How Green Becomes Wood

"Oh, um, okay," Milo murmured, a bit awkwardly. "Do you want to take it with, um, your phone or with... my camera?" He had let Xander use his camera before, although he had been startled by the request, then, but it still wasn't something he loved loaning out, because of how hard it was to get repair parts. But then again, if it mattered to him, maybe it'd be right to make an allowance? This time?
 
"How about both? Just to be safe." Xander took Milo's camera with extreme caution, handling it with more care than some people did with their fine China. He waited for Milo to get into position and then took a picture with the camera. It took him longer than it would with Milo because he was unaccustomed to the device, but it worked okay. Then he handed Milo his camera back and indicated for him to pose with it while he took a picture with his phone. "There we go! Nice."
 
Despite how many pictures he took, Milo didn't quite know how to stand in a picture, really. It wasn't something he was asked to do particularly often, and because of how often he moved, he didn't even have as many picture days as other kids, because it was easy to miss it. But when he had his camera in his hands again, he held it up and gave the best smile he could manage, and tried to look, well, cool. He didn't, but he tried.

Pryce, who was really just there to keep an eye that they weren't messing with the displays, spoke up when it seemed like they were wrapping up in the Photography exhibit, and said casually, "Let me know when you're ready to go look at another exhibit. I'll warn you, this is the only private one you've got, the rest I just got insider information for you about."
 
"I like this one," Xander told Milo, showing him the picture of him with his camera. Then he looked at Pryce. "Thank you, Doc. This is cool." He glanced at Milo. "Ready to move on?"
 
Milo looked at it briefly, but he never really had any strong feelings about how he looked, so he shrugged slightly and said, "Yeah, I guess so. I mean, I've looked at, read, and photographed basically everything in this room, so. I mean, there's not much left to do, right?"

The next few parts of the museum Pryce led them through were cool, but none really topped the photography exhibit for Milo, although the taxidermy collection came pretty close. He admitted to Xander his fascination with taxidermized animals didn't really make any sense, because it was essentially cementing an animal in the exact thing he hated in photographs: posed, perfectly manufactured, approximations of life, but he supposed he just liked getting closer to wild animals than he otherwise ever would be able to. And, of course, the dinosaur bones rocked, because everybody loves looking at dinosaur bones, although when they were in that room, Milo turned to Xander and asked, "Do you think it's weird that your mom works in a place where she could go hang out with dinosaurs every day, but she can't see the dinosaurs at all?"
 
Xander found the taxidermy a little weird - it was the "eyes" that bugged him - but he agreed with Milo that it was pretty cool to be able to see wild animals so close. He did pester Pryce with a surprising amount of questions, wanting to take advantage of his insider knowledge. He considered asking for a picture next to one of the taxidermied animals but couldn't work up the courage. It was more fun to see Milo's interest, anyway.

At Milo's question, he paused and considered. "I never thought about it," he admitted, standing near a replica of a dinosaur with what looked like a spilled bowl of alphabet soup for a name. "No, I guess I did early on, but not in a while. I guess she gets to hang out with all kinds of cool stuff she can't see, but she gets to touch and hear a lot, even smell it."
 
"Smell the fossils?" Milo asked, a little amused, although he understood what Xander meant, mostly. "It just feels sort of... tragic, in the... Greek Mythology underworld punishment way, not in the, 'oh, how sad,' way. Ironic, I guess. Most people only get to see stuff like this occasionally, but she can be here as much as she wants, but she can't see it at all. Like, it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing for you and I to see those arsenic birds, at least it is for me, definitely, but she works here and never gets to see those birds, because they're not safe to touch." He looked closely at the placard, "You can't even touch the sign that names the dinosaur. It's out of reach."
 
"Yeah, it's annoying," Xander agreed, "and you'd think a place like this would be a bit more accessible, but what she works in, you don't gotta see much." He paused and then turned to Pryce. "Hey, after we get a picture here, do you think maybe you could show us some of the stuff Ma- I mean, Dr. Wahid works on?"

As for the picture, he moved over so Milo could get a picture of him with one of the dinosaur displays. "Here, just one more?" He waited for Milo to take a picture, guessing he would take two like before. For the first one, he held the same super serious pose as before, but right before Milo could snap the second picture, he swapped to a completely ridiculous pose, bending back and pretending to be screaming in horror at the dino.
 
Pryce caught Xander correcting himself and wondered why he didn't just say 'my mom,' but he wasn't going to question how a teenager he just met referred to his mother in public, "Of course I can. But she'd be better to explain it than I would be."

Then Milo took the first picture quickly, trying to make it less horrible for Xander, but when Xander suddenly changed poses, Milo couldn't help but laugh and it took him a bit of time to recover so he could actually take a clear picture of Xander.
 
"Here I was thinking you were some kind of professional and wouldn't laugh," Xander sniffed, straightening his shirt. But he shot Milo a sly smirk to show him he was just joking. "Come on. Let's see how good the Doc can explain things, eh?"
 
He brought them up one floor and down a hallway to a different wing of the museum, "So this is our Civilizations and Cultures wing. A lot of our exhibits have been benefited by Dr. Wahid's work, but I think this is really where her best is. At least, best so far. There are some areas here she hasn't done much with, so if you see our section on the Polynesian peoples, for example, Dr. Wahid hasn't done much, I believe, but our sections on Levantine and Middle Eastern civilizations she put a lot of input in, as well as our section on the Sami. If you look," He gestured at a nearby display, "Many of our displays here include infographics on how these behaviors are still part of daily life today, and that's really where Dr. Wahid and her team do for the museum, because our overarching intention is to show, wherever we can, how very little in the past just stopped, a lot of it carries over to today. So, what Dr. Wahid and her team do is meet with, interview, or otherwise research what the descendant communities of these places do, to help us understand what the historical populations did."
 
"She's good at that," Xander agreed, reading one of the displays. "Good at lecture, too. Real good. How come there's not more hands-on stuff around here? Or, like, signs you can actually touch?" He didn't mention that ever since Milo had pointed it out, he was seeing it everywhere. The least they could do was have signs that could be "read" with the fingers.
 
"Your mom is brilliant," Dr. Pryce said, regarding Daizi's ability to lecture, but then nodded towards the displays, "A lot of this stuff can be damaged fairly easily, and a lot of it was donated by descendant communities, some was made explicitly for us. We don't want anything to happen to it, which makes setting up hands-on displays more difficult. But we do have audio guides that can be checked out, they don't cost anything, and they talk you through the exhibits. Although Dr. Wahid has been trying to get grants to set up some replicas of certain items in our collection guests can touch, it's just... A lot of work, and a lot of writing. I think it has been set aside for the time being."
 
"Huh. Makes sense," Xander agreed grudgingly. He shifted over to one of the other displays. "Oh, yeah, this one," he said, recognizing it from one of the things Daizi had talked about. He rambled a little to Milo without really thinking about it as he told him what Daizi had told Xander and Alec one time when she hadn't thought Xander was paying attention. Though his version was a bit abbreviated. Some of what he said was on the info cards, but a lot wasn't anywhere on any of the signs. He moved along, not thinking twice about having idly shared off the top of his head some stuff that collage students were currently frantically trying to cram into they brains before their next exam.
 
Milo listened intently at Xander's casual explanation of things, amazed at how much he knew about this stuff, "I didn't know you knew so much about this kinda stuff..." He mumbled, taking pictures as he went, and especially taking time to take pictures of the things Xander gave information for. One thing he really tried to do, every time, was if he took a picture of an artifact, he took a picture of its corresponding sign, so he could remember down the line what he was looking at.

"You didn't need me at all," Pryce chuckled, walking with his hands in his pockets, "You must pay a lot of attention to her when she talks about her work."
 
Xander flushed just ever so slightly, which was frustratingly easy to see with his pale skin, "Eh, you know, kind of soaks in after a while. Mama talks about things like that a lot, and eventually even my thick skull can't keep it all out. Shame it doesn't count toward my actual history and social studies grades."
 
"I bet it helps though," Pryce said, just casually strolling along, "Your mother does this incredible work, your father is a history teacher. I'd be shocked if your social studies grades are your lowest, unless you forget all of it when you're taking tests."
 
"They're sporadically good," Xander admitted. "Anyway, she says it better and gets all the stuff right with tons more facts. But she didn't tell me everything. I don't know what this is." He indicated the display he stopped next to. "Looks kind of familiar."
 
Pryce leaned in, looking at the artifact Xander had pointed to, "That's a Bakhour," he mispronounced it slightly, "It's like... an incense burner, I think. Essentially. I wouldn't be surprised if it looks familiar because you have something similar at home."
 
"Oh, yep, we got those," Xander agreed with a nod. He turned and started to move on when a particular display caught his eye. He walked over to look at it more closely, gesturing for Milo to follow him. "Hey, check this out." He looked over the display more closely. "Yep, I thought so. My mama-" he caught himself and corrected to the more formal, "Dr. Wahid," to be professional at Daizi's workplace, "she did this one."

There were mythological creatures, urban legends, and so-called cryptids on display here, many of them with their own figurines and explanations about where they came from. Some even had artwork and little snippets talking about people from the areas where these creatures were found. He noticed a button and cautiously pressed it. He was very proud that he only jumped a little when the voice started talking to him from the display.
 
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