♛ → YOU CANT WAKE UP, THIS IS NOT A DREAM.
⌠ margaret qualley, 22, female, she/her ⌡ welcome back to gallagher academy, darcy tate! according to their records, they’re a second year, specializing in undecided; and they did not go to a spy prep high school. when i see them walking around in the halls, i usually see a flash of (secret transactions made on street corners, knowing eyes that are frozen with ice, a stack of unopened birthday cards). when it’s the (scorpio)’s birthday on 10/31/1997, they always request funnel cake from the school’s chefs. looks like they’re well on their way to graduation. ⌿
tw ; teenage pregnancy, addiction, drugs, violence
♛ → HISTORY
elliot tate had been an addict since he was nineteen. serena tate gave birth to her first child at age sixteen. their parents refused to support them given their difference in age, vices, and unwillingness to change. nothing got easier for them, either.
darcy was their fourth child. one that they couldn’t afford. the couple begged serena’s sister to take in the babe. they wanted her to raised the child as her own and wanted no contact with her. they knew it would be too hard. she eventually consented and before darcy had even reached her first birthday, she was shipped to dublin to live with her aunt.
while darcy knew that aunt phyllis did her best to be a loving guardian, she also made it no secret that darcy had not been wanted. there had been many passive aggressive comments through the years about how much easier her life would be without having to take care of darcy.
at the age of thirteen, darcy had all she could take of her aunt’s behavior. she stole her aunt’s mason jar of savings as well as most of her jewelry to pawn. darcy bought a plane ticket for the soonest flight to new york.
she’d taken her parents address from a date book that aunt phyllis thought was well hidden. there had been warnings throughout the years about what sort of people her parents had been- about why they couldn’t care for her. darcy thought that it would be different now that she was older and could take care of herself.
when she got to their house, it was worse than anything she’d ever imagined. it was a lovely suburban home on the outskirts of the city. it was a nice neighborhood. when she walked in, she was shocked to see that there were two children younger than her at the kitchen table with the rest of the family she’d never known.
they tried to explain that being forced to give her up is what pushed elliot to get sober and for serena to go to school for a career, but darcy wouldn’t hear any of it. all she knew was that her parents had only given up one child, and instead of coming for her when things got better, they just had two replacements instead.
that’s how darcy started living on the streets of new york city as a teenager. she was a smart girl and learned how to hustle enough money to eat rather quickly. the problem was that she was still sleeping in hobo village. darcy needed to be making enough to live.
before long, she got an in on a dealing game. her age kept her inconspicuous and her wits kept her an asset. darcy turned over more merchandise with less arrests than anyone else on the payroll.
one day years down the line, she was working down an alley to oversee a truck getting unloaded into the safe house when a gunshot down the alley caught her attention. she ordered her crew to keep going, but pulled her own gun and headed toward the noise. if it were a rival, they needed to be dealt with immediately.
instead, darcy came on the sight of a middle-aged woman with a gun to the back of her head. the man holding the piece didn’t look like your typical thug. he was wearing a tailored suit. in a short fight, darcy managed to disarm and incapacitate the man. the woman she saved thanked her, but said she was more impressed with her ingenuity and fearlessness.
it turned out that the woman was an administrator for an exclusive school in virginia. she offered darcy a ‘scholarship’ there on the spot. darcy decided to take advantage of it.
she was definitely behind in terms of academics. darcy hadn’t attended a formal school since she was thirteen years old. she worked hard to try and catch up, but it took a lot of extra work. she is still a year behind most people her age in standard curriculum. however, she excels at what gallagher girls are best at- espionage. darcy’s goal is to use her skills to one day be able to outwit the rest of her peers as she continues to move up the ladder in a crime syndicate. afterall, what had playing by the rules ever done for her?
♛ → PERSONALITY
darcy has learned not to rely on anyone but herself and her own cunning in order to survive. her experiences of being unwanted had hardened her to most everything. she is not trusting at all and is usually coming up with a way to be three steps ahead of everyone she comes in contact with, whether she likes them or not. she is apathetic to sentimental things. she has no desire to fall in love or even make lasting friendships while studying. darcy is determined and ambitious. her humor is biting and her attention to detail is superb. she does, however, struggle with her own addiction problems that she does her best to keep hidden. that being said, she is a very arrogant person. darcy has done everything for herself and so she has no reason to doubt herself.
♛ → HEADCANONS
there are few vices that darcy hasn’t fallen prey to at least once or twice in her life. while she is partial to drinking and cannabis, darcy just likes to live in the haze so long as she’s not working. however, there is no chance in hell that a needle will ever prick her skin. she is adamant about that.
darcy has a bit of an irish accent. it was never a very strong accent as her aunt sounded straight out of jersey, and it’s faded significantly over the years. however, it’s still a detectable lilt in her speech. it becomes even more apparent when she’s near someone else with the accent or when she get legitimately mad.
she is embarrassed about being so far behind in her academics. darcy started the academy with a middle school education under her belt. she is smart, read whatever she could get her hands on while struggling in the streets, and had a natural inclination for numbers. but she hates when she’s asked a question in class that she doesn’t know the answer to. her worst subject is history.
weapons were a daily part of darcy’s life for years now. even before she attended gallagher’s, she had extensive experience with knives, guns, explosives, and a few more obscure weapons that had been procured for her. to this day, she is one of the best marksmen on campus.
darcy has a pet cat called pi. the kitten crawled into her bag three years ago while she was working. darcy loves that animal more than any other living creature on this planet. she was absolutely kill for him.