"Not All Of Them, No. I Guess I Bit Off More Than I Could Chew. Thought I Would Save Myself A Few Library

Zahra smiled briefly as she nodded at Eleanor. "A wise choice. I am not entirely sure I could explain what's going on here," she admitted, almost cringing as she studied the contents of the bag. While she had checked out the the majority of the books with the best of intentions of actually reading them, Zahra now had real trouble of even remembering the titles or why she had picked them. "But I guess carrying these around constitutes a workout. So, it's not all bad."

Eleanor had spent the better half of an hour searching for a particular book that the library said they carried. It wasn't where it was supposed to be on the shelf and she had almost given up on her search when she just happened to see it on the shelf. She found a spot to sit and read the first couple of pages before deciding she wanted to check it out. Getting up, she made her way to the check out line only to be joined by Zahra a few moments later. Eleanor smiled at her, glancing over to see the huge bag of books she was carrying. She was about to ask what was up with that when Zahra spoke up. A small laugh escaped her lips and she shook her head. "Fine," she said. "I won't ask."

Zahra nodded in a greeting, evidently preoccupied by her predicament. Thinking through her options, she remained silent for a moment before registering the man had offered to help.

"Oh, no, you really don't have to," she replied hurriedly, "I got myself into this mess, I better get myself out of it." The idea of letting a kind stranger carry her very literal burden sounded nothing short of atrocious to Zahra. Still, she was tempted to accept the offer, if only for the fact that the bag would most likely give out before she actually made it inside. "Actually," she began through gritted teeth, "I could use some help. Thank you. I'm just returning these, so, you know, gotta get them inside."

Sometimes, during his work day in his new job, Matt needed some fresh air to organize his thoughts. Leading a team of writers was starting to prove a little overwhelming and the fact that he was back here in New York so close to his own ghosts weigh on him constantly.

Matt knew the city even before he moved to live here permanently, especially Manhattan. First as a tourist but now as a resident and as he walked around, he tried to focus on his surroundings. Doing a little of people watching always helped his creativity.

That's when he noticed the woman struggling with her bag of, assumingly, books near the public library. He let out a small laugh at her comment and stepped a little closer. "Can I help you with that?" he offered.

"I hear you. And I am sure you're making the world a better place one client at a time." Zahra has absolutely no reason to doubt Violet's professional abilities, especially if her clear enthusiasm and dedication were anything to go by. While she was delighted for her, Zahra couldn't help feeling just slightly jealous of just how much enjoyment and purpose her friend seemed to get from her job. She had been like that before, living and breathing her chosen career path, but lately finding any joy in research had been near impossible. "Yeah, I know. I'm sure it's not all that unusual, you know," she spoke with a shrug, dark brown eyes reading through the menu once more, "but it's frustrating. I thought it would get easier, you know." Zahra rolled her eyes playfully at Violet's offer of help. "Oh, God no. I wouldn't wish this on anyone. You just enjoy the fact that you're done with it for the time being. That being said, I might have to take you up on your offer of drinks and snacks."

"Haha, I agree. I think the world would be much more peaceful. But it's my passion in life so of course I want everyone to come see me." she agreed, settling back in her chair. The summer air was around them, warm but not oppressive, and there was a lovely breeze. "I'm sorry you've been having trouble. I'd offer to help but I doubt I'd be much of one. I haven't thought about papers and dissertations in years and frankly, I don't want to. But I'm always here for moral support. Available at any time day or night with snacks, drinks, 2000s romcoms, and a hug." Violet teased, taking on the voice quality of an old timey superhero show narrator. "Maybe a change of pace will help."

〰 Intense Stares (again)

Despite her stubborn streak and tendency to insist on doing things by herself no matter how difficult, Zahra could not hide her relief. Besides, a slipped disc didn't necessarily appeal to her. "Oh, hardly. It's definitely no more than a quarter of my size. And it's lighter than it looks." That was a bold-faced lie and Zahra was definitely grateful Ryan had offered to help her with the books. "That'd be nice, thank you. Can't say I've been doing much of heavy lifting lately." She shook her head slowly. "You're working? Nothing serious, I hope."

—dressed in a casual uniform, black pants and standard FD t-shirt, he walked up the stairs leading to the library meaning to check on a call; they did claim it was a false alarm, but two of them had been sent anyway to ensure there were no issues. a standard procedure for such a call, they needed to do an inspection of the building; this was a library after all, a fire break out in this place would be a pain, for many reasons. “what are you doing?” he laughed as he noticed Zahra —first he had noticed the bag, to be fair. looking at the massive blue bag she was carrying, he arched an eyebrow. “this is twice your size, Zahra,” he teased, laughing. “may I?” he inquired, gesturing towards the bag.

She grimaced visibly before nodding. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine," she hurried to assure despite feeling anything but fine. Still, it was none of this stranger's business and not something she wanted to burden him with. "It's just hot. It was quite the way to get those books here." Despite her resistance, Zahra did eventually sit down, the physical exhaustion catching up with her. "Thank you. I'm Zahra, by the way. Thank you for you help."

The change in her demeanor worried him immediately. He frowned and stepped a little closer but not too much as to invade her space. "Hey, are you feeling okay?" he asked, looking around the library. "Do you want to maybe sit down?" made a move to lead her to one of the chairs nearby, not able to actually grabbed her because his arms were full of her books that they hadn't returned yet.

Zahra glanced up from her phone at the customer in front of her, the man clearly frustrated by something. The reason didn't seem to make a whole lot of sense to her, but she obviously didn't have the whole story and couldn't know why he seemed so agitated. "I'm not in the habit of eating other customers' food," she informed, back to swiping through her e-mails, "or have any desire to steal it." Truthfully, she couldn't imagine anything worse than sharing some random stranger's food. "You and your tacos will probably be just fine."

open starter @boroughshqlocation: 10 Year Anniversary @ Casa De Tacos, Queens

"i'm makin' it clear right now, you have to pry all ten of these out of my dead cold fuckin' hands man, i'm not sharin', or splitin' or anything, and i mean that shit." he says matter-of-factly as he rubs his hands in line, now not being too far from getting rewarded for the day. it had been a long ass stressful day at the garage (as per usual) so nothing was standing in his way of having this one thing, even if it meant he cut in front of the annoying little toddlers that kept screaming and running around a few feet ahead. children were the future his ass.

Joe's Tavern had come to serve a very specific purpose for Zahra. It was dark and dingy, and the drinks were definitely cheaper than the outrageous prices she had come to expect from New York City. It had served her well during her PhD years and she hadn't really bothered trying to find a new spot.

The stranger sat next to her didn't seem to be enjoying the atmosphere quite as much Zahra. She glanced at their beer and shrugged her shoulders.

"Thought of trying anything else?" she asked, eyeing her own shot of Jack Daniel's. It was a safe choice, hard to mess up. "Just don't get the wine."

open starter @bhqextras

where: Joe's Tavern

They've lost count of how many bars they've been to since they moved to the city but they still haven't found a place they can call their place, where you'd find him every Saturday or after a work day where they'd have to deal with a lot more dunces than they'd like (one)

Trying not to snap at the bartender that asked them "a what"?" when they asked for a pint and added a condescending "you're in America, sweetheart, just say beer." as if they could erase from their brain the way they've talked all their lives because they set foot in the country.

And all of that to taste the piss poor excuse of beer the man served them. "Ugh, I don't know what I was expecting. It's like it gets worst every time I taste one of these." Theo shook their head in disgust but took a few more gulps anyway.

"Ah, I see. Well, it seems to be a warm reunion, both literally and figuratively," she replied with a tired smile. God, it really was uncomfortably hot and the fact that she had dragged a small library worth of books from her home in Queens hadn't exactly helped.

Zahra's hand travelled to rub the back of her neck, clearly somewhat uncomfortable with the question and possible follow ups. "Research. I'm doing a postdoctoral fellowship, so, you know, a lot of reading and writing should be taking place."

"I love this library, I haven't been here in a while." Matt started explaining. "I was born in New York but upstate and then I lived in LA for over ten years so it all seems new to me now, even if I've even here many times before."

Matt looked at the volume of books and how big they were and turned back to her. "What do you do?" He asked curiously, always looking for a character in the people he meets randomly. It all helped his creativity. The best stories came to him in random encounters with strangers.

[ aiysha hart, cis woman, she/her ] — whoa! ZAHRA HAMED just stole my cab! not cool, but maybe they needed it more. they have lived in the city for TWO MONTHS, working as a POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER. that can’t be easy, especially at only 34 YEARS OLD. some people say they can be a little bit OBSTINATE and RESTLESS , but i know them to be OPEN-MINDED and RESOURCEFUL. whatever. i guess i’ll catch the next cab. hope they like the ride back to QUEENS! — 

here's zahra's pinterest for the vibes.

FULL NAME: zahra hamed DATE OF BIRTH: may 11, 1990 GENDER & PRONOUNS: cis woman, she/her

ORIENTATION: bisexual OCCUPATION: postdoctoral researcher PLACE OF BIRTH: minneapolis, minnesota  FAMILY: mother, father PETS: a black cat called circe

HEIGHT: 5′10′’ HAIR COLOUR: dark brown EYE COLOUR: dark brown

trigger warnings: mentions of religion, infertility, emotional distress, and smoking.

she’s an only child, born to a mixed race and interfaith family. her christian mother and muslim father brought her up in an environment where questions were encouraged and zahra was taught to argue her views and research new ideas.

despite her status as somewhat of a miracle child - her parents had already come to accept they wouldn’t be able to have children of their own due to a host of fertility issues - zahra grew up knowing a lot was expected of her. both of her parents had grown up with very little and had been able to use education as their way out of difficult home situations. she doesn’t resent her parents in the slightest, but sometimes wonders what her life would now look like if she been given just a bit more space and freedom to discover and make mistakes. still, she’s grateful for the drive her parents instilled in her as it has helped her to keep going even during times of distress. that being said, she has unfortunately picked up a host of rather unhealthy coping mechanisms for said stressful situations.

after graduating from high school at the top of her class, zahra packed her bags and moved to durham, north carolina, where she would go on to attend duke university, studying religion and philosophy. she later completed her phd in columbia university, writing her thesis about religious dialogue and pluralism.

while her life hasn’t always been easy or uncomplicated, it has been rather streamline. she has struggled and put in an enormous amount of hard work to get where she is now, but things have generally gone well for her. however, she has recently gone through something of a personal crisis and is really struggling to find her feet again. to put it simply, zahra has become wildly disillusioned with the academia and is suddenly really not sure she’s happy with her choices in life.

her postdoctoral research has now taken her back to new york city where she conducts research in and around the city. well, that’s what she’s supposed to be doing. however, she has run into a real slump and is struggling to get anything productive done. her self-esteem has taken a hit due to the resent developments, as her sense of self has been so deeply intertwined with her academic and professional success. she previously did a disappearing act, leaving her life in nyc behind, and is currently trying to get her shit together. trying being the operative word. she knows she doesn’t have the time to fuck around, but that’s kind of exactly what she’s doing.

will become visibly grumpy when asked about the state of her research project. that being said, she is procrastinating by researching other things, and has, amongst other things, taught herself french while trying to avoid all her responsibilities. she will soon start picking up and abandoning all sorts of fun pastimes in the hopes of distraction.

while she can be bit of a hermit - she spends most of her time alone, trying desperately to read and write, or avoiding said activities - zahra isn’t the sort of shy, serious person people might expect her to be. she can be incredibly talkative and opinionated, even downright bossy, and genuinely enjoys meeting new people. sometimes she just needs a friend to drag her outside.

looks kind of intimidating unless she’s making a conscious effort to appear approachable. while evidently very intelligent and well-meaning for the most part, zahra sometimes struggles when it comes to socialising and pleasantries.

zahra back arrived to nyc around two-ish months ago, so here are some super vague connection ideas for anyone interested!

the stress has led to a lot of sleepless nights, resulting in her becoming a real night owl. she can be spotted frequenting places that are open late, and can be found chain-smoking and scrolling endlessly on social media. she would've undoubtedly run into some folks with similar schedules and habits.

any people with fun, interesting hobbies. after forming some sort of a connection, she would undoubtedly pester these individuals to teach her stuff. your girl needs to be distracted from the looming doom of her research project.

zahra enjoys noisy music. so, a person willing to accompany her to gigs around the area. she's happiest when it's so loud she can't hear her own thoughts.

definitely people she met while doing her phd in nyc. she left the city a few years ago, but would've spent around five-ish years there before skipping town. she would've definitely had friends and even little romances during that time.