➶ ][ teleios application

[worn_wings]

Player Info

Name: Alms
Age: 27
Contact:

gossamerrain
symbolicalating [at] gmail [dot] com
errantpastor [NOTE: I don't get notifs for @pings on plurk, so it's not a reliable means of getting my attention]
cold dry pieces @ AIM

Characters Already in Teleios: nobody!
Reserve: 02.03.2014

Character Basics:

Character Name: Daryl Dixon
Journal: worn_wings
Age: Not specified- probably somewhere in his mid-30's
Fandom: The Walking Dead
Canon Point: End of season 3
Debt:

Class A: 500 years (so, so many walkers... plus, you can count a couple betrayals... His brother would say so.)
Class B: 12 years (a generous handful of assaults, lots of breaking and entering abandoned houses...)
Class C: 1 year, six months (just for good measure. Mostly poaching and trespassing, plus (for funsies) four counts of:)

wearing human ears as jewelry

GRAND TOTAL: Five hundred thirteen years and six months

Canon Character Section:

History:

here is a wiki link because otherwise all my examples in the below sections will get mad repetetive. If you'd prefer a written out one I would be happy to provide it, tho!

Personality:

At first glance, Daryl is not the most likeable guy. He's gruff, blunt, and deeply suspicious of strangers; he doesn't make an effort to be polite, and (especially early on) he has an ugly temper. He’s outright belligerent, in fact. People have a tendency to write him off as a dumb hick with anger issues... particularly people familiar with his older brother Merle. While Daryl is understandably devoted to his brother, he's a better guy than people give him credit for. He's fiercely loyal to those he does trust, willing to risk his own safety to protect them, and intent on ensuring the survival of his entire group-- not just himself.

Daryl is more a follower than a leader; once he places his trust in someone, he is incredibly loyal, even in the face of personal misgivings. His trust can be shaken, but it takes a hell of a lot. When we meet him outside Atlanta, Daryl has largely been following his brother's lead; they are socially distant from the other survivors, and as is later revealed are intending to rob the camp and abandon them. (There is some suggestion this is a long-lasting pattern; Daryl offhandedly mentions that he could only play with other neighborhood kids after Merle left, which admittedly probably has as much to do with Merle being abrasive and the others not liking him as it does Merle being controlling.)

Merle claims that Daryl doesn't go through with robbing the camp because he isn't there to help; but really, after Merle's disappearance, it doesn't take long for Daryl to begin to bond with the others. After they leave Atlanta, he risks himself to save T-Dog from a herd of walkers, and provides him with antibiotics for the infection he subsequently develops, in spite of the fact that T-Dog was largely responsible for abandoning Merle on the rooftop. He works harder than anyone to find Sophia, following her tracks, going out alone to hunt for her, and making an effort to keep people's hopes up about the chances of finding her alive.

The shock of finding her as a walker in Hershel’s barn hits him hard, and at first he withdraws from the group over it, refusing to help them look for other people (since the people on this show have a really awful habit of running off into danger) and being outright cruel to Carol when she tries to connect with him. He tells her, repeatedly, that she should have been more careful, should have paid more attention to Sophia, and they wouldn’t have ended up in this mess… even though they ended up in this mess because of a herd of walkers…. which Carol takes with remarkable grace, probably because she’s smart enough to know he’s lashing out because of his own issues. Carol and Daryl were the only ones whose losses had any ambiguity; everyone else who died had the decency to do so obviously. If it was so ridiculous to hope for Sophia’s safe return, then hoping for Merle to come back is… well. (And maybe if he’d paid more attention and given Merle more grief for acting like an asshole… well.) He’s grieving, in his own way, for both their losses, but he’s much more inclined to lash out and withdraw, becoming visibly uncomfortable with others’ expressions of sympathy and empathy. He gets over the worst of it because the group needs him, and because he’s not really that selfish, when it comes down to it. Even if now and then he’d like to be.

His position within the group is further defined by the growing amount of trust Rick places in him. Daryl respects him as a leader because Rick insists on a moral code even in the face of utter anarchy, and more personally, because Rick risked his own life to look for Merle, when nearly everyone else is against it. Though initially the group tends to look to both Rick and Shane for guidance, given their law enforcement background, as friction between them drives Shane into reckless, self-serving behavior that endangers the group, Rick begins to treat Daryl as his second in command-- to the point of asking him to act in his stead so Rick can keep an eye on his erstwhile best friend. Initially, still withdrawn and grieving (which is to say being a massive angry asshole to anyone who comes near him), he resists it; eventually, he accepts that if the group’s broken he needs to have a hand in fixing it. In a fucked up way, Daryl is well suited to the end of the world-- he’s a much more productive and respected member of society, with skills that are highly suited to surviving and protecting those around him. It takes some getting used to.

By the time they're forced off Hershel's farm-- after Shane's death, and the general traumatic destruction that accompanies it-- most of the friction between Daryl and the rest of the group has eased, and he more or less remains Rick's right hand man. He's certainly competent enough to warrant it, and being given a measure of responsibility ties him more closely to the group.

He does grow to be more independent through the course of the series-- when Merle shows up again in Woodbury, Daryl takes a hard stand against Rick's refusal to allow Merle to join the group living in the prison. However, although he initially chooses his brother over his friends, he is also reluctant to follow Merle's lead; he insists on saving strangers from walkers, he defends the prison group when Merle insults them, and refuses to be drawn into the same unbalanced relationship they used to have. Ultimately, Daryl decides his views are more in line with Rick's, and returns to the prison with Merle in tow, and works to make up for Merle's past mistakes. He never makes excuses for them, but he's determined to find a way to fit his brother into the community there.

Overall, though, his loyalty lies with his people-- particularly after losing Merle for good. In the prison, he makes an effort to get to know everyone. He's got a particular soft spot for kids; he makes an effort to comfort Carl after his mother dies, and is fiercely protective of baby Judith, whom he affectionately calls Lil Ass-Kicker. He feels every loss acutely. When someone jeopardizes their safety, his temper makes a reappearance; however, his priority is always the common good. (As an example, later in the series, one of the newer individuals risks the safety of the group on a run to get medication to quell a lethal epidemic at the prison, to get and keep a bottle of alcohol; Daryl seriously considers leaving him there on the spot, but ultimately decides he'll just kick his ass after everyone's healthy.)

Though many of his undesirable traits become less pronounced throughout the course of the series, it's worth noting that it's partly circumstantial-- we start to see more of him among people he trusts. Among strangers, he's still not terribly forthcoming-- understandably so, since strangers are frequently a threat where he's from-- and, in general, isn't likely to try to disprove whatever assumptions they make about him.

Powers/Abilities:

Daryl has no supernatural powers to lose.

As far as mundane abilities go he is a definite asset to your post-apocalyptic survival team. He's an excellent tracker, an experienced marksman (his weapon of choice is a crossbow, but he's just as good with a gun), and good at scraping by with limited resources. In close quarters, he's no slouch with a knife or blunt object or, you know, whatever. Improvisation is a necessary survival skill where he's from. He can hotwire a car and field-dress a deer. Or a freshly-dead walker.

Also, he rides a motorcycle, which obviously gives him +5 to coolness.

Appearance:

Daryl is played by Norman Reedus, which is to say he looks like this.

He's about 5'10", fairly lean, well-muscled but not bulky. Life in the post-zombie-apocalypse world doesn't offer many luxuries, so he's definitely on the skinny side, and tends toward being a bit unkempt-- shaggy hair, facial scruff. He's got a few tattoos, most notably two winged figures on his back, which share space with some significant scarring from abuse inflicted by his father.

CR AU

(Section not applicable)

Game You’re Transferring CR from:

How has your character changed from their canon self?

Are they gaining any abilities from their time in game? Did the game setting take something from them?

Samples:

Actionspam Sample:

Test Drive Meme Actionspam!

Prose Sample:

When Merle’s trail goes cold Daryl figures he’s got nothing left to lose, so he sticks with the sheriff and the rest of them. He goes on. That’s what you do. He could hare off after his brother with nothing but his bow and the clothes on his back but the chances don’t seem good. He's a damn good tracker-- and more important, he knows Merle better than anyone does-- but the way things are now that doesn’t mean a thing. He could spend his life looking and never catch up, and likely it'd be a lot shorter that way. So it doesn’t matter that he doesn’t owe them anything. Doesn’t matter that it’s always been him and Merle against the world. He stays. He fights with them. He runs with them.

Daryl knows mostly they’re glad Merle’s gone, and the truth is he doesn’t blame them. He loves his brother but that don’t make him a saint, and some ways it’s easier now. There aren’t enough people left in the world to hold grudges. There’s safety in numbers; he knows that, so he tries to keep the numbers up. He protects the men who left his brother to die (who are, admittedly, also the men who risked themselves to go back) and when the little girl goes missing he goes after her because that’s what needs to be done. Doesn’t have to be personal. (He tells himself it’s not, but he goes out hunting rather than listen to Carol cry. He’s doing his best to keep her from suffering this loss, he can’t have her put her grief on him. No one else shares his.)

But as time goes on they all lose enough that they've got to share what little they got left. Looking back, he can't quite mark the moment when they all became family. That’s what it is, though: all of them against the world. Every loss is his, too; same with every little victory, and sometimes that’s all there is that keeps them going. A safe place to crash for the night, a solid meal. Daryl just accepts that, quietly, and does what’s needed. Just like always. That’s how they get by. Isn’t time to get soft about it, which suits him fine, but it keeps them together, keeps them sane. As sane as anyone can stay, now.

It’s why he expects someone will give a shit on his account, when Merle turns up. He’s not expecting open arms and instant forgiveness. Daryl’s the last one who’d say Merle didn’t fuck up a dozen times over; he's got bruises to back that up. All he wants is a chance to make it work, to kick Merle's ass into shape and make him earn his place, and when no one stands up for him-- not even Rick, who he's followed this long, who might as well be Daryl’s brother himself-- he figures he's been wrong about picking his friends and he leaves like it's easy, like it doesn't hurt at all, because he can't make that choice again.

(Except he has. It's picking between family and family, even if only one's blood. They go back because he can't be the kind of man who walks out on his own.)

And for a minute he lets himself believe maybe he’s got something after all, maybe it’ll work out, maybe this is just growing pains and they’ll get through it and go on like they always do. He hasn’t spent more than a minute feeling selfish in the last year-- no room for it--but this, he’ll fight for. That glimmer of hope, it cracks a little when Glenn tells him what happened in Woodbury. More when he talks with Merle. He wants his brother back. He’s been carrying that since Atlanta; the grief, the not knowing, feeling like a damn fool for thinking there was a chance Merle was still out there somewhere. It’s worse, having it close and unattainable. Not knowing hurt, too, but it turns out it was easier.

He knows he’s gonna come out on the wrong side of this when Rick changes his mind about giving up Michonne. If he’s honest, he’s known for a while; but going out after them, he can’t lie anymore to himself. He knows Merle better than anyone-- which maybe isn’t so well at all, they’ve never been too alike, but he’s not really surprised when he finds her on her own. It’d be a relief-- it wouldn’t be right the other way-- except it means that stubborn son of a bitch went off on his lonesome, and…
He tells her not to let anyone follow him because he knows what he’s gonna find.

When it’s done, he ought to be angrier, he thinks, or miserable; the truth is all that has bled away already and he’s just tired. Worn down and hollow. They’re all tired, living like this, but sometimes it’s easier to bear. Maybe that quiet little shred of hope meant more than he realized; maybe losing it means rock bottom for real.

But it’s not that simple.

He goes on, because that’s what he does, and he goes home, because somehow they’ve managed to make one. Because he’s got that much.

Living like this, you just keep finding new things to cling to, ‘til they become new things to lose.

Comments

may 2015 ][ canon bump request

[worn_wings]

Name: Alms!
Contact: symbolicalating [at] gmail

Character Name: Daryl Dixon | worn_wings
Fandom: The Walking Dead

Current Canon Point: Post season 3
Current Debt: 510 yrs

New Canon Point: Season 5 finale, just after springing the Wolves' trap, hiding in a car surrounded by a mob of walkers with his new bff Aaron and finishing one last cigarette before they make a break for it.

Debt Added: Let's call it 200 years or so? He kills a lot of zombies on the average day, and a few living people too, and arguably some breaking and entering and at least one exciting count of arson, and... what the heck, make it 250.

(If you think it ought to be higher, I'm entirely flexible about it. Not like he's trying to work it down anyway, heh.)


Summary of Events: When last we saw Daryl Dixon in the real world, things were pretty okay, all in all. Sure, he had just gone through some horrifically violent battles to secure their living space in the old prison; sure, he found his dead brother reanimated and had to put him down. But they had a good place with strong walls and the group had each other, and they were taking in the Woodbury survivors, getting ready to beat their swords into ploughshares and whatnot. All in all it was a hopeful moment.

Shockingly, that won’t last.

Life in the prison is actually good for Daryl, for a long while. At the prison he really hits his stride of being a respected member of the community, becoming a member of the governing council while Rick semi-retires to focus on farming. The kids look up to him and try to guess what he used to do before the world ended. The adults respect him, and in turn he opens up, becoming downright sociable. That doesn't come without its own sort of vulnerability; the more people he accepts as theirs, the greater potential for loss, and every single person who doesn't make it back hits him hard. It's worth it, though. It just makes him work harder to keep them safe.

But all things, particularly (relatively) good ones, come to an end. An extremely nasty, fast-moving flu strain breaks out in the prison, and with close quarters and relative peace and little preventative medicine, it spreads quickly. (Plus, you know, it kills people, and then the dead people kill people too. Bad news all around.) Unbeknownst to pretty much everyone, Carol takes out two of the sickest patients and burns their bodies, which is not great for morale and doesn't help anyway. Hershel spearheads the efforts to keep everyone alive, and Daryl goes out on a run in search of medicine. Rick and Carol head out in search of supplies, and while they're away, Rick confronts her about the burned bodies. When she admits to having done it, he banishes her and sends her out on her own.

Daryl doesn't get much chance to react to this turn of events, other than being Not Happy about the situation as a whole, because even though the medicine run was successful, a bad situation in the Walking Dead universe is destined to get worse rather than better. The Governor comes back to wreck the place. And he wrecks the place. There's a great big fight in spite of Rick's attempts to defuse the situation, Hershel is executed, the prison walls are destroyed and everything is overrun. There's an attempt to evacuate on a bus that's been prepped for just such an emergency, but lots of people don't make it, and the surviving group gets split up.

Daryl ends up on the run with Beth, utterly depressed and near-silent. Eventually she gets it in her head that she wants to have her first drink, because it's not like there's any reason to continue being a good girl about that kind of thing, and hares off in search of booze. Daryl obviously can't leave the last living person he knows to die horribly, so he goes with her. They have all sorts of terrible adventures and finally find a bottle of peach schnapps at a largely looted country club, but Daryl gets fed up and decides if she's gonna have a drink she might as well have a proper drink, because come on just because the world has gone to hell and everyone you love is dead doesn't mean you shouldn't have some standards. So he takes her to an old still he'd found, and they play never-have-I-ever with moonshine for a while, until she makes a guess that taps into his deep-seated insecurities about what a shitty person he was before the apocalypse and how everyone probably looks down on him.

As usual, Daryl reacts to feeling threatened by being an enormous, loud, violent asshole for a while but eventually has a major uglycrying breakdown over the fact that he feels like he should have been able to keep everyone safe, back at the prison, that if he'd just been a little faster or more alert, everyone would have been all right. Beth comforts him and they grieve for a while, but ultimately decide not to be ruled by the past and move forward.

So they use huge piles of cash to set fire to the still, flip it off like the postapocalyptic ballers they are, and head off into the night.

As always, having someone to protect gives Daryl something to live for, and the two of them head off in search for... something. Other survivors, somewhere reasonably safe to hole up. He teaches her about tracking, survival, shows her how to shoot, and eventually (after she steps in a rusted trap and sprains her ankle pretty bad) they find a reasonably well-kept house whose owner seems to have vanished, and decide to stay there for the time being. Daryl admits that having her with him has given him some hope for the future, and of course, things proceed to go horribly wrong. They're forced out by a herd while Daryl is trying to lure a dog into the house because even fearless zombie-slayers need cuddly pets, and then Beth is gone. Not dead, just gone, taken by a mysterious black car, and after fruitlessly chasing after, Daryl says fuck it and sits down in the middle of the damn road.

He's picked up by a group of Claimers, who operate with a certain, ruthless logic. Though he's not entirely comfortable with their code, which keeps them from each other's throats (but only just barely, and only most of the time) at the cost of showing absolutely no mercy to outsiders, he doesn't have a lot of options. They're hot on the trail of a man who killed a couple of their own, intent on making him pay. Eventually they catch up to the guy, and shockingly, it's Rick. Any hope of defusing the situation vanishes when it becomes clear that the Claimers are way too excited about their rape-and-murder plans to listen to reason. Rick bites the lead Claimer's throat out because he is an actual papa bear, and they have their not-so-happy-but-very-welcome reunion.

MEANWHILE, the better part of the other half of the group has ended up at a place called Terminus. "Those who arrive, survive" proclaim the signs littering the surrounding area. Not so much. In spite of the warm and loving welcome, they end up crammed into a traincar, awaiting execution, because the micromanaging hipster bastard in charge of the place is really into sustainable agriculture and re-purposing things which is to say they eat people, Termites totally survive on a diet primarily composed of people.

Rick, Daryl, Michonne, and Carl eventually clean up a bit and head to Terminus, too. They are somewhat less trusting in their approach. It doesn't go any better, and soon enough everyone is in the traincar together, one big happy family waiting to get et. And it seems like they are on the menu-- Rick, Glenn, Daryl, Bob, and some other guys are literally bound over a trough and Glenn's about to get his skull cracked-- when there's a really big explosion. Carol (who has been through her own horrible, traumatic journey, because that's how this show rolls) has come to save the day! Our gang escapes, and out in the woods they reunite with their gore-covered savior, who brings Daryl his bow. There is much emotion! giant bear hugs! affectionate headbutting! They all find out that Judith is still alive! Things are great by the group's standards. Rick apologizes for casting Carol out and they all soldier onward and end up saving a priest and seeking shelter in his church.

At some point in the evening Carol sneaks away, planning to leave now that she's gotten Rick's daughter back to him. Daryl pretty much says like hell you are, but before they can have any real resolution he sees the car that took Beth, so he kicks out all the lights on the car Carol was about to take, and they head off in search of the missing girl.

They end up back in Atlanta, and Carol leads them to hole up for the night in a place she knows-- a domestic violence shelter she'd gone, once, when she tried to take her daughter and leave her abusive husband. He stops her from killing a mother-daughter walker duo, trying to impress upon her that she doesn't have to do what she's been doing, taking all the hard and awful jobs on herself, and deals with it for her while she's sleeping. While they search for some trace of where Beth is, they discuss how fucked up their lives are, how much they've both changed and keep changing, how every time things stabilize they get pulled from under their feet, and all they can really come up with is that they're trying. Which, maybe, is the best they can do under the circumstances. Eventually they find a lead-- a kid named Noah who until recently was pretty much trapped in Grady Memorial Hospital, which is under creepy martial law led by a woman named Dawn, and conveniently, is also where Beth is. They're all ready to head that way when Carol takes a shortcut. Which is to say she gets hit by one of the damn cop cars and taken right to the hospital. Noah manages to hold Daryl back and they head back to the church to find reinforcements.

Assorted drama and various gross zombie kills later, they show up planning to exchange two of Dawn's people for the girls, which goes fine... until Dawn also demands that they hand over Noah, since he hasn't yet worked off the debt he owes her for keeping him safe thus far. Beth isn't having any of that shit, and she turns on Dawn planning to bring down the tyrant and all that jazz. Dawn panics and shoots Beth, Daryl shoots Dawn, and only a lot of desperate insistence that this is all 100% fine and they're even now please just take your people and go from Dawn's former subordinates keeps things from devolving into a total bloodbath, so the utterly shattered group leaves.

Things continue to go poorly. They try to take Noah home to his family, only to find that his community was attacked (by the living! The Wolves are coming!) and everyone is dead. Tyreese dies. Things go from bad to worse as usual. There's no food and even less water and everyone is miserable and exhausted and pretty much on the verge of death, with no real prospects, nowhere to go. And then they pick up a stalker.

It’s okay though, sort of, because Aaron is the nice kind of stalker. He’s so impressed with how good at not dying the group is, and with what loyal dudes they are, that he invites them to come back to Alexandria, which is a fairly sheltered little settlement full of yuppies who don’t really know what life on the outside is like. Everyone moves on in and tries to adjust. Daryl sucks at it. Rick, who was a cop, goes back to being a cop (while plotting to overthrow things if necessary). Carol, who was a housewife, goes back to being a housewife (while plotting to help overthrow things and threatening small children). Daryl, who used to be nobody… does not like going back to being nobody. He makes an effort to settle in and become part of the community, but can’t shake the sense that no one trusts him, that they’re looking down on him, and would much rather be outside those confining walls. Fortunately his new BFF Aaron has a solution: since his partner is laid up with a bum ankle anyway, he brings Daryl on as his fellow recruiter, roaming the countryside in search of worthy additions to the Alexandria community.

Life outside the walls suits him much better, but it’s disturbing as hell. They come across a campsite where a woman has been tortured and left for the walkers to eat, yet another bit of the mysterious Wolves’ handiwork. Finally they end up trailing a man and losing him just outside an apparently-abandoned canning factory. They ultimately decide to grab some supplies and head back. Of course, this is the wrong decision-- the whole thing is a trap, and they end up trapped in a car, surrounded by ravenous walkers, with an ominous note foretelling the arrival of some bad dudes. There’s nothing to do but try to make a break for it……..

….which is where he’ll be coming back from. (Whew, finally.)


Why this Canon Point?:

Daryl was already protective of the people he considers his and determined to give everything to keep them safe, and that's really still a huge part of what makes him who he is. He'll be more restless, it'll take a while to settle into the relative domesticity of his living situation in Teleios. He'll be back to having a hard time coping with large groups of people. Thank goodness it's spring, because he'll want to be able to go out on his own a lot. Probably it'll be a week or two before he can stand to sleep indoors or stay in the house, and more before he does it with any real regularity.

Overall, I think it'll leave his relationship a little shaky with his castmates until he readjusts to being out of their world and its inherent stresses, and is reassured by the fact that they haven't gotten as weird yet as they are in Alexandria, where he's kind of starting to doubt their methods. There’s a lot of uncertainty at this point in canon (and even more in an hour or so for Daryl, when he’ll get back to find Rick executing someone) about who is the ‘good guy’ here. Eventually he'll settle back in, a little sadder and less capable of optimism, but twice as determined to keep his group safe and, ultimately, together. (And, if preferable, keep them from ever going home, ever, because things there are bad and bound to get worse.) These people are his family, and they've got enough history-- both in canon and in the time they've spent in game-- that he still trusts them. Things will probably get a little weird what with having to try not to freak out at Beth about how she died, so we'll see how that goes.

I'm hopeful that it will be good for new CR too, since he'll be looking for some neutral perspectives to help balance things out and distract him from everything going on at home. As for the cross-canon people he already knows in game, the differences probably won't be so pronounced, he just might go back to being quiet and terrible at normal human social interaction. (Not that he's gotten that much better, let's face it.) He definitely is not going to want to talk about it. And being treated like a worthwhile human being by people who don’t know him like his family does will go a long way toward re-civilizing him.

And really, I picked this particular point because I wanted to make Daryl nervous-- he's currently really far behind current canon, and most of his later-arrived canonmates have been able to confirm that he sticks around a good while without getting dead, so I thought it'd be nice to shake him up and bring him back from somewhere where it really seems like he's not going to make it. In general his views on Teleios won't change much. He doesn't trust the Agents and he knows it's dangerous sometimes, but it's a damn sight better than their other options; considering what he will have just left behind, he'll be extra aware that any time he gets here is precious.