Hannibal's office at the school, Monday afternoon

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal had a bit of extra work to do for class tomorrow, seeing as his coteacher was apparently stuck in Glacia. And a snake. So he was in his office today, his usual opera not playing, as he did his best to find modern rock music for the theme. He was mostly going by groups he remembered Jono mentioning, and so far wasn't having much luck.

Or at least, wasn't having much luck finding anything that didn't give him a headache.

He rather hoped a student would interrupt him.

[OOC: Waiting on one, but open!]

Comments

[myownface]

Sparkle pursed his lips faintly at that, nodding thoughtfully.

"My speed is, like, Broadway showtunes, and swing, and big band," he offered. "Jazz... I'm not taking your class. Have you covered Ella?"

Fitzgerald. Who was a treasure.

[sharp_as_knives]

"We have not." Hannibal nodded. "Jazz I have, although I tend toward more experimental music." He made a note of it. "Show tunes we have done, but there's a wide enough variety that if you can think of something..." He shrugged, and gave Sparkle a smile. "It's a shame you're not. Maybe next summer, should we do it again."

[myownface]

"I graduate next year," Sparkle replied, frowning a bit. "I guess it'll depend on whether or not Lewis will let me stick around through the summer or not."

He had no idea if he wanted to stay, or get the hell off this island and back to real life as soon as possible.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Well, if so." Hannibal smiled. "And if you decide to stay. So, this is our theme for tomorrow, and here is what I have so far." He turned the screen for Sparkle to see.

[myownface]

Sparkle pursed his lips and leaned forward to look at the screen, trying to figure out what half of those songs even were.

They were... definitely... songs!

"Going with a theme, huh? I might need to actually listen to a few of those."

[sharp_as_knives]

"I can send you copies, if you like. I've been keeping a record of everything we've covered."

[myownface]

"Yeah? That would be kind of awesome, actually. I'm curious, and I don't really get many chances to listen to new music that don't involve turning on the radio or just following random links on YouTube."

... Which sometimes led to awesome results, and sometimes consisted of nothing but pure regret.

[sharp_as_knives]

"I'm not sure much of mine counts as new," Hannibal confessed with a chuckle. "But I'll be happy to share it."

[myownface]

"Well, new to me," Sparkle clarified with a shrug. "I mean, I like older music, but classical really isn't my usual go-to."

... Someday, what Sparkle enjoyed would be considered classical, sure, but for now it mostly just qualified as 'classic.'

[sharp_as_knives]

"And rock music isn't mine," Hannibal answered. "Although I am coming to appreciate some of it."

Like Radiohead.

And Metallica shirts. Hush.

[myownface]

Hey, they were comfortable! And Hannibal filled them out well. So it stood to reason, he needed to get some for himself, right?

... Right?

"Yeah? I mean, it's not all for everyone, but that's kind of the point of it."

[sharp_as_knives]

"True." Hannibal shrugged. "I don't enjoy all orchestral music, either. It's only that so much of the poor modern music seems so very...loud."

Yes, he was probably too old.

And he wasn't going to any Metallica concerts, either.

[myownface]

"There is quieter stuff, if you know where to look," Sparkle offered. "But yeah, I see what you mean. I mean, I'm the target audience for a lot of the crap that plays on the radios, but that doesn't mean I'm into what people call 'dance' music these days."

He was still trying to figure out how to dance to ambient electronica, thanks.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal did a mean waltz.

"I've been leaning mostly on Jono's judgment for what I might find interesting. It's been largely reliable." Hannibal shrugged. "Unfortunately I'm not having much luck on my own."

[myownface]

"Welcome to the information age," Sparkle replied with a shrug of his own. "That's the downside of the internet. There's limitless potential for discovery, you just have to sort through all the shit, first."

Which was sometimes a daunting task all on its own.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal gave Sparkle a bit of a look, equal parts humor and exasperation. "I am quite familiar with the Internet, thank you. But yes, too much information is its own sort of challenge."

[myownface]

"Ever try to just click the sidebar links on YouTube once you find something you like?" Sparkle was being helpful now, see? "Sometimes some of the best stuff out there belongs to people who haven't signed on to a label or anything. They're just doing it for the passion of it, you know?"

Sparkle could really get behind anything that came about because of passion.

[sharp_as_knives]

"You're assuming I found anything I liked," Hannibal answered, shaking his head.

[myownface]

"Why not start with what you know you like? The classical stuff sometimes bleeds into the newer stuff, you know? This is inspired by that, one person who listens to one thing might listen to something similar but different, and so on." Sparkle shrugged. "Everything lives on YouTube. Like, everything."

There was a pause, and then he gestured to Hannibal's computer.

"Can I? It's kind of like following Wikipedia links or going to TV Tropes and letting yourself fall down the rabbit hole, you know? You end up somewhere completely different, but there's nothing stopping you from backtracking if you make a wrong move or something."

[sharp_as_knives]

"Please." Hannibal slid his chair back and gestured Sparkle at the computer. "I'm curious to what you might find."

[myownface]

"Okay," Sparkle said, leaning over the desk and bringing up YouTube in the browser. "So, what's one song you really like? I'm going to need that for a starting point."

He could guess, but he didn't suspect that would end with the intended results.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Lucia di Lammermoor - 'Il dolce suono", her madness scene," he answered the first thing that came to him.

[myownface]

Sparkle took a moment to type that in, thankful that YouTube had that fancy feature that filled in the rest of a searchbox once you started typing. So help him, he wouldn't have stood a chance in hell of spelling that whole thing otherwise.

"Okay, so we have our search results, and I'll just take the top one on the list for now," he decided, clicking the top link in the list. "Now, we can clink other things that look really similar, like any one of the other dozen things with Italian opera-looking names, or we can try to find something that looks really different. See how much of a stretch we can make. Any preference?"

[sharp_as_knives]

"There doesn't seem much point in only going to a different version of this song," Hannibal noted as he scrolled down the list. "Nor in choosing something with little actual music in it."

He scrolled a little further and noted one odd-looking link. "I think I may have had this mentioned to me. A version from a movie?"

[myownface]

"Oh, oh, click it!" Sparkle grinned and leaned in closer for a better look. "I've actually seen that movie. It leans into weird kind of techno territory, but it's not bad."

By 'not bad,' Sparkle was actually kind of heaping praise on to it.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal clicked and listened to it. The change from opera to electronic was a little jarring, but overall... "That isn't bad."

Because he liked to heap praise, too.

[myownface]

"I know, right? Totally tolerable."

Appreciate it a little less, guys. Seriously. Calm down.

"It's really different, but it's got a lot of similar sensibilities, you know? And if you can find something in the sidebar from there that isn't just movie interviews or clips or whatever, you might be pleasantly surprised by that, too."

[sharp_as_knives]

"Hm." Hannibal looked, but most things seemed to be movie-related or other versions of the same song. After a moment, he mentally shrugged and clicked one of the only things that wasn't.