is better, because you get to keep the moment, but nobody dies."
 
Rumy gave Sloan a weak smile. "No, actually, I got back up on the trampoline, completely ignoring the pain in my back and started bouncing. I think I was on my fifth bounce when I landed on the trampoline and it felt like a hot poker going up my entire spine into my skull. And... then I fell off again. Onto my back. Which hurt more than anything. Turned out I fractured a couple of vertebrae - four, actually - and ended up in a back support for months. The doc said it was bad enough that I landed on it and didn't pay attention, the jumping made it that much worse. He said I'm lucky that all I needed was one short surgery that didn't even leave a cool scar and months of standing up so straight I looked like I was in the military."

~~

Xander watched, curious and patient, while Alec fidgetted and gradually moved a short distance away so he could sit down. "I guess so. You don't get to eat anything, but memories are cool. Especially if you get to keep them like that."
 
"Oh my god, you broke your back?!" Sloan exclaimed, "No way! That's insane, I mean--metal as hell but terrible!!! I'm so glad it wasn't worse. My god, that's wild. My grandma always thinks something like that will happen to me."

~~

"I like remembering people as they were," Milo said, with the camera to his eye, "not how they want to be seen."
 
Rumy giggled. "Technically only fractured, but, yeah, it was pretty scary. Even for a ditz like me. After it stopped hurting, then it was mostly just really annoying to wear the brace, like really annoying because I had to start wearing it in summer, and it was plastic, and I'd sweat, and it itched!! And I couldn't really move, which was kind of the point, but frustrating. After that, my mom basically told me that I had to not do anything more dangerous than traverse the stairs or else my grandkids would still be paying my medical bills. That is, they would be if she didn't kill me first." She winked to show she was joking.

~~

"There's a pretty big difference in those two things. Usually," Xander said. "I don't think it's that big with me. What you see is what you get here."
 
"I've broken ribs before," Sloan explained, since they were sharing those sorts of stories, "Once I fell on the beam and landed badly, and I was lucky because I hit the beam on my right side. And I've broken an absurd number of toes, and my ulna, once, but I'm lucky and the ulna broke where I didn't need pins, because those would really mess up my gymnastics career. And I've dislocated a number of things a number of times. But I just get back up."

~~

"Is that why you don't like being photographed?" Milo asked, still watching the crowd, "because it's all the same?"
 
"Dang, girl, your medical file must be a book!" Rumy grinned. "That's really awesome how you keep on trucking like that."

~~

Xander shifted, shoulders tensing slightly. "Not exactly," he said slowly. "It's a weird thing to explain."
 
"I've been a gymnast my whole life, just about, so I've had a lot of time to get minor injuries. Although the ulna was because I feel out of a tree, and my mom just about skinned me for it." Sloan said, "I'm probably going to have to start wearing a knee brace in a few years, but I'm not quite there yet."

~~

"You don't have to. I just think, it's probably different. If it didn't, why would it matter?" Milo asked, "That's rhetorical too, like before was."
 
"That'll really stink. I guess you'll have to pay for your years of flying," Rumy said sadly. "Still, I think it's awesome."

~~

Xander reached up to hold his arm with one hand, idly tapping his fingers against his arm. "My folks have gotten us kind of used to pictures for, you know, memories and stuff, but it's just... it's not something we're - I'm - comfortable with because... of a thing. Anyway, your photos are cool"
 
"Plenty of gymnasts wear a brace but still compete, Rebekah Ripley did a pretty popular routine with one. But I don't actually know what the future holds, I don't know what I'll end up needing. I just know what is common."

~~

"It's because I don't demand fake smiles," Milo replied, not asking for more information regarding why they did not like pictures. He had a reason, he wasn't being explicit about it, clearly he didn't want to explain. So instead, he said why he thought his pictures were cool.
 
"I guess it's still safer and healthier than risking brain damage in football," Rumy said, looking surprised but also grudgingly impressed.

~~

Xander glanced at Milo. "What if you were able to get real smiles even while posing?" he asked, genuinely curious.
 
"And with better uniforms," Sloan agreed with a bright grin, "but I think footballers tend to get more respect."

~~

"Then I would still need them to be perfect models," Milo replied, taking another picture quickly and then frowning at the crowd, "They would need to be able to perfectly imitate life on command, without it looking like it was on command. And then..." He shrugged, "What am I really capturing, then? Why not sculpt?"
 
"Much better uniforms! But, yeah, footballers get more respect until the poor guys are drooling during class and unable to focus because their coaches treat them like disposable cannon fodder," Rumy winced. "If you could show them how insanely strong you are because of gym, they'd so respect you! I mean, they should anyway, but you know how it is."

~~

"I dunno. I just kind of feel like maybe there's a halfway point there somewhere, but I'm not a photographer. I just punch leather," Xander said with a shrug. "I guess you could sculpt anyway."
 
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