@thaliasandy And that lovely person has been Blocked 😂 for a second I thought maybe I had them blocked already since I never saw the notification for that reply. Must have missed it though because they weren’t lmao.
If they’re trying to start a fight they won’t get it from me I have absolutely no desire to argue with anyone. I just wanna enjoy my otp in peace 🤷♀️ they should try to do the same
Spoilers Via TWDZone: “Finally, as you may have...
The person who wrote this made it clear in her reviews for 5x01 and 7x02 that she is a c@rzekiel shipper and anti-C@ryl…��
Well that blows because I was trying to figure what might make her cry tears of joy since I don’t know anything about her reviews.
I’m not convinced there’s going to be any carzeki@l scenes or that they will even be ship related to begin with, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t really hope we get those scene spoiled ahead of time so I can be prepared for whatever I see. Not going to stress about it yet though.
Your posts about Carol and the king are like a lighthouse in the gloomy foggy sea of Carylers giving up hope! 😗 I love it!
Thanks, I’m trying ;)
I just keep reminding myself that the pacing on this show makes it super easy to let shit like this fuck with my head if I allow it to. What’s gonna be the most important is what happens when we get a few days ahead and finally leave this one single day. (I was so happy to see the moon in this ep, omg finally)
I still firmly believe caryl will happen when the dust settles. If gimple lets it settle.
@thaliasandy tagged me in this. I always feel like I want to do these, but I’ve done them quite a few times so I’ve answered them before. So, I apologize for those who have to see this for the Nth time.
Rules: Tag twenty followers you want to get to know better.
Name: Meryl
Nickname: None really.
Star sign: Capricorn
Height: 5′6″
Sexual orientation: hetero-ish
Hogwarts house: Ravenclaw
Favorite color: Currently feeling navy blue
Time: 18:19
Average hours of sleep: 6
Lucky number: ?
Last thing I googled: I’ve been catching up on interviews so trying to catch up
Blankets I sleep in: 1
Fav artists/band: I’m a cherry-picker. I don’t have many musicians where I love it all. Probably Enya and Norah Jones come closest.
Dream trip: One of those river cruises where I can get out and got to museums every day.
When did you make this blog: 2011 I think?
Follower count: 1402
Posts: 22,710 - But I purge regularly and also have exported a bunch of things to my side blogs.
When did your blog reach its peak: I never really understand this question. I’m an active user.
Why did you get tumblr: Looking for conversations about The Walking Dead
Do you get asks on daily basis: Nope
Why did you choose your url: Longstanding internet id
Requested by cool-avaspuppies. Prompt was for a non-ZA AU based on a headcanon from thaliasandy, used with permission.
--
“It’s been six months since I started treating your niece. In that time, Lizzie has been very responsive during our sessions.” Lizzie’s therapist, Tyreese Williams, sat at his desk across from Carol. “I’d like to hear how she has been at home, in school, with her sister…”
Tyreese had been nothing but polite, friendly, and warm toward her during this entire ordeal, yet even now, Carol felt herself start to sweat. Everything over the past seven months had been a battle. From funeral arrangements for her brother Ryan Samuels and his wife Anna, to gaining full legal guardianship over his two daughters Lizzie and Mika, to finding a new job with more flexible hours for her as a single mother of three. She had to fight Anna’s estranged family for custody. She had to fight to pay the bills every month. She had to fight with insurance companies to make sure Lizzie and Mika received what was theirs since their parents’ fatal car accident. She had to fight with her confidence in her abilities thanks to all the doubters, disapproving side eyes, and muttered comments sent her way.
“She’s…adjusting. We all still are,” Carol managed. “She still seems…confused…sometimes, like she forgets that Ryan and Anna are gone. She asks about them…Then it’s like she remembers everything all at on-once—“ Carol looked up, bidding back the moisture from her eyes. “—and she has to grieve all over again.”
Tyreese knit his fingers together on his desk and nodded understandingly.
“I keep…trying.” Carol carefully kept her composure. “Sometimes we cry together and we talk about happier memories. We talk about the future. Sometimes she’s angry and she refuses to listen to anything. Those times…Mika has to—“ Carol sighed, shame building up. “Mika has to intervene. Lizzie listens to her. She can calm her down and he-help her.”
Tyreese wordlessly pushed the tissue box on his desk toward her. She coughed out a laugh at the gentle gesture and took a tissue.
“Mika is just a child,” Carol went on. “It’s not her job to…She loves her sister. We both do, and I just…I feel like I’m failing—“
“Carol,” Tyreese began once Carol’s voice trailed away. “You are far from failing. Thanks to you, those girls are together. They’re safe and loved, and you are getting Lizzie the help she needs. You are doing everything in your power for your family, and I think that’s a very noble, thankless, beautiful thing.”
Carol found more mascara than tears on the tissue that she wiped under her eyes, and she sniffed as she looked at him again. “I’m sorry—“ She gestured to her emotional state.
Tyreese smiled and mercifully overlooked the comment. “I’d like to start seeing Lizzie on a weekly basis. I’d also like to see if Mika would like to speak with me. I know she wasn’t receptive to the idea in the past, but it doesn’t hurt to ask again.”
Carol nodded, standing from her seat. “I’ll ask her and let you know. Thank you so much, Mr. Williams.”
“C’mon now.” Tyreese gave her a more casual look. “I think we’ve moved past formalities. Tyreese, please.”
Carol smiled, some unbidden warmth rising to her cheeks. “Okay. Thank you, Tyreese.”
Lizzie was sitting outside with Mika and Sophia, Carol’s 17 year old daughter, when Carol left the therapist’s office. Sophia was teaching Mika how to blow big, obnoxious bubbles with her gum. Lizzie looked anxiously to Carol when she stepped out.
“All right, kiddos, pile in the batmobile. Time for school.” Carol gestured to the old yellow Jeep in the parking lot.
“Shotgun!” Mika called out, sprinting for the Jeep.
“What? You punk!” Sophia cackled and chased after her.
Lizzie hung back and walked alongside Carol. “Am I in trouble?”
Carol stifled her grimace and reached down, taking the girls’ hand. “You’re not in trouble. Nothing you do or say in therapy with Mr. Williams will make me angry with you, sweetheart. I love you. Don’t ever doubt that.”
Lizzie looked unconvinced but placated, and she said nothing else beyond a goodbye as Carol and Sophia dropped her and Mika off at school.
“So, Mom, I was thinking—“ Sophia started off in an innocent voice.
“No. I’m sorry, what?” Carol teased, aiming the Jeep toward the high school.
“Could I have the Jeep tonight? Enid and Eliza are going to the movies. Can I go?”
Carol pulled up in front of the high school. “Just the three of you?”
“Enid’s 18, and yeah, just the three of us. I promise we’ll get wildly drunk and vandalize some property. Might even get some illegal tattoos—“
“Okay, okay, I get it—“ Carol waved her off. “Fine. I’ll pick you up after school.”
“Thanks, Mom!” Sophia sprang out of the Jeep. “Love you!”
Carol snorted and continued to work.
Work was a 10 hour shift at Dixons, a florist shop downtown. It was staffed by just herself, the owner Daryl Dixon, and two part-time workers Amy Harrison and Milton Mamet. Daryl lived in the shop almost literally, since his apartment was on the second level of the building. Carol had grown accustomed to their morning banter when she came in every day.
Sure enough, Daryl was behind the register, elbows on the counter, poking himself in the forehead with the eraser end of his pencil as he pored over the morning paper. He only spared her a glance when she came in and got settled. She’d made peace with his gruff demeanor and standoffishness as being less rude and more apathetic toward social cues.
Besides, his inattentiveness meant she could go unnoticed as she appreciated the curve of his backside as he leaned over the counter.
“Six letters,” he finally greeted. “Production company founded by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in 1950.”
Carol straightened a few displays and called over her shoulder. “Desilu.”
“The Hell is a Desilu?” he grunted, scribbling the letters into the newspaper crossword.
“It’s the production company founded by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in 1950,” she chimed.
Daryl snorted. “Smartass.”
She looked at the order list by the register. The local prom was still months away, but orders were already coming in for bouquets and corsages and boutonnieres. Scanning the list, she spotted a wedding order with a question mark.
“Ooh, story on the question marked wedding?”
“Lady came in asking about orchids. Apparently her fiancée loves orchids, and she wants an order of them now for the proposal and wanted to go ahead and put in an order for a bunch of them for the wedding ceremony.”
“Wow, confident gal.”
“Yeah, she and her girlfriend been together for years. Sounds like a pretty done deal,” Daryl remarked. “I’m gonna be nosy.”
“Good, get me the details when she comes back in.”
“Nah, nosy ‘bout you.” He pointed at her with his pencil.
Some warmth crept up Carol’s neck, and she twitched her nose to fight it from creeping up into her face. “Well, honesty is good. Hit me.”
“Ain’t seen a Peletier name on that list for prom stuff. Sophia not going?”
“Sophia not interested,” Carol mimicked him. “Sophia not asked yet. If Sophia go then Carol get anxiety.”
Daryl smiled at her. He had that slow kind of smile that seemed to slip out of him, but once it had escaped, managed to take over his whole face. It was ridiculously adorable, as Sophia had put it when she caught her mom staring.
“They get parents to chaperone that thing, don’t they?”
“Yes, and I see where you’re going, and no.” Carol waggled a finger at him.
“Ah, it’s your job to embarrass your daughter. I did it to my niece.” He shrugged.
“You chaperoned at your niece’s prom?” Carol barked out a laugh.
Daryl mocked offense. “W’so funny about that?”
Carol gave him an obvious onceover. “I’m trying to imagine you in a fancy suit.”
“I can be dapper.”
“Oh, dapper?” she chuckled. “Daryl, in the six months that I have been working here, I have yet to see you in anything but jeans and a t-shirt.”
“Just wait until winter. Then you’ll get jeans and a sweater.”
Carol mocked swooning. “Oh my lands, not the jeans and sweaters!”
“You just ain’t seen me outside this shop.”
“Oh, are you a dapper gentleman on your off time?”
“I am. It’s pretty impressive. I should show you sometime.”
Carol paused and looked at him. “Careful, Dixon. That sounds suspiciously close to a flirtation. HR might not approve of that.”
Daryl lifted a finger. “Hold up. Let me ask.” He paused a beat. “Head of HR asked the owner and the owner says it’s okay, s’long as the flirtee has no complaints.”
That got the warmth up into her face.
“The, uh, the flirtee has no complaints,” she admitted, tilting her head.
The front door bell chimed, and the moment broke.
Daryl cleared his throat. “Hey, welcome, sir. What can we do for you today?”
Carol scanned the list again like a hawk. Sophia’s name truly wasn’t on there.
“I need to get flowers.” The voice was familiar.
Daryl snorted. “Well, I think we can help you there, man.”
Carol turned around. “Tyreese?”
She had only ever seen Lizzie’s therapist inside the walls of his office. He was still wearing his suit from their meeting earlier that morning, but the juxtaposition was still momentarily disorienting. He looked equally surprised and…pleased.
“Carol, hello,” he said with a megawatt smile. “I didn’t realize you worked here.”
Daryl looked wrongfooted but recovered quickly. “Oh, you two friends?”
“Yeah,” Carol said before Tyreese could correct him. “I mean, he—we—yes, pals.”
Tyreese looked amused. “I’m here strictly as a civilian,” he assured her. “My sister recently got a promotion at the fire department. I wanted to get her flowers.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful! Congratulations to her!” Carol beamed.
The next half hour was spent with Carol helping Tyreese pick out flowers and assemble a little bouquet for his sister Sasha. Tyreese had such a charm to him, that outside the professional setting of a therapist office, Carol found herself thusly charmed. When Daryl was ringing up his order, Carol found herself disappointed that Tyreese would be leaving so soon. Daryl, however, was particularly efficient as he rang up the amount due and handed Tyreese the receipt.
“Thank you,” Tyreese thanked Daryl and then looked to Carol. “And thank you so much for your help.”
Carol walked with him to the door. “There’s a role reversal from earlier,” she chuckled.
Tyreese looked like he was lingering and searching for something else to say, but his phone rang. He gave her an apologetic expression as he checked the ID. The mask of professionalism took hold over him then, and she knew it was a client call. She made a brief goodbye as he answered, and he mouthed “thank you, sorry” back to her.
Back inside the shop, Carol spotted Daryl very not-subtly watching her from the register.
“Don’t you start.” She grinned and pointed at him. “Because if I have to listen to—“
“Go on a date with me,” he blurted.
They both went quiet, and Carol swiveled around to look squarely at him.
“Please,” he added, realizing how demanding he had sounded.
Carol’s stomach knotted and her chest fluttered at the vulnerability on his face, like his statement had surprised him too.
“I mean—“ He backpedaled a bit. “Like you said…just jeans and t-shirts. Got to, uh, prove you wrong about my dapper…ness.”
Carol pursed her lips hard against a smile. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yes.”
“Yes,” he repeated as confirmation.
Carol blushed and headed toward the office with a spring in her step. “Okay, but I expect to be wooed.”
“Oh, you will be. I might even get you…flowers.” He raised his eyebrows, looking far too pleased with himself.
