[ maia reficco, cis woman, she / her ] - was that DARLA DUEÑAS i saw by the lighthouse today? i heard that the TWENTY FOUR year old who has been in nightrest for FIVE YEARS and works as a cashier at poppies has a reputation of being ENERGETIC, but also INSECURE. they reside in LOW POINT & people in town usually associate them with BREAKING FREE OF THE CAGE YOU'VE LIVED IN, MAKING UP FOR LOST TIME, TRYING TO LIVE LIFE IN THE BARBIE DREAMHOUSE. let’s hope the killer doesn’t go after them next.
tw for neglect ( stage parent vibes ) , death , drugs / overdose ( light mentions / implied ) .
to understand darla , you must get the bigger picture. born to maria dueñas and maria alone , as she likes to put it.
maria herself was a short-lived actress. the movie she was in was big for the time and people were certain she was going to be someone big - it didn’t happen. roles were hard to come by that weren’t the cutesy sidekick or best friend, and maria’s agent wanted more for her than that. most of her younger years were spent attempting to break out , to get into the mainstream , but she was just that girl that was casted aside.
by the time she was 20 , maria’s career had fizzled out - not even background roles or non speaking parts were being offered , and she was all but dropped from her agent.
darla has never met her father, as it felt very … forbidden to speak about him or ask questions. anytime she dared, it was shut down. she knows very little about him from the small discoveries over the years.
falling pregnant at 26 , alone and scared , maria did the one thing that she knew : pushed darla into acting. if she couldn’t have a blossoming career , the reason for her failures would carry on her dreams whether they liked it or not.
her father was never informed of her existence , though i’m sure by now he has something of an idea.
since she was small, her mother wanted to have more for her daughter. by the time she was 6 months old, darla already had been in commercials + television roles. because she was such an easy baby, it wasn’t hard to work with her.
in my mind she got her start a - la mary kate + ashley , as the youngest sibling of a sitcom. was mostly there to look cute, but as she got older, it became something she had actual part in. in ended when she was only 6, but by then, maria was used to the checks continuing to come in - so the search was on for the next best thing. the search never stopped , actually. it became her life goal to make darla a fucking star.
mom was definitely stage mom. never knew when to ask her daughter what she wanted, and darla never learned to speak up for herself. this is a trait that’s stuck with her ever since , the meek girl never speaking up when she’s uncomfortable , too afraid to loose everything she has and to be at the end of her mother’s wrath once more. everything was about maria , never about darla. her own feelings were set aside and taken over by what she thought her mom wanted. mother knows best.
her career grew over time. she never had major success , such as a lead role , but she definitely has had notable roles in different movies and television shows. never achieved mary kate & ashley duo-star, although that’s what her mother wanted.
think of her as a girl no one really knows , but she’s everywhere : very much mckenna grace or young bailee madison. if they needed a young girl to cry her eyes out , darla was there first thing.
NEGLECT TW / by the time darla was 10, her mom was going out and using darla’s money to party - to experience the ‘teenage’ years in hollywood she never got but always wanted. darla would have to be at a set early in the morning and her mother would just barely be coming out of clubs and bars, leaving young darla to fend for herself. oftentimes , she’d find a ‘sit in’ babysitter so she didn’t have to spend hours on set with her daughter , instead fully exploring the dark side of what hollywood had to offer.
she had a long running show from ages 10 to 18 --- some hbo show that she doesn't know if she can bare to think about anymore. her coworkers on that show became her pseudo family and essentially watched her grow up -- think shameless and it's young cast. they taught her how to drive, embarrassing first kiss stories, the whole nine yards.
after the show ended, she fired her own mother as her manager and tried to cut ties with her as best she could. it was for the best, though the outcomes of it all were not what she was expecting.
DEATH TW , OVERDOSE TW / old habits die hard and with her mother using her money , still keeping hold of her bank account and dumping as much from into her own , maria accidentally overdosed inside of their shared apartment from the drugs she’d bought while her daughter was on set. darla's new manager had found her, and relayed the news to darla.
that was it. 19 and packed all her things up --- looking for a place to get out of dodge.
all roads led to nightrest, after investigation into finding her father ... or any other kind of family. little did darla know her own mother was from the area, though not nightrest itself. she arrived 4 years ago and has stayed ever since. living off her residual checks from her childhood works and trying to solve her family mystery.
.......
can be snarky as hell, a little bit of an airhead, but she means well. witty, sarcastic, all the nine yards.
decided to be more social than she had been in a while and got a job at poppies about two years ago. she's not the best and frankly lacks quite a lot of social awareness that should've been taught to her growing up, but she tries!!
honestly just trying to have a fun time now. parties more than she should, is a bit immature but usually means well
the murders freak her out yet she doesn't leave despite having the abilities to. she thinks it'll be like she's abandoning those she's become close to in the town.
she yet to process her mother's grief relatively healthy. she's all about ignoring it instead, and will skirt any question about family / siblings / etc because she .. essentially has none, at least biologically.
love love love pink. is so excited for the barbie movie she's going to explode. calls her house the dream house because it's decorated like a girls dormroom.
trained in dance from ages 3 to 13, and sometimes competed competitively. her mom was unfortunately booted from a competition and thus they were not allowed back, meaning darla would no longer be training because her mom got mad.
drives a cute little subaru. do not ask her anything else because she nor i have any idea
loves pop culture. loves the 2000s.
yes she WILL buy ur love! cash, food, clothes! pls love her.
is an angel all around
wanted connections ....
older sibling / parental figure ( 25+ ) ; these people have darla’s best interest at heart. they could know about her mother and not agree with her pressure , instead taking the girl under their wing one way or another.
bad influence ( 25+ ) ; these people want to see darla burn , essentially. not in a way that means like. bad, but they want to rile her up - see what she does , get her into trouble even unintentionally.
ex ( 23 - 26 ) ; they broke up for whatever reason, but can still be on good / bad terms , most likely more than a year ago.
ex friends ; these people are no longer friends with darla for whatever reason. could be on good or bad terms.
flirtationships ( 23 - 26 ) ; she sucks at flirting n being subtle but it could be so cute.
friends ; they’re friends. that’s it.
family friend ; their parents knew darla’s mom. could be friendly or not really care about each other.
people from los angeles ; they may know her ? or of her?
people who can help her process everything w her mother
people who can help her find her father....?
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