MALONE, Damien Royce

[damien royce malone]

DAMIEN ROYCE MALONE

FULL NAME: Damien Royce Malone.
NICKNAMES: He’s not a fan.
AGE: twenty-nine
GENDER: male
SEXUALITY: Straight.
STATUS: Single.
GROUP: Citizen.
GRADE: N/A.
MAJOR: N/A.
JOB OCCUPATION: Mechanic.

HAIR: Brown and short. He has it shaved in closer at the sides with a bit of length on the top, but it’s still short hair usually swept aside with a hand and some wax.
EYES: Brown.
SCARS/BIRTHMARKS: There is one on his abdomen from a prison fight when he was stabbed. He also has scarring from a tracheotomy, but that is harder to see thanks to the tattoos on his body. His leg is also scarred where he lost the lower part of it.
TATTOOS: If his puts his fists together, you can read “Optimist” in clean calligraphy. There’s an “I’m with stupid” tattoo on his left foot, below a complex full sleeve of animals and exquisite Japanese detail. Above his pelvis there is “Don’t laugh”, and over his left hip is a ‘Void’ stamp style tattoo curving into a “I’m in fuck’n Dallas”. There’s also an explicit cartoon involving pigs inked on his side, next to “When in hell, we drink shots at the bar” with a shot glass. He has a large chest piece in memory of his brother. On his right side is a barren tree in the shape of a Fender guitar. His neck has a skull over where his tracheotomy scar is, with lovers on either side of it. His arms are sleeves dedicated to strength and his journey; they’re covered in imagery and quotes like “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, and Stumpy, and “Kill your demons”. His back piece is titled “Villainy and virtue” is full of detail with an eagle and spread wings and so much more it’s dizzying.
PIERCINGS: None.
PLAY-BY: Alex Minsky!

LIKES: Working out, sugar doughnuts, the beach, the smell of popcorn, muscle cars, Spanish food, big dogs, Scrabble, puzzle books, his garage, designing his tattoos, thrillers, creepy books, berries with oats, stock car racing, a cold beer, extra cheese on his burgers, sports on the radio, mint bodywash, slow summer mornings, sleeping with the blinds up and the window open.
DISLIKES: trains, locked doors, being fussed over, white chocolate, small food portions (he’s a hearty appetite), too many energy drinks, people noticing his slight slur, girl’s drama over nothing (?), marzipan, formal wear, wine, pears, people who blast music in their cars, leaving his chores until they all need doing, hospitals, litter, treacle syrup.
FEARS: trains, starting a family (he doesn’t feel ready), losing his mobility.
SECRETS: He can’t hide the accident, but he does try to hide the extent of his injuries. He doesn’t talk about the coma, and he covered the scars he could with ink. He doesn’t talk about the headaches, hiding them as best he can. He pretends he doesn’t know what people are on about when they pick up on those few words that really bring out his slur. Damien doesn’t want their pity or worry, so he keeps his full story as much of a secret as possible.
PERSONALITY: Damien is a good guy who made bad choices. He’s remorseful for what he’s done that has caused his family and those he cares about pain, but at the same time, Damien is a survivor. He’ll do what is necessary to make it day to day. He’s stubbornly independent which is how he’d landed himself in such trouble in the past. Damien, however, is a gentleman which means he won’t take advantage of others or hurt those who are just good people. He doesn’t call himself Robin Hood, but that’s the closest comparison he can make when it comes to his criminal lifestyle; he’ll only target those who are already bad and taking advantage of those who don’t deserve to be treated so callously. Damien is proud and often refuses to accept help from others because of his disability. He wants to help people though, and doesn’t want to be known for the mistakes and poor choices he made in his life. Damien is a strong guy who can’t be broken down easily. He’s hardworking both in his career and in his personal goals, such as the ones he creates at the gym. He’s not the aggressor in a fight, but he’s a defender. He’ll be quick to jump in and stand up for the people he cares about or to stop someone he simply thinks is being a complete asshole. He’s a man of few words when you first meet him, just because Damien doesn’t like to reveal his cards when he’s still getting to know someone. He’s more gentle than his appearance may suggest though, and despite his tough exterior, he’s got a sweet side hidden away. Damien doesn’t typically let people get too close to him because of the scars, the nightmares and the secrets in his life, so his romantic dabblings are just that; dabblings. He’s a temporary kind of guy because it’s what’s best for them. They don’t need his baggage weighing down their lives – or so he thinks. Hidden beneath the muscles and ink is an insecurity. He’s a physically broken man who has made poor choices to survive, and with all that, Damien sometimes fails to see how far he’s come, fails to see that he’s a survivor who does have a lot to offer.

MOTHER: Melanie Devanna Malone, 55.
FATHER: Gordon James Malone, 64.
SIBLINGS: Shaun Oscar Malone, 32
Isiah Scott Malone, deceased.
OTHERS: Calypso Peyton Payne, 26, one night stand (but he wishes it was more) and baby momma (unknown to him!)
Soren Damien Malone, fifteen months, surprise son.
PETS: Leonberger named Beauty, and a Great Dane named Beast. Both are practically pups at one and a half!
HOMETOWN: Queens, New York.
HISTORY: Melanie and Gordon were good together, but at the same time they fuelled each other’s bad habits. Gordon’s temper wasn’t the worst, but Melanie had a way of putting him in the worst moods when she had been out with the girls. He was possessive and didn’t like the idea of her flirting or talking with other men when she was dressed for a night out. Their sons didn’t grow up in a home that was physically abusive, but there were times where the shouting was loud enough for the police to be called out by the neighbours. At other times they were the perfect family; having pancakes for breakfast and picnics in the park while playing football.

Damien was the type of kid who got into trouble when he was bored. If he was entertained by what he was learning in school then he could be an eager, well focused student. If something didn’t grab his attention though, then he started acting out, tormenting the other kids and his teachers. When he was older he’d be out late enough that police would bring him home just because he was hovering around the streets with other undesirable youths. Damien wasn’t the worst kid around, but he was just bored. Staying at home meant he had to listen to his parents fight, but he wasn’t going to be the kid lighting fires and smashing windows either. He wanted to be better than that, than his parents, but it was difficult when his world felt so small.

It was a new science teacher who got through to him. He seemed to be an expert in troubled youth. He got Damien to see that he had a mind and a talent for figuring out how things worked and how to fix them. After that the idea of becoming a mechanic seemed to fall into place. He had the support of the one teacher who saw him as more than a temperamental kid from a rough neighbourhood, and the drive to do something once he actually applied himself to it. Not that it was easy. There were plenty of moments of frustration and temptation. It would have been easy to lose his cool and just rebel with his friends, but Damien kept his eyes on his dreams in the end. Of course he scrapped at times, broke free once or twice, but he was nothing more broken or ruined than any other teenager in his school. They all had their moments of being doubtful and ruined by the world around them. What mattered was that Damien came out of his teenage years without a criminal record and with the promise of a future.

He learnt his trade and got a job at a local body shop that helped him out with some hands on experience during his college years. Damien wanted to own his own garage eventually, but that was a far off dream. Shaun moved out to Philadelphia to join some band he had been in since school, and with that the two Malone boys were out from under their parent’s feet. It felt good to come home knowing there wasn’t going to be a fight or some kind of drama every evening. It was also eerily quiet living by himself, but Shaun checked in regularly. His band wasn’t bound for fame and stardom, but they were the type that got to play on small stages at local festivals, had regular gigs at good places and did enough to keep their name around the music scene. He was happy with that. They toured a few times on small festival stages, but they were always going to be the small time band. Shaun even worked in bars to supplement what the band provided him with. He was happy with that and Damien was happy for his older brother.

Life plodded on for a while. Everything was mediocre and nothing extraordinary happened. Damien had friends, helped out old buddies who hadn’t chosen the best of paths, and just got on with his life. His work at the body shop paid for the nice enough apartment he had, and the few things he desired.

Isiah, the youngest brother, died suddenly from an undiagnosed heart condition. He just dropped dead at work one day. The family were devastated, but it made Damien and Shaun closer. They hadn’t been distant, but life had made their calls less frequent. Things changed after that, and the brothers made their calls a twice weekly thing. They put the effort in for Isiah’s memory if nothing more. Their home life as kids might not have been fantastic, but they had always had each other. They wanted to stay true to that.

In 2015, Damien went to visit his brother and support the band as a good brother would. They had a week of drinking, playing pool and eating so much junk they all felt sick. It had been one hell of a week, and Damien was sad to see it end, but all good things do, eventually. What Damien didn’t realise was that his short trip home would be life changing. He was a statistic on global news, one of the critically injured in a crash no one could understand until the final report had been completed months later. Damien had used the train services only a handful of times in his life and never once had he been fearful of the tracks. Now he was comatose, showing signs of brain trauma and his leg had been amputated below the knee in order to free him from the wreckage. He was lucky to survive, and even luckier to wake up with most of his cognitive functions in tact. He had to relearn parts of his vocabulary, and retained a slur that with speech therapy became barely noticeable – he just eventually sounded like someone who had come through speech therapy for a speech impediment. He also had to learn to walk with a prosthetic. It was a life altering accident. It left him with nightmares, twinges in his temple when he moved too quickly, and his obvious disability.

He was out of a job. He couldn’t work while he was recovering, and the body shop needed someone who could keep up the pace around there. Eventually, Damien got another spot in a garage, but it was doing minor work and part time. He was making nowhere near enough to keep on his apartment and pay his medical bills. He ended up moving to a new place in a shadier part of town. It wasn’t something that bothered him too much, since he looked the part of the tough guy. He kept his false leg hidden, and his gym training kept him looking like he might just punch the person who challenged him. Making ends meet was still tough though. Like, really tough. There were times when he had to miss meals just because a bill had come out and he wasn’t going to be paid for two more days. Or he was scrounging the store for the stuff that was expiring. It was a rough way to live.

Then an old friend from high school crawled out of the woodwork. He hadn’t exactly chosen a legitimate career for himself, but Damien knew he was the type of guy who would be there when you needed a friend. He had proven that by checking in on him when he was in hospital, and doing runs to the store when he first came home. After that he hadn’t seen him for a while but that wasn’t so unusual. This time, he showed up with a proposal. He needed some produce moved. He had it all in hand, but he needed a space to keep it between it coming to him and moving on to the guy who would sell it on. It varied each time, but mostly it was electronics or spare parts for machinery and tech. If Damien let him use a storage container on the garage lot (of which they had five), then he would get a cut of the profits. Damien knew it was wrong, and at first he agreed to do it just until his old friend found a more permanent solution for his arrangement, but the money helped. It really helped.

Damien wasn’t struggling to make ends meet. He could get through his bills and stock his kitchen without worrying if he’d get through the month. There was even money left for him to get stuff for the new place, or to put towards that medical bill. Some of the after care hadn’t been covered by his insurance or what had been offered from the crash compensation. Physiotherapy and speech therapy were not considered necessary to his recovery or state of life. He knew what he was doing was illegal, but it was helping him to do more than just survive paycheck to paycheck. He was able to live. He wasn’t even living a grand life, he was just living like most people take for granted. He could cook a decent meal for his dinner, and he was able to sign up for a gym membership to a place that wasn’t dealing drugs in a corner while someone was legitimately being beaten up in the boxing ring.

A year went by, and Damien did a bit more. He signed the papers on a few deals for his friend when things were busy. Ultimately, his goal was to get the money together to get his own business going. He would never be able to work a steady job in a garage again, but being a mechanic was his life. So having his own business was really the only way he could be something without being near poverty and surviving with disability cheques. He just needed a few more years at it. They had never come close to being caught, so it came as a complete surprise when the cops raided his friend’s apartment and caught him mid-deal with a new seller. Damien headed home immediately to clear everything out from his place, but the cops were already there. He narrowly avoided getting caught thanks to a neighbour; Calypso.

Damien wasn’t in the habit of befriending his neighbours. Most of them were as bad – if not worse – than he was. Besides, until he was done with the business with his friend, he didn’t want to drag anyone else into the criminal dealings. However, Calypso was nice to him. Even the little things like a smile and a hello meant a great deal to a man who had grown up around aggression and anger. That was why he had offered to fix her car for free the time when it broke down. He wasn’t a bad guy. He might have been making bad choices, but he was doing it to survive. In a way, helping her was cleansing himself of guilt, while also helping her because he thought she was sweet. She was cute, too, but Damien was never going to act on that while he was still deep in with his dodgy dealings.

That night changed things though. He knew he couldn’t run forever, and her apartment was only a temporary sanctuary. His nerves were heightened and he felt fearless when it came to everything beside his predicament with the law. That was why he made a move on Calypso in her kitchen when she was harbouring him. It was a huge risk for her. They could come knocking again at any moment, but all Damien could think about was how he could lose everything and never see her or anyone he cared about again. It was ridiculous, of course, since he hadn’t gone out murdering people or causing any serious harm, but it’s hard to comprehend what is really happening when so many thoughts and feelings are racing all at the same time. All he knew was that she was real, and he kept her as an anchor for a few hours. For those hours the world didn’t exist beyond that apartment and he got to just be a man with a woman.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t stay there forever. As the sun began to rise, he gathered his things. He was planning to leave a note, some crappy apology about everything and poorly written excuse for what he had done. Calypso woke up before he could even leave the room though. Instead, he promised to find her when everything was better – why he promised such a thing he didn’t know. She might not even want him, and it would be a long time before he was around again. Still, he said the words, kissed her goodbye, and within sixty minutes of that kiss he had handed himself in. What was the point in trying to run?

Ultimately, Damien was sentenced to two years for his part in the theft and handling of stolen goods. He had a lighter sentence because of his honesty from the start after he was arrested and because he handed himself in. However, that didn’t mean he had an easy run of things. Damien never liked being seen as weak because of his prosthetic, but in prison he had to be kept away from general population because of it. This led to someone deciding to target him, spreading the rumour that he was a snitch. He got stabbed with a shank during a court run one day, and while he chose not to pay attention to prison politics, it seemed it was all part of an elaborate plot to have some prisoner moved out of one block and away from someone else. He couldn’t believe it. Damien was never in any critical danger since the make shift weapon didn’t go deep, but it was rough enough to leave him scarred and earn him a week in medical.

In the end, Damien was released early on good behaviour. He served only fourteen months of his sentence before he was released. After that, life was tough again. He was assigned a halfway house since he didn’t have an apartment anymore. He didn’t want to go back to live with his parents even for the shortest of times. Finding a job wasn’t easy either, given that no one wanted to give him a chance because of how he had taken advantage of his workplace in his crimes. Ultimately, just when Damien was about to lose hope, Shaun blew into town. A debut album had been successful enough to leave the older Malone with a pretty sum, even though they were still bottom of the column news. He took Damien downtown to a rundown corner of the warehouse district. There was a small garage there, pretty worn down, but usable. Shaun had signed the necessary paperwork and loans for the place, with the idea that Damien would run it for him. Officially it was all legal and above board, even if the proper people might frown at the truth of the matter. Shaun’s idea was that Damien got to have his own business in a few years once his convictions weren’t so fresh and he had a team working under him. On paper, it was all Shaun’s business, but Shaun wouldn’t know a radiator from the battery if asked. This was just a chance for Damien to have a second shot at getting his shit together. Shaun’s only demand was that his little brother stay on the right side of the law this time. Damien promised him, and the brothers spent the next few weeks cleaning up the garage, freshening everywhere up, and Damien even got his hands on a tow-truck that was doing nothing in a scrap yard. It needed parts replacing, but it was his project that opened more doors for him.

One day Shaun would sign everything over to him, but Damien was in no rush to pressure his brother. He hired some reliable guys to keep the business running smoothly, and he got to do what he loved. Eventually he found another apartment, it was small, but it was home. He didn’t need much for himself anyway.

He often thought about Calypso, but honestly, it had been so long and he didn’t have anything to offer her. At least, that was how he felt. He was still getting back on his feet from prison, and every moment he had was spent doing something to fix his life. There had been meetings with his parole officer, things for the garage, his apartment was still a work in progress. Not to mention he was still unsure that anyone could really want him after the mess he had become through life’s hand. He was missing parts, battered and scarred, and had a record that limited his options. He wasn’t even thirty yet.

YOUR ALIAS: Kim.
RULE WORDS: kidnappedbykim.
WHERE YOU FOUND US: The entity summoned you.
SAMPLE:

Beg for it!

[kim]