The Roof; Late Friday Morning.

[by137]

Although he'd spent a proper day afk brooding, A.J. was still feeling upset about that whole thing with Annette coming in the other day. And the more the thought about it, the more angsty emo upset he got. Maybe, yeah maybe she didn't know any better. But Annette was smarter than that! She had to have known what she was doing, and if she knew

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[scary_jeff]

After a while, Jeff, bored and finding himself strangely roommate-(and girlfriend)less, wandered up onto the roof. He spared AJ half a glance, then moved on to rustling about the premises, looking at things. "It's weird being up here when I've still got all my underwear," he noted.

[by137]

...Somethings just...would always manage to get through angst like a knife through butter, and that...that was one of them. A.J., who'd been distracted and wrapped up and brooding, hadn't really noticed Jeff, but he couldn't not notice Jeff's words.

"...what?"

[scary_jeff]

Jeff looked up from where he'd been fiddling, flashing A.J. somewhat of a confused, oddly patronising smile. "Last couple of times I was here I had to compensate for lack of pants," he explained, "And trousers, 'cos my dog keeps doing things to them. It's weird being up here without that particular brand of urgency. Emergency clothing urgency really gets the adrenaline going."

[by137]

"I...can't say I'd know," A.J. admitted. "And, uh, no offense, but I'm glad this time is different? Don't know if I could handle any...emergency clothing urgency right now..." He let out a wry breath of a laugh, shaking his head as he went back to his painting a little. He half wondered if this guy who's name he still wasn't sure he knew or not would point out anything suggestive in this one like he did the sets. Pointing out something like that right now might actually be helpful...

[scary_jeff]

Eventually, it became somewhat inevitable that Jeff find himself standing by the painting, staring down at it with a scrutinizing glint in his eyes. "Your squiggle's too squiggly," he commented, "There should be more of an arch, there. And honestly, right now it sort of lacks entirely in cleavage of either the upper or bottom variety."

[by137]

..Or maybe not so helpful. A.J. shook his head.

"Everyone's a critic."

[scary_jeff]

"That's why all the best paintings are nude," Jeff noted, with some satisfaction, "There's no need for criticism if everybody's naked in it."

[by137]

"The best?" A.J. asked, although, really, he slowly realized that some of his favorites, yes, involved nudes. Huh. "But I don't know if there's no need for criticism just because they're naked..."

[scary_jeff]

"Have you ever looked at a nude and the first thing on your mind was criticism? I think not," Jeff said, with utter conviction, "Except perhaps where it concerns the depth of the cleavage involved, which is something I find is sort of lacking in abstract nudity."

[by137]

After a slight pause of worried thought over the fact that, actually, sometimes he did think of criticism first, A.J. pointed out, "I am an artist. Sometimes you can't just turn the desire for composition and lighting off like that."

[scary_jeff]

"You poor man," Jeff said. He was awfully sympathetic in a patronising kind of way. "Have you tried seeing a doctor about that?"

[by137]

"Um, no, I didn't think to," A.J. said, head tilting. "Um, but...you know, if we didn't have that, then how do you think artists actually get around to painting nudes? If we didn't have that...critical filter, they'd never get painted. Then where would you be?"

[scary_jeff]

"Being an artist," Jeff said, simply.

[by137]

A.J. stared a little, because, while the logic made sense, it just... "Wow," he said, rubbing his face a little before shaking his head. That sort of fixation was almost impressive.

[scary_jeff]

At that, Jeff gave A.J. his thumbs up again, because maybe positive reinforcement could snap the boy out of whatever weird universe he was orbiting. His job there done to his satisfaction, he left the roof whistling some tune to himself.