Why does Eilidh care about Jay so much?
[It’s funny, she kind of attached herself to him pretty quickly after meeting him, even though he was being sad and wouldn’t dance with her and stuff. Eilidh isn’t necessarily drawn to Sad Dudes--she doesn’t like seeing people sad, but she has to have a reason to go to the trouble of figuring them out and befriending them, and in Jay’s case (also in Ames’s, interestingly enough), the reason came down to the trust he showed her. She wanted to know why he was refusing to dance with her, and she kind of pushed him on it, and he basically told her about his broken heart. She was a stranger, and he told her about his deepest hurt.
Eilidh might be angry sometimes and capable of being mean, but when somebody’s got a broken heart, and they trust her with it, it can bring out a powerful affectionate instinct in her. Most of the time. If that pain leads to them lashing out, she’s going to keep her distance, but when they carry it the way Jay does, it makes her want to look after them. She hates seeing people isolate themselves in their sadness. And the fact that she was able to push her way into his private thoughts like that was also a sign to her of how vulnerable he is, and it made her feel protective, kind of ironically.
So at first, it was a combination of random muse chemistry + Jay being kind of a harmless wounded animal type :-p But over time, they’ve found a lot to like in each other. Their art, their need for physical affection, their stubbornness. They just make really great friends (except when they’re butting heads). Plus, Eilidh actually sometimes appreciates having folks in her life she can be affectionate with and even sleep with without sex ever being on the table; there’s something peaceful about that for her, as much as she does like sex. It’s something she never has to navigate with Jay.]
