Trouble in the city, trouble on the farm [Catch-all; open]

[dirtyredneck]

WHO: Daryl Dixon and open
WHERE: All over
WHEN: Month of July
WHAT: Catch-All! Open prompts up top, specific prompts in the comments
WARNINGS: Zombie mentions, language, more tbd

Any City: The Angel is on the hunt; Any time in July; De Chima only during the zombie plot
Daryl has his hood up, head down. He's walking with his hands tucked into the pockets of a nondescript leather jacket and this late at night, most people chose not to pay attention to him. He looked like almost any guy trying to get by in the night and not be obvious about where he was going or what he was doing. His face just obscured enough by the hood to make identifying him difficult without getting right in his face.

But that doesn't stay the case for long, after he's found his trail. It's not an immediately obvious one. Just him stopping occasionally to glance around and then pull a flower or a weed out of a crack in the sidewalk. At least until the small plants he's oddly interested in are being pulled off of walls. Then he takes a look around and slips into someplace dark enough to hide him as he pulls on his mask and makes sure he's covered from head to foot. Then he's making his way up a fire-escape to a window or along an alleyway to a door. And outside of being quiet, he's not especially trying to hide his actions.

A little while later, should any observers decide not to interfere with his suspicious actions, there's the sound of combat from where he went into - all grunts or cut-off cries of pain or silenced gunfire. Some time after that, when all is quiet again, the man slips out of the building with a child wrapped in his arms and a pair of glowing wings made of orange and blue light that give his position away. But at that point he's not out to protect his position. He's out to protect the kid he's just rescued and fly them off home.

Nonah: Motorcycle Madness; Early in the month
Daryl was pretty well known among his fans by now for preferring a motorcycle to get around on rather than the wings he'd been gifted with by the Porter. So it was little surprise when he showed up at a small Bike show for custom builds. If he saw any obvious imPorts or people he already knew, he gravitated toward them and nodded at the bike they were looking over, "You like that one? Don't think the suspension's too much?"

Wild Card: Nonah, De Chima, Heropa
Daryl is out and about doing normal things in the early half of the month, fighting zombies in De Chima in the second half. He can be found doing basic grocery shopping, checking out nick-knack stores, hanging around parks, and doing everything but eating in public. The closest he comes on that end is having some very mild tea at a couple different shops he liked and attempting to avoid the paparazzi. Largely unsuccessfully.

[[Action or Prose is fine, I'll match your preference. If you want a specific prompt, poke me in PM and I'll put one up for you.]]

Comments

For Tina - early July

[dirtyredneck]

The girl was weird. Even for a kid. Just, weird. But she was pretty cool, too. And she'd agreed to be his cook. Her super power of being able to make anything perfectly meant that no matter how bland it seemed when she fixed it up, it ended up flavored just enough that he could feel normal again without the tastes overwhelming him. And after close to a year of eating mostly rice and raw meat, it was a mind-blowing experience.

He didn't get to eat with her every day or even most days. His schedule was too busy. But when he had the chance, he'd head over to where she was and spend the time while she cooked listening to her chatter away about whatever. Today was no exception.

[continuousgroaning]

Today, since it was a pretty nice day, Tina's stationed herself outside at a park. There's a grill there, and while it's not as nice as her dad's (which was saying something, on reflection), it was still able to cook perfectly well.

Tina's got a few typical picnic items in a cooler- some hot dogs, some ears of corn, and so on- and she's squinting as she lights the coals.

"Hopefully this won't end up like the time I burned someone's house down," she remarked. "Of course, there WAS kerosene involved that time."

[dirtyredneck]

Daryl's sitting not far from the grill, snagged an 'early seat' on his bike just behind her set up and is leaning on the gas tank. Once she got going, her place would be swamped with customers. First time he'd seen it, it had been something of an eye-opener.

"Sure it won't," he answered even if she wasn't expecting one. "You ain't got enough lighter fluid there to do more'n spark a little and catch the coals 'fore it goes out. You burn it down on purpose?"

[continuousgroaning]

"And that's a good thing," she replied with a grin, then turned serious again. "I thought it was my fault at first, but there was more to it. It's a bit of a long story, but Dad and I got blackmailed into helping an insurance guy commit fraud. He doused the side of his house in odorless kerosene, put the grill right up against it, and... poof. It was all to collect the money from the policy." She paused. "... which is pretty messed up, when I think about it."

[dirtyredneck]

Daryl snorted and shrugged, "Ain't that messed up. Least not the part where he wanted to commit fraud. Seen a lotta people attempt that back before. Is messed up he blackmailed you and yer dad, though." Not that he was surprised by it, of course. He'd seen a lot of messed up shit in his day.

"Was it fun to watch it burn down?"

[continuousgroaning]

"Yeah... I guess it feels that way to me just because I always try to be honest. It all started when Dad let me drive the car a little in a parking lot and I freaked out and crashed into someone else. Dad figured it was best to just say he'd been driving, the lesser of two evils. We lied to Mom about it, then to the insurance guy, and everything piled up... it made me feel sick to my stomach."

She was surprised at how easy it was to talk about this sort of thing; usually she liked to just put it behind her. But things could still have an impact on her, years later, and the strangest things could remind her of something entirely different.

"Oh, God, no. I was scared out of my mind," she admitted. "I froze in place and Dad had to pull me away."

[dirtyredneck]

"Figured. It's more fun when you do it on purpose," he agreed, thinking back to Beth and the house they'd burned. Then to when he was a kid and got home to find it being put out by a firetruck. "Sorry ya dad lied like that. S'okay I think ta lie to the insurance guy so you didn't get in trouble. But to yer mom? Nah. Shouldn't've gotten that far."

He shifted on his seat and leaned back to try and get a look at the grill.

"You wanna try driving again sometime?"

[continuousgroaning]

"Mom can't keep a secret, though," Tina said with a chuckle. "So sometimes we DO have to lie to her. Or more like we don't tell her things. But it all worked out no matter what... I recorded the insurance guy planning another scam and he got busted. So we didn't have to lie any more."

She considered that, fanning the flames a little.

"... Maybe," she admits. "I was really scared, though, so I think I'll wait til I'm older."

[dirtyredneck]

"Maybe. You ever ride a bicycle? Not one of these, but an actual bike. The kind with pedals?" Sometimes just being in control of a moving vehicle got to people. Sometimes it was just the sheer responsibility of the vehicle in question.

Though, actually, "Would you like to ride one of these? Not drive it, I mean. But... I'm a good driver."

[continuousgroaning]

"Oh, yeah," Tina affirmed. "My brother and sister and I go all over the place on ours."

Her eyes then widened as Darryl offered, and she plopped a few items onto the grill, a slow smile spreading across her face.

"I think I would," she affirmed. "We're friends with a biker gang back home, actually, though my parents would never let me on their bikes."

[dirtyredneck]

Well, at least that meant she wasn't scared of bikes on principle. That was damn good. A lot of kids loved the idea of a motorcyle, but fewer were familiar enough with them to really feel safe.

"Well, as long as yer parents ain't here, you ain't got no one sayin' no," he smirked, giving her a playful wink. "'Sides, it's safe with me at the handles. Just let me know when yer feelin' up to it."

[continuousgroaning]

Tina covered a chuckle with her mouth.

"True," she affirmed. "And the bikers we know probably wouldn't bother much with safety, either, so my mom and dad were right in forbidding me from riding their bikes. I have no objections to wearing a helmet and stuff, though. I'm not into the idea of breaking my skull."

[dirtyredneck]

"I doubt that's true. Bikers that like kids enough to let 'em ride, they're usually really strong on safety. I got a spare helmet in the saddle bags just for that."

Tina wasn't the first kid he'd taken for a ride and probably wouldn't be the last. He liked kids in general. More than he let on 'cause it'd been beaten into him that showing too much affection or kindness to kids was being 'soft' and 'girly'. That life was behind him, sure, but it was a hard thing to shake. Getting easier as the years passed, though.

"Could get you one of your own. So you don't gotta share it."

[continuousgroaning]

"Mmm, that could be true, too," Tina admitted. "My parents could also have just thought we were too young. My brother is 11 and my sister is 9, and it wouldn't have been fair to just let me ride and not the two of them. Louise wouldn't have liked that at all, even though she's too short to even ride some of the rollercoasters and stuff at Wonder Wharf- that's the amusement park down the street."

She smiles.

"I'd like that."