OOO OKAY how about this then... fern is a floor or two up in the mall so she witnesses marc in the middle of a hallucinatory state trying to attack someone else (could be an npc if we want to keep things simple), but by the time that she makes it down the stairs or w/e to see what's going on, he's nowhere to be found (but he KINDA STANDS OUT with that outfit of his)

so then later on back in the city she runs into his mannequin and yeah, whatever it's doing tracks bc all she's seen this guy do is be violent from a distance. then we can either have it have been a brief interaction where mannequin!marc gets away, so she's really on-edge when she runs into the real deal, or actual marc could intervene and then they have to deal with it together.

LEMME KNOW WHAT SOUNDS MOST FUN, i'm down for anything!