daphcarey

[daphcarey]

"It's been too long since we've caught up," she started, bumping her fridge door closed with her hip and turning toward the other woman. She passed a drink to her over the kitchen island, then took a sip of her own. "Any fun summer plans? Summer romances? School's out, I don't have any student drama to keep me preoccupied. Let me live vicariously." @ferahdemirci

[daphcarey]

She snorted. "I could only dream of catching kids reading Vonnegut in the bathrooms. — It means I couldn't teach it, and they couldn't keep it in the library." Her fingers tapped against her temple in a mime of I'll keep that in mind, before her hands cupped around her coffee and her eyes dropped to the book between them. "I wasn't old enough to really understand it when I first read it. I liked it, but I didn't really get it." Her head tipped slightly to one side in thought, and she breathed in deeply as she put her thoughts in order. "Last time I read it, it was a few months after Mom and Dad died. The framing of death as just one more experience we all go through, not any more or less permanent than any other moment of our lives... Having that scope to think about my parents through: forever dead and out of reach for me, but also forever on their wedding day, forever holding me for the first time, forever braiding my hair or teaching me to ride a bike or whatever... Conversations about free will aside, that really stuck." She blinked, and shrugged. "His prose isn't my favorite. But it's only 192 pages; you can get through it in an afternoon if you put your mind to it."

Eric's brows furrowed as he looked down at the book on his side of the table.

"Ban it? The bathrooms still smell like cotton candy after they banned vapes. The hell is that gonna do?" he asked.

Eric shrugged with a sigh. With his pointer finger and his thumb on opposite sides of his chin, he stroked his beard as he found himself lost in thought.

"It was alright, I guess. The story was interesting enough, but I couldn't care less about free will. I don't know. I liked Steinbeck more," he explained.

Still, his focus stayed glued to the book. He re-examined on the cover with narrowed eyes.

"Did you like it? When you first read it, I mean?"

[daphcarey]

The apologetic little cringe on Daphne's face dissolved into a smile; one leg crossed comfortably over the other underneath the table, and she let herself slouch a little into her chair. "You'd think the whole world stopped because they're on vacation." Daphne herself had watched as the slow man in question had taken the last lemon muffin, which had been her sweet of choice. With a shake of her head, she pulled a menu to her side of the table and flipped it open. "Forget about him, though. You..." Her brows raised promptly, the smile on her lips turning a little wry. "Any big weekend plans that your best-friend-slash-pastry-dealer would like to hear about?"

With the instant apology, Paloma was already shaking her head. "As if you ever have to apologize to me," with the summer season starting, there was typically one reason that people were late and that reason was tourists. One could leave with plenty of time to get somewhere and still be late. "Ah, see, this," Paloma quickly reached for the bag to pull out the pastry, "is why you are my best friend." She grinned, flattening the empty bag. "Those people irk me to stand behind, talking about a test of patience." @daphcarey

[daphcarey]

"I would hate it equally — " lie, as much of a lie as accusing him of cheating, and she couldn't keep herself from laughing softly as she shifted. From leaning against the golf club, to leaning into him, turning her head to brush her nose playfully over his. "Or at least only as much as I hate it that you're actually good at mini golf and look good doing it." Daphne, meanwhile, had spent the past half hour frustratedly sighing each turn and fighting the urge to pick up the colorful little ball that was meant to be hers and walking it over to dump it into a hole by hand. Her palm pressed to his shoulder and squeezed gently as she eased away from him. "Expensive dinner it is. Get me out of here before I throw this golf club at that dumb little windmill."

Elijah's lips instantly grew into a grin despite his wife's attempt to accuse him of cheating. "You should know I'm a man on honor," he clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth as he watched her lean against the mini golf club, "I would never cheat." His head slowly shook at the idea. "I am going to treat you to a very expensive dinner regardless," he smiled softly at Daphne, "what kind of husband do you take me for?" A raise of his brow followed his question. "As for a rematch, I'd be happy to oblige, but I'm not going to let you win," he teased, walking up to her to press a kiss to her cheek, "I think you'd hate that even more." @daphcarey

[daphcarey]

Her lips pressed into a line that almost counted as a smile, and she nodded. "Yeah, of course. You don't have to thank me for that." It did feel odd, though, to be keeping things from her husband — Daphne would call Skipper an acquaintance, certainly not a friend; someone that she only knew because the other woman was a good friend of Elijah's. And if she was being honest, she just... didn't keep secrets from her husband. Not big ones, and definitely not secrets about his friends. But... it wasn't her secret to tell. So she didn't, and wouldn't. She reached up to take the other earbud out of her ear, and then her arms crossed. "Look, I know it's not any of my business, but... if you ever want someone to talk to about it, I'm happy to listen." There was a beat of pause in which Daphne let her eyes skim over their surroundings; the trail, the trees, making sure there was no one around but the birds to hear before her voice dropped a little and she added, "I'm not a parent, so I get it if you'd rather just let it drop and not speak about it again. But I know how much it can help, just to vent." Again, that slightly uncertain, tight-lipped smile. "I've been told I make a pretty good banana pudding, it goes great with coffee and spilling your guts." @skipperlandvik

She never realized just how uneasy casual, daily life could make her. There was a lot of waiting in the military too, maybe even more so than her life now, but it was a different type of waiting. Her mind was always preoccupied with a task on hand or thinking of the strict schedule for the day or, on the rare occasion, reading over the letters and photos that Christian had sent of the son they shared. Here, there was no strict schedule, no missions or tasks or goals or worrying about imminent danger.

It was just... living. Even growing up, her days had been rigid and inflexible. Now it was just throwing herself into her job that kept her sanity going, the act of patrolling the parks for any signs of trouble or answering questions for tourists that passed through.

Her morning patrol (thank god she wasn't on office duty that day) took her from the tree-covered bridges of the park to more maintained trails where runners and families often ventured. It was only her luck that the area was relatively empty at that time of day, leaving her easy to spot. "Daphne, hey. I don't think anyone could have asked for better weather," Skipped finally greeted after taking a breath to ready herself for the interaction, offering the woman a polite smile.

She'd always been friendly with Daphne since the other was the wife of one of her close friends, but now that she was the only acquaintance of hers that knew of August, it put an entirely different meaning on their friendship. The blonde assumed things meant their shared secret, an inquiry Skipper should have steeled herself. She slipped her hands in her pockets and shrugged. "It's getting there... I think. Listen, I, uh, really appreciate you keeping it between us for now."

@daphcarey

[daphcarey]

"You're a cheater." Her lips popped for emphasis. Daphne leaned her weight against her mini golf club and shot Elijah a look that she tried her best to make accusatory; but there was a smile playing at the corners of her lips anyway, pressing a dimple into her cheek and ruining the entire effect. They both knew all too well that he was going to win at any sport they played, even mini golf — she honestly wasn't even sure why a date night would start at Shrimpy's anyway, because she was utterly hopeless. But that didn't stop her from adding, "And I demand a rematch. — Or a very expensive dinner." @elijahxmiller

[daphcarey]

The book she handed over was a paperback so old and creased that it felt soft in her hand. Eric could definitely find it in a library, but Daphne liked loaning out her own copies. She liked the creases in the spine, the curling at the corners of the cover, the little coffee stains dotted here and there on the pages. Proof that they'd been read and loved, many times over. "Slaughterhouse-Five, which the great state of South Carolina is trying to ban from our schools." Her brows raised pointedly, as she took a sip of her coffee. Then her eyes dropped to the book on his side of the table, the last one she'd given to him. "What did you think of that one?" @ericanderson

[daphcarey]

"I'm so sorry!" were the first words that came blurting out of Daphne's mouth as she pulled out the chair opposite from Paloma and plopped down into it. Corner Cafe was busy this time of afternoon; everywhere in Marshall Island was busy, now that summer had well and truly kicked off. "I'm late, I know. Tourists." Her nose crinkled into a cringe, because she knew it wasn't really an excuse — but, to hopefully make things even, she put a paper bag in the center of the table. The Beach Bun logo was printed on the front, and inside were Paloma's favorite pastry. "I got your favorite, for dessert. Right after the slowest man in the entire world ordered one of everything." @palomaxcruz

[daphcarey]

Summers were always an odd time for her — the tranquility of having some time off mixed with the... frankly, restlessness of having nothing to do. It was nice for a week, and then she missed seeing her students, missed seeing the ones who had a passion for reading the way that she did throw themselves into the class and the ones who hated it... maybe learn to hate it a little less, by the end. So, early enough in the morning that there wasn't much of a crowd, she found herself among the trees, leaning against the wooden railing in the nature preserve, watching an egret preen in the dappled shade while an audiobook poured story into her ears through her earbuds.  She almost missed the other woman entirely. But then at the last second, Daphne's eyes caught on Skipper and stuck. (Rowan, apparently.) Daphne straightened up, a smile that was only slightly awkward blooming over her lips. "Hey." She pulled out one of her AirPods. "It's a nice morning to be outside, hm? How are... things?" How did it go a few weeks ago with the son that I'm currently sworn to secrecy over, is what she doesn't say — because she still had the one AirPod in, she wasn't totally sure there was no one within earshot of them. And, frankly, because she didn't know Skipper that well, and she wouldn't blame the woman for dodging the topic entirely. Something spurred Daphne to ask anyway. @skipperlandvik

[daphcarey]

DAPHNE  LOU  CAREY  MILLER.   always  an  angel,  never  a  god.

Full Name:  Daphne Lou Miller, née Carey.

Nickname(s):  Daph. Her father called her Lou.

Age:  36 years old.

Birth Date:  September 16th, 1988.

Zodiac Sign:  Virgo.

Gender:  Cis woman.

Marital Status:  Married.

Occupation:  High school teacher (10th and 11th grade English Lit).

Fluent Languages:  English, conversational Spanish.

BIOGRAPHY.

I'll type out her full biography soon. For now, the still-too-long tldr is: She was born and raised in Savannah, Georgia. She has a big family — four brothers, two sisters, an army of cousins. Being born right in the middle, and in such a huge crowd of kids, it was easy for Daphne to be forgotten. She was never shy, and never a wallflower outside of her family... but within it,  her parents tended to forget she existed. Seemingly. They'd probably deny it, but it felt that way. She did good in school. She was cute, but never stunningly beautiful (she needed braces and had a few years where she didn't know how to do her makeup). She got her first boyfriend the summer between her freshmen and sophomore years of high school, and as far as she was concerned, he would be her only boyfriend. He was her first everything, and she fully intended to spend the rest of her life with him. They ended up going to different colleges and having to do long distance, but Daphne was more than willing to make it work. She bloomed in college — got braces, learned to style herself, started working out, got out of the shadow of her massive family. She thought her life couldn't get better. And then, three weeks before completing her bachelor's, she found out her boyfriend was cheating on her; and had been, since their first semester apart. Years. Saying she was gutted would be an understatement. She went on to get her master's, she kept her life together, but she stopped dating. No strings, no heartbreak. One of her siblings had already moved to Marshall Island, so she followed them. That was nearly ten years ago; she's worked at the local high school for nine. No strings went great, until it didn't. She found someone patient enough to deal with her refusal to even consider dating again, and now she's happily married. Her parents passed a year ago, in a car crash. It hollowed her out, in a way. She'd spent her whole life chasing their attention, and never quite got it, and then the chance was torn from her fingers. She still gets in a melancholy mood about it from time to time.

HEADCANONS.

Typical virgo, she's a perfectionist. Typical middle child, she's always been in a competition with herself to be and do better. Good enough has never been good enough.

She's neat, but not necessarily Pinterest perfect. She likes a little color and a little texture to things.

Unless you live with her, you've never seen her without her hair and her makeup done, a manicure and a pedicure. Thanks to sweat-proof primer, she doesn't even work out without at least a litle bit of makeup on.

She carries a Kindle and an iced coffee around like a lifeline. She's always, always reading at least one book, but usually two or three.

She's impatient and prone to fiddling with things. 

Daphne has a dry, wry sense of humor. She's typically easy to get along with, as long as you don't mind her being stubborn. Because you might as well be arguing with the wall, if you're disagreeing with her.

WANTED CONNECTIONS.

Friends, enemies, frenemies, etc

Maybe a neighbor or two?

Coworkers within the school district, or parents of her students.

Running buddies! She goes on a run every morning.

Someone to do tandem reads with.

College friends? She didn't go to college in Savannah or Marshall Island, I'm flexible about where.

[daphcarey]

LAYLA KEATING The Next Episode

[daphcarey]

Summer break's here and this is such a mood.