xp_logs | Thursday afternoon: Jay/Terry

Jay shows up at Terry's suite to hang out with his BFF. In the process, he gets (almost) naked, courts death and gets a homework assignment.

Jay leaned into the door of Terry's suite, knocking on it briefly. "Tis' the man o' yer dreams, standin' 'ere, open up or Ah'll be forced to take drastic measures o' undressin' in the hallway," Jay called out into the corner of the frame and fanned his wings behind him, cupping the door when she opened it to just see him and feathers. Topless, he hooked his thumbs into his jeans and undid the top button, going for the zipper. "Ya wanna see the rest?" he teased.

Was that a half-naked Guthrie standing outside her door? Terry blinked several times, waiting for the hallucination to clear up. Yes, it was exactly that. Her life was so cool sometimes. Collapsing into giggles was probably the wrong reaction. "You're a horrid creature," she scolded as she reached out and yanked him into the suite, closing the door behind him as she laughed. "What if I'd been Ms Frost?"

Lazily he stumbled into the room, kicking the door closed and whirled her around, pulling her body against his in a slow dance. "Than Ah guess Ah wouldn' --" he paused, pressing his forehead to hers and giving her a brief but full kiss on the lips. "--be doin' tha." He grinned, grinding against her and spun them again before letting her go to fall on the couch. "Ah reckon you'd be as cold as ice if you was. Wha's this 'bout a frosty anyways? Ya livin' with one? Not the sister." he asked in disbelief.

"What's in your head, Jay? Are you drunk?" Terry demanded laughing still, slightly breathless from landing on the couch. Her hands went up to her hair to push in the pins that had started to come loose. "I've been living with Miss Frost for nearly a month. She needed a room and I hardly need the whole suite to myself."

"Ah missed you. Tha's all. An' Ah'm bored outta mah skull without ya." Jay left her to fix her hair on her couch and wandered over to the cold room belonging to the ice queen's sister. He opened the door, walking in and inspecting her things. "Yanno, ya can tell a hellofva lot 'bout someone an' how they living. How come you didn' mention 'er before?" Jay stopped, recoiled his hand and turned around abruptly. "She a telepath?" he asked. If she was, she'd know he was in her room. Or maybe not. He wasn't sure to what length telepaths could be telepathic and took that moment to do up his jeans.

"Oh for...get out of there! She's a person with a right to privacy, you dolt." Terry was up off the couch in a heartbeat, grabbing him again and pulling him back into the common room. "I didn't mention it because I thought you'd have noticed by now. How was I to know you were in the land of tunnel vision again? Come here and quit being a snoop."

"Hey!" Jay whined as Terry pulled him out of the room. "Don't get all rough wit me. Ah might blow mah load cause Ah havn't had sex in a decade. Wha's wrong with a lil' snoopin'?" he asked, wriggling out of her grasp and weaseling his way back into the room. "Ah bet she has a dildo--" he went to the dresser and opened the top drawer. "Oh! Looky 'ere," he laughed, picking up a thong and displaying it for Terry.

"You're an idiot. She's not a telepath, she's a reader. She can tell things by touching objects. Put that back!" She wasn't about to touch it herself, not being suicidal. "Would you please come here? Honestly, if this is all because you can't get laid, I'll point out that you work in a bloody club. As a bartender. If you don't get 20 numbers a night, I'll eat my school books."

"Imagine where these have been?" he laughed and dropped them back into the drawer before leaving the room. "So she'll know Ah was 'er room, snoopin' 'round?" It made him only grin more as he went into her room looking for her guitar. "Yeh, sure Ah get 20 numbers a night but it don't mean that any o' 'em are fuckable. 'Sides, Ah'm holdin' out," he picked up a framed picture of Bobby and pressed it to his chest. "--fer the perfect man."

"I didn't say I'd give you him just because you don't want your 20 offers a night." Patience and Charity sat side by side next to her desk, each in its case. Terry flopped onto her bed, rolling onto her stomach and watching his restless roving. She had nothing to hide from his snooping, so wasn't worried. "You can't complain if you're turning down opportunities."

Jay snorted. "Ah don' want 'em. Ah don' know why. Ah just don'," he said, setting Bobby's picture down on the dresser. "Ya think Ah'd be jumpin' at the chance to sleep with all those guys but Ah just wanna write music." He found her guitar and picked it up, sitting on the edge of the bed. Resting a leg up against her side, Jay fiddled with the strings, tuning it. "Been plain' alot lately. Feel like mah muse is back."

"Ready to start performing again maybe?" She liked listening to him play, a natural showman with a quiet talent. Patience wasn't far out of tune; Terry played regularly, after all. "Or teaching? I was thinking of offering the kids here lessons."

"Maybe performin'. Ah've been writin' some new material but," he shrugged. "Ah dunno. We'll see wha' happens. It's sorta country, sorta somethin' else. Ah havn' gotten 'round to perfectin' it. Ya wanna hear it?"

"Of course!" Terry responded, like she couldn't believe he'd asked in the first place. She sat up, crossing her legs under her and leaning forward eagerly.

"Don' laugh," he started and shifted on the bed so he was more comfortable. "Al'ight. It's called 'Silent from within'." He cleared his throat and strummed the guitar once before his fingers quickly picked at the strings in a complicated set of chords. He began.

"From the moment you felt it, it was all too real, hard to feel. Inside you accept ..tha' you could never live ...without the touch of skin. Ah waited too long there. You've gone too far away from here."

He fell into the chorus, three vocals harmonizing instead of one. "Ah tried. Ah failed. Just like everybody else. Ah watched you cry, what a silent way to die. Ah lost mah mind to you, lets be there, in mah fabricated, self proclaiming nightmare."

"From the signs that Ah'm seeing, Ah can tell your gone. Ah can' find... the road that leads down.. an apology still is too much to ask. You wait too long now. Ah've fallen too far away...from here." He played the chorus again before continuing.

"From the moment you felt it. It was up to me, hard to see. Inside you accept that... you could never live... without the touch of skin. Ah wake up all alone. Ah felt too much, Ah hate too much, Ah fell too much, You don't know."

He played the chorus one more time before abruptly placing his hands over the strings and looked up at her. "Well?"

Terry nodded, her expression thoughtful. "I like the lyrics. Do you think in the bridge, if you went..." She hummed an alternate melody, a little bluesy, softening his tendency to twang. Her fingers itched to take the guitar from him but she knew better than to take over someone's creative process. Or someone else's pain.

Nodding a beat, Jay looked down at the strings, trying to mimic what she was doing, and tried to follow it. Patience had a whole new meaning for him when he played her instruments. He stopped abruptly again, and sighed. "Ah just' can't get away from mah stupid southern accent. Makes mah songs sound country when Ah'm tryin' ta be different."

"Country's just blues with a wail instead of a weep. Give her here." She held out her hands for Patience and fingered the chords for him, "See?" She played it through, humming his melody since she didn't have the lyrics memorized.

He nodded, filling in with the lyrics, trying to add a bit of blues to it. "Mmm, slow 'er down there an' it sounds like it's gettin there."

"Slow it down, or..." she double timed it, gave it a little bit of her own more rock influence, "You've got a little bit of the anger coming through then. All depends how you want to play the tune. Notes don't have to change much to give you a new sound."

Anger was something he could deal with and he let his words seep into it, a little harder as she played, adding an eerie octave to it in a harmony of three people. He leaned back on his arm, adjusting his wing so it didn't sit on the bed at an awkward angle and he brought his voice down to what he considered a crude level in singing.

The rasping growl was what it needed and Terry nodded, "Not everything's a choir of angels." She stilled the strings and offered Patience back to him. "Ready to try that?":

"Yanno this is soundin' like sorta alternative, but not, right?" he asked, taking the guitar for her and adjusting one of the strings. His fingers plucked away mid song and he bit down on his accent, trying to curb it towards something a little more mournful but nitty gritty. "From the mo.....ment you felt it. It was up to me, hard to see. Inside you accept that... you could never live... " He flattered and dropped playing. "Like tha?"

"Not what I'd have done but very much who you are." Terry grinned. "Do I get producer credit? I can sneak you into the studio at school. I know a guy."

"Yeh?" he grinned back at her and perked up even more at the mention of studio time. "Really? Ya think Ah should be recordin' it so soon? AH mean, Ah jus' wrote it not too long ago. Sounds like it needs some work, don't cha;' think?"

"I think you need to get it down on tape so that you can hear it for yourself. It's hard to critique your work while you're playing it. Might as well do it in the studio. I can get some of my friends to play back up for you too," Terry flipped herself forward so her head dangled off the edge of the bed, grabbing at a folder under it and dragging it back up. "Once you've got the tape, we'll call Alison." She pulled out several blank staff sheets and handed them over.

Jay leaned over and took the papers, draping himself across her, turning side ways until his head was practically dangling off her side. "Ya want me ta write it all up huh?" He only had the lyrics down pact, all the rest was in his head. "That's gonna take a bit."

"Musicianship involves actual work sometimes. And I'm not going to do it for you." She ran her fingers through his hair, grinning at him. "Besides, you should have plenty of time to do it what with all the sex you're not having."

Throwing the papers over his head, they scattered over her floor and he set the guitar aside. Lounging over her, Jay stretched out and turned over, propping his head up with his hands and blew out a sigh. "Thanks fer remindin' me."