carl / @shootfortherightreasons
🔫 The idea of picking up bad habits had him shrugging again, but it was a quicker, more childish shrug than before. If he hadn’t picked up any bad habits from Shane yet, Daryl wasn’t going to make things much worse. Carl knew better than to follow Merle around and try to imitate the man’s action, so that was totally out of the question. Lately, seeing the way adults had been reacting to the assumed end of the world made him feel a lot less like… a child. Less far away from adult behavior. He may not have been an adult yet, but there were plenty of adults he had seen that were acting like children younger than Carl.
If nothing else, Daryl was a breath of fresh air to all of that. Impulsive and more likely to shout at someone than many others around here, but much less likely to bother with anyone who didn’t bother with him first. When they finally got out of that disaster of cars the night everyone heard the bombing, Carl had been watching the people who had split off with them more carefully. They were, after all, surrounded by essentially strangers at that time. Part of him didn’t even really truly want to make friends here. People were going to die at some point - that much he was certain of. Thinking like that was lonely though, and he wasn’t the only loner around here.
All things considered though, Daryl had laughed. A small smile crept onto Carl’s face in response, wondering if perhaps he’d done more in that moment for anyone than he had since arriving at this camp. “I won’t pick up any weird habits. Besides, I’m not hanging out with Merle. I’m hanging out with you. I don’t think Merle really likes me anyway.” Carl picked his own friends, whether Lori or anyone else had anything to say about it or not. He’d just learned to go with his gut with this kind of thing, so here he was. “There are some card games and board games lying around. Come find me later and we can do stuff. We could tell each other some stories about our lives, too, over dinner or something. That’s not too bad, right?”
DARYL’S NOT TO KEEN on the idea of swapping life stories with anyone here, let alone the kid, but he’ll admit that playing some games would be somewhat fun. It isn’t like he has anything to do until he needs to go & check his traps, and the best time to do that is early in the morning. And Merle’s still out doing god knows what --- maybe he will hang out with the kid for a while, for lack of anything else to do. After all, he’d made him laugh, which is a hell of a lot more than anyone else around here can say. An olive branch has been extended, and Daryl decides to take it, however hesitantly.
A wry smile at the mention of his brother, and he shrugs. “He ain’t much of a kid person.” It’s kind of a given that if you hang around with Daryl, you’ll inevitably end up hanging around with Merle, too. The brothers are almost inseparable --- but perhaps during the times they aren’t together, Daryl can find someone else to spend time with. Carl seems willing enough; where’s the harm in passing the time with some card games ? “You doin’ anythin’ now ? You go get those board games, I’ll play fer a while. Got nothin’ else ta’ do.”
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