#om.intro

TW: sexual assault mention, murder

Mackenzie Bennet was born on August 13th in Malibu, Ca to James and Margret Bennet. She was the second born of two, the older Bennet boy merely seven years older than Mackenzie. 

The Bennet’s were a wealthy Malibu family, known for two things: their yearly Christmas Eve extravaganza and the fact that you never asked what James Bennet did for a living unless you wanted to see a side to the Bennet’s that you never knew existed. Beneath the facade of shiny and polished surfaces, something dark and dangerous lurked.

James Bennet had his fingers in shady business all up and down the west coast and that’s ultimately what got him and his wife killed. At the age of 12, Mackenzie and her brother moved across the country to live with her Uncle but a life of crime was never far for the Bennet siblings. 

Her Uncle was part of the Bianchi Family, an organization that soon became family to the Bennet’s and soon rooted deep within Mackenzie.

Mackenzie, for the most part, keep her shinny exterior. Everyone saw her as Odette, the Swan Queen that danced center stage among the rest of the prim and propr. What was kept under wraps was the broken nose she had issued to her classmate who decided it was wise to whisper about her in the halls. With a smile and bruised knuckles, Mackenzie was the living embodiment of the White Swan and Black Swan.

Mackenzie’s deep dive into the world of crime continued through high school and college. The same year she graduated college with her MBA was the same year she took her first life. Some lowlife tried to take advantage of her friend in a club one night. Poor sucker never expected the blonde or her switch blade to be lodged between his ribs. 

With the help of her trust fund and business knowledge, she purchased a rundown old produce factory in the middle of town and rebuilt it into Knox, a club that the crowds flocked to for their signature cocktails and industrial atmosphere.

Name: Maurice Davenport Age: 44 Date of Birth: July 31, 1976 Hometown: New York City/London Current Location: New York City Gender: cis man Pronouns: he/him Sexuality: homosexual Occupation: journalist

an older brother to Ainsley, except that she’s only found out he exists fairly recently. His father, Theo, walked out on him and his mother, Ava,  soon after he was born. When it was clear that Theo didn’t want to start a family with her, or even have anything to do with her and his child, Ava and Maurice moved to London, to stay with Ava’s brother.

his mom never mentioned his father again and Maurice went with it; he went on to have a pretty comfortable life, both because he’s always been hardworking and because his uncle and his mother knew the right people that managed to set him up with plenty opportunities.

worked his way up from tabloids to The Times, where he worked as a news editor up until a year ago. Fired for sneakily twisting a story one too many times and general journalistic misconduct, he went back to writing for shitty tabloids and online magazines. He ditched all of that after three months and if anyone asks now, he says he’s freelancing. He’s not; he’s not even working now, instead lives off his fairly substantial savings.

he’s always been curious about finding his father so in his early 30s, he hired a PI and had them find out as much as possible about Theo — that’s how Maurice found out about his half-siblings and about the line of work his father was involved in. He dropped it then, knowing was enough, he didn’t feel the need to meet any of the new-found family.

up until recently — after losing his job and becoming dissatisfied with the general state of his life, he hired the PI again, had them update Maurice on his father and his family. With nothing to lose, Maurice decided to move to New York six months ago and hopefully connect with the family that, as far as he knows, doesn’t even realize he exists.

he reached out to Ainsley first and then found an opening into the business her and their father ran; he learned all about the Bianchis and about the power they hold in the city. Even though he knows that being a Davenport in New York City is pretty much synonymous with working for the Bianchis, Maurice has kept himself mostly out of it. What he has been doing, though, is listening, watching, learning — he’s been studying the city’s dynamic, trying to figure out where to stand, whether siding with the Bianchis, with his family is a good idea, whether it’s going to pay off. He’s also trying to see if there’s any other option; Maurice is a total sell-out, if there’s a way for him to get ahead, he’ll do it at any cost. His connection to the Bianchis, through his family name, could get him places, he’s sure and he’s still thinking of ways to use this advantage.

POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS:

How does a poor, daughter of a single mother go from no-name girl to mayor of New York? She wants and therefore, she has. 

Lyra doesn’t know much about her father, just that he wanted nothing to do with a child. Her mother on the other hand, does everything in her power to make up for her father’s absence. Her mother works as an overworked, underpaid secretary for a small dental practice, which barely earns enough to pay rent and keep food on the table. 

When Lyra is 13, she realizes she isn’t quite like her peers. Sure, some of the other children and smarter, fiercer, wealthier, but she thinks and dreams like about her future like she knows she’s destined for something greater. She even goes out of her way to walk by the mayor’s office on her way to school every morning, deciding that she’d quite like to call it her’s one day.

But opportunities don’t often befall a girl like Lyra, so she becomes determined to make them. She works hard in school, takes on a couple part time jobs and even earns herself an internship at the mayor’s office. Sure the work is mostly pushing paper and getting coffee, but she keeps her ear to the ground, using her invisibility as an intern to get into rooms with the most powerful people in the city. Eventually she earns herself a scholarship to Columbia, where she studies political science and psychology. 

At school, she does her best to hide her past, desperate to rub shoulders with the elite, whom she senses are surely going places. It’s difficult, at first, to break into such a tightly-knit, unforgiving group, but Lyra quickly learns how powerful her smile and filtrations can be. Unsurprisingly, she finds her way in through a boy, who’s all too happy to have an ambitious, gorgeous blonde by his side. 

A few years after completing her masters, this boy eventually becomes her husband. Her foresight, eventually pays off and with his financial backing, she makes a run for city council, claiming the position at just 26 years old. 

Lyra takes her job seriously, but for the first time, she’s introduced to world of The Bianchi. She quickly learns that she can charge a hefty price to turn a blind eye to their illegal activities, and that she no longer needs to rely on her dull husband’s payroll to fund her own dreams. One divorce, one funeral, a handful of generous bank deposits, and a couple more years and Lyra finds herself in the mayor’s office.

Deran’s parents met on Long Island, just a few hours from the city. Colin was there on business when he met fellow criminal and bank robber, Angela. 

They moved back to the city 3 years after having Deran and soon became flush against the world of crime and money.

Angela began aiding in the family business once they moved, working the casinos and training escorts. 

Deran’s childhood was surprisingly mundane. Most of what he had to deal with was abuse from his father who was strict and harsh. Through his methods, he taught Deran the ropes on how to help run the family crime business.

Angela ended up robbing Colin when Deran was 11 years old. They were out 250k by the time she attempted to flee the state. She took Deran with her but ended up giving him back to Gregory for an additional 25k. That was the last time Deran saw her. Sometimes she calls when she needs money but other than that, she becomes a phantom in his life. 

After that, it was just Deran, Colin, and the rest of Bianchi’s.

Colin never allowed Deran to live the incident down. Whenever he’d begin to feel indifferent towards his father, he’d use what his mother did against him. 

The rest of his adolescence is barely worth citing. It’s as cliché as it gets. He grows up within the world of crime and chaos. 

By the time he’s 19, he meets an escort at one of the casinos, Janine. He’s smitten in no time despite Colin detesting their relationship. The two end up getting married once they’re 23.

Janine accepts Deran’s position within the family business, sticking with him through all the ups and down.

Janine becomes pregnant by the time they’re both 32. They have a girl and they name her Madison.

Once he’s old enough, he becomes the consigliere for the family, working his way to the top along with his cousins, etc.

Janine starts growing anxious after this, anxious for herself and her daughter’s safety. This goes on for years though Janine always stays, sticking with her husband and his family despite all their trouble.

Over the last 5 months, their marriage has become strained and distant. Behind Deran’s back, Janine starts getting worked by the cops and she began talking to a detective about the family business. Deran still doesn’t know but he’s started to notice something strange has been going on with his wife. But he’s been too busy to realize, preoccupied with work. 

Deran works as a property manager and launders money through the businesses’ and buildings he owns. 

WANTED CONNECTIONS.

Half brother

Affair: This is someone Deran is cheating with. They would have met a couple years ago when his and Janine’s marriage started to crumble.

FWB

Close friends

Family friends

Connections/Fences/Works/People who work for the family

Enemies

Ex-friends

New friends

small stats.

name: elise amelia fox-mancini. age/dob: 40 / april 8. occupation: corporate business attorney, syndicate associate. sexuality: heteromantic heterosexual. nationality: american. languages spoken: english, italian, spanish and mandarin chinese. hair color: dark brown. eye color: hazel. height: 5′4″. build: hourglass figure, fit and athletic.

backstory.

born in kent, connecticut to an affluent old money family, elise fox was never once in her life left wanting for anything. an only child, she was the apple of her father’s eyes ---a man who worked for a hedge fund corporation and had the ideal american royalty life to the public eye, complete with beautiful trophy wife hanging off of his arm.

elise was always busy: ballet lessons as a girl, fencing, archery, piano, flute, language lessons ... one after the other until her schedule was booked solid. for a period of time her mother had her attending photo shoots in her youth (you can find old ad campaigns or commercials with a young elise in them to this day), anything to keep her daughter busy and honest.

it was very clear that her mother’s affections weren’t earnest: a vain attempt to keep her own accomplishments in her own younger days alive through elise. she grew to harshly resent her mother, aware that she was more like a cat to the woman than she was a child.

her relationship with cecelia fox is strained at best, to this day, with elise keeping her further than an arm’s length away.

a brilliant child, elise excelled in her schooling and graduated from her private boarding school at 17. she was accepted into cornell law school and shifted through her law degree with relative ease ---something that takes 7 years to complete took her only 6 and at 23 years of age elise fox graduated and took her bar examinations. 

a combination of excellent grades and her father’s notoriety had her falling in with the mancini family, but if you ask elise she’ll tell you that the exact details are blurry at best. on paper she’s an attorney for one of new york’s finest law firms (with some of the harshest sharks for lawyers on staff). her spot at entry level was quickly recognized and pushed forward ... it seemed everything elise touched was fast-tracked through sheer force of will.

by 27 she was handled several accounts of her own, on retainer for a handful of bigger corporations should they need legal representation. considering her affiliation with the mancini family, a considerable amount of her accounts are business funded by the mancini family themselves. it’s more about her capabilities as an attorney than an easy pass, where elise fought hard to keep her affiliations with the family from influencing her business otherwise.

at 29 she married luca mancini, the son of her boss, after a courtship spanning many years. the two have been married for 11 years, though estranged for 5 of them.

a year later elise’s father passed away from illness. it was the final nail in the coffin of shutting her relationship with cecelia down. elise hasn’t spoken to her mother since (maybe once or twice).

understanding that family would always come first to her husband. elise was careful not to toe into his business where it wasn’t hers ---she’d never allow her relationship with him to influence her place in the mancini family or her work outside of it, just as she never expected his relationship with her to affect his work in any fashion.

at 35 she was expecting, though after 5 months of pregnancy she miscarried - a factor due to her genetics (mother’s side). elise was heartbroken, and more-so when it seemed as if her husband was more interested with business and family matters. instead of attempting to work through their shared tragedy, elise took time to physically recover.

it was during this time that luca took the reigns to the mancini family, that work picked up more for him ---poor timing, or perhaps an easy way to lose himself and express his grief, elise saw the failure in a spiteful light. two months after the loss of their child she packed a bag and left when he was away working for the night.

she spent a year in upstate new york recovering mentally, handling accounts for work remotely but mostly retaining a sabbatical. she returned to manhattan when she was sure she was well-enough, and resumed business as usual, unwilling to speak of or acknowledge her personal tragedy, or her seeming separation from luca.

for the past 3 years elise has been handling her accounts, working her ass off for her firm, and keeping her head down, generally. the business with gregory bianchi’s death has been handled with as much grace and elegance as possible, with elise maintining a prim public facade.

personality.

shrewd, concise, and no-nonsense, elise carries her work as a corporate attorney into her personal life more often than not. her general attitude around those she hardly knows or finds herself only just affiliated with can come across as incredibly cold, when in reality elise is a devil in the details individual. she champions the facts over emotional investments, though she’s obviously not immune to them.

she can be quite warm around those she’s comfortable with, though it’s generally difficult for her to express emotions she was typically denied as a child, considering her mother’s attitude and behavior in general.

driven as hell. a dog with a bone: if you give her a task she will see it through to completion, come hell or high water. it’s part of how she willed herself toward completing so much of her education early (in combination with her intelligence), but it’s carried through to all aspects of her life.

extra.

very fit and enjoys working out. she runs regularly, takes self defense classes four times a week, and practices yoga each morning.

still dances - ballet, to be specific, though obviously not professionally. it’s more of a hobby than anything else.

of the many instruments her mother threw her into, the only one that stuck was violin. elise isn’t a flawless player, and she has a small collection of violins that are more for display purposes than not.

lives in a penthouse suite in manhattan. it’s immaculate.

has a cat named mogwai  (like the gremlin), that’s incredibly and unrealistically spoiled. he’s an american maine coon and she loves him more than you, honestly.

has a lot of suits. has a lot of clothes, really. her suite has 2 walk-in closets and both are full to the brim with various attire and shoes.

always well-put together, even when she’s not working. you’ll never catch her looking frumpy or rushed ... even her sweatpants days are presentable.

Tw: Death

The third child from the second wife, a fail safe heir if everything went catastrophically wrong... Leyla was never Gregory’s favorite. While his attention fell on his son and apple of his eye Viola (she was a mirror image of his true love, wasn’t she?) the youngest Bianchi was left somewhere between the shadows and no man’s land. Dear old dad’s forgotten outsider.

For years Leyla tried to gain Gregory’s favor to no avail. No matter how well she did in school or how much chaos she brought to Manhattan, it was never in the cards for her to join the inner circle. A child starved of attention turned her ambitions to anywhere but home. Learning from capos, getting drunk with the low ranking soldiers- Leyla’s found family was among other Bianchi misfits. 

Leyla isn’t particularly upset about Gregory’s passing- something she would never say out loud of course... but, she sees it as a road of opportunity. With a toppled monarchy comes to chance to rise up the ranks for the recently promoted soldier. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that she’s one of the family. Isn’t it her right to rule?

Tomboyish, headstrong, manipulative and Machiavellian … the youngest Bianchi is hellbent on making her father (bless his soul) regret ever shutting her out.