While Tall And Wiry, Zahra Had Never Been The Athletic Or Muscular Sort. If Anything, Her Height Was

"I get that. I'm kind of doing the same thing," she admitted with an equally uneasy smile that disappeared within seconds. Well, she certainly stressed over work and spent an ungodly amount of time staring at her computer screen. "It'll take a while to figure out what you like doing, especially here. There's so much to do and sometimes that can be a bit overwhelming." She remembered just how spoilt for choice she had felt when she first moved to the city. Zahra had been eager to try absolutely everything to the point where she hadn't known where to start.

"Well, I mean I do like visiting the museums, or art galleries if that's your thing." She shrugged, kicking a pebble along the street as she walked. "There's tons of good live music as well. I tend to take advantage of that. Just depends on what you like."

Matt let out a chuckle at her question, shaking his head and then looking back a her with a mortified look and a shy smile. "Honestly? Work." He chuckled. "That's as far as my plans go right now. I go to work, I come home, eat, sleep. Then work again." He slipped his hands into his pockets and bit the inside of his cheek. He wasn't proud of his routine but he hasn't felt like doing much else for a few months now. Matt carried all alone a baggage way too big for his poor back.

"What do you like to do around the city for fun?" He asked, curiously, not wanting to dampen the mood, so he offered her a kind smile. "Maybe I can learn a thing or two from you."

"See, you're only being smart and responsible. God knows I end up buying all sorts of weird shit when I go food shopping hungry. And somehow I never actually end up picking things I could turn into an actual meal. Just, I don't know, the biggest watermelon I can find and candy bars I liked as a kid." Admittedly her shopping trips were rarely particularly well-thought-out, mostly because she could not bring herself to plan or, god forbid, meal prep. Although maybe cutting up and storing a giant watermelon could be seen as a form of meal prepping. "I once had a nightmare about that super expensive LA grocery store. Woke up screaming."

Violet nodded along, eyes becoming bigger than her stomach. "I saw some crepes listed, how does that sound? They have one with nutella and strawberries which is always a classic. I definitely know I'll need a side of bacon that's for sure. Okay yep, I'll do the crepes with a side of eggs and bacon. It might not taste all good together, but I want to try it." She laughed, setting down her menu with finality. "I desperately need to go food shopping, so this will give me the strength to brave the supermarket. People can be ruthless if you get between them and their Greek yogurt."

Zahra studied them briefly, eyes intense as she scanned them from head to toe as if trying to come to a conclusion of some sort. "Plenty of pubs in NYC as well. You just have to know where to look. Some of them are real tourist traps," she replied with a shrug. What couldn't you find in New York City? It was easily one of Zahra's favorite things about the city, the sheer scope of options for activities, food, and drink. "That's fair." She had never liked those places either.

She fell silent for a moment at their question, then reached for her bag and stood up easily. "If it's good beer you want I can think of few places in the neighbourhood."

Theo turned to her a little, leaning closer to hear her better and paid attention to her every word. "In England, a place like this would be exactly where you'd find the good beer." They explained after hearing her. "The specialty places are usually full of posh twats that don't know what good beer is."

They gave their tumbler a last swirl before they down the rest of the whiskey, putting it down but their fingers linger on it, thumb stroking the edge. "Can I buy you a beer sometime in one of those specialty places, then?" Theo turned to her again with a bit of a cheeky smile.

"I get that," she replied, deep in thought as she watched the puppies go about their business. While more of a cat person, Zahra hadn't been able to resist the chance of seeing a bunch of puppies competing in fun little competitions. She might have looked just a little intimidating in her all-black outfit and a rather stern look on her face, but there were very few things she adored more than baby animals. Besides, it was a good excuse to get out of her apartment during the daytime. "Have you already picked your favorite to win?"

status: open starter location: bark park, manhattan

excited about the puppy olympics, quinn was equipped with her water bottle at hand, standing right outside the fence to admire all the cute puppies that are partaking in the puppy olympics. "you'd think i'd be more excited for the actual olympics, but here i am more interested in cute puppies doing their own right by my house, i'd take the puppy olympics over the real olympics any day. although i will say from what i have seen on tv for the real olympics, quite impressed, but again, more interested in these cute puppers." she smiled and chuckled while looking out at all the puppies running around while participating in the events they were enrolled in. @bhqextras

Zahra grimaced as the woman spoke, feeling dumber by the moment for picking such a hot day for her pilgrimage to the library. Not that she should have checked out all the books in the first place considering just how unwilling she had been to start even reading them. Most of them hadn't even left the bag which had at least made gathering them up a simple task.

"Already did, unfortunately. The library is my final stop," she admitted, carefully kicking the bag as if trying to relieve some pent-up frustration. Unfortunately the kick did very little to move the bag or its contents any nearer the entrance. "This weather must be some sort of a punishment from the universe since I didn't even bother reading most of these. So, you know, you have me to thank for this."

in her heart shaped pink shades and jean skirt, Isabelle had been walking back home from a little trip downtown to see her girlfriend at her boxing club and have dinner with her (or more like, try to get her to stop throwing herself at the punching bags like a goddamn maniac for more than five minutes to drink some water or at least something cool with electrolytes in it, eat something, cool off for a while...)

She had been trying to wave down a taxi, but it had been of no avail, the streets too busy and thrumming with activity, burning under a hot July sun, everyone rushing home. Her phone was dead and she had forgotten her power bank back home so she was only growing more irritable by the minute...

Trying to cool off, she stopped at a little café to get herself an iced blueberry slushie, had stood at the window outside afterwards, looking at her flickering reflection in the glass pane as she reapplied her gloss when she noticed the woman near her. Pushing her shades up onto the top of her head, she blinked, immediately feeling bad for her. "oh wow... Don't tell me you gotta haul an entire library's worth of books somewhere further than a block away from here in this heat..." She sounded a little too surprised, her senses somehow both dulled and muddled from the scorching heat of the day.

“ur so quiet” its so fucking loud in my head

Zahra had always been a night owl and even more so since she had moved back to the city. Back home she had enjoyed how quiet everything had been when the whole neighborhood slept, had always been thrilled by the thought of being the last one awake, while the opposite was true in New York City. There were always people out and about and Zahra felt a special kind of comradery with the other sleepless wanderers. It could still be loud, yes, but there was also a certain kind of peace that felt familiar and even comforting.

She glanced to the side at the stranger and nodded at her words. She hadn't meant to strike up a conversation, not really, but she also didn't want to move from the spot she had picked for herself. It was surely one of the better ones. "I know," she agreed, dark eyes directed towards the sky. "No wonder people find symbolism and write poetry about it."

status: open (@bhqextras) location: Full Harvest Moon Viewing Party ; Prospect Park

if given the choice, olivia would've travelled to the country for this. perhaps she would have rented a car and driven until she was in the middle of nowhere, and then just parked on the side of the road and watched the moon. it wasn't that the view of the moon from here wasn't fine - it was, decent at least. up north where there was no light to drown out the stars? now that was spectacular.

but olivia didn't like to travel like that alone. she was small, after all, and had done enough research for the next twenty lifetimes that told her how she should avoid rural areas at night, and certainly don't go alone. as she didn't have anyone that was willing to go on an impromptu evening roadtrip, she found herself at the park. it would be good enough from here, the moon was still worth the late night for sure. so she laid back on her towel, arms crossed beneath her head casually.

❝ you know, ❞ she started, pretty much assuming that the person settled on the towel within reach of her own - god, was nowhere in the city no longer crowded? - would no doubt respond. ❝ no matter how many times i watch a full moon rise, it will always blow me away with how pretty it is. ❞

zahra hamed as ellen ripley from alien

i got you, you son of a bitch.

Glancing at the woman who appeared quite pregnant, Zahra hurried to shake her head. She couldn't possibly involve this kind stranger in her dumb mess of a situation.

"Oh, I can't expect you to help. I made my bed, now I must lie in it, or however the saying goes." Of course she had to oppose, embarrassed she appeared as if she needed help carrying the books she had been dumb enough to check out and now return in one trip. That being said, Zahra had to admit she was just about to give up and escape, leaving the bag and its contents behind. She had to admit defeat and accept the helpful offering, no matter how mortifying.

Nodding, she picked up just a few books, the ones trying to make their own escape. It was a miracle she hadn't actually lost any of them on the way. That acted as a small consolation at least. "Actually, that would be really helpful. Carrying this would be a lot easier if I didn't have to worry about some of these getting lost," she admitted, a hint of defeat in her voice.

For as long as Sage could remember, libraries were one of her happy places. While many of the memories she had of her mother eroded with time, she could remember spending hours of her early childhood happily perusing the many shelves of their local library while her mom held her ever-growing stack of books with an amused smile. Walking up to the library the only thing she looked forward to more than finding a new read was the air conditioning. While summer felt like it had barely begun, it was already kicking her ass. “I hate stairs,” she grumbled as she trudged up the steps, one hand on her lower back and the other fixing her ‘I’m not like other girls, I’m worse’ tote that threatened to slip off her shoulder. She had only borrowed a couple books this time but was already a day late to return them. Something that was minuscule in the scheme of things, but stressed her out endlessly. Finally having made her way up the steps, she stopped beside another patron to also catch her breath. How any person chose to have a baby was beyond her. Even more baffling were the people who chose to have a second baby knowing damn well the little fuckers made it so much harder to breathe. Taking in as deep a breath as she could, Sage glanced down and noticed the tote spilling over with books. “Damn,” she said before she could stop herself, her gaze darting from the overburdened Ikea bag to the breathless woman with a sheepish smile. “Sorry. I won’t ask. Plus, I can’t judge. I usually look like I robbed the place when I leave,” she added though even she had yet to take out quite so many at the same time. Truthfully, it made her feel like she should step up her library game, but seeing how winded the woman was had her reconsidering. “Do you need help? I can’t carry all of them, but I can lighten your load a little.” She held up her practically empty tote as she spoke. Sure there wasn’t far left for her to go, but she knew that if she was struggling, she would have been happy for the help. Hell, if it had been socially acceptable, she would have asked someone to fireman carry her up those damn steps just so she could avoid the struggle.

If there was one thing Zahra excelled at, it was listening. Sure, her neutral expression could make her seem indifferent or not all that engaged, but she truly did listen, intently and without the need to interrupt. "You're good. Don't worry about it," she assured. It was clear they were going through something and she didn't want to pry. She would've hated it if she had been in their position. "I hope you find what you're looking for. That feeling of home." She had always been good at adapting to her surroundings and finding little things that made her feel like a part of something bigger than herself but that didn't necessarily mean she knew what made a place feel like a home. Still, New York City had treated her well and now that she was back, she couldn't imagine leaving any time soon.

"We're here," she announced once they reached their destination. "I think it's more of an Irish place, but certainly closer to a British pub than the last place. Good beer, too."

Theo blew smoke away from her after sucking in some from their cig, listening to her carefully, their eyes trained on her as she talked. "Home can be a lot of things. Not necessarily a place. Something or someone you want to come back to. That can be a house, your family, a significant other." They shrugged as they explained. "For me, it would be a person but right now, I don't feel like I have a home to go back to." Theo paused for a moment before they let out a chuckle. "Shit, sorry, that got too deep. Anyway, I'm here for work and yeah, I don't particularly like it, honestly."

They took another drag from their cigarette as they walked next to her, their other hand slipping inside the pocket of their jeans, looking around the city around them that people seem to fall in love with so quickly. They weren't that impressed by it.