#xochitl

Xochitl

full name: xochitl elena salamanca

birthdate: march 21st, 1973

some of her personality traits: assertive, single-minded, perfectionistic, composed (until the end of her life, that is)

sexuality: straight :(

signature color: scarlet red

signature song: "stranger danger!" by hemlocke springs

tag: #xochitl

xochitl is fascinated by power. power over others, power over yourself, power over money, the power her criminal family wielded over their community. as the female child of hector's semi-estranged cousin, her options for tasting some of that power herself were limited, but she didn't let that stop her; she was determined from age thirteen to break into that world. she earned degrees in economics and business from the universidad nacional autonoma de mexico, knowing that her academic knowledge of how to actually run a business would force her family members to acknowledge her. after a hazing period involving murder, they finally, begrudgingly acknowledged her worth, and she became crucial to the salamanca empire. after a few years of helping them expand their operations and defeat rival cartels, she grew discontent with their partnership with don eladio vuente, viewing him as a roadblock in the way of full salamanca dominance, and so devised a plan to assassinate him along with her cousin lalo so they could take his place together. but lalo ratted her out, leading to an attempt on her life that came terrifyingly close to succeeding. she fled to the united states, where she bounced around for a bit before landing a job with madrigal, seeing it as her way to get close to gus (she long suspected that he was nursing a secret grudge against the salamancas, having overheard her male family members boastingly tell the story of their murder of max) and thus undertake a plan to undermine her family. to her surprise, she discovered that she loved the non-criminal aspects of her job and the feeling of living like a "normal" person, and she even got a boyfriend, denzel, who she kept in the dark about her past. but after lalo died, she became embroiled in the family business once again, destroying her mental health and her future. she worked for the salamancas until she was assassinated by mike ehrmantraut on her way to the post office to send an apology card to denzel.

fun facts: she and her younger brother and older sister all have an identical birthmark under their eyes; she loves listening to old vinyl records or playing an instrument while drinking a glass of wine (red only!); she lived in california for a brief time; she hates high heels; she learned german to work at madrigal; and my repressed lesbian icon lydia developed a little crush on her when they were working together 🫣

Dani

full name: daniella evelyn alquist/olsen

birthdate: november 17th, 1984

some of her personality traits: has a very difficult time expressing emotions (+ flat affect) despite experiencing them incredibly passionately, taciturn, obsessive, kind

sexuality: lesbian

signature color: light green

signature song: "sullen girl" by fiona apple

tag: #dani

dani doesn't want to be a monster—but as the twin sister of todd alquist, the daughter of an infamous criminal and the niece of a neo-nazi, she tragically thinks she already is one. her mother, a gentle, wayward woman who realized she made a mistake marrying such a terrible man, left the family when her children were ten, leaving them behind in the care of their father. a couple years later, he went to jail (and promptly got shanked and bled to death on a filthy concrete floor) and assigned his half-brother, jack, to be the new man of the house. jack sized up his niece and nephew and saw a worthless, defiant liability in the former and a pliable, useful accomplice in the latter; he treated them as such throughout their adolescence and teenage years, verbally abusing dani while cultivating todd's moral collapse. after a particularly violent incident involving their uncle and his girlfriend when the twins were seventeen, dani realized that her brother was no longer on her side, if he ever had been, and after the most terrifying month of her life found safe harbor by moving in with her friend, arden. todd had dropped out of high school by that point, so aside from a handful of painful attempts to reconnect, she never saw him alive again. after graduating, she quickly moved away from their tiny town, believing herself to be as terrible as her male family members by virtue of being related to them (and because of her unhealthy coping mechanism of starting fires) and thus inches away from doing something truly awful if she stayed there any longer. a few years later, she received a phone call from the albuquerque police department informing her of todd's death. knowing that he was likely doing some truly horrific things before he was killed, she shouldered a massive burden: she would find out every last terrible thing he did and make up for them, undoing them as best she could. but her attempts at bringing about justice in ABQ do not go as planned, and she finally, finally begins to let go of some of her anguish and guilt and self-hatred, eventually finding a true family and fulfillment in life.

fun facts: i got the idea for her before the other two; she worked at a movie theater in high school; she's a cat and animal lover through and through; she maintains a garden; she used to be an alcoholic and cigarette smoker; she almost drowned as a small child but likes swimming anyway; and she and her high school friends arden and melody had a little rock band

Heather

full name: heather erica perry

birthdate: july 30th, 1988

some of her personality traits: nerdy, flip-flops between being uptight and almost stiffly formal and uninhibited and silly, restless, a bit selfish

sexuality: bisexual

signature color: lavender

signature song: "ain't it fun" by paramore

tag: #heather

heather believes that she came out of the womb a scientist. from a young age, she was fascinated by all things chemistry (and, to a lesser extent, biology), an interest that her vicariously-living, ambitious parents were all too eager to foster. her childhood (she had no siblings to play with) was filled with do-it-yourself gemstone growth kits, butterfly hatching projects, and top prizes at the science fair. her grades slumped a bit due to mental health struggles in high school, but she improved them in time to be selected for gus fring's prestigious chemistry scholarship at the university of new mexico. the scholarship stipulated that a former recipient serve as her mentor, and she was paired with gale boetticher, who soon revealed the darker motive behind gus's interest in chemistry to her. at first, she was disgusted by the idea of developing some extra-pure form of a totally illegal and harmful drug, but her grades were slipping again due to stress put on her by her beloved grandmother's illness (she passed away shortly after gale was killed), so she started telling herself that cooking such a complex substance would improve her chemistry knowledge and help her fix her grades. in reality, though, she was just incredibly pent up after a lifetime of being the good girl, the prodigy, the carrier of the family's dreams, and she needed an outlet to rebel. when gale died, all that came crashing down, and she realized the horrifically violent nature of the world she was becoming involved in. she dropped out of college and flung herself into a non-STEM passion she'd always been secretly nursing on the side: poetry. eventually, she reentered college as a poetry major. nobody, not even people who deny the nature of the game to themselves, is safe from the consequences of their own actions. she gets through her degree with decent grades (although even her parents noticed how depressed she was), but still feels extremely guilty about what she was involved in until she becomes a teacher at a post-prison rehab program outside albuquerque. working with them helps show her that even people who make disastrous mistakes can redeem themselves, helping her start to heal.

fun facts: she and gale joined several slam poetry contests together; she went on an antarctic cruise in high school; she deconverted her childhood best friend from a doomsday christian cult; she used to decorate her hair with charms and ribbons; she is left-handed; and she has a minor obsession with home makeover shows