* HEADCANON.

Daryl Dixon’s Past  ( headcanon & canon influenced  ) *

      Daryl grew up in the mountains of Northern Georgia with his older brother Merle, under the roof of their neglectful parents; their father, an abusive alcoholic and their chain-smoker mother. Merle was the only one he had to confide in and look up to during his childhood and in a way, Merle became his inner voice and the person he molded himself after. 

     Merle was sent away to juvenile detention on multiple occasions and became frequently absent from Daryl’s life. Daryl was forced to fend for himself and eventually adopted a survivalist mindset. 

     The brothers lost their mother in a house fire which had been caused by a cigarette while she was drunk in bed. Daryl was 12. After this event, Daryl found himself lost in the woods for nine days. Eventually, he managed to find his way back home and was shocked when his father hadn’t even noticed he was gone. He walked through the back door and made himself a PB&J sandwich.

     The siblings were mentally and physically abused by their father, which eventually made Merle abandon the family and join the military, subsequently leaving Daryl. Daryl’s father would get drunk and beat Daryl, and on some occasions would inflict sexual abuse when he couldn’t find a woman to take home, and sometimes just to humiliate the boy. Merle is never aware of the sexual abuse, but finds scars on Daryl’s back, a dead giveaway of the abuse his brother suffered. 

     Daryl’s dad gradually became more and more neglectful and abusive, spurring Daryl to go out and hunt for his own food and steal things from grocery shops. Often, his father would yell at him for not being a good enough hunter, which Daryl challenged by hunting every day, not even going to school. 

     After his father fully forces himself on a 17-year-old Daryl- a step further in the sexual abuse- Daryl runs away to find Merle in Atlanta. He checks the enlisting offices and finds out Merle was discharged for reckless behavior. Somehow, he manages to run into him on the streets and starts to follow his lead. The two became drifters and dwindled into a dangerous life style. 

     At one point, the pair resided in Merle’s drug supplier’s house where the trio watched TV and by noon had gotten high. A discussion went violent and the dealer punched his Merle, where Daryl retaliated by savagely beating the guy. The dealer then threatened to shoot Daryl, a large argument ensued, which ended with the dealer punching Daryl in the gut, causing him to vomit. Merle and the dealer laughed the incident off. Following this near-death experience, Daryl gradually came to view himself as an unimportant individual who held no value or purpose in life, increased by Merle’s deprecating talk and his father’s abuse. 

     Throughout his life, he avoided any kind of sexual contact because it reminded him too much of his father. He had no interest in women, but he did with men- however, he was too afraid to ever pursue anything. Merle often tried to get him to sleep with random girls, but Daryl would refuse and let Merle take her instead. Even if he wanted to find a boyfriend or lover, he couldn’t; he was too afraid of his brother being disappointed. 

     When the zombie apocalypse comes, they return to their childhood home for their guns and Daryl’s crossbow. Daryl walked into his father’s bedroom, for his pistol, and was attacked by his zombified dad, who had tried to overdose with cocaine to escape the apocalypse. Daryl was pushed to the ground and wasn’t able to kill him, even though he had the gun loaded and ready to go. Merle saved him and shot their father, and they didn’t say anything for the rest of the day. 

     Along the way to Atlanta (safe zone), they both met up with Shane’s group. They helped set up camp near a quarry. During their stay at the camp, they spent a considerable amount of time hunting animals. According to Merle, they had planned to rob the camp blind before Merle was left in Atlanta.

     Daryl owned a grey 1973 Ford F-250 pickup truck. When the group left for the CDC, Daryl was driving his truck with his brother’s motorcycle in the back. When his truck ran out of gas, he put his belongings in one of the other vehicles, (possibly Dale Horvath’s RV) and switched vehicles to his brother’s motorcycle. His truck was then abandoned and is never seen again in the show. The motorcycle was in use up until “Too Far Gone” in which it was abandoned when Daryl was forced to flee the prison during the Governor’s attack.

reedusgif:

Daryl’s childhood

drivesuggestion:

You never really had a childhood.

How Daryl’s dad died.  

Daryl was a teenager, Merle was away in the military. The abuse had progressed and Daryl was gradually getting more desperate. One night, Daryl’s dad had brought a lady home. He did that a lot, but this lady wasn’t too keen on spending the night with him. She kept telling him she wanted to go but his dad was starting to force himself on her. Daryl stepped in and told him to leave her alone- which ended with Daryl getting the shit beat out of him for it. 

Daryl’s dad had him on the floor, strangling him, and before he knew it the lady shot him in the back of his head with the shotgun his dad kept by the door. Daryl, covered in blood and terrified, ran to the woods without looking back. He eventually stumbled onto the road and ran into Merle.

They went back to the trailer to take care of things and found it up in flames. 

TONES.  New tag dump! ( messed up the other one rip )