If There Was One Thing Zahra Excelled At, It Was Listening. Sure, Her Neutral Expression Could Make Her

Singles mixers - or mixers of any kind - weren't exactly Zahra's scene but she had made a promise to a friend. Said friend had been terrified to go by herself but had managed to hit it off with the first person she had struck a conversation with. Zahra had been left to fend for herself and had taken to people watching from a blessedly quiet corner. Eventually she had ran out of her drink and was making her way towards the bar when someone stopped her. Oh, she had been in her situation before and hurried to nod eagerly. "Yeah, I was just coming to look for you. That Jenga isn't going to play itself," she confirmed, mustering an apologetic smile as she nodded towards the very opposite side of the space. "Shall we?"

STATUS: open @bhqextras

LOCATION: Singles Mixer @ Puzzles, Manhattan

When a friend suggested a night out, Devi pictured something along the lines of going out dancing at Club 51, not a game night at a singles mixer. She supposed it was better than getting dragged along to something that felt a little more desperate like speed dating, but she still couldn't help but feel a pang of disappointment with how she was spending her night off. To make make matters worse, she had just been stuck in what felt like the world's longest game of darts with someone who made watching paint dry seem more exciting than holding a conversation with them. At the suggestion of a rematch, she immediately panicked and locked eyes with someone else who was nearby. "Oh, I would, but I already agreed to a game of Jenga with them." She tried her best to communicate with the other using her eyes, "Isn't that right?"

While she had never been great at accepting help, Zahra was grateful she had run into Julia, and even more grateful she seemed to be more than willing to offer a helping hand. "Thank you," she sighed, still catching her breath.

Zahra pulled an amused face at Julia's suggestion. "That's not a terrible idea. Although I hope I won't have to do this sort of a walk of shame anytime soon." Yes, she could have made multiple trips to the library, but somehow that had sounded even more laborious before she had actually started her perilous journey. Now she wholeheartedly regretted making said decision. "But I will definitely keep that in mind if I do end up in a similar situation." Glancing at Julia, she managed a brief yet knowing smile. "I see you're leaving empty-handed."

Julia didn’t know Zahra well - they were both in the library together on multiple occasions seemingly browsing or reading the same section, meaning she recognised her face as they came across each other at the door of the public library. As for judging her for this many books? That would be the pot calling the kettle black so instead she just gave her a small smile. “Wouldn’t dream of it. Here, you take one handle and I’ll take the other.” Luckily she didn’t have any books with her right now due to being on the way to pick one up, so her hands were free to attempt helping. Not that she was particulaly strong. 

“You need to invest in one of those wagons they put kids in to pull them along.” She joked lightly. @ofzahras

Zahra shook her head as she pocketed her phone. Lately she had been eager to seize any opportunity to avoid doing anything work-related, and a chat about bumblebees with a stranger seemed like a good distraction. "I can confidently say I had no idea, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Bugs are weird." She shrugged. "Couldn't imagine that either. I guess it would help them to have a wider field of vision, right?"

open @bhqextras

where: somewhere outside

"Did you know that bumblebees have five eyes?" Marina asked the nearby person. Looking at the fuzzy bumblebee perched on her hand, she grinned. "Two big ones, three smaller ones. Could you imagine having more than two? I think it would be neat, but that would also be a lot of contacts to go through in a day."

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.

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.

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.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT TASK #002

a zahra hamed moodboard

"I wouldn't dare to try. You're evidently much braver than I am," she chuckled in agreement. "I know. I used to think I was pretty good at all that stuff, knowing what's new and hip. And now I'm the sort of person who uses the word hip unironically." She waved her hand flippantly at Violet's compliment. "You're one to talk. I am sure all the heads turned when you walked in." It didn't seem like an overestimation by any means, and Zahra had never been good at giving out meaningless words of praise.

She could feel her cheeks warm up as Violet inquired about her dating life. "Not a chance. Not that I'm against it, but I just haven't even thought to consider it," she admitted. "Oh, no, can't have you do that. How about you? You have your eyes on anyone?"

"God, and then you try to explain landlines to them. Oh do I feel old then! I like being in my thirties honestly but with the way tech moves sometimes I feel older. Still, we look beautiful, you especially." Violet said as the day unfolded around them with pleasant chatter. "So anything else new? You seeing anybody? Or is the thesis your one and only right now? I have some people I could introduce you to if you're interested."

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."