... to while away the waking hours of our latter night (PROFILE)
NAME: Nia Jamieson
AGE/BIRTHDATE: 29/June 25, 1978
OCCUPATION: Elementary School teacher
PERSONALITY:
The first impression most people have of Nia is that she's very quietly comfortable with herself. She was raised to be a strong and independent woman, and she likes to think she's that. She won't take unnecessary bullshit from anyone, but she doesn't want to come across as aggressive, either. All she's asking for is a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T. If you respect her, she will almost always respect you.
She has an active imagination and is easily engaged in stories, whether they're fictional or real, serious or comedic. She will always take the time to listen, even if it could wind up inconveniencing her later. It's both a positive and negative trait she's inherited from her Tale, though she tends to regard it as positive. The world always needs people who are willing to listen. Not everyone can be the star... someone has to play the audience, and Nia genuinely doesn't mind being the audience.
Likewise, she's capable of extraordinary amounts of patience. Some of it is innate, and some it is learned after spending her days dealing with kids. It means that she is likely to have more tolerance for the 'slower' and more immature members of the Tale community than some others, not that she's naming names or anything.
Nia isn't excessively wild or outrageous by any means, but she's not a hermit. She's not above going out every now and then and having a good time with friends. However, if you need someone to stay in with you and help you eat sympathy Ben and Jerry's, she's capable of that too. Or if you need someone who will come in and kick your ass after a drinking binge, she can probably manage that too. Think of her as your multi-purpose friend, if you will.
Or, as she likes to think of herself as being: someone who's willing to go with the flow without being swept up by it.
HISTORY:
Nia Jamieson was born on June 25, 1978, and grew up hearing about how she was her mother's proudest accomplishment. She has never known her father. Her mother raised Nia on her own with the occasional helping hand from family and friends, and of course, the church. The church and the local youth centre played a huge role in young Nia's life, which wasn't a bad thing, considering the climate of Harlem at the time.
Unlike some other Tales, Nia hasn't had everything handed to her. She's had to work for everything she's got. She's not bitter about it, though. In fact, she's just the opposite. She tends to believe that the fact she's stronger because she's had to work for something, and knows what adversity means. She isn't vocal about it, however, so people who find that grating don't have to worry.
As soon as Nia was old enough, she began babysitting to help her mother out. And even when she was old enough to get a more 'proper' job working at a pizza parlor, she didn't give up babysitting. She found she genuinely enjoyed being around young children, and more than that, people were always telling her how good she was with them.
All her life, Nia loved school and learning. There was something about that environment... about being pushed to do your best... that really resonated with her. Sometimes, this meant she was accused of being a teacher's pet and that was hard at times. Ironically, as she got older, Nia often found herself being asked to lend the very same peers who would tease her for being good in school extra help and tutoring.
Eventually, in her senior year of high school, it made sense to her to combine her enjoyment of being around kids with the rush she got out of helping someone learn something new. She decided that, for college, she would study to become an elementary school teacher. The day she graduated was possibly the happiest of her mother's life: Nia was the first in her family to not only go to college, but complete it.
In her first year of teaching, about six years ago, Nia began to have dreams. Dreams where she was an audience, listening to fantastic stories, and each night it would be a different story. She felt very connected to the young woman who told the stories, and very invested in having the stories continue... almost like it was a matter of life and death that they did. If, for some reason, she didn't dream of the stories and the storyteller, she would feel panicked.
After about two months of consistently having these bizarre dreams, Nia was approached after work at her school by Velvet's predecessor, who told her she was actually a reincarnation of Dunyazad, who, for a thousand and one nights, listened to her sister tell stories so her husband would spare her.
At first, she thought someone was playing a cruel joke on her. After all, she'd never made the fact that she adored stories, especially old ones like fairy tales, a secret. It annoyed her that someone might think it was funny to make fun of her for that in such a strange way.
It took a few visits to the Pentamerone and some interaction with other Tales, who were otherwise perfectly normal, for her to accept it as the truth. Now she quite enjoys being a Tale and loves the fact that there's a whole secret network of them out there. She's proud of it.
... but sometimes it makes story-time with her kids interesting. Sometimes she can't help but think: 'If only they knew what Mother Goose was really like!'
FAIRYTALE: Dunyazad [A Thousand And One Arabian Nights]
FAIRYTALE STATUS: Nia is open about her Tale with the other Arabics, as they are her 'kin', and also with other close friends. If a Tale does not fall under that category, it's unlikely they would know that she is Dunyazad, unless someone else told them.
RELATION TO TALE:
Perhaps the biggest influence being Dunyazad has had on Nia is in her passionate love of stories. If you've got an interesting story, she'll happily play your captive audience long after others have lost patience with you (which is probably one of the reasons she does so well with young children). Likewise, she is a vocarious reader, and will read anything that so much as catches her eye, though she does have a special preference for books and stories that involve cliffhangers. She also has an excellent knack for remembering any story told to her, sometimes verbatim. However, her Tale has also left Nia skeptical of men and now she refuses to take any bullshit from them. It will likely take a lot for a guy to win her over, but it can be done.
PLAYED-BY: Tracie Thoms [sample]
MUN: Rose
*This profile is still a work in progress