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#1 NETFLIX AND NO MORE CHILL (FOR PARTY / march 16th)
Ghoul doesn't have a ton of regular contacts around London, so who knows if anyone has even noticed his absence. He'd up and vanished on the 13th. Just disappeared from the face of the planet. But now, days later and in the middle of the night, he turns up on Party's doorstep.

And maybe not looking so great. He's hardly dressed for a chilly night, which would explain why he's got his arms wrapped around himself and his teeth are chattering. The boots are all right but there's not a jacket in sight, and the tatty ringer tee and skinny jeans aren't doing much to conserve the warmth in 40 degrees. It's the same outfit he'd put on back on Monday, in fact, but hell, who's checking. His hair is a limp mess, there are dark circles under his eyes, and he smells vaguely of mildew and stress-sweat. What a gross stray.

"Can I stay here?" He's spent enough time at the mill lately, thanks much.

#2 STICKER SHOCK (OTA / late march, various locations)
The wolves are up to a bunch of ignorant bullshit again. This time, it's a continuation of stealth testing. With a little less breaking and entering this go-around, because last time that hadn't worked out so well for Party.

Both of them are armed with sticker sheets, all in the name of friendly competition. The goal is to plant a sticker on an unsuspecting victim's back. Whoever manages to land the most stickers without being caught wins.

And everyone is fair game.

( for this prompt, specify in your subject header whether you'd like a sticker drive-by from GHOUL, PARTY, or EITHER! )

#3 THE SPRITES OF WRATH (FOR EAMES / late march sticker run)
The sticker exercise is going pretty well, actually, and it's even more fun than he thought it'd be. When he sees Eames in the distance on some random street, however, he gets a god damned brilliant idea.

He turns to grab Party, giving him a little shake. "Wait, wait, fuck the score, we're doin' a sudden-death thing right now." He points at Eames, explaining the terms as, "Whoever gets one on that motherfucker wins it, hands down. You try first." And with a grin, he shoves Party forward.

He ain't gonna get it.

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"I'm holding her, so it counts as flipping her off, too," Daryl countered, making a face when Willow managed to get the first sticker off the sheet (tore it in half to do it, but it was off) and started frantically waving her hand to try and get it to fall off the finger it was now stuck to. She did not yet understand the concept of 'sticky'. Or the enjoyment she could have from it. For the moment it was just confusion.

"Ain't hidin' nothing," he went on, turning to face Ghoul properly and frowning at him. "Ain't like you asked if I had anyone that's mine the last time we saw each other. Not that you could ask, acting like a dumb mutt the way you were."

There was definitely some amusement in the way he said it. Maybe even a little bit of teasing.

Ghoul's half-watching her and snickering quietly, before his face goes momentarily blank. It takes him a split second to figure out what Daryl's referring to, and then he goes a little red in the face. "Aw, shut up. You're lucky you didn't get ate, y'know."

Yeeeah. He was totally making great progress on that front.

"Oh, yeah, you were right about to huff and puff and blow me out of that tree. You sure were showing me who's all big and bad. Had me shaking in my paws."

The sarcasm is strong with this one.

"Don't make fun of me for shit I can't help, jackass." He rolls his eyes.

Okay, fine, maybe Daryl hadn't been in all that much danger once he'd gotten himself in the tree. But anything could have gone wrong! And then he'd have left an orphan behind. Or even more than one... "So, what, you got more kids then? A whole litter of 'em?" He grins widely. Daryl ain't he only one with animal jokes.

"Pfft, nah," Daryl made it sound like it was the most absurd thing he'd ever heard. But his eyes darted away and down before circling back to the girl. "Dammit Girl here's the only one."

He glanced over and raised an eyebrow at the kid, "Her name's Willow. You can call her that."

After another second, he cleared his throat, "She's uh... she's a squirrel."

That's probably for the best, if Dammit Girl is a valid naming trend in his book. Not that Ghoul's judging, really. Sounds fine to him.

It's a good thing he doesn't have kids, either.

Willow is a nice, more socially-acceptable name though, which he's about to comment on until Daryl's comment about her being a squirrel gives him pause. He takes a long look at the girl before glancing back over at Daryl. "You shacked up with a squirrel? Dude." That's kind of weird...

Not that there's anything wrong with squirrel shifters at all, buuuuuut-

"Fuck you, I did no so such thing!" Daryl snapped and immediately regretted it because Willow laughed and started sing-songing a chorus of "Fuck you~ Fuck you~"

Which, in turn, got the response from Daryl of "Dammit, girl! Told you not to say that! Shush now!"

At least it was obvious how she got the name...

"She's adopted you asshole," he bit out at Ghoul in a terse whisper between attempts to conjole Willow into shutting up.

Definitely nothing wrong with them, but yeah. Seems like it would make family reunions awkward, at the very least.

The chain reaction sets Ghoul off in to a grating cackle. "Okay, okay. She's adopted, I got it..." But that doesn't mean he'll refrain from picking on Daryl. "Wouldn't have been a big deal if she wasn't. If you're in to that predator/prey kink shit, whatever. You do you."

Have mercy.

"Seriously, though, uh. That's cool. Y'know. Adopting and stuff. Didn't figure you'd be the type."

"I ain't into that shit!" this time it came with a warning growl. Willow immediately went quiet and tensed up and Daryl immediately dropped his hackles and tried to reassure her.

"That weren't for you," he cooed, rubbing her back and doing his best to get her to relax again. "Weren't about you. You're fine. Even when ya singing those words you shouldn't be sayin'. You're fine."

It didn't take long for her to ease up, attention drawn back to the stickers as he pulled the sheet back in front of her face. If nothing else about her was very squirrely, the attention span and reaction to potential danger definitely was.

He let out a long breath and when he spoke to Ghoul again it was with a low tone, "Don't be so crass around her. She hears shit like that, she's gonna repeat it. And the hell you mean about me? My type. Whatever. Like a body's gotta have a type to help a kid out."

Ghoul tilts his head, watching quietly. Hah. Daryl confirmed for softie.

Even though he's been scolded at least a few times all in one go, he still smiles a little, because watching them together is kind of sweet. When he speaks again, it's softer- more careful. "You can't tell me that when you've been cussin' around her left and right." Still, he takes enough of it to heart, and then shrugs. "Anyway, I just meant, like, you don't seem like you'd like kids."

"I meant the predator/prey shit." He practically hisses it like saying it aloud was going to burn his tongue and light his pants on fire. 'Kink', essentially, was a no-no word around him. Made him uncomfortable. Not just cause of Willow, but Ghoul was free to assume it was.

"She don't need to hear that sort of talk. She hears too much of it, she'll take it back to her daycare and I'll have explain it to at least five other parents and I ain't got the time or temperament for that. Good lord, man, have some sense to you on something."

For the moment, he left the assumption that he wouldn't like kids alone. Wasn't very important in the long run.

Daryl's in luck- Ghoul doesn't seem to suspect anything odd. He doubts parents would like to know about the fuck you song either, but nevertheless, it makes sense. "Oh, yeah... Yeah, sorry." His brain jumps to her spilling the beans about being a squirrel to a daycare full of people who don't know about shifters, and that'd be a mess for sure.

The thought of there possibly being daycares specifically for children like her doesn't even cross his mind. What a dumb ex-human.

He glances back over at her and sighs after a brief silence, nose wrinkling a bit. "Now I feel all bad about chasin' you, though. Don't be goin' out on that time of the month. Shit's stupid, you got a baby."

Daryl scoffed and finally put Willow on the ground as she squirmed in his arms. He didn't let go of her shoulder, but she was looking to climb onto his foot and stick the newly ripped off sticker to his pants anyway. Murmuring to herself in that same sing-song "icker~ icker~"

"Kid, you couldn't do shit to me. It's more dangerous for you to be out than it is for me. People like me, we hunt people like you." Not a threat or anything, just a simple fact of life. Not that a lot of the hunters went after wolves, but they were more than willing to if they had to. "And unlike the folks walkin' all around us right now, your bite won't do more ta me than draw blood. If you could even sink your teeth."

Cue disgruntled look. "Little cats hunt giant dogs around here?" Ghoul can be a shit right back.

Good to know he's a hunter, though. That could be a handy piece of information for later... For now, he shakes his head. "No, but for real. I ain't shit compared to some of the rest of 'em, and you might start seein' a lot more of us. You're kinda close to the witches, yeah? We're pretty much best friends with 'em now." That last part is said in an especially flat way- it's not something he's thrilled about, but it is what it is.

"I hunt anything I want to." He weren't a 'little' cat, but well, compared to some he was still pretty small. Just not the smallest on the totem pole.

"Who told you I was close to the witches?" He caught the drop about the two teaming up easily enough, but he'd been pretty sure that if any casual observers saw him, they'd think he was close to the vampires. Or a specific vampire. Maybe Redbright, cause of Natasha. But the witches?

Was it cause Richmond was his prowl? Might be. Even if he was only there cause it was what he could afford in the area when he first moved out.

"You're neighbors, right?" Ghoul looks a little lost- he'd thought the area they'd had their scuffle in was near witch territory, but it wouldn't be the first time he's been wrong. He's been getting better at remembering and making sense of most things he sees and does while he's changed, although there are still some things that throw him for a loop.

Maybe this is one of them.

Did... he mean physically close?

"Uh, yeah, I guess. Sorta." Daryl paused for a second as Willow got to squirming again and he bent down to pick her up. It wasn't exactly what she wanted, but she adjusted fast by trying to climb onto his shoulders and head.

"Ain't none that live too near me, but in the area, I suppose." Since they technically controlled Richmond and all.

"Yeah, see, so like I was... sayin'..." He's trying to have a normal Grown Up conversation. He really, really is, but then the kid gets all wormy and starts trying to climb Daryl like he's some kind of obstacle course, and he ends up just. Staring for a second. "The hell is she doin'?"

"Tryin' ta get up high," he answered without much thought to it. It made sense to him, but only cause he'd been putting up with it for a while now. "She's a squirrel. She likes ta climb. Right now, she knows she ain't allowed away from me, so she's climbin' me."

Really.

Really?

That's kind of cute and funny in a quirky way, and sure, he chuckles a little. It's impressive too, though. That's a lot of coordination for a preschooler, he supposes, even if she is technically kind of a squirrel. "Uh, do you need to take her to a park or somethin'?"

YES REALLY. He saw that laugh and narrowed his eyes at it. It's not that funny. ~~It's hilarious~~.

"Nah. Only just got her around people again. Don't want her thinkin' it's okay to run off into the wild again. Not 'til I know she knows to come back. Someone could shoot her thinking she was a regular squirrel. Some stupid kid. Or someone like you could try ta eat her."

Or someone like Daryl. *cough cough* Really, she was lucky she'd survived this long.

His face flushes at around the same time as he bristles defensively. "I wouldn't eat her!"

He gets all huffy about it because actually, he totally would eat her and he knows it. It's terrible. It's something that crossed his mind earlier- if she was a squirrel, then what about all the other animals he's terrorized or snacked on? Maybe they were people too? Nothing is safe anymore. The woes of turning in to a crazy fucking dog...

"Better quit sayin' offensive shit or I'll get her the most annoying fuckin' toy I can find." Something that makes a lot of noise.

Daryl scoffed and waited a beat before shaking his head and muttering, "Whatever."

If the kid wanted to get defensive about this, he could. It wasn't like Daryl had done any better during his own hunts. Not something he really wanted to think about, but there was always a possibility. Not one he enjoyed, of course. But still...

"If you get her a toy, it better be a small one." He raised his eyebrows like it was a challenge. Then winced as she pulled at his hair while readjusting her position... and sticking a sticker onto his shaggy bangs.

"Hell no. It'll have, like, a thousand fuckin' pieces. And make noise. And make a mess." Does such a toy exist? Ghoul has no idea, but he will do his best to find out.

He's very serious about it, too- until she slaps a sticker on to Daryl's bangs, and then he's ugly laughing about it. "That's a good look," he tells her, grinning. "I think he likes it."

He makes a good conspirator.

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