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Post by Professor Xia Yang on Jul 25, 2010 19:10:51 GMT -5
The time was 2:03 pm. Lunch had just been over for half an hour, and almost nobody was in the kitchen anymore. Almost nobody, as Professor Xia Yang was.
The Chinese professor yawned. He hates the early afternoon - sleepiest time of the day. This, compounded with the fact that he had a class to teach in less than an hour, meant only one thing.
"Must. Have. Coffee."
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Post by Professor Xia Yang on Jul 25, 2010 19:13:48 GMT -5
Yang looked around, eyes squinted and sort of groggy. He could find no coffee drippers, nor did he want to drink a cup of instant coffee. No, now was the time for some good coffee.
His search was rewarded, as he gazed on a most beautiful of machines. His eyes watered as he realized the fun he would have.
It was, an espresso machine.
Yang squealed with delight as he walked over to the machine before he realized one thing.
He had no idea how to work it.
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Post by Professor Xia Yang on Jul 25, 2010 20:47:54 GMT -5
He took a small cup and placed it under some nozzle. He assumed it was where the coffee came out. Yang then looked around the machine. He tentatively reached over and placed his fingers on a knob. Normally, he would not be attempting to operate a machine he did not know how to operate, but this was a matter of coffee or no coffee - and he was going to get his coffee.
He turned the knob.
Unfortunately, had he read the instruction manual, he would have noticed that he was supposed to have pulled down a red lever to allow the steam to be released safely. He did not.
A small plug shot out and flew towards Yang. It was fortunate that his reflexes were so refined, as he was able to easily dodge the projectile. However, a window does not have that luxury, and the plug hit the pane of glass and fell to the floor. The window itself sported a fashionable crack.
Yang was not happy.
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Post by Natoli Joss on Jul 25, 2010 21:17:35 GMT -5
Natoli yawned as she walked towards the kitchen. She really need a bit of coffee. She was obsessed with caffeine like her sister was, but this the time she started to get a bit sleepy. She paused as she entered the kitchen and glanced at the plug and the cracked window. Then she turned to look at the espresso machine. "Um, hello!"
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Post by Professor Xia Yang on Jul 25, 2010 21:33:45 GMT -5
Yang was on guard, his stance readying him for another attack from the espresso machine. He noticed Professor Joss enter and greeted her without his gaze leaving the target of his caution.
"Good afternoon, Professor Joss," his tone then turned ironic, "I'm trying to make some espresso."
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Post by Natoli Joss on Jul 25, 2010 21:49:36 GMT -5
Natoli blinked. For one, she couldn't remember ever meeting him, though she imagined that he was probably another professor. Secondly, he obviously was fighting a losing battle against the espresso machine. Making a side trip to grab the plug, she made her way over to the machine. "Would you like me to show you how, Professor...?"
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Post by Professor Xia Yang on Jul 25, 2010 21:58:27 GMT -5
Yang looked at Natoli with a black stare. Well, that was anticlimactic.
It took a while for Yang to realize that he looked like an idiot and snapped back to reality. "Yes, I would like that." He extended his hand out to Natoli with a nervous laugh. "I'm Professor Yang," he introduced himself, "the new Chinese professor here."
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Post by Natoli Joss on Jul 25, 2010 22:14:26 GMT -5
Natoli grinned. "Ah." She shook his hand and then said in perfect Mandarin, "Hello. I am Professor Joss. I teach Magical Creatures and Horseback Riding. Pleasure to meet you."
She grinned a bit more and put the plug back in place. She started to set things up to make the espresso.
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Post by Professor Xia Yang on Jul 25, 2010 22:18:08 GMT -5
Yang was pleasantly surprised and replied in Mandarin as well, "It's a pleasure to meet you, and to meet someone who can speak Chinese."
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Post by Natoli Joss on Jul 25, 2010 22:27:18 GMT -5
As she started the machine up, Natoli laughed. "I spent about 9-10 years traveling the world and ended up in China for a while. I've always been pretty good at learning new languages, though I didn't usually stay in one spot long enough to really learn anything past knowing how to tell what language it is far too many times."
A minute or so later and Natoli had two cups of espresso. Handing one to Yang, she sipped at her own, feeling the caffeine wake her up a bit.
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Post by Professor Xia Yang on Jul 25, 2010 22:33:10 GMT -5
Yang took a sip and sighed. "I feel alive again."
"As for me," he said as he leaned back against a counter, "my old job... 'demanded' that I understood what people were saying. Some of it was self-taught, some of it was taught to me. For example..."
Yang began to speak in French with a Vietnamese accent, "This I learnt while in Vietnam."
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Post by Natoli Joss on Jul 25, 2010 22:39:11 GMT -5
Natoli raised an eyebrow as she took another sip of the lovely espresso. She spoke perfect French. "I learned in a class in my home state, but I did take a trip to France to perfect my pronunciation. Paris was quite wonderful."
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Post by Professor Xia Yang on Jul 25, 2010 22:43:03 GMT -5
"Ah, I see. I personally prefer having an accent, though - I prefer," he took another sip, "the unique flavour better."
He neglected to tell her that having a Vietnamese accent while speaking French allowed him to reasonably pose as a Vietnamese person - on whose government could fall the egg once his target was dead.
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Post by Natoli Joss on Jul 25, 2010 22:47:13 GMT -5
Natoli nodded. "Well, having an American accent tends to cause trouble. They tend to think you know nothing, so I like to learn how to speak perfectly. Plus as an elf, I'm already given odd looks anyways. The accent didn't really help matters."
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Post by Professor Xia Yang on Jul 25, 2010 22:57:25 GMT -5
"To each his own, I guess." Yang said as he returned to English. He took another sip.
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Post by Natoli Joss on Jul 25, 2010 22:59:41 GMT -5
Natoli shrugged as she took a few more sips and reverted to English as well. "Yeah, though I must admit, the accent did make the French sound a little cooler. Well, different at least."
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Post by Professor Xia Yang on Jul 25, 2010 23:20:22 GMT -5
"Why thank you," he replied, "I'm also glad to see a fellow polyglot. You should meet my wife sometime, too; she worked as an interpreter."
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Post by Natoli Joss on Jul 25, 2010 23:31:07 GMT -5
Natoli grinned. "Ah, I don't speak too many languages. Only..." She started thinking. "...English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Icelandic, Swedish, Italian, Swahili, Afrikaans, Gaelic, and Latin. One of these days, I'll probably go on a lot longer trip and learn a bunch more languages if possible. But it would be nice to meet your wife. Does she live in town?"
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Post by Professor Xia Yang on Jul 25, 2010 23:53:39 GMT -5
"She does. I think she posted an ad for our bookstore here a few days ago too." Yang took another sip.
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Post by Natoli Joss on Jul 25, 2010 23:58:33 GMT -5
Natoli thought for a moment. "Ah, I remember now. Ame, who is the school doctor, and I were planning on maybe visiting some time. Does it have a cafe or is it just a bookstore?"
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Post by Professor Xia Yang on Jul 26, 2010 0:11:04 GMT -5
"Well, it would have a cafe, but we haven't hired a barista yet. Right now it's just a bookstore, but there are sofas around."
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Post by Natoli Joss on Jul 26, 2010 0:19:10 GMT -5
Natoli grinned. "Sofas are always nice. I can think of too many bookstores that don't have any furniture, making for longer visits to be quite uncomfortable. And once the cafe gets started, even people who don't like to read will probably frequent there, so business will pick up, no?"
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Post by Professor Xia Yang on Jul 26, 2010 0:25:39 GMT -5
Yang laughed and answered, "that's the hope at least. My wife really can't stay still; she's running stocks and writing novels too... although," he took a sip, "don't tell her I said this, but her writing is almost physically painful to read."
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Post by Natoli Joss on Jul 26, 2010 0:29:04 GMT -5
Natoli took another sip. "That bad? Ouch, I promise I won't say a thing! So does she just like to read and write? Or does she have something else to do in her spare time?" She didn't voice, but with her making the decision to settle down in one spot, Natoli found herself actually wanting friends, friends that she didn't really have growing up.
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Post by Professor Xia Yang on Jul 26, 2010 0:42:13 GMT -5
"Well, beyond nursing her delusions of getting published and running our bookstore, she really has nothing to do." Yang hoped that this would be a less than subtle hint for Natoli - Anna would like getting to know some people around here.
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Post by Natoli Joss on Jul 26, 2010 0:51:11 GMT -5
Natoli was careful not to grin, least not too much. "Well, I will definitely have to make it down to the bookstore some time soon. Probably will try and get Ame to come with too." So far, so good. Now she actually had to meet the woman. Hopefully that meant someone else for Natoli to talk to.
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Post by Professor Xia Yang on Jul 26, 2010 1:08:37 GMT -5
"I'm sure Anna would like that, as would I." Yang attempted to take another sip, but realized that he had run out.
"I'd make my own," he said as he eyed the machine with suspicion, "but I think you would be more qualified..."
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Post by Natoli Joss on Jul 26, 2010 1:32:59 GMT -5
Natoli grinned. "Sure!" She set her cup down, which was also empty, and started the machine up again. A minute later, the cups were refilled. "So, does the bookstore have a little of everything or just focus on one type of print?"
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Post by Professor Xia Yang on Jul 26, 2010 1:36:55 GMT -5
"Well, Anna tries to avoid competition with the library, and goes for the market that won't be allow to borrow books from the Academy." He explained, "she tries to be well rounded, but keeps a healthy stock of specialty goods like manga, or scribble-all-over-me type study guides that would not be found in the library."
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Post by Natoli Joss on Jul 26, 2010 1:40:05 GMT -5
Natoli nodded as she took a sip. "Ah. I think when I stopped by the library, I noticed that there wasn't really any manga. I'm sure some of the students would love to visit for that, if they knew they could buy it there. I'm not really a big reader, but I am very interested in visiting to see what I might buy there."
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