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[curiously]

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( cw: body horror, gore, violence & etc. in some threads + please label threads for such. )

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[curiously]

[ jane and nancy. two people that zarina consider herself close friends with, nancy being the little sister despite the time discrepancy between them — she hasn't even been born yet by the year nancy disappears from hawkins — which is why her brows furrow. she can only imagine the talks he has with the other two if hers is anything to base it on.

the topic at hand, however, is yui: ]

No. I didn't bother her about her past too much, but it certainly sounds like you have.

[ though curious like a cat, zarina would never bother her friends about such sensitive topics. maybe later on when she gets concerned for their well being — if they're feeling off, she would ask what's bothering them and more — but within the first few days? it's tempting, but she considers herself a decent enough person not to snoop into their past.

not yet, that is. ]

Did you?

[throughtheribs]

[ He knows everybody's pasts. Well - not everybody's. Some people just don't talk about them. But everyone who's ever said a word, everyone who's ever confided in another person - he knows those pasts. It's almost uncanny, but that's his second-strongest skill, right after planning and executing a murder.

But to give it away ... well, Zarina's been polite enough, and traded information, and if this gets back around to Yui it's not exactly going to bite him in the ass. He'll give her a freebie for once. It isn't a hugely valuable or dangerous secret to know, after all, and in the end it'll just make him look even more dangerous - or just creepy, since some people seem to think that's a proper description for him. ]

I like finding out about them. Most of you have pretty boring stories to tell, but some - like yours - are worth digging into.

[ He's silent a moment, fingers locked around her recorder. ]

She had a stalker, in her early racing days. Nothing serious right up until he tried to kill her. Apparently I remind her of him. It made her edgy right off the bat, and I can't resist making that kind of thing worse.

[ And making it worse. Her instant, not-exactly-irrational hatred had his attention immediately. Now, when he can't find anyone else to harass and stalk, he does it to her, because she'll react like she's been electrocuted. ]

[curiously]

[ listening to jed talk about how he finds out about everyone's stories — about yui's — and how there are those "worth digging" into only strengthens her resolve on keeping her newfound relationship a secret to the world, but most especially a secret from the ghost face. he's someone who takes secrets and uses it for his own pleasures.

jed olsen is a terrible, terrible man, she thinks to herself. how she can only imagine the usual cool and tough yui being stalked and toyed by him, her trauma activating. this would explain those few trials they were in together against the masked murderer. ]

You're such an asshole. [ a fact. here comes another: ] And a creep. Good luck on finding more material on me when I don't have much.

[ despite the offer of her answers to his questions, zarina knows how much to give and how much to keep from his ears at the very least. or so she hopes. ]

At one point in your life, have you ever thought of putting the knife down? Just be a decent person?

[throughtheribs]

[ Under the mask, Danny smiles, something genuinely amused and more than a little cruel. I've been called a lot worse he thinks, but doesn't get a chance to say, because Zarina keeps going, the disdain maybe not in her voice but in every word she says. People don't like him not just because he's a killer, but because he's a bastard about it even beforehand.

He wonders how she'd feel if she could see his notebooks. All the information he found on his victims before this place. The schedules, the hobbies, the tics, the ones who locked their doors twice and the ones who always forgot. Would she call him a creep and an asshole again? Find stronger words? Lose words entirely in the face of just how much of a monster he is? Unfortunately he'll never know, because she'll never see those notebooks, but it's something to think about.

And then she asks him something that makes him look at her a little more intently. He could laugh, but that wouldn't give quite the right impression. Instead, he pauses for a few long seconds before replying, and then: ]

No.

[ It's not smug, or mocking, or even annoyed. It's just a simple, straightforward, one-word answer. No, he's never considered it. Not once in his life. Not since he picked it up in the first place and took his first life and got away with it.

And speaking of knives - he holds out her recorder, fingers opening up so she can take it back. But if she takes it his hand stays out until the knife is back in it. She could try to run with both, but no matter how disgusted she is, he's got the feeling she won't. ]

[curiously]

[ the way he only says a single word with no hesitation whatsoever — how it reminds zarina more of clark stevenson when she interrogates him on why the man murders her father. there was no regret in his voice and there's none in jed's.

when zarina was young, her mother tells her what tabwa is. how allah will always accept those who seek to repent for their evil deeds, recognizing the wrong they've done, and never do it again. how allah welcomes them back with open arms should they be true to themselves. though zarina isn't religious, it's a lovely concept that she sometimes thinks of when meeting certain people who has at least an ounce of regret.

jed olsen wouldn't even think to attempt tabwa as given by his answer. he will always be a murderer, a stalker, a monster in disguise of a man. that much is clear to her as her eyes shift towards her recorder and his knife.

for the briefest moment, zarina imagines herself throwing the knife across the junkyard while running with her recorder. it's a tempting thought that has her twirling the knife in her hand by its handle, but eventually — there would be nowhere else to run but beyond the fog and hopefully reach either the campfire or glenvale in time.

it's a concept that she doesn't want to find out just yet — she has nothing to slow down jed if he runs when there are no pallets outside of a trial — which is why, eventually, she takes her recorder back and places the knife in his hand. ]

See you, Jed. [ a hint of resentment in her own voice. ] Don't try anything funny on me the next time you see me.

[ a hopeless warning — it's to make a point — and departure greeting. after all, goodbyes mean forever and — though she wishes it was her last goodbye to him — she's still stuck in the entity's realm.

unfortunately, due to zarina's nature, she's still endlessly curious about everything and everyone around her. that includes the ghost face, as much as she would like to deny it. ]

[throughtheribs]

[ Zarina's eyes never move from his face - well, his mask - and she doesn't say anything in response to his single-word answer. She doesn't look afraid or any more hateful or disgusted, either, but he's got the feeling those things are burning inside her, her thoughts like fire as she tries to grasp what the hell he really is on the inside. Or maybe just wanting to get the hell away from him before he changes his mind and stabs her.

The truth of the matter is that what she's seeing - the mask, the outfit, the knife once she hands it back - is the real him. Under the mask, the human skin is the disguise, and always was. Sure, he had to hide to stop himself from getting caught, so on the surface the mask hides who he is - but that's just his identity. It's not him.

And here, he'll never have to worry about being caught again. There's no more chances for retribution and destruction. No more possibility that he might end up in prison, or taken down in a hail of bullets, or revealed by a newspaper as anything other than a suspect. There's downsides to the fog, but there's more than enough upsides to make up for it.

Zarina takes back her recorder, and she gives him back his knife. An edge of tension in him he didn't realize was there relaxes - because it's his knife, damn it - and he puts it away, snaps it back into place in its sheathe at his lower back. The resentment in her voice makes him smirk under the mask and he gives her a little wave. ]

Don't worry about that. I'm not really a funny guy.

[ Though he knows exactly what she means. And fully intends to ignore the warning. Zarina still has secrets and still has stories to tell; he's not going to let up on her, particularly if she doesn't intend to let up on him. For the moment, she'll get some distance. Time to let the disgust settle and give way to curiosity again. She wouldn't have agreed to meet him in the first place if she didn't want to know more about him, and he hasn't done anywhere near enough to scare her off for good.

Not that he'd let her stay away, anyway.

He watches her disappear into the darkness before he takes off himself, knowing he's not particularly welcome in this part of the fog and wanting to avoid getting his skull caved in if he can help it. Like in Midwich, the resident of this particular part of the Entity's realm will prioritize killing him over Zarina if given half a chance. ]