m.m.

“Shitstorm, indeed.” He often found himself being a little too formal in front of what looked like children to him. It was a tendency that he could barely turn off. That, in turn, would only make the children act more informal to push back. It was only a matter of time before this young woman (young girl?) would drop a few more curse words. 

“Is your RV completely damaged?” Eli asked. “Or is it still salvageable? If not, I could put up some money for a motel room. Shelter should be the last thing on your mind.”

for a moment, maren was speechless. it wasn’t every day that someone was...kind to her, or to any of the motts, really. she’d grown up in a dog-eat-dog world, rather than a doggy dog one. “wow, that’s...that’s really nice of you. uh, the RV is, you know, livable, just dinged up. th-thank you, though. i, uh, if you ever need anyone to....babysit...” maren said with a half hearted chuckle, not knowing how else to return such a gesture. “i got you.”

Alice was just in town running a few errands before she was headed to her brother’s to watch the kids for a bit. She couldn’t deny that a bit of worry that pooled in her stomach every time he asked her to watch the kids, considering that she’d assumed it was just another regular night of baby sitting when he’d tried to leave for good without saying a word. Things were better between them now, though, and even though she knew he was still struggling, it didn’t necessarily feel as if he were teetering on the edge of a cliff anymore–at least, she hoped not. Lost in her own thoughts, she snapped back to reality when the young woman addressed her. “Uh.. The hardware store, maybe? Can’t say they’d have a cartoon mallet but you can always ask,” she chuckled.

“the cartoon mallet is to bonk myself in the head,” maren quipped with her own chuckle, crossing her arms across her chest. maren knew she was the fixer, the one who got things done in her family, but sometimes it got a little overwhelming. “may as well use the real one at this point, though. you ever feel like you’re the only person in a five mile radius with a functional brain?”

Warren chewed on the thought for a second. He was barely skating by with the grades he had, and couldn’t afford to skip any more. But… “Nah, not really.” He shrugged. “I’ll come with as long as you don’t make me do anything. Mom give you money for this or is she making you use your babysitting money?”

“what do you think?” maren said with an eye roll, beginning a slow (for maren) stroll down the street. “she barely acknowledged the issue. joey gave me some of her cash from her tips, but she doesn’t get paid for another week and now who knows when she’ll get paid again. at least everyone’ll need babysitters while they get their lives straightened out. you wanna help out with that? or are you afraid you’re gonna kill a kid?”

That was the question which the brunette, herself, had often inquired over the past couple of days – in the aftermath of the massive storm, most residents had been lurking about to deal with the damages and the security guard had certainly not been excluded from it. The casino had yet to permit its employees to return to duty, and she had spent her spare time either checking up on her family or supervising the reconstruction of her art-shack. With her having– stuff in the oven, as cited by Cyrek and his now departed sister, she hadn’t been truly able to give her employees physical aid which elicited a string of guilt, but the least she could do right now was give them guidance. As much as she could. “There’s one at my workplace,” she shrugged, “why do you need one, anyway? Are you one of the clean-up people? Got your home wrecked? Or just feeling the temptation to ding people’s heads with it?” 

“all three?” maren said with a small chuckle, brushing some hair out of her face as her eyes darted from the nearby storefronts to meet heather’s. “uh, my family’s RV isn’t doing too hot. we’re ok compared to some others, but...yeah, it’s not great. but i could always give some heads a good bonk. maybe even my own, really. where do you work again?”

Reticent individual that he was, Orion frequently banked on the hopes that no one would approach him in the streets to ask him questions nor pay him any mind, especially when he had his headphones in and the distant look of an artist with his head in the clouds. Wrongful of him to assume that a sleepy, small town disturbed by the grasp of a blizzard would not wake up with a slow-paced yawn and interject upon his attempts to be surreptitious. When he awkwardly met eyes with the other when he raised his head to check the state of crossing the road to the nearest muffler shop he could find that was open, naturally, she took it as an opportune to leap and ask him– something. Something about a hammer. Momentarily stunted, he had to remove his earbuds while she was speaking, experiences troubles reading her lips to fully comprehend what she was saying, jaded eyes lowering to the concrete now that he could hear her properly. Looking at someone in the face wasn’t a favored activity of his, unless they were someone whom he had formed an impacting bond with, like Micah. Shit. She was asking him for directions to anywhere she could buy a hammer. While he knew, it was stupendously easy to render him overwhelmingly lost when a scene of familiarity experienced a massive change like the blizzard had when it had wrecked the town, and it would be downhill from there to force him into a state of complete confusion. “Ah… I would suggest the TrueValue hardware store. If you can get to it. A tree fell in the road during the blizzard, I hear.” Pausing, he glanced around the empty streets, stuffing his hands in his pockets and willing himself to shrink down into the coat, piping up in his French accent, barely audible over the gusts of wind, “What do you need it for…? I may have a hammer with my art supplies at home…”

“yeah, a lotta things fell,” maren said with a shrug, glancing around the street. the corner of her mouth tugged up into a small smile to show she wasn’t trying to make him feel silly, but she wasn’t sure what was okay and not okay to joke about right now. it was a hard time for everyone, that was for sure. “just some stuff in my RV is messed up. could definitely be worse though, don’t worry. at least i’ve still got an RV, you know? you holding up okay?”

For a moment, Joseph had thought that the brief, harsh gaze from the girl was one of recognition, and his stomach had filled with dread.

Then he remembered just how often no one in this town recognized him. Apparently, they all existed outside of the Hollywood bubble he had lived in for so long – that bubble being one in which everyone knew each other or knew a friend of a friend of whoever or was simply a fan of Joseph’s early work as a child actor. The girl’s subsequent question hammered him back into the reality of Primm. No fangirls to be found here. She just wanted to know the best place to fill up her toolbox.

“I have one in my car, actually,” Joseph said. “I’ll be glad to give it to you, so long as you don’t kill me with it.” It just took one thwack to the head, after all. 

“no promises,” maren joked, pulling out her phone to check the rest of the list. “you sure you’re not using it for somethin’? seems like everyone in town is facing some sort of remodeling at this point. it’s crazy, right? like, who’d have thought something this wild would happen in bumfuck primm.”

“Aye, t’at’s th’ lass!” He yelped out, pointing his index finger at the other. He probably shouldn’t have yelled, but that was just something Trevor did when he got excited. “Sorry, t’at was probably bloody loud, wasn’t it? …But jesus… Shite, t’at doesn’t bloody surprise me if she does.” His tone fluctuated from high to low as he got a little more upset and riled up. “Makes sense where Killy learned some swears he shouldn’t know, since I don’t really curse ‘round ‘im…” He thought for a moment about the offer. “Y’know what… I’ll take ya up on t’at.. Least y’wouldn’t leave a bloody toddler alone, would ya? I swear, I pay ‘er real well, ‘specially when I know I’m comin’ ‘ome late, an’ yet… but, I’d liike t’at, if y’wouldn’t mind. It’s not a lot, o’ course, but it’s jus’ ‘nough t’at it might take me a few trips..”

"i don’t mind, helping you sounds a hell of a lot more fun than-- uh, than what i was going to do,” maren said with a smile, proud of herself for filtering the dig at her mother in front of a potential new client. she loaded her arms with bags skillfully, thanks to years of silly bag-carrying competitions between herself and her twin brother, then dutifully followed trevor as he went. “so, a cursing toddler, huh? sounds like a good time. you got your hands full, i bet.”

Mr. Dreyfus had nearly barreled into the poor girl, stepping aside in the knick of time.

Had he paid more attention, he would have stepped out of her path a long time ago. As it was, he had plenty on his mind. His son, Joseph, had rushed off to the hospital the second he had a moment to spare (and he was glad for it, Eli Dreyfus could not stand Joseph pacing around in their shared home, rambling like a madman about what could have happened to Ruby). His own classes, which he taught at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, had been cancelled (his choice - there was no way his students were making it to campus). There was only so much one man could do.

C’est la vie.

“Most hardware stories are in Las Vegas,” Eli said. “I would recommend going there, if the interstate hadn’t been closed from the storm. What do you need a hammer for?”

“oh, my RV is a shitstorm after the....shitstorm,” maren said in one sighing breath, mind racing to come to the obvious conclusion that taking the shared 2009 prius to vegas probably wasn’t a possibility, even if the roads were open. “thanks for letting me know, i haven’t really been paying attention to what’s going on outside, like, my personal hellscape. but i guess things are like that for everyone, huh? we’ve all got our own shit to deal with here.”

Warren had spent the past few days at his friend Mike’s, as he did sometimes to escape the chaotic energy of his house. He was on his way to class (late and a little too stoned as usual) when he saw his sister marching down the sidewalk. It was her usual demeanor, the energy she gave off was commanding. “What? Did mom finally give back that toolbox to the neighbors? It’s about time, she didn’t know what the fuck to do with it.”

“felicity doesn’t know what the fuck to do with anything,” maren retorted quickly and quietly, mind already onto the next thing. “miss baker isn’t home. her RV is fucked, by the way. i think she’s staying with her daughter in henderson or something. we got off lucky. or, you know, as lucky as people living in a fuckin’ RV can be. but yeah, the door is, i don’t know, squeaking. i have a whole list of shit we need. you busy?”

[tw: death in family, familial disarray]

Headstrong and independent, two words all of Maren’s teachers used to describe her in breakrooms. They’d warn each other– oh, you have her second period? Well, she’s certainly…opinionated. Of course, they’d write a simple “joy to have in class” on the report card and call it a day. It was evident after a few parent teacher conferences that Maren’s older sister was the one keeping the Mott family together. The whole town knew about the Mott family tragedy, but judging by Maren’s attitude, they were doing just fine, so there was no need to intervene. Maren’s twin brother, Warren, was a different story, but they knew Maren was handling that herself. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…right?  

Maren never experienced familial structure– at least not any that she remembers. She’s been told she had a father, but that means nothing to her now. She’s been told that Felicity Mott is her mother, but she’ll believe it when she sees it. As far as she’s concerned, the Mott family is a family of three: herself, her twin, and their eldest sister. Anyone else is inconsequential. A waste of space and resources.

Maren sees everything in black and white, really. It’s all or nothing with her, in every sense. If she loves something, everyone will know. If she hates something, everyone will know. She typically loves more than she hates, unless that hate is an injustice, or neon yellow. There is no middle ground. There is no “complicated”. Things are as she sees them, and maybe that’s a flaw to some, but she’s never had a problem with it.

[after v day]

maren always walked with purpose, even if she didn’t know where she was going. it was a byproduct of her personality-- go now, think on the way. this was in full effect as she barreled down the sidewalk in search of any open store. she didn’t know exactly what kind of store, but there wasn’t a lot that her dilapidated RV didn’t need at this point. typically she found that people avoided her intense gaze, but a poor soul had caught her eye for a moment- or maybe she just imagined it...

“hey, you know where the fuck to get a hammer in this town? i’d accept a big cartoonish blow up mallet at this point, actually”

[ after valentine’s day ]

Given how intense the storm was practically everywhere, Noelle managing to make it back from Mt. Wilson was nothing short of a miracle.

Turns out, the storm was practically a disaster for everyone, with Henderson Hospital filling their rooms with injured people. Noelle was able to recognize at least three people from there. Caleb, a kid in their LGBT club. Aubrey, whom they had ran into at Mt. Wilson once. And Ruby, a child star that Noelle had never spoken to until very recently. None of them had been in great shape.

Nothing in this city was in great shape, either.

“Jesus, the town looks a mess,” Noelle said. Mess would be an understatement; Noelle lost count the number of buildings that had caved-in roofs. “Do you think this town will have a volunteer clean-up crew, or is the storm just going to get worse?”

judging by how beat up the brick and mortar buildings were looking after the storm, maren’s stomach turned thinking of the state of some of the RVs in the mobile home her and her brother lived in. she couldn’t give less of a shit if her mom was okay, but the neighbors weren’t all bad, and they barely had enough to begin with. it was...a mess. to say the least.

“storm’s gotta be over. no storm stays in one place that long, right?” maren shrugged, avoiding taking too much of the destruction in. she kicked a stray branch out of the sidewalk, glancing at them. “i’ll volunteer if you do.”

[Before the storm]

“C’mon, jus’… I’m like twenty minutes away right now. Jus’… Jus’ stay wit’ ‘im for a moment, please?!” He was practically begging the babysitter to just stay with Killarney for a few more minutes while he tried to get out of the damn store. “Look, I’ll bloody pay ye a bit more if y’st- No. No, don’t-!” He could hear a click as he moved the phone from his ear, absolutely enraged. “Fuckin’ hell!” He snarled out, glancing down at his grocery cart before noticing someone staring straight at him like he was crazy. “Babysitter issues..” He murmured under his breath, as if he absolutely had to explain what was going on.

@primmstart​

“is it jen tarley?” maren asked with an eye roll, sure that she was right before she’d gotten any confirmation. fuckin’ jen tarley. maren didn’t know how she did it, but the bitch was always finding gigs quicker than maren could, and she was jumping at the chance to snag a new regular from jen’s irresponsible clutches. “i hear she invites her boyfriend over while parents are gone anyway. listen, i’m available whenever you need me. do...do you need some help carrying anything?”