#ask:roksana

[ruvviks]

what is the event/main cause that made roksana cut her mom off?

now this is interesting to talk about because it would be a very gradual process spanning over many many years but it would all come to explode during the events of the broker, despite that fic focusing on vitali; the events of that fic affect his whole family even though it doesn't elaborate much on the effects on his siblings. i initially had several chapters dedicated to roksana but had to cut it short and put it all in one chapter only but when i go for the rewrite i'm putting all of the initial ideas back because it's IMPORTANT. she and vitali are so similar in so many ways but also not at the same time. anyway ok yes here we go

so for roksana specifically she's kind of been a background character in the family ever since she was young. you'd think that after two other kids her parents would know how to parent her correctly but instead they just kind of let her do her thing and she got away with everything, which was nice in a way because it gave her freedom within the house itself but outside of that there was just nothing there for her. with the whole world to her disposal but nobody there with her to help her or keep her company through it all life just got suffocating to her in a way :(

she felt trapped in her family and her brothers always got the spotlight (mostly negative attention, since mainly their mother nadya was always just angry at vitali and after vitali left home daniil just kind of became her new therapist; but roksana did not really pay attention to this, all she saw was her brothers getting attention and not her), so roksana ended up fitting herself into all the boxes her parents wanted her to be in just to get some attention from them and get the love that she deserved. she was the family's poster child, but at the same time this whole role was an act of her, acting the way people expected her to act to get some respect and it was actively chipping away at her psyche, it stopped her from actually growing up and becoming her own person if that makes sense?? her personality was just fabricated specifically for her parents. but that's not who she was or wanted to be. but she knew nothing else

roksana and her father matvey have always had a very professional relationship. he was always busy with work and didn't do a lot of parenting so roksana came to see him more as a guy who lived under the same roof as her rather than her father; in the broker this escalates with matvey seeking revenge against vitali and roksana getting dragged into it and becoming a messenger girl in it all, but by then she's entirely neutral towards her father so there's not even bad blood between them when she stops talking to him; he's just a stranger to her. this is what much later allows her to hesitantly come back after vitali and matvey have made amends to try and build up that relationship again

roksana and her mother nadya however are a different story. the main difference is that roksana always hoped that nadya would understand; that she would understand the position roksana was in and understand her anger and her misery and her sorrows and regrets and that she would try to make it easier for her, give her some relief from the burdens she had to carry. but nadya refused to listen to roksana and refused to take her seriously (much like how she had always treated vitali; important to note that vitali is a trans man and to nadya he was still "her daughter"), not allowing her to show any sort of weakness because she herself had by then long killed her own weaknesses within herself and she expected roksana to do the same

and nadya got what she wanted. roksana grew up a cold and bitter woman, she let her anger win (contrasting vitali who after all this time STILL chooses kindness; if the roles for him and roksana had been reversed, though, he would have turned out the same as her, but the contrast and parallels between vitali and roksana is a story for another time) and she knows it's nadya's fault and she HATES her mother for it. she hates what nadya turned her into and she hates that she never got a normal childhood and she wants nothing more than to get out of there. this is why she vanishes from night city after her appearance in the broker fic, and why initially it is entirely unclear if she'll ever come back

so basically to summarize, nadya robbed roksana of her childhood and her softness and her ability to become her own person by forcing her to be the poster child of the family, and in classic dobrynin family fashion roksana tends to take grudges to her grave, so i don't really see her forgiving her mother for it any time soon. add to that the fact she sees nadya as the cause the entire family started crumbling apart in the first place (whether or not this is true is at this point very hard to tell because like, how far can you trace something like this back and who can be held responsible for what etc etc, but especially taking into consideration she never respected vitali's identity which is what drove him away from home, then did not allow him to reconnect which is what got him into arasaka, and THEN pushed matvey to get revenge after vitali indirectly got them fired at said corporation, and all of THAT is what drove daniil away from home and what caused roksana to change so drastically i'd say it's safe to say she is one of the bigger players in it all LMAO) AND doesn't feel comfortable around her anymore after her affair with ravager (nadya did that while still being married to matvey; they're divorced now), and there you go. mother privileges have been revoked

that being said, roksana does wish things were different. she stuck around for much longer than her brothers did almost in an attempt to fix things?? which again parallels vitali with how he also ends up trying to fix things in the broker fic but basically both of them fail and that's why roksana ends up leaving, she doesn't see the point in staying anymore because there's nothing there for her anymore :(

she does eventually come back to reconnect with vitali (most of their past beef was caused by twisted perspectives of the other's life at home as a child + daniil's rancid behavior bringing out the worst in both of them) and matvey (what i said earlier about them being strangers; no bad blood so an attempt can be made), but nadya has been cut off entirely and so has daniil for roksana because of how similar he is in his behavior to their mother, i talked a bit more about that here

this got very long i am so sorry i am positively insane about this family and all the dynamics. basically the tl;dr is that nadya gets worst mother of the year award forever and always

[ruvviks]

ooooh very interested in hearing about daniil. spare some fun facts. what does he think abt vitali's fixer job.

also how often do vitali, daniil & roksana communicate with each other?

thank you!! so daniil is vitali's younger brother and to put it bluntly he is kind of a douchebag. never really did anything to help anyone out, always focused on doing his own thing, thought himself to be a lot better than his peers and this reflected in his behavior towards them, and all in all he loved stirring the pot and then excusing himself from the situation as if he wasn't the one who literally started it all (JUST like his mother fr)

this is an excerpt from chapter 9 of the broker:

tl;dr: he thinks it's absolutely ridiculous that vitali does business with mercs. daniil is a corpo boy through and through and he takes betrayal very seriously, and to him vitali essentially betrayed. well. someone?? something??? by becoming a fixer. if you were to ask daniil to be more specific he couldn't give you an answer but he just likes having reasons to be pissed at vitali. here's some more facts about him :]

ends up taking his wife's last name to distance himself from his parents

speaks with a generic american accent like his mother, rather than the russian accent his father, brother, and sister speak with

used to work for kang tao but got fired after he was unable to capture cato wu (she also worked for kang tao but her squad was accused of selling corporate secrets to arasaka (partially true) (it was actually just one guy) (he was selling the secrets to mikhail no less) (mikhail and cato used to work for GOLIATH security together before going their separate ways into different corporations) (the lore runs deep) so they had to be dealt with) and yes he will die mad about it

still doesn't know how to do laundry

smells very good to the point it's annoying. like he is not supposed to smell that good but he does

people in college used to think he was gay because of some of his mannerisms but those were just mannerisms he ended up subconsciously copying from vitali LMAO

so since the end of the broker, vitali is the only one of the three to remain in night city. daniil is moving to the east coast with his wife since they have a baby on the way, and roksana has completely vanished out of town without saying a word. though i do like to think they get back in touch at some point, but it just takes a long time and it's very hesitantly; which is very much on brand for their insane family

vitali and roksana used to play a game when they were younger where roksana would send him a picture of a place in town with as little detail as possible and he would reply with the exact location she was in. at some point, a few months after the conclusion of the broker, she would send him a picture out of nowhere; he replies with her location, and that's the end of that interaction. but it would start happening more and more until it would (after a year or so) happen several times a week, and roksana starts taking actual selfies in places and pictures with her friends and she genuinely looks a lot happier and healthier than before. she ends up returning to night city and much later on even invites vitali to her wedding ^_^

vitali and daniil would get back in touch many years later. daniil's child turns out to be trans and well daniil most definitely needs help because 1) he's stupid and 2) clueless and vitali clearly knows more than him about this. so he ends up hesitantly sending vitali a card for his birthday and ends up reaching out again not long after that, and of course vitali (despite how daniil treated him last time they saw each other, because vitali is a GOOD MAN. WITH A KIND HEART.) helps him out but mostly for the sake of daniil's kid so they don't end up having to go through all the shit vitali has been through. the brothers don't necessarily stay in touch as much as vitali does with roksana, but they're at least sort of on speaking terms again

daniil and roksana do not have contact anymore :( their relationship turned very very sour after vitali left home because vitali was basically the glue keeping the siblings together and without him everything was shambles. they both have their valid (and a few kind of questionable) reasons to dislike and even hate each other and thus don't wanna see each other anymore. roksana does not understand why vitali ends up reconnecting with daniil but stays out of it, and daniil just doesn't care about what else vitali is up to, he once again just cares about his own problems and needs vitali to help solve it :// basically he has NOT changed a single bit. JUST like his mother fr

[ruvviks]

see-no-evil mousetrap crown pistol rainbow fire and green heart for roksana [:

oc asks!

🙈 SEE-NO-EVIL - what's a side of your oc that they don't want to show other people?

roksana wants to have meaningful relationships with people and longs to be close to people but at the same time can't let herself get close enough to others to achieve what she wants. she's always had the feeling she has to "be strong" in order to fit in with her family and showing desires equals showing weakness (according to nadya); so instead she puts on a stoic mask like her father and oldest brother which makes it very hard for her to really connect with others

🪤 MOUSE TRAP - what will always lure them into certain danger? a loved one in danger? a promise of something they are always searching for?

roksana isn't easily lured into certain danger because she doesn't want to put her life on the line for. well. most things and most people to be honest. but if there's the promise of being desired by someone else waiting for her, then it Might be worth the risk. she will Consider it

👑 CROWN - what does your oc want to be remembered as? why?

she wants to be remembered as roksana. not roksana dobrynina, not roksana morozova; she's her own person and does not want anyone to associate her with either of her parents (or her brothers for that matter, but in a much lesser degree) because of everything that has happened so far and could possibly still happen in the future. anything else doesn't matter to her at all, she just really does not want to belong to that family anymore

🔫 PISTOL - do they trust people easily? how easily will they turn their back to someone? have they been backstabbed before? will they betray someone if given an ultimatum?

roksana does NOT trust people easily at all and has similar methods of analyzing people as vitali to get to know them a little better from a safe distance before fully committing to something. she's always had her own agenda and usually doesn't commit to the point of no return; likes to have a back door open for herself to leave whenever she wants if things don't go her way. she has betrayed her own brother before, and her own father in that very same breath despite working for him specifically; she doesn't like doing other people's dirty work and will act accordingly

🌈 RAINBOW - what advice would they give to their younger self?

roksana would have no advice for her younger self mainly because she puts the blame of every bad thing that's ever happened on her parents. in her eyes, she hasn't done a single thing wrong and wouldn't do anything different; if anything, she would give herself the advice to get out of that home as soon as possible, but since she knows it's not that easy to do it would be kinda pointless to even try and give herself that advice

🔥 FIRE - do they have any self destructive tendencies? what habits do they have that hinder them from becoming their best self?

she's a chainsmoker first of all which has definitely caused a health problem or two along the way but with a family like that i honestly don't blame her. she's also had a very unhealthy obsession with mikhail, her brother's best friend, since they were all young and somehow this is still a thing even years later despite not having seen him for YEARS. this is mostly because vitali went to mikhail to escape from home, so roksana has subconsciously tied mikhail to freedom, which is something she really wants to have. but because she can't let go of him, she ends up getting more and more stuck in this fantasy that will never become reality ://

💚 GREEN HEART - what things make your oc feel comforted? hugs, kisses, food?

roksana appreciates it when people keep her company when she's feeling down and could definitely use a hug or two, but would rather die than admit the latter. she can't ask for much so someone staying with her is already more than enough; but again, she really wants to just be close to others but it's so difficult to get that when you just don't let anyone in. girl please

[ruvviks]

this is the chance you were waiting for to talk about vitali's oldest man daughter syndrome, give us more thoughts and tell me how this reflects over his relationship with vincent and mikhail 🤲

HELL YEAH THANK YOU RENA AUAUAUAU literally the speed at which i threw down my work again to start typing this LMFAOO here we go again >:)

warnings >> descriptions of bad parenting, descriptions of trans struggles, family/parent mention, transphobia

vitali is the oldest of three, his younger siblings are daniil (male, three years younger) and roksana (female, five years younger). his parents, matvey and nadya, both worked for arasaka, as a banker and security guard respectively

mostly nadya had a lot of expectations of him when he was younger. vitali was always very ambitious and pretty intelligent and worked very hard because he loved studying, and this is mostly what caused his mother to have such high expectations. his father was less intense about it, though this changed when he learned he could get a promotion at arasaka and he let his work completely consume him; this caused him to become a lot colder toward his family and his once encouraging and supportive attitude toward his children now turned into holding them to unrealistic standards and forcing them into certain boxes to get them to the future he had in mind for them

all of this has caused vitali to search for others' approval; he did that back then with his parents, and now to a degree still does so, mainly with people older than him. while he's less ambitious than he used to be and still mostly does things for himself he'll often find himself doing things in a slightly different way than he had planned on just because he knows others prefer the way he's doing it now, and he doesn't want to disappoint them

matvey ended up getting his promotion and they moved from wellsprings to downtown. nadya was then also relocated to this other arasaka facility so she wouldn't have to travel up and down every day. she wasn't happy with this at all and became a very bitter woman because of it all, her negative energy inciting fear in her children and passively pissing off her husband, to the point they had near-daily arguments about the smallest of things

as the years went by, the two only became worse versions of themselves. matvey was barely present- even though he worked partially from home, he was not really there, entirely focused on his laptop and not bothering to spend some time with his family. at the same time, nadya was barely home at all; always at work, even going as far as taking extra shifts ("to make more money", but really just to not have to be at home), and the moments she was home her rancid vibes could be felt all the way on the other side of the street

all of this meant their children were mostly left to their own devices, which also put pressure on their relationships and mostly on vitali, being the oldest; he was expected to help in the household, which he did, because he didn't want to disappoint anyone, but at the same time whenever he would ask daniil to help him with something he was met with an angry sneer, because daniil believed it was not his job to help vitali with anything. vitali was understanding about it, even; because daniil was right to a degree, but at the same time, why was it vitali's job, then? especially after vitali came out as trans, he wasn't sure anymore whether the conversation about responsibilities concerning the household were an "eldest sibling" thing or just a straight up transphobic thing

daniil and vitali did not like each other, needless to say. vitali was upset that daniil refused to help with anything and was very self-absorbed all the time, and daniil thought vitali was a control freak

vitali also did not like his youngest sibling, roksana, all that much. she had not been taught any manners and was the equivalent of a feral little beast sometimes (she literally used to bite vitali almost on the daily, i am not exaggerating), and on top of that saw her brothers as her caregivers but treated them like her servants. she demanded everyone's attention and got unreasonably upset when she would not get it, and it nearly drove vitali crazy

despite all of this, and despite how he spent most of his days over at mikhail's place because of it, vitali still cared for his siblings and made it his duty to keep them safe and shield them from any of their parents' rude comments or unfair judgements. his sense of responsibility is something he still carries with him to this day; even though he's a fixer and mercenaries just work for him, he feels responsible for them and will keep a close eye on them during gigs, to make sure they'll make it out alive. he also checks in on them and keeps tabs on their home and financial situations so he can help them out whenever necessary, because he does not want them to suffer like he did

vitali's relationship with his mother was already complicated to begin with; she used him as an outlet, a personal therapist, and since he did not know any better he let her say whatever she wanted to him to the point he felt like he could never talk to her in return, scared he would upset her more because she was already going through so much, apparently. even nowadays he is hesitant to open up to others and prefers to suffer in silence, not wanting to add more on to their struggling; though at the same time he always listens to others and even though he is great at it, he also ends up doing it in moments when he really is not in the right mindset to listen, essentially exhausting himself mentally and emotionally just because he wants others to be able to talk about their worries and struggles

their relationship became even more complicated when vitali came out as trans when he was 15 years old. matvey was mostly just ignorant and because of him being so consumed by his work he did not make an effort to educate himself or listen to his son; still, he respected vitali's new name and pronouns, and never made a big deal out of any of it (but at the same time also mostly just ignored it). nadya, however, acted like she had been betrayed, and for years she grieved the loss of her "daughter", even though vitali, who had just always been her son, was literally right there. all of this caused him to feel incredibly guilty, a subconscious feeling he still carries with him to this day; and even regret, almost, for no longer meeting his parents' expectations at some point, for disappointing them, and for "abandoning" them when he eventually decided to move out

his mother's grief is also what caused vitali to leave his hair long for years, even after he had left home at age 18; she used to love his hair, and already judged him for bleaching it, so he did not dare to cut it off. vitali did end up cutting it short during a mental breakdown in his last year of college; the act broke him for a while and he regretted it, even, but after that moment he has never even considered growing out his hair again

i already described how all of this influences his life nowadays above but when looking at vincent and mikhail specifically, it's mostly the household that they really need to communicate well about, because they all live together in vitali's penthouse and, well, there's cleaning that needs to be done LOL

i think it helps a lot that vincent and mikhail are both very quick to take initiative and just kinda do things without being asked, and one of their main love languages is acts of service; this way they just do things around the household without vitali having to ask anything, and generally they all just do their part without complaining (unless they're all working on something together and all don't like it, then they'll complain the whole time to each other but that's recreational LMFAO) and they don't have arguments or fights over it or anything

the only thing that is a bit of an issue, is the cooking. mikhail can't cook (lmfao) and vincent is a decent cook but he has his own issues he's dealing with (won't go into great detail but vincent is the youngest of five and always had to fend for himself when he was younger, so whenever he feels hungry he will start cooking but ends up only cooking for himself because he momentarily forgets about his home situation), so it's usually vitali who does all the cooking. this tends to awaken some bad memories in him, to the point he feels like it's expected of him to do the cooking; this is really not the case and vincent and mikhail often remind him of this, which helps a lot

on top of that, this is a very specific thing but i really wanna mention it LOL instead of asking vitali "what are we having for dinner tonight?" they ask him something along the lines of "can we help with making dinner?" that way, they get their answer, because vitali will automatically go into details, and at the same time vitali feels less like. well. to put it bluntly, like everyone's caregiver, and it shows vincent and mikhail are willing to help him, unlike his siblings when he was younger

a bit earlier in the story, sometime before the heist happens, vitali also ended up helping vincent with his transition wishes. he himself struggled a lot with it all (mostly financial-wise, though nowadays he has a lot of money so, you know, he can afford to help others now) and he did not want vincent to have to go through the same, so even though they didn't know each other all that well yet he did go out of his way to help vincent :)

i think this covers most of my thoughts for now GHFDJHGD i could probably also talk more about mikhail (only child) and vincent (youngest sibling) but that's an analysis for another post <3 thank you again so much for the ask!!! i love talking about my blorbos so much LMFAO it makes me very happy to see other people are interested in them too ;w;