How Green Becomes Wood

"Something like putting a bread candle in the bathroom," Xander chuckled. "She likes having scents around, like specific scent for each room, so if I were to take a candle or incense or whatever she has in her office and put a different smelling scented thing in the the room, she knows she's in the right room, but it smells wrong."
 
Milo chuckled, "That's devious. You could also like... rearrange the front hall so she thinks she walked into the wrong house? Not like... in a trip-hazard way, though. Or you could replace what she's drinking with a different flavour of the same thing."
 
"Now those are good tricks," Xander agreed with a grin. "She's pretty good at pulling of pranks, too, though not as much with the mini around. When she does, though, she goes big! Anyway, where would like to see next?"
 
"I don't really know what the line is," Milo admitted, finding it interesting to learn Daizi was a prankster. He wasn't really sure what a prankster was like, exactly, but somehow, he didn't expect it. But it seemed to him like he was becoming increasingly aware of biases he didn't know he had, "I don't know. Anywhere, I guess. I don't know if there is a boring place in a museum like this."
 
"It takes a bit to figure things out like that," Xander said with a little shrug. "Come on. Let's see if we can find a place that's boring or if this old museum is completely packed with interesting things."

He led the way to the next section, which turned out to be about the integration efforts after the second World War. It was kind of depressing, but not boring! There were other small exhibits about the various wars and the people involved in them, but it wasn't until he found the hall of geology that he was even sort of bored. The hall of geology was just... rocks. Sometimes sparkly rocks and in a couple instances glow in the dark rocks, but rocks.
 
"Do you know geologists lick rocks?" Milo mentioned as he walked with his friend, finding the rocks more interesting than Xander did, although he understood why they could be boring, "And they can be used to understand the age of the world. It's kinda cool they're older than us, I think."
 
"Why would you lick a rock? Don't they all just taste like dirk?" Xander asked with a faint frown. He stared at a rock that was grey with dark striations. Yep. It was a rock. Well and truly rock-like. It sat there being the best rock it could possibly be, and it was darn good at it.
 
"I think it somehow helps geologists to understand information about rocks. And like, it can help you differentiate rock from bone? Or something? I just know people who dig in the dirt lick a lot more things than you'd expect." Milo said, taking a picture of the rock Xander was looking at and then walked on, more than willing to go and visit a new exhibit since Xander didn't think this one particularly rocked.
 
"Huh. Well, I guess that works for them, and if it works, why stop?" Xander shrugged as he followed Milo. "The crystals were pretty cool, though, and other than its uses in tech and stuff, I don't get the big deal around diamonds. For like rings and things, I mean. It looks so much like just special glass. Now, opals, opals are rad. Oh, hey, look, that one has transportation and industry, and I think that's the last area. Did we miss anything?"
 
"Opals aren't hard enough," Milo answered, "If you wear them every day, they're going to get scratched and dented and destroyed, and if you want to wear the ring every day, like you're supposed to with... like... a wedding ring, then if you wear an opal you're going to end up having to replace it constantly. Diamonds are, I guess, the hardest possible stone, so that's why they're used. Well, that and propaganda," He looked at Xander, "but there are other stones that are almost as hard that work just as well, I think."

At Xander's question about missing anything, he fished around in his pocket for the museum map he had picked up once they were set loose, "No, it doesn't look like it. I guess machines are all we've left to see. That was fast..." then he checked his phone and realized exactly how many hours they had been there, "oh. Well. It felt fast."
 
Xander craned his neck to see Milo's watch. "Dang. This place steals time worse than video games. No wonder my feet are starting to get tired. Right, so, we have this area and then the gift shop!" He started into the room that guided them from prehistoric industry to wagons all the way up to modern-day industry and cars. "What kind of gemstone things do you like?" He paused to read one of the displays with old, dented tools.
 
"I don't really know a lot about them. But I always liked that scene in Snow White with the mining. My mom really likes gemstones, too, not because she thinks they have mystical powers, she just thinks it's interesting how they're formed. Did you know sapphires and rubies are the same stone?" Milo said, finding the transportation and machines prior to the Industrial Revolution more interesting than the stuff which came after, although he did enjoy reading about the steam engines.
 
"That's a lot of soot," Xander remarked, peering at some of the old black-and-white pictures depicting the industrial era. "It's a wonder anyone could breathe at all. I did not know that about the stones. I don't think I ever watched Snow White... No, wait, I did watch a little bit one time when at a day care thing right before we aged out of it. I think I remember the mining scene. You know, cartoons really set us up for disappointment. I didn't think much of it was real, I wasn't that gullible, but damn was I disappointed when I saw my first gem and it wasn't twinkling and gleaming. It looked so boring after all the cartoon renditions! Oh, that's a cool camper thing over there. And a wall of license plates? Why?"
 
"Have you ever done one of those things where they give you a bag of dirt, and you get to pan in a fake stream and collect all of the stones you get from it?" Milo asked, "I did it once with my mom, and I was really disappointed when the garnet was just a rock unless you pay to get it cleaned up, but we couldn't afford it. I've still got my plastic bag of what are supposedly gems, somewhere." He looked up at the license plate wall, "I wonder if you could donate your old plate... Hey, if you could get one of those plates that say words, what would you have it say?"
 
"I guess someday you could get a rock tumbler thing and clean it up yourself," Xander remarked. He moved on to the next part of the exhibit while he thought about what Milo asked. "Um, I don't know. Maybe something like T1WN1? Or something like that. How about you?"
 
"I think if you had Twin Number 1, Alec would need to drive so he could have Twin Number 2," Milo pointed out with a little chuckle, "I don't know what I'd get. Maybe a joke about running late or something, but I think those sorts of plates are really funny, but I don't think I'd ever buy one. You have to be a really... I don't know, I guess not everybody can pull them off.'
 
"I honestly don't know if I'd care enough," Xander admitted. "I don't really notice things like vanity plates. Well, I do, but the joke usually goes over my head and it just looks like a jumble of letters and numbers to me. You're right about the twin thing, though, come to think of it. I dunno. Maybe I'll get a horse and buggy and put a plate on the buggy. It'll say something like, one horse power or something."
 
"That's pretty funny," Milo said, "but the horse may get spooked riding alongside cars. You should get a bumper sticker that says, 'my other car is a horse.' We're not limited to making jokes using only our license plates anymore, regardless of what their wall says," he gestured to it, trying to overemphasize his mock frustration at it, "The giant wall of license plates does not control us, and I defy it's authority. I see no god here on the wall." He squinted it at it, and took a picture, "Except for that one from Minnesota, which does seem to read G0D5."
 
Xander let out a startled laugh and shook his head. "Darn straight! No wall of licenses is going to control us or our vehicular communication! Not even if it is Minnesota." He grinned at Milo. "Someday, I am totally going to get me a sticker just like you said just to defy the wall."
 
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