Ever since Basimah moved out of her parents' house and into an apartment on Earl Road, she had been both excited and nervous about living on her own. Growing up in Night Vale, she had lived with her mom and three siblings, while her father had been in a ship heading towards the Blood Space War. When he came back in the form of an unfathomable void trapped in a cosmonaut suit, he seemed different, distant almost, and she had a hard time communicating with him as he spoke a very different language from her own. Luckily, the local radio host was able to translate the language and spent time with Basimah teaching her how to communicate with her father. After a while they could have a fairly simple conversation, but Basimah hadn't wanted to stay at the old house any more. Once she had made it past the age of 19, which she felt lucky to do as some people got trapped there, she moved into the apartment complex.
On her first day, the landlord gave her the traditional apartment move-in package - a bloodstone key, a bowl containing the leftover hair clippings of the previous occupant which she was required to spread across the threshold of her door, and a goldfish to live in her dresser drawer. He had also given her a hairbrush as a housewarming gift and a warning to never go near the basement. Basimah was curious, of course, but decided to wait until she was fully settled in before investigating further. She got a job at the Pinkberry in the mall and became very comfortable in her new life after a few weeks. The radio host, Cecil, and his boyfriend, Carlos, frequently came into the Pinkberry to chat and eat the frozen yoghurt and deep-fried mushrooms - Pinkberry's specialties. Cecil had taken Basimah under his wing (not literally, of course, the only beings in town with wings were definitely not angels) after he helped her communicate with her father, and he would talk to Basimah every time he came in. He constantly entreated her to become an intern at the community radio station, but Station Management hadn't yet shown up and forcefully taken her from her apartment to become one. Outwardly, Basimah told Cecil she wished they would, but secretly she was glad they hadn't - there were always stories floating around about interns going missing, getting trapped in a desert otherworld, or dying. One of Basimah's favorite classes in high school was science, so she and Carlos would talk about that too.
One day, Cecil came in and invited Basimah to a party he and Carlos were holding at their apartment. They had recently moved in together and wanted to invite their friends which, honestly, included most of the town. Basimah was excited to go and meet other townsfolk, as she only had a few old high school friends. That night, she dressed up in her best tinfoil hat and headed over to their apartment. The party was already in full swing by the time she got there, and she enjoyed some small talk with a couple different people, one of whom had recently gone on a vacation to Luftnarp. After a little while she was able to get some time to talk to Cecil. When he saw her, his eyes lit up.
"I know someone you should meet!" he exclaimed. He brought her over to a couch where a young woman sat relaxed with her feet on the coffee table. "This is Jackie Fierro. Jackie, this is Basimah Bashara. You two are about the same age, I think you'll hit it off." Basimah sat down on the couch next to Jackie. She was instantly taken in by the other girl's appearance but didn't want to come on too strong. Luckily, Jackie seemed interested in talking to her too and they quickly began having an interesting conversation. After a little while, Basimah brought up the mysterious warning from her landlord about the basement of the apartment complex. Jackie was intrigued by this, and kept asking Basimah questions about where she lived. They were so engrossed in their conversation that they were completely unaware of the party around them, which included awful karaoke by Carlos and a well-intentioned but poorly-executed science display by Cecil that nearly sent a few of the guests flying into the sky. Before they knew it, it was the end of the night. Cecil and Carlos found them still sitting on the couch, chatting away as they were cleaning up from the party.
Basimah went home feeling like she had made a very good friend. She and Jackie had exchanged phone numbers, although Basimah hadn't gotten a chance to puzzle out whether Jackie was attracted to women like she was. Due to this, she planned to develop this new friendship further and learn more about Jackie before trying to move their relationship to another level. She fell asleep quickly and, of course, entered the government mandated dreams.