Everyone suspects DARYNA PAVLIVNA LYSYTSYA of at least one of the cardinal sins, but in Nevada, the worst sins are bound by blood and this is HERS: THE FOXES. SHE rolled the dice FOUR YEARS ago. Under the desert sun, they claim the act of ARTIST. They’re often mistaken for SASHA LUSS before those crimson colored glasses slide down their nose. DARIA better get busy living, or they’ll get busy dying by the ripe age of TWENTY-NINE. There are no second acts in a marked life, and it’s measured out by the melody of BLUE MONDAY by NEW ORDER.
hi everyone! i’m lyndsay and this is daria. she can be a bit tempestuous but shhhh just give her a lil time. there’s a tldr at the bottom!!! looking forward to plotting with everyone!
Background:
Daryna came into the world on an unseasonably cold day, red faced and screaming like a banshee. She was defiant from that very moment, refusing to feed and managing to contort her little face into a scowl that had the nurses chuckling. Her mother simply laughed along with them, pinching those chubby cheeks and holding her daughter to her chest until she softened and that frown slipped away as sleep took over.
Her family started calling her ‘Kholodnaya,’ insisting the weather seeped into her bones that day she was born, though her mother disagreed. ‘She’s not ice. She’s fire.” Larysa was always so willing to see the best in her eldest and Daria blossomed under her praise. Others critiqued her short temper while Larysa spoke of the beauty of a passionate soul. People told Daria she was too outspoken but her mother reminded them that there was bravery in tackling confrontation head-on--that honesty was a virtue. Her mother was her biggest cheerleader and made sure she never wanted for anything. And she didn’t. All she had to do was ask and her family delivered, no questions asked. Every opportunity was afforded to her and she took full advantage. She travelled as often as she could, mostly between Ukraine, Russia and Vegas but she’d developed a fondness for the Maldives, Italy and Switzerland. When she decided she wanted to move back to New York City and live a life surrounded by the arts, she was plunked down in a brownstone that the family had invested in as soon as their wealth started snowballing, though she visited her mother as frequently as she could.
Everything changed when her mother was killed.
Her entire world was shattered, and while it affected her whole family, she couldn’t imagine anyone understood her pain. It was dangerous to be in New York at that time. It was way too easy to numb her feelings, and she did, anyway she could.
Things started coming to light after that. Things she’d never officially realized. From a young age she was taught not to ask too many questions--a feat for such an inquisitive mind. She knew they had money, she knew her family was powerful but she had no idea why or how. It wasn’t talked about, not in front of her, and if she caught a whisper it was accompanied with a stern warning. And who would question such a luxurious lifestyle? She thought they were just a close knit, fiercely loyal family with maybe a slightly intense affinity for guns and a streak of fatal bad luck. But the deaths--her mother’s death wasn’t just bad luck. She was murdered.
Daria resented her family after that. Resented the gilded cage they’d kept her in, the ignorance that denied her a proper goodbye, and the gifts she’d accepted in exchange for her unwitting loyalty and silence. If they thought she was cold before it was nothing compared to the person she became. For a time she cut them off completely, though not without difficulty. After becoming so used to a lifestyle made possible only with their blood money, functioning without it was a challenge. Especially when she was spending so much on vices that kept her afloat. Thus began her downward spiral.
Time passed in a blur of lights, pills, powders, and sex. Sometimes she painted--pictures with heavy-handed brushstrokes and stark contrasts, heavy in blacks and reds. Sometimes she wrote and wrote and wrote, never reading anything back--if it sounded as pretentious as it felt, she couldn’t bear to face it. Sometimes when she wasn’t too strung out she found herself on a runway or posing for photographs at the hands of her friends who insisted she was perfect for this job or that. She couldn’t remember much of it, though it all felt incredibly dark and glamorous and angsty and just as exciting as it was hopeless.
When the well ran dry, her family insisted she move to Las Vegas to be with them and without a penny to her name, she had no choice but to oblige. It wasn’t a huge adjustment and tensions felt higher than ever, but something about being back in town, surrounded by her native tongue made her feel close to her mother again. She chose to make the best of it, immersing herself in the city--which fortunately, meant giving up very little of the bad habits she’d picked up--and immersing herself in her family. And the love they always had for her mother now showered down on her, though it still sometimes made her flinch. When she demanded they tell her everything, they relented.
It took a while, but trust has been steadily rebuilding and Daria’s even taken the family mark. She has yet to complete initiation and isn’t sure she will, not after what her uncles have told her. But she is loyal to the Foxes and has, mostly, forgiven them for the role they played in her mother’s murder. For now she is content turning that anger on their enemies and allowing her family to treat her like the printsessa she used to be--but this time, on her terms.
Personality:
Daria has always been defiant. She hates rules, hates authority, and hates being told what to do. Bribery was her family’s greatest tool in handling that. She’s nosy and inquisitive and nothing escapes her notice--part of the reason she’s such a talented artist. She sees things that other people might overlook, a skill she’s always used for her own self-preservation but has started putting to work for her family. Ever since her mom died, she’s been much colder. Where she used to be outspoken and confrontational, now she can be really biting and just plain icy. She definitely pushes people away and self-sabotages if she starts getting too close. On the other hand, she enjoys letting loose and having a bit of a wild child moment. Essentially, she’s quick to react and often on her base instincts.
TLDR; Daria was a difficult, bratty child and her mom was her biggest supporter until she was MURDERED. she kind of went of the deep end after that, partying in nyc and turning her pain into art. when she was finally dragged to vegas to be with family she shaped up a little. she’s loyal to the foxes, but not without a lil resentment, and has a lot of anger toward the rest of the gangs. now she’s a difficult, bratty adult, not unlike a feral animal.
