Driving-Me-Up-A-Wall-Mart [Hatire]

[Fallon Daugherty]

We wouldn’t be seen here dead in the day
I guess you’re lucky that it’s dark now
-Lorde, “White Teeth Teens”

At least he had a job. That was something. Although it paid a pittance, Fallon hoped it would lead to bigger things that would provide enough money for her housemate to cover his own food.

Hatire had joined the local orchestra, which, fortunately for him, was large enough that its players were paid instead of the other way around. Fallon had learned that often, orchestra players were asked to perform studio work, such as providing a backup violin line to a rock band’s song. That paid much, much better. Fallon could not wait for that.

It was not so much that Hatire was annoying, not usually. The problem was that he had an absolutely insatiable appetite, and Fallon could never buy enough food to keep him shut up, even on her salary. Some days she wondered just why she let him live with her. He was expensive, to say the least. But now that he had a job, maybe he would start paying his own way so Fallon could use her money for her own essentials. She had to look good for the press, after all, and she could not keep wearing the same makeup and suits.

This time, he was with her as she did their grocery shopping, which was good because it meant he could pick out his own damn food. She had control of the cart. It was better that way. Who knew what tomfoolery Hatire would try to pull and how much trouble they would get into. No, there was too much at risk. Even in her usual day clothes, Fallon figured she was recognizable enough that she could still be associated with Ark, and any trouble she got into could reflect poorly on Ark itself.

Her “day clothes” consisted of a Thirty Seconds to Mars T-shirt and fashionably ripped jeans. At work, she wore pantsuits on more active days and regular suits for press conferences. She found herself making far more public appearances than she had before. For one, Ark really was being more transparent about things, even if they did have some skeletons in the closet still; or, rather, in the Basement. But that was not her field; she worked upstairs in her same office with the lovely view and tried to do everything as she was instructed. However, her new boss had a habit of either completely dictating her day or giving her no guidance at all. She could never tell which would be the case.

Her day at work was over now, however, and the sun was setting as she and Hatire did their shopping. Fallon picked out some food for herself and, as they meandered among the aisles, simply expected Hatire to do the same. She was quick to make her way to the alcohol and pick up some wine and vodka. Those were her main ingredients in “putting up with Hatire.”

They went to the meat aisle after that. Fallon knew Hatire would want to puck out the best and most meaty cuts of various farm animals there. For herself, she was fine with some shrimp, fish, and chicken to cook with. She did not always have time to cook, so she picked up very little of that. “Hey. Don’t take all day,” she said to Hatire. “I have work to do at home. Pick your stuff up quickly and let’s go.”

While Hatire had cleaned himself up very much since then, he had not really always been that way, and while he was not embarrassing to be around, Fallon did not need people jumping to conclusions. It was bad enough that he was around Ark’s headquarters - although she was secretly glad he had been there for her for their first big press conference since Christian’s hiring and had invited him to stay within Ark’s safe confines during the riots. Her boss had not taken a liking to Hatire at all, so there was potential drama she wanted to avoid as well.

“We’re going to pasta next. And yes, we will get to the pudding.” Fallon wheeled the cart around and pushed it into an aisle once Hatire was done. She was very much in a hurry. “Keep up. Jeez.”

[Hatire Carrington]

A new day was rising or so Hatire hoped, with a change in the day to day activities of his life. Getting a job had taken a bit of a kick in the pants from Fallon and a bit of suggestion from those at Jung, but he had done it. It sure surprised the people at the audition when he came, just expecting some half hazard off the street who happened to have a violin. Instead they got a master of the instrument who was somehow not already employed in an orchestra or as part of a studio band.

In a way he was also lucky, the orchestra in LA was one of the highest paying orchestra in all of the Union. If he managed to keep the job for a year, he would be looking at a six digit salary. Steady, reliable income that would make the living situation with Fallon all that much better. They had come to blows and it seemed that a little financial help or reimbursement would go a long ways towards making their relationship easier to cope with, at least for Fallon. She still reminded him of that woman or the past, yet he was supposed to be letting go of it.

Did Fallon know of his own heartfelt sorrows, his regrets, the sense of failure upon learning of his wife's and family's fates? It was hard to tell, harder to know if she would care enough to notice the subtle changes in the behavior. She had noticed and cared enough to suggest that Hatire visit with Jung, which had proven beneficial at least. He finally knew what it was that his body possessed and why he seemed to have an insatiable urge for food. In a way, his body would eat himself if he did not keep himself fed, which lead back to the job and money problems.

Perhaps the job with the orchestra would also finally get him over dwelling on the could have beens. No matter how hard he tried, he could use these abilities that he had, not on command. There were people out there who could help with that, yet he was not sure if he really wanted to seek them out. These powers had brought him from the life he had known, a life that he had enjoyed, a life full of promise to this. A life of chaos and confusion.

Hatire would never tell her this, but he appreciated Fallon greatly, she was the only steady rock in his life, well her and his cat. She provided a home for him when she did not have to, though he was a bit persistent about it. She was also the closest thing he had to a friend or family now, even if he had found where his lineage wound up. There would be no way to explain who he was in truth and it would turn out badly. Merely playing the distant relation card had been tough enough to get the journals and belongings, he couldn't reveal the truth.

This was the first time they had been shopping together, so Hatire had dressed a nice as he could. A white polo with a blue stripe running across his left side and some khakis. It was offset by the very festive, cute outfit that Fallon had worn and he had to roll his eyes every time she snapped at him. He was curious and now that he had a bit of money and knew about the problems of his powers, he wanted to get what he could.

"You know you could have left a list and I could have gotten everything myself. So ner ner." Although, how he would be getting home had he done that was another issue, without a vehicle or license. Maybe a cab but that would have been some unnecessary money spent. With only having the pittance of a signing bonus he had plus the little bit of money the relations had sent, it was a case of need not, waste not.

Hatire was plucking various things from the shelves, mostly little snacks like applesauce and jello. More often than not, he was eating his meals alone, and that meant also limiting, yet the appetite had to be sated with snacks in between. The last thing Hatire wanted was to end up as misshapen as he had the day that Fallon bumped into him. It was a problem he was going to have to deal with the rest of his life, however long that turned out to be.

Hatire smiled as she said that pasta would be next, as it was something that he had taking quite a liking to. The extra carbs also did a wonder on that demon of his power's side effect. "I'm sorry I'm not a track star at shopping like someone. I've never been shopping before, it's a new experience for me, at least like this. Don't be so snappy."

[Fallon Daugherty]

I am a machine
No longer living
just a shell of what I dreamed
-Thirty Seconds to Mars, “The Fantasy”

There was little as terrifying as the thought of Hatire getting their groceries by himself. That immediately shut Fallon up. For a little while. She was quiet as they went through the snack aisle until finally she said, “Why don’t you actually learn to cook instead of depending on me to make meals? That would be better than you wasting money on these little cup things. You can get more out of a whole chicken than like three of these.”

Nevertheless, she let Hatire chuck the things into the cart. She would have to find time for that, and it wouldn’t be soon. It was only a matter of time before Christian made a public relations mess again. Oh, sure, the last one had led to him basically being elected the new God of the American people, with all sorts of titles and venerations being heaped upon him, but who knew with Christian? He just did whatever he wanted, and that did not work well for PR.

For herself, Fallon felt she had the right to be snappy. There was nothing in particular that had made her sour. She just hated being around people sometimes, and Hatire, despite being her housemate, was not exempt. The whole government thing and the riots had made her question everything even more than when Ark had been aligned with the government, even before the Eggs and the U.S. Bank Tower. That mood had stuck with her. And while Hatire’s employment was a bright spot - money, and getting him out of the house more often - she had never quite crawled out of that pit of uncertainty. And her birthday coming up did not make that any better. Twenty-eight and what to show for it? Some money, but no family. A career, but no one to care for and no one to care for her. Wonderful.

She did not know anything about Hatire’s past pain, nor of his contact with his relatives. In honesty, she had never cared about his past. She hardly cared about her own. People were people, she had parents, they were overdramatic. They were part of the problem, her parents; every time she checked on them, they were together or they were broken up. She had no idea which way was up with them, and she doubted they did themselves. This was across a continent from her, and if she could, she would fly over and out a stop to their mess. She could fly over whenever she wanted, but there was no cleaning up the mess that was their relationship. Not from her end, at least.

She hardly had time to deal with Hatire’s personal problems. Sometimes he was withdrawn, but she figured he was just like that. She knew plenty of people who were like that. They were fine. They functioned normally. Hatire sort of functioned normally. He was a little out there, but then again, that was what happened when you took in and cleaned up a homeless guy. At least he looked healthier, even if he did not act like it all the time.

“If you shut up, we’ll go way faster. Pick up what you want, throw it into the cart, and let’s go.” She did not want to spend much more time in the store than they had already. She was not in the mood for grocery shopping, but an empty refrigerator had necessitated it. Clothes shopping, now, would have been a welcome distraction, but food? How droll.

“There’s really nothing to it. Here, why don’t you push the cart. No, actually,” she said, quickly taking the pushbar back, “all you have to do is pick up the things you like and put them in. It’s the first time you’ve gone shopping, whatever, it’s not the first time you’ve eaten. You know what brand of stuff you like me to get for you. Collect and go. Have a happy experience. Whatever.”

[Hatire Carrington]

"I know how to cook thank you very much, I just do not like to cook just for myself. Since someone is always away from home or picking herself up food, it leaves me more with snacking than actual meals. Maybe if that person was home for a meal or two, then maybe I would not need as many snacks!" And that was the downside of living with Fallon. She was snappy and irritable, a bit absorbed in her own problems. Hatire had learned to deal with it and shoot it right back in her face, but that was usually in the privacy of home.

"Anyways keep it down, your snappiness is going to cause a scene." Hatire wanted to avoid the stares and questions of interlopers if at all possible. People annoyed him with their mindlessness, just going about their days doing as they were told, fulfilling the system. The recent riots had been proof enough that the masses could not be counted on to do the right and respectable thing, in crisis or in peace. With what was happening in the Caribbean... well it seemed more likely that crisis than peace was going to be more common in the coming months.

Hatire had to wonder how much of Fallon's bad attitude had to deal with her work and how much of it was genuine. It did not take a rocket sceintist to know that because of Christian's antics and behavior, Fallon was under an extreme amount of pressure these days, as if being the PR manager for Ark was not hard enough. Hatire could not remember a single time when Fallon had felt any sense or joy or something resembling happiness... apart from that one Halloween party that ended up going completely sideways. How that happened still left him with a massive headache, trying to piece it all together.


She needed to unwind a little, yet how did a woman like Fallon relieve her stress? That seemed like the billion dollar question, what made her happy, what let her be just a little care free and relax a bit? If Hatire could figure out that riddle, maybe the both of them would come to have better days ahead, as she certainly needed the destressing and he needed not worry about his head getting bitten off at any random interval. Though the riddle seemed up there with figuring out how to travel at light speed in terms of difficulty.

"That's the pot calling the kettle black, miss grumpy pants." Hatire grinned as she seemed to offer him the cart after that but quickly decided better of it. Even now, just doing a bit of simple shopping, Fallon was still malcontent and indecisive, she still was staring out in the distance for something else Hatire thought. Something to soothe the savageness of her inner spirit, of her fire that flames have been fanned far too much and were now ravenous through her, eating away at her chances for inner sanctity.

"You need to let go."