Hobbies

[Ixtlilton]

Sin was in his element. All the students had left for the week, and he had his classroom/science lab all to himself, most likely for the entire weekend. After checking to make sure there weren't any more children loitering nearby in the hallway, he closed the door. Out from underneath his desk came his tape player (yes, tape player), and in went his Beethoven mix tape.

Sin had a vague idea in mind for a sort of... smog... that made the people who breathed it in hallucinate raptors... something like that. He didn't know that he'd ever really have a need for it, but he liked increasing his repertoire. He smiled contently as he began mixing this and that. If Beethoven's Symphony Number Five wasn't perfect for this sort of thing, nothing was. He may have sort of been twirling between chemical tables with viles of chemicals or something like that, but as long as no one ever caught him at it, he'd never have to admit to anyone that he spent his weekends with no one but Beethoven and the Periodic Table for company.

[Coconut]

You know, he didn't really remember why he had gotten it into his head to visit the science end of the building. Toharn had never had much of a head for science, even anthropology, a mixture of science and history both, made his head spin if he started getting too far into the science part. Perhaps he was having the strange, inexplicable desire to torture himself by being surrounded by instruments and words that he had no hopes of understanding? ...Naw, he wasn't a masochist. Toharn's only goal in his random wanderings was, of course, to make friiiends!

At least, that was what he was telling himself when he was standing outside the door to Ansembourg's chemistry laboratory, listening to the sweet, powerful sounds of Ludwig van playing its way through the walls and delighting his soul. Alas, what a shame it was that he had not had this idea sooner! Surely if the science teacher was as big a fan of classical music as he was himself, they would hit it off right away!

Toharn quietly opened the door to the laboratory, having no desire in the slightest to interrupt the other man's Beethoven. He took a step in and closed the door behind him, smiling slightly, already having it in his mind that he'd stand here quietly until the song was over before introducing himself (unless his fellow teacher noticed him first). One look at the teacher in question, however, and Toharn would have been silent whether or not he had intended to be. To gaze upon a man so thoroughly engrossed in his true passion, and how could a man not be silent out of respect? Upon reflection, however, he supposed he was also a bit embarrassed. It seemed that he had inadvertently interrupted something that... wasn't common, from what he'd heard of this Sin Tae Young.

[Ixtlilton]

Sin kept going for a few moments, but it wasn't very long before he realized that something was very off. The balance of the room was all wrong suddenly. Sure enough, he stopped mid-twirl, his lab coat fluttering to a stand still, and he stared awkwardly at the man who'd entered before realizing he'd been caught and struggling to maintain his cool.

"I, ah..." he coughed, set down the viles, cleared his throat, and then continued. "Can I help you, sir? You're a professor here as well, correct? I'm certain I've seen you here and there." He sort of migrated towards the tape player to turn it down, at least. He'd turn it off completely if this fellow actually needed something and hadn't just walked into the wrong door on accident. Teachers normally only talked to each other if they were already friends or if there was something up with a particular student. But Sin couldn't think of a particular troublesome student, unless that Kadin boy was causing problems elsewhere. Sin rather doubted it, however, since fire and chemistry were always a bad sort of mix.

[Coconut]

He seemed embarrassed, Toharn noted. Well, he couldn't have that, now could he? With a few long strides the man was close enough for comfortable conversation (for him), a smile on his face as he proceeded to act as if stumbling upon seemingly introverted men dancing and mixing chemicals to Beethoven was the most normal thing in the world. All for the sake of making this teacher feel more at ease.

"Ah, yes, hello! I am Toharn, I teach history." He covered the ground in what seemed to be no time at all, reaching out one hand to take Sin's in his and clasping the other over top, giving him an enthusiastic shake hello. Since, you know, kissing wasn't quite as common around these parts. "I must say, it is wonderful to meet another lover of the classical music! Oh, but I forget myself, I came so that I could meet you. You see, I think it's dreadful to be faculty at such a small school and not know the other teachers on at least a first-name basis. Since I've never see you in the teacher's lounge, I decided to come here to introduce myself."

Throughout his little speech, Toharn held Sin's hand in both of his, not seeming to realize that he'd been holding the appendage captive. Once he stops talking, he smiles brilliantly at his fellow teacher and releases him, allowing his own hands to drop to his sides. But they wouldn't be still for long, especially not if he began speaking again.

[Ixtlilton]

"Oh, yes, Mr. Toharn... Jimenez, is it? We met in passing at the staff meeting at the beginning of school." Of course, by met-in-passing, he meant sat-on-opposite-ends-of-the-meeting-table and vaguely-heard-each-other's-names. But it was a very small school, with students vastly outnumbering the teachers, so one learned very quickly to remember the teachers and remember them well. One never knew when one might accidentally re-annimate a dead squid and need some assistance, and for the sake of appearances, one really couldn't go to students for that sort of thing.

Sin was accutely aware that Toharn was still sort of hold-shaking his hand despite the fact he'd been talking for a while now. Sin, at least, had his poker-face re-intact at that point. "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Jimenez." Korean vs ... Mexican? Vaguely South American? Where was he from, anyway? Latino, then. It was bound to be a culture shock to both of them, reasoned Sin. "My name is Sin Tae Young. For the sake of clarification, I like to keep in touch with my heritage, so Sin is my family name despite coming 'first,' and Tae Young is my given name."

Was he going to stop shaking his hand any time soon?

"Yes, I must admit I am fond of the classic European music. I find it helps me to think." And that was all he was going to say on that embarassing matter, thanks.