A Muse's Inspiration (closed for Poprockz)

[Lucian_Devine]

"Your own identity?" Blake questioned, cocking his head, even as he remained on his knees. Still, he noted the smile on Euterpe's face and did reach out to take the black card that she pulled out of her pocket. He gazed down at the golden letters, and even turned the card this way and that, letting them catch the sun at different angles before looking up at her once more.

"And would you like to be called Alexandria, even when we are in the supreme privacy of your own home as well?" Blake asked, his gaze lifting to meet hers as he flexed his legs and rose to his feet so that he could slide her card safely into the front pocket of his jeans.

 

[Poprockz]

There was a chuckle. “No. In my home and when we are alone, you would use my true name. You alone have that privilege.” Reaching out, she took her base guitar from him and started to tune it.

 

[Lucian_Devine]

Euterpe's chuckle was infections, pulling a smile to Blake's face. Her words made him blush and bow his head his head though. "And it's a privilege I won't take lightly, Euterpe." Blake said, the smile on his face changing to a serious expression as he spoke, but returning afterwards as he simply nodded to her as she moved to grab her guitar and start tuning it.

While Euterpe was tuning her guitar, Blake grabbed a music stand for himself, figuring that she had the song memorizing since she gave him the only copy she produced. He then set the music on the stand, took a long, slow, and deep breath, and started his vocal warmups. His eyes naturally found their way to the beautiful goddess before him of their own volition, even as his voice, facial muscles, and diaphragm prepared themselves for what he was about to put them through.

 

[Poprockz]

Euterpe was a goddess of music, and this her own instrument was always fine-tuned. Thus, she did not join him in his vocal warm-ups. She could feel his eyes upon her, but did not glance at him while she worked on the guitar. She was likely a fascination to him, something one didn't see in their lifetime in normal circumstances.

It didn't take her long to tune the instrument, and when she was done she politely waited for him to complete his exercises. He sounded quite good. No doubt he kept his vocal chords in good working condition for his passion, and she could tell that he indeed had perfect pitch. She had to admit that she was excited to sing with him; it had been such a long time since she had done a duet, and she liked the complexity it added to music.

 

[Lucian_Devine]

When Blake finished his warmup exercises he turned his body more fully towards the muse, not at all surprised to find that Euterpe was done tuning her guitar and was waiting on him to finish. "I'm ready when you are." He said, giving her a smile and a nod, eagerly looking forward to the first duet he'd done since high school.

As much as Blake was looking forward to the duet, it was impossible for him to not be utterly entranced by the sight of Euterpe as she started playing, the grace with which her divine and delicate fingers moved on the strings as she picked the intro of the song. He was so caught up in it that he missed his mark completely, only recognizing it when she stopped playing.

"Fuck!" Blake exclaimed, cussing loudly as his cheeks flushed with embarrassment. "I'm sorry...I was...never mind what I was...it won't happen again, I promise." He continued, franticly apologizing. He took a long and slow breath to steady himself before nodding to Euterpe once more.

When Euterpe started to play the second time, Blake actually closed his eyes. He couldn't get distracted by the sight of her if his eyes were closed. He felt the music flowing through him, helped along by Euterpe's power. His dark brown eyes opened, burning with a fiery intensity one bar before his cue, and this time he didn't miss said cue. His voice lifted into the air, joining the bass guitar, bringing with it a surge of Euterpe's power and inspiration. He was ready for it, guiding and channeling it into the performance, pushing it into every note, every dynamic, and even every breath, trying to perform the music the way she'd meant it to be performed.

Euterpe's voice suddenly joining his, along with her guitar would have knocked Blake on his ass if he wasn't as dialed in as he was. His hands gripped the music stand with a white-knuckle grip when their harmony came, and then even harder when the unison came. It was a single perfect note near the top of his range and the bottom of hers, held just long enough for even a casual listener to understand what it was before the splitting back into a harmony, her voice fading out, then his, and finally the guitar, with the song ending how it had begun.

The performance left Blake all but breathless in all the best ways. In fact, he'd been so focused on the song and how it made him feel that he genuinely forgot that the performance was meant to be for Dean and Kyle's sake until he heard them start to clap. The pair had stopped after they'd come around the corner, rounding it to see who'd been singing with Blake, but not wanting to intrude upon the performance.

"Looks like he's finally back, and it's about time!" Dean said, bending down to pick up the guitar case he'd set down, walking forward, and patting Blake on the back. "Dude's been a real buzz kill since he more or less quit drinking and whoring eighteen months ago. He won't even tell us why."

"At least he doesn't try to force us to do the same." Kyle chimed in as he too approached. "Are you the one we have to thank for pulling our lead singer's head out of his own ass?" He continued, turning his head towards Euterpe?"

 

[Poprockz]

Her voice was amazing, as was the amount of feeling and depth she was able to put into her performance. Part of it came from her own feelings, while part what just her talent at entertaining.

She found the sound of their voices comingling to be quite nice. The harmonies, the way they wove around each other-it was intoxicating in a way. He was a fantastic singer, and she found herself enjoying it a lot more than she would have otherwise. Euterpe got really into it as well and found herself being carried away by their vocal dance.

The clapping brought her attention back to what they were there for. So these were his bandmates. Hopefully she had made a good first impression, at least regarding her skill.

"Alexandria Turpentine, at your service," she smiled, shifting and letting the guitar rest against her abdomen as she reached out to shake Kyle's hand. The guitar was on a strap, so she wasn’t worried about it falling.

Her eyes glanced at Blake for a moment. “I don’t know anything about his habits recently, but we’ve been talking a lot recently regarding the band, management, and coaching.”

 

[Lucian_Devine]

Blake chuckled along with his bandmates at their good-natured jibes, but when he caught Euterpe's glance at him, he felt his face flush before he lowered his gaze from hers.

"Heh, I don't know about helping me pull my head out of my ass, but she's definitely helped me. I'm feeling better. I'm singing better. Hell, I'm even writing better. I've got some new songs that you guys won't believe!" Though Blake knew that he was trying to sell his friends a story of sorts, it helped that most of it was true, helping him act more natural.

"Hey, relax man. You had us at the corner when we heard you two singing. You getting your head out of your ass is just icing on the cake! Now we just gotta get some rum in you and you in some puss, and everything'll be back to normal!" Kyle said after shaking Euterpe's hand and stepping aside to beside Blake so that Dean could do the same.

Dean, meanwhile, couldn't help but check out Euterpe's guitar, even as he shook her hand, setting his own case down while he did. "Woo, that thing even looks as good as it sounds. Damn girl, where'd you learn to play like that, and where've you been all my life?"

 

[Poprockz]

He had mentioned that he hadn’t had anyone for 18 months, but this time she wondered why that might have been. He didn’t seem to have trouble becoming erect, nor did he seem like someone who had realized themselves as asexual. It was possible that he was exploring chastity as a means of repentance for his family, but that was unlikely. It wasn’t any of her business but… she would be lying if she said she wasn’t curious.

Euterpe chuckled, “you could say I’m self-taught. And I just moved into the area about a year ago, so I’ve been lurking. I was interested in becoming the band manager of this band.”

She held up her hands, “not that I want to take over or tell you what or how you should play, I just want to help you reach your potential. Getting you guys good gigs, opening doors- that would be my job. I heard you play and I just knew you’d make it big.” The woman spoke confidently as though she was absolutely sure of it.

“But no need to give me an answer now. Let me take you all out on the town tonight- on my dime. We can get to know each other and live it up for a night.” She flicked her hair over her shoulder gracefully.

 

[Lucian_Devine]

Blake hung back as Dean asked his questions, talked, asked his question, and complimented Euterpe's guitar. He also said nothing when she made her intentions known, choosing to study the reactions of his bandmates, especially when she made her follow-up comment.

Kyle seemed to be taking it in stride, more focused on watching Dean's initial flirtations with Euterpe while Dean was of course focused on said flirtations. Any doubts he, himself, had on whether or not she would succeed in her attempts to at least get the two of them to dinner more or less evaporated the second she flicked that beautiful sandy blond hair of hers over her shoulder with a divine level of grace and dexterity, making even the simple gesture seem like the most erotic thing in the world.

"Heh, well we know Dean is in." Blake said to Kyle, nodding his head towards the flirtatious man standing beside the goddess. "What do you say? Up for a night on the town, complete with free food, booze, and possibly bonus money in our future?"

Kyle turned to Blake, looked back at Euterpe, then looked back at Kyle. "Fuck it. Let's hear what she's got to say. Worst case scenario, we get a free night of luxury out of it."

Upon hearing Kyle's words, Blake approached Dean and Euterpe, putting his hand on the man's shoulder. "Well Miss Turpentine..." He started with a smile. "...I think I can speak for all of us when I say we'll take you up on that night on the town, provided Dean here can keep it in his pants long enough."

 

[Poprockz]

The muse chuckled, “Well I can’t blame him- I always preferred having my pants off.” There was a pause. “Dresses are much more comfortable in my opinion.” They were given a mischievous smile.

His bandmates weren’t hard on the eyes at all. In fact, she found Dean to be pretty attractive. She wasn’t planning on fucking any of them that night, but she decided that she wouldn’t mind if things went in that direction.

The woman felt in her pocket and sighed. “I left my other two business cards inside. Let me just grab them- I’ll be back in a moment.” With that, she turned and made her way back into the house. She was as much of a delight to see from the back as she was the front, her hips moving almost hypnotically as she went. The cards were actually back at her house, but it would be quick enough that they wouldn’t notice.

 

[Lucian_Devine]

All three men naturally stopped chatting and stared at Euterpe's first statement, all of their minds naturally going to the same place. Her second statement was of course a good coverup though, especially when it was followed by that knowing and mischievous smile.

When Euterpe spoke again, talking about her business cards, Blake lifted a hand to speak up, but she was already turning around. From that point, the sight of her ass swaying side to side with each step she took was enough to render him speechless. All three men watched as she walked across the porch and up the steps, only turning away at the first corned of the steps, lest they be caught staring. It was of course at that moment that Kyle spoke up. "Alright spill. What's the deal with you and Alexandria? Are you tapping that?"

"No..." Blake replied simply. "It's just business between us." The first part was of course a lie, but the second part was more or less the truth, making it easy enough to say to his friends.

"Don't bullshit us man." Dean said from Blake's other side, having approached while the two had been talking. "I've known you long enough to know that there's more to the story. Spill it."

Blake let out a heavy sigh, lowering his gaze as he tried to figure out how to spin this. He was coming up with pretty much nothing in regards to Euterpe, but... "I told you I wasn't tapping Alexandria, but that doesn't mean that I'm not going on dates. Yeah, yeah, I know, but this time was different. Yesterday I had a date with a model, a literal model. Her name was Olivia, and I took her to the Silver Spoon. Things were going good. Conversation was flowing. She got a fake emergency phone call that she didn't take. You know, the usual. We had dinner, drinks, and a quickie at her place. I got home late, woke up feeling great, and spent the morning writing up a storm!"

Dean and Kyle listened to the story, which was a mix of truth and lie. Olivia's name was true, as were most of the events, making it fairly easy for him to fabricate the story, and he couldn't help but wonder if Euterpe's inspiration helped a little in that regard. "Huh, that being the case, you won't mind if try and tap that then!" Dean said with no small amount of excitement.

"Not if I try and tap that first." Kyle followed up."

Blake simply shook his head, glad that they'd bought his lie, and that he hadn't had to kiss and tell in regards to Euterpe. He didn't know why, but when it came to her, he truly did care what she thought of him, even though he knew that it was likely a lost cause for pretty much every conceivable reason.

 

[Poprockz]

One thing to know about Euterpe was that she had excellent hearing. Thus, she was able to make out their conversation as she ascended the steps. She had expected him to tell them about their romp in the sheets as well as their shower play, but it seemed that he was intent on being tight-lipped about it.

Why?

It wasn't as though she was something to be ashamed of. In fact, if he wanted to, he could have boasted about having conquered her, seduced her, or even said that she couldn't resist and had come on to him. Yet he skirted the subject and made it out like the line hadn't been crossed. It... confused her. A lot of men would have divulged to their friends, or at least admitted that they had been given the privilege of seeing her naked.

The woman glanced at them before going inside, intent on going home via plant. When she passed the counter of the kitchen though, his gift came into sight and she decided that now was as good a time as any to take it home. They were such beautiful, vibrant Lilies. Obviously he had gotten them from a nursery that had taken good care of them. She picked up the pot and looked at them fondly before approaching his plant.

After speaking the words, she was gone in a flash and back a mere minute later. The lilies now occupied a prominent place in her room: right on the nightstand.

With that done and her business cards retrieved, she once again made her way outside.

 

[Lucian_Devine]

The men naturally continued to talk, gossip, boast during Euterpe's brief absence, but when they heard the door close, they stopped and lifted their gazes. Not a single one of them wanted to miss a single moment of the beautiful woman walking down the steps. Her tight jeans of course did their job to perfection, hugging every curve of her legs and hips while her knowledgeable movements made every step look like sin incarnate.

The trio of men were naturally at the base of the steps waiting for Euterpe, Dean and Kyle ready and waiting to accept the business card that she'd gone to get. They naturally marveled at them, just like he had, but Blake broke them out of it as he spoke up. "I guess the next obvious question to ask is whether we should get some practice in before we have our night on the town. What do you guys think?"

"Well, you were talking up your new music pretty hard." Dean said, casting a quick glance at Blake before turning his gaze back towards Euterpe. "So I think it's only fair that we at least look at it before we do anything else. Why don't you run on up and get it while we keep Miss Turpentine company."

Blake let his gaze flick back and forth between his friends, knowing full well what was on their minds, before shrugging his shoulders. "Fine by me. Back in a sec." While some people would have been reluctant to leave Euterpe alone with his friends, seeing the lust in their eyes, Blake knew that she could handle herself, and that he would be back quickly enough to put a stop to anything, should they try anything...unsavory, and he would stop anything unsavory, if he had to. Still, he took the steps two at a time, casting one final glance over his shoulder at the trio when he hit the first corner in the stairs before continuing onwards and upwards.

 

[Poprockz]

She was definitely down to jam or to watch if they didn't feel comfortable with her participating, so she had also agreed with Dean by way of nodding her approval. Once Blake started moving away, she turned her attention to the bandmates and shrugged.

"You don't have to call me 'Miss Turpentine' or anything, Ria is fine. I know my name is a mouthful, so I'm used to shortening it." Euterpe crossed her arms which resulted in her breasts being pushed together by this gesture, though whether it was intentional or not was anyone's guess. "I'm looking forward to getting to hear you guys play up close and personal- I've only ever seen videos at this point."

 

[Lucian_Devine]

The sight of Euterpe crossing her arms, and thus pushing her lovely firm breasts together certainly drew the attention of the two men attending to her, as if they weren't already one-hundred percent focused on her. "Heh, videos you say, and speaking of which, how did a beautiful creature such as yourself stumble upon such things anyway?" Dean asked, stepped a touch closer as he did so.

Kyle followed Dean's lead. "Did your, um, boyfriend show them to you, Ria?" He asked, stepping closer still, close enough to let his shoulder brush against hers. "Or girlfriend?" Dean fired back with a cheeky grin as he too stepped close enough for his shoulder to brush against hers.

 

[Poprockz]

She found it amusing how it was so obvious that they were trying to gauge her eligibility. Regardless, she found she enjoyed the attention, and she wasn’t going to dissuade them from trying to woo her. At that point she was shoulder-to-shoulder with both of them, but she didn’t mind. If she wanted to, she could burn them quite easily, or worse. Besides, this was pretty fun.

Her head turned to the side to look at one of them, then the other and she smiled coolly. “No, neither of those. Unattached as I am, I have a lot of time on my hands to pursue what I want. I needed a band who hadn’t made it big but had the potential for greatness, and you could say I was convinced when a friend showed me a clip of you guys at the Rock Roundup last year. You guys got second place, but I’m pretty sure the judges were bribed or something.”

while she did give them the info that she was single, they’d have to keep playing if they wanted her orientation.

 

[Lucian_Devine]

"Heh, yeah...We thought we had that one in the bag, but you never know who's bribing who..." Dean started. "...or who's sucking who's dick in the back room." Kyle all but continued Dean's sentence before continuing with his own. "I'm ninety perfect sure that those guys sold out their drummer's mouth for that win."

Dean took that as an opportunity to give Euterpe's shoulder a nudge. "That's thankfully something we'd never do, no matter how badly we wanted the win." Kyle once again followed his lead. "Speaking of which, what's the name of your last ex, and why didn't they come crawling back to you on their hands and knees apologizing and kissing your feet?" Dean picked up where Kyle left off this time. "God knows I would, because goddam, Ria, you are smokin' fucking HOT in those jeans. How do you manage to walk down the street without beating off suiters with a stick?"

 

[Poprockz]

"Oh I beat off plenty of people," She replied, "with a stick, of course." The muse's tone was obviously playful. It was true, she did garner a lot of attention for her looks, but she was more than enough confident and self-assured to reject whoever she wanted. She also had the perk of being able to diminish her presence if she wanted to- one of the perks of being a god.

Her lips curled up and she thought about it for a minute, her shoulder leaning into Dean's as her amber eyes looked up at his. "It was quite dramatic, actually. I was dating a man named Sabastian, but I got tired of his peacocking and took his sister Penelope as my lover. She was much more skilled, I found out. Needless to say, he was furious and family gatherings were very awkward. Eventually she broke it off after her parents arranged a marriage for her."

That wasn't truly what had happened, but she knew the mood would be ruined if she went into specifics. Sabastian had actually tried to murder his sister. Euterpe had prevented this, but in doing so she had been forced to kill him. With their son killed, the family had never forgiven her and thus forbade their daughter from continuing their relationship. This hadn't dissuaded their daughter, so they had enlisted another God in placing a curse upon Penelope, that whenever Euterpe was near her, she would experience unbearable nausea and headaches. That bastard Dionysis....

 

[Lucian_Devine]

Dean and Kyle both smiled at Euterpe's joke, and then chuckled when she finished the thought. "Of course." Kyle concurred, even as he looked on with a hint of jealousy as she leaned a bit more into Dean's shoulder, looked up at him with those amber eyes, and spoke.

"That...uh...does sound dramatic." Dean said, finding himself more than a little transfixed by Euterpe's amber eyes. "Yeah..." Kyle continued. "it's just a damn shame that all that happened before you could fuck your way through the rest of the family tree. It sounds like their parents could have used a good fucking to help them chill the fuck out."

Kyle was just nudging a little closer as well when Blake came through the door, having finished printing out copies of what he'd worked on last night and this morning. He looked down as he walked down the stairs, not the least bit surprised to see his friends crowded so close to Euterpe, a soft chuckle slipping from him on his way down.

When he reached the bottom, he handed a copy of the song to each of the other three, having printed off four copies, and eagerly awaited their thoughts on it.

 

[Poprockz]

The statement about Penelope’s parents was successful in getting a laugh from her. She could just imagine their grumpy faces as they did salacious acts with their children's’ lover.

When Blake returned, she took her own copy and leaned more against Kyle this time. The music was… excellent. Euterpe read her copy with excitement as she heard the notes in her head. She could imagine what it might sound like, and it pleased her greatly. Blake was truly talented whether he knew it or not.

“This is fantastic!” She breathed, looking up at Blake with a proud look in her eye. “You have outdone yourself, Blake.”

 

[Lucian_Devine]

The jealousy that Kyle had showed earlier naturally shifted to Dean's eyes when Euterpe's lean shifted from the one side to the other, even if her amber eyes were looking down at the music in her hands rather than up at Kyle like they had at Dean. Still, such were the fickle minds and attentions of humans.

Blake was of course oblivious to the more minute details between the trio, for the most part, but he let out a loud exhale when Euterpe exclaimed her praise for his work, and then another when Dean and Kyle echoed her praise. "Phew, you guys have no idea how glad I am to hear you say that. I was literally up all night, so late in fact that I literally passed out at my computer. I can't wait to hear how it actually sounds though. I wrote it specifically for you two, knowing your strengths." He then turned around and walked towards his music stand, speaking over his shoulder. "Let me know when you two are done trying to get your dicks wet so we can get some fucking work done."

 

[Poprockz]

The commanding way in which he spoke to his bandmates was interesting- she hadn't seen that side of him yet. To Euterpe, he had always deferred to her authority so it was a pleasant surprise to see that he was actually the leader of the group. The lead vocalist often was, but sometimes roles could move around, depending on the circumstances. This boded well. She liked the fact that he had a backbone and the ability to guide others.

Euterpe smiled to herself and shook off the two clingers by stepping forward and walking to the music stand Blake had. While she could play the song without it, she didn't want to let on just how talented she was yet, lest she scare them away. "Let's share a stand- unfortunately I didn't bring my own."

With that, she lifted her bass and readied herself for them to start. She knew she was closer to Blake than he might like while practicing, but she figured it was fine this once.

 

[Lucian_Devine]

Blake was barely able to contain the chuckle when he saw not only the sight of Euterpe shrugging off Dean and Kyle, but their reactions to it. What he wasn't about to contain though, was his reaction to her choice of where to stand for the song, especially when she made the decision to play along with them, which was not a guarantee, even though he'd chosen to write a bass line into the song. Given how the others had reacted, their previous performance had potentially been enough, but she didn't seem to want to take any chances.

"It's no problem at all, Miss Turpentine. I've got spares, but there's nothing wrong getting cozy, is there fellas?" As Blake asked his question, he flicked his gaze up to each of his bandmates and gave each of them a wink as he let his shoulder brush against Euterpe's. Some would consider it a risk, but really it was the game within the game, playing on their jealousy to manipulate them to vie more for her attention, thus indirectly approving of her presence in the process without even being asked. All that was left for Blake to do was play to that end while Dean got one of said music stands, since Kyle's music stand was always setup by his drums, wait for him to ensure his guitar was tuned, and they were good to go.

Once the group was good to go, Kyle counted them down, and they were off. Once they were off, it was everything Blake had hoped it would be, even without Dean and Kyle being muse-inspired. Having Euterpe with them on bass helped keep Dean from falling behind, and whether it was just because he was trying to impress Euterpe or he was having a good day, Kyle's dynamics were on point as well. Even Blake put everything into the performance, even though it was just a practice, just because everything seemed to be falling into place, and it seemed the best time, way, and evidence to convince his bandmates about Euterpe's usefulness, in case it was necessary.

 

[Poprockz]

“I let your bandmates know that you can all call me Ria if you like- it’s easier on the tongue,” she had responded with a wink. It may have seemed the normal, playful wink, but only Blake knew the shared joke between them. His bandmates were using a nickname for a fake name, and only he knew the name that had been bestowed to her upon her birth.

The song was incredibly fun to play, and more fun to listen to. Each of their parts worked so cohesively in pushing the song along and driving the tone and message of it along to their would-be audience. It truly felt like a real performance, which got her heart fluttering in excitement. By the time they were done, her cheeks were flushed slightly and she looked really satisfied; one might even say she looked like she had just had a good fuck. Well, those who knew what that looked like on her, at least.

“Mm, that was the best jam I’ve had in a very long time.” She ran her fingers through her hair. Little did they know just how long a long time truly was.

 

[Lucian_Devine]

Blake was half-drained by the end of the first new song and completely and utterly drained by the end of the session. The lack of sleep was really beginning to catch up to him, especially when the adrenaline started to die down.

"Goddam you aren't kidding..." Blake echoed after Euterpe. "...and I'm not just saying that to toot my own horn. I've never been this drained after a concert before, let alone a practice session...FUCK! I don't know about you guys, but I could REALLY go for that night out on the town. What do you think?

Dean and Kyle were drained as well, their skills having been well and truly tested by all of the new stuff he'd had, not just the completed song, even though they truly enjoyed it. They also echoed their enthusiasm and readiness night on the town they'd been promised, likely hoping to get into Euterpe's pants in the process.