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[boltsandashes2]

Switching Blogs

Now at @boltsandashes

Hey all,

I’ve been going a little crazy stuck on this side blog so I’ve decided to make a main for Daryl. Same name, same content, but now I’ll be free to like, reply, and send asks without being anonymous.

Partners @peacenik-jesus @calmnessispower @spillcdblood @survivors-of-the-outbreak @pmuchdead @thecondemnedandhunted I’ll be replying over there from now on. Everyone else, hope to see you there too!

<3

[boltsandashes2]

Switching Blogs

Now at @boltsandashes

Hey all,

I’ve been going a little crazy stuck on this side blog so I’ve decided to make a main for Daryl. Same name, same content, but now I’ll be free to like, reply, and send asks without being anonymous.

Partners @peacenik-jesus @calmnessispower @spillcdblood @survivors-of-the-outbreak @pmuchdead @thecondemnedandhunted I’ll be replying over there from now on. Everyone else, hope to see you there too!

<3

[boltsandashes2]

The Walking Dead Challenge :

↳ 5 personal items [1/5] : Daryl’s vest

[boltsandashes2]

peacenik-jesus‌:

“I’m sorry I never got the chance to meet him. I know what’s it like to not be able to count on anyone, and not have anyone who has your back. I’m glad you had someone there for you, even if he wasn’t always around.” Paul said honestly. It was clear Merle had a huge impact on Daryl’s life, just from the way the man talked about him. He tried to imagine Daryl as a child, but could only picture a smaller version of the man walking beside him. He bit his lip to keep from laughing at the image, finding the thought somehow endearing.

Letting his thoughts return to their mission, Paul looked up at the sky. “We probably only have a few hours, at best, before the sun’s up. The others will come looking for us the minute they realize we’re gone.” It had taken them a full day to track the herd the first time. They didn’t have that luxury now. As soon as the others caught up to them, the scouting mission was as good as over…at least for Paul. He was sure that Aaron and Tara would drag him back in chains if they had to. “Will you lose the trail if we ride?”

He wanted to try and put as much ground between him and Hilltop as possible to try and make this mission successful. Maybe it was selfish and risky, but he didn’t want to go back. Ever since the end of the war with Negan, he’d felt like a prisoner. When the bridge was being repaired, he’d wanted to be at the site helping, but Maggie had denied his request saying she needed him there. When Maggie had left with Georgie, leaving Paul in charge, Tara had taken up the role as second-in-command and refused to let him outside the walls without a guard detail. He hated lying and sneaking around, but if it was the only way he was going to be able to experience freedom…then he’d keep doing it. And apparently drag other people into my deception, he thought remorsefully as he cast a glance towards Daryl.

@boltsandashes

A grimace touched Daryl’s lips at the idea of riding, but Jesus had a point. Especially if he was right about the others following them out. He’d more or less figured they’d sit tight when they realized he and Jesus were gone, swallow their anger and wait ‘til they got back to tear them a new one. If they were actually planning to follow them out... yeah, that changed things. That meant they not only had to find the strange group, but they needed to find them before the people following them ended up in trouble because of it.

“It’ll be fine,” he decided, gritting through his damn nerves.

He should’ve just walked his bike from Hilltop. Dragged it far enough out the watchmen wouldn’t hear it, before riding. Instead, he stepped back beside the massive beast and pulled himself up, taking a beat to steady himself before nudging it into a careful trot toward the field’s edge.

“They’ve been keeping a tight leash on you, huh?”

He wondered why that was. Rick had always led every charge back when he was leading Alexandria, and before that. He’d made the plans, and he’d executed them from the front lines. Maggie’d been the same way when she’d been in charge of Hilltop. With Jesus though, it felt –– injury aside –– like they’d set him up less like a real leader and more like the face of a committee. Someone they could have making speeches and proposing strategies, but without the real freedom to decide what he wanted for himself.

Maybe that was a sign of civilization evolving, who the hell knew. But it was no wonder Jesus had been so desperate to get out.

Finding Peace

[boltsandashes2]

Being a sideblog makes socializing so tough. No one knows who’s talking to them or liking their posts, and sending asks is tricky too.

Heads up/reminder that my main blog’s @haletheking, so if that starts popping up in your activity... yeah, that’s me.

[boltsandashes2]

❤💖💋🌹👥💡

❤ Have they ever been in love?He’s never opened himself up enough for that, really. He’s had fleeting crushes and lingering crushes and loves verging from platonic toward romantic before time and willing ignorance crushed them back down. But nah, he’s never made it all the way there.

💖 How do they say ‘I love you’ without really saying it? Daryl pays close attention to the people he cares about, picking up details and interests from an offhand mention that might slip past most people.

Bringing back your favorite book from a run, switching watches so you can sleep when you’ve got shadows under your eyes, or pulling you out on a run with him if he notices you seeming restless. He’s a million tiny gestures kind of guy, offering little tokens to make you happier without being intrusive.

💋 How old were they when they had their first kiss?

When Daryl was seven years old, a new family moved into the house on the corner. Dad, mom, and a girl around Daryl’s age. They were too nice for the neighborhood, middle class family that’d crashed into hard times, and Daryl watched from his bedroom window while the parents slowly collapsed under the weight of it. He’d see the girl, sometimes, sitting in the grass under her living room window, reading or making daisy chains while her parents shouted inside. One day she was there from breakfast straight through lunch time, so Daryl found himself going over, sitting down next to her and offering half his sandwich.

After that, whenever her parents started fighting it’d be the both of them there waiting it out. They never talked at school, never did anything around town together. Under that window was their space. Making daisy chains or watching clouds, or him whittling and her reading softly to him to drown out the sounds of the shouting.

When they were both nine, her mom finally decided to leave her dad. To take the girl and head back to stay with her parents in Connecticut. The last time they met under the window he gave her a whittled daisy, and she gave him a peck on the lips and promised to come back and visit some day. He never saw her again.

🌹 What is their idea of a perfect date? Answered HERE.

👥 What is my muse’s sexual & romantic orientation? Daryl’s bisexual and demiromantic, though he wouldn’t know either of those terms. He’s always liked guys and liked girls, and somehow that made everything more confusing ‘cause he hadn’t really known he could want both, and he was pretty damn sure he wasn’t supposed to want one of them. And on top of that, he never seemed to want to date people the casual way his classmates did. He was a lot more likely to fall for friends, fall for people only months after getting to know them, when those kind of feelings would just fuck everything up.

For a long time he figured he was just screwed up, broken. It’s only been since the outbreak and getting exposed to a more diverse group of people that he’s started realizing there’s no one real sort of normal, and his way of loving people is ok.

💡 What made them realize their sexuality?Daryl’d been eleven years old. Merle was months from running off to join the army, and he’d spent most of his time couch-hopping around town, getting drunk with his old friends from juvie. When things got bad at home he’d drag Daryl out with him and that was fine, whatever. He’d mostly tuck himself in some corner reading or sneaking a beer, tuning out whatever Merle and his friends were doing. And then Daryl’d seen him.

Muscled arms under cut-off sleeves, dark hair that fell into darker eyes and Daryl couldn’t remember his name now if you asked him but he’d ruffled Daryl’s hair and offered him a smoke and Daryl’d decided he was the most beautiful person he’d ever seen.

[boltsandashes2]

[boltsandashes2]

🌹 What is their idea of a perfect date?

from X

So this one’s a little tricky, because for Daryl the best date probably wouldn’t even be a date, really. Don’t get me wrong, big romantic gestures would make his heart flutter in all the right ways but they’d make it flutter in all the wrong ways, too (embarrassed and nervous as hell, but still kind of loving them).

But that doesn’t really fit the definition of “perfect.”

For Daryl, a perfect date would probably be something that’s not even a date at all. Him coming by to help paint your apartment (or the apocalypse equivalent: him coming by to help set up defenses around your shelter, or the two of you going on an easy run together), then collapsing on the couch together to order pizza (or dig into some choice rations). Just spending a day in each other’s space, feeling useful, and it slowly evolving into something out of that. Where at the end of the day, it’d feel easy and natural to curl into each other’s chests or lean in for a soft kiss, and it’s not scary at all because this is someone he knows and trusts and feels like he can be himself with.

[boltsandashes2]

peacenik-jesus‌:

The information so freely given was surprising. Maybe it was the fact that they were alone that made Daryl more comfortable to be so open, but whatever the reason, Paul was grateful for the trust and insight into Daryl’s formative years. As they made their way back to the horses to move on, Jesus felt like it was only fair that he share a little about his own youth.

“I grew up with a lot of other kids around–foster siblings, and other boys in a group home when I hit my teenage years,” he started slowly, knowing the only people he’d ever spoken about his past to had been Maggie and Aaron, and still uncertain how people would react to finding out he’d grown up in the system. “I’ve always been pretty small. Got teased a lot, bullied, beaten up… Whenever I got control of the TV–which wasn’t often–I used to watch all kinds of martial arts stuff to try and learn how to do it so I could fight back. I used to stand on this rotted out tree stump for hours at a time, like Daniel from Karate Kid, and practice that stupid Crane stance and kick.”

He laughed softly recalling the memories of how many times he’d fallen off that damn stump. He still had the scar at the outer edge of his eyebrow from where his foot had landed on the side of the stump, and he’d fallen off, his face finding the sharp end of a damn twig. “The first time I successfully used it, I kicked another kid right in the nuts, then ran away as fast as I could. They have after-school programs for foster kids and stuff, and I managed to get a karate instructor to sponsor me in a program. That’s where I really started to learn martial arts. I made sure to practice every day where the other kids could see me so they’d know not to mess with me anymore. Surprisingly, it worked.”

Glancing over at Daryl, it struck him that the things they were both now masters of had been born out of survival instincts. He wondered what had happened to Daryl’s brother, but considering the man wasn’t here now, it was safe to assume he was no longer alive. Though Daryl hadn’t outright said his father had been abusive, he could draw the conclusion easily enough, and felt a pang of empathy at whatever the other man had endured in his childhood. “Were you and your brother pretty close?”   

@boltsandashes

Daryl found himself smiling at the image, ducking his head against a sudden swell of fondness in his chest.

It was too easy to picture, Jesus as some skinny kid studying TV with that same kind of focus he studied everything. Standing outside for hours practicing moves ‘til he got them exactly right. Of course Jesus would find a way to use action flicks to teach him life skills. He was always that guy whose brain worked a little quicker, who found a puzzle in broken pieces, who figured out answers when everyone else saw dead ends.

He glanced over at the question, then away again, considering his answer.

“Most of my life, he was all I could count on. Wasn’t always around. Got himself thrown in juvie more times than I can count, then went off and joined the marines when I was twelve. But he was the only one who always came back.” Even when it’d seemed impossible. When Daryl’d held his sawed-off hand and fought through a city of Walkers trying and failing to find him.

He wet his lips and forced his feet to start moving again, tracking the herd back through the crushed grass.

“He died a little over a year into this. Made a lot of shit choices leading up to it, but in the end he always had my back.”

Finding Peace

[boltsandashes2]

[boltsandashes2]

calmnessispower‌:

Charles was silent a moment, he wanted to enjoy the slight embrace. It had been a difficult day for the both of them.

“Well, we should try and figure it out together then.” Because Charles knew dealing with emotions on your own could be difficult.

“You should try and get some rest after running about like that earlier. I can keep watch if you want to rest?”

No way was Daryl entertaining that.

“You should get rest after not sleeping for a year and a half,” he countered. Hearing about Charles’ life on the road, and seeing first-hand how badly Charles took care of himself at the school? Even if he didn’t feel like shit about the fight, no way in hell was Daryl heading off to bed and letting Charles stay up any longer than he had to.

He let go of Charles with one last drag through his hair, and nudged his shoulder toward the bedroom.

“Don’t fight me on this, alright? You need rest a hell of a lot more than I do.”

Truth was, they probably didn’t need someone keeping watch. All the doors and windows were locked, they had four solid walls around them in a house that hadn’t been touched since the outbreak started. But if someone standing guard would help Charles get sleep, Daryl would gladly stay up all night to help him rest.

“Go. Enjoy your bed.”

[boltsandashes2]

👀 Would they ever enter/have they ever entered into a friends with benefits relationship?

from X

If Daryl was looking to get off with someone, he’d probably think this was the ideal solution, honestly. No mess of tangled feelings, no commitments, no chance of fucking up or being left or not being good enough or whatever other bullshit people in relationships have to deal with. Just an understanding of friends helping out friends, then back to business as usual.

Problem is, Daryl’s pretty slow when it comes to understanding his own emotions, and he’s a lot more likely to catch feelings than he realizes. He wouldn’t realize it at first, and then he’d deny the shit out of it and crush it down ‘cause that’s not what this was about, but... yeah, while Daryl would be down for that if the right person suggested it, chances are it’d end up messy eventually.

[boltsandashes2]

peacenik-jesus‌:

Following Daryl a few paces behind so as not to get in his way, he considered the words. “Life can’t just be about surviving. There has to be more than getting from one day to the next. We’re not the last of humankind. Babies are being born, kids are growing up. We need to build some sort of society for them. It has to start with us. If she can’t see that…” he sighed and shook his head sadly. “If you think taking the approach that this will help keep them alive, then use that angle with her. Whatever works at this point.”

He watched Daryl work, wondering how the man could make sense of the chaos. Eugene had said the herd had been through that area several times looking for him. If anyone could pick up a trail, though, it would be Daryl. Watching the man track was a thing of mystery and beauty. He could see things no one else could just by looking at a blade of grass. Paul was good at not being seen, Daryl was good at finding the unseen. He smiled to himself as he wondered what a game of hide and seek would be like with Daryl.

Paul’s thoughts took a more devious turn as he imagined being found by Daryl, thinking back to the chase he’d gave back in the field when Jesus had stolen their truck. He wouldn’t mind letting himself get caught by the man’s strong, rough hands… He allowed himself a moment to study Daryl in the moonlight. Time and the elements had seemed to only make him more attractive somehow. Tall, broad, and defined muscles made Jesus feel tiny next to him, but there was something very alluring about that.

Shaking the thoughts from his head before they led him too far into dangerous waters, Jesus realized he still knew practically nothing about the other man. Daryl was an enigma, and he was sure the archer preferred it that way, but that didn’t make him any less curious.

“Where’d you learn to track?”

@boltsandashes

The thread of movement tangled in unsteady laps around the farm, passing out to the far fields or skating to the edge of a tree line before looping, slow and inevitable, back through the barn. Something was damn sure, the strangers knew how to wrangle a herd. There were no signs of major break-offs, Walkers wandering off their own way, no matter how many times the herd turned. They were sheepdogs in goddamn sheep’s clothing, could lead them around as easy an alarm. Except they were doing it while posing as Walkers, no noise or blood to lead them on. 

He’d be impressed if it wasn’t so twisted.

Jesus’ question broke him from a long stare and he blinked quick, glancing up at the other man’s silhouetted form in the moonlight.

“Spend enough time in the woods, you pick shit up.” And that’d be enough, usually. But maybe the years of quiet had loosened his tongue, or maybe it’s just ‘cause it was Jesus asking, but as he pushed himself out of a crouch he found himself adding:

“Learned a little from my uncle when I was a kid. Basic survival shit: don’t drink stagnant water, sun as a compass, how to shoot. After that,” he shrugged. “Me and my brother would spend days out, wandering. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes got lost. Mostly so we could avoid being home.”

A smirk touched his lips at the memory, and he ducked to smooth his fingers over some bent grass.

“Merle’d spend half the time shitfaced on dad’s hooch. Said he was saving us from dealing with dad drunk by stealing it. Like sober and pissed was any better. But with him drunk and useless, one of us had to figure out how to get home. Or find food. Figure shit out pretty quick when you’re hungry.”

It was a lot. He hadn’t talked about Merle in years. His dad, longer. But it’d felt strangely comfortable coming out.

He readjusted his bow, slinging it tighter over his shoulder.

“We should grab the horses. Found as much as I can here, gotta keep following the trail back.”

Finding Peace

[boltsandashes2]

LOVE & SEXUALITY & RELATIONSHIP HEADCANONS

send a symbol to find out:

💓 When did they have their first crush? ❤ Have they ever been in love? 💕 How easily do they fall in love? 💖 How do they say ‘I love you’ without really saying it? 😕 Have they ever said ‘I love you’ without meaning it? 👀 Would they ever enter/have they ever entered into a friends with benefits relationship? 💋 How old were they when they had their first kiss? 🚗 When did they go on their first date? 🌹 What is their idea of a perfect date? 🔑 At what point would they move in with a partner? 💟 What is their stance on PDA? 🍵 Do they prefer to ask out a partner or be asked? 👥 What is my muse’s sexual & romantic orientation? 💦 When did they lose their virginity? ⁉ Have they ever questioned their sexuality? 💡 What made them realize their sexuality? 💌 When was their first serious relationship? 💘 What was their most serious relationship? 💝 What was their most recent serious relationship? 💗 What advice would they give a potential partner about making their relationship last if they could with no judgment? 💫 Have they ever been hit/struck by a partner? ❌ What is the biggest mistake they make in their relationships? 💥 What was their worst relationship? 😓 Have they ever cheated on a partner? 😢 Have they ever been cheated on by a partner? 💞 Would they ever enter/have they ever entered into a polyamorous relationship? 😭 When was their first breakup? 💔 What was their worst breakup? 👍 What was their most amicable breakup? 🌙 Have they ever had a one night stand? 🍷 How far would they go on a first date? 💍 Would they ever get married? 💎 Would they rather propose or be proposed to? 💒 What kind of wedding would they want to have? 👶 Do they want children? 🍼 Could a partner ever change their mind on children? ❔ Ask your own question!

[boltsandashes2]

calmnessispower‌:

It was really the first time Charles had heard Daryl say he wanted them t stay together. It was reassuring and he found himself relaxing at the touch.

He didn’t want to move, but another part of him wanted to move closer. Hesitantly, Charles moved husbhand away from Daryl’s shoulder, stepping forward to rest his head against it instead.

“I’m going to be honest, a part of me thought you might say something had. I was worried. I don’t really know what I’d done if I’d managed to make a mess of this already.”

Daryl sighed as Charles leaned into him, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and soothing fingers through his dark hair.

“What you’d done?” Like Charles had been the problem. Like Daryl hadn’t been the one who’d lost control, let his temper push things to this point. He closed his eyes, turning and breathing in the clean soap-scent at his temple.

“Wasn’t on you. Just... figuring out how to handle this. Not doin’ too good with that.”

[boltsandashes2]

[boltsandashes2]

Getting your best friend’s approval of your future boo? ✔