Jay Guthrie - Phase 1
Jay recently returned to the mansion after a failed attempt at a country music career, due to money issues. With the pressure of his brother, Sam Guthrie, he came to the school to start college, helping him with the buisness side of music, and an attempt to change genres.
Contents
Details
Character Journal: x_icarus
Real Name: Joshua "Jay" Travis Guthrie
Codename: N/A
Aliases: N/A
First Appearance: September 1, 2004
Date of Birth: December 13, 1987
Place of Birth: Whitesburg, Kentucky
Citizenship: American
Relatives: Guthrie Family: Lucinda (mother), Thomas (father - deceased), Sam (older brother), Paige (older sister), Melody (younger sister), Elizabeth (younger sister), Joelle (younger sister), Jebediah (younger brother), Lewis and Meg (younger twins)
Education: High school diploma
Relationship Status: single
Occupation: traveling musician
Biography
Childhood
Joshua Guthrie is the third Guthrie sibling, just about a year younger than Paige. As a young boy he admired both his older brother and older sister, but when he grew up and they left for Xavier's, the fondness quickly grew to resentment and distrust. He felt abandoned, that the responsibility to work in the mines and help their mother raise the family was thrust upon him without him asking for it. And when his mutation manifested just five months later, it only served to deepen his bitterness, instead of developing a sense of empathy with Sam and Paige.
Jay realized that he was gay at 13, but given his perception of Kentucky values, kept it a secret. He also developed a taste for music at a young age, and his mother bought him his first guitar after his father died. It became the outlet for all his pent up feelings, although he rarely let anyone listen to the songs he wrote. When he was fifteen, he and his only friend at school, Manuelo, along with his friends James and Zach, formed a rock band, performing at town fairs and the local outdoors restaurant, The View. And that was where Josh met Kevin Cabot.
When Jay's wings sprouted from his back in January of 2004, instead of hiding them, Manuelo suggested that he show them off during concerts, and pretend that they were prosthetics. Everyone thought that was really cool, and no one asked any questions. The following spring, Kevin went backstage after a performance to introduce himself to Jay, but before he could say anything, saw that his wings were real. Taken aback, Kevin could barely speak before his sister Beth found him and dragged him away. Angrily, she explained to him that Jay was a Guthrie, a filthy mutant, while he was a Cabot. Guthrie and Cabots don’t mix.
Jay went into a short bout of mild-depression at learning who Kevin was, but could not stop his feelings. Manuelo, tired of hearing his love-sick talk, finally told Jay to go get his boy. So one night he showed up outside Kevin’s window, who was arguing with his sister. They shared their first kiss, and snuck out to the pond by the Guthrie farm to make love for the first time.
Their secret Romeo and Juliet-esque relationship lasted until August of 2004, when the Cabot patriarch started growing curious about where Kevin was going all the time. So one night, he and Kevin's older brothers followed him in secret. When they saw Kevin and Jay kissing passionately by the lake, they jumped out of their hiding place and attacked Jay. One of his brothers held Kevin back, while the other two and Mr. Cabot proceeded to attempt to beat Jay to death. Satisfied when he was unconscious, they left him for dead, with Kevin crying over his body. Kevin was utterly distraught, and he dragged Jay to the nearby lake and drowned them both, feeling that he was unable to live without him. However, that was the moment when Jay's healing factor kicked in. Waking up underneath the water, he swam to shore, taking Kevin's now lifeless body with him. Blaming himself for Kevin's death, he took a wooden stake from a nearby broken sign and tried to kill himself in true Shakespearean fashion. But his healing factor prevented him from dying. Ultimately he gave up and carried Kevin's body home.
Outed as gay and as a mutant, Lucinda decided that her third son could only adapt if exposed to a change of scenery. So, against Jay's deepest wishes, she enrolled him in Xavier's for the 2004-05 academic year and sent him past the Mason-Dixon Line.
Living At The X-Mansion
Arriving in September 2004, Jay's first weeks at the school were not happy ones. Feeling betrayed by his mother, who had sent him away from his beloved family, resentful of Sam and Paige for 'abandoning' the family themselves and still grieving over the loss of Kevin, Jay was suspicious, brooding and difficult to approach. He began to slowly warm to his suite mates, as he, Forge and Kyle all arrived within a month of each other, despite initial issues with Kyle caused by their mutations, their very different outlooks on life, and their backgrounds. At one point, these issues led to a physical altercation, with the two being separated by staff. Over time, Jay began to relax, making some inroads with his relationship with his siblings and beginning to accept his mutancy, to the point he even began performing in public again, with a series of gigs in Salem Center and elsewhere.
It was after one of these gigs that history repeated itself for Jay in the worst way possible. Becoming the target for Tommy Jones' hatred of mutants, Jay was again severely beaten, this time almost losing the use of his wings. He saw the beating as some kind of punishment, for being gay or for being a mutant or for being plain dumb, and he refused to disclose to staff what had happened and who was responsible. When Tommy himself appeared at the school, close to death, it was particularly difficult for Jay to deal with, and difficult for those who hadn't known to understand the violence of his reaction. One good thing came of the incident - through the machinations of Catseye, Jay and Kyle found themselves sharing a bed, which led to them beginning a physical relationship, something which deepened as Jay let himself fall in love with the feral.
In April 2006, Jay, Forge and Kyle were attacked by a mutant with the power to change the faces and bodies of others. Turned into the demonic-like 'monster' he believed himself to be as a mutant, Jay was forced to re-examine his personal beliefs and finally began to accept being a mutant. Then in June 2006, Kyle got involved with a fight club and was indiscrete with a groupie - when the news eventually reached Jay, he was distraught. The relationship ended and as graduation approached, Jay questioned his future at the school.
Graduation and After
Upon his graduation in July 2006, Jay decided it was time to seriously pursue his music career with his old band mates from Kentucky. Jay didn’t stray too far, returning first to touch base with his mother and bandmates. Checking to make sure his siblings were being good to her, Jay couldn’t help but notice her failing health. Torn between the only parent he had left, and his band, Jay opted to stay for awhile and look after her. Insisting that she was fine and Sam came around often to see her, his mother gave Jay some money and sent him on his way to make his musical future.
Reluctantly, he left and headed for Nashville. His bandmates eventually hooked back up with him, coming into town when Jay finally got their first gig. They were stoked and went through big preparations to make it an unforgettable show. The turnout of the audience was poor when the curtain went up, and by the end of the night, the manager was reluctantly giving cash out to the group. The look in his eyes said that he didn’t want them back. It was the first time Jay felt that getting on stage with few people in the audience was a bad omen, and he didn’t even believe in the stuff.
Returning back to his shabby basement apartment, Jay got on the phone with other bars to get more gigs. The last gig was just bad luck. They weren’t a bad group, in fact, they sang very well together, but the market wasn’t biting for some reason. Jay wanted to know why. Not only that, funds were taking a nose dive and he had to get something in the bank, otherwise, he wouldn’t meet next months rent. Food was already scarce in the fridge, and his loud landlords were doing nothing for his sleep deprived nights. If he wasn’t so loathed to admit it, he could very well say life was a little bit easier at the mansion – just emotionally harder.
Getting on the phone with his mother didn’t help and she wanted him to go to college when he confessed that things weren’t going quite as good as he had hoped for. By January, he was having a hard time but refused his mother’s suggestion to return to the mansion. He wanted another shot at a few gigs. Calling around, he got mostly an answering machine, or a very curt ‘no thank you’. No one wanted to even hear his music, and eventually, he started knocking on doors. Stressed that he was slowly losing money and he couldn’t get a gig, Jay tried to force his talent out, by rewriting the band’s songs and trying to come up with a great hit. The pressure only worsened whatever he poured out, and to his dismay, he wasn’t feeling as confident as he had when he first came. Two concrete gigs in bars for July and August were set up, but aside from that, Jay had come looking too late and the bar that wanted them were booked up, all but those dates. It wasn’t good for his morale and even more discouraging was that the band could only come out one more time from Kentucky before they all went back to school. While Nashville was the place to be for country/western music, Jay’s band wasn’t making any hits. Jay was convinced that they could make it, he just needed more time to write better songs, now that he knew what was wrong.
Money ran out before he could get another gig together after August, and his band went back to school. As for him, he went back to his mother’s house, broke and broken, he had no where else to go. This time, she wouldn’t take no for an answer, wanting to send him back to Xavier’s for writing, music, and business. She was convinced that he just needed a little more schooling, more confidence and then he would be able to lift the music career he so desperately wanted, off the ground. Sam was called back home to help out when Jay’s mother accidently had a fall down the stairs. Sam was set to ‘sorting things out’ with Jay. It was under Sam’s pressure, joined with his mother's, that Jay went back to school October 2007, for Music.
Physical Characteristics
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 129 lbs.
Eyes: hazel
Hair: red/dark blond
Other Features: A pair of wings on his back. Stretching a wingspan of sixteen feet, his impressive wings take on an angel-like gleem, much like Archangel, except they are the colour red. His attire is often a t shirt of a favourite band, or a button up if he is trying to impress. Blue faded jeans are his choice of pants, not often seen wearing shorts and may have a few holes in them to add to his ‘band’ appearance. He likes to wear beaded necklaces but does not stick to one favourite, switching between many depending on what he is wearing. He had a tattoo at some point but with the manifestation of his healing powers, it disappeared.
Powers
Jay shares an almost identical mutation with Angel. Red birdlike wings sprout from his back, which he can use to fly. His total wingspan is sixteen feet across, and they are strong enough to allow him to carry two-hundred pounds in addition to his own weight. His entire body is adapted for flight: hollow bones made of a strong but light calcium-like mineral, almost zero body fat, and an extraordinary musculature. He has a special thin but strong membrane over his eyes to protect them from the wind when he flies, and a respiratory system that enables him to extract oxygen even at high altitudes. He is able to fly at heights of up to 10,000 feet with little effort, and a maximum of 29,000 feet, at speeds of up to 120 miles per hour for a few hours before needing rest.
Jay also has secondary and tertiary mutations. His blood carries a healing factor, which has already proved itself strong enough to revive him after being beaten nearly to death. His last ability, almost trivial compared to the wings and healing factor, is his voice: he can sing multiple harmonies at once, sounding like a one-man choir.
Equipment
Jay owns two guitars: an acoustic one that his mother bought him after his father's death, and an electric one that Forge built him. He also wears a small golden cross on a gold chain that used to belong to Kevin.
Trivia
Jay has a huge celebrity crush on Billy Joe Armstrong of the band Green Day.
Jay doesn't eat chicken or any other meat from birds. He finds it too close to cannibalism for his tastes.
Plots
2004
2005
2006
2007
Meta
Player: Andrea
E-mail: 150px
AIM: Twin Black Out
Player Icon Base: Barry Watson
Meta Trivia
Formerly played by Ben
