“Don’t. Don’t even think about interrupting me or my friend Javier here will kick your ass out.” You could take the boy out of the trailer park, but you couldn’t take the trailer park out of the boy. It didn’t matter that Dakota was off the clock, residents of Grandview always found him to nag about this or that. It wasn’t his fault maintenance was slacking. He was maintenance and he only had so many arms. He looked at Javier who was in the middle of a tattoo on Dakota’s upper arm. “Are you making me look like a badass?”
Riley laughed when Dakota swatted her hand away, but raised the same hand to wave in surrender. “Alright alright.” She repeated after him and laughed at how he reacted. Things were always like that with them, for as long as she could remember. “That’s what you say until a pretty face walks in and then you’re scrambling to fix yourself up.” Riley teased. She grabbed her drink off the bar and turned in the stool to look at the people there. She took a drink and shot a look at Dakota. “Why are we here? You know I don’t watch sports.” She looked at the game on the screen.
“You know what, Ri? I won’t worry about it until it happens. That’s the beauty of it.” Dakota rolled his eyes, but the slight smirk on his face said he was talking with a friend. “Outta sight, outta mind.” Dakota looked at the television where a large man who looked like a brick wall collided with one of the other team’s outside linebacker. It looked like it hurt and made the man wince before he looked at Riley again. “Because.” Dakota picked up his beer and took a drink, making her wait until he swallowed for the answer. “I wanted to watch the game and ask you about your date last weekend. How did it go?” He was ready for her to smack him and tell him that making out with a popular race car driver on national tv wasn’t a date, but he was willing to argue that it was.
Natalia had promised herself she was going to make dinner tonight but between reviewing for the upcoming PTA meeting and coordinating with the high school principal time had slipped away until she was too tired to cook and it was too late to go out to most places. Thankfully, for times like these Fallbrook had a great convenience store in Excalibur. After grabbing a frozen pizza the principal decided to shop around a little bit. Might as well get some other good food if she had made the trip. Upon pausing at one end of the chip aisle a familiar voice got her attention. “Dakota, hey. Guilty as charged. Trying to decide what to pair with frozen pizza. Having a dilemma of your own?”
Some people from Eris wouldn’t know how to act around someone like Natalia who was successful and poised, but Dakota was painfully himself no matter who was around. Heavy lashes weighed down on his eyes as he lazily looked from Natalia to the potato chip display. “Don’t see much that doesn’t go with a good pie around.” He pointed out and gave her a lazy nod. “Yeah, just tryna decide how many chips is too many chips for a guy who lives alone.” He got his answer as he said it and reached for a couple more bags, holding them between his fingers as he dropped his arm to the side. “If you’re asking for help...” He raised one of the bags of chips to her. “Or.” He pointed at the ice cream in the freezer section at the back, but then cocked his head. “Beer?” His eyes trailed to the Budweisers. She probably wasn’t looking for side salads in a convenience store.
Elena was supposed to be showing a place in Eris, but she was still figuring her way around Fallbrook and despite the fact it wasn’t that big of a town, she was definitely more lost in this area and it didn’t help that her cell service was down. She hadn’t switched to a different company yet and the one from Minnesota wasn’t used to this area yet which was continuously causing issues for her. She sighed as she parked her car and started walking around the area she thought she was supposed to be in and looked around for the street. She heard a voice from behind her and she looked around to the man. “Is this the wrong side?” She asked him and put her phone down. “I’m supposed to be showing a place here and my phone isn’t exactly loading.” She explained. “You don’t know where Sixth Street is, do you?”
Dakota lit the cigarette dangling from his lips and inhaled the warm smoke as he listened to the woman. “Depends on where you meant to go.” He took the cigarette out and turned his head to exhale away from her. There were a couple of Eris kids on their bikes chasing each other down to what he assumed was the junkyard. Dakota had a lot of memories of hanging out there when he was a kid with friends from the neighborhood. He moved his eyes back to the woman with the dark and curly hair. Dakota raised a hand and used his finger to tell her to follow him. “It’s a couple blocks down, let me show you.” They had to cross the train tracks to get there and it wasn’t the safest place. “You’re a realtor?”
Tobias turned his head to look over at the situation occurring. An exhale left his lips as he leaned down against the surface of the bar. “Should probably respect people’s space. We all kind of learned how to do that when we were younger and no one likes a touchy drunk, man.” He said to the male who had been touching the other’s hair and wasn’t seeming to catch the hint. “How about you just go home?” He muttered, keeping his gaze on the man before watching him get up and leave. “I hate it when people touch my hair too.”
“Listen to the man, Paul.” Dakota nodded at the new firefighter to thank him. “That’s a civil servant there, gotta listen.” Paul mumbled something and walked away. “Distressing stuff.” Dakota always had a sarcastic ring to his voice. He tossed an olive into his mouth and licked the drop of juice on his thumb before he crossed his arms over the bar. He was always around, just around. Around and with nothing on the agenda. He looked at the firefighter. "I’m surprised you’re not in your uniform. I bet it helps you pick some honeys up.” He deadpanned. Dakota had a uniform too, but he couldn’t exactly wear it when he never respected it.
Jill watched carefully until Cheryl was on her way before turning her attention back to Dakota with a small chuckle. “What can I say, you practically live in a bar and its a skill that comes naturally.”
Chris held his beer up to her. “That’s why you’re the best, Jill.” He took a drink and set the glass down on the counter. “You ever come out of there and play a round of pool?” He always saw her working. She felt like the npc in a video game that everyone loved but no one messed with.
Dakota was standing in the middle of the chip aisle at the local convenience store under old dimming lights. He scratched his head and tried to decide between orginal Lays or the cheddar and sour cream ones. Life wasn’t too stressful lately, but he wanted to veg out in front of the television after work and had very little in his pantry. The lone mustard bottle and pickles jars in his refrigerator weren’t going to do it for him either, but he hated grocery shopping because he was indecisive when everything looked good. He heard someone approach him and turned to see a familiar face. “Hey, Nat. Looking for snacks too?” He always ran into Excalibur for quick things and never saw her there before.
“You look like you’re on the wrong side of town.” Dakota was on a short walk away from Grandview so he could have a smoke break. He needed to warm his vocal cords up for the day before he went back and yelled at the tenants for the inevitable chaos they would start later. It was game day and things always got heated back there. The unlit cigarette rested on top of his ear as he dug into his pocket for the lighter when he stopped by the woman. Locals knew other locals and she wasn’t one. He couldn’t tell if she was lost or on her way to see someone by the expression on her face, but her presence got the best of his curiosity.
One of the benefits to being sober meant that Jill really did get to see a wide variety of behaviours whenever she did go to a bar or club. Usually she was content to watch it but she could see the man starting to get annoyed so stood up nudging the drunk woman away from him. “Okay love come on he’s said that’s enough off you go.”
Dakota gladly watched the drunk woman muttered a few swear words and leave him alone after giving it little thought. “See you, Cheryl.” He knew her from the trailer park, but she wasn’t his favorite tenant. He wasn’t always in a bad mood, he was just easily annoyed when people pestered him. “Thanks, Jill.” He looked at the woman who came to his rescue and nodded in thanks. “Looks like you have some experience turning people way.”
Dakota usually waited for the weekend to roll around to head over to the nearest bar and play pool, but he had an annoying day and a drink would settle the stress. He was sitting by the bar with a cheap beer and his eyes on the game on a screen. His favorite team was up by five points and he kept telling the person next to him to give him a minute. “Alright alright, alright. Can you stop touching my hair? Please.” He pushed their hand out of the way. “I’m not trying to look good for anyone so just leave it.”
character name: Dakota Beck Mitchell
age & birthday: 34, October 17th 1988
gender & pronouns: Cis male & he/him
place of birth & time in Fallbrook: Fallbrook and all of his life
occupation: Manages Grandview Mobile Home Park
faceclaim: Chris Lowell
secret: Cheated on his ex with her mother.
CHARACTER BIOGRAPHY TWs: death, drugs, infidelity
PAST
Dakota grew up with his grandmother in Eris and that was all he ever knew. She was a good woman without much of an education behind her and she never shielded him from the truth of his circumstances. It was important for her that Dakota be brought up knowing everything about his family and the place he was growing up in so that he could protect himself. His mother passed away during childbirth and his father hadn’t stuck around since he found out he was about to have an unplanned child. The grandmother on the other hand, she passed on his eighteenth birthday and they have never been sweet again. Needless to say, Dakota wasn’t spared from the misfortune that followed people from Eris.
With no one left and nothing else to do, he registered for the military and served only one tour before he realized that wasn’t the life he wanted. Dakota knew one set of rules in life and they didn’t involve following orders. He moved back to Fallbrook and was smart enough to use the GI Bill for university, but not smart enough to graduate in anything useful. He majored in arts, but he never had dreams of becoming an artist because he knew better than that. He was married for four years, but she wanted him to be something he wasn’t and the marriage didn’t last. They parted ways amicably and now she’s married to someone in town with two kids and a picket fence.
Dakota worked at the art museum as an art curator for a while. He thought it was boring work, but appreciated the art shows and hoped his own works would be displayed there one day but boredom got the best of him and he was fired after getting caught drinking on the job. A friend put in a good word for him at the trailer park and he started managing the place ever since.
PRESENT
It has been four years since Dakota started to work at Grandview and by 34 he thought he would have accomplished more in life than he has. It’s hard to feel like a disappointment when everyone around him in Eris is living the same kind of life. Dakota is friendly, opiniated, and curious. He firmly believes that 30s are the new 20s and has no plans on settling down again anytime soon. Although he recently got out of a relationship that was extremely short lives because he was caught sleeping with her mother. It wasn’t like him, but he wasn’t himself in that moment because he was high as a kite. He started to sell drugs to make extra income on the side and occasionally indulges in them.
Wanted plots & Headcanons
Dakota can be high strung and stresses out easily. People can often see him running out of his small office at the trailer park to yell at people causing trauma and threaten to call the cops.
His favorite restaurant in town is Skewers.
Hangs out at the Barnyard with friends on weekends to play pool.
Visits his grandmother’s and mother’s grave once a month.
Dakota lives in a one bedroom house in Eris. He has moved around a little, but has been at that place for about four years. It feels more like home than a transitionary place, but he hasn’t gotten around to renovating the kitchen.
