dive right in . . .

AN INTRODUCTION

( sofia boutella. cisfemale. she/hers. fear of the water & syml. ) supposedly SABINE MALIK is actually a GHOST, but i doubt it. they look like they’re 36, though they act like they’ve been on earth for FORTY years. i recently saw them in THE BRONX — i think they HAUNT THE LOCALS there. when dusk falls, you can usually find them heading home to STATEN ISLAND by FOOT. ( ezra. 30. they/theirs. est. )

@duskintros​

tw: stalking, death​

while waiting in line , she typed a mile a minute on her work phone. it was supposed to be her day off , she had plans with her son … go to the park & then go to dinner at her parents house on the upper side. but , when her boss texts her – she is expected to answer day off or not. 

ordering her usual – double shot of espresso with extra cream and two pumps of french vanilla, she couldn’t help but hear the flow of profanities come from the woman to the right of her. narrowing her brown hues , she debates saying anything. “ — are you all right ? ” 

-

“Am I-?” concentration broken, her dark pools slip to the person off to the side of her. The first person, she’d noted, to ask if she was okay. Not that it had mattered really, since she was dead and all. But it was little things like that that she missed about people. About being a people. "Yes, I’m fine.” she grew frustrated with herself, however, for allowing her guard to slip. It was a lot harder than she’d ever imagined it would be to learn how to do twofuckingthings at once. 

“Thank you for asking, though.” she’d mused, turning back to the glass now as she reared her arm back once more. “strangers aren’t always so kind these days.”

.

     He wasn’t suppose to be here in all technicality of his job. The case was still open on the abandoned building even if it had gone cold years before it’s now growing occupancies of becoming a place for people to either hide out, deal drugs, or in Cian’s case meet someone. A simple meet and greet at a place where no one would see sounds something more sinister than Cian led people to believe about him. But he had his own reasons which mostly hinted at keeping his family safe. 

     Yet, he was completely surprised seeing someone else who he wasn’t expected to be at the run down shop. Not wanting to scare her even more after her outburst, he knocked gently on the exposed wood. “You… Need help?” He certainly had no idea what to say after witnessing her hand go through a glass because he certainly thought ghosts were just stories his parents made up to get him to go to bed. 

-

Sabine heard the voice behind her respond to her aggression, and she froze in place. Her arms now hung idly at her sides, fingers curled into small fists. As her lips tightened, she tossed an apprehensive look over her shoulder, a nervous edge to her voice, though she’d convinced herself she was only paranoid. 

@duskstarts​

It was the first time in a very long time that she could remember feeling so helpless. Ironic, since she’d been dead for years, and had never so much as held a glass in her hand. Why now, did she care so much? And with such fervor? 

The shop was all but abandoned. Or was it a café? Sabine paid little mind. For now, she was focused on the dirty glass before her, sat on a shaky table of equal merit. “Come on you son of a b--” she swung at the glass, her limbs trembling, but once more her efforts had been in vain. The glass didn’t so much as budge, nor could she feel it’s unforgiving cold against her skin.

Sabine lingered in the silence as she watched a new wave of chaos unfold before her eyes. She could feel the magic, the energy, pulsating around her body. It was almost tangible itself, nearly thick enough for Sab to reach out and touch it. In her old life, she'd been a hunter; not a witch, but a woman who understood a great many things for which there were no manuals. Things that happened like they had that night at O'Riley's... That was magic, of this Sabine (and surely the rest of its patrons) were sure. She'd escaped relatively unscathed, despite the reminders carried upon every scream, and shout. Reminders of how her own life had ended. How she had managed to turn two people into monsters... Now, tepid eyes watched as that same man writhed before her over the cold, dirty asphalt. A man she'd once shared her life with. Loved. She'd followed him as he stumbled through the streets, calling out for him now and again; "Nish... Nishith..." but she couldn't be sure if he'd chosen to ignore her of if she'd failed to ignite the chords of her dulcet vocals. It was hard. So much harder than it had ever been. Perhaps because she was a shaken, triggered mess. Sabine's fingers trembled, even though she could not feel the cold. Still, she trudged through the waning hours of the dusk. Following him, because she didn't dare to leave him alone. And even as he'd overcome that human with a razored maw, and sheer strength, through her silent sobs she waited. She stayed. Though she couldn't give purchase as to why. He'd killed her. Just as he had that human just now. But it hadn't been his fault. Not really. Sabine knew that in her heart, but did Nishith? Did he harbor the same resentment for her, leaving him to endure this curse alone? There were no tears to flow over her cheeks, but for a moment, she swore she could feel a dampness trail down her face. Watching him drift in and out of consciousness pulled her closer, until the specter was knelt down beside the wolf, who huffed and grunted in her direction through gritted teeth. "It's not your fault." Sabine whispered, reaching out to drag the backs of her fingers across the planes of Nish's face. She'd felt compelled to remind him, even if he could not hear her. Even if he didn't care to. "You have to get up Nish..." she'd nearly pleaded, fingers still trembling as she fought to give credence to her words. "Someone will find you if you stay. Please."

“can i see you?” he scoffed, a rare laugh bubbling to his lips. he hadn’t realized that she was dead, too. for now, he just thought that she was a scared human. “now that’s a new one. usually humans are asking how they can see me.” he stepped forward again, observing her closely. “even if you were a threat to me, there’s not much i could do about it,” to make a point, hisashi punches the wall next to him and allows his hand to completely pass through the brick. “unless there’s a ghostbuster in the area, i think i’m pretty safe, and you’re probably safe from me.”

-

The laugh pressed his lips, and Sabine's eyes flickered from the darkness of his eyes to the expression that now graced his features. He seemed so.. tangible, so human- not unlike herself. It was her own fault for keeping her distance from others like her; but that fear had been embedded into her so wholly, and with no guide through the afterlife... How could she have known any better? Closing in on her, Sabine continued to withdraw, pulling her arms into her person as she clutched her hands to her chest. The same hesitant stare followed his fist as he punched through the brick-- his corporeal form fading quickly as it allowed his body to pass through it. 'Probably safe from me', he'd said, and the possibilities burned through Sab's mind like wildfire. "Safe is an interesting choice of words." She'd managed to utter in a soft but unplaceable dialect. "So you... You've tried to, you know..." Sab glanced toward the door, a window, any opening in the building that might allow them to escape. "Even us-- er, you? Trapped? How can that be?"

 From behind her, a terrified shout sounded out, and if her heart still bothered to beat, she’s sure it would have pounded right out of her chest. 

WITH: Open to anyone ( @duskstarts​ )

Sabine looked on in both curiosity, and horror, as ferocity bloomed across the bar. Intangible. That was the word that best described her now; unable to be harmed by mere threats of the mortal plane. She knew it to be true and yet somehow, as glasses and bottles shattered between the nervous shouts of patrons, Sab almost convinced herself otherwise. Like there was no way among all of this anger, this rage, this tension, she could walk out of here... safely.

Like death itself had been her little secret.

Burnished pools flickered back and forth between each doorway and entry point in the bar room she was in, soft growls and slamming doors echoing in her ears all around her. "Hey!" Sabine called after a figure shrouded in darkness, the lights up above either switched off, or shattered. "Get out of here--" she'd gasped, surprised by the sheer mass of a looming body closing in on whomever was standing there. "Dear god, MOVE!"

open || @duskstarts​

location || the o’riley tavern after the plot drop

he didn’t mean to stare, but hisashi was an observer at heart. he had been silently walking around the tavern, avoiding the chaos as much as possible (no werewolf had come for him, since he didn’t have a body of blood, brain, and sinew to attack), gently prodding at doors and windows to see if his intangibility had come back. he was able to walk through the physical bar and even the doors that led to other areas of the tavern; hisashi just couldn’t make it through the anything that led outside. he’d liked the ignorance of the supernatural he’d had as a human, dealing with all of this, the rules of an unseen society, was torture. he phased through the bar once again, not caring that there was a group of people to see him. they were all huddled behind it, hiding from the ravenous beasts roaming the bar. they had already seen werewolves, why not see a ghost, too. “before you ask: no, i can’t go through the walls. we’re still trapped.”

*

She'd known it was a mistake walking into that tavern, but in no way had that deterred Sabine. Today, like most days, she'd only briefly weighed feelings of immortality in death against an ever evolving fear of uncertainty. Now, here they were, trapped inside of a building by some unseen force to be reckoned with; Sabine still an infant specter in every sense. Scared? No, maybe not... But nervous? Anxious? Sab was having a hard time differentiating. What had pushed her over the edge though, wasn't the number of wolves just moments away from the all-you-can-eat buffet that was now O'Reilly's, but rather, the figure that had eased through the bar before her eyes. Another ghost, like her, and in such close proximity. "You--" Sabine took a timid step back, dark eyes scanning the figure before her with trepidation. There were now too many what-if's in this bar for her to retain any comfort. "You can see me?" Duh, Sabine, she eased a breath past tensed lips. "I don't-- look, we're all stuck here, I'm no threat to you. Honest." Chalk it up to her inexperience with other Ghosts, but Sab only had the horror stories she'd heard from others to rely on; stories that pitted Ghost against Ghost. Energy against energy. Here she was, convinced that in these closed quarters, a stronger specter than her might 'destroy' her just to steal her energy. Paranoid much?