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dirtyredneckPlayer information
Name: Autumn
Contact: PM this journal
Are you 18 or over? yes
Other characters played: N/A
Character information
Name: Daryl Dixon
Age: 44
Date of Birth: March 14, 1972 (non-canon; canon unknown)
Canon: The Walking Dead (TV)
Species: Shapeshifter (Bobcat - lynx rufus [floridanus])
Daryl is not a shapeshifter in canon, as the only 'supernatural' thing that happens in his canon is the dead rising to eat whatever they can and that is explained by science as a virus. However, I feel shapeshifter suits him as he expresses a clear belief in the supernatural (chupacabras, superstitions and fables of native groups, etc) that the rest of his family (as seen on screen) and the people around him do not. It's also something that supports his personality and skillset as Daryl shares some general traits with the bobcat: mostly a loner with some desire to socialize every now and then, able to quickly adapt to new situations and environments, willing to take on challengers much larger than him but not eager to, not particularly territorial but will protect his own, an excellent tracker and hunter.
Bobcats are native to the area he was born and raised.
Role: Hillingdon Clan (Tracker), Circle Daybreak (Ally/Tracker)
Hillingdon Clan would be the most fitting for Daryl since he's a shapeshifter with little desire to make himself part of something bigger and the loosely structured clan would allow him to come and go mostly as he pleases as well as determine his own allies outside of the faction's generally neutral stance. While not as strict as other factions, the hierarchy still allows for some rules and social structure that Daryl could adhere to and have a sense of where he stands with others in general, which would allow for some of the social stability Daryl is looking for.
Circle Daybreak, while not the first choice for Daryl, would not be a terrible one, owing to Daryl's own preference for rules and social structure to adhere to so he knows where he stands even if the whole 'second class citizen' thing to them rankles a bit. Though, really, he's pretty used to being thought of that way just because of where and how he grew up. Circle Daybreak's dedication to the community as a whole would still be appealing, regardless of that. And Daryl has worked with a coven in the past to stop a dark magic user, so he wouldn't be opposed to doing so again.
Rank: 1-2 | Daryl is old enough to be an experienced shapeshifter on top of his abilities as a tracker and I intend for him to be in the city for two years already. Recently promoted would work well, but keeping to his own as unpolitically motivated at rank 1 is fine, too.
Background:
Daryl grew up in the mountains of North Georgia. Both his parents were neglectful and abusive alcoholics, though he views his mother with more rose-tinted glasses since she passed when he was still very young and he doesn't remember a lot of her. She died in a fire that also took their then home.
His father got off the bottle long enough to oversee the rebuilding of the house. He went back to it harder, after. Will Dixon wasn't a kind man even sober, beating his oldest son, Merle, on the regular. Daryl escaped the same treatment until Merle finally left home for to join the army. Merle was eight years older so Daryl's first session with the belt was during his eleventh year, supposedly triggered by Will Dixon seeing the pair of demons tattooed on Daryl's back that Merle had paid for as his 'going away' present to his baby brother.
Even before Merle left, Daryl grew up having to take care of himself more often than not. After Merle left, he 'got lost' in the woods pretty regularly to avoid home. It was during one of the times that he discovered he could shapeshift. Daryl had gotten hungry and was sick of berries when he spotted a squirrel on the forest floor. Before he knew it, he was pouncing on it and sinking his teeth into it's carcass. While it was confusing and a little terrifying, Daryl ended up more afraid of going back home because of what his father might do to him if he found out about it. He ended up staying out in the woods for nearly two weeks figuring it out and getting control before making it home to realize his daddy hadn't even noticed he was missing.
Daryl spent the majority of his life in that uncertain limbo, squashing any personal ambitions and most of his self-worth under the false pride of being a God-Damned-Dixon. He did just well enough in school to get his diploma, but not so well that his father would accuse him of 'trying to act better than he was' (just another excuse to bring out the belt). The men in his life that did the raising – Merle, his daddy, Uncle Jess – they made sure he knew how to do the things they thought were important: hunting and tracking, tearing an engine down, shooting whiskey, and take a beating like a man if he ever wasn't man enough to win a fight. Daryl became more of a scrapper than a brute like his brother and father. Quick to get his fuse lit, but a little better able to tell when it was better to back down. And more willing to when it was just him and no one else around to prove himself to.
His life following high school was more of the same, just split between hanging out and around the family home and following Merle around whenever he was in the area. Trading between doing what his father wanted and doing what Merle wanted, and back again when Merle eventually left as he always ended up doing. Though Daryl did manage to find a small community of others like himself - not shapeshifters, just people who weren't 'normal'. Those who had a bit of a supernatural bent to their backgrounds and needed the occasional get away where they could stop hiding it. It was a bar just far enough off the beaten path from his family's haunts that Daryl managed to keep it to himself, though visits were pretty few and far between out of necessity.
Daryl's life probably would have continued on like that if not for a necromancer having himself some fun outside of Sedalia, GA the summer after Daryl turned 41. His family went on regular hunting trips and that time around it had been him, his daddy, Uncle Jess, and Will Dixon's friend Buck. They'd had a couple days to settle in a the usual cabin and start searching the trails for signs when a man who looked like death warmed over stumbled across their path. Buck reported him via walkie-talkie before going to check on the bastard. He got attacked and bit for his effort. When the others found Buck, he was getting no where in beating the ever loving shit out of the thing trying to eat him. Unfortunately, Buck's screams had drawn not only Daryl and his family, it had drawn a small horde of freshly raised undead. By the time the fighting was over, Jess had put a bullet into Will's head (to put him out of his misery), Buck had his throat ripped out and looked like he'd been mauled by a bear, and Jess had a decent chunk of his left arm and leg bit off. Daryl was forced to do most of the fighting and it was only the sheer luck of having better reflexes that allowed him to get away physically unscathed. Jess survived long enough to make to the hospital.
After the funeral, Daryl sought out and eventually found a coven to report the incident to. With their help, he tracked down the necromancer that caused his father's death and killed the man. It was Daryl's first human kill and it left him feeling empty inside.
Daryl went home to try and pick up the pieces of his life but found himself feeling restless. A year went by with Merle coming in and out of his life before Daryl decided he needed a new start and could no longer keep towing the weight of his brother's baggage. At that point, he arranged for a passport and one-way-ticket to any place he couldn't reach Georgia just by hoping on a bike. That got him on plane to London.
Personality:
Because of the environment he grew up in, Daryl assumes he gets his shapeshifting from his mother. As far as he is aware, his brother and father are fully human, as neither ever brought it up, nor did his Uncle Jess. As such, he's taken great caution in keeping his ability to turn into a bobcat from everyone else in his family. Being 'different' in the Dixon clan is like putting a noose around your own neck and inviting someone to string you up a tree. This attitude shaped Daryl's outward actions as he took great pains to conform and fit in with what his father and brother expected of him. For most of his life anyone looking at him would have seen him as little more than an angry, racist, volatile redneck stereotype. But the truth is that Daryl has always felt the need to hide himself, and what he cares about or wants, to try and appease his family and fit their standards.
Daryl is a generally emotionally strong man that has learned to hide his perceived weaknesses behind anger and intimidation. A lifetime of having to 'be a man' and trying to gain his abusive father's respect, as well as live up to the expectations of his older brother, have made it so Daryl is very closed off socially. He's had to put on a strong front, be tough, for as long as he can remember. And he does it well. There are many things that take a toll on him, but he has proven himself quite adaptable and able to roll with the punches, as it were. Daryl does, of course, have some heavy self-esteem issues. He doesn't see his life as holding all that much value, thinks of himself as 'a nothing, nobody'. He blames himself for the deaths of Will Dixon, Uncle Jess, and Buck because he wasn't good enough, or fast enough, or strong enough to save them. For all that he comes across as a rude, selfish prick, he's more than willing to throw himself at something that could cost him his life if it will save someone he has even a little respect and love for.
While he is strong, Daryl has moments where he just shuts down for a while. He'll go through the motions and follow others, do what he needs to, but shutting down is a coping mechanisim for dealing with loss and pain. Something to keep him from crying in front of his father after the belt was out. It allowed him to disassociate and not tie the pain and anger and fear he felt directly to him. While he's like that, working out the emotional toll of whatever triggers the state, he becomes very subdued and generally unresponsive. This sometimes ends up with him being outright hostile to anyone that tries to approach him or confront him while he's like that. Any time he does start to cry, he'll hide it and force it down so no one can see him being 'weak'.
For all that Daryl does have some obvious anger issues, particularly in how easily he can get growly and grumbly with others, Daryl's actually pretty level-headed. And he's only grown more so in the last few years since leaving home. His hot-blooded, quick to anger attitude tempering out as he started figuring out who he wants to be rather than continue on the path of what he'd been expected to be. His explosive anger comes out the most when he cares about someone and is worried about them, while his cold and quiet fury comes when he's genuinely angry. He's not good at expressing his emotions properly and is still learning how to do so in a what's considered a 'healthy' manner.
His own life experiences means he's hesitant to trust. But once he does, he trusts completely. It's a bit childlike, and that's largely because his socialization was heavily stunted due to the abuse he suffered and has yet to really work through. It also doesn't take long to earn Daryl's trust. He wants to be able to trust people and have friends. He just simply doesn't know how. He's open minded and optimistic in a way that comes across as unexpected because he's also very realistic. His caution with others belies a very open and bleeding heart.
Not all of his caution comes from the abuse his father etched into his back - though certainly a great deal of it is from remaining in an actively abusive household into his early 40s. A decent portion, however, comes unknowingly from his brother, Merle, and the many times Daryl perceives himself as having been abandoned by him. Merle left home as soon as he could legally get away with it so he could get out from under their father's belt before it got to the point Merle would turn around and kill him. Before he left, Merle was the only one of the two getting physically abused and his brother, to this day, believes he was the only one that ever got hit.
But after Merle left, Daryl became the new focus for his father's anger. When Merle did come back into town, he stayed for short stints, no more than a few months at a time. He'd take Daryl out with him on rides with his biker gang, but he'd eventually bring Daryl back to their father's house and then leave again. He left a lot and the message Daryl kept getting was that deserved what he got under Will Dixon's roof. That he wasn't worth sticking around for or protecting anymore. It's a large part of Daryl's self-esteem issues and why, once he does get attached to someone, he'll stick it out with them regardless of how he's treated. He's aware that he needs to move himself away from that approach, but like the rest of his attempt to 'start over', it's a work in progress.
Powers & Possessions: 2/0 Human | 4/0 Bobcat - While not particularly large (averaging about twice the size of a domestic housecat), Bobcats can take down prey up to eight times their own weight and are extremely agile and resilient for non-pack hunters. Daryl is also very experienced in brawling. He holds back only enough to not kill someone accidentally.
PowersBasic Shapeshifter abilities
SkillsDaryl is incredibly observant and smart and has been hunting and tracking for most of his life. He is experienced with weapons of the trade and is deadliest with his crossbow. He's familiar with living off the land, having an extensive knowledge of the natural world native to his home state. This includes a vast range of general knowledge surrounding geology, ornithology, zoology, and botany, including tracking in urban environments - particularly by scent. He generally has a decent ability to tell 'good people' from 'bad people'. This is not infallible and he's been wrong on enough occasions to second guess himself, but he's right a good 80% of the time. Daryl is good at making and using improvised weapons, as well as scavenging/salvaging what he needs from scrapyards and dumps. He's a skilled mechanic with an above average knowledge of mechanical engineering (has built his own motorcycle out of spare parts) as well as the general maintenance and repair of electronics. He can field dress wounds and, because his brother abused a lot of substances, knows his way around some uncommon medicines and pain relievers. Daryl can drive nearly any motorcycle and an automatic car, but he's shit at driving stick.
PossessionsWeaponry - 18 knives of various sizes (nothing longer than 8 inches), a handgun (Smith & Wesson M&P Semiautomatic Pistol), a Crossbow (Stryker Strykezone 380) Vehicle - Custom bike made from junkyard parts
Samples:
World building
Locations:
Hot Ostrich Custom Motorcycles
Located in Richmond, Hot Ostrich Customs is a Motorcycle shop doing it's level best to sell the 'American Biker Lifestyle' to the residents of London. As such it features quite a bit of the stereotypical clothing seen in American films as well as the quintessential Harley Davidson branded accessories to go with their predominantly HD based sales. The owners boast that they hire mechanics and builders from over-seas as a means of promoting an 'authentic' feel to the shop. Regardless of how over-the-top it can feel at times, Hot Ostrich does, in fact, employee several builders who are more than worth the trouble of drowning in faux-Americana to have them create a custom build. The mechanics are just as skilled at general maintenance and fixing any odd problems that pop up on motorcycles and mopeds alike. Their reputation for reliable and quality work is what keeps people coming back, not the atmosphere.
Hot Ostrich also has a predominately supernatural workforce due to the Hiring Manager being a meta human and preferring to hire people she doesn't have to hide her abilities from at all hours of the day and night. Any humans that work there, outside of the owners, were already aware of the supernatural before being hired and are all referrals from other meta-humans or witches in the area.
Background Connections
Date: 2016-04-20 01:21 am (UTC)Faolan
Date: 2016-04-20 01:23 am (UTC)----
Lancelot
Date: 2016-04-20 01:26 am (UTC)Nancy 'Fagin'
Date: 2016-04-22 04:37 pm (UTC)Annie
Date: 2016-04-22 04:39 pm (UTC)