(AKA what was supposed to be a list of headcanons for Darcie ended up being a thread for her whole family 😂)
GENERAL FAMILY INFO:
The Grahams consists of Marija and Terrence, and their 7 children (6 adopted, 1 biological).
The Grahams are pretty wealthy, with Terrance being the Chief of Surgery in the Violet Springs hospital for the past 20 years and Marija being the curator of one of the biggest museums in London for the past 25. They have a house in Lilac Heights big enough for each other their children to have their own bedroom. Aside from that, they don't usually spend their money on anything expensive, instead donating it to charities, animal shelters, etc.
They are known around town for being really giving to the community. Marija and Darcie especially advocate for a lot of social issues such as racism, women's rights and the LGBTQ+.
THE PARENTS:
Terrence Graham (58 - Taurus)
FC: Morris Chestnut
Terrence was born and raised in Violet Springs in a middle class family. His mother was a receptionist at the local primary school and his father was a university advertising lecturer.
Growing up he always knew that he wanted to be a doctor. While he wasn’t naturally smart, he studied hard all throughout his schooling life and managed to end up in the top 3 for most of his classes. After high school he got accepting into Harvard to study medicine.
For the four years he was in Harvard for, he was in a long-distance relationship with his high school sweetheart, Marija. While he was offered a spot in an American medical school to continue on with his postgraduate course, he decided that he was going to go back to Violet Springs and continue studying there.
After four more years of medical school he managed to get a job the Violet Springs hospital as a surgeon.
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Over 30 years into his time working at the hospital, Terrence is the Chief of Surgery. He definitely wasn't as hands-on with raising their kids as Marija was he liked to be, especially Darcie, but he's liked watching them from afar and surprising himself by seeing how much they've grown over the years.
Marija Graham (57 - Capricorn)
FC: Marisa Tomei
Marija was born in Novi Sad, Serbia to an Italian mother and Serbian father. Both of her parents were realtors and they all lived in many European countries before finally settling down in Violet Springs when she was 12.
Growing up she was passionate about art and went down the path of studying visual arts. In theory work, she was on top of the class but just made the mark in practical work. Knowing that she probably wouldn't succeed as an artist, she decided to go down the path of becoming a curator, working as an apprentice in one of London's largest museums and building her name up over the next 40 years.
Terrence and Marija were high school sweethearts, and have been together ever since they were 16-17. From the beginning they both knew that they had always wanted a big family, but Marija suffered from PCOS, a disorder in the ovaries that makes it harder to conceive children. Realising the low chances, they decided to go down the adoption route.
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She LOVES LOVES LOVES all of her children and makes sure they all receive equal treatment from her. If anything goes wrong having to do with her children, she puts herself at fault first and does what she can to fix it.
She is associated with arts department at St. Judes. If there are art students wanting to hold an exhibition at the museum, if they get in contact with her she will try to find a time slot that will work with them and the timing of other exhibitions being held at the museum.
THE CHILDREN
(TW: Mentions of child abandonment, child abuse, bullying (kind of), drug & alcohol abuse, a vehicular accident)
- In order of being adopted: Wyatt > Andie (Biological) > Tymandra > Dayo > Darcie > Cooper & Hayden
- In order of age: Wyatt > Andie = Tymandra (5 months difference) > Cooper = Dayo (1 month difference) > Hayden > Darcie
- Andie is Terrence and Marija's only biological child.
- Even though it's rare to see all seven of them in the same room it's pretty clear that they're pretty close knit despite some of them butting heads from time to time, so if you mess with one of them (especially Darcie), you mess with all of them.
- Marija and Terrence don't legally change their children's surnames right after adopting them, and don't expect them to want to change it, but almost all of the children asked them if they could change their surname (or add 'Graham' to their surname) by the time they turned 18. The only exceptions are Wyatt - who didn't have a name before being adopted by the Grahams - and Darcie - who's been going by the name "Darcie Graham-Choi" since she was 13, but wanted to keep her birth name (Choi Do Hui).
Wyatt Graham (33 - Aquarius - Adopted in 1989, 6 months old)
FC: Park Seo Joon
Wyatt was abandoned by his parents when he was a baby, being dropped off at the front of an orphanage in London as a newborn. When he was six months old he was adopted by Terrance and Marija.
Kind of a class clown in school. He was one of the guys that served as a massive distraction to the class, but would still be able to get his work done perfectly.
Being their first child, Wyatt was kind of a test baby. While he received a lot of love from his parents, which didn't go unnoticed by him, Marija and Terrence do regret not exposing him to his Korean culture more. However, Wyatt never saw it as an issue and just tried to make do with what he could.
When he was 14 he started working in Camellia Cafe a cafe that had opened in Downtown Violet Springs around that time, that sells Korean style cakes, pastries and drinks. It took him a while, but he slowly started learning Korean phrases from other staff members.
Over his 19 years working there, he’s managed to work his way up to being a manager, then taking over the cafe once the original owner decided to retire.
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He has his own apartment Downtown, closer to the cafe so he can make it there without having to hassle his family when he leaves early in the morning. Every once in a while he’ll stop by the Graham House after work to bring them any leftover goods that didn’t get sold, and annoy Andie and Darcie.
Is known in Dreamcatcher's fandom as 'Darcie's hot brother' and has probably gone viral a couple times in the kpop stan community for that reason. Fans living around the Violet Springs know that Darcie regularly visits the cafe so it's become a hotspot to meet her and her bandmates, but on some occasions fans will come just to talk to him too. At first he found it weird but now he finds it funny, especially since sales at the cafe has skyrockets ever since Darcie had her debut.
Andie Graham (29 - Gemini)
FC: Kim Johannson
Andie is the only biological child of Terrance and Marija. She came as a surprise to both of them as they were both told by doctors that the chances of them conceiving a child was close to none.
Despite having Wyatt as an older brother from the very beginning, when she was younger she never really understood why her parents opted for adoption when they decided that they were ready to have more children. Not being able to see her siblings grow from her mother’s belly, she held a slight superior complex over the next child that came along, and wasn't really the nicest to her future siblings until she was confronted by Marija about it. Of course, Andie grew to be more understanding of the situation and apologised to her siblings about her behaviour.
Growing up she never really thought about the future and opted to live in the moment. By the time she hit the end of high school she still didn’t know what to do.
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Andie still lives in the Graham House and is probably at home the most. She doesn’t know what she’s doing with her life but has a couple jobs in retail to gain an earning. She’s managed to save up a fair amount of money over the years for when she does have a career goal, but is still waiting for one to come around.
Tymandra Sinha-Graham (29 - Virgo - Adopted in 1997, 4 years old)
FC: Mishti Rahman
Tymandra was born in London to immigrant parents. They were both from Bangladesh and got into the UK using falsified documents several years before Tymandra was born.
When Tymandra was 10 months old her parents were caught and before they had the chance to find Tymandra out they put her up for adoption in the same orphanage that Marija and Terrence adopted Wyatt from. Just over three years later she was matched with the Grahams, and they adopted her.
She eased into the family relatively easily but that was pretty much undone by the time she turned 8 and Andie started giving her the cold shoulder, saying that she was the ‘more important daughter’. Even though Andie apologised for her behaviour later on, it did take a massive toll on Tymandra’s self-esteem. Throughout high school she had unrealistic standards of herself and compared herself to girls that were popular. She closed herself off to most of her friends and some of her family, not really opening back up until Darcie was adopted into the family and looked to her for girl advice. Slowly but surely, she started feeling confident in herself again.
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Nowadays she’s moved out of the Graham house and lives with her long-term partner in west London. She also runs a small fashion business, preparing to open a small boutique about a 7-minute drive away from where she lives. More often than not she spends holidays with her partner’s family rather than her own, but makes sure to catch up with the family every once in a while, knowing that Darcie will probably hunt her down if she spends too much time away from them.
Dayo Osei-Graham (27 - Sagittarius - Adopted in 2000, 5 years old)
FC: Kofi Siriboe
Dayo was born in Ghana to a widowed mother. His mother passed away from natural causes when he was a year old and was taken to the local orphanage. The Grahams were travelling, doing charity work in the same village Dayo's orphanage was in. Upon visiting the orphanage, Marija instantly felt a connection and brought up the idea of adopting Dayo to Terrence, who also bonded well with him. The adoption process for him took roughly 10 months, taking a bit longer than it did for Tymandra and Wyatt since it was their first time doing an intercountry adoption.
Alongside Darcie, he is a Graham child that gels with most of the other siblings. He's able to goof around with Wyatt and Darcie, doesn't take it too seriously whenever Andie decides she needs someone to (light-heartedly) bully, and can have deep chats with Tymandra. In addition, he is the main driving factor that led to Cooper and Hayden being taken in by the Graham family.
Growing up, Dayo was a popular kid, known for being a jock. He was heavily invested in the sporty/frat life throughout his late-teen and university years. Deep down, he is a hopeless romantic and has an incredibly caring side to him that most people have seen. Shortly after graduating from university he re-connected with an old friend from high school and they fell in love.
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Nowadays he works as a personal trainer and lives with his wife of three years and their two year old daughter, Nyla. Out of the siblings that have moved out of the Graham house he is the one that stops by the most, whether it's to say hi to whoever’s home, have drinks with Connor and Hayden, or to drop off Nyla for Marija or Darcie to babysit whenever he and his wife need to have a getaway.
Cooper (27 - Scorpio) & Hayden Graham (24 - Pisces)
(Both taken in in 2011, 16 & 12 years old)
(I couldn’t be bothered writing separate bios for them oops)
FCs: Will Poulter & Angus Cloud
Cooper and Hayden are brothers that grew up in Violet Springs. They had a family of their own, and were connected with the Grahams through Cooper and Dayo being in the same basketball team as kids. Their father was abusive and often harmed their mother physically until she left, leaving her sons behing.
Cooper soon became the target of the abuse until he too left at the age of 15, taking Hayden with him. For about a week they didn’t have a home, sleeping rough until Dayo noticed and invited them to hang out at the Graham house one day. As if he got an idea of what was going on with the brothers, it became a daily mission for Dayo to get Cooper and Hayden to hang out with him after school, walking with Cooper to pick up Hayden from primary school before taking them back to his house to play ball, or video games until the three of them crashed out asleep.
After talking around town, Marija and Terrence learnt about their father and applied for a Special Guardianship Order, which was easily granted to them. From that day onwards, they became the guardians of Cooper and Hayden. It only took a couple months of living under Marija and Terrence’s roof for Cooper and Hayden to be seen as Graham children by everyone in town
While they weren’t technically adopted, the boys are incredibly grateful for Dayo, Marija and Terrence for welcoming them into the family. Once he was 18 Cooper legally changed his surname to Graham, and Hayden did the same when he turned 16.
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Both of the boys still live in the Graham House alongside Darcie and Andie, and work as construction workers. Marija and Terrence have told them that they’re welcome to stay as long as they like, knowing that they spend most of their days out of the house working anyway, but they’re still saving up to move out of the house together.
Darcie Graham-Choi (22 - Adopted in 2007, 7 years old)
FC: Kim Yoo Hyeon
Choi Do Hui was born in Seoul, South Korea. Her mother died shortly after giving birth to her, and her father died in a vehicular accident when she was five. At the request of her grandfather, the Emperor of South Korea, she was taken to an orphanage by one of her father’s workers.
The Emperor gave the orphanage owner enough money to ensure Darcie was a priority and that she’d be matched with a trusted family, preferably out of the country for her safety. Two years later she was matched with the Grahams, and on a plane with Marija and Terrence to Violet Springs.
From the beginning Dohui struggled adjusting to life in Violet Springs due to the culture clash and language barrier that came with moving countries.
Not wanting to be out in public until she was confident in her English, she was homeschooled until she turned 10. Before she even started public school, she was known as "Wyatt/Andie/Tymandra/Dayo's little sister," but that didn't really bother her.
As time went on she probably has the strongest sense of belonging as a part of the family. When she was 13 she started going by the name 'Darcie Choi', mostly to save her teachers from mispronouncing her name, but she felt that the name made her feel a little closer to her family, and added the Graham in there not long afterwards.
She was never conventionally popular in high school, but was well known in town for being nice to everyone and being involved in a little bit of stuff in school and around the community - from being in the track, dance and football clubs, volunteering, singing and playing piano in school talent shows, attending museum exhibitions alongside her mother, and even working at Wyatt's cafe part-time.
When Darcie was 17 she took a week out of school to travel to South Korea, to audition for her spot in Dreamcatcher. In that same week a woman stopped her on her way back to the hotel she was staying at, calling her by her birth name. The woman admitted that she was the one that gave her to the orphanage, and claimed that she knew her biological family. By the end of that day, Darcie had learnt that she was the the last member of the Korean royal family aside from the current Emperor.
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She's living in the Graham house still, but occasionally sleeps over at the Dreamcatcher dormitory whenever she feels like it's too late to travel back home after recording/dance practise.
Despite being royal, and her mother's pregnancy with her being a hot topic at time time, the amount of proper information the public had on her birth was scarce due to her parents wanting her to have a quiet childhood. Aside from the fact that she was a girl and supposedly born in the second quarter of 2001, no one in South Korea knew anything about her.
As a result, there were many conspiracy theories about what happened to the ‘missing’ princess of Korea after her her father's death. Most of them came out around 2006-2012 that are still briefly talked about to this day. The most common theories were that she died with her father in the accident 17 years ago, that she’s living secretly amongst the Korean public with a secret identity, or even that she was killed by her grandfather which is being covered up by the government.
She hasn’t told anyone that she's the missing princess except for Deiji, who she's been best friends with pretty much ever since started living at Violet Springs. She hasn’t made any plans to reveal herself, but has been in contact with her grandfather, who was surprisingly understanding of the matter and promised to work with the government to make sure her identity is protected until she's ready to go public.
Two years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled his life without parole sentence unconstitutional, Terrence Graham gave me his first interview on May 4, 2012.
It was a few months since Graham was resentenced to 25 years for violating his probation in a restaurant robbery at age 17. Graham said the new sentence, which means he could be released in less than 13 years, hit him harder than the sentence of life without parole.
"To me the 25 year sentence hurt more than the life sentence. I had my hopes up of going home. I thought the worst it would be 15 years," said Graham, who is serving his time at Taylor Correctional Institution in Perry. "I was shocked - wow. I felt like I keep getting the sharp end of the stick."
When he was 17 and sentenced to life without parole, Graham never felt the sentence was real. He could not conceive of spending the rest of his life in prison.
"Something inside me said it wasn't really real. I never felt in my heart I was going to do a life sentence. I guess that's why it didn't settle in like the 25 years," he said.
Now 25, being sentenced to 25 years, seems all too real. Ineligible for vocational programs until five years before his release, Graham can't think of the years ahead.
"I don’t try to set my mind on doing the 25 yeas. If I do have to do the 25 years, right now that‘s a long time from now," Graham said. " It’s hard to set plans ahead. You don't know what the next day will bring."
With nothing else to do, and against the advice of his attorney Bryan Gowdy, Terrence Graham says he plans to appeal his resentencing, based on his knowledge that others resentenced under the Supreme Court's "Graham rule" have received less than 25 years.
"I feel I’m at a standstill, hoping and praying this next appeal will go through."
