#vasilisa lore

leecherallyyyyy in my mind a first mam + el wiwis portait was done before they were like 4 so they're all petiots it was made by an acquaintance of the family who while they had artistic training there still was a sort of naiveté to their crafts, but in a good way. they were a good portraitist, but not like john william waterhouse or john singer sargent good. and it's fine. after that, when photography became more widely available, they would get a photograph of the boys every birthday. it lines one wall of the house.

Andrey has never tried to hide his "rough" side from his mother because In My Mind's Eye he and Peter murdered their father her husband in front of her eyes [he had it coming] so it's like. mom probably could cope with the Broken Heart as a concept.

mama:

she's da best... she's a very good mom and they love her even more when she gives her full and utter approval for them to kill their piece of shit of a father as an 18th birthday gift. she's always worked with/within their quirks & has never gone like. "andrey you can't stack books on peter's back like a tower this is weirdo stuff" never said that to them. she's always wanted them to be as free people as they could be so she never opposed them going to art school or andrey transferring and whatever else. they love her so. they're sooo momma's boys to me.

stakh and andrey's relationship:

ONE OF MY FAVE THINGS TO THINK ABOUT FR FR.... i assume you meaning in relation to peterstakh of course so that's what you're getting... i love to put them in situations such as this that the other... few things:

peter never had bitches ever. no fault of his, he's just A Lot To Handle. right. so when rubin starts seeing peter, andrey sees himself as his brother's chaperon (almost Obviously) so he's like. name surname name of the father political affiliation social security number what are your intentions with my twin & what time are you bringing him home

the twins are slowly drifting apart. they've been drifting apart since the death (<- well you know) of farkhad. peter has been "suffering for [...] years because of [andrey]". none of them can really live without the other but it's even more painful for andrey, so when rubin waltzes in, it feels like one more thing keeping andrey and peter from mending the bond. to andrey, it feels like The Thing that's going to tear peter from him irreparably.

jumping off from ^, eventually andrey realizes that. rubin is Literally not going to steal his place. he can't. they're Obviously not competing for the same place in peter's life and there is Obviously room for the both of them because they "complete" peter in vastly, evidently different ways. andrey realizes that it's very much a Him problem, and that rubin is Not the thing that would irreparably damage his bond with peter, but andrey being a complete dick to rubin constantly Would Be.

so eventually andrey learns to like. back off. peter having his little life and his New Friend makes it so he copes with things a little better and eventually the twins are able to mend their bond

also it becomes kinda evident to andrey that having like. Someone Else to keep an eye on peter is better.

in general peter is happier. with rubin in his life. so andrey is like. alright i'll allow it. you better get him home before 9PM though 🤨 also don't feed him anything with spices his stomach is weak

because it's really funny to me: i have you know vladrey inclinations i think it's fun. & part of lore is that rubin and vlad jr like. know each other well. so i love to think about andrey having to deal with rubin 1) bc he's dating his brother & 2) bc he's hanging out with his pub boyfriend. real funny to me

both rubin and andrey have like thick fucking skulls & refuse to back down in general so when they come face to face it's like. komodo dragons skull to skull bonk.

rubin on his side knew very well that by getting with peter he'd have to deal with andrey. like he understood it was a package deal (even though he's only Involved with one). he's only ever responded with aggression when aggressed but he never wanted to be confrontational with andrey bc he knew that'd make peter sad.

so basically he'd get barked at by andrey and just be like

he's always been very #respectful not just of peter but of the familial history he has so when andrey shows him age 30 his game of "stack books on peter's back" rubin is like. damn that's kinda impressive bro. & andrey thinks "hey man thank you... i'm sorry i was such a bitch to you but i've really struggled with feeling like me and him are growing ever more distant so hearing you accept this little game we made as kids means a lot to me and shows me maybe you are good for him. i just have to deal with my problems on my own and then peter and i will learn to be close again, close like you were before i kinda fucked it up in his mind" & yet he says "yeah dude. you wish you were that skilled"

YAAA SHE'S SO REAL TO ME TOO ok so I don't recall What I Already said because my brain is full of soup rn (happens sometimes) but nothing I say here should contradict what I said then.

vasilisa had the twins at like 22-24 in my mind (average childbirth age in 1900 was 22 so right in that window) so at Patho Time she's 51-53 kicking and thriving, but that also means she didn't get to be a Young Adult too long before kids.

her side of the family is polish, haven't decided if i want her to have been born there or if her parents emigrated and had her in russia. i think on her mom's they go even more and more west with each ancestry like, so like her mother polish, her grandma czech, her great-grandma Austrian...

i think she grew up middle class doing a lot of little jobs here and there, not out of a real, pressing need for money (didn't grow up poor) but because she wanted to save some to have a good life for herself later on, mostly sewing, cleaning homes, and she also was a switchboard operator as phones came into existence, she might still always be one at her age!

her parents were lucky enough to be relatively educated, and managed to have her attend a good school; she became very well-read in her teens and early adulthood when she attended university, and managed to give this kind of education to her sons

i like to think she learned piano. maybe not formally with lessons, but I think her own mother played it, they had one at home (family heirloom), and it was gifted to her when she had the twins & she taught them to play :3

she had a group of girl friends at uni and they'd pool their money together to go on little trips in eastern Europe (like. west of russia) and once to Switzerland and Italy (I think it might be then she met her future husband [in Italy] who then joined her in Russia at age like. 18 or 19)

she Loved her long walk in the parks honestly... she couldn't do that too much with two squirmies in the arms but now that they're away she's started doing them again :3

she has always been very hard to anger, mostly bottling it up and pinching her lips her hard, but her mom gifted her a brooch with a little blade on the back just in case and she's kept it since she was 15.