Flora Stems~
A medium shade of green. When present in an individual, represents equanimity with self and nature. A respect for the Earth, present in circling flows around the heart and lungs.
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Ever since the blink of time, colors have surrounded us.
Colors have surrounded everything. Floating around our bodies, reflecting our virtues, health, emotions, and passions. The colors reflect our soulful footprint, our spot in the world. They show how our bodies desire to venture through our time spent on this planet, and how they wish to proceed through consciousness.
Will we grow up to be a doctor, to heal others with unrestrained love? Or will we seek addiction through sinful vices, turning to horror and pain to mask our emotional carnage? The colors speak for us all, even if the normal person cannot see them.
But I can see them. I, Jeon Jungkook, can see them all.
These colors are called auras. As in, wide energy fields enveloping us with in their vivid clouds, attentive receptors of our physical, mental, and spiritual feedback. They learn from us, change color to reflect our past, present, and future state. The auras expand, contract, interact with others on a daily basis...yet we do not see it, unless we train and strengthen a certain lense of the mind.
The auric lense.
The lense that can pull apart the seven different auric fields to decipher their meaning.
Like a rainbow, we all have seven layers of aura. But instead of red, orange, and yellow--their nomenclature is based upon what they reveal to us. For example, the first layer reveals our immediate bodily health, what we feel like in any given point in time. The second layer reveals our emotional health, breaking down how we are feeling and how intensely the emotions are felt. But I won't go into these layers right now. I simply don't have time.
I have to get back to practice, back to the one sport that keeps my own aura breathing...
Gymnastics.
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"TOO LOW! POINT YOUR FUCKING TOES, JEON! HOW MANY MORE TIMES DO I HAVE TO REPEAT MYSELF!"
A tall, imposing coach jerks and tosses his arms around as he studies the elite athlete training in front of him. In his judgmental hand is a clipboard, which gets scribbled upon angrily every time a fault is detected. Every time the gymnast in front of him cannot get only the perfect form down, the pen strikes upon paper. Listing imperfection, inking down deduction.
"SHOULDERS OPEN! SHOULDERS OPEN!"
Veins bulge in the flushed neck of the male athlete as his body circles round and round on the worn pommel horse. Like clockwork, his hands raise up and slam down on the brown surface to keep his body suspended. His fit body glides over the handles, a perfected, squeezed board. The heavy slaps of his calloused palms against the leather object echo off of the tall gym ceiling.
Fans whir overhead, cutting through the chalky air of the Busan gymnasium. The weathered athlete breathes heavily as his torso suddenly rises into a controlled handstand. With grace, he twists multiple times on top of the pommel horse. He sticks his intricate dismount, heels planted on the mat, chin held high.
The coach scribbles some more.
"That was subpar. Not your best." Eyes remain glued to the clipboard. "Based on what I've deducted from your execution, you're at an 8.2. Added to your difficulty, that's only a 14.8. Leonardo Costa's difficulty is a full point ahead of yours on pommel. Costa's scoring in the 15's. Need to clean up your fucking form, Jeon. Either that, or discount a medal on pommel."
Sweat beads on Jungkook's forehead at the temples. He reaches a red hand up, wipes the sweat off. He rolls out his wrists.
"Got it, coach."
The coach starts at the flippant response. "You got it? No, you don't. You'll be in America in less than a week with Costa, and all you can tell me is got it?"
"I'll work harder."
Rolling his eyes, the coach steps closer to the pommel. The fans block out the coach's enraged cussing from reaching Jungkook's ears. The critique sheet gets yanked off of the clipboard and thrust into Jungkook's chest. "Just stay on top of your game, Jeon. I know you, and I know you have it in you to beat him. You just have to be more aggressive. You've been slacking lately."
Jungkook curls his fingers around the sheet that lists numerous capitalized deductions. He scans them over like a student might gaze at their class schedule. Curious, yet uneasy.
"I know. I'm letting the camp get to my head. I'm sorry."
The coach nods, as if his suspicions have been confirmed. He crosses his beefy arms, clucking as the door to the gymnasium opens to admit another gymnast in the room. The boy entering is one of the junior elites, a young gymnast of about 15 years. His mouth is drawn in concentration as he walks onto the floor in a fitted T-shirt and training shorts.
With the new admission into the gym, the coach's attention flees from the panting Olympic hopeful to the training junior elite. The man walks towards the boy with an empty clipboard, tapping it against his thigh. As the coach strides away, Jungkook's gaze raises to the space just behind the man.
Jungkook blinks a few times, squints his eyes. He studies a tiny spot in the air above Coach Kan's head. His core tightens as he focuses harder, eyes picking apart something that to the normal person, would be invisible.
Subtly, his lip curls at what he sees. With a new understanding of the situation, he bends his head down to study the list he was given. His eyes trail over things like Lopsided scissors, Closed shoulders on press hand, Low hip angle! yet he can't seem to comprehend them.
After a few seconds of blankly staring at the sheet fluttering against his breath, Jungkook decides to move on to the next event. Pommel horse is only the beginning of today's crucial practice. He still has to train on five other events in preparation for the 'Road-to-London' training camp. The camp that multiple other elite gymnasts were invited to, taking place in a large complex in the American state of Arizona.
With precision, Jungkook folds the slip of paper into a neat cube. He glides over precisely stacked mats to get to the locker area, rolling the cube around in his palm all the while. The folded paper moves in a wide circle, then a tight circle over his callouses. A flexed cube, a pointed cube, a saluting cube, a tumbling cube...that he studies intently.
Searching for imperfection.
Jungkook watches the cube. He mulls over his routine, over Leonardo Costa, over what he spotted above Coach Kan's head.
The ceiling fans toss his black hair around as he arrives at locker number one. The locker that is decorated with the most Korean flags, the most taped up, outstanding score sheets. The locker's blue edges hold smears of white chalk from bars, sweat from tired palms after hours of practice, and the occasional water bottle spray from his teammates.
Before the gymnast even opens his locker, he can smell the fruity air freshener wafting through the vent openings. He inhales for a moment, holding the safety of the smell in his lungs.
"Jeon you're on high bar next! The more time you fucking waste dallying over there, the better Costa is getting!" The irritated jab comes from behind Jungkook, where the coach is helping stretch the junior elite gymnast in a shoulder vice. "Get your grips on!"
"Yes, Coach!"
Jungkook carefully opens his locker, still inhaling. With a calloused hand he reaches for his grips, dropping the tiny white cube next to his packed lunch and dinner. He hurries into his grips, pulling the white leather protective strips over his hands and wrists. Buckles secure them to his forearms to ensure they don't slip off.
"Alright! Warm up!"
His coach yells out to him once they're both underneath the single rail high bar. Another sheet of paper lays on his proud, critical clipboard, ready to be filled with frenzied deductions and rude comments. Jungkook rolls his shoulders out under his black, form-fitting tank. He steps up to the chalk box, misting water on his grips with a spray bottle. After applying water, he lathers enough white powder on his grips to last him a few warmups.
Jungkook's arms swing like loose noodles as he approaches the bar, readying his shoulder muscles for action. A few neck cracks and a deep breath later and Jungkook is leaping up to catch the single bar.
His muscled body coils and expands like an agitated snake as he swings to gain momentum. After two powerful swings, his back extends, swinging him over the bar in a full handstand. He continues to circle around the bar in a handstand whenever he isn't doing one of his six major release skills. Unlike most other gymnasts, Jungkook's high bar routine isn't only polished, but extremely difficult--he is tied with Costa for having the most release skills.
"KEEP THOSE STALDER CIRCLES OPEN! YOUR HIPS ARE CLOSED AGAIN! TAP MORE ON YOUR GIANTS!"
Screams echo around Jungkook as his body drags through the air as light as a feather. He completes giant after giant around the bar, getting through the warmups pretty easily. Next, he'll have to complete his release skills, the ones that are as risky as they are complex. Just an inch too far from the bar or an inch too close and Jungkook will either eat the bar or fall fifteen feet upside down. Concentration is key for the safe execution of the moves.
"ALRIGHT! SHOW ME A CLEAN LAYOUT TODAY OR ELSE YOU'RE RUNNING ANOTHER MILE WHEN PRACTICE IS OVER!"
The threat looms in the air above the high bar, mingling with the chalk clouds that fray up whenever the bar gets tugged by muscled arms. Jungkook prepares himself for his back layout release over the high bar, gianting multiple times to build up speed. One loop around...two...three and release!
Jungkook's body snaps up into the air, his body in a full extension as he soars over the high bar. For a moment, Coach Kan watches in awe as Jungkook's squeezed legs fly upward with fluid grace. The gymnast's gripped hands stretch out for the high bar, reaching to find their lost friend caked with chalk.
But they don't.
Jungkook's fingertips only graze the surface of the high bar, missing the catch by a fraction. One of his hands manage a loose hold around the metal bar, gripping around it too weakly for a solid catch. His hands slip off the bar, gripping nothing but chalky air.
Jungkook's body careens towards the mat under the bar in a free fall. He tucks and turns onto his back just in time to avoid landing on his head. Trained to fall correctly, Jungkook isn't a stranger to crash-landing against the mats. That's what the cushioning mats are there for--to protect the fallen from horrendous, sometimes life-threatening injuries.
His back thunks against the chalky blue, knocking the air out of him.
"DAMN IT!" His coach stomps a tennis shoe into a nearby mat, glaring at his hope and pride. "What's wrong with you today! First your shitty form on pommel and now this! You've done layouts for months, caught them easily. What the hell, Jeon?"
Grips slam disappointedly against tired thighs. The gymnast stands, brushing himself off. He uses a chalkless forearm to push his hair back. His tongue peeps out to lick his lips and inhale a few times. Thinking.
"I'm not sure why I didn't catch that." Reflexively his hands open and close, grabbing an imaginary bar. He catches what he's doing and adjusts his grips. A bit dazed, he glides over to the chalk box, adding more powder to his hands. "Must have overcorrected on the Stalders and my shoulders opened more on the layout."
The coach sniffs. "Likely, but not an excuse. Catch three more layouts before you move on to your other releases."
Jungkook scratches at a torn piece of skin hanging off of his finger from missing the bar. It floats down by his foot, kissing bare, chalk-streaked toes. The ceiling fans hum above coach and gymnast, saying what doesn't need to be spoken out loud.
Everyone is tense for the upcoming London Olympics. This is no more obvious than at the gym of World Champion medalist, Jeon Jungkook. With Leonardo Costa as Jungkook's prime competitor--the only one that stands in his way of getting gold in the All Around--the pressure to improve, fix, and pick apart every skill and element in Jungkook's routines is priority for Coach Kan.
"Yes, coach."
With a nasty bruise forming on his wrist under the grips, Jungkook claps his hands together a few times. He shakes his shoulders around, takes a deep breath, and leaps back up to the high bar.
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note from authAURA-
hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi!
Welcome to Leo Taura! Finally, a gymnastics story that I've been wanting to write for FOREVER.
I actually grew up in a leotard, spending most of my childhood in a gym. Eventually I landed a spot on a competitive gymnastics team and competed for almost 8 years! I ate, studied, went to gymnastics practice, slept, and repeated for a good portion of my life. Although I never made it to an elite level because of injury, my love for the sport never ended. A major portion of this story is inspired by the personal experiences I've had from such a competitive and demanding sport.
Even though this is men's gymnastics instead of women's, and there are six events instead of four, there are many similarities between the two areas of gymnastics. If you aren't familiar with the skills or funky technical names thrown around, just picture a really hard twisting flip and you'll be right most of the time, haha! I'll try to throw in gifs or images to help you get an idea of what's happening.
As for the auras...well...I think Jungkook does a good job of explaining those to you in the chapter beginnings. He'll be in charge of the aura debriefing so hopefully I won't have to explain much.
I hope your day is flora stems green today! :)
LOVE,
izzy