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Eyes: Brown
When not at work, Nadine likes to wear what she would call ‘nice and pretty things’ and her outfits are usually accompanied with jewellery, usually a necklace and bracelet but she’ll never left home without her ear rings (except when going to work). Personality: Nadine can be like a ray of sunshine most of the time but when angry or sad, she’s like a storm cloud on the horizon. It is unusual that her usually sunny exterior and new improved outlook on life doesn’t rub off on people and her ways with people is one of the reasons why she is popular at AJs and remains one of Drew’s best staff. She is quite chatty, willing to talk to anyone though she will not share her life story with strangers; you have to be in pretty deep with her before she even lets you have a peek of that. She hates to burden people and will often leave a place if she thinks she is being a bother or completely isolate herself when she feels down to spare anyone else from seeing it. This rarely happens but when it does, it can be quite dramatic. History: Nadine was born to a couple of travellers, people who never stayed in one spot long enough to make friends and be caught by the authority. They lived in their own caravan but went about with several other families, so Nadine always had someone to play with and talk to. Schooling was interesting and mainly consisted of learning the various skills that the travellers had (needlework, pressing flowers, that sort of thing) and little of what would be called ‘normal’ teaching. The majority of the travellers were illiterate, her parents included, but there was one couple who could read and write and they made it their duty to teach the children so they would have these skills much wanted by the outside world. Although the others thought it was nonsense, Nadine later on became quite glad of them. She got to see many places though not as much as she’d have liked and at only thirteen years old, she decided she’d had enough and ran away from the camp. She was discovered a few days later, trying to hitch hike to the nearest city and was taken back. This however made her more determined to get out of there, bored as she was with never being settled, having a home on wheels. A year later, she succeeded and found herself in New York after bundling herself into the back of a truck when the driver stopped for gas. Thrilled with having escaped, she then realised that she had hardly any money and nowhere to go. Fear quickly set in and the first night she slept rough, she wished she’d never had the crazy idea of running away from home. She spent a few nights on the streets, begging for money and food until she was picked up by the authorities and taken to a home. It wasn’t the nicest place on earth and some of the children there were a bit rough but to Nadine, it was a home none the less and her time spent there was remarkably pleasant; she just kept herself to herself most of the time and passed time by helping the carers out with household tasks. At fifteen, she was fostered for a few months by a family who had a couple of years previous lost a child. She was a little worried that she would be compared to their child at first; the girl who’d died, Jane, was about the same age as Nadine. But her fears proved unfounded. She lived with them for several months; the woman was a teacher and helped Nadine brush up on her reading and writing skills as well as teaching her basic maths, which was a godsend. When it was time to leave, she was quite saddened but has a renewed hope that things for her would get better. She returned to the home and stayed there until she was eighteen and got turfed out. It didn’t matter too much though as by then, she was holding down a steady (though not well paid) job and she managed to rent a small room from a woman who lived on her own. She lived there for a couple of years while she found another job, a slightly better paid admin junior job, then moved into her own place. It was only a poky little place in a not very nice area but it was hers. After working up the ranks a little and becoming a customer service assistant, she managed to save up enough money to get a better place and moved closer to work. It was at a works party when she met a man, David, who would change her life for the better and worse. He was a charming young man, polite, well spoken and very funny. She found his charm intoxicating and within a few weeks, they were dating, a few months they had moved into his luxury apartment in the city centre, a stone’s throw away from work. It was then she realised that he was actually one of the managers at the company she worked for but it didn’t matter to either of them. They kept their relationship secret; he taught her things which proved useful in getting her next job. She taught him things about her old way of life and although he didn’t need them to survive in his world, he was fascinated by them. They got married in the April of 1987 in a small chapel in a town outside of New York. She had no family there, he enough to make up for it and it was quite easily one of the happiest days of her life. They decided to move to the small town soon after, both weary of the city life, despite being so young. She got a job at the local bank as a book keeper, the maths skills taught to her by her foster mum and husband proving their worth a thousand times over. He set up his own business, trading in cars and it became quite a money spinner. They moved twice over a ten year period, gradually settling on a large house on the outskirts. By then, the business was employing ten local people and making a nice turn over. It was one night just after Nadine’s thirty-first birthday that things went horribly wrong. David had been coming over from work, after a successful day at the recently expanded garage, when his car collided with a truck that had skidded on a patch of ice and ended up on the wrong side of the road. He was killed at the scene, as was the driver of the truck and Nadine’s heart was firmly broken. Having no idea how to run the business, she sold it to one of the employees and then put the house on the market. It soon sold and Nadine ended up with so much money, she didn’t know what to do with it. She gave half of it back to the garage to help the business, something which came as a massive shock to the owner and was nearly refused, then she bought a caravan and moved away, putting the rest of the money in savings. Over the next ten years, she continually travelled, eating into a large part of the cash she got from David’s death. She couldn’t bear to stay in one place too long; she felt like a burden to people and even years after David’s death, found it hard to make friends. It was as she was coming up to her fortieth birthday that it finally dawned on her that she’d come full circle. That her grief had caused her to run back to the lifestyle she had spent so long trying to run from. With the cloud lifted from over her and this realisation, she moved to the nearest city to where she was, New Orleans and sold the caravan after buying a flat in the French Quarter, a lovely one bed place with a cracking view of the surroundings. She went job hunting and found herself looking in the window of a new establishment, a diner that had just opened called AJs. She decided that waitressing would be just the thing after so many years alone so when Drew offered her a job, she nearly took his hand off. She’s been a part of the AJs family ever since and is much as part of the furnishings as Bert, Ernine and Drew himself. She has no plans to leave there or New Orleans; she’s finally found her home. Strengths: She knows a bit about the preternatural community after serving so many for so long and having a boss who is a lycanthrope. She has no prejudices against any preternatural being and knows enough so she will never accidentally out anyone. She is an experienced traveller and knows how to look after herself. Weaknesses: She fears anyone getting too close so has a tendency to push people away at times and isolate herself. This has stopped her from making friends since David’s death and means social events can be tricky. Though she is getting better coping with this over time. Quirks: She carries pens around in her beehive and has been known to carry other things such as her purse in there. Always carries a small makeup bag with her wherever she goes (it’s usually in her handbag) and is a big fan of western movies. Also likes country music and her favourite drink is Long Island Ice Tea. Other: Nadia is a NPC playable by anyone in AJs (when waitressing) but only by the Council when not.
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