YOU WANT, UH, A TISSUE? MAYBE SOME SOAP? NEW CLOTHES?

[dousing]

COVERED IN BLOOD MEME So you're a bit of a mess. Or you're stumbling upon a mess. What happened? There's blood everywhere, what the hell? Is it your blood, animal blood, the blood of someone you murdered? Hell, maybe you ran out of tampons. Anyway, no matter how it got there, you're (or someone you know is) covered in blood. Can it be explained away? If not, is someone going to prison? The hospital? Going to die of blood loss? Get in trouble for playing catch with the blood bags? Man, we don't know. The point is you have a mess to clean up. Or roll around in gleefully, you nasty fucks. • Top level your character. Include any details you might think are relevant. Or don't. As always, we're not the cops. • Reply to other people's top levels! • While this meme is bound to have a lot of potentially triggering content, content warnings for anything ott or very extreme are probably a good idea! • Have fun!

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[vestigial]

Daryl looks at Rick and their eyes meet, and that's the beginning of a very anticlimactic end. Because Daryl shoots this Darlene woman in the head with a bolt without a second's further dithering, and she drops with an artless thud.

Severed arm guy starts screaming, scrambling for the dead woman's gun, but it's too late. BAM. His head all but explodes, Rick already walking forward and holstering the Python. "Where's Carl?"

"Didn't see him," Daryl looks over his shoulder at Paul, then back at Rick. "Reckon he went for the baby?" Rick nods, touches Daryl's arm for a brief moment, and stalks off to his house-- he'll register Shauna's presence in a few minutes, he knows, but his kids are a priority. The girls are out of the infirmary now, jogging up to them.

[iesus]

Paul doesn't so much as flinch. Shauna does, but she also looks quietly relieved again, which is telling all over again. When Rick speaks, Paul speaks just before he disappears. "Guy was out closer to your place but he hadn't found it. He was going after Tobin and Jake, probably for which house to hit. It's taken care of." The set of Rick's shoulders doesn't relax but he nods as he goes.

By the time Michonne and Tara reach them Paul's stepped back closer to Daryl, stepping around Darlene's body to get there. "What happened?"

"They came up saying they needed help," Tara starts to explain, "they were fine until they weren't, which is obvious, I guess, with the guns and the hostages and everything. Yeah."

(Tara's rambling always makes Paul smile, but he nods anyway.)

All of this just plays into not wanting to trust anyone any more, he knows. His glance skates to Shauna - he also knows they'll probably keep giving people chances. Sometimes things like this will happen, but sometimes they'll find good people.

"Who's this?" Michonne, in Rick's temporary absence, has definitely noticed already.

[vestigial]

Tara's good people. Daryl mostly stares blankly at her, but they've gotten closer since... Denise. He likes her - always has, but he's also always been bad at getting closer to people. (Shut up, Jesus, you don't count.)

"Shauna," Daryl explains, nodding at the woman-- who he has to approve of, silently, because she immediately hands the gun over to Daryl, grip-fist. "Got picked up by those folks a while back, with her sister." Pause there, wondering if he should mention further, but the stricken look on Shauna's face probably says it all. "Asked for help, so." He shrugs. Don't look at him, he didn't do anything, shutupshutup. Michonne's looking at him, expression definitely like she's trying not to smile, and Daryl grunts that he's going to see if Rick found Carl and just

bails

peace

[iesus]

Paul isn't surprised that Daryl bails - none of them are really, save probably Shauna. He tips his head forward and shakes it, smiling slightly before he straightens up and crosses his arms over his chest, looking at Shauna in particular. Which, well, they all are, so. Calculating, observing. "Rick'll want to talk to you once he's done with what he's doing," he explains, since he's the only one present that's talked to her much.

"Shouldn't take him long," Michonne supplies, because once he categorizes Carl and Judith as safe his mind will slot a newcomer properly into place rather than as a concept that can be taken care of if necessary by the others. It's fine, they'll wait.

In the meantime, they can at least do some clean up. Paul and Eric take on one of the bodies to move it and Aaron and Tara take another - Michonne will hang out with Shauna for the time being. Anyway, dead weight sucks but it feels good to have actually brought back a potential ally. Even one person can help these days.