seen from Mexico
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from France
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Japan
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Germany
seen from China
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from India
@pepperonyscience I feel like this is a quote that Callum would have on his office wall. And would also have printed out and framed and hung for Rory and Alyaa in their office rooms too. He may not have told them that he was going to do that.
Rory; Bringing Callum Home
I don;t think there’s many triggers here. Callum is in a state ad Rory is stressed but that’s about it.
Tage Team!
@haro-whumps @grizzlie70 @castielamigos-whump-side-blog @shameless-whumper @iaminamoodymoodtoday @kawaiiloverofanimu @burtlederp @untilthepainstarts @my-whumpy-little-heart @moose-teeth @pepperonyscience @faewhump @saphemme @slaintetowhump
Risking a glance off the road, Rory looked over at Callum. He was curled in on himself in the passenger seat, whimpering and sniffing. He had hold of that disgusting teddy that he had screamed for when Rory had been trying to convince him away from the house without physically dragging him. He was clutching it tightly to himself, trapping it in with his knees which he had pulled up to his chest.
“You ok?” Rory asked. Callum glanced quickly up at him, jumping at having been spoken to.
“Umm…ummm….I…I…”
Rory turned his attention reluctantly back to the road ahead of him. Daylight was beginning to ebb and if he looked too much at Callum then there was no way that he was going to be able to concentrate enough to get them both home safely. He jumped when his phone started ringing.
“Mr Newman,” Rory said, pressing his ear piece to his ear a little more firmly. He could feel Callum watching him as he spoke into thin air. He felt bad enough talking about him like he wasn’t there. He certainly wasn’t about to play out a conversation with his boss over speaker phone. Just out of the corner of his eye he could see Callum looking up at him every few seconds.
“Yeah I’ve got him,”
“He’s…well he’s in a bit of a state to be honest,”
“Umm…He’s been treated very badly. Very badly,”
“I’d rather not say that here if you don’t mind, not where…”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea sir,”
“Look I don’t… no you know. You know I don’t like to argue. It’s not my style but this? No I’m not bringing him in.
"I’m not… no. No I’m not. I’m keeping him with me.”
“Sir with the greatest respect I’m not comfortable doing that,”
“Yes… yes as a matter of fact I would rather do that,”
“And? It’s in my employee file. Of course you have it,”
“What… what exactly are you saying? What is this? Huh? Is this a threat? Are you threatening me with something? Because if that’s what…”
“I will come and see you in the… fine. As soon as I get back. But just me. It’ll only be me.”
“Yeah,”
Rory ended the call and chanced another look at Callum. He looked petrified. Somehow he looked younger than he had when Rory had last seen him three years previously. Dressed only in a pair of shorts Rory had seen how much superficial damage had been done to him and that had only been at first sight. He knew there would be more. He knew that some scars would be the kind that he would never actually be able to see. But Callum’s face was as beautiful as it had always been. Beneath the dirt and the snot and tear tracks, his face looked like it had never been touched.
“Master Hayden,” Callum whispered. Rory looked quickly back to the road, then at Callum. Then at the road again. Master. This damaged and filthy boy was calling his Selector master.
“Oh god…oh nononono…nonono…” Rory looked over once more then pulled the car to a stop at the side of the road. This wasn’t a conversation that he could have at over one hundred kilometres an hour. He turned off the ignition and twisted in his seat to face Callum.
“Hey,” he said softly. “Cal you don’t need to panic ok?” He reached out to him. To touch his shoulder maybe. Or something, anything to give him comfort. He stopped in the middle of the movement at the way that Callum didn’t just flinch away. He jerked away. Bodily. If there hadn’t been a car door there to stop him then he looked like he would have crawled out and hid under the vehicle itself.
“I need Master Hayden…” Callum’s breaths came rapidly, almost overlapping themselves in their hurry to get in and out. “I need…oh I’m being good I want to be good. Please please don’t make me ashamed. Please. I’m using my manners see? Please please please. I’m not being bad I’m not I’m not. What did I do wrong? NO! NO! I didn’t mean to ask questions. I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry.”
Rory stared in horror at Callum. At all of the words that spilled from him. At the terror and the abuse and the desperation. Somewhere in the middle of all of his apologies, Callum’s voice had dwindled down to a whisper and then a nothing. Just his lips silently moving.
“Cal,” Rory tried again. “You can ask anything. Do you have any questions?” He winced at that. At the memory of Callum donating himself and only wanting to know if Rory had ever seen the locality facility. Callum uncurled himself enough that Rory could see his face again, tears running freely down his cheeks and over his mouth. Dripping from his chin.
“I want Master Hayden,” Callum whispered so so quietly. “I didn’t do anything to be ashamed of this time I know it. I know it. I didn’t.”
“You’ve got nothing to be ashamed of,” Rory said.
“Why won’t you let me go back? If there’s nothing to be ashamed of? Why?” Callum whimpered his way across the words. It made no sense. Rory couldn’t even begin to fathom it. Callum was clearly terrified of someone who was his self appointed Master. He had been abused, that much was painfully obvious. Yet here he was in Rory’s car starting to beg to be allowed to go back.
“Can?… Master Hayden… I’m being good. You could t…take photos to sh… show him… does he need?… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t ask questions,”
“I want you to ask questions Cal,” Rory said. “Please ask. Please.”
“Y… you can…I don’t want to sound rude. Because y… you and Master Hayden… you know w… what’s best for me. Bu… but….umm…I just wanted. No. I don’t want… that’s not what I meant…”
Rory watched Callum himself in knots with no idea how to stop him. He could feel the urge to just yell at him to ask the damn question already. He stamped it back down and focused himself with a pinch across the bridge of his nose while Callum tried to finish what he needed to say.
“Umm…I…a colour day.” Callum abruptly ended his rambling with the firmly spoken words.
“A what?” Rory asked, pinching the bridge of his nose once more for good measure.
“A…a…a … colour day,” Callum said. “Red for blood. Blue for bruises. White for bone. Black for isolation.”
“Fuck sake,” Rory sighed the cuss out, running his hand through his hair, pulling on it to try to focus himself in on what he was hearing. On what Callum was telling him. “Right,” he said, deciding on a course of action that would have to do for the time being. “I’m taking you to my place. Do you understand that? I’m taking you there and I’m going to have some things I need to deal with and you’re going to stay there. Ok? You understand?”
“Umm… yeah. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for…”
“Yeah I got it,” Rory said, checking the road and pulling the car back out on to it. He didn’t dare stop. He had enough in the tank to get home where he could get Callum inside, cleaned up and properly dressed. He cursed his own stupid self for never having been sensible enough to keep a couple of blankets in the car. Or anything else that might come in useful. He could never have expected to have someone as used up and tortured as Callum sitting next to him and in need of so much more than he knew how to give. He cursed himself for ever thinking that he wanted to be an AP. For his blind faith that the system was sound. Fit for purpose.
Callum had stopped speaking since Rory had given him orders. It seemed to have worked and that made Rory feel more anxious and uncomfortable than anything. He was still sniffing from time to time. Still locking his teddy into a vice like grip. But he seemed to have calmed down and Rory didn’t dare shake that temporary foundation sooner than he needed to. He let the silence sit for the rest of the drive away from the forests and into the city. Callum looked ready to drop by the time Rory pulled up into his designated parking spot. He was clenching and releasing his fists and breathing deeply everytime that his eyes looked like they were going to droop and finally give in to sleep.
Rory unbuckled his seat belt then reached across to Callum’s.
“I’m going to take your seatbelt off now,” he said quietly. “Ok bud? You don’t have to move. I’ll just unclip it right here.” As he said the last word he pressed his thumb down on the catch and clicked it open. The noise made Callum flinch a little but he didn’t startle to the same extreme that he had earlier.
“Good,” Rory whispered.
“G… good,” Callum asked quietly, a small whimper in his voice.
“Uh yeah, good.”
Callum seemed to wilt under the words. Under the notion of being good. It almost melted him with relief as Rory looked on.
“So, uh,” Rory scratched at the back of his head. “This is my place.” Callum stared back at him, blinking, exhausted and shaking. “We should probably get out the car now." He took his phone’s earpiece out and tucked it in the handle to the door. He opened his own car door and stepped one foot out, turning to check that Callum was doing the same but found that he was still sitting there, his seat belt partly reeled back on itself and hanging loosely around his torso.
"Ok,” Rory said, getting out and moving around to Callum’s door, opening it and stepping back. “You can get out now.” Callum finally started to move and Rory realised that he had been holding his breath only when he released it. Standing back, he let Callum slowly unfold himself out of the car and into the cold air of the rapidly encroaching night. Rory couldn’t tell if Callum’s shaking was as a result of the chill of the evening or whatever it was that had been done to him over the last three years.
“I’ve been good…umm…I…I…”
“You’ve been good Cal,” Rory said, reaching out to pat Callum on the shoulder but stopping short at the look of horror behind Callum’s eyes.
“Follow me,” Rory said, shutting Callum’s door and pretending that he didn’t see the way that he jumped at the sound. “Let’s get you inside.”
Rory motioned for Callum to follow him and walked on ahead, checking that Callum was behind him. He wanted to get him inside. He wanted to get him cleaned up and in a bed and checked by a doctor. He wanted to go back in time and break all the rules and tell him not to donate himself. He wanted to cry. But he didn’t dare not go in and speak with his boss for fear that if he didn’t then his boss would come to him. And he couldn’t risk it. He couldn’t have Callum exposed in a place where he’d brought him to keep him safe. It was three years too late but it would have to do. He walked along the hallway, Callum trailing along bheind him sniffing and whimpering and Rory regretted again that he had no spare clothes to offer him.
A movement just ahead and to the side caught his eye. A swish of black hair and a softly closing door dashed his hopes of getting Callum in without being seen by anyone. His neighbour, who very rarely spoke to him, had to have seen. He didn’t know her well enough to talk to her about what she must have seen. He couldn’t imagine a good way to start a converstaion about exactly why she had seen him bringing a scarred, scared, shaking, whimpering mess of a man to his place with him, and a half naked one at that. Rory sighed to himself again. He had only ever really spoken to her once at a party they had both been invited to and she had left shortly after asking what he did for a living. He had an idea that maybe, just maybe, he'd been in her apartment once but that memory was fuzzy at best. So there was another thing to panic about which was the last thing that he needed. That Callum needed.
“It’s just along here,” he said, turning to check on Callum again, who was looking warily at the neighbours door. He looked back at Rory when he spoke, and nodded, twsting his teddy’s head from side to side. Rory fumbled his way through the keys on his keyriny as he walked, checking back down to the neighbour’s door again as he unlocked his door.
“Ok,” he said, pushing the door open. “In you go.” He stepped back to let Callum in ahead of him and followed him in, certain that he saw another hint of black hair from down the corridor again.
“Right,” Rory said as he closed the door and locked it, turning to see Callum watching the lock. Shaking. “So…” Rory was interrupted by his ringtone going off, too loud and too shrill in the weight of the air in his living room. It pierced it and made them both jump. Made Callum groan and pull his overly thin frame in on himself, tucking himself over his teddy. The creen flashed up with his boss’s name. Not a call that he was going to be able to cancel and deal with in the morning. He mouthed an apology at Callum who was barely even lucid behind his worn out eyes and thumbed the screen to answer.
“Mr Newman sir, I have literally just walked through the…”
“No I haven’t forgotten but if you could see what I’m looking at then you might feel differently,”
“Can you at least give me half hour to sort some food or someth…”
“With all due respect sir I think you’re underestimating the situation,”
“No I haven’t spoken to anyone! Who exactly would I be speaking to and why?”
“Yes…yes…I…”
“Fucking idiot,” Rory pulled the phone away from his ear and sighed long and hard. Clenched it in his fist and just about resisted the urge to slam it into the wall and scream at it. He chewed at the inside of his cheek, pulled at his hair and sighed once more.
“Fuck sake,” he muttered glancing over at Callum who was looking back at him petrified. “I have to go out. Do you understand? I have to go out. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to go so soon but…” Rory trailed off as he watched a fresh twin line of tears start to run down Callum’s face. He was getting everything wrong and he had no idea how to fix it. He stepped one step in Callums direction who whimpered at his approach and then started to apologise. Over and over and over. Just sorry’s spilling out in a tiny little tear-strained whisper. Sorry upon sorry upon sorry that made Callum curl over with each one until he was bent down on the floor, doubled up over that stained and filthy teddy. Rory was horrified by what he saw. A level of broken that he didn’t know could exist.
“I…Callum? Cal?”
“Master Hayden…I’m sorry I’m sorry…please please please let me see him. Please. I want to go to him…I need to be made better and …nonono…you’re stopping me atoning. No…I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. I spoke ummm…I shouldn’t have spoken…please make me better.”
“I didn’t mean…not you, I didn’t mean you were an idiot. Cal? Man I haven’t got time for this. I’m sorry but if I don’t go then I’m going to bring down all kinds of a shit storm on our heads and believe me when I say that neither one of us needs that. Ok? So I’m going to go and I’m going to lock you in here. I’m sorry. But I’m going to lock you in here.”
“I want…” Callum began to whisper again.
“I’m sorry,” Rory said again. “But I AM going and I AM locking you in here.” He couldn’t afford to waste anymore time. He hated leaving Callum there on the floor, crying and whispering and begging. He hated leaving him holding on to that rotting teddy. He hated that he had released Callum from one locked room only to hole him up in another one. He hated his boss.
As he left the apartment and locked the door behind him, he hated himself more than anything.
Future Fic! Callum; I Can't Do This
Tag team!
@haro-whumps @grizzlie70 @castielamigos-whump-side-blog @comfortforthepain @shameless-whumper @iaminamoodymoodtoday @kawaiiloverofanimu @burtlederp @untilthepainstarts @my-whumpy-little-heart @moose-teeth @pepperonyscience @faewhump @saphemme
Introducing Alyaa! Rory and Callum's mysterious neighbour who @pepperonyscience has kindly let me use. Alyaa is pepperonyscience's OC.
This is set a few years in the future.
“Ok,” Rory said, coughing on the word and sniffing while wiping his eyes. “There’s hot and then there’s whatever you put in that curry!”
Alyaa laughed at him and put her plate down on the coffee table to settle back on the couch.
“Hey you told me to give you my best shot!” Alyaa said, hands up in mock self defence. “It’s not my fault that you needed to prove a point.”
“I can totally handle spices,” Rory whinged.
“But not as well as Callum can, you might as well just admit it then go and get yourself a glass of milk.”
Rory groaned both in defeat and at the overly pleased smile plastered across Alyaa's face. He pushed himself up off the couch and went to the kitchen.
"Do you want any?" he called back, wiping his eyes again which couldn't seem to stop watering.
"No I'm good!" she called back.
"Of course you are," Rory grumbled to himself, opening the fridge and drinking the milk straight from the carton.
"Eew," Rory spluttered into the milk at the unexpected interruption. "No wonder he moved out!" Alyaa said, leaning against the door frame, still looking pleased with herself.
"Why do you hate me!?" Rory groaned, putting the milk back in the fridge. "I swear you enjoy tormenting me much more than should be considered normal."
"You say tormenting," Alyaa said, shrugging slightly. "I say improving."
Rory laughed and pushed himself up to sit on the counter.
"How come he's your favourite huh!?" he said. "He's the one that left us!"
"You miss him," Alyaa said, resting her head against the door frame and crossing her arms. The triumphant grin that she had been wearing slipped to a small, knowing smile. A warm smile.
"I do not," Rory said. "I miss his cooking. I miss it more now that you've tried to set fire to the inside of my mouth." Alyaa raised her eyebrows at him, calling him out without a word.
"You should just admit it while you're busy conceding," she said, pushing off the door frame with her shoulder and frowning, looking behind her and back into the living room.
"I don't miss him," Rory said, ignoring the hand that she was holding up to silence him while she backed out of the kitchen. "He's intensely annoying." Rory called out after her. Jumping down from the side, Rory opened the fridge again, his mouth still tingling and hot, still in need of more milk.
"Your phone Rory," Alyaa shouted from the living room. "It's Callum. Want me to..." Rory spluttered on his milk for a second time.
"Pick it up!" he called out, hastily jamming the carton into the shelf in the fridge door and running back to the living room.
"Yeah you don't miss him one bit do you?" Alyaa teased, accepting the call and putting it on speaker phone.
"Cal!" Rory called out as he dropped on to the couch and leaned forward to pick up the phone and rest it on his knee. "How you doing bud? Got you broadcasting live and our favourite neighbour is here trying to kill off my taste buds with spices!"
"Hey Callum," Alyaa chimed in. She looked over at Rory and smiled. He smiled back. Lit up at hearing from Callum.
"Hi," Callum said, sounding small and distant. "Hi." He repeated himself.
"Uh hey?" Rory said. "You ok?" He glanced up at Alyaa and frowned at her. She shrugged and raised her eyebrows to answer. He was simultaneously both relieved and concerned that this wasn't a video call.
"Umm..." Callum stuttered a little down the line and Rory bit his lip when he heard it. The old nervous necessity to say umm. Something that had taken years to get rid of. And there it was again. Alyaa leaned over and touched Rory on the shoulder, a small comfort to them both.
"I'm...umm...I can't do this," Callum whispered. Such a quiet declaration seemed to fill all of the air in Rory's apartment the instant that it was spoken.
"Cal, sweetheart, where are you?" Rory asked.
"Are you safe?" Alyaa asked.
"Yeah... yeah I...I...I'm safe," Callum said. "I'm on the campus, there's a bench just out the way so...umm... yeah that's where I am."
"Ok," Rory said, as much to himself and Alyaa as to Callum.
"Do you want to tell us what it is that you can't do?" Alyaa asked.
"Umm... I've got a problem with...with my hands," Callum said, then muttered just enough that Rory and Alyaa heard him over the line. "Stupid slow hands."
"What are your hands doing sweetheart? Or is it something they're not doing?" Rory said.
"They don't... they don't work properly," Callum sighed the words out like he was trying not to cry. Trying not to shout. "There's ways of operating and techniques that you have to learn and...a...a... and this time they won't do it right. They won't work! I can follow rules. I can. You know I can..." Rory winced as Callum continued to talk, as he fell back on what he had been forced to learn so long ago. On begging and wanting to show that he was good and could be better if only he was given the chance.
"...but I can't do this. I can't do this. You can't just tell your operating surgeon that you can't follow this decades long established technique because you lived in a torture basement for th..th...three years and got so used to being cuffed up that your hands work better if you keep your wrists close together." Callum stopped talking all of a sudden and was breathing fast and deep enough for it to be heard over the phone.
Rory and Alyaa looked at each other over the phone, each hoping that the other would know what to do for the best. Rory took a deep breath in and let it out before he started to speak.
"Hey, so Dr. Morrow?"
"Yeah," Callum sniffed miserably.
"You got a gap in your schedule coming up any time soon that you want to fill? Because apparently you can handle hotter food than I can and that's stressing me out..." Rory paused and waited. Callum breathed gently in and out, the sound of it was comforting to Rory. The pause in conversation carried on, stretched out. Rory wondered if he'd misjudged it but giving Callum an out had been something that he'd done time and time again in the past. Callum had fallen for it then. He was well enough now that the tactic was glaringly obvious. But it was up to him to decide if he wanted to haul himself up on this life raft that Rory had thrown to him.
"It's umm... not the food that's stressing you out Rory," Callum said, finally. "It's admitting I'm better than you." He let a tiny breath of a laugh out on the last word.
Next to Rory, Alyaa drooped forward where she sat, her forehead landing on her knees, an overly exaggerated show of relief for Rory that Callum had allowed himself to take the bait.
"It's a problem for him," she called out, curled over and slightly muffled.
"It's my umm...natural talent you know," Callum said. "Being a problem for Rory."
Rory and Alyaa looked at each other and smiled. Bad jokes from Callum were always a sign that he was starting to feel more comfortable. Starting to come back from inside his own head.
"So how about you come on back home for a night and we see just how much of a problem you can be once I've beaten your ass at eating spicy food then?" Rory said, a smile coming through in the way that he was speaking.
"Sounds good...umm... thank you both," Callum said. "Thank you. I'll check my clinic times and get back to you tonight?"
"Sure thing bud," Rory said.
"We miss you!" Alyaa called out.
"She misses you!" Rory shouted.
"I miss you both," Callum said, with a laugh. "Umm... thanks though. For talking to me tonight. Umm... this is problem Callum over and out." The phone call cut off and Rory sat still for a moment. Looked at the blank screen of the phone.
"You miss him," Alyaa whispered.
Rory nodded and pretended that he was sniffing only because of the spices in the food.
Help Whump-it Decide!!!
I'm in a dilemma. We've all been there. So I'm throwing this one out to you all for help deciding on what to write next.
1. Rory and Callum do a floor picnic
2. Callum being allowed out of the basement
3. ...
Ok, so for 3. I thought you guys could throw suggestions at me instead!
Ready? Steady? Gooooo!
(Seriously. Please help)
@haro-whumps @grizzlie70 @castielamigos-whump-side-blog @comfortforthepain @shameless-whumper @iaminamoodymoodtoday @kawaiiloverofanimu @burtlederp @untilthepainstarts @my-whumpy-little-heart @whump-chains @pepperonyscience
Whump-it Debates With Herself
And now with you good people.
So I want to go ahead and write what happens when Rory goes to see his boss. It’s not a big piece. In fact I imagine that it’ll be one of the shortest drabbles that I’ve ever written.
BUT!
It will reveal what happened in order for Rory to be able to get Callum out. HUGE ASS SPOILERS kind of reveal. As in there’s no coming back from that! So what are we all thinking? Do I sit in the comfort of writing caretaking? Do I continue whumping away at Callum? Do I write a future fic for Callum and Rory and their currently mysetrious neighbour?
Or do I actually move this darn story forward!?
@haro-whumps @grizzlie70 @castielamigos-whump-side-blog @comfortforthepain @shameless-whumper @iaminamoodymoodtoday @kawaiiloverofanimu @burtlederp @untilthepainstarts @my-whumpy-little-heart @moose-teeth @pepperonyscience @faewhump @saphemme
Play List
I think I need a play list to write to. I have plenty of atmospheric and, frankly, miserable songs. But does anyone have any that they think would match up with Callum, Master Hayden and Rory?
Also, little fact. Rory really likes Bloc Party!
@haro-whumps @grizzlie70 @castielamigos-whump-side-blog @comfortforthepain @shameless-whumper @iaminamoodymoodtoday @kawaiiloverofanimu @burtlederp @untilthepainstarts @my-whumpy-little-heart @whump-chains @pepperonyscience
A Song For Callum
"Mercury" Rows of houses Sound asleep Only street lights Notice me I am desperate If nothing else In a holding pattern To find myself I talk in circles I talk in circles I watch for signals For a clue How to feel different How to feel new Like science fiction Bending truth No one can unring this bell Unsound this alarm, unbreak my heart new God knows, I am dissonance Waiting to be swiftly pulled into tune I’ll go anywhere you want Anywhere you want Anywhere you want me I’ll go anywhere you want Anywhere you want Anywhere you want me I’ll go anywhere you want Anywhere you want Anywhere you want me I’ll go anywhere you want Anywhere you want me I know the further I go The harder I try, only keeps my eyes closed And somehow I’ve fallen in love With this middle ground at the cost of my soul Yet I know, if I stepped aside Released the controls, you would open my eyes That somehow, all of this mess Is just my attempt to know the worth of my life… Made of precious metals Precious metals Precious metals inside Made of precious metals Precious metals Precious metals inside Made of precious metals Precious metals Precious metals I’ll go anywhere you want Anywhere you want Anywhere you want me I’ll go anywhere you want Anywhere you want me
By Sleeping at Last who is amazing and needs all the awards, like, yesterday!
🖖 For Callum! And 💪 for Master Hayden
🖖 - if your character needed to communicate peaceful or helpful intentions to someone else through touch, how would they go about doing that?
Callum is full to the brim with peaceful and helpful intention. His biggest problem is that he's been conditioned for years not to ask anything unless he's told that he can. But touch is something that he's still got. So he uses it really well. He would always approach the person so that they could see him coming because he doesn't want to frighten them. He knows how that feels. He likes to reach quietly for their hand with very gentle fingertip pressure and when they are calm and relaxed he'll step into their space and pull them to him, using body contact to show that he's no threat.
💪 - would your character be more likely to scoop someone up in their arms, or be the one getting scooped?
Hayden's relationship with touch is complicated. As a child he relished contact and loved hugging his family, crawling all over them, just being close. But as events took over and twisted him into what we know of him, touch became something that he could manipulate to make Callum pay. Before he found Callum he was just simmering with rage that had nowhere to go. With Callum, that's where he directs it. Do he'd be the one doing the scooping. But it wouldn't end nicely. It's a means to get Callum moving.
