❝ HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DREAM WITH ALL THIS STATIC IN MY HEAD ❞
STATS:
Name: Şeyda Seven
Age: 30
Face Claim: Hande Erçel
Occupation: Owner of Nirvana
Neighborhood: Carriage Falls
Gender & Preferred Pronouns: Cis female & she/her
BIOGRAPHY:
trigger warnings: none
Growing up a first generation American in Manhattan, New York had been incredibly challenging for Şeyda Seven. She was the youngest and only daughter to ambitious entrepreneur immigrants who took the opportunities their move from Ankara, Turkey presented them. Arriving with money in their pockets helped, and so did the experience of their success back home. With a clear vision, Şeyda's father wanted to expand upon the small hotel chain he owned throughout Turkey. He had big dollar signs in his eyes and even bigger dreams and plans in his head wanting to put a Magnolia Hotel in the major cities of America, with the first being in the city that Şeyda was born.
The wealth and the status meant that Şeyda was put into the best private schools, sitting amongst New York’s elite and most prominent. Academically, Şeyda was capable of holding her own. She not only had the intellect, she also possessed the discipline. In the Seven home, the dynamic was very strict and structured. For her and her older brothers, only the best was expected and if things weren’t perfect then they were forced to keep trying until they came as close to the ideal as possible. While her father built a four to five star hotel in the illustrious Manhattan, Şeyda's day was planned out by the minute. From school to extracurriculars and sports, she was a dancer, she had no real time to be a kid.
When she reached her teens and began to rebel against the structure a little the threat of boarding school loomed. For Şeyda it was a punishment that worked because she loved what New York had to offer. She was desperate to explore outside of the boundaries her parents had put on her and see what life was really like there. The heavy rule in her house created a very crafty and calculated teenager in Şeyda. She knew how to build a lie and get around the rules that had been set, all in order to go deeper into the city and parts her parents forbade to get up to things with her friends. They went to clubs, parties, ventured beyond the city to catch shows and mingle with artists — something that on the surface just looked like teens having fun but really it went deeper than that. They were looking for life.
It wasn’t until Şeyda was in university and out of her parents home that she actually did things like dating. Albeit she was attending the university of their choice, Columbia, there was a sense of freedom that she hadn’t felt before. Şeyda studied business and language as she was expected to be a part of the family business once she graduated, but her real dream was to open up her own club one day. While she was sure the business side of it wasn’t all fun and games, Şeyda wanted to offer others the escape from life that night clubs had given her. Even if it were just for a few hours a night, getting lost in the music and dancing.
From age 18 towards the tail end of her university degree, Şeyda had found herself in a serious, committed relationship with someone that was an opposite of her. He was rough around the edges, came from a different class, but none of it mattered to her. She had fallen in love and with a guy that her father would never approve of and Şeyda went along with the wild ride for as long as she could. It wasn’t until a prison sentence that sent her boyfriend away that Şeyda saw the future she had in her heart go up in flames. With her head and heart a mess, Şeyda did the worst thing she could do and that was to run away. He went off to carry out a sentence behind bars and it spooked her, leaving her to break up and then run off to California and fall back in line with her father.
At the time, a Magnolia hotel was being built in Los Angeles, and her father and brothers were looking at locations east and in the south, such as North Carolina. Even though Şeyda had reluctantly come back into the family fold, she was still punished for wanting to do her own thing and be her own person. She was given a position and title within the company but it was really only for appearances sake. For she was a part of none of the decision making or even seated at most of the meetings. It went on that way for two years before she came across something that changed the dynamics between her father and herself forever. Şeyda had caught onto his money laundering scheme and confronted him about it, and as long as she promised not to tell the rest of the family how dirty the patriarch’s hands were then she could have what she wanted.
Which was to open her own night club, Nirvana, in Wilmington. Close enough but a bit of distance from Charlotte, where the next Magnolia was being built. In the end her father agreed and she was sure it was likely to keep her out of the way and out of his business, thinking she’d be too busy diving head first into running a prominent nightclub. For the most part, he was correct. The first year of ownership Şeyda was in over her head. Learning business in university and playing a part in her father’s company was one thing, actually immersed in a business and it all resting on her shoulders was quite another. Eventually her feet found solid ground and she was able to fully take the reins and handle the nightclub as she’d always dreamed. Now, after five years, Şeyda is at ease at the helm and also has returned a watchful eye to her father’s affairs. Though, she’s not the only one watching. Her father and brothers have their eyes on Şeyda, as well as their very dark and powerful associates. What she’ll come to know is that she’s only scratched the surface of her father’s criminality.
