Fandom Island and Town

Troy didn't know if he should consider it sexist or what that it seemed Tisarwat had ordered the sleek new modern fixtures and shelves for the store to be delivered on his day (and one of his last ones, too!), but he couldn't be too mad about it, because he actually did manage to put them together pretty quickly and skillfully, without even really thinking about it.

And then they had a whole bunch of new shelves and fixtures, and a bunch of old shelves and fixtures that should be replaced, and Troy was trying to decide if putting the fixtures together was enough work for him that day and he should just leave the rest for Tisarwat.

And then he realized the potential in getting to reorganize all the CDs, and his eyes lit up, and he was deifnitely going to start by putting all the bands and artists with FOOD NAMES in one spot. Fiona Apple, Cake, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Black Eyed Peas, SPICE Girls!, Smashing Pumpkins! SALT-N-PEPA!

....it was a good thing building the shelves hadn't taken long because this was going to be a whole thing now.

Groovy Tunes is open!

Troy probably shouldn't have been nervous about opening up a letter from a school whose motto was 'You're Already Accepted!', but, you know what? That almost made it even more nerve-wracking. After all, since he botched his football career on purpose, he had to depend on his brain for his next step, and anyone who'd spent five minutes talking to him would know that that lead to some tumultuous ground. So if he managed to get rejected from Greendale...well....

There'd be no way he'd manage to get City College instead. Not that he'd want to, he actually was leaning more toward Greendale if only because he liked the way that guy gave a thumbs-up to the camera in that one ad.

So he was putting it off, but finally, in the more dull hours of his work day, he finally caved in, opened it up, and had a look to see what the final verdict was.

"Yes!" he said, with a small pump of his fist. "I'm gonna be the first one in my family to graduate from community college!"

Everyone else graduated from regular college!

Groovy Tunes is open!

A certain musically-based off-shoot game based on a popular word-based game had lead to a very heated discussion between Troy and teh Annoying Vinyl Hipster, who had given him crap for guessing this one song by today's artist instead of this other song by the same artist, because Troy was pretty sure they were the exact same begininng, which the AVH thought was ridiculous, they sounded absolutely nothing alike.

Which meant non-stop playing the beginnings of both songs over and over again to compare, with the threat of this turning violent (or at least involving turning over a table of demo tapes) by the end of the day.

Groovy Tunes is open!

[[ and not inspired by actual events, no. ]]

"What?" asked Troy, who was getting really sick and tired of the Annoying Vinyl Hipster giving him a look all day ever since he got in there. "Don't give me that look. I have definitely been here every week, I don't even know what you're talking about."

The AVH now just looked skeptical.

And Troy just scoffed. "Yeah, right," he said, "like you really do all that much around here, yourself."

Just for that, Troy was going to crank up some of the rap and hip-hop that AVH insisted barely even counted as 'real music' and go back to considering a few brochures for colleges back home because he should really get on that.

Although, honestly? He kind of just 'wanted to go Greendale,' if only because he liked the way that guy did the thumbs up in promo video that he was definitely watching a few times on his phone with sensible chuckles and wondering if he still needed to apply via fax.

Groovy Tunes is open!

The stereo was definitely pumping out some seriously up-beat and bouncy tunes that day, which was fine, Troy supposed it couldn't be helped, that stereo deifnitely had a mind of its own and he could survive dealing with it just fine, he definitely was not belting out that Aly & AJ song whenever it showed up in the loop complete with some sweet moves as he went about his work around the store.

Definitely not.

How dare you.

Except that he totally was, but he was making sure to keep an eye on the door so that he could stop and pretend like it never happened when anyone came into the store that day, but it didn't take long before he was singing it under his breath and bopping his head along to it all over again.

Groovy Tunes is open!

[[ Groovy Tunes posts are now entirely based on whatever song from work gets stuck in my head, apparently ]]

On the one hand, Troy knew he often had a weird knack for being able to fix things without even really trying that hard, but, on the other hand, it appeared as though fixin the stereo would involve messing with wires, and there was that whole thing? With this place and wire monsters and them potentially trying to eat him one day?

So Troy was mostly trying to convince himself that the lack of music in the store right now was actually very chill and okay and not weird at all, while contemplating just emailing Summer about just buying a new sound system for the place. If he sent that email, though, he would officially be recognizing her as the Temporary Boss of this place, though, and that was also a battle he was not quite ready to hand over.

It was tough, being the fake pretend owner of a music store sometimes!

Groovy Tunes is open!

There were some new vinyl and CDs and even a box of cassettes that seemed to have been shipped straight from the 1980s to be processed and put away, which worked fine for Troy, because the stereo was pumping out some beats that he was just sort of vibing to to the point where he just started spitting lyrics to go along with it.

He didn't even really know where the words were coming from, but he definitely getting into it and he'd be murmuring along with them throughout the day and wishing he could actually remember them later, but sometimes, gold was emphemeral, and you couldn't keep lightning in a bottle.

Groovy Tunes is open!

[[ honestly, it has taken me way too long to bring some Gambino into this shit, but since 3005 has been stuck in my head lately, I'm pretty sure that's a sign ]]

Troy definitely didn't know enough about Christmas music to realize quite yet that the version of 'Carol of the Bells' that was playing on repeat over the store's sound system was not quite the same version as everywhere else.

All he knew was that it was definitely annoying after about the third time and he was pretty sure today was going to actually be the best day to personally test out how efficient some of those noise-cancelling headphones actually were.

He was just going to be particularly careful to not get the wires tangled up.

Groovy Tunes is open!

Well, it was the most wonderful time of the year again! If by wonderful, you actually meant horrible and somewhat terrifying and make Troy actually glad he grew up in a weird religious cult that didn't celebrate Christmas because surprise! It was actually the worst!

Although, he had to admit, while last year had left his fairly traumatized about the whole thing, so far it...wasn't too bad? Like, there were polar bears handing him soda, and he did like soda, and it almost felt like kind of a peace offering? To make up for last year? But he was also a little reluctant to trust it. Oh, he'd still take the soda and drink the crap out of those sodas, Coke was delicious, especially in those old-timey glass bottles and stuff, but he wasn't about to let his guard down yet, that was for sure!

But so far, it had just been those dolls yesterday and the polar bears today, and that wasn't a bad start, even though the song the doll had been singing was definitely stuck in his head, so, as he was unloading new merch into the racks and shelves, he was singing it under his breath a little and giving it a more modern spin.

Did he have any idea what the words actually meant? Of course not.

But if anyone did speak Romanian, they would likely be pretty shocked by what was coming out of this poor, clueless kid's mouth right now.

Groovy Tunes is open!

Feeling oddly inspired by the musician he'd discovered last week, Troy thought maybe he could try his own hand at making some of his own music and sick beats, which meant that he'd dragged one of the keyboards to the counter with him, where he was experimenting with some sounds and scribbling down some potential lyrics in between dealing with whatever customers managed to wander in that day.

This was all pretty new to him, and most of what he was working on seemed to be poor attempts to disguise lyrics about particular girls that he knew and liked and also a much deeper piece about the somewhat emphemeral current existence of the tangled headphones wire monster ('Could it have been/you were a part of us this whole time/and all it took was a single line/to unravel the real you?'), but he felt they weren't actually that bad, and he wondered what it might take to convince Astrid to let him debut some of it on their radio broadcast tomorrow. Or at least next week, at the latest, so he could maybe polish it up a little before hand, or something...

But you know that, before too long, any attempts at legitimate song writing had devolved into just stringing together silly sound effects again, because who could possibly resist that?

Groovy Tunes is open!

Troy had to admit, one of the absolute worst parts of this job had to be...no, not the Annoying Vinyl Hipster...that dude was pretty bad, but dealing with him was just annoying. It didn't carry with it the complete and total existential dread and fear of the unknown (how would that be for a topic in his literature class?) that the Tangled Headphones Monster Probably Lurking in the Basement had. It was a fear he felt all too much whenver he thought he heard a weird sound or a bump or a groaning from the air ducts. Sometimes there was a rattling. Sometimes a slithering, like a snake, and he honestly wasn't sure if it was actually the potential monster in the basement, or just the stereo still on its spooky music bullshit some more.

But...but...!

He did have to admit that, today? This unknown fear was actually a little inspiring. He was really wracking his brain trying to think of what he was going to do for the homecoming dance, and, while Sexy Dracula was always ready in his pocket, he'd done that before, and he wanted to at least try to mix it up a little.

...perhaps he could consider Sexy Tangle Headphones Monster Probably urking in the Basement, actually. It was unique, to be sure, and he could even pull it off shirtless very easy, and all he'd have to do was tangle up some headphones, and he was all set!

Maybe you weren't so bad after all, Tangled Headphones Monster.

Just as long as you stayed in the basement, please.

Groovy Tunes is open!

The stereo was definitely doing that thing it did, where it seemed like it was capable of only playing what it wanted, and what it wanted was to just keep a bunch of songs clearly by the same band on repeat, which, you know, Troy was fine with, even if the music was clearly old. But it wasn't bad, it had a good groove to it that he could appreciate and a few moments that made him wish he cared enough to learn how to sample and mix music some day.

But there was definitely something about the band. Like, he had a feeling that the stereo had chosen to play them specifically for some reason? But he just couldn't, for the life of him, pinpoint exactly why, and it was driving him mildly crazy.

Whether or not him actually learning the actual name of the band would help in this was anyone's guess.

Groovy Tunes is open!

[[ though likely sp, though no one is probably surprised by this fact ]]

Troy had really hoped that Tisarwat would have changed her mind about the Christmas decorations this week, but he was dismayed (and mildly terrified) to find that this was not the case.

And he'd take them down himself if it weren't for the fact that....well....being viciously attacked by string lights was not something you wanted to have happen twice in your lifetime. Sure, they seemed harmless enough now but he wasn't taking any chances.

In fact, he was considering the defensive possibilities of wielding a violin bow for protection. At least he was until he remembered about microphone stands.

Groovy Tunes is open!

Was there anything worse than your boss unexpectedly dropping in on your shift so that you had to make it seem like you actually worked while you were at work and not just hang around listening to music or goofing with instruments?

Yes. There absolutely was, and that was your boss unexpectedly dropping in on your shift so that she could apparently start decorating for Christmas, which you very firmly did not like, in September, because she apparently thought it was December.

Forget all the trauma that Troy had wrapped up in Christmas decorations because he had been violently attacked by them to the level of clinic visits last year, but then Tisarwat had to go and insist they start playing Christmas music, too, which meant probably having to hear that Mariah Carey song about five million times before the end of the day.

This was so dire that Troy wasn't even going to pretend to be cool about it, looking at Tisarwat with the most soulfully desperate eyes he could muster.

"Tisarwat," he said. "Please. Just...no. You can't...you can't do this to me. We still have several more months!"

Tisarwat just gave Troy one of those consoling sort of looks that grown-ups gave kids when they weren't going to listen to a word they said, which was weird, because she wasn't that much older than Troy, and said, "I think you just need to get into the December spirit, Troy."

"Why would I ever want to do that?" he called out after her, as she walked away, dismissing his appeals entirely to go put more tinsel up, leaving Troy to just look miserably at the stereo currently belting out about rocking around the Christmas Tree.

Groovy Tunes is open.

[[ I don't have severe retail related holiday trauma cultivated over decades, what are you even talking about??? ]]

Troy was kind of hoping that whatever had gotten into the record players last week, demonic or otherwise, had sort of worked itself out, but when he eventually, tentatively, brought himself to test it out, the results were....not encouraging! In fact, they sounded much, much, much worse!

It turned out that Troy really had no clue how to use a record player and had somehow managed to simply get them all stuck on playing things backwards without realizing it, but, for now, he wasn't going to get even remotely close enough to them to realize this, and was, instead, going to be staying firmly at the counter, googling where to purchase holy water online.

Probably Etsy?

Groovy Tunes is open!

With his boss gone for a little while, Troy figured it was a good time to just sort of slack off at work and listen to music, but he mostly just wound up generally distracted sort of...thinking about things.

Things like...maybe pizza for lunch. Pizza was pretty good. In fact, most round-shaped foods were good. He honestly couldn't think of a round-shaped food he didn't like. Pizza, hamburger, cookies, donuts. Didn't he see something recently about donuts? Maybe he should get some donuts. If you thought about it, CDs were kind of like donuts of the music world, only instead of eating them with your mouth-holes, you consumed them with your ear-holes, but unlike donuts, you could keep 'eating' them, the only digesting going on there was with your brain into ideas, unless there was something wrong with your CD player...

...needless to say, clearly, there was a lot of work being done at Groovy Tunes this week. Definitely...

Groovy Tunes is open!

Figuring he didn't have much work to do that day, especially now that they had the annoying hipster to foist a lot of stuff onto (that was the whole reason Tisarwat hired him, right, was so that they didn't have to do as much work? Sure, she never explicitly said as much, but that just made sense, didn't it?), Troy decided he was going to finally get around to playing around with some of the remixing and DJ equipment that had that was mostly collecting dust anyway.

Did he have any idea what he was doing with any of it?

Nope!

Did he even bother looking at the instruction manuals or for help online?

Yes, and then promptly decided it would be nice if they wrote it in English (they did) and went back to just having a more...intuitive learning experience.

Was there actually a lot of things that needed to be done around the store, like a few shipments piling up at the back door, a few broken instruments that needed to be shipped off to various repair shops, and a few special orders that needed to be fulfilled?

Yup! But you aren't ignoring them if you just didn't bother checking to see that they were there, right?

Groovy Tunes is open!

It was a good thing there wasn't a whole lot of work to do at the store that day, because Troy was spending most of it on the computer at the register, doing some Very Important Research.

This research included the terms 'paintball' 'cannon', 'can you make a paintball cannon', and 'where to find a cannon.'

The more he researched, the less his moment of inspiration in yesterday's pirate class to potentially carry over into paintball class later this week seemed feasible, but, dammit! He was not about to give up yet, he was convinced that this idea was far too brilliant to just let Google deter him so quickly.

Maybe if he made his own cannon? Would a cannon be difficult to steal and/or borrow??

He was sure he'd figure something out by the end of the day...

Groovy Tunes is open!

There were definitely some days when Troy thought it was pretty cool that his job was basically just doing nothing all day except for listen to music and sometimes roll his eyes at that one hipster guy who always came in for vinyl records, but there were also other days where he actually kind of wanted to do something? But not, like, you know, actual somethings, he would leave all that stuff to his boss, but more like a setting up a Jenga tower of cassette tapes and playing against himself and seeing how long he could go before the whole thing toppled over kind of something.

By the end of the day, he was going to get really good at this sort of thing!

Groovy Tunes is open!