thefuckup | 002; voice + action

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002; voice + action

[Private to the Marquis]
Hey, you free? We should meet up. [Yes, this is a booty call. Yes, he totally missed the Marquis's apology post. HE DOESN'T PAY MUCH ATTENTION TO THE NETWORK.]

[Open Spam]
[TJ typically likes to fill his days begging to get into the pub and drinking for as long as he can get away with. Alcohol has largely replaced his other vices or coping mechanisms or whatever you want to call them, largely out of convenience. It's free and readily available, and he doesn't have a warden bearing down on him just yet, so he's taking advantage of it (and any soft-hearted warden) while he can.

Still, he can't get drunk all the time, so during those moments of sobriety? He can occasionally be found in the music room, playing the piano. It's one of his only talents, and he finds some small solace in the music. Sometimes, it even helps him to forget he's on this goddamn crazy boat with its glowing skeleton men and aliens and crazy "floods"...

Anyway, follow the sound of the music and interrupt him. He could use some company.]

[OOC: STILL WORKING ON TJ'S FLOOD TAGS. I'm getting through them slowly but surely. And yes, those are Ke$ha lyrics in the post tags. Don't judge me.]

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This is the part, I believe, that someone explains to you what a flood is.

Energetic though you were, I'm not the same man I was by any stretch of the imagination.

I know what a flood is. [ TJ's a regular BARGE VETERAN now. ]

And-- what do you mean? Are you saying you're... not... the Marquis de Sade? [ He still can't believe he's trying to arrange a second hookup with the Marquis de Sade, but there you have it. ]

Oh, I am. Just much older.

[ Hey, TJ's kind of desperate right now, so he can work with older... to a degree. His voice takes on a cautious, wary note. ]

Just... how much older?

My daughter is your age.

[ FUUUUUUUUUUUUU-- ]

I hate this ship.

It was enjoyable while it lasted, persimmon. Thank you for giving me such an enjoyable afternoon.

Sure. It was fun. Thanks for making this place tolerable for a while.

You're welcome to drop by again -- for wine, conversation, what have you. You'll find there are enough young men your age to divert your attentions that you should not mourn the loss of one too long, and it never hurts to make a friend besides. [Because he assumes he can wear him down eventually.]

Edited 2014-06-05 02:51 (UTC)

Yeah, uh. Yeah, that'd be great. [ You just MAY, Marquis. You just may. ] I could use as many friends as I can get here. [ Friends, he figures, equals safety. Protection. Just in case anything goes wrong. ]

[Needy is still wandering a bit, finding her bearings. But too she's trying to figure out the places she wants to hang out, the places that she feels safe in.

And maybe even happy.

The music room isn't high on the list only because she doesn't play anything herself. But she's walking by at one point and overhears someone playing the piano...really, really well from the sound of it.

She has to backtrack, and stick her head in curiously to find out.]

Oh. It's you. [Recognition and mild surprise.]

Wow. [ He stops his playing and looks over the piano at her. ] Are you really so surprised? [ Okay, so maybe he doesn't seem like a musician-- or, if he seemed like a musician, he'd probably seem like... a bass player or drummer or something, not a classically-trained pianist. Maybe. Who knows what he seems like to the people on the Barge, without his fame and family name coloring people's perceptions of him. ]

Um. [She just kind of stares at him blankly, for a moment. The 'yes' is written all over her face, but she has enough tact she doesn't want to just out and say it.] Well.

You just...didn't seem the type. I guess.

The type? [ He raises his brow. ] What do I seem like? [ Oh, TJ, never ask people that question. ]

Not...someone who knows how to play the piano? Especially that well? I don't know. [She squints her eyes almost closed and shakes her head, frowning confusedly.] You didn't seem like a guy who has those kind of...talents.

[Gee Needy you're so nice.]

[Well, at least she didn't say that he didn't seem like the type to have talents. Period. "Those kind" at least softens the blow to his ego.]

I've been playing since I was a kid. [He punctuates that with a brief, whimsical chord on the piano.] My dad wanted me to make a career of it, but. [Shrug. He'd rather be a nightclub owner. Partner. Whatever.]

Well, maybe you enjoy it more if you just keep it as a hobby. [She shrugs, a little forceful.] Still, a musician, that's cool. I can tell you've been playing for awhile. The last guy I dated, he played the drums, in our school marching band.

[Talking about Chip might not be the best idea but she's trying to stay casual on the subject.]

[ He grins with some amusement. ]You dated a band geek? [ Yes, TJ, throw stones at the band geeks, because pianists are so much cooler. ] Was he any good?

[She manages a smile back, though there's a passing twinge in her eyes.] I lost my virginity to a band geek, thank you very much. And he was just fine.

Oh yeah? Were you two in love? [ As if he loved the person he lost his virginity to. Truth be told, he never loved anybody until Sean, and of course that ended terribly. ]

I thought I was. [Her faces falls a bit.] He told me he loved me...when he died. Right in front of me. [Her voice catches and she looks down.]

[ TJ's eyes widen briefly, and he frowns with some sympathy. It's certainly not what he expected to hear; he thought they'd just share cute high school stories or something. ] Shit. [ A beat. He doesn't really know what to say. ] I'm sorry.

Yeah. It's okay. [She's still looking down, having made her face go blank and hard and far away.] I shouldn't have even mentioned it, sorry. This is why I fail at talking. I have too much shit I keep bringing up.

Hey, it's fine. [ TJ's never really been great at lending comfort and sympathy-- Douglas was always better at all that-- but he feels like he should at least try to help Needy get her mind off of her dead boyfriend. She helped him out with his goddamn bird problem, after all. ] If you want to talk about shit, we can talk about shit. [ After all, TJ's life has basically been one slow-motion trainwreck. He's got lots of shit he can bring up. ] Like, my last boyfriend? [ If Sean can really be counted as his "boyfriend" when TJ was just the side piece. Anyway, he counts off on his fingers. ] Closeted. Married. And a Republican. [ In short: a whole mess of issues. And that's not even getting to the ugliness that occurred after their affair had been discovered. ]

[She can't manage a laugh but she does have to smile, amused.]

Wow. That's...that's pretty messed up. What did you go and date a guy like that for?

Because... [So many reasons, "blinded by love" being the primary one. But he's not going to go and admit that, so he just laughs and says:] You should've seen his abs. [Better to sound shallow than vulnerable.]

Oh, I see. That explains everything. [Not really, and she's pretty sure that isn't the whole story. The pause before he laughed kind of gave that away.]

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