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Post by Calypso Peyton Payne on Aug 26, 2018 1:42:21 GMT -5
Caly hadn't actually ever thought about starting a family of her own. Like planning a wedding, it was probably one of those things that most little girls, and some boys, thought about growing up but she hadn't been one of them. She had thought about drawing and considered perhaps becoming an illustrator. She had the skills so it wasn't some far off dream. But she had found herself at the end of her time in school, at that stupid ad agency, creating things other people took credit for constantly, despite her initials being very clear in the bottom of each of the pictures she'd drawn. It was one of the only good things to come from the ridiculous rollercoaster of hormones she'd been unknowingly dealing with. The others being the new job she'd snagged only two weeks after walking out of the first and of course, the sweet, if temperamental lately, baby boy but she wouldn't change a second of it. Two years flew by when everything changed and maybe there were little things about those two years that Caly would have changed but not much of it. Getting to tell the father of her son he was a father was one of them but that was pretty much it. She loved having her sister living with her, loved being able to work from home when she needed to or take Soren into the gallery with her whenever Esme couldn't watch him.
It was a miracle the gallery had even given her a chance so she didn't want to ruin it. She figured though, if they'd been going to fire her, it would have been any time during the last two years of being employed by them. As it was, she brought them a lot of revenue, bringing up their social media presence with her advertising designs and had the clientele expanding rather well if she did say so herself. One other thing she would have changed if she'd been able to, was get herself a newer car. The Civic acted like it was older than she was, it wasn't. Her mother had gotten it, used when Caly had been sixteen, feeling her eldest daughter was going to need her own set of wheels if she was going to do anything. They lived close enough to walk to school, so she'd still done that but they lived far enough away from the mall where she'd worked to get there and then Esme needed someone to drive her around when their mother just couldn't do it. It had been amazing and though it had needed work after quite a few years of driving it, it had still been reliable almost all this time. Then the only the week before, it had started to make this weird clunking noise and Caly knew absolutely nothing about cars, just when she needed to get the fluids changed in it, which she did almost religiously. She needed her car to run to get her to doctor's appointments and bring what she'd been working on at home into the gallery for in-person approval. It got her to mommy and me classes, her own art classes, to the park and through all the damn errands she had to run in a week. She needed her car.
Caly was lucky there was a parking space available on the side of the road when the last clunk happened. It sounded different than the rest, harsher and it was just good luck that she could pull to the side of the road. New Yorker were evil and angry at the world the best of times, they were one hundred percent worse whenever traffic was involved. She didn't want to be the reason people were angry. Frustrated at her situation, knowing she needed to be at the gallery in ten minutes and still fifteen minutes away from it, she called her boss first, explained what was going on. A few minutes late wouldn't have been an issue but this was a big problem. Caly could have just emailed her work, which is exactly what she'd have to do now but she hadn't wanted to. She had wanted to get a couple hours away from the house before Esme was calling and demanding she return to care for her "gremlin". Hanging up with her boss and growing increasingly frustrated, she sent Esme a text, explaining how the car cut out, may have breathed its last breath before moving to searching up the nearest body shop. She needed to get this sorted. The closest, Malone's, was only a couple blocks away. With a huff, Caly gathered up what was important and made her way over, hoping this Malone guy had a tow truck at his place.
The kid behind the desk was fairly young but was dressed in the blue jumpsuit thing she'd only ever saw mechanics wear, with his only partially on, the top tied around his waist. She immediately thought he was foolish but it was his clothing and she wasn't involved. He smiled, asked how he could help and she shook her head. "My car broke down a couple streets over. It made this weird clunking noise and then nothing. I don't know. I don't know cars. The last time it had needed anything was two freaking years ago and it was fixed. No problems since then. All I've had to do is keep up the fluids all this time, which I've done so I know for a fact that's not the issue. I need my car, it is my freaking lifeline." She said, running her fingers through her loose silver-white hair.
♦ ♦ ♦ TAG; damien royce malone WORDS; 942 LYRICS; Waiting On You --Lindsay Ell NOTES; <3
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Post by damien royce malone on Sept 7, 2018 17:21:30 GMT -5
Malone’s was coming along. It wasn’t perfect, far from it in Damien’s opinion. Still, it was his. That meant something to him, especially after years of fighting after he lost his leg. He never thought he’d be working in a garage again, let alone owning one. True, the business was in his brother’s name, but that was just a formality because of Damien’s damn record. He had been stupid – so fucking stupid – and he didn’t need anyone else to tell him that now. However, people still liked to if they discovered what he had been doing for the few years before he lost his freedom. It hadn’t been his finest hour, but he was down on his luck, struggling because the world didn’t make space for people like him; those who weren’t completely useless, but also weren’t useful enough to keep up with the ideals of the able bodied. It was frustrating to say the least, and crime had been his answer to that. Damien had never put himself in the same field as war vets who had also lost limbs, though he had met a few during his rehabilitation. What he did know now was how easy it was for them to find themselves straying from that honourable path, finding themselves in dark places so far from the plan they had originally started on. This country just didn’t have room for them once they were broken and less than they had been. However, when a survival streak still lives on, and that fire burns strong, the human race will do whatever they must to keep on going. He had seen it. He had done it.
Now things were different. He had turned his back on that life. He had the garage. His brother might have signed the paperwork and handed over the money for the small space and attached yard to keep him out of trouble, but it worked. It kept Damien busy. When he wasn’t there he was thinking about what needed doing there. He was already thinking about upgrading the oldest pit and giving some of the tool units an overhaul. Little things, but they kept his mind occupied, which was always good. His probation officer had been impressed, and Damien wasn’t surprised. He was expected to reoffend. Everyone else he had been sentenced with had records; long records. They were career criminals. When he had been going through the trial and sentencing, they had tried to paint him that way too, but it hadn’t worked. Maybe the judge and jury took pity on the kid who had survived an amputation, coma, brain damage, and who spoke with a minor slur. The train crash had changed his life, and when it was brought up people looked at him in a different way. It was better for people to just assume he had a minor speech impediment that he had never grown out of, and hide as much of the rest behind tattoos and clothes.
He was filing away the paperwork from a finished job when he heard the door to the main reception open and close. He really needed to look at it before a bad storm came through the city and a customer managed to assist in rattling it off its hinges completely. Damien’s walls weren’t thick at all, so he could always here someone talking to whoever was on the desk. Sometimes it was frustrating when he was in the office struggling to manage his own place. He wasn’t really the type to be in an office environment keeping on top of filing and admin, but they were still a young business with just a few guys. He couldn’t afford to hire an admin assistant yet, as useful as one might be around the place. Damien detected the stress in the customer’s voice, and recalled that the kid at the desk was not the greatest at customer service. He knew his way around an engine, but he lacked social skills sometimes. Before any damage could be done, Damien slipped out of the office, scrubbing his hand through his hair and trying to look a little less like he’d just been squinting over forms until his head wanted to explode. Unfortunately, he recognised the girl at the desk before he could say a word and in a second his last night of freedom crashed back down on him. He didn’t know if he had changed much in the time that had since gone by, and though he still held on to the promise to find her, it was difficult to put into words. He was starting to hope she didn’t recognise him, as vivid an individual as he might be with his tattoos and scars. “Anything I can help with?” He asked, his voice a little gruffer than he’d intended.
• • • TAGGED! Calypso Peyton Payne WORDS! 806! LYRICS! For The Keeping - - - Wayward Daughter NOTES! <3 <3 <3
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Post by Calypso Peyton Payne on Sept 15, 2018 9:34:25 GMT -5
Calypso could have packed up her things and moved back to Idaho when she'd found out she was pregnant and it would have been what she would have had to do if she hadn't been able to find a job. But she was stubborn and hadn't wanted to give up or leave New York City. Her sister was there and the potential that Damien would return was too great. She didn't want to leave and risk him showing up at what was her apartment a few days later. Of course, if the move had been what needed to be done to survive, Caly would have found a way to let him know, leave a letter when someone or something just in case. She didn't want him to never find out he was a father but she also didn't want him to ever find out in a letter she had to write. Caly wasn't the type of person to hide from any situation, she faced it head on and bulldozed right through it if that were the case. For her this wasn't a problem exactly. She wouldn't never consider her son a mistake or an accident, he was simply a surprise and a welcome change of direction in her life. She'd needed something to fight for in her life when she'd found out she was pregnant and Soren was just that for her.
She thought every single day about Damien, what she would say, how she would phrase it, what she would do. She wondered if she would be holding Soren in her arms when she went to answer the door after rolling around on the floor with her energetic boy, her pale hair falling out of its braided cage and her eyes bright with laughter. She also wondered if he would ever knock on her apartment door, looking for her. It had been so long, she was considering the thought that he would never find out he was a father to her baby boy, that she would have to go search him out and pray with every fiber of her being that she wouldn't find an obituary with his picture. Calypso didn't want her son to grow up without his father in his life. She's gotten eight years with her father and though her memories of him and their years together were fussy, there were a few that stuck as bright as the day they were made. She didn't want her and Esmerelda to be the only ones Soren had fond memories of. As it was, Caly had known that whatever the police were there for that night, it hadn't been good but she figured three, maybe four or even five years on the outside would be given to Damien if he ended up behind bars. She'd been too afraid to find out if she were being honest. So she had planned on waiting until Soren was about three before she really started looking into seeing if Damien was locked up.
Her plan had been simple enough. If she'd found that he was still behind bars, serving a sentence, she would go to a visitation alone, bring the photo albums she had and find out before she went if it were possible to bring the DVD she'd made of all the videos she'd taken of their son. If it were, she would bring it, give it to him to watch along with any of the hundreds of pictures she'd taken over to course of his very young life. And, if he was up for it, she would bring Soren along with her during the next visiting hours. Of course, she also hadn't want to imagine him in jail. She had wanted to imagine him living life up down in Mexico or something equally ridiculous and exorbitant. He had never seemed like the type to live in that sort of luxury, though if she could afford it, she probably would; just went to show you couldn't judge a book. What she hadn't expected in all her wild imaginings of Damien, was to find him alive, well and out of jail and the owner of his own autobody shop. At least, she assumed he was the owner, the name clicked instantly when she turned and saw him standing there like nothing had changed. He was the same gorgeous man of her memories. Damn him. "Damien." She said on a whisper, her eyes wide with the shock of seeing him there.
♦ ♦ ♦ TAG; damien royce malone WORDS; 748 LYRICS; Waiting On You --Lindsay Ell NOTES; <3
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Post by damien royce malone on Nov 13, 2018 7:45:36 GMT -5
Damien wasn’t the type to back out on his promises. When he gave his word he kept to it; that was something that had kept him through jail in almost one piece. Prison politics were to blame for the scar on his abdomen. It was a jagged mess, but never a threat to his life. Still, Damien wasn’t entirely fond of the reminder of his incarceration. He had tried to keep to himself, do only what he needed to do, and never make deals with the devils of prison. It was a slippery slope, and had he fallen down it he might not even be on the outside today. He probably would have found himself with more time added to his sentence if he had befriended the wrong people or not stood his ground when challenged in the early days. Thankfully, Damien’s desire to look as strong as everyone else won out over the injuries from the train crash and the prosthetic he relied on. His word was even stronger than that.
So when he said he would one day come back for Calypso, he meant it. He didn’t know if he’d knock on her door to see her settled with another man already. A long time had ticked by since their single night together. Damien had never asked her to wait for him – not in so many words – but he did sometimes hope that she had. He knew it wasn’t fair to expect it from her. Still, everyone needed something to get them through those long days and even longer nights inside a prison cell. Now, he was only waiting until he actually had something to offer to the young woman. He didn’t want to step out of prison, breathe his first breath of freedom and then go to her with absolutely nothing to show to her. He wouldn’t be one of those ex-convicts who spends their life mooching off someone else. Damien had been determined to make something of himself, to make everything better first before he went infecting himself into anyone else’s life.
Damien still didn’t expect for Calypso to wander into his garage though. In a city like New York he had been fortunate enough to only service and repair the vehicles of strangers mostly. The few people he did know had come along because he had invited them, and they were good people who had little or no connection to his past. He was doing his best to keep away from anything and anyone who could give probation a chance to lock him back up again. He reached back, rubbing the back of his neck with an only slightly grimy hand while he tried to think of something to say. Was there even a right thing to say in this kind of situation? Damien didn’t think so. “Yeah. Hi.” He managed, wishing immediately that he could punch himself in the face for sounding so useless. He cleared his throat and tried again, this time going for something casual given that there was still an employee practically between him and Calypso. “Car troubles…again?” Considering it was sort of how they properly met each other, Damien couldn’t help but wonder if this was some twisted kind of joke for the fates to cast upon them both.
• • • TAGGED! Calypso Peyton Payne WORDS! 553! LYRICS! For The Keeping - - - Wayward Daughter NOTES! <3 <3 <3
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Post by Calypso Peyton Payne on Nov 22, 2018 23:16:55 GMT -5
Calypso had never been the type of girl to ask for help. She had been ridiculously independent for the better part of her life until her sweet boy was born. She could be self-sufficient still but she definitely needed to rely on at least her sister to help her navigate the world of single parent-dom. Even when she had been too small to do anything, she'd still try to get her own cereal though she made a god-awful mess in the process. She wanted that for Soren when he was a little bit older. At a few months over a year, he was still hugely dependent on Calypso to provide everything he needed and she very vocally loved that. She had never really considered children as anything more than a concept really. In her future she pictured a beautiful home with a gorgeous studio to paint in, a husband who shook his head at her but still indulged her whims, a couple carbon copies running around under their feet and a big, floppy dog who didn't mind at all when those carbon copies tugged on an ear or his tail because he knew they really didn't mean any harm and he would get so many good treats because mom and dad felt guilty.
There was a time not so long ago when she didn't have a man, celebrity, coffee shop crush or otherwise, to fill in the whimsical ideas of her future. And then Damien came I to her life and he just seemed to fit so perfectly. But she had been so awkward and figured he might think her a little insane for picturing him in her life long term. Now she didn't have a choice. He was either going to cut her and their child it completely when she told him, which would break Calypso's heart or she might just get what she really wanted and that, she would never admit, scared the hell out of her. As it was, he'd been the only man in her dreams for a long time, long before their stolen night together even. Calypso had never really had a serious relationship. She dated a bit but it never seemed to last for one reason or another. It was something that only bothered her in the back of her mind when she let it. Otherwise, she was quite happy to continue in as she was. Having Soren changed a lot for Calypso but she still had that little bubble of doubt in the back of her mind that when Damien found out, he was going to want to commit, stick around and be a family and she was going to fuck it all up somehow since she was the common denominator in all her previous dalliances.
Calypso didn't know what to expect when she finally found Damien again. She had so many scenarios running through her head that ran from casual and normal to completely ridiculous and so out of the ordinary Hallmark might have already made a movie like it. Walking into your baby daddy's auto body shop after thinking he would be gone from your life forever should be some sort of crappy Lifetime film if it wasn't already. Caly really wanted to look into that but she also didn't want to give the powers that be the idea either. "Uh, yeah, hi." She returned before shaking her head to physically bring herself back to the moment. It was just too surreal for words and Calypso didn't know what do right then and there. "First time since the last time." She said, slowing down quite a bit at the end of the sentence when she realised she was starting to sound like an idiot. She would have sworn it was all Damien's fault. She could talk to anyone just fine but whenever Damien was in the same room or vicinity as her, she forgot how to form complete sentences.
♦ ♦ ♦ TAG; damien royce malone WORDS; 658 LYRICS; Waiting On You --Lindsay Ell NOTES; <3
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Post by damien royce malone on Dec 4, 2018 17:36:32 GMT -5
Damien played a game that he was just like everyone else. He didn’t let his disability hang around him like a cry for help. There were times when he could have gotten extra assistance or financial help, but he didn’t want to be treated differently. He was still able to run his own business, still able to get up in the mornings. He did things slower than most people, and there were times when his body cried out to him as if to remind him that he wasn’t entirely whole anymore, but Damien didn’t want to be one of those people who used their conditions as excuses. He’d stand on the subway without a complaint, even if his back was hurting and he really wanted to sit down and not move for several hours. He was stubborn about this above all other things. Damien didn’t want to be coddled or treated like glass. He could bear the pain, he could get through a night of muscles spams, and the headaches were a part of him as much as his prosthetic was. He could endure all of it. And he would do so silently.
Prison had probably instilled some of that into him. Even in medical no one wanted to hear a prisoner cry or complain. They were there to serve their time even if they got cut by a cellmate, or had long term conditions that made life hard to adjust to. Damien still had to adhere to prison rules even if he was crippled with a migraine. He had to get up for meals and showers, and laying in bed was discouraged. In a way it had made him less likely to find excuses during the bad days on the outside. He pushed through headaches now, despite the grumpy mood they left him in. People who knew him well knew that if he snapped at them it was nothing personal. Damien didn’t want to miss out on things, or leave his garage because he was having a rough day. This was his life now, had been since the train derailment, and he wasn’t going to waste away the years sleeping off the pain, or hobbling around when other people were chasing their dreams. He could still achieve something and he was damn well going to do that. He reminded himself of that when he went to the gym, working out until he was sweaty and aching.
He liked pushing himself. Damien didn’t want to find himself in any kind of situation he couldn’t get out of. He had made bad choices in the past, but this fresh start was all about being smarter. Unfortunately, there was no guidebook on what to do when the neighbour you had a one night stand with walked into the business you owned. Damien was on his own in this scenario, and all he could remember was how he promised to come back when the trouble was over. He hadn’t because he was still proving he was good. There was a parole officer still looking over his shoulder, checking that he was ticking off the right answers in this exam of being a law abiding citizen. “Yeah, the, uh, last time.” He remembered the bedroom, the things that happened there, and how he had left in the morning just to quickly find himself in handcuffs and being read his rights. He cleared his throat and rubbed his hands together like he was about to get to work. “So, your car?” He didn’t know if he should be professional and ignore their history together. It had been so long and if Calypso had moved on with her life then it could just make this whole situation even more awkward. Hell, he was even avoiding making eye contact at this point.
• • • TAGGED! Calypso Peyton Payne WORDS! 639! LYRICS! For The Keeping - - - Wayward Daughter NOTES! <3 <3 <3
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Post by Calypso Peyton Payne on Jan 10, 2019 23:15:59 GMT -5
There had been a time not so very long ago that Calypso would have laughed outright if someone would have said she'd be carting around a toddler and planning mommy and me classes and play dates. It was impressive how a couple of years and one night could change everything. She wouldn't change a second of it though, her sweet little boy was her entire world. Without him, she would have been stuck at that dead-end advertising firm, going absolutely nowhere while the ones on the ladder rung above her took all the credit for her work. If she hadn't become pregnant, her hormones wouldn't have been so out of whack, allowing her the courage to leave her horrible job behind for something so much better. Realistically, she knew she would have eventually quit that terrible soul crushing job it would have been much later; probably years even. That would have been years of being overlooked for a half dozen promotions, watching as an unqualified man took the job that should have been here while she continued to play the workhorse. Her hormones just made it all happen sooner because her threshold for bullshit shrank significantly.
Caly had realised after Soren was born that if she had stayed on with that company, there was no way she would have been given any time off to even birth the kid, nevermind spend some real time raising him. She had gotten incredibly lucky finding the art gallery when she had; like divine intervention. She thought perhaps it was her father's way of watching out for her and his unborn grandbaby. But Calypso didn't want to think about the fact that her deceased for nearly two decades father was watching what she was up to. She'd done some interesting things in her life and really hadn't wanted an audience for most of it. But having grown up without a father meant that she couldn't allow her son to do the same if she had a choice or a say in the matter. Ultimately it would be up to Damien if he wanted a relationship with his son when she finally managed to tell him. Her brain was working overtime to trying and figure out if she would be better off just blurting it out or if she should bring it up slowly.
There was a huge part of Caly that knew she needed to tell Damien about Soren; time was not on her side. She didn't want to keep his son away from him but now that they were face to face she had so many questions. The top of which was to question how long he'd been back around and why he hadn't come looking for her. She hadn't moved, though she could probably afford to with the new job. But she had Soren to think about and raising a child wasn't cheap. She also had her sister to think about. It didn't matter that Esme had a part-time job that kept her in what she required but Calypso still needed to keep a roof over all their heads and she wasn't about to ask Esmerelda for any money. She already helped out more than enough around the apartment. She cooked and cleaned whenever she felt like, which was so often, Caly barely had to lift a finger herself. She also babysat whenever she was available and didn't complain about missing activities with her friends. Calypso didn't know what she would do without Esme by her side; probably lose her damn mind.
The last night Calypso had seen Damien was a night she was not likely to ever forget. She'd been crushing on him from afar pretty much since she'd moved in across the way from him. He was attractive, mysterious and made her curious about him. The reality of that night and all her dreams and fantasies about it had blurred beautifully and though Calypso would have liked to continue what they'd had in reality, he'd left and she hadn't wanted to know where he'd gone to. She shook her head, clearing her head of the memories she held on to and thought back on often. Now was not the time for them. "Right. Car. It's two blocks that way and one up." she said, pointing in the direction of her busted car.
♦ ♦ ♦ TAG; damien royce malone WORDS; 722 LYRICS; Waiting On You --Lindsay Ell NOTES; <3
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Post by damien royce malone on Jun 25, 2019 16:50:00 GMT -5
Damien had heard time and time again that he was a mystery, a hand man do decipher. There wasn’t some grand plan behind that; although he did try to hide his prior convictions now that he had his own business. He wasn’t sure how many people would trust a guy who had done time in the slammer to fix their cars up honestly. Damien didn’t even think about what he could get from car parts or the little things people forgot to remove from their vehicles before leaving them in his care. He had seen phones, jewellery, even weapons left in cars when he set about working on them and cleaning them up so they didn’t sound like a miner’s lungs when they went back out on the road. The rest of the enigma that was Damien was due to his scars and how he got them. Thankfully, tattoos covered almost all of them now, making them harder to see. He obviously couldn’t really hide his false leg for too long, but that could easily be passed off as an accident. Granted, “an accident” was how all of his noticeable scars had come about. However, talking about it was a bit of a trigger. Damien had never been diagnosed with any kind of PTSD, but talking about the derailment, even seeing a story on the news about trains could be enough to give him a restless night and make him sweat.
The chance of such a thing befalling him again was slim, but anxiety stopped him from ever taking that risk. He didn’t even commute using the New York subway system. He’d rather take a bus and be stuck in traffic than find himself hurtling along in a metal can again. It was funny how things could scare him, but being in prison with real criminals who were as dangerous inside as they were out, had barely made him flinch. He didn’t want to fall back into the habits that had seen him incarcerated, so the likelihood of being in a cell again was slim, but he often said to his brother that he would rather be inside again than catch the train to visit him. His brother understood and so he was often in the city to check on Damien and make sure that he was doing okay.
He took things one day at a time. It was useless making plans when he could wake up that day with his body feeling like it did when he had first woken up from the coma. Damien kept those who understood that close. They knew that often his trips to the bar were last minute decisions, or that he didn’t care less if he wasn’t out for birthday celebrations. If he went home early there was no bitching and moaning, just a commentary of the things he missed when he was with that crowd again. Living like that meant Damien hadn’t thought much about the future beyond what he wanted for his little garage. He wasn’t thinking of romance and playing happy family one day. Most of the time he wasn’t even thinking about what he was going to have for dinner until his stomach rumbled and reminded him that he needed to eat. Right now he wasn’t even capable of thinking about the future with a ghost from his past standing right in front of him. “Right, I’ll grab the tow truck and we can haul it back here to check it over.” He grabbed a set of keys from a hook high on the wall behind the desk. “Come on then.”
• • • TAGGED! Calypso Peyton Payne WORDS! 606! LYRICS! For The Keeping - - - Wayward Daughter NOTES! <3 <3 <3
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Post by Calypso Peyton Payne on Jul 2, 2019 21:24:18 GMT -5
Calypso had been equal parts dreading and looking forward to the day when she would see Damien again. Mostly dreading, if she were being honest with herself. She didn't want Damien to think she'd been keeping Soren a secret from him because she definitely hadn't been. But at the same time, she knew she needed to protect her sweet little boy and to do that, she needed to wait until either Soren was a little bit older or Damien sought her out on his own. The other half of the truth was that while yes, she was attempting to protect her very young son, she was also trying to hold off any potential heartbreak of her own. Until something was concrete, it was much like Schrödinger's cat; he was both safe and no less harmed than he'd been when he'd left her that morning and he was dead. And Calypso preferred to believe that he'd run off somewhere though she knew he wasn't that kind of man. She might have only known him for a very short time but he did seem like an honourable type; even if he'd gotten himself into quite a bit of trouble. So while she preferred to think that he was on a beach somewhere in a country with no extradition, she knew it was more likely that he was in jail serving time for a mistake he'd made but was willing to admit to.
Straightening her spine, her version of putting on armour, Calypso nodded her head and followed Damien to the tow truck. Of course, she needed to go with him. How was he going to know where the car was. Caly wasn't sure if she could be in a car with him for that long. It just seemed a little awkward and she hated that feeling. But she needed her car to get Soren around to play dates and to pick up groceries. Two years ago, things might have been different. Two years ago, she wouldn't have given a single damn whether or not she had a car. There were buses and the subway, taxis and rideshare programmes, she could get around no problem. Now things were different. Now she couldn't expect to cart a baby around with all the fixings and wrangle the subway system or expect the driver of the taxi or someone in a rideshare to give her a hand. She was not that naïve or that selfish. She was also far too independent to ask someone to do anything for her in the way of help. She already felt bad that Emmie moved in with her; even if it did save her sister from thousands in dorm fees.
She hopped up in the passenger seat and directed Damien to her car, only about a mile away from his garage. She had been lucky to get the spot but it wasn't the most convenient spot for Damien to get it out of. Her thinking at the time had only been that she needed to get off the street and out of traffic so people wouldn't be hollering at her out of their windows. She wished she could say something more than the directions but every time she tried, her words froze in her throat. Time was slowly to be just as frozen as her words. Any second Damien was going to have a look at the car that hadn't been filled with baby toys the last time he'd seen it. She wondered what his reaction was going to be. It was just as he was getting out of the car that the thought finally occurred to her that he might think she'd moved on and had a baby with another man. It had genuinely not once occurred to her that he could think that. She hadn't been with another man since that night. She might have been able to make time but she had wanted to spend all her free time with her baby and her sister. There really had been no room and Calypso had been more than okay with that. She had been waiting for Damien as she'd promised; one night in his arms just hadn't been enough.
♦ ♦ ♦ TAG; damien royce malone WORDS; 701 LYRICS; Waiting On You --Lindsay Ell NOTES; <3
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Post by damien royce malone on Dec 1, 2019 14:29:21 GMT -5
Going to prison had been like erecting a wall between his past life and the one he had now. It towered just as high as the security fence he had looked out upon every day of his incarceration, and was just as effective, too. He didn’t talk much to new friends about his life before. He didn’t want to think about how he had strayed far from his dreams. He also didn’t want them to ask so many questions about how he got the garage or why he was missing a leg and so scarred up. Of course, a few good friends knew the story of the crash, mostly because they had been at his new place when he was dealing with his prosthetic. Only his good friends ever saw the inside of his apartment. He was kind of defensive and that stretched to his physical world as well as his emotional and mental ones. His past life, and everything that had been a part of it, lived separately from the life he had now, and up until this hour of this day, he never thought they would cross paths again. He saw them as railroad tracks running parallel but never touching. Somehow, he had forgotten that train tracks had the chance to meet when they switched lines.
He couldn’t quite put his finger on what he felt seeing Calypso again. It was surreal, and for a moment panic had set in. Probably because panic was sort of the last thing he was feeling when they were together. He knew he didn’t have much freedom left, and everything had been impulsive and driven by his primal desires for survival. He never thought he’d see her again though, no matter how many sleepless nights he had spent thinking about that. His world had changed so much and he had expected hers would too, that she might live somewhere other than the cheap building they had shared once, a long time ago. He had hoped that she had given up waiting for him, that someone else had given her more than he ever could. He hadn’t been in love with her, and they hadn’t even been on a single date, but he knew she was a good person who deserved the best from life; and he was far from that.
Despite her car being in a difficult spot to manoeuvre, Damien had the upper hand against everyone else on the street; his truck was bigger and tougher than their shiny cars. It was New York anyway, so five more minutes of traffic in their day wouldn’t kill them. Given its location, he figured it was going to be a hell of a lot easier to look at it in his garage rather than on the street. He got it all hooked up to the tow, winched it to a secure spot, and then double checked to make sure it wasn’t going anywhere. He didn’t really look inside the car since he would deal with it at the shop, but he saw an array of bright colours and wondered what she was keeping in there. The sun made it hard to make things out, and he didn’t want to come across as though he was snooping when she was right there. He did, however, identify the baby seat and for a moment he wondered if it was hers or if it was for a friend. He knew plenty of people without children of their own, but who were a primary mode of transport for someone who was already playing parent. Then again, maybe she had found someone and fell in love; there had been plenty of time for that between the last time Damien saw her and now. He waved on an irate taxi driver as he climbed back into the truck and took his chances pulling back into the flow of traffic. “So, life been good to you?” He asked, wanting to say something rather than sit in silence the whole way back. Going to the car was easy since she had to give directions, but now they had nothing business related to discuss and silence bothered Damien. It was a hospital thing and a prison thing, and by this point in his life he just couldn’t stand it.
• • • TAGGED! Calypso Peyton Payne WORDS! 719! LYRICS! For The Keeping - - - Wayward Daughter NOTES! <3 <3 <3
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Post by Calypso Peyton Payne on Dec 7, 2019 1:41:26 GMT -5
Life hadn't turned out to be what Calypso might have planned but she would not change a single second of it from that night forward. Before it? There were so many things she would change if she knew everything else would stay the same. She would have loved to have her father still alive. He would have doted on that sweet baby boy. And, if Damien never came back, at least he would have a strong father figure in his life to look up to. There were no words to express how much Calypso wanted Damien to be that figure for their son especially because his background wasn't so squeaky clean. She would argue that his past made him a better role model than most because he managed to pull himself out of a dark place. He may have had help doing it but everyone needs some now and again and Caly felt that it all just proved he really was a good man at the end of the day. There were not that many people in the world, especially in a big city like New York, that would help out their neighbour the way he'd helped her with her car that first time.
Another thing Calypso would have changed as long as everything else remained the same was Damien's knowledge of Soren. She wanted them to know each other because she hadn't really gotten the chance to know her father. She had a few really good memories before he'd died but if she were being honest, she couldn't tell which were real and which of those "memories" were made up based on the stories told about him. He'd been a teacher at the school she'd eventually gone to. Teachers recognised the name and asked if her mom was her mom and if her dad had been her dad. When she inevitably answered "yes", some went on a tangent about how amazing her father had been while others seemed to get lost in their own memories of the man she'd never really know. It hurt the most when those situations came up because she would never get the chance to see any of that for herself. The stories and tales were better because everyone smiled and laughed. It was easier to cope with the idea of talking about a dead man, though it was all sort of strange. Damien wasn't dead so there was a good chance of turning this whole thing around. Calypso could only hope he wanted to be in his son's life because if he didn't, Calypso didn't really know what she'd do. She had ideas and plans for if it ever happened but she hoped it wouldn't come to that; every son deserved to have their father in their lives.
Calypso had been thinking of all the ways she could tell Damien about their son since the day she'd found out she was pregnant. Some were wild and extreme while others were sweet and kind of cheesy. And while they were all ridiculous, the one that scared her the most was this kind, where she had no real choice, she just had to blurt it out and hope that he didn't yell or run away or do something that would prove to Caly that the man she'd romanticised and dreamt about for too long was really the bad man she didn't think he was. Caly took a deep breath, to prepare for what she was about to say. Now that she was in the moment, there was only one way to get through it. "Sort of. The last little while has certainly had its ups and downs." She said with a huff of air that might have been able to pass as a nervous laugh. Now that she was in this situation, she didn't want to blurt out the news of Soren on the side of the road. But she didn't want to say something back at the garage either. She wasn't fearing for her safety or anything ridiculous like that but she was fearing that he might yell at her for keeping his son from him. It wasn't at all intentional, she'd wanted him to know but she hadn't really wanted to bring him to the county jailhouse either! "Can we get back to the garage and talk for a second?" She asked, running her hands through her hair nervously. Caly was actually kind of hoping, deep down inside, that he would put two and two together and guess what she had to say but another part of her wanted to be able to tell him. It was so damn complicated.
♦ ♦ ♦ TAG; damien royce malone WORDS; 776 LYRICS; Waiting On You --Lindsay Ell NOTES; <3
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Post by damien royce malone on Feb 3, 2020 17:00:54 GMT -5
Damien didn’t believe in good or bad. He believed in humans and their imperfect lives. Good people could make bad choices, but to think that made them a bad person seemed like a bit of a stretch. He also didn’t believe in some divine power guiding them all like puppets either. If he died and found out there was a deity or such a thing as fate, then he would tell them they were a sick sadist. People struggled and suffered every day and Damien hated when people spouted religious verses and said it was all part of some grand plan they were too unimportant to understand. Fuck that. Fuck it all. Damien believed in people, and free will. He respected those who owned up to their mistakes and choices, and had little time for those who thought that their crap didn’t stink.
He had known men in prison who had only done what they needed to survive. He had met addicts who were punished rather than helped. Damien had never really been one to put his faith into other people, but his time in prison helped him see that he had been right not to rely on the kindness of strangers; they were quick to judge. If his brother hadn’t helped him get this garage then he knew he wouldn’t be doing anything worthwhile. There were very few people who would give a guy with his record a chance. Life would end up being as much of a struggle as it had been before he was locked up. At least now the people who believed in him were helping him show everyone else that a bad choice didn’t make for a bad person. Damien helped people when he could. He lowered prices when someone was truly struggling, or when he recognised a lost soul trying to better themselves. As someone who had been there, he wasn’t going to be the guy who slammed a door in their face and left them without a way to see their kids, or get to work.
And now he would help Calypso, just like she had helped him when the police had been knocking and he had panicked. This wasn’t quite the same thing since there were no sirens, but Damien felt like it would be one more debt in his ledger that he could cross out. “Well, you’re looking good.” It was a casual compliment, but a compliment all the same. He had thought about her from time to time when he was in his cell. He wondered if she was still living in that apartment, or if she was spending her nights on extravagant dates. Sometimes he just thought back to their first and last night together, and that ridiculous promise he had made like he was her one true love, off to fight a battle in a country far away. Focusing on the road, his brow furrowed and he shifted carefully into the righthand lane. “Sure. Look, Calypso, if this is about payment, this one is on me. I owe you.” He didn’t expand on that, hoping she knew what he meant. He also didn’t want any questions asked in the garage where his employees might hear. He trusted his guys there, but they weren’t the type of friends he confided in, and he had a feeling one or two would be easily pulled over to something shady. He would be damned if his let the past repeat itself in his garage.
• • • TAGGED! Calypso Peyton Payne WORDS! 586! LYRICS! For The Keeping - - - Wayward Daughter NOTES! <3 <3 <3
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Post by Calypso Peyton Payne on Feb 4, 2020 17:27:07 GMT -5
Calypso hadn't grown up in an overly religious family, less so after her father died and her mother spent a lot of time wondering if God did exist, why he would take her husband away from his young family. Calypso felt like people made their own luck and preferred to get to know people before making assumptions about them instead of immediately assuming they're good or bad. She'd been surprised before and felt book covers hid a lot of plot twists. She was a good person who'd done a foolish thing - not telling Damien sooner. And Damien was a good man who had done something illegal but she'd figured, it had been for a good reason. She really hoped he didn't hate her. "Ha, thanks. I've been getting a lot of exercise in." She said vaguely. "You're looking pretty good yourself. And you've got a nice garage now." She'd known he was a mechanic but they'd never really gotten into the nitty, gritty details of their hopes dreams or well, their actual lives. They were one car ride in a storm and one very incredible night and the memories from it. They shouldn't have been anything more than that. They were supposed to move on and be fond memories of each other. And then she found out she was pregnant and that whole dynamic flew right out the window with the baby shower balloons.
"It's not about payment. I'm not worried about that." She said with a wave of her hand. "And believe me, you owe me nothing and I owe you a hell of a lot more than I can actually give you." She admitted, looking out the passenger side window. She waited until Damien pulled into the garage before she took that deep breath she needed and turned to him. "Don't get out yet. I have something to say and while I'd like a bit of attention, not so much that people can hear us and your office walls are paper-thin if you'd heard me earlier." she rushed out in one go because she was losing her nerve. "I didn't go looking for you because I was foolishly hoping that life was some terrible Hallmark movie and that you would knock on my apartment door one day. I should have at least tried to find out what happened but I was scared." she started, not admitting that was the reason she hadn't moved though she could afford to. She wanted to be there just in case he did come looking for her. "That night." she started and stopped, looking away for a second to close her eyes and will the memories of that night away. This wasn't the time for them.
She turned back and looked him directly in the eye so he could see the hurt and the fear and the pain from it all. "I should have done things differently, this isn't how this should go but if I don't just spit it out now I'll lose the nerve but I'm scared you'll hate me anyway. It's a price I am willing to pay, I have to pay it." she knew she was rambling. She couldn't seem to stop herself and was probably making this whole thing worse than it was but all those fears she had were surfacing and she was starting to imagine life without her son in it full-time because his father had taken him away from her. She didn't think it would happen but there was always a chance and that scared her more than anything she'd ever considered a fear. "I got pregnant." she finally whispered, still looking at him. She was a mess but she was made of stronger stuff than her fears and she would not hide from what she perceived as righting a mistake she shouldn't have made. She should have found out where he was, she should have gone to visit him and she should have told him long before now. It was too late to go back and do it right so this was the next best thing.
♦ ♦ ♦ TAG; damien royce malone WORDS; 776 LYRICS; Waiting On You --Lindsay Ell NOTES; <3
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Post by damien royce malone on Feb 23, 2020 10:34:40 GMT -5
Damien didn’t expect everything to come up roses now that he was out and had his own garage. He knew cops did checks around the place sporadically, making sure he wasn’t up to his old tricks again. And he wouldn’t be. Damien had promised his brother as much, but more importantly than that, he had promised himself. Life had handed him a difficult set of cards, and he had done what he needed to survive, but Damien had learnt a lot about himself when he called a 12x12 cell his home. He had barely given his body a chance to recover what it had been through, instead too stressed about where the next month’s rent would come from. There was little consideration given to him after the accident and far too many “life goes on” mentalities surrounding him. He wasn’t dead, but he was an amputee, scarred from surgery and damn well lucky to be alive. No one just picks their life up after something like that and carries on like it was no big deal. Prison taught him that, and he knew now of places that could help, of his guys at the garage who could take on a little more if his leg began to hurt from being on the prosthetic for too long. He wasn’t alone in this – hell, his brother would probably pick up a wrench and bumble about the garage acting like he knew what he was doing if Damien called him. “I’m not sure if I’d call it nice, but it’s something.” He had a lot more work he wanted to do around the place, more upgrades and improvements. It was a working garage though, with staff and the equipment to fix up a car. More importantly, it was his.
He pulled on the handbrake and glanced across at Calypso. This seemed like it was going to be a heavy conversation. He felt his heart beat that little bit faster in his chest as his mind conjured up all the things she could possibly say. Did she get into trouble after his arrest? Did the cops come beating her door down when they were collecting evidence against him from his own apartment? If being in her apartment, spending the night with her, had caused her some kind of upset or got her harassed by the cops there was no way Damien could make up for that. He never should have hidden at her place, but he couldn’t bring himself to regret that night either. Maybe it was a one time thing, but it was one thing he needed before he was incarcerated. He hadn’t known it then, but he had needed to feel wanted, to know that everything he had done, everything he had been through wasn’t something that made him repulsive. It was a thought he had buried deep down, a fear he didn’t like to acknowledge, but Damien knew it was there. “With what? An ankle bracelet and an address for a halfway house?” He mumbled, not expecting an answer. He had nothing to offer anyone when he had been released. He had $50 to his name and the clothes on his back. It hardly made a man Prince Charming, or New York’s most elite bachelor.
Calypso got the words out – finally – and Damien sat there in silence, his eyes looking at, but not focused on, the steering wheel of the truck. He nodded his head once, a silent acknowledgement of her words while he processed them. He didn’t know how to feel about this. He suddenly felt numb, sort of how he did when he woke up and found out his leg was missing. He became aware of the scar on his throat all of a sudden; the one that had kept him alive the last time his airways were tight. “So, we have a coffee machine that you can help yourself to while I look at your car. It’s shit, but it’s coffee or the dodgy vending machine that steals change and doesn’t give you your soda.” He climbed out of the truck and set about lowering the winch that could put her car onto the forecourt. “Once I know what the problem is I’ll let you know. Oh, and there’s a form that needs filling out in the office in case we need to hold the vehicle while we order parts. Some models are especially picky about what they’ll run with.” He was talking to simply fill the space between them with something. With the car on the ground, Damien signalled one of the guys over to help him move it to one of the empty pits. He went to walk into the open garage, but turned back suddenly. “Boy or girl?” He asked, unable to silent that thought at the front of his mind. Getting someone pregnant had never been part of his plan, and now he was trying to work through the revelation that he was someone’s biological father. He needed to get his hands in the engine; it was the only thing that could calm his erratic thoughts right now.
• • • TAGGED! Calypso Peyton Payne WORDS! 864! LYRICS! For The Keeping - - - Wayward Daughter NOTES! <3 <3 <3
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Post by Calypso Peyton Payne on Feb 27, 2020 18:57:00 GMT -5
It had never occurred to Calypso that Damien might think the police had harassed her after his incarceration. She'd been young, pretty, blonde. They'd all thought she was a bit of a ditz and the information she'd offered them had been the truth at the time of giving it to them. She hadn't really known him, or anyone else in the building. That was still mostly the truth. She didn't know her neighbours well, though she knew Damien more intimately than before. They'd followed up after he'd surrendered to the police but it had just been to tell her that they'd taken him into custody so she could sleep easier that night. Little did they know. Calypso knew the police thought she was too good for the neighbourhood; thought she was probably slumming it to prove mommy and daddy wrong or whatever spoilt New York brats did but Calypso had been raised better than to believe people were nothing more than their face value. People were more than that and she knew Damien was worth more than that. He had shown her attention and care when no one else had. He'd seen her and helped her in a time when she felt like nothing could go right. He'd given her the greatest joy of her entire life. He was incredible and worth so much more than even he seemed to believe. She had wanted to show him that someone saw him, someone knew he was worth more than what other's thought of him.
Calypso understood people worked through big, serious news differently. She had been dazed and almost catatonic when she'd been given the news. Her mother and sister had been overjoyed at the news, excited and not really thinking until well after the high about the father because they'd never been introduced. That had been a conversation that Calypso hadn't wanted to have but she knew her family would not judge her for her choices. It all meant, however, that she could appreciate Damien's coping choices and wait until he was ready to talk to her about it. She could also see that the words he was saying were just there to fill the silence. Still, she took a moment for herself, hating that it took her so bloody long to spit the words out before reminding herself that she's known for ages now that he was a father and he's only known for seconds. A deep breath and she slid from her side of the tow truck to see what was going to happen next. She could feel the soft smile slip onto her face. It happened whenever she was able to talk about her sweet baby. "Boy." She told him, brushing her hand over her cheek. She wasn't tearing up yet but she felt like she might start and didn't want that to happen. She wanted to tell him the truth, that she looked at her son and saw his father but she didn't want to push it too much. She could and would wait until Damien wanted to know more.
Quietly, Calypso made her way back to the office and asked for the forms Damien had mentioned, just in case. As the kid behind the desk was going to ask Damien about something, she called her boss up quickly to explain her situation. It wasn't ideal, of course, but as she frequently worked from home, she also knew she could handle. It was probably well past time she invested in a new car anyway. That old civic had seen better days and really, she probably should have upgraded when she found out she was pregnant. The car had mostly been reliable though and she really hadn't wanted to part with it but now it was looking more and more like it was finally time to say farewell. Thank god her boss was understanding, though she did wonder if it were possible to email her the files so she could print the first hardcopies and see how they worked on the walls. Calypso promised to try before hanging up and walking over to the door to the garage. She stopped someone at random who just happened to be walking by the door and asked if she could get the wifi password to send her work to her boss before she fired her ass. It was a bit of a stretch but fear of losing a job made people think of the one thing they could do to lose their own job and pushed them to help out. She didn't know how much longer she would be there and she was, technically, under a deadline but if it were sent, she wouldn't worry too much about it. And this way, she could sit around waiting for news until she had to relieve her sister from her babysitting duties.
♦ ♦ ♦ TAG; damien royce malone WORDS; 810 LYRICS; Waiting On You --Lindsay Ell NOTES; <3
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