#turnstile was chaotic too

[alltheyearsblog]

Snack

Can also be read here on ao3

————

The flop Leonardo does on the couch is a glorious one.

It’s the kind where your full body weight just comes down and you feel every muscle just melt, and the air expels out of your lungs fully before taking in a fresh breath in the new found comfort.

It was an odd Friday night where absolutely nothing was waging for his attention. Earlier in the week there had been some chaotic patrols with the Purple Dragons, but in an effort to try to evade the turtles they had accidentally moved into a section of New York that the Mutanimals had just freshly relocated to. Slash was more than happy to take this off the brothers’ plate as it allowed them to get in some much needed exercise while learning the new terrain of their home base. Things had otherwise been quiet in their neck of the woods so it seemed as good a time as any to call an evening off from general patrol. Which of course meant that Raph and Casey went out anyway, just to find ways to fulfill their own agenda, while Mikey (and by extension everybody else) was excitedly starting cooking lessons with Murakami san. Donnie had invited April over, but they would be staying in, but had suggested maybe the three of them could crash together on the couch and watch reruns of whatever show.

Which quite honestly, sounded perfect to Leo.

Don’s lab doors slide open, and he hops down towards the tv area with laptop in hand . As he passes Leo, he grabs one of the many pillows and chucks it at his brother, toothy smile erupting when Leo makes a satisfactory ooof sound.

“Don’t get too comfy, April is going to be here in a minute.”

Leo grunts at his brother. “April lived here for close to three months, I will get as comfy as I please.”

The response makes Donnie roll his eyes. “Uh huh, but we’re supposed to spend time together. At least say hi before you pass out.”

Leo whips the pillow back toward Don, who bats it down with ease and a smile before settling his laptop down. “Alright, Leonardo, I’m going to the kitchen to grab snacks and drinks, want anything in particular?”

The Blue turtle smiles appreciatively “Thanks Dee. I think MIkey grabbed some bags of popcorn on his last snack run, and I’ll take whatever soda is in the fridge.”

“I’ll take one too if the offer is going around!” April’s voice floats in. The brothers look up and see her hopping over the turnstiles. She glides with grace over the pit and slides in the space next to Leo.

“Your wish is my command, Miss O’Neil.” Donnie does a little flourish and a bow before heading off to the kitchen. Leo reaches over to the pile of blankets on the end of the couch, tossing one to April and grabbing one for himself. He asks her how her day was and by the time Donnie returns with the tray laden with the goods, she’s deep in tell Leo about how insufferable fraternity rush week has been and she’s kind of glad Casey decided to do trade school.

“Either he would get wrapped up in the whole process, or he would be causing so much chaos for them. Probably the later.” April groans. Don places the drinks and a large bowl of popcorn on the table before turning and handing a smaller bowl to Leo.

“Probably the latter.” Leo agrees, accepting the bowl from his brother. Donnie, in his tendency to pay attention to every detail, had already placed a spoon in the bowl. Leo hums his appreciation as he uses the utensil to stir the kernels of fluff around before scooping a bite up.

“Uh, Leo?”

Leo, in a rare instance of getting to enjoy being a teenager, unceremoniously shoves a large spoonful of popcorn in his mouth. “Yussh, Aphil?”

“Are…” The red-head pauses for just a moment, a smirk just pulling at the corners of her mouth. “Are you eating popcorn with a spoon?”

Leo shoves another spoonful in just to make it clear that he is, in fact, doing just that.

“Don’t knock it until you try it April,” Donnie settles in the space on the other side of his brother, his own popcorn bowl with spoon at the ready. “It really is quite a genius technique.”

A giggle slips out from April. “But isn’t the whole point of popcorn that it's finger food?”

Leo swallows his current bite. “Yes, technically you are right. But I don’t like how greasy it makes my fingers feel. Or dusty in this case.” He holds up the bowl with the cheddar dusted kernels. “So, a spoon makes perfect sense.”

“Popcorn is a grain,” Donnie offers up, “So you can technically consider it a cereal.”

Leo snorts at that, and April levels Donnie a look.

“Mikey came up with that?”

“Mikey came up with that.” The brothers agree in tandem.

April rubs at her eyes. “Please don’t tell me he ate a bowl of it with milk.”

“Actually,” Donatello swallows, “It’s worse than that.”

“What could possibly be worse?”

Leo pulls a face. “He used queso.”

There is a quiet beat before April’s face twists in disgust. “I’m actually sorry I asked.” A long suffering sigh comes from their sister where she sits on the couch. “So, this has always been something you’ve done?”

Leo shrugs a little as he uses the spoon to push the fluffy, popped grain around. “I guess so? Mikey loves the stuff, and everytime we sit down to watch a show or a movie he absolutely insists on having it. But I would pass on it, which made Mikey pout and Raph give me grief for being so fastidious.” Leo waves the spoon at April. “So, I compromised.”

“Huh.” April responses. She adjusts her blanket and nestles down further. “Hey, whatever works to maintain the peace.” She lets out another little giggle before picking up the remote. “So, guys, what are we watching?”

It takes a bit of heated argument over their favorites, but in the end they settle on Crognard. The perfect kind of mindless tv to fill their evening, which turns out to be exactly what Leo needed. There isn’t a concern in the world, just snacks and family and dumb barbarians. The kind of night where his mind can be shut off but his spirit warmed with blessing.

And if the next time they have a rerun night that has April eating her popcorn with a spoon of her own accord, he won’t say anything about it.

[thebreakfastgenie]

possibly a challenging question, but if i wanted to explore billy joel's discography, where would you recommend i start?

Challenging but you have come to the right place!!!!!

Imo The Stranger album is a great place to start. It was his first commercially successful album and kind of when his signature style coalesced and it's also very very good.

52nd Street was released a year after The Stranger and it's very similar in many ways so if you like The Stranger it's a good next album.

After that maybe Glass Houses, it's a very fun album and also was released next after The Stranger.

I went The Stranger -> 52nd Street -> Glass Houses

An Innocent Man is a good one to do early too, it's very retro because he was homaging a lot of older styles of music and it's very light and fun.

I kind of divide Billy Joel in three eras:

Early Era Cold Spring Harbor Piano Man Streetlife Serenader Turnstiles

Middle Era The Stranger 52nd Street Glass Houses The Nylon Curtain An Innocent Man

Late Era The Bridge Storm Front River of Dreams

The middle era albums were all made with the same producer, Phil Ramone, and they just... go together. I think the other four in that era are better introductory albums, but The Nylon Curtain is really really good, it was kind of his perfectionist project, and you should definitely listen to it at some point.

Of the early era, Turnstiles is definitely the best and has seeds of The Stranger in it (there's a reason; he started working with at least most of his band on Turnstiles) so if you're curious I would start there. In the later era I think River of Dreams is the strongest but I don't think it matters as much what order you listen to them in at that point.

It's also valid to hop around listening to songs, although I'm a big album advocate. Most of the classic Billy Joel hits come from The Stranger, 52nd Street, Glass Houses, and An Innocent Man.

@movietonight do you remember how I told you to do it because whatever I said worked but I forget what I said

I hope this helps!!! If it's too chaotic feel free to let me know!

[rimouskis]

delaying sleep by waxing poetic for a new city

I think there's a good chance I might just have rose-tinted goggles welded onto my face. I have fallen in love with nearly every place I've been this year. new york city was no different.

I'd always thought I wouldn't like NYC. it was too big, too grey, too busy, too dirty for my tastes (or so I'd been told). I'm reminded of something my old best friend from high school (the one I had the one-sided falling out with re: wedding stuff this past year) told me after she and her family visited it years ago: "Oh, you'd hate it."

reader, I did not. I loved it. I loved it so very much.

I am so captivated by place. it's always been that way. it consumes my creative work. the place of a thing is its own character! it makes or breaks a story. it is, in fact, the most important part to me. and new york is so deeply itself, so embodied with its identity and way of life!!!

I was enchanted by how people there are so... it's like they're in parallel play with each other. everyone moving and traveling and going about their days—rarely interacting, ideally never interacting—but nonetheless Doing Life side by side. that's something I miss a lot about being a child and living with my family: going about my day just knowing that the room next over, my sister is going about hers. I really value the intrinsic sense of community and Being A Part Of Something that gives me.

nyc is like that on steroids. everything is happening all the time. move on the sidewalk to avoid the couple walking toward you. keep an eye on the unwell man on your subway car—you'll be fine, but be aware. duck around the gaggle of tourists on the platform and blow through the turnstile. laugh when the cop who's definitely committing entrapment by leaning on the emergency exit door and keeping it open tells you to swipe your metrocard again, it must not have read the first time. weave through the crowd. move with it. take the train with it. live with it.

I have a relative who lives in sunny sunny los angeles, and she messaged me to express her disgust at how dark new york was. my photos had a filter on them, I tried to explain, but she was unmoveable. she'd fallen out of love with nyc a long time ago. their subway was filthy, their streets were dark, and their infrastructure was always a few seconds from flaking out on you.

it's ALIVE, I wanted to say. YES, that's all true, but god, is it lived-in. it's like how any good film props master will have scuffed up all the clothing and equipment in a movie: it's LIVED-IN. it's USED, by all these PEOPLE, and are these PEOPLE not enchanting? in their chic all-black outfits? wearing their full faces of makeup on the subway? bundled in their black puffer coats and studiously ignoring each other as they move through life in chaotic unison?

I don't know. I see her point, and her long-ago adoption of the sunny coast was the right choice for her, but I was just so enamored with everything nyc was. it was so ITSELF, you know? it had a firm identity and a concrete way of life. almost like a confidence. confidence is sexy! it's enchanting.

aside from my newfound love affair, I had so much fun. I was there for like 72 hours and it was awesome how much we packed in. I caught up with an old friend who I haven't talked to in genuinely 8 years (she got SECRET MARRIED and there was a RIFT with her SISTER who I ALSO KNEW and she has settled into her skin SO securely)! I got to see a BROADWAY show! I ate DELICIOUS PIZZA.

I went to Michigan and fell in love with it. I went to Seattle and thought to myself: the life I wanted to have here is probably something I could have, in time. And now I've gone to NYC and realized that I want more than the tiny bite of it I got. I want to be there again, longer, for more. Hell, I might even be able to live there for a part of my life.

I love that about myself: my adaptability. I can take ANYTHING I'm given and make it work. I can be anywhere. I can be anything. I want to be everywhere. I want to be everything.

and baby, new york has everything.

[privacyredux]

77oz

1:21pm - tokyo

today was kind of a blur of shit really. lots of flying and not a ton of great sleep and now im in tokyo to play a show in a little while. it's just kind of chaotic. i got to ride around in a train that looked like a cat though, and that makes for a pretty decent day either way.

the iffy sleep has me feeling a little grumpy though. i hope i can shake it off to manage a decent show for this festival. outside of this shit, i didn't really end up talking a ton to most people today. really just the same few.... charlie, valeria, eric ... a little rosalie and clover, which was nice bc i had never spoken to her before.

i think im just kind of wrapped up in enjoying that i wasn't completely alone in my feelings. i mean, you can always tell to some kind of degree that things are going back and forth pretty well and they're not utterly disinterested, but it's not uncommon to be way off base in your assumptions and it doesn't help that ive got my own insecure little thoughts to fight off. but yeah, i think there will always be bits and pieces of that no matter what even if they don't manifest themselves in romantic or relationship kinds of ways.

i don't want to get ahead of myself either haha. if this is anything, it would only be the beginning and while it's nice not to be entirely pessimistic, i'm not going to get my hopes way up either. whatever actually ends up happening will be for the best. it would just be nice if i could actually will it in a certain direction.

im not really feeling any of my daily mixes today. it's like i got punished for really enjoying one too much. so i had to kind of jump around on what i wanted to listen to

dance-off - turnstile

poem you - fiddlehead

halah - mazzy star

[angelmichelangelo]

hopping onto this post to say i second what op said! i love the design of the lair. it’s one of my favourites out of all the turtles homes, it feels the most homely

the pit feels so warm (for an sewer) but i always loved how put together it felt. like all the little bits and pieces i imagine either splinter or the boys found over the years and added to their home. the turnstiles being the entryway is such a neat detail too! idk how the hole in the ceiling ever worked (like, what’s up there?) it made for a pretty cool setting and i like to imagine the turts head up there and do some basking when it’s sunny out :)

out of all the bedrooms we see mikey’s the most. and it’s messy and chaotic but i love that it encapsulates his personality so much. the shark bitten surfboard (which has CIPES on it and is a cool lil reference to the fact that mikey’s va was/is a surfer!) the action figures, the posters on the wall. and you can’t see it in this screenshot but his bed is pirate themed, with a big ship wheel and a pirate flag which makes me wonder: did mikey go through a pirate phase as a kid? anywho, his room is cool and it makes sense they hung out in here the most out of the other rooms

raph’s room is the only other turtle bedroom we got to see (we were robbed!) but again, it totally frames his personality perfectly. i like his tiger bedsheets and the posters on the wall. as one drum player to another, i like that raph has a decent looking set in his room. i wonder if splinter got it all together or managed to collect it piece by piece to give to him? raph’s room is cool and i love the design :-) im thinking that stack above his bed is perhaps comics? as he seems to have a good collection he’s always reading through? also! paint supplies! raph 100% spray paints the sewers in his free time. the cinder block shelf is also another nice touch - such a scrappy room but it works! they make do and i love it :)

THE KITCHEN IS MY FAVOURITE !! not sure why it’s actually here and how it’s functioning but i imagine donnie hooked it all up and got it working. you can’t see it here but they have a big DINER OPEN sign over the oven which is cute. i just imagine splinter searching dumps and alleyways for things for their home aside the essentials. him seeing that and bringing it home for their little kitchen is a nice thought. i like the gumball machines - i don’t think they ever use them but it’s just a cool background touch. obviously their home isn’t gonna be filled with a lot of stuff, so their kitchen is somewhat bare but seeing them hang around the makeshift table is such a family thing to do, i like that it translates to mutant families too :)

and the lab !!! they probably spend the most time in here :) this is donnie’s space and you can see that so clearly. i always enjoyed the human, rat and turtle posters on the wall - i imagine donnie either printed them out somehow or ripped them out of a book or magazine and poured over them for hours just studying them all. he also has been shown to have a bunch of framed photos of him and his brothers and splinter and their friends. it’s just really cute. the algae pool is also really cool and i wish they used that more. all of his inventions being scraped together bits and bobs that somehow work is so cool. donnie is clearly always the smart one in each iteration, but in 2012 he literally made everything from trash and old kraang parts (remember he doubted himself because of that? in the space arc? like, boy, that makes you even MORE smarter cos that’s impressive as hell!)

ANYWAY! i could ramble on about the design for the lair forever and ever (and complain about the lack of donnie and leo’s room) but i won’t hijack this post any longer than i already have so i’ll just leave it at that :) thanks to the 2012 design team that made their little underground home feel so alive !!

This might've been said before, but I just gotta say:

I love the vibe Tmnt 2012 is giving off.

Especially when it comes to the lair and Donnies inventions/gadgets. Everything looks makeshift, but it has its own beautiful charme. Since they cannot show their faces to the city of New York, they have to grab old thrown-out devices and use trash and old spare material to make furniture and gadgets and it's just so realistic, while looking amazing all the same. Like, what do you expect from them, in such a situation?

The lair is easily one of my favorite fictional headquarters ever. Like yes, it's an abandoned subway station, but it still looks homey in my opinion. Not gonna lie, I would instantly feel at home if I visited. The family tried to make it cozy to the best of their abilities and I think they truly succeeded.

Whatever that kitchen table was in its former life, it now serves its purpose as a table and it looks amazing as it does so.

And the bedrooms?? I love them so much?? So makeshift, so beautiful. And don't get me started on Donnies lab, because I am obsessed with the way it looks. Like yeah, maybe the lair is lacking some color, but what do you expect from a family with limited abilities in interior design? It's truly realistic looking in the coolest way and I cannot stop talking about it.

Although I probably should.

Also Donnies inventions. The Shellraiser has to be my favorite fictional vehicle ever.

The cool graffiti on the outer shell?? Its ability to drive on train tracks and the street?? THE DAMN TRASH CANNON?? THE MANHOLE COVER CANNON???? They literally grabbed trash, compressed it and used it as a weapon. Donnie came up with this. Donnie drew blueprints for this thing and then built it. This man can build functioning vehicles and devices from trash.

The most impressive thing? He taught all of this himself. All of his knowledge probably comes from books and experience and later on certainly also from the internet. He's too powerful and he deserves credit for this.

Sorry, I just wanted to ramble about the 2012 gadgets and lair for a bit. I love the makeshift-ness of it all. I love how you can truly see, that the furniture is old and used. It gives the show the true Tmnt charme. It's the type of lair you'd expect some mutant turtles and their rat father to live in.

I'm not the best at explaining things, so I hope you get the point, lmao.

[folkloreguk]

🍒Cherry Ice Cream🍒

A/N: Happy July! I planned this almost a year ago and finally got around to writing it...I hope you like it! As always, I appreaciate feedback a lot! Hope everyone has a lovely day <3

pairing: optional bias (male) x reader (gn)

words: ~ 3.7 k

genre: fluff, comedy, lifeguard!bias, reader is the most awkward and chaotic person ever (are we at the public pool or the circus?? seriously I’m so second hand embarrassed for her lmao), bias is the hottest man in existence, the universe has something against the reader apparently (rip)

PART 2 (nsfw, both parts can be read independently)

You approached the front entrance of the public swimming pool. Everything was still going by plan. Ever since the weather had gotten warmer, you’d had swimming on your mind. And every single person in your life had been made aware of it. Despite the friendly asking and the occasional begging, you still hadn’t found anyone to accompany you to the public swimming pool. You had heard all the reasons: Work, already planned vacations, a sick pet, a hatred of water, a hatred of people, you name it. After all the searching you had come to the conclusion that you were tired of waiting. Nothing could possibly rob you of your excitement about swimming pools. You’d go alone and have a wonderful time. It would be a relaxing day with loads of time just for you. So you had told yourself. But let’s face it, nothing could have prepared you for the utter chaos you were about to walk into.

It began before you had even set both feet into the facility. Your steps were light, and you beamed, ready to enter after you had paid. The strap of your sports bag had caught in the turnstile in the entrance area. Stubborn as you were, you yanked on it, instead of turning around and manually freeing the fabric from the steel contraption. You had put your entire weight on the line, tugging and pulling, when the strap finally came loose from the turnstile. As expected from such antics, you tripped and struggled in your flip-flops, blundering into the compound like a baby giraffe walking for the first time. By the time you tried to compose yourself to look cool and relaxed after such a mistake, you noticed him.

He, who looked like a Greek god blessing you with a visit on earth. He was all tan skin, red life-guard swim trunks, perfectly sculped shoulders, pushed back hair, a smile that put the sun to shame and sunglasses sitting on top of his head. Instantly you thanked yourself for not seriously injuring yourself. The young godman crossed the lawn, presumably to take his seat by the pool, watching out for the visitors. Only he made it look like he was strutting on a runway at Paris fashion week. All you could do was pray that he hadn’t seen you entering his workplace headfirst like some impatient six-year-old.

As people passed you, you realized you were standing in the same spot where you had almost fallen a minute ago. Manifesting that this was just the silly beginning to a perfect day, you paraded into the shaded grassy area to find a spot to set up your things. Countless groups of friends, families, and lone visitors like yourself had already settled down, but you managed to find a fine spot. It was the superb balance between sunny and shady and not too far from the swimming pools and water slides. In seconds you had shed off your clothes to reveal your swimsuit underneath. Although you could barely keep yourself waiting, you decided it was best to stay there a short while before you threw yourself into the waves. Just until the sunscreen had absorbed into your skin. Meanwhile, you would unpack the catchy book you had recently begun to read.

Now and then you raised your head and peeked at the cute lifeguard. You seriously had no intentions of coming across like a creep, but you couldn’t stop yourself. The way he patrolled the side of the large pool had more coolness than the prettiest shot of a hot movie star in a film. You allowed yourself a few seconds, then you’d go back to your novel. The sounds of summer floated through the air – children laughing, water splashing, birds chirping above you – and the scent of the sunscreen catapulted you straight on cloud 9. It felt like your own small piece of paradise. Little did you know, the universe had so much more in store for you.

You hadn’t been buried in your book for even 10 minutes when a group of kids ran by. They were passing a water ball from one to the other and giggling uncontrollably. You saw it coming in your peripheral vision but had no time to react. As they had reached your level, one of them punched the ball especially hard. And instead of catching it, the dark blue ball bounced off one child’s hands and straight into the side of your face. It knocked your sunglasses off the bridge of your nose, but more importantly gave you the fright of your life. You dropped your book while the children’s mother scolded them from the side. After the initial surprise you couldn’t accept their apologies quickly enough. Anything if it could spare you from even more attention from random guests around you. Impulsively, your eyes searched for the cute lifeguard. But he was looking into the opposite direction. At least fate had saved you from embarrassing you in front of him. The last thing you wanted was to look like more of a clown than you had when entering the facility earlier. But against your expectations, the train of unfortunate events was only beginning.

Surely things would be more peaceful in the water, you had thought. When you finally entered the cool pool, it felt like heaven on earth. Fearing a case of recurrence, you avoided the shallower areas, where the children crowded and went straight for the deeper waters. Finally experiencing some form of relaxation, you swam and dived a few laps around the pool. Now and then you caught a glimpse of the lifeguard on the far end of the pool. Just to make sure he was still there. Just to make sure he’s still as handsome as when you first spotted him. And you weren’t disappointed. Gesturing kindly, he helped an elderly woman find directions to the restaurant on the far end of the site. From up closer, his smile and his jaw were even prettier – even though it had seemed impossible for him to become even more perfect.

After a while, your limbs became tired and you retracted into less busy waters, close to the exit and entrance area of the swimming pool. As you paddled your way through bodies, a bug startled you. It had by all appearances chosen you as its victim, as it took direct flight into your face. Even when you swat it away and turned around to change directions, it kept chasing you and only you. Like some crazy, obsessed stalker, it followed you to the edge of the pool. Eventually, you became tired of running and turned to it. If some random flying beetle wanted to fight you, so be it. To the untrained eye, you might have appeared like a lunatic, fanning the air, and squinting against the bright sunlight. But it was war, and you would square up against the most annoying of bugs. After a while, you realized that you were waving off the air – no more bug in sight. Only then you noted the little girl laughing in your direction from the poolside. You were way too mortified to turn into his direction at first, but when you found the lifeguard, he was conversing with one of his co-workers. Once again, you were safe.

Your next approach at a good time was the colorful waterslide close by. Certainly, these heights would not include micro-aggressive bugs. Instead, they included something far more unsettling. Considering there were toddlers going down the waterslide, you deemed it safe and fun. Your mind changed in the first sharp turn, when you tumbled over and hit your elbow from the sudden change of direction. Maybe you should have just stayed in the ring with the bug instead of choosing this more than violent escape. But it was too late. Once on the slide, you had to make it through to the finish line – more or less in one piece. Your grand finale composed of a semi-somersault off the edge of the waterslide into the pool. Although it wasn’t intentional, you still hoped it looked somewhat graceful to the audience at the bottom. Hint: No, it didn’t. You looked like a baby monkey that had been sent down a self-constructed-waterslide in someone’s backyard. It was a disaster.

Feeling over-heated and exhausted from the sun and your embarrassing antics, you found a drinking fountain by the showers to refresh yourself. Patiently, you waited in the short line until it was your turn. As fate wanted it, the next messy incident wasn’t long in the coming. In fact, it only took four sips of water before you accidentally inhaled some of it. You stepped back, choking, coughing, and gasping for air all at once. A helpful woman showed mercy with you and your awkward behavior and softly pat your back. “Are you okay, dear?” she asked. Unable to speak just yet, you smiled and nodded gratefully. Great. Maybe you should add “clown” onto your previous professions in your CT. By now, half the visitors probably knew who you were – a walking safety hazard to yourself.

After retreating to your bath towel set-up in the shade for a while, you had almost found new hope that the universe wasn’t against you that day. You managed to lie there, for a whole hour, without any issues. But then, slowly, another idea crept up on you. After all, what was summer without ice cream? By chance, you happened to know the little ice cream truck next to the yellow waterslide sold your favorite brand of ice lolly. So off you went, money in hands and wild determination in your head. The visual of the handsome lifeguard lingered in your mind even after you had passed the chair he was sitting on by the poolside. You acquired your ice lolly successfully and ripped the wrapper right away. It tasted like summer in food format, and you reveled in the cold treat for a while, as you strolled back in the direction of your bath towel.

Fully aware that you would have to walk by the insanely cute lifeguard again, you tried your best to look cool, next to the large pool. In your imagination, you were glowing in the sun, hair slightly flowing in the warm breeze and steps bouncing happily. You were the personification of summer bloom and radiating everything good about the season. For a moment, you closed your eyes and actually indulged in the warmth on your face. That was when the next mishap struck.

You didn’t even understand what was happening at first. Someone accidentally bumped into you – or did you bump into them? Upon the impact, you opened your eyes. Your ice-cream had vanished from your hands. Turns out, you had dropped it and it had landed only two feet from you. Out of balance, you stumbled ahead even after the impact. And of course, only a second later your foot stepped directly onto the ice lolly. Inevitably, you skidded and struggled to stay on your feet by means of flinging and waving your arms in the air. As if you were some stranger, trying to attract the attention of an aircraft whilst stranded on a desert island. One thing was for sure, you had everyone’s observance tied to you. With an involuntary but comedic performance of theatrical extent, you fell and hit the water surface.

The cool hit you so suddenly, you had swallowed a gulp of water before your instincts had time to set in. Quickly, your limbs began paddling to get you back to the surface. At that instant, a pair of arms suddenly linked under your armpits and swooped you up from underwater. Your brain processed what was going on. Without a doubt, someone had jumped after you and was pulling you out of the water. Stubbornly, you tried to avoid the idea of the cute lifeguard helping you out. Christ, that would really be the peak of all your embarrassing moments. No, it was probably the person you had run into, or someone who had already been in the water.

When you were placed by the poolside and blinked against the blending sun, your worst concerns came to pass. There he was, so close you could have touched his face. His worried expression changed when you opened your eyes, and he smiled, relieved. “Is everything alright?” he asked. You’d think this would make you into the most shamefaced person on the planet. And yet, all you could wonder was how two people’s genes could combine so flawlessly, so beautifully, to create such a man. When he got no answer from your moonstruck figure, he furrowed his eyebrows in alarm.

“Oh my- my god,” you stammered. “Yes! I’m fine, I’m sorry!”

You weren’t sure why you were apologizing. For worrying him? For inconveniencing him? For causing another scene? Either way, he grinned, and you felt your cheeks heat up terribly. You had to get away from there before something cringy came out of your mouth. Although you weren’t sure there was any way you could have made this more awkward than it already was.

“Make sure you have no injuries, okay?” he asked, helping you up. “If you need any medical assistance, just let me or one of the other lifeguards know.”

“Um…okay,” you said. Wow. That was no way to flirt with the most attractive person you had ever met. With all this drama you had gone through on that day, the universe could have at least blessed you with a romantic, your-life-savior-realizes-he-just-met-the-love-of-his-life moment. But no. The movies really were one massive hoax.

“It’s probably best you take a little break from the surprise, before you go back into the water,” he advised you. “And don’t hesitate to ask, if you need any more help.”

If only he knew how many times you had already tried to take a break from the surprise after everything on that day. You stood on your feet safely but felt like a cat that had fallen into the bathtub. At last, you managed a smile in the lifeguard’s direction. “Thank you.”

Funny enough, the stares people gave you bothered you only slightly as you walked back to your spot under the trees. Maybe you had used up all your embarrassment for the day. Nothing could intimidate you anymore. That meant, whatever happened from now on, it couldn’t get worse. Somehow after the pinnacle of chaos, you finally felt some inner tranquility. You went back to your novel, now and then keeping an eye out for potential water balls coming your way. But everything was calm. As time went on, you lost yourself completely in the story line and forgot about everything around you. Maybe this was all meant to happen. Perhaps it was a message, that you should have waited for your family to have a free day, or for your friend to come back from vacation. Would the same things have happened? There was no way to tell. Just as you reached a specifically exciting scene in the novel, a figure suddenly appeared in front of you. You couldn’t believe your eyes.

“Hey,” the handsome lifeguard stood there, smiling kindly. Wide-eyed, you straightened up and greeted him shyly.

“I couldn’t help but notice how happy you were about that ice cream earlier,” he said. “But then you…lost your ice cream.”

“What an interesting way of saying I stomped on it and made an absolute fool of myself,” you smirked. He chuckled.

“However you want to put it, I thought maybe you could use some cheering up,” he went on. “So I got you a new one.”

He pulled two ice-lollies from behind his back. “One for you, one for me.”

You couldn’t believe your ears. “You bought me this? I don’t want to sound rude… but aren’t you supposed to be looking out for the next victim to repeat my foolery?”

“I’m on my break,” he laughed. His eyes crinkled up cutely when he smiled, and it only made your stomach flutter more. “If you want me to leave, I will. I’m not trying to be weird or obtruding. Just making sure you’re okay, because I noticed you’re here alone.”

“Oh. No! Feel free to stay here for as long as you want!” you said, and now maybe you were the one sounding obtrusive. You scooted over and let him take a spot on your bathmat. You thanked him for the ice cream and gleefully unwrapped it. “My friends and family weren’t available today. But I really, really wanted to come here today. Maybe not my brightest idea.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve seen way worse plunges than yours. You were lucky, really. You got away with a small shock and nothing more. It was pretty impressive, actually.”

“I’m glad I have entertaining qualities, at least.”

“I’m just messing with you,” he laughed. “I’m glad you’re fine. This place gets a little wild during the afternoon, especially on weekends.”

“You don’t say,” you chuckled.

“I recommend coming here in the mornings or late evenings, if you want a little more peace and quiet.”

“Thanks, I’ll probably consider it. Do you work here full time?” you asked.

“No, this is just a summer job,” he said. “It’s great. I get to swim for free and be outside a lot. Not to mention this is one of my favorite places in town.”

“You love swimming too?” you asked and regretted it right away. A lifeguard who hated swimming made no sense, after all. But he didn’t seem to think your words were silly.

“I do! I come here a lot to swim, when it’s not as busy and I don’t have to work,” he said. The thought of seeing him again when you came back in a few days – which you already knew you would – made you feel some sort of way. You had been embarrassed, but his sweet words had appeased you. You could definitely get used to seeing his face all summer long. The two of you talked for some time, while you both finished your ice cream. You learned his name, which was just as beautiful as its owner, and that he thought you had actually looked pretty cute (!) when you fell into the pool. You swore he wasn’t even real. Perhaps he was merely a hallucination, a product of your imagination, to cheer yourself up after your messy day. Either way, your head was up in the clouds as long as he was sitting there, next to you, with his perfect shoulders and charming voice. Soon, he had to excuse himself, though. His break was over and as he had put it, he needed to prevent any more ice cream-murders from happening.

After your conversation, the universe had apparently shifted in your favor. You spent the entire rest of your day without any more misfortunes. Like you had talked to a lucky charm who had done miracles for you, you had a fantastic time. You were even brave enough to face a few more go’s down the ever-so-threatening waterslide. As it got later, more people went home, and just as he had predicted, things calmed down. And you were convinced you would stay until the bitter end. Only when a female voice announced over the speakers that the swimming pool would close in 30 minutes, you slowly started to pack up your things.

As you approached the exit, you scanned the area for your favorite lifeguard. But he was nowhere to be found. You assumed he had already finished his shift and gone home. But as luck would have it, as you neared the bicycle stands to retrieve your bike, you saw him already there. His eyes beamed when he noticed you.

“Wow, you held out a long time,” he said. “Had fun?”

“I did,” you said. You could only be grateful your ice-cream massacre was the sole of your antics he had witnessed that afternoon. Who knew how he would look at you if he had experienced your full chaotic capacity? “Thank you again, for making sure I was fine. And for the ice cream.”

“It was no big deal,” he said. “It’s what I’m here for.”

“To buy random girls ice cream?” you teased.

“No, only the special ones get the ice cream.”

“Define special.”

“To be honest? I was genuinely concerned you would feel down. I’ve seen you almost trip over when you first came in, you got hit in the face by a ball, I’ve witnessed your little quarrel with that bug and your somersault from the waterslide looked pretty rough. After all that you choked on water and then ended up falling into the pool and losing your ice cream. I supposed you could need some serious cheering up.”

Oh my god. If only you could have opened a portal straight to hell, you would have taken the chance on the spot. All this time he had been watching you? It couldn’t get more mortifying than this.

“Sorry, I sound like some creepy stalker,” he said. “I didn’t mean to stare. It’s just you-“

“I looked like a clown in a neon suit?”

“You’re really pretty,” he said. Your cheeks warmed up and you could have yelled out loud.

“But you have to admit, at least the clown part is true.”

“Maybe,” he joked. “Don’t be embarrassed. I thought you were – are – adorable.”

“Thank you,” you managed to say. What the hell were you doing? The most handsome guy was complimenting you. You had to take your chance. “Maybe sometime I could buy you some ice cream too? If you feel like it-“

“I’d love that,” he smiled. It was only the beginning of summer, but it was a glorious one. You already knew it could only get better. Instead of cursing the universe, you had to say your thank you’s now. Without your string of bad luck, things would have never led this way. Perhaps fortune was on your side, after all.

[yeah-klave]

Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow

Summary: Klaus and Dave visit the happiest place on earth.

A/N: Dave-didn’t-die!AU. Pure fluff.

Word length: 1.2k

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything.

*******************************************

“So, what’s the plan then?”

“What makes you think I have a plan?” Dave said lightly, turning to Klaus who was practically vibrating with excitement on the purple plastic seat next to him.

Klaus huffed an exhalation of disbelief, rolling his eyes. “Oh, please, don’t play coy,” he grinned. “I’ve seen you with your charts and your spreadsheets and your maps. Of course you’ve made us a plan. Come on, give it up buttercup!”

Dave grinned. “Okay, yeah,” he admitted, “I have made us a plan.” Dave paused, his eyes flicking over Klaus’ face. “Would it be unforgivable nerdy of me to admit I have a screenshot of an Excel itinerary saved on my phone?”

Klaus looked back at Dave fondly, the corners of his eyes crinkling with warmth and affection. “Nope,” he said firmly. “Totally on brand. I’m down. Now, come on, let’s see!”

Dave pulled his phone out of his pocket and pulled up an image of a color-coded grid with times and notes highlighted.

“Well,” he said. “I’ve come up with a rough outline that factors in showtimes, FastPasses and dining reservations, you can see I’ve highlighted these yellow here,” he pointed at the screen. “I’ve also planned a route” he pulled a colorful map out of his pocket, unfolded it in his lap and pointed out a roughly clockwise route, “which is as much of a complete circuit as possible, without too much zipping from one side of the park to the other. It doesn’t look like these places are designed so you can get anywhere quickly!” He paused and referred back to the image on his phone. “I thought we could start by grabbing some breakfast from Main Street Bakery, which is here,” he pointed at the map, “and then head off in this direction and hit up the classics Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean and Big Thunder Mountain and then I’ve got us FastPasses to ride Splash Mountain mid-morning. Then I think we should head over to Liberty Square, here,” his finger indicated the position on the map, “and go on the Haunted Mansion and the Liberty Square Riverboat. It’s probably going to be about lunchtime by then, so I suggest getting something to eat in Columbia Harbour House – I’ve read their salmon and couscous is great – and then that leaves us all afternoon to do Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. I’ve got us FastPasses for Peter Pan and –”

“Hang on,” Klaus interrupted, “you’ve got us queue jumps for a kid’s ride?”

“Firstly, it’s not a kid’s ride just because it’s slow,” Dave said. “And secondly, I’ve heard the wait time for that ride gets ridiculously long. So yeah, I have.”

“Oh, okay,” Klaus nodded. “So what next?”

“Well, depending on wait times, there’s Barnstormer, Mine Train, it’s a small world… and I’d love to see Mickey’s PhilharMagic, which is this cute, multi-sensory show.”

“That sounds cool,” Klaus agreed, “Yeah, let’s do that.”

“And then in Tomorrowland there’s Space Mountain – I’ve got us FastPasses for that. And Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress is an absolute must! Then I’ve got us a reservation at Be Our Guest for dinner, the photos online for that place look spectacular – you can eat in the Beast’s ballroom or even the West Wing. You order your food in one place, take a seat somewhere and then the food gets brought to you as if by magic! Although I think they track you with some kind of GPS rose. Then in the evening there’s the Happily Ever After fireworks – I think we should get a spot in front of the castle to watch them. I mean,” he paused, “there’s also loads more we could do too, and it’s going to depend on wait times and things, but I thought this was a good starting point at least…” He trailed off, pouring again over the map and his itinerary.

Klaus studied Dave’s face. “Hey Dave,” he said gently, taking hold of Dave’s hand, “I’m so lucky to have you.” Dave looked up, smiled and squeezed Klaus’ fingers. For a moment they just gazed into each other’s eyes.

“Just think,” Klaus laughed, “without you I’d have just been pinballing all over the place randomly and probably missing loads!”

“Yeah,” Dave smiled, “but I’m sure you’d still have had a chaotically wonderful time.”

“Only if I was with you,” Klaus said simply, reaching out and booping Dave gently on the nose.

Suddenly overhead a fanfare started playing through the speakers and Klaus twisted in his seat quickly, peering out of the window and desperately trying to catch a first glimpse.

The bus finally pulled up. “Thank you,” they both said as they stepped through the front doors.

“Have a magical day,” they heard, as the doors closed behind them.

As they stepped out of the air conditioning, a wall of hot air hit them.

“How can it be this hot, this early?” Dave pulled at the collar of his tee.

“Dave, we survived the wet heat of the Vietnamese jungle,” Klaus grinned. “We can handle Florida!”

“Yeah,” Dave said, “but I hate to think what this humidity is going to do to our curls.”

“That I’ll give you,” Klaus nodded, scrunching his nose and pulling a face. “Come on,” he took hold of Dave hand again and eagerly pulled him in the direction the other guests were walking.

“Woah,” Dave whistled, “this looks as intense as airport security!”

After having their bags checked, they scanned their MagicBands and fingerprints at the turnstiles and entered the Magic Kingdom park for the very first time.

Hand in hand, they walked under the train station and out into Mainstreet USA. Klaus was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet. After another few steps they both stopped and stood in awestruck wonder.

“Woah,” Klaus breathed.

“Yeah,” Dave agreed. “Just, yeah... wow.”

“There it is” Klaus said. He tore his eyes away from Cinderella’s Castle and turned to Dave, his huge, dark-rimmed eyes twinkling. “We’re actually here, Dave. Finally!”

“Yeah,” Dave breathed, looking back at Klaus with pure affection. “It’s even more wonderful than I imagined.”

Their faces split into matching grins. Dave reached out, gently cupped Klaus’ cheek in his large hand and – at eight o’clock in the morning, at the bottom of Main Street USA, looking up towards Cinderella’s Castle, in the Magic Kingdom, the happiest place on earth – Dave leaned forwards and kissed the love of his life.

“What was that for?” Klaus murmured into the space between them.

“Oh, you know,” Dave said quietly, supressing a smile, “all princesses deserve a True Love’s kiss.”

“Oh, you Disney geek!” Klaus grinned, rolling his eyes. “I suppose you think that makes you Prince Charming?” But he pulled Dave towards him and grasped him in a fierce hug, pressing his cheek into Dave’s neck.

When they pulled apart, Dave could see Klaus’ eyes were shining a little.

“Right,” Dave said, his voice firm and determined, “are you ready to have the most magical day of your life?”

Klaus smiled and leaned forwards to rub the tips of their noses together briefly. “Every day with you is magical,” he said, “but let’s have this one in Disney World.”

Then, hand in hand, they turned, took a deep breath that smelled like jasmine and butter popcorn and happiness, and stepped into a magical kingdom of possibilities. Their very own great big beautiful tomorrow.

[iamtheprotagoneil]

im sure youve talked about this before but the fact that the protagonist had to say goodbye to neil twice - one we see in the movie, and the other in the future when he sends him back for the sator mission - AND the fact that when he sends neil to help the protagonist in the past the future!protagonist KNOWS he is essentially sending neil to his death....... it is all just very ouch

yeah, i probably have mentioned it once or twice, but you know what i haven’t talked about? the fact that maybe, the goodbye they got in the movie was the only one.

listen, i’ve talked lots about how sad the protagonist (in the future) would be when he had to send neil on this mission that would be his last. i’ve also talked lots about how sad neil would be to leave the protagonist behind to go to the past and save the world (and the protagonist’s life in the process). however, i don’t think i’ve ever talked about how, perhaps, they never got to do that. i’ve never talked about how, maybe, the protagonist never got to send neil away, and neil never got to say goodbye before he had to leave for the past.

So, let’s consider: The Protagonist died before it was time to send Neil away for the Sator mission.

It’s not too out of the left field, right? They lead a very dangerous life. Death was always around the corner, just standing in the shadow, waiting for them to make a mistake – for their luck to finally run out – so it could come out and pounce. And what if it did, when it was still much too soon?

Perhaps, it went down like this: in a flash, so fast that none of them had the time to react. One moment The Protagonist was there, and the next, in just a blink of an eye, he was on the ground, unmoving. Perhaps, it was a gunshot, a sharp/blunt object struck just at the right angle, that delivered the fatal blow and brought him down quick.

Neil was on him in an instant, abandoning his position in order to run over to his Protagonist. Neil tried shake him awake but he was unresponsive; the mask on his face – covered in dust and blood – did a very good job of obscuring his features. Neil couldn’t tell if his eyes were open or not. Neil kept calling his name, kept trying to rouse him to consciousness but nothing happened.

Still, they were in an active battle field. A teammate pulled Neil up by the arm, practically dragging him away from The Protagonist’s body and into the escape vehicle. Neil sat where he was placed in the backseat, feeling so numb and detached from the situation that he thought it might have been a dream. It must have been a dream, because this couldn’t be happening. The Protagonist couldn’t be gone. He was the mastermind, after all; the one who held all the information about the past, the present, the future. He couldn’t just be gone because—Neil just couldn’t wrap his head around it.

Back at the base, Neil got angry. He started going off at the person who had pulled him away, screaming about how could they just leave their teammate behind like that. They would let him, seeing the desperation behind Neil’s eyes. They’ve all heard the rumors about The Protagonist and Neil – didn’t need confirmation to know it was true because they witnessed it pretty much every day – so they knew what he was going through.

Finally, Neil’s anger ran dry. He choked, came to a sudden standstill as the gravity of situation struck him once again, no way to deny it. They wouldn’t be able to help him if they brought him back, and they needed to get out quick. They couldn’t risk the rest of the team for just one person. Neil knew all this, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.

He apologized to the teammate, who nodded and told him to go home and get some rest. Neil obeyed, grateful for the instructions because everything was so chaotic right now, in his mind, he wouldn’t have known what to do if left to his own devices. So Neil left, took their his car and returned home, the place he shared used to share with The Protagonist.

It was empty, expectedly, when he walked through the door, and the dread in his stomach grew, grew, and grew with all the intentions to eat him alive. He laid himself down the bed, unable to hold back tears because fuck, he just witnessed the love of his life died in front of him. He’d just seen it; it was all too real and not at the same time. He ran the scene back in mind, seeing himself in third person and thought of it as a stimulation only – something that he could return to and change. But, what’s happened, happened. It would always go down like that, Neil knew this. Neil had lived this life for so many years now, it was ingrained in his brain, but god, it was still such a painful truth to swallow.

 Or, maybe, it went like this: Neil got to The Protagonist just as the wound was inflicted, catching him on the way down. The Protagonist looked up at Neil, trying to come up with words but the wound took all of his breath away and Neil wept, begged for him to stay, don’t go just yet, they could get help, please. (You’re going to die in your best friend’s arms...)

 Or, possibly, it went like this: They managed to get The Protagonist back to home base. The wound wasn’t a fatal blow, and there might be a chance. Neil got to him just in time to stop the open wound from bleeding, pressing his hand to it as he barked orders for his team to call in the cavalry.

They got out of there, but barely, with The Protagonist on a stretcher, holding onto his life by the skin of his teeth. Neil’s eyes never left him, as the medics worked on him. It killed him not to come over and touch, to check for himself that The Protagonist was fine, would be fine, that he was going to get through this. But, he didn’t want to get in the way; he knew despite his medical trainings, he was still no experts compared to the ones who were working their asses out to keep his Protagonist alive right now.

But, the medics’ expressions were grim. They didn’t say anything, and the air in the escape vehicle was thick and suffocating. No one spoke; no one made a move. Most of them were still trying to catch their breath, while the rest was just like Neil, biting their nails and hoping for The Protagonist’s survival. They might not be as close to the man as Neil was, but he was still their boss – their teammate – and it was never a good feeling to see one of them go down.

When they finally return to base, they wheeled The Protagonist off into the operating room. Neil could do nothing but stand on the other side of the glass panel and watch, hands clenched in fists, thoughts running a marathon in his mind – all screaming, praying, begging for this to not be the end. But, that’s just not how this story goes (this time around). No, in this one, the medics came out with bad news to give, and Neil’s entire world crumbled.

 Or, it could also go like this: Neil didn’t go on that mission with The Protagonist and he only got to hear about it after the fact. He’d only get the chance to react to the news of it. The cup of coffee he was holding in his hand got dropped to the ground, and Neil’s was entirely unbothered by it. He wasn’t even aware, despite the deafening sound of glass breaking on hard wood.

“No,” he said, because it wasn’t true. He wouldn’t accept it. But, the look on the messenger’s face was serious, apologetic, and Neil felt like he couldn’t breathe, felt like all the air had been knocked out from his chest. It felt like all the light in Neil’s life had been put out, and he was drowned in darkness, and kept on drowning, sinking down, down, and down.

 It would take him a while – a long while – to recover. He went on more missions than he should, just to have something to occupy his time and, more importantly, mind. His superiors – the people who have now taken over The Protagonist’s place – would bench him but his results never faltered. He was trained by the best of them, after all, so how could they ever doubt him?

Then, later, when the time finally came, Neil would receive a file from his handler. His heart would jump as he opened it up and found The Protagonist’s handwriting, a note specified who this particular file should be delivered to and when. Neil would trace his fingers over it, to feel some residue of The Protagonist against his skin, then bite his lip until it bled, and read on.

Inside the file included the details of the mission he could not turn down – his very last one. He wasn’t going to turn it down, anyway, even if he could. There was nothing left for him in his present; in this timeline where The Protagonist was no longer. (What was a story without a protagonist, anyway?)

So, Neil accepted the mission in stride, knowing the he would never come back to this time again. He walked into the turnstile with determination in his eyes and shoulders squared, his team right by his side. The tenet team stationed in the past greeted them as they walked out; mission brief ready to fire off the moment every one of them settled.

 Meeting The Protagonist again was like having cold water poured over Neil’s head. It was unforgiving, devastating and a relief all the same. Like coming home to find the place all different, not yours any more, but some remnants of when it was were still there; you could feel it in your bones, but it wasn’t yours to claim.

At the opera house, Neil didn’t have the chance – couldn’t risk it – to stop and really take The Protagonist in, but there was no denying that it was him. Then, later, at the yacht club in Mumbai, Neil watched The Protagonist strut in with that same confident swagger Neil had missed so much. Neil’s heart did a tumble, a cartwheel, then crashed and burned at the bottom of his stomach.

It hurt like hell to see the love of your life again, after months of pushing aside the grief you should have taken the time to acknowledge if not process. It was like coming home again, knowing that this home wasn’t yours anymore. He was The Protagonist but he wasn’t Neil’s Protagonist. His face looked the same, if younger. His voice still sent a thrill down Neil’s vein, but left his mouth without any affection. His smile still made Neil’s heart flutter endlessly, still made Neil wanted to taste under his lips, but Neil knew he couldn’t. All the same, but so different, so far out of reach.

It hurt, too, to know what was waiting for The Protagonist – this Protagonist – in the future. Neil looked at him, and saw what was, essentially, a dead man walking. Still, Neil knew he couldn’t say anything, couldn’t warn him about the fate reality that was waiting for him in the distant future. Neil could say it was because of that goddamn ignorance policy, but honestly, he was just a coward.

The end of The Protagonist might have been written in stone, but so was his middle – the part where he met, recruited, befriended, then fell in love with Neil. Neil didn’t want to lose that; too much of a coward to think about what life would have been like if The Protagonist hadn’t approached him when he did; hadn’t done all the things with Neil like he did.

So, Neil took his cowardice and turned it into fuel. Made it the one thing that kept him going through this entire mission. What’s happened, happened. It wasn’t an excuse to do nothing, he told himself.

Then, he told The Protagonist as well, repeating it aloud like a mantra. He knew what was waiting for him once that chopper landed and he inverted, for the last time. It wasn’t hard to guess based on the pained expression on The Protagonist’s face.

So, Neil said goodbye to this Protagonist like he never did get the chance to his own. He said it was the end of a beautiful friendship because it was beautiful, and for him, with this Protagonist, friendship was all they shared. Home, but not Neil’s, yet. He promised The Protagonist as much, “We’ll get up to some stuff. You’ll love it,” because Neil knew he would. Neil had lived it with him, after all.

Their endings might not have aligned, but there would always be a beginning for them. In the past, in the future, all the same. They would meet again, unofficially, officially; in this life, in the next one; it didn’t matter. Their lives were intertwined, threads in red color braided together by reality itself.

Neil took comfort in that and smiled when he promised to see The Protagonist at the beginning. For now, though, he walked with resolution in his eyes and shoulders relaxed, finally processing his grief. Acceptance was the last step, and he took it in stride as he walked into the turnstile and returned to the hypocenter, all ready to finally return home, the one that was his; to reunite with his Protagonist once again.

[thistreasurehunter]

Kings and Castles

Happy Birthday @playitaagain!  

I am fully aware that this fic will probably only be of interest to one other person on the planet - if it can make her smile though, it’s totally worth it!

A/N: This occurs in the same universe as my ongoing series After the Rain, but is set several years in the future. However, it can be read as a stand-alone one-shot. All characters are aged 18+. 

Summary: Just a little snippet from a trip JJ and Pope have been really looking forward to.

Genre: Fluff.

Word length: 1k

Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the Outer Banks characters or settings.

*************************************************

“So, what’s the plan then?”

Pope smiled. “What makes you think I have a plan?” he said, turning to JJ who was practically vibrating with excitement on the purple plastic seat next to him.

JJ huffed out an exhalation of disbelief, rolling his eyes. “Oh, please, don’t start with that,” he grinned, “I’ve seen you with your charts and your spreadsheets and your maps. Of course you’ve made us a plan. Spill!”

Pope grinned even wider. “Okay, yeah,” he admitted, “I have made us a plan.” Pope paused, his eyes flicking over JJ’s face. “Would it be unforgivable nerdy of me to admit I have a screenshot of an Excel itinerary saved on my phone?”

JJ looked back at Pope fondly, the corners of his eyes crinkling with warmth and tenderness. “Nope,” he said firmly. “Totally on brand. I’m down. Now, come on, let’s see!”

Pope pulled his phone out of his pocket and pulled up an image of color-coded grid with times and notes highlighted.

“Well,” he said. “I’ve come up with a rough guide that factors in showtimes, FastPasses and dining reservations, you can see I’ve highlighted these yellow here,” he pointed at the screen. “I’ve also planned a route” he pulled a colorful map out of his pocket, unfolded it in his lap and pointed out a roughly clockwise route, “which is as much of a complete circuit as possible, without too much zipping from one side of the park to the other. It doesn’t look like these places are designed so you can get anywhere quickly!” He paused and referred back to the image on his phone. “I thought we could start by grabbing some breakfast from Main Street Bakery, which is here,” he pointed at the map, “and then head off in this direction and hit up the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean and Big Thunder Mountain and then I’ve got us FastPasses to ride Splash Mountain mid-morning. Then I think we should head over to Liberty Square, here,” his finger indicated the position on the map, “and go on the Haunted Mansion and the Liberty Square Riverboat. It’s probably going to be about lunchtime by then, so I suggest getting something to eat in Columbia Harbor House – I’ve read their salmon is great – and then that leaves us all afternoon to do Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. I’ve got us FastPasses for Peter Pan and –”

“Hang on,” JJ interrupted, “you’ve got us queue jumps for a kid’s ride?”

“Firstly, it’s not a kid’s ride just because it’s slow,” Pope said. “And secondly, I’ve heard the wait time for that ride gets ridiculously long. So yeah, I have.”

“Oh, okay,” JJ nodded, “so what next?”

“Well, depending on wait times, there’s Barnstormer, Mine Train, it’s a small world… and I’d love to see Mickey’s PhilharMagic, I read it’s a multi-sensory show.”

“That sounds cool,” JJ agreed, “Yeah, let’s do that.”

“And then in Tomorrowland there’s Space Mountain – I’ve got us FastPasses for that – and Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress is an absolute must! Then I’ve got us a reservation at Be Our Guest for dinner, the photos online for that place look spectacular. Then in the evening there’s the Happily Ever After fireworks – I think we should get a spot in front of the castle to watch them. I mean,” he paused, “there’s also loads more we could do too, and it’s going to depend on wait times and things, but I thought this was a good starting point at least…” He trailed off, pouring again over the map and his itinerary.

JJ studied Pope’s face. “Hey Pope,” he said gently, taking hold of Pope’s hand, “I’m so lucky to have you.” Pope looked up, smiled and squeezed JJ’s fingers. For a moment they just gazed into each other’s eyes.

Eventually JJ laughed, “Just think, without you I’d have just been pinballing all over the place randomly and probably missing loads!”

“Yeah,” Pope smiled, “but I’m sure you’d still have had a chaotically awesome time.”

“Only if I was with you,” JJ said simply.

Suddenly overhead a fanfare started playing through the speakers and JJ twisted in his seat quickly, peering out of the window and desperately trying to catch a first glimpse.

The bus finally pulled up. “Thank you,” they both said as they stepped through the front doors.

“Have a magical day,” they heard, as the doors closed behind them.

As they stepped out of the air conditioning, a wall of hot Floridian air hit them.

“How can it be this hot, this early?” Pope pulled at the collar of his tee.

“Dude, we’re from the OBX,” JJ grinned, “we can handle the heat!”

“Yeah,” Pope said, “but what about this humidity?”

“That I’ll give you,” JJ nodded. “Come on,” he took hold of Pope hand again and eagerly pulled him in the direction the other guests were walking.

“Woah,” Pope whistled, “this looks as intense as airport security!”

After having their bags checked, they scanned their MagicBands and fingerprints at the turnstiles and entered the Magic Kingdom park for the very first time.

Hand in hand, they walked under the train station and out into Mainstreet USA. After another few steps they both stopped and stood still in awestruck wonder.

“Woah,” JJ breathed.

“Yeah,” Pope agreed. “Just, yeah... wow.”

“There it is” JJ said. He tore his eyes away from Cinderella’s Castle and turned to Pope, his eyes twinkling “we’re actually here. Finally.”

“Yeah,” Pope breathed, looking back at JJ with pure affection. “It’s even more wonderful than I imagined.”

Their faces split into matching grins and they grasped each other in a fierce hug.

When they pulled apart, Pope could see JJ’s eyes were shining a little.

“Right,” Pope said, his voice firm and determined, “are you ready to have the most magical day of your life?”

JJ smiled and leaned forwards to press a quick kiss to Pope’s lips. “Every day with you is magical,” he said, “but let’s have this one in Disney World.”

Then, hand in hand, they turned, took a deep breath that smelled like jasmine and butter popcorn and happiness, and stepped into a magical kingdom of possibilities.

[bthenoise]

Here’s The Best of 2018 As Picked By Your Favorite Bands

Well everybody, we did it. In two short weeks, 2018 will be over and we will all have somehow survived yet another 365 days on this earth. Now instead of using this space to talk about how shitty of a year it has been (because trust us, we could certainly sound off right now) we’d instead like to use this opportunity to shine a light on some of the finest things to come out of 2018 -- you know, like best album, best song, best movie, etc.

Like we’ve done in years past, instead of pretending to be the hip tastemakers and trendy influences like other websites, we’ve completely turned our year-end best-of list over to the artists we cover on a daily basis -- because let’s face it, their opinions are the ones we really care about, right? 

Right.

So to check out what bands like Memphis May Fire, Fit For A King, 3oh!3, As It Is, Sylar and more have all been obsessing over for this past year, be sure to see below. We hope you love the final list as much as we do and we wish you all the most relaxing and positive holiday season.

Enjoy!

Best Album of 2018:

Matty Mullins of Memphis May Fire: Dan + Shay - Dan + Shay Ryan Kirby of Fit For A King: RITUALS - Deaf Havana  Nat Motte of 3oh!3: Chrome Neon Jesus - Teenage Wrist   Ira George of Movements: Technology - Don Broco     Cody Quistad of Wage War: Dan + Shay - Dan + Shay  Jay Forrest and Josh Brigham of Hopesfall: Honey - Robyn  Ben Langford-Biss of As It Is: Thank You for Today - Death Cab for Cutie  Jayden Panesso of Sylar: Beerbongs and Bentleys - Post Malone Tyler Riley of Gideon: If I Know Me - Morgan Wallen   Adrian Estrella of Assuming We Survive: Technology - Don Broco Palisades: Prequelle - Ghost  Matt Gravolin of Hellions: Stranger in the Alps - Phoebe Bridgers Calling All Captains’ Nick Malychuk & Luc Gauthier: Proper Dose - The Story So Far  Tyler Levenson of Afterlife: Welcome To The Neighbourhood - Boston Manor  Camm Knopp of Never Loved: Time & Space - Turnstile + Proper Dose - The Story So Far (it’s a tie sorry)  Patrick Hamilton of Vanish: Come Over When You’re Sober pt.2 - Lil Peep Vagrants: When The End Began - Silent Planet  Household: Nearer my God - Foxing Daniel Nelson of LIMBS: Bad Witch by Nine Inch Nails is the best album of the year in my opinion. I am heavily into Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ work and I just love that they went for a totally different sound and vibe with Bad Witch compared to all the NIN records prior. They blend modern jazz with industrial, chaotic synthscapes and it’s absolutely wild. 

Best Song of 2018:

Matty Mullins of Memphis May Fire: "Better Now" by Post Malone  Ryan Kirby of Fit For A King: “Hereafter” by Architects Nat Motte of 3oh!3: "Swallow" by Teenage Wrist  Ira George of Movements: “4Ever” by Clairo   Cody Quistad of Wage War: “Tequila” by Dan + Shay    Jay Forrest and Josh Brigham of Hopesfall: “Middle America” by Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks    Ben Langford-Biss of As It Is: “It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)” by The 1975  Jayden Panesso of Sylar: “SAD!” by XXXTentaction   Tyler Riley of Gideon: “Slow Burn” by Kacey Musgraves Adrian Estrella of Assuming We Survive: “Better Now” by Post Malone   Palisades: “Mantra” by Bring Me The Horizon  Matt Gravolin of Hellions: “Please Don’t Die” by Father John Misty   Calling All Captains’ Nick Malychuk & Luc Gauthier: “Bodybag” by LIL LOTUS feat. Coldhart  Tyler Levenson of Afterlife: “Mo Bamba” by Sheck Wes  Camm Knopp of Never Loved: “High Hopes” by Panic! At The Disco (big mood)  Patrick Hamilton of Vanish: “Lavender Bones” by Stand Atlantic  Vagrants: “Doomsday” by Architects  Household: “Keeping Up” by Microwave  Daniel Nelson of LIMBS: “On My Teeth” by Underoath. I don’t care what anyone says, they wrote a phenomenal record and knew they would get flak for it. They deserve all the recognition they have been getting because they have been working hard since the beginning. It was so sick to see them get a Grammy nomination too. That was essentially a big middle finger to all of their nay-sayers, whether they win or not. 

Best Music Video of 2018:

Matty Mullins of Memphis May Fire: “This Is America” by Childish Gambino   Ryan Kirby of Fit For A King: “Hereafter” by Architects  Nat Motte of 3oh!3: "New Light" by John Mayer   Ira George of Movements: “Say Something” by Justin Timberlake ft. Chris Stapleton  Cody Quistad of Wage War: “Hereafter” by Architects  Jay Forrest and Josh Brigham of Hopesfall: “Dark Speed” by Failure    Ben Langford-Biss of As It Is: “Sincerity is Scary” by The 1975  Jayden Panesso of Sylar: “SICKO MODE” by Travis Scott Tyler Riley of Gideon: “Aeon” by Crystal Lake  Adrian Estrella of Assuming We Survive: “This Is America” by Childish Gambino  Palisades: “SICKO MODE” by Travis Scott  Matt Gravolin of Hellions: “Sincerity is Scary” by The 1975    Calling All Captains’ Nick Malychuk & Luc Gauthier:  “This Is America” by Childish Gambino  Tyler Levenson of Afterlife:  “SICKO MODE” by Travis Scott  Camm Knopp of Never Loved: "New Light" by John Mayer     Patrick Hamilton of Vanish: “God Is A Woman” by Ariana Grande  Vagrants: “Rose Quartz/Fulton Street I” by La Dispute  Household: “thank u, next” by Ariana Grande  Daniel Nelson of LIMBS: Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” has gotta be THE best music video of this year. I have nothing but respect for Donald Glover and the way he presented controversial, political topics through all of the blunt, straight-forward imagery throughout that video. He’s never put out anything I haven’t enjoyed front to back. 

Most Underrated Album of 2018:

Matty Mullins of Memphis May Fire: Are You Even There At All? - Brent Walsh  Ryan Kirby of Fit For A King: Gray States EP - The Material Nat Motte of 3oh!3: Graffiti U - Keith Urban  Ira George of Movements: Man of The Woods - Justin Timberlake  Cody Quistad of Wage War: Seasons - Sylar  Jay Forrest and Josh Brigham of Hopesfall: Holy Hell - Architects  Ben Langford-Biss of As It Is: Be More Kind - Frank Turner  Jayden Panesso of Sylar: Kids – The Midnight Tyler Riley of Gideon: Hatred Softly Spoken - Chamber Adrian Estrella of Assuming We Survive: In Our Wake - Atreyu   Palisades: Come Hell - Dead Crown Matt Gravolin of Hellions: Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino - Arctic Monkeys Calling All Captains’ Nick Malychuk & Luc Gauthier: Blue In The Dark - Bearings  Tyler Levenson of Afterlife: When The End Began - Silent Planet  Camm Knopp of Never Loved: Some Rap Songs - Earl Sweatshirt  Patrick Hamilton of Vanish: Taco - Bilmuri  Vagrants: Palms - Thrice  Household: Pierre - Pierre [ed note: We have no idea if it’s this or this. Guess you’ll have to decide!]     Daniel Nelson of LIMBS: Vince Staples’ FM Radio is very underrated in my opinion. I haven’t seen much about it at all since it dropped and it’s a sick follow up to Big Fish Theory. 

Best Movie of 2018:

Matty Mullins of Memphis May Fire: Bohemian Rhapsody  Ryan Kirby of Fit For A King: Upgrade  Nat Motte of 3oh!3: Isle Of Dogs  Ira George of Movements: Annihilation  Cody Quistad of Wage War: Incredibles 2  Jay Forrest and Josh Brigham of Hopesfall: Avengers: Infinity Wars  Ben Langford-Biss of As It Is: A Star Is Born  Jayden Panesso of Sylar: Avengers: Infinity War Tyler Riley of Gideon: Ready Player One  Adrian Estrella of Assuming We Survive: Bohemian Rhapsody  Palisades: BlacKkKlansman  Matt Gravolin of Hellions: Hereditary Calling All Captains’ Nick Malychuk & Luc Gauthier: Avengers: Infinity War  Tyler Levenson of Afterlife: Avengers: Infinity War  Camm Knopp of Never Loved: Deadpool 2 Patrick Hamilton of Vanish: The Ritual  Vagrants: Avengers: Infinity War  Household: BlacKkKlansman  Daniel Nelson of LIMBS: Hereditary, hands down. Best story, best character development, best everything. Acting, special effects.  EVERYTHING. I don’t wanna give away too much because I want whoever is reading this to watch it for themselves. 

Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2018:

Matty Mullins of Memphis May Fire: Riverdale  Ryan Kirby of Fit For A King: Ozark  Nat Motte of 3oh!3: Bodyguard   Ira George of Movements: The Final Table  Cody Quistad of Wage War: Nashville Jay Forrest and Josh Brigham of Hopesfall: Haunting of Hill House   Ben Langford-Biss of As It Is: The Innocent Man  Jayden Panesso of Sylar: Ozark (Season 2), My Hero Academia Tyler Riley of Gideon: Brooklyn Nine-Nine  Adrian Estrella of Assuming We Survive: Vikings Palisades: Haunting of Hill House  Matt Gravolin of Hellions: Ozark (Season 2)  Calling All Captains’ Nick Malychuk & Luc Gauthier: Brooklyn Nine-Nine  Tyler Levenson of Afterlife: Bodyguard  Camm Knopp of Never Loved: The Office... duh  Patrick Hamilton of Vanish: Haunting of Hill House  Vagrants: The Office Household: Better Call Saul Daniel Nelson of LIMBS: If you haven’t seen Wild, Wild Country on Netflix yet, you need to. My girlfriend and I binged through that show with a quickness. What a crazy time it would have been to be alive and living in Wasco County, Oregon when all of that was going down. 

Favorite Internet Moment of 2018 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.):

Matty Mullins of Memphis May Fire: Super Bowl selfie kid  Ryan Kirby of Fit For A King: Thanos memes   Nat Motte of 3oh!3: This Post Malone / 21 Savage / Nickelback mashup video  Ira George of Movements: The Real Bros Of Simi Valley  Cody Quistad of Wage War: Moth memes got me pretty good for a while.    Jay Forrest and Josh Brigham of Hopesfall: This. Ben Langford-Biss of As It Is: The rise and fall of Mason Ramsey  Jayden Panesso of Sylar: “Weird flex, but okay” Tyler Riley of Gideon: Mason Ramsey  Adrian Estrella of Assuming We Survive: Don Broco Warped Tour workout video  Palisades: Pikachu shocked face  Matt Gravolin of Hellions: “Weird flex, but okay” Calling All Captains’ Nick Malychuk & Luc Gauthier: Squished face Lil Xan/moth memes  Tyler Levenson of Afterlife: Any and all Casey Frey videos  Camm Knopp of Never Loved: Spongebob memes are great  Patrick Hamilton of Vanish: The bird Spongebob meme  Vagrants: Surprised Pikachu  Daniel Nelson of LIMBS: I try not to get too caught up with all of that but the moth memes were pretty great. 

Thing(s) You Wish You Had Done in 2018 But Didn't:

Matty Mullins of Memphis May Fire: Exercise lol  Ryan Kirby of Fit For A King: Go to the gym more.  Nat Motte of 3oh!3: Feeling pretty good about 2018, honestly. I voted and did my civic duty, paid my taxes, toured the country twice, worked hard, treated the people close to me with love and respect and tried to do that with everyone I came across!  Ira George of Movements:  Eat healthier  Cody Quistad of Wage War: Made a million dollars.  Jay Forrest and Josh Brigham of Hopesfall: Watch our favorite teams win the Super Bowl. A collectively impossible feat.    Ben Langford-Biss of As It Is: Have more rest.  Jayden Panesso of Sylar: Wish I stuck to my workout plan like I originally intended to. Tyler Riley of Gideon: Go to Brazil  Adrian Estrella of Assuming We Survive: Worked out more, learned how to play the clarinet.  Palisades: Cook at home more.  Matt Gravolin of Hellions: Procrastinated less  Calling All Captains’ Nick Malychuk & Luc Gauthier: Tour the United States of America Tyler Levenson of Afterlife: I have no regrets! 2018 was an incredible year for me.  Camm Knopp of Never Loved: Tour more. Vagrants: Travel outside of the USA  Household: Hang out with friends and family more  Daniel Nelson of LIMBS: Tour with Deftones. Hopefully Chino will read this and maybe consider taking LIMBS out next year? 

Bonus Question: 2019 New Year's Resolution:

Matty Mullins of Memphis May Fire: Perform in New Zealand  Ryan Kirby of Fit For A King: Play in South America!  Nat Motte of 3oh!3: To yet again, not make any resolutions!    Ira George of Movements: Eat healthier  Cody Quistad of Wage War: Be more healthy: physically and mentally. Write the best songs I’ve ever written.  Jay Forrest and Josh Brigham of Hopesfall: Be hardcore.       Ben Langford-Biss of As It Is: Have even less rest.  Jayden Panesso of Sylar: Play in new continents with Sylar, learn more about engineering music on my own.   Tyler Riley of Gideon: Put out our best album yet Adrian Estrella of Assuming We Survive: Workout more, give back to the community and better myself  Palisades: Make more music for 2019 Matt Gravolin of Hellions: Procrastinated less  Calling All Captains’ Nick Malychuk & Luc Gauthier: Play 150 Shows  Tyler Levenson of Afterlife: Travel to more of the world, see everything I possibly can.  Camm Knopp of Never Loved: Bust more butt get more bread    Vagrants: TOUR outside of the USA  Household: Write music and hang out with friends and family ;)  Daniel Nelson of LIMBS: To release a record of my own. I have been heavily into synths and music recording and production in general. I’m gonna try to delve more into that world next year and hopefully have something to show for it.    

WATCH MORE:

[otisoverturf]

Mannequin Pussy’s Patience Has Finally Paid Off

Marisa Dabice is tired of waiting. The Mannequin Pussy frontwoman uses the word over ten times during her phone call with Kerrang!, often in rapid succession for dramatic emphasis (“waiting and waiting and waiting,” she says). But the singer/songwriter/guitarist of her Philly band has good reason to be tapping her foot. Caught up in a tangle of label legalities, Mannequin Pussy’s long-awaited third album, Patience, was delayed a year longer than they would’ve liked. The record was already written as a rumination on the 31-year-old Marisa’s tumultuous twenties, and many of its lyrics were sculpted during the epiphanic clarity of her early 30s.

But the stressful and highly unpredictable situation the band found themselves in while moving from their former label (North Carolina indie tastemakers Tiny Engines) to the famed punk powerhouse Epitaph Records caused Marisa to completely rewrite some of the songs to include that experience. The unexpected irony is that Patience is still—for the most part, both musically and narratively—a shedding of the anxiety and agitation that defined Mannequin Pussy’s first two albums.

2014’s GP (short for Gypsy Pervert) is a mangle of tumbling-over-the-drumkit hardcore, low-budget shoegaze, and gunky power-pop. The production is rough and the tracklist is patchy, but Marisa’s songwriting deftness is gleaming beneath the mucky mixes—serrated, but not yet sharpened. It’s a timestamp of Mannequin Pussy’s developing identity and a reflection of what the band was for Marisa back then: a newfound medium to work through emotions while simultaneously teaching herself how to play guitar.

Their follow-up, 2016’s Romantic, takes the base components of GP and pushes them to the extremes their urgent playstyle demands. Everything’s faster, meatier and louder. Pop cuts like Emotional High and Denial are hookier than anything on GP, but Marisa sounds like she’s physically trembling while singing the latter. The album’s speed is its premiere feature. The band, drunk on adrenaline and binging on distortion, and Marisa, bursting at the seams with the compulsion to yell what’s been haunting her, emulate a sports car gunning down a back alley while the breaks are cut. The hardcore burners just crash into the shoegaze thumpers, and the songs that follow are birthed from the wreckage, smoldering composites of the two styles. It sounds dangerous, impulsive, reactionary, primal, freeing, cathartic and totally restless.

In a stark juxtaposition, the first memorable line on their new album is literally the word “patience,” drawn out melodically during the record’s titular intro. The word became a mantra for Marisa and her bandmates during the record’s marathon creation.

“Because every time I would be, like, literally crying to someone about the situation I was in,” Marisa says, “They would always say, ‘You have to just have patience.’ And I was just so pissed off with hearing that word again and again and again. But I realized, ‘Yeah, I guess you’re right.’ So it kind of seemed like this perfect tongue-in-cheek album title.”

According to Marisa, Mannequin Pussy signed to Tiny Engines in 2014 via a handshake deal, but the label walked back on that right before they released Romantic, the album that would make Mannequin Pussy a band with a buzz surrounding them. Shortly after the record dropped, and the band had reluctantly signed a contract for a third album, Epitaph approached Mannequin Pussy to join their roster. Marisa says it took two years for the labels to negotiate a buyout, and in that state of helplessness the band continued to tour relentlessly.

With the future of their career up in the air (given the opportunities Epitaph could potentially provide them, but the buyout taking forever) they eventually decided to just record Patience with the budget Tiny Engines gave them, despite their aspirations for something grander.

“So we did that and then when we listened back to it we were like, ‘Fuck,’” Marisa says. “It just wasn’t what I wanted. It sounded too sonically similar to Romantic. I wanted to make a big-ass sounding rock record that felt clean — but not too clean. Polished, but could fall apart at any moment.”

In this cinematically low point in the band’s storyline, they were approached by Pennsylvania producer/engineer Wil Tip (Code Orange, The Menzingers, Turnstile), who heard that they were yearning to re-record their album through Mannequin Pussy’s then-tourmates in Turnover (who’ve recorded with Yip for years). “Wil knew about this entire situation and said, ‘I don’t care how much you’re gonna be able to pay me, I just want to work on this record.’”

Yip ended up being the ideal producer for the band’s vision, resulting in a work that’s tighter and less chaotic than their other albums, but with plenty of room in the mix to accommodate their diversified sound. There’re the obligatory pop-punches (Patience, Who Are You, Cream) and a healthy dose of push-pit fodder (Drunk I, Clams, F.U.C.A.W.). But the real gems arrive when Mannequin Pussy expand beyond what they’ve already done so well in the past.

High Horse is a tear-jerkingly straightforward ballad about an abusive ex. With no vocal effects, Marisa croons uncomfortably evocative lines like, “pushing me up against the kitchen sink,” over austere guitar strums, her voice ascending into a majestic belt as the song builds into a crashing proclamation of Marisa’s independence. “Your world’s on fire, as I watch up from my high horse.” In a discography rife with striking emotion, it’s perhaps the most moving passage in any of their songs. Drunk II, another track about one of the three messy breakups Marisa endured and felt she could finally sing about, is its closest rival. Propped up by an infectious groove that gradually rocks harder and harder, Marisa sings about pretending that she’s fine when she’s most certainly not.

“I was out with friends, I was getting fucked up,” Marisa says, explaining the time in which she wrote it. “I almost went home with someone and I was like this is disgusting. I hate being around this, I hate having to pretend I’m doing fine. It was after last call and I came home and I was drunk, crying, and wrote this song that sounds like fuckin’ Lady Antebellum could’ve written it. It’s like kind of a country song. Drinking and heartbreak and all that shit.”

But by the end of the album (which, like all Mannequin Pussy records, is only about 20 minutes long), Marisa is singing “I know that oh this love / is starting again.” It closes on a vaguely disco-esque love song (titled In Love Again) that comes full circle in a way that Marisa admits was premeditated, but also reflective of her actual experiences.

“[I like] the idea of looking at a song as the potential to tell a story in three acts,” she says. “I think sometimes you can really do that with your records too. You have your first act that kind of lays the foundation. And then your second act is that darkest hour where it seems like nothing will ever go right again and you’re so desperately caught in your own self-destruction and in the memories of things that have happened to you. And then as our third act comes it’s like, ‘oh shit, I’m gonna be okay. I’m gonna get through this. I’m gonna be able to feel love again. I’m gonna be able to feel love for myself again, and for the people around me.’”

“And I kind of think that that’s been the actual cycle of my life throughout the last ten years,” she continues. “I find myself in that time where I think that all hope is lost and I’ll never feel happy again and I’ll never not be depressed, and then all of a sudden I start—it’s like you can’t really pinpoint the moment when you start believing in life again. I’ve been lucky that that does come back to me.”

Patience.

***

Posted on June 20th 2019, 3:00pm

The post Mannequin Pussy’s Patience Has Finally Paid Off appeared first on Social Juicebox.

Source: https://socialjuicebox.com/ Mannequin Pussy’s Patience Has Finally Paid Off published first on https://socialjuicebox.com/

[faucetbacon84-blog]

The Metropolitan Section: City Life, Delivered

By Julia Guarneri

“I thought I knew every nook and angle of this village, but it seems your staff are ferreting out new and interesting bits every week.”  In 1919, subscriber Charles Romm sent this letter to the New York Tribune, praising the paper’s new “In Our Town” section.  The Tribune — like the World, the Times, the American, and many of the city’s other daily papers — ​had begun printing a special local section on Sundays.  These metropolitan sections, as they were often called, did not print local news, exactly.  They were not the places to look for accident reports or the latest in city politics.  Instead, metropolitan sections gave readers glimpses of the everyday city.  They brought the sights, accents, and clamor of the city into readers’ laps, to be enjoyed from a living room couch or a lunch counter.  Newspapers’ metropolitan sections packaged up city life for quick, enjoyable consumption.

New York World, 19 December 1909. American Newspaper Repository, Rubenstein Library, Duke University.

As the price of newsprint fell in the late nineteenth century, editors issued larger newspapers with room for more than just the essentials.  These editors reasoned that readers might want some relief from the politics and tragedy of the headlines.  They might appreciate a happy ending, or a laugh.  They thought that New Yorkers might enjoy seeing people like themselves and their neighbors in the paper, or enjoy being introduced to strangers.  Mining this vein, the editor of the New York Sun, Charles Dana, forged a whole new genre in the 1870s and 1880s — the human interest story.  His paper ran a front page article in 1881, for example, that told the story of a Tennessee poultry farmer who managed to meet and marry a Brooklyn woman by writing his address on an eggshell.   Nineteenth-century editors learned how to entertain their mostly middle-class readers by showing them corners of the city that they did not usually see. Most famously, they did this by sending their reporters to slums, in order to describe the alleys, tenements, and flophouses in lurid detail. Reporters also visited immigrant neighborhoods, introducing readers to gossip exchanged by Russian housewives or explaining a feud between Italian grocers. And they wrote about the very rich, whose world might be as unfamiliar to readers of the New York World or New York Journal as that of the very poor. Widening gaps between the rich, the middle class, and the poor — and increasing distances between their neighborhoods — meant that editors could sell papers simply by telling readers about each other.

Precursors to the metropolitan section ran in New York’s papers as early as the 1880s, but the section came into full flower in the early twentieth century. The sections’ illustrated headings created visual icons for the city: bustling streets, soaring bridges, geometric skylines.  Meanwhile, metropolitan section writers invented literary genres all their own — genres which survive to this day in places like the New York Times’s “Metropolitan Diary” column.  Reporters relayed snippets of overheard conversations, like this one from a Broadway dance hall: “He said to me, ‘Stop moving your hips!  Do you think this is a vulgar dance?’ But I just MUST move my hips; I can’t help it!”[1]

New York Tribune, 24 August 1919. Library of Congress.

They reported endearing mistakes or phrases they spotted in the city’s signs, ads, and menus: Listed on a Chinese restaurant menu under ‘COLD DISHES’: ‘Ice cream.’[2] They noticed clever ways that the city’s hustling citizens were making the rent: “I am getting lunch money these days by visiting slot machine telephones and collecting coins that have been ‘returned’ by the operators but have not been taken by the would-be customer.” [3]

Reporters asked questions about things that many New Yorkers routinely passed by but ignored. Who were those Salvation Army Santas ringing bells on every corner? asked the New York World in 1909.[4] How much did they actually collect in those red metal pots? The sections profiled city characters with interesting jobs: the New York Times spoke to an agent who sniffed out smuggled rum in the Port of New York, then to a Metropolitan Museum security guard fending off boredom.[5] Sometimes reporters simply puzzled over a situation, rather than trying to get to the bottom of it. A New York Times reporter watched two women carry a heavy wooden bench down a quiet alley at midnight, mystified by the timing of their errand. [6] A jokey “Science Note” in the Times reported the inexplicable presence of a grasshopper in Times Square.[7]

“ ‘Round Town With the Section Sketch Artists,” New York World, 9 September 1917, Metropolitan section, front page. In these sketches we see a boy jamming subway turnstiles with buttons, employees of the Museum of Natural History mounting an exhibit, and orphans from the Hebrew Asylum building clubhouses. The caricatures show a Brooklyn baseball pitcher in his army uniform, and a Costa Rican opera singer performing in town. American Newspaper Repository, Rubenstein Library, Duke University.

Metropolitan sections occasionally ran pieces highlighting New York City’s sheer size, turning that scale into a source of pride and a claim to the city’s national and international importance. Yet these sections never really turned into booster projects. Why bother? New Yorkers already knew they lived in the biggest city in the nation, a global commercial and cultural hub.  Instead, writers threw their efforts into portraying New York City as really just a small town, summoning a sense of community in what could seem a soulless place. The New York Times ran a column of urban vignettes called “Our Town and Its Folk.” The Tribune called its version of a metropolitan section “In Our Town.” By the 1920s, many metropolitan sections were mimicking the conventions of small-town papers in an effort to recapture small-town neighborliness, reporting on high school sports games and printing the graduation rosters of local universities. The New York American hosted a regular column, “People You Know or Have Heard About,” though the column mostly depicted urban types, rather than actual people, for in fact it was difficult to find many people known to all of the paper’s hundreds of thousands of readers. This attempt to render New York City as small, friendly, and familiar seemed to convince at least some readers: Charles Romm, in his letter to the New York Tribune, referred to New York City as “this village.”   Metropolitan sections lent coherence to the chaotic city, too, by depicting a singular New York personality. The New Yorkers on these pages were tough, but often revealed to be softies underneath. They were sophisticated to the point of being blasé, yet laughably ignorant about anything beyond the city limits. They seemed to live lives of urban alienation (“New York’s chiefest charm is that you don’t know your neighbors” quipped one metropolitan section columnist), yet they volunteered in hospitals in their spare time and gave readily to the needy.[8] 

As the metropolitan section became an institution in New York City, the concept travelled elsewhere. By the 1920s, papers outside of New York were also printing multi-page “City Life” or “Metropolitan” sections. The Chicago Herald printed a regular column of “Tales They Tell in the Loop;” the Memphis Commercial Appeal ran “Stories of the Streets” on Sundays. Soon, many journalists realized that they could write about “the” city — a generic city — instead of any particular place, and then sell their pieces to dozens of papers rather than just one. A whole host of syndicated features cropped up in the 1910s and 1920s that depicted urban scenes and types that would be familiar to almost any city reader, be they a New Yorker, Atlantan, or Angeleno. Cartoonist J. W. McGurk drew up syndicated panels of playful urban scenes, such as: “Why Not? Bathing suits for the city, where it is hotter than the beach.”  Dorothy Dulin sketched views of city people’s lives as seen through apartment or office windows, in “Our Neighbors Across the Way.”[9]  W. E. Hill’s full-page feature “Among Us Mortals” took the idea of metropolitan section observations and applied it to places and events found in any city or town. His panels — “At the Jewelers,” “The Matinee Girl,” “The Hotel Barber Shop” — gently poked fun at types that any urban or suburban reader was meant to recognize. New York’s newspapers generated a lot of this material, though not all of it.  New York editors both bought and sold features on the syndicated market.  So the New York City life rendered in Metropolitan sections was not always as local as readers took it to be.

“Among Us Mortals: The Millinery Sale,” New York Tribune, 17 December 1916. The New York Tribune and later the Chicago Tribune syndicated W. E. Hill’s cartoon; it began in 1916 and survived into the 1950s.

The urban observations that appeared in turn-of-the-century newspapers had often advocated for change, whether by pushing for new policies or by conveying a sense of outrage at the status quo. In an 1897 metropolitan section piece, for example, a New York World writer noted that the land it took to build the new Pell mansion on 74th street could fit six ordinary mansions, or ten tenement buildings. “That is to say, 928 people could live, as some New York people do live, in the space which he, his wife and the combined collections of porcelains and china will occupy.”[10] A 1906 article on a society woman printed a table of her estimated yearly expenses, including her automobiles, furs, jewels, balls, stables, losses at bridge, and restaurant meals, all made public through an alimony case. “It was a startling revelation,” the article stated, “that a woman with no other charges upon her than her personal expenses could not live on an income greater than the salary paid to the President of the United States.”[11] These reporters seemed shocked by the wealth that existed on the very same island as thousands of impoverished people.   By the 1920s, that shock seemed to fade.  Writers no longer preached that the gap between rich and poor ought to narrow, and instead exploited that gap for entertainment value. The fizzling out of Progressive reform efforts after World War I was partly to blame for the new nonchalant, sometimes hedonistic tone of these sections. Where earnest reformers sought to change the city and believed they had the power to improve it, by the 1920s many seemed content to leave city policy and planning in the hands of experts, and perhaps readers felt free to simply observe and enjoy the metropolis they lived in. This slightly more detached outlook was also in keeping with the urbane and freewheeling culture taking shape in New York in that decade, documented and stoked by two new magazines, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker.   The metropolitan section was, and is, an odd journalistic creation. It did not report current events, but neither was it mere entertainment (unlike its Sunday newspaper companion, the comics section). It was decidedly urban, but not always as local as it appeared. Its writers were opinionated, yet by the 1920s they rarely used the section as a platform for change. It is clear, however, that these sections filled a need. For New York readers living in a city too big to experience or truly know firsthand, the metropolitan section made it knowable. When class divides grew too gaping for most New Yorkers to cross, metropolitan section writers crossed them, and reported back from the other side. When it was no longer obvious that city dwellers had anything in common, the paper showcased and celebrated New Yorkers’ common traits. The metropolitan section reveled in public life, urban dialogue, and the sheer variety of the city. It celebrated the street smarts and the niche expertise of New Yorkers. It may seem ironic that this celebration of public life took place on a newspaper page and was often enjoyed in the comfort of the reader’s own home. Yet in the best cases, the articles of the metropolitan section propelled New Yorkers back out into the street, newly aware and appreciative of their surroundings.  Charles Romm, in his 1919 letter to the New York Tribune, seemed to say as much. “I hope the page will go on uncovering the other sections and quarters of the city in similar striking fashion,” he wrote. “Our city needs rediscovering, it seems to me, especially to New Yorkers.”   Julia Guarneri teaches American history at the University of Cambridge. She is the author of Newsprint Metropolis: City Papers and the Making of Modern Americans (University of Chicago Press, 2017).

​Notes

[1] Roy McCardell, “The City of Dreadful Dance,” New York World, 30 March 1913 “Metropolitan” section, front page.

[2] New York World, 27 March 1921, “Metropolitan” section, front page.

[3] New York World, 3 April 1921, “Metropolitan” section, front page.

[4] New York World, 19 December 1909, “Metropolitan” section, front page.

[5] “Our Town and Its Folk,” New York Times, 12 October 1924, Section 9, page 2. 

[6] “Our Town and Its Folk,” New York Times, 12 October 1924, Section 9, page 2. 

[7] “Our Town and Its Folk,” New York Times, 26 October 1924, XX2.

[8] Quote is from Karl K. Kitchen, “Protesting Against New York’s New Neighborly Spirit That Co-Operative Apartments Are Bringing About,” New York World, 27 March 1921, “Metropolitan” section, front page.

[9] Chicago Herald, 29 April 1917, “Humor and City Life” section, pages 4-5.

[10] New York World, 6 June 1897, metropolitan section.

[11] New York American and Journal, 14 January 1906, 54.

Source: https://www.gothamcenter.org/blog/the-metropolitan-section-city-life-delivered

[usepublictransportation-blog]

Time for Miami to Revamp its Public Transportation System

Written by: Kristian Del Rosario 

Miami-Dade county suffers from one of the worst driving conditions in the United States. I can personally say that driving on I-95 is a quick and efficient to get yourself across Florida but it is extremely dangerous. There are numerous bottlenecks along the highway which can result in you being still on the road at nearly all hours of the day.  The Florida stretch of I-95 has more fatalities per year than any other interstate segment in the country. Many of these fatalities occur in Miami-Dade with 242 traffic related deaths in 2011, more than any other Florida county.

Sadly, Miami provides one of the worst public transportation systems of any major metropolitan area in the US. The bus system is chaotic and not efficient. A trip that takes 20 minutes by car requires over two hours at best in the MDT bus system.

The MetroRail system was completed in 1984 costing over $1 billion. The problem is that there are no stops in South Beach, midtown, or north along the US 1 corridor for residents of North Miami, Aventura, and Hollywood. It is recorded that only 15% of Miami’s population pass through the MetroRail turnstiles every weekday.

So the real question at hand is, Can Miami Revamp its Public Transportation System?

The answer is simple, yes. Officials are reexamining a possible Baylink rail line to South Beach. This issue was considered in the early 2000s but the issue died in 2004. It would connect tourists with South Beach directly from the airport and rail extensions to other areas of metropolitan South Florida.

How can people help?

We must bring awareness to this issue by showing the Miami government statistics proving that there are too many fatalities at the moment which can be avoided by investing in better public transportation. There are campaigns that can take place and educational articles that can be sent to places such as the Miami Herald to show the community this would better the Miami society. It is without a doubt that the problem here is that people don’t know the extreme benefits this could bring to society. Bottomline is we must educate society as a whole about this issue.

Sources: 

https://climateecology.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/time-for-miami-to-revamp-its-public-transportation-system/

[ladystylestores]

How will we build the city of the future? – TechCrunch

Editor’s note: Get this weekly recap of TechCrunch news that any startup can use by email every Saturday morning (7am PT), just subscribe here.

Commercial real estate, the traditional heart of most cities, may have lost its reason to exist in the last few months. The world is about to find out what the situation is as more locations start to reopen.

First up in our ongoing coverage of the topic, Connie Loizos caught up with a couple proptech investors this week for TechCrunch, who saw existing trends accelerating — with many medically focused additions.

Brendan Wallace of Fifth Wall is looking for more aggressive pickup of smart tech in general, along the lines of what you already see in some other countries. “He notes sensors that can determine how many people are in a room or pass through a turnstile. He points to facial recognition tech that can help keep points of physical contact to a minimum. He imagines that more companies might embrace robots to patrol buildings and, possibly, to clean them, too.”

Darren Bechtel of Brick and Mortar saw tech remaking the construction site, with growing practices like using large-scale pre-fabricated components: “If you’re limited by how many people can work in the field, and you have to put in controls for people not working on top of each other, the question becomes: how can you do the work in a more controlled environment, with a next-gen HVAC system [to purify the air] and markings on the floor?…. People are now saying, ‘How much can we prepare off-site?’”

Buildings are also going to be focused on health features, Connie wrote. “[B]oth Wallace and Bechtel mentioned advanced air purifiers and air handling units used to recondition and circulate air as part of a heating, ventilating and air-conditioning plan. Both say it will likely become a growing area of interest for building owners and developers.”

What about beyond the buildings? A few writers here put together some thoughts in a post for Extra Crunch. Here’s Danny Crichton’s view from Brooklyn:

Few of us can live in the dreary confines of a suburban enclave our entire workweek. And so I expect to see a revitalization of the classic Main Street clusters that once dotted towns across America as people appreciate the close proximity of amenities that they need throughout their day and remote work makes it possible to skip the commute to the central business district.

It’s not going to be a simple transition, of course. The built environment alone will probably take decades to fully transition. But the spirit of Jane Jacobs lives on and will move beyond the downtown core neighborhoods she observed to spread to medium and perhaps even small towns across the country and throughout the world.

If you want more on the topic, check out our recent investor survey with six other top proptech investors from late March (for subscribers).

Just want to settle down at home and get to work? Check out Darrell Etherington’s TechCrunch guide to setting up a pro-grade videoconference studio.

The $100M ARR club continues to grow, despite everything

When Alex Wilhelm rejoined TechCrunch late last year, he kicked things off with a list of companies that he called “the $100M ARR club” to signify unicorns that were also generating a lot of revenue. It was a clever way of organizing which of the hundreds of highly valued companies heading towards IPOs were most set up for success, and our readers agreed.

But, with entire market categories whipsawed by the pandemic, it has been hard to find companies willing to share numbers lately. He still found a few, as he wrote up for Extra Crunch this week: ActiveCampaign, Recorded Future and ON24. Here’s a vignette from the CEO of ActiveCampaign:

While we had the CEO’s attention, TechCrunch wanted to know if ActiveCampaign was taking incoming fire from COVID-19 and its related economic and labor disruptions. As some other SMB-focused software companies have told us, the answer is no. Here’s [Jason] VandeBoom:

We anticipate continued growth in 2020 and are already seeing further acceleration to support this. The past four months have been the best in company history and we’ve seen monthly trials double in that timeframe and new customer acquisition numbers at 4500, 5500, 6000 and 7000 respectively from January to April.

He did hedge those results a little, adding that while his firm has “seen some acceleration from COVID-19 and the digital transformation that it is inspiring,” the CEO is more convinced that “the need for customer experience is what is fueling the majority of this growth.”

This week in China trade news….

The already basic trade agreement between the Trump administration and the Chinese government from last year looks ready to blow up; the administration banned selling more tech to Huawei; TSMC plans to open a factory in Arizona following urging from the US government; Foxconn profits crashed… Danny Crichton has a clear takeaway on TechCrunch for startups about the latest headlines:

[T]he world of semiconductors, of internet infrastructure, of the tech ties that have bound the U.S. and China together for decades — they are frayed and are almost gone. It’s a new era in supply chains and trade, and an open world for new approaches to these huge existing industries.

If your company is not already planning for a more chaotic, multi-polar world than what most of us can remember living through, it may already be too late.

(Photo by CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP via Getty Images)

Investor survey: hospitals to increase tech focus after pandemic

Sarah Buhr talked to top investors in the healthcare B2B and infrastructure businesses for one of our investor surveys this week on Extra Crunch. They generally seemed to agree that the pandemic was going to push the system wholesale towards better technology. Here’s Bilal Zuberi of Lux Capital:

While a lot of our healthcare infrastructure will take a little bit of time recovering from the stress COVID placed on it, we anticipate this to provide a push to the system to adopt new technologies that enable distributed health, build resiliency in our delivery networks and deploy data-enabled healthcare. Hospital balance sheets might struggle in the short term to buy new technologies, but payers as well as large businesses might participate in infrastructure development and deployment in a bigger way. We anticipate selling to hospitals to be difficult in the short term, as they try to recover from the revenue shortfall they experienced during COVID-19, but will generally emerge more interested in adopting new technologies, digital and remote health solutions and automation in various functions. Needless to say, a wide-scale digital transformation of our healthcare industry is underway, and there is no looking back.

Don’t miss our other survey this week, on how the mobility investors are viewing the pandemic.

Protecting your equity as a startup employee

Wouter Witvoet of fintech startup SecFi wrote a guest post for TechCrunch going over some key points for anyone working at a startup right now (or recently). As an occasional startup founder and/or employee myself, I’d like to recommend this one for special consideration: “Negotiate for equity during a pay cut or furlough.”

Startups typically offer equity as a means of deferred compensation and as a way to incentivize employees to own a piece of the company they are building. The compensation is deferred as most startups are cash-strapped and cannot afford to pay you what a larger company may be able to.

If your company is now asking you to take a pay cut, or even take no pay during this time, you should consider asking for additional equity to make up for the lost compensation. While not all companies may be amenable to offering more equity, there is no cash outlay from the company’s standpoint, so it’s an efficient way for your company to compensate you for your sacrifice while preserving their cash.

In addition, offering more equity shows a commitment from management to their employees during this difficult time. It may be the win-win scenario for your company and yourself in the long-run so it’s worth having the conversation with management to discuss if this is available for you.

At first it seems weird when you consider typical venture dynamics. The founders have probably already lost leverage against the company’s investors. These investors have probably already lost leverage against their LPs. So nobody is naturally included to give up even more. And the employees were already last in line on the cap table and first to go, so why should founders do anything different?

Tactically, the best employees will be attracted go work at bigger more stable companies as the pandemic recession stretches on — and you might not have the cash to afford the effort to rehire. Strategically, now is the time to build the esprit de corp that will carry your company forward into better times… a few extra basis points for the team now could help deliver a priceless return.  

Across the week

TechCrunch

COVID-19 shows we need Universal Basic Internet now

AngelList wants to improve comparing VC fund performance with new metrics and calculator

Seven viral futures

Where to shop online that isn’t Amazon, Target or Walmart

Extra Crunch

4 edtech CEOs peer into the industry’s future

Sequoia’s Roelof Botha is more optimistic about startups today than he was a year ago

These best practices maximize the value of your online events

Fintech startups amass war chests for the economic downturn

Around TechCrunch

Give the gift of Extra Crunch membership to anyone

Extra Crunch Live: Join Alexia and Niko Bonatsos for a Q&A May 19th at 2 pm EDT/11 am PDT

Extra Crunch Live: Join Revolution’s Steve Case and Clara Sieg on May 21 at 3pm ET/12pm PT

#EquityPod

From Alex:

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

Are you a regular Equity listener? Take our survey here! We talk about it on the show.

From home once again this week, Danny, Natasha, Alex and Chris got together to pull the show together. But unlike last week’s episode (catch up here if you are behind), this week’s show features a game that actually worked. It’s at the end, as you’ll see.

But before that piece of the puzzle, there was a bunch of news to go over. We had to leave SaaS valuations, the Liftoff List, Brex and FalconX on the floor, but there was still so much good stuff to cover:

Then we played our game. Please hold us to account. And if you have listened to the show for a while, take our survey! It’s right after this next sentence.

Equity drops every Friday at 6:00 am PT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.

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[ezatluba]

A Final Proving Ground for Guide Dogs to the Blind: Midtown Manhattan

A school for Seeing Eye dogs uses the chaos of New York City as its ultimate test when matching young dogs with their blind masters.

By Corey Kilgannon

Nov. 6, 2018

Innes, a youthful German shepherd, was trying to make his way across a frenetic Manhattan intersection near Central Park and found himself facing down all sorts of projectiles — yellow cabs, bike messengers, pedicabs — as a deafening truck horn blasted and the traffic light changed against him.

But Innes was not negotiating this chaotic scene while out for an afternoon stroll. He was safeguarding his new master, Kathy Faul, 73, a blind woman from Swarthmore, Pa.

Both were relative strangers to New York City, but they had ventured into Manhattan expressly for moments like this, to experience its particular brand of street-level chaos, as the culmination of a thorough course of training by the Seeing Eye, a guide dog school in Morristown, N.J. Founded in 1929, it is the nation’s oldest training school for dogs and one of the largest of its kind. It even holds the trademark for the phrase “seeing eye.”

The school’s training is done in a suburban setting far calmer than Midtown Manhattan, an hour’s drive away. But for its ultimate challenge, and to assess a dog’s focus, trainers take the student-dog pairs into Manhattan as something of a proving ground.

Ozma, a guide dog, and her new master, Val Gee, 26, from Dayton, Ohio, navigated Seventh Avenue in Manhattan. They were assisted by an instructor, Kristen Oplinger, left.CreditDave Sanders for The New York Times

“There’s no more intense place than New York City to train the dogs — it’s the craziest environment they’ve ever been in,” said Brian O’Neal, a Seeing Eye trainer. “At the end of the training, the idea is, ‘O.K., they know the basics. Now can they handle the grind of the city?’ ”

To find out, Ms. Faul and another blind woman, Val Gee, 26, had arrived in a van to experience these extreme urban conditions, along with their dogs.

“I’m half scared, half so excited,” said Ms. Faul, gripping the stiff leather handle strapped to Innes. “But I figure, like the song says, if I can make it here, I can make it anywhere.”

Making it here involves navigating obstacles and potential hazards, from potholes to work zones to throngs of distracted pedestrians — not to mention the traffic madness Ms. Faul was now experiencing, which included a close encounter between Innes and a horse and buggy.

To their credit, Ms. Faul and Innes remained calm. She nudged Innes back on course, so he could lead her to the curb safely.

Even for dogs and owners who do not live in large cities, urban training can help prepare them for chaotic situations, such as shopping malls or carnivals.

They had begun the route in a rooftop parking lot above the Port Authority Bus Terminal, the starting point of a loop plotted specifically “to get them the best distractions,” said Ms. Faul’s trainer, Kristen DeMarco.

After squeezing into a packed elevator, they were soon slipping through subway turnstiles and being led by their dogs through crowds of commuters. They braved a packed stairway to the train platform, while being jostled by crowds.

The dogs remained calm on the subway platform, despite the clatter of passing trains and the blare of announcements.

“She keeps her focus really well,” Ms. Gee said, patting Ozma, a retriever mix.

For Ms. Gee, a psychotherapist from Dayton, Ohio, this was only her second time in New York City, after visiting as a 19-year-old when being paired with her first guide dog, which she recently retired.

“This is quite different from Dayton,” said Ms. Gee who, with her instructor, Kristen Oplinger, boarded an uptown C train and sat next to a sleeping passenger, while Ozma curled up under the seat.

Ms. Faul and Innes braved a packed stairway to the train platform, while being jostled by crowds.CreditDave Sanders for The New York Times

At Columbus Circle, they headed up the escalator to the street. The first test was neither traffic- nor pedestrian-related, but rather a tiny dog that was being walked nearby and intrigued Innes.

It would be the first of many tests of the dogs’ concentration. There would also be countless new smells, from well-visited fire hydrants to aromatic street vendors.

The sidewalks themselves were obstacle courses, with open basement doors creating gaping shaftways. There were gridlocked intersections, fluttering pigeons and jackhammers loud enough to interfere with dog-owner communication.

Columbus Circle was flooded with lunchtime crowds. The first challenge was the traffic rotary. The dogs stopped at the curb, as they were trained, and both Ms. Faul and Ms. Gee listened to the flow of traffic, to detect if the cars had stopped for the light. Then each gave her dog a forward command and proceeded to cross.

The dogs receive four months of training at the Seeing Eye, learning to guide around obstacles and obey commands, as well as street-crossing skills, including how to watch for traffic and keep their handlers safe from vehicles that might be turning or running lights.

“She keeps her focus really well,” Ms. Gee said of Ozma.

Officials with the Seeing Eye said they pair roughly 260 dogs each year with blind people living in the United States and Canada. Most live in some urban environment — largely because of public transportation, walkability and other services — and a handful live in New York City.

Dogs who do not prefer an urban setting can be paired with owners who tend not to be city-goers. Owners train alongside their dogs while boarding at the school for several weeks. Their stay culminates with the trip to Manhattan.

While not exactly a test, Manhattan’s conditions present the dogs with intense conditions that can help reveal training aspects to work on.

“It’s a training experience that offers more than anywhere else we can take them,” said Dave Johnson, director of instruction and training at the Seeing Eye. “Almost anything can happen in one day in New York — it’s a culmination of sensory overload, even for humans.”

The dogs partnered with Ms. Faul and Ms. Gee were handling it all pretty well. They wove through pedestrians like a slalom course. Like harried New Yorkers, the dogs seemed stymied by slow-walking tourists. They nudged up to them and waited for a narrow opening to lead their owners past.

Ms. Gee was helped by Ms. Oplinger as she tried to coax Ozma onto an escalator inside the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

“She’s so smooth about it,” said Ms. Gee, who began losing her vision in early childhood because of a genetic disorder.

Ms. Faul said she was happy with Innes’s confidence.

“You need to have that gumption,” said Ms. Faul, a retired computer programmer who lost her sight in a car accident while in college. “When I felt him go through those people, I knew he was a New Yorker.”

Ahead was a hot dog cart whose vendor was playing Middle Eastern music. Ms. Gee avoided the cart but hit her head on a plastic sign that was hanging off it. She circled Ozma back to remind him to see obstacles at eye level.

Guiding Eyes For the Blind, in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., in Westchester County, and the Guide Dog Foundation in Smithtown, N.Y., on Long Island, also train dogs in Manhattan.

Many other schools train dogs in urban environments. But New York stands apart, said Marion Gwizdala, president of the National Association of Guide Dog Users. “Most cities,” he said, “don’t have the hustle and bustle of Midtown Manhattan.”

The dogs receive four months of training at the Seeing Eye, a guide dog school in Morristown, N.J., learning to navigate around obstacles and obey commands, as well as street-crossing skills.CreditDave Sanders for The New York Times

Even for dogs and owners who do not visit cities, urban training can help prepare them for chaotic situations, such as shopping malls or carnivals, he added.

As Ms. Faul and Ms. Gee headed along Seventh Avenue, the dogs guided them around scaffolding supports that partially blocked sidewalks and around a work zone. The dogs looped around a Coca-Cola truck blocking a crosswalk and later avoided a yellow cab that swooped around a corner toward them.

There were moments for instruction, too, as when Innes suddenly made a sharp right — toward the open door of a perfume store. The dogs would soon get used to such distractions, Ms. DeMarco said. For now, Ms. Faul pulled him back on course.

As visual as Times Square is, with its billboards and swarm of activity, Ms. Faul said that its aural energy was also impressive.

“I feel like I’m in a carnival city,” she said. “All the noise, all the beeps, all the people, the different languages you hear. The noise echoes off the buildings. It’s like being at Mardi Gras. Crowds of people everywhere.”

They walked by the TKTS booth selling theater tickets and headed past Broadway theaters. Ms. Gee praised the way Ozma ignored the blaring sirens and kept her away from creeping tour buses and rumbling dump trucks.

“She seems to focus even better in the chaos,” she said, adding that there was only one problem.

“She’s going to be disappointed when we go home.”