Biography
-QUICK FACTS ABOUT CELESTE BARBOSA-MEIER-
LEGAL NAME: Celeste Iara Barbosa-Meier
NICKNAMES: Cel
DOB/AGE: May 25, 1986 / 38
GENDER: Cis Female
PRONOUNS: She/Her
SEXUAL ID: Panromantic Demisexual
HEIGHT: 5′8″
PHYSIQUE: Slim/Slender
BIRTHPLACE: Sacramento, CA
NATIONALITY: American
ETHNICITY: Black & Brazilian
OCCUPATION: Novelist & best-selling author.
LANGUAGES: fluent in English & ASL. Knows some Portuguese but not completely fluent, and very little Spanish
GLASSES/CONTACTS: Reading glasses TATTOOS/PIERCINGS: 2 piercings, 1 in each ear; no tattoos
ALLERGIES: N/A
OTHER HEALTH ISSUES/DISORDERS: Trypanophobia
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Gemini
CHINESE ZODIAC: Tiger
HOGWARTS HOUSE: Ravenclaw
FAITH/RELIGION/PHILOSOPHY: Spiritual, non-religious
POSITIVE TRAITS (3): Creative, caring, friendly NEUTRAL TRAITS (3): Honest, stubborn, competitive
NEGATIVE TRAITS (3): Temperamental, cynical, petty
PET(S): Corn snake named Medusa
HOBBIES & ACTIVITIES: Reading/listening to audiobooks Crocheting Dance aerobics & Zumba Ballroom dancing Playing guitar Painting Baking Watching TV/movies
LIKES/FAVORITES: color– Blue & purple foods/cuisine– Brazilian & Southern comfort movie genres– SciFi, Action, Historical Drama, & Romance flower– Daffodils snacks– Fruit (both fresh & fruit leathers) and popcorn music genres– R&B, Pop, Latin & Motown season– Spring & Autumn book genre– Romance & Sci-Fi animal– Big cats (leopards, jaguars, cheetahs, etc.) candy– Salt water taffy or peanut butter cups quote– “Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can’t, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.” –Robert Frost
-BIOGRAPHY-
[death tw]
Celeste was imaginative even in her youth. She loved to pretend to be people and beings in places that were far away or only existed in the fictional realm. She had an active body and mind, creating imaginary friends and stories while being equally dedicated to gymnastics and dance. Growing up, her family was neither filthy rich, nor dirt poor. Her parents worked and did their best to provide essentials and foster her extracirriculars, along with a loving and supporting family and home environment.
As she matured, her creativity and imagination changed but never left her. Her love of dance stayed with her and while gymnastics became less, she had joined the cheer and dance teams in jr. high and high school. Nearing adulthood, she explored what she wanted as a long term career. Her parents urged her to pursue something secure in income much like their own careers. And while she understood, her heart lay in expressing her creative mind in some fashion. Having made her decision, Celeste went to university for her Bachelors in English and eventually, her Masters. Quietly and steadily, however, she had been writing away, editing, adjusting and fleshing out her story and characters. When it neared completion, Celeste sought out the means to publish her work.
It was early in her pursuit of her Masters that Celeste met Reginald ‘Reggie’ Prynne, who was also continuing his studies. Reggie was intelligent, talented, funny, handsome, passionate and kind. The first time the two met, they spent roughly two hours straight moving from awkward first time chit-chat to in-depth conversation over a shared interest in the comic book media that was quickly launching into major popularity, beyond the books themselves. Fused with this date was Celeste's introduction into ASL, as Reggie had a hereditary progressive hearing loss diagnosis and was likely to be more than 90% deaf by the time he was considered middle-aged. For the time being, he'd had a hearing aid to assist and was proficient in lip-reading, but accompanied ASL with his vocal speech.
It was only a handful of dates after that before the two decided to pursue a relationship together. Reggie encouraged Celeste’s writing pursuits while Celeste showed him her support through his ongoing teaching career. He was pursuing his Doctorate while teaching history to high school students in the San Francisco Unified School District. His vast knowledge in history–both global and domestic–impressed and influenced Celeste’s interests and, at times, her writing. The couple’s success seemed exponential over the next 3 years. Celeste completed her first in a planed trilogy novel series the same year that she graduated with her Masters, and Reggie was on track to complete his doctorate. As a graduation present to his lady, he asked Celeste to marry him.
The two brought the best out in each other, loving and supporting each other, working out their differences, and continuing to learn and grow together. The year after Celeste received her Masters, the couple married in a small but celebratory ceremony with only their families and close friends present. Their life together had been blissful before, during and after their wedding day, and they took advantage of the summer break to honeymoon in Rio. When they returned, they talked of starting a family and decided to wait until after Reggie finished his studies. He had been a little more than halfway through at the time, but they were both sensible enough to wait (or at least, to do their best to wait).
Unfortunately, life had other plans for them and the four years of marital bliss were about to come to an abrupt end.
Reggie had successfully completed the Doctorate program and earned the educational title of Dr. Prynne. Celeste had earned the acclaim of best-selling author with two of her books already published and her third being a work in progress. The two shared their individual stresses of Reggie having racked up substantial debt, and Celeste feeling the pressure of finishing her trilogy to her satisfaction while adjusting from ceasing her birth control so that they could begin their family. The physical, emotional and financial toll was wearing on the two of them, and they had made plans to take some time away, just for a few days.
While packing in their apartment for a weekend up to the mountains, Reggie had been complaining of a headache but neither of the pair thought anything of it. He’d frequently been stricken by headaches throughout his studies and long weekends of grading. Both he and Celeste chalked it up to a stress headache…until he quite suddenly collapsed. The shock, fear and trauma scarred Celeste, but nothing had prepared her for what followed. Reggie was rushed to the hospital, but had not pulled through.
His cause of death was ruled a large, cerebral aneurysm. Celeste had gone through the stages of grief, sometimes relapsing into different stages at different points. But as she endured her grief and worked through it with the support of her family, she did her best to bring herself to a better place. She grappled with herself often on whether or not she could, or would ever intimately involve herself with anyone ever again. It often felt strange to be considered a widow at a young age, but it was a matter of fact that she had come to accept, most days.
As she considered how to get back into the dating pool to see for certain, it was her aunt who pushed her to sign up for Ship-Wrecked. It was extreme and dramatic and not entirely what Celeste wanted, but her aunt persuaded her that would be little harm in joining something that was probably half-scripted and likely to grant her some much-needed time away from the city in the meantime. Celeste wasn’t entirely sure why she agreed. Or least, the reason she agreed was buried deep, deep down in herself where she couldn’t easily access it. Perhaps someone might help draw it out of her so that she might not fear her future.
