Logs:Before It Was Cool

Before It Was Cool
Dramatis Personae Gino, Lumin
In Absentia	2024-12-20 "Well, then you'd be the most hipster."
Location <NYC> Riverside Skate Park - Upper West Side
Tucked between Riverside Drive in Morningside Heights, and the Hudson River, the Riverside Skate Park is a mecca for skaters of all ages. The fenced in area is ringed by trees, and the park itself is actually manned by a city attendant during daylight hours. Skaters must sign a waiver before using the facilities, but anyone can come in just to watch. Also, Friday-Sunday food and drink vendors often circle the park, or come inside to sell their wares. Inside, the park is packed with skate trick elements. Many can be daisy-chained together in complex routines; ramps, jumps, rails and curbs. There is also a competition-sized half-pipe wide enough to support several riders at once. All of the trick elements are sturdy, and well built, because the city doesn't want to get sued. Skate on! The weather has been flirting with freezing temperatures for the entire time Gino has been out here; the afternoon is already turning dark, the sodium yellow of the streetlights casting long, fingerlike shadows along frost-slick railings and cement. The park is still not deserted, though, the December quiet disturbed by the dull growl of rolling wheels. In some small concession to the weather Gino has not been trying anything too fancy; this is the only concession he seems to be making to the weather, dressed in a very seasonally inappropriate Hawaiian shirt (dark blue and dotted with pineapples) and cargo shorts and Birkenstocks. He's not wearing a helmet or any kind of padding, though probably it would not fit him anyway and probably he does not feel a need for it; though he's just wiped out on a long, curving ramp, there's no bleeding where his knee spikes have been ground into powdery nubs. Gino does look a little uncomfortable as he's trudging back toward his board, though, shaking his hand out to dislodge the little specks of grit that had attached themselves in his fall. "Have you perhaps tried gluing your shoes to your board?" Lumin gibes from the railing on which they're seated. Similar to Gino, they're not dressed seasonally appropriate, in their thin pastel yellow tank top, hiking shorts, and sneakers, however their mismatched red and green crew socks might at least be. The colors might've clashed, if not for the fact that they inherently clash, and at the same time match, with everything. Even in the dying light, they manage to catch occasional stray rays of light and bend it into small soft patches of color about them. They stand up gracefully as the board slowly nears them, and they gently stop his board from going any further by placing their foot on top. "Or would that go worse, you think?" Despite their jabs, they're scanning Gino up and down, before gently nudging the board back in his direction. "Definitely worse," says Gino; he catches the board with one and steps up onto it, glides in an easy arc back toward Lumin. "Last thing I need if I'm falling down is wheels attached to my feet, I think. And my brain really doesn't work fast enough to use my power in, like, a smart way with a skateboard. I can bedazzle it or I can panic and hit the e-brake that almost breaks my ankles but thaaat's about it." He scrapes the board sideways to pull to a hasty stop. "More satisfying to do it analogue, anyway. Hipster style. How quickly we forget that the best way to do things is the way everyone else was already doing it." He's looping back around the railing for another try. "So maybe with practice, then?" Lumin sits back down on the railing, and their long glass fingers tap gently on the metallic railing of which they're wrapped about, legs sticking straight out and carefully crossing by their ankles. They tilt their head back as Gino rolls around them, "Quite poetic." They smile, "But wouldn't ah...Hipster style mean doing it the opposite of how everyone is doing it, though?" They lean forward to watch his next attempt, "Or am I getting my 2010's subculture's confused?" "I thought hipsterism was all about being the earliest to do something?" Gino isn't really waiting for a confirmation before tilting forward, giving himself some momentum to zoooom along the outer curb of the ramp again, this time without eating shit. On his swoop back toward Lumin he tilts his head thoughtfully, puffs out a small, amused cloud of condensed breath. "Feels like cheating when I'm the only one who can do it my way, anyway. Well. Only one as far as I know." Lumin gives a small "Woo!" when Gino doesn't eat shit on the curb this time. They drum their fingers against the metal railing, gently, but enough to add to the celebration. They mirror the tilt of Gino's head when he rolls back around, "Well, then you'd be the most hipster, being the first to do it your way." They're humming now in consideration, low and ringing metallic in their chest, "It's of course, one thing if it's more fun or satisfying or simply just the way you prefer but- I wouldn't worry about cheating." "In thirty years when they roll out instant-molecular-fusion tech I'll be insufferable," Gino vows good-naturedly, kicking the board back onto its tail and stepping off it to grab his water bottle from his bag, just hanging off the railing on Lumin's other side as if from an invisible hook; the skateboard stays popped up in the middle of the pavement. "Okay, okay, it's not cheating. Doing it the acoustic way just makes me feel ineffably superior," he says, in a grandiose tone probably not sincerely meant. "I think that's the true spirit of hipsterism anyway." Lumin laughs, "As you should! And you'll know who they got it all from too." They say with the same grandiose tone and a toss of their hand. "You were instant-molecular-fusing things before it was cool." They bring a foot up to rest on the railing, and there's something thoughtful in their expression, "What do you suppose you'll be doing in thirty years, anyway?" "The real O.G." says Gino, with a snort. He lets the water bottle drop into his other hand, brow crunching down with an audible scrape. "Shit, I don't know. Probably dead, that seems pretty likely. Maybe I'll clean up my act by then." Lumin seems unsurprised by this answer, and nods. Their fingers drum a few times against the metal railing, “I suppose you better, if you want to be able to lord over everyone that you were the OG.” They raise their brow once, “Could be a great motivation, if you ask me.”