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[ felix mallard, 25, cis man, he/him ] - was that ALEKSANDR “SASHA” DRAGOMIROV i saw around town today? i heard that they are part of the toronto POLAR BEARS as a STARTING LINE RIGHT WING and have been part of the team for ONE YEAR. they have a reputation of being CHARISMATIC & CLEVER, but also IMPETUOUS & CAPRICIOUS. people in town usually associate them with the lingering ghost of your breath as you skate drills alone in the rink before practice, an unforgiving russian accent that refuses to assimilate despite years away, downturned lips and a hardened gaze after another trip to the penalty box, pink blooming across your cheeks and the tip of yours ears despite claims of not being cold, and sickly sweet coffee concoctions that are more sugar and milk than coffee. can’t wait to see them at the next game!

STATS

full name: aleksandr mikhailovich dragomirov . nicknames: sasha . age: twenty-five . birthday: february 12th . birthplace: nizhny novgorod, russia . hometown: saint petersburg, russia . sexuality: bisexual . height: 5'10" . spoken languages: russian ( fluent ), romanian ( fluent ), ukrainian ( fluent ), english ( fluent ), & italian ( conversational ) . occupation: starting line right wing for the toronto polar bears

BIOGRAPHY

tw for light mentions of mob activity, drugs, & guns in the first paragraph. mentions of child cancer / death in paragraphs 6/7

sasha dragomirov was born from an organized marriage between mikhail dragomirov and daciana florescu. the dragomirov family were known for their lineage of oligarchs, gaining their wealth from establishing the largest maritime shipping company in russia with important ports along the volga river but the most valuable in nizhny novgorod & saint petersburg. with a stronghold on russian imports and exports, they gained political advantages and their power transcended what was considered legal. the dragomirov’s had ties to the russian mob, the bratva, and used their ports ranging from drug smuggling to guns trafficking. which is where the dragomirov family�� intertwined with the florescu’s in romania. the russian mafia began to cooperate with the romanian’s to control drugs in the region. a symbol of the newfound alliance was the wedding of mikhail, the youngest dragomirov son, and daciana, the daughter of a prominent member of the romanian mob.

a year into the marriage and daciana falls pregnant with sasha’s older sister, nadezhda. life went on and as the story goes, seven years later comes sasha. for the first six years of his life, sasha was raised in novgorod by a doting waitstaff with a silver spoon in his mouth from decades of dragomirov wealth. as sasha grew, he noticed that while his mother was hardly considered a happy woman from what he could recall in memory, her moods considerably darkened with each passing year. soon he and nadya were being moved from the ornate dragomirov family estate in novgorod over to saint petersburg. details weren’t given to sasha in regards to their move, but even as a seven year old, sasha noticed his mother’s mood worsen as her time visiting romania decreased while his father’s trips to moscow increased. investment dealings, is what it is — important meetings, sasha remembers his mother telling him and his older sister nadya. the house took on a more serene atmosphere when his father was away, not that sasha could complain, as long as his father’s absences meant that they could keep the delicate gold crown molding details and the daily luxuries of a wait staff on call.

sasha wasn’t a fan of the move from nizhny novgorod to saint petersburg for a handful of reasons ( mainly the downsize from the ancient and vast grounds of the dragomirov estate to their new apartment, despite how luxurious it may be ), and found restarting his social circle daunting. though, unlike his older sister, sasha took up his father’s presence — an exuding charisma that demanded the attention of all when he spoke, softened by sparkling dark eyes and a warmth in his tone that was typically antonymous with dragomirov men. he inherited the silver tongue and honeyed words of his father, while shouldering the watchful eye and clever wit of his mother. it’s in his young adolescence that, in an effort to give sasha an outlet for his high energy ( also as a way for his mother to have him out of the house ), he’s shoved into different sports to wear him out. sasha cycles through soccer, swimming, and baseball, until he falls into ice hockey. it’s a quick fit where he’s a natural on the ice, zipping through the throng of bodies and easily joining the local league with the influence of his last name. his skills prove himself worthy as he become at home with the right wing position, even if sasha does find himself visiting the penalty box often for an aggressive hit or two. high school proved to be easy sailing for sasha, maintaining a lively social life due to his spot on the ice hockey team while averaging above average grades that would appease the intellects on the florescu side of the family and offer his father crumbs of knowledge on his eldest to boast to colleagues about.

for a long while, it was easy to turn a blind eye and nearly forget the illegal activities his family took part it when sasha was too busy out of the house with ice hockey to focus on the influx of strangers passing through his house, following the familiar route from the entrance hall to his father’s study like a pebble adheres to the river current. academia past his schooling never truly crossed sasha’s mind, not all too concerned about what a college degree could do when his family had vast wealth that dated farther back into his family's lineage than he could count. his father, not all that worried either, succumbed to sasha’s mother’s insistent badgering and had sasha apply to universities in england as a way for him to see the world before buckling down to join in the dragomirov business. sasha’s first semester as a finance major at oxford after being brought in for the oxford ice hockey team started just as a new library began construction; a flair of russian baroque and neoclassical stylings in the architecture. just like previous schooling, the four years passed by quickly where sasha had no trouble keeping up with the ongoing parties at school and excelling in his program, fully knowing that this knowledge would be beneficial when working alongside his father.

only a month after sasha walked across the stage with his bachelor’s degree in hand, oxford unveiled the new florescu library. while sasha’s father had every intention of throwing him into the lion’s den of the family business ( surely, there was no way the dragomirov legacy could be left in the hands of nadya when there was a capable son in the lineage ), the same couldn’t be said for sasha. his existence in the dragomirov family seemed relatively insignificant considering his older sister held the affections of their mother ( only ever leaving secondary consideration for sasha since the only attention he ever seemed to garner from his mother was when he gained a new injury from his ‘ reckless hockey nonsense ’ as per her words ) and it seemed as though he had to fill the shoes of a ghost with the expectations placed on him by his father. to sasha it felt like a game of chess of which he would always be losing. for as long as sasha played ice hockey, his parents never showed up to any of his games, only ever nadya, so it only came as a shock to them when sasha was drafted out of college to some team over in new york city. while sasha didn’t have much of his own expectations regarding his future, playing the sport he loved professionally while putting as much distance between him and his parents seemed like the best hand to be dealt.

at age twenty-one, sasha arrives in new york with endless voicemails and threats courtesy of his father. time passes while away from russia and this part of his life feels much different than college, allowing him a freedom that he hasn’t felt before. sasha entertains visits back to russia every so often, maintaining the most contact with nadya as the two are as close as siblings can be. for so long it had been nadya and sasha versus their parents in an attempt of maintaining a semblance of sanity in the dragomirov household. it’s only with sasha’s most recent visit back to russia that his life imploded to such a degree he didn’t know was possible. the waitstaff was cleaning out old items belonging to his mother when sasha came across an old family photo album he hadn’t seen before. curiosity took over as he flipped through the pages, coming across unfamiliar photos with a young boy in his mother’s arms that shared similarities to sasha and nadya, but by no means was it him. his mother and nadya would enter the room not long after to find sasha sat on the couch, photo album perched on his lap with a look of detachment, staring at the back of a photograph in rushed letters ‘ maksim mikhailovich dragomirov - 2003 ’.

as it turns out, sasha had an older brother. key word: had. an explanation behind the age gap of him and nadya, but less of an explanation of why his sister failed to mention ever having another sibling. maksim was on the earth for five short years, two of which sasha was alive for and failed to recall. failure is seemingly what sasha represents — a last ditch attempt of his parents to keep maksim alive through his leukemia prognosis, with sasha being born as a genetically compatible match for bone marrow transplants. bits of sasha’s childhood click into place — the unknown competition of sasha against some unknown force that his father kept comparing him to, the resentment in his mother’s eyes whenever she looks at him, or the general indifference of his presence in the household. complications with the transplant resulting in the death of the favored dragomirov son, leaving behind nadya and sasha, who now served no purpose.

the revelation itself marks a time of change for sasha as he’s currently being traded out of new york to toronto. he doesn’t send a forwarding address to nadya or his parents out of a silent spite, but the pitfalls of playing any sport professionally means his trade is an announcement made publicly, thus announcing his departure from new york and his arrival to toronto. having been in toronto now for a year, it's three months since his father put his questionable influence to use and sasha meets his new bodyguard outside the training facilities for the first time. apparently cutting off all contact with your family raises red flags only when said family’s reputation appears to be at risk. dodging calls was easiest when it was only his mother and father, but not when nadya is included in the distro, and sasha feels more isolated than he did before. the anger he felt initially has dwindled, but it still takes the form of a more aggressive attitude on the rink that results in sasha sitting in the penalty box more than he would like.

personality wise, sasha is whipsmart and while it doesn’t show, it takes a bit for him to warm up to other people. ever the politician’s son, languid smiles and honeyed words are easy to produce when meeting new people. sasha finds that, despite the list of those he considers close with short, it doesn’t hurt to charm strangers into conversation, since friendships, he finds, are much easier to maintain than relations with an enemy. better to have people on your side than against. sasha usually minds his own business and doesn’t air out his own dirty laundry for public knowledge. definitely gives into the stoic slavic stereotype, coming across as indifferent to most things due to his watchful nature and dry humor. known for his russian drawl and resting bitch face ( until it comes time to charm ), sasha could probably drink most under a table. it’s the one stereotype he finds humor in. for now, he doesn’t mind appearing to those around him as the hedonistic party boy who’s here for a good time and to waste away his money. sasha prefers to be underestimated anyway.