❦ Name: Ayesha Kamjik (Formerly Habibi Kamjik)
❦ Nickname: TBA
❦ Age: 27
❦ Birthday: June 4th, 1991
❦ Sign: Gemini
❦ Gemstone: Pearl
❦ Blood Type: AB+
❦ Fav. Food: Spicy Lamb Curry
❦ Hated Food: She dislikes mushrooms of all kinds, cooked or raw, gussied up in any manner.
❦ School: Graduated from DCU with a double major in Latin and Arabic studies. Earned her master's on language subjugation in Pakistan. Back in DC to work on her doctorate. She works in language tutoring on the side.
❦ Hobbies ❦
xxxxxBelly-Dancing: She began dancing at the age of five in a studio, took to it quickly, and soon carried that passion all through her grade school years. Her affinity for belly dance led to extracurricular lessons, assistant teaching, and eventually a small troupe forming out of some of her partners. And while she wasn't fond of playing social, she acquiesced to performing at various venues -- renaissance faires being the most popular. Presently she prefers to make YouTube videos of her performances, though she still performs at nightclubs occasionally. Her primary style is tribal fusion, and her most recent trip abroad has given her ample research to begin mastering another regional style.
xxxxxLanguages: Ayesha learned English and Punjabi alongside one another when growing up and took to both marvelously. This trend expanded when she was exposed to Spanish in a second-grade extracurricular, and grew from there to dabbling in French, Italian, and Portuguese. From the romance languages came an interest in their latin roots, and from latinate studies came an interest in their arabic translations. Now she explores a host of languages at different proficiency levels, each with their accompanying study apps on her phone. She also owns a robust collection of language dictionaries, audiobooks, and translation notes to help her navigate the complex network of ways people express themselves. She now studies and practices them frequently, enjoying the sonance of communication even if she finds the conversation lacking.
xxxxxBooks: Primarily audiobooks for this busy woman, but eBooks have their place too. She vastly prefers listening while she works out or travels, but Ayesha sharpens her language mastery by reading when not in the language's native area. She's collected books in a host of languages -- classical arabic, french, persian, punjabi, urdu, kashmiri, and more. Some she can't read (yet -- #goals), but others are read frequently in her off hours. For subject matter, she prefers more practical content like news articles, ethnographies or folktales. It's taken her a long time to come around to liking books.
❦ Virtues ❦
xxxxxCalm -- While a certain amount of emotional reservation is natural to her, Ayesha never found any good reason to lose her cool. Keeping a level head entailed handling bad situations with ease. Did she lose her car keys? She knows to think back to where she last saw them while retracing her steps. Is someone getting hot under the collar with her? De-escalation begins with a calm voice. Is her work day going poorly? Time to think about how she can improve it. Her calmness has been a great boon in traveling abroad and learning her way around completely foreign places -- and familiar places, too.
xxxxxPolite -- Ayesha was raised polite and staunchly refuses to give that up. Politeness changes depending on where she's at -- sometimes it's polite to belch and slurp her noodles -- but she's often presenting herself as courteously as she can. She finds that, often, she gets respect when she gives it firsthand. Thus, people recognized as elders or experts receive deep reverence even if she isn't familiar with their work. Workers are treated with a knowing courtesy. As a bonus, she believes in basic human respect.
xxxxxFlexible -- Traveling taught her quite a lot about how best to behave in other areas. She learned to eschew her personal preferences for the dominant vein of behavior she's observed in her present location. If that means wading into an ash-stricken river to bathe or dancing naked or sharing food with total strangers, then so be it. She doesn't take it as a personal offense; she actually prefers to blend into crowds this way. Mimesis is her best friend for getting through a day out -- and it's impressive to all the right people.
❦ Flaws ❦
xxxxxBrutally Honest -- Her friends don't receive the same level of politeness as strangers or coworkers. Instead, they get her opinion without filter. She trusts that her friends can take her without the veneer of a perfect person, so she'll give her brutal truth on anything asked (or without prompting). Does this poem read okay? She'll explain that it sounds like a five-year-old wrote it. If that person reacts poorly to her feedback, they have themselves to blame by asking for it. Does Sunday sound like a good day for a picnic? Don't be ridiculous; it's going to storm. In short, while it's an expression of her trust in her friends, Ayesha's bluntness causes more harm than good.
xxxxxCold -- She's perfectly content giving someone the polite brush-off. No, she won't go to coffee; she has places to be. No, she's not interested in hearing about one's most recent trip to the theatre; she isn't interested in current Broadway trends. Whenever someone tries to engage Ayesha, she has the natural tendency to seem distant and disinterested. Her body language remains closed off, her answers clip to polite affirmatives or negatives, and she nods along until the engaging party is quite finished. She's also excellent at never calling back. And don't bother leaving a voicemail; her inbox is full.
xxxxxSpace Cadet -- Was someone talking to her? Given the nature of her work and studies, Ayesha is often up in her own head too much to be very situationally aware. Greetings toward her get missed and leave her looking more standoffish than usual. Questions get missed while she ponders out the difference between the word 'I' across two romance languages. The cashier has to call her three times before she stops thinking about a new tribal fusion dance that she'd been planning. It isn't intentional, it's just the rest of the world doesn't exist sometimes. Her lack of awareness becomes especially obnoxious when it's imperative she pay attention. Telling her to stop tuning out does no good.
