( nico mirallegro, cis male, he/him ) was that Cillian Acadia coming out of the marina ? the TWENTY- EIGHT YEAR OLD is currently an EVENT PLANNER / BARTENDER who is VISITING town. despite his FINICKY personality, he's also pretty GENEROUS. i heard FEELING WHITNEY BY POST MALONE is on a constant loop in his head.
"well i've been looking for someone to put up with my bullshit..."
cillian left ireland when he was seventeen years old, tired of the vast sea of green and the lack of opportunity. sure, he could stay in the small farm town and take over for his parents, but was that really all there was to do in the world? what would he be missing out on if he were to stay? so he left.
he started off living in major cities in america until he realized that there was too much hustle and bustle for him, and maybe he needed something more in the middle of ireland and new york city. finally, he found grandhaven-- but how long will he stay here before he gets tired of it, too?
he's lucky to have supportive parents during his endeavors, supporting him financially until he was able to do so himself. and now that he's a bit of an established event planner in town, he's finally ready to move out of the hotel and into a more... semi-permanent place.
wanted connections
roommate -- someone who is looking to rent out a room to cillian
former clients who he planned events for
someone in town that he's chummy with, and may or may not have a lil crush on. they always run into each other and cillian always blushes
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Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā one day you'll leave this world behind
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā so live a life you will remember...
INTRODUCING
( tommy martinez, cis male, he / him ) was that RAFAEL āRAFAā JIMĆNEZ coming out of the marina ? the TWENTY-SEVEN YEAR OLD is currently a NATURE PHOTOGRAPHER / GARDEN NURSURY EMPLOYEE who is LIVING IN town. despite their TRANSIENT TENDENCIES, theyāre also pretty AMIABLE. i heard THE NIGHTS BY AVICII is on a constant loop in their head. ( ollie, they/them, 22, est )
THE HIGHLIGHTS
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā a nomadic nature photographer and blogger who crisscrosses the united states in his car, often living out of it for months on end ; occasionally he settles in a town for a few months if it proves of some interest to him, grand haven is one of such towns ; a great love of plants was instilled in him by his grandmother and father and he currently works in the greenhouse a few miles outside townĀ ( a common temporary profession he often picks up in the summers he settles more permanently ) ; a laidback and down to earth individual who has a way of making everyone feel like a friend ; intent on living a life he will remember ā life is short, live it to the FULLEST.
THE STORY
ā rafa was born in venezuela, unplanned but not unwanted ā at least by his father. he was raised in caracas mostly by his grandmother, his father around when possible though it was difficult at times considering his position at the central university of venezuela. they were decently well off, and rafa certainly had no shortage of love given to him. absent mothers do not always mean absent family. and it was in these times that his love of plants first began, with his grandmotherās greenhouse and the sprawling caracas botanical garden that sheād once help tend to.
ā life steadied after that, the climbing of a latter from immigrants to citizens, slowly building a new life in austin. he attended school, graduated high school as salutatorian.Ā he had saved and saved and saved from his own small jobs to buy his first real camera when he was sixteen, and soon he was taking photos of everythingĀ ā self teaching the theories of light and shadow and contrast and framing. the art teacher at his high school took notice of his talents and taught him some basics. and he continued to quietly pursue the art in extracurriculars and electives carefully shoved in between his other required classes. after graduation, he enrolled at the university of austin studying marketing, photography, and public relations. that was close enough to rafaās passion ( it was something tangentially to do with his love ofĀ photography anyway ), but theoretically a steady enough job market. he managed to sneak in a few botany classes as well, though he tried to keep quite the fact that the professor was occasionally his father.
ā upon graduation, an internship with dell in their austin office turned into a full time position. and that was life for a long time. pretty goodĀ as far as job stability went. he didnāt mindĀ his job but it hardly was his dream either. so rafa resigned himself to the capitalist life of mediocrity.
( death & car accident cw )
ā however, a little over two years into working for dell in their pr department ( and not really loving it )Ā everything changed. for better in some ways, for worse in others. itās a drunk hit and run that leaves his father fatally wounded. he passes away from his injuries in the ambulance.
( end cw )
ā rafaās once steady world had been turned upside down once again. he and his father had had their differences, sure, but they had been close, the only family heād had especially after the earlier passing of his grandmother. and it took this shock and this lossĀ to realize this so-so path he was followingĀ no longer was appealing ā his father had been all about opportunities, not just financially but for living an overall betterĀ life ; and he had told him as much every time rafa came over for dinner and had only mundane things to say about work. he hadnāt seen much of the world, hadnāt done much, and it all crashed down on him as he stood at his fatherās grave wondering what the hell he was going to do. life was short, uncertain, with an unpredictable end and he may as well embrace that.
ā he decided what he was going to do was quit his job he wasnāt truly happy in and take his fatherās car and just drive. some endings are simply beginnings, and this was very much an opportunity. what was meant to be one summer to help deal with his grief stretched into half a year, a year, two years... and then he wasnāt stopping. grief undeniably changes people, but rafa was hellbent on it not changing him for the worse ( good, bad ā the truth is most things simply just are ). and somewhere between snapping photos, honing his craft, talking to people from all corners, rafa had found his place in simply not being anywhere. so this continued on, growing into a life, a love, a haphazard self-career of photography and traveling and being a nomad. he sold their house back in austin ( his last physical tie ), began to blog, to share his point of view with the world through photos and words and video.
ā low budget and simple changes to his fatherās suv turned it into a microcamper : a place to sleep, a tiny fridge, a water brick, storage for what little he owned. it was a setup and process refined with time. he stayed a few months in some places, often falling back on his other love of plants, working in local nurseys and greenhouses ā learning the beauty of plants sprouting from seeds, life but in a different form. things simply shifted into perspective. for years, this settled into a gentle ebb and flow, travelling where he wished or travelling to where there was work to be found.
ā grand haven was only supposed to be another few day pit stop in his unpredictable and never-ending journey, a stop for taking photos and also to get that rattling noise in his car taken care of, but something about the town charmed him. maybe it was the friendliness of the people, maybe it was the lake knocking right at its doorstep, maybe it simply was a feeling that he should stay ; whatever it was, rafa didnāt end up driving out of town. it wouldnāt be the first time he settled for a little while in his nomadic times ā there had been a few others where he spent summers in towns that had a certain pull to them, a beauty he wanted to capture in his lens.
ā he eventually moved into a two bedroom apartment ( a sublet with a roommate ā wanted connection !! )Ā the decision to at least spend the summer in grand haven. so he isĀ āliving inā town, but itās still temporary, yāknow ?? that was back near the mid-may and this was partially informed by a chance run-in at the local cafe where he was bemoaning the condition of one of their plants and happened to fall into conversation with the local greenhouse owner. they were looking for workers for the summer, and given rafaās patchwork of experience, extensive knowledge of nursey plants, and friendly personality, he was practically hired on the spot. that was near the beginning of may, and now... well heās just vibing and taking things as they come.
MISC
ā timeline wise, rafa is coming up on three yearsĀ of living on the road.
ā he works at a greenhouse about three miles north of town center. if i can name it iām gunna call it zehrās. ( approximately the location of boscheās irl, just a lil closer to town and also a real nursery and not a shrubbery )
ā it probably comes as no surprise that rafa doesnāt own all that much : just the necessities and not much more. he leaves light footprints wherever he goes and not much else.
ā he wouldnāt consider himself a chef, but rafa is decent at cooking, especially at simple but tasty fare. heās efficient and eats rather healthy food, produce often purchased from farmers markets he passes. he isnāt exactly a vegetarian, but he doesnāt consume very much meat mostly because during his travels meat was too difficult to keep in his small fridge and cook with his camp stove. out of habit, he still stays away from most meat products even when he is a little more settled in an apartment with a stove, but he wonāt turn down food with meat if others make it and donāt expect others to omit meat just because of him. he doesnāt want to be a hassle, especially if heās staying in a friendās home. also chicken broth in soups... it just hits different than vegetable broth.
ā he often rides his bike places. a bike isnāt something he keeps during his full nomadic, living out of a car stretches as itās too inconvenient to keep and store, but when he settles down, he often purchases ( or borrows ) a decent used bike from someone. it is then returned or sold again when he leaves the town months later. so itās no uncommon to see him biking to work with his backpack with lunch and his camera or down to the shore. he doesnāt drive unless itās too far ā also helps cut down on unnecessary gas costs.
ā rafa lovesĀ adventure. he loves being in nature and above most things, he loves not having a plan. framework is good ( you still want to be safeĀ ) but as far as what fills in the spaces in between, the better the experience and the memories, in his opinion. he isnāt one to push or force people into something they truly donāt want to do, but that isnāt the same as encouraging people to leave their comfort zone which isĀ something he likes to do.
ā he is big on sustainable living and being environmentally conscious, but he also recognizes that the life he leads... it wasnāt just because he wanted to leave a small footprint. it was many different factors and he also realizes itās very unpractical for most of the world. but that being said, he often encourages smaller changes in others, and much of his photography is environmentally focused on plants and nature and often on the effects of humanity on nature.
ā as mentioned above, his photography focuses a lot on the natural beauty of the world and the blur between nature and manmade things. he loves to photograph abandoned building and crumbling infrastructure half-taken back by nature. heās also a talented plant photographer ( probably no surprise there ). heās not much for photographing people, though sometimes heāll take casual shots just on his phone or his smaller camera. his blog is somewhat of a diary, often mostly photos with descriptions and updates on his life. he also has a youtube channel, but less of a youtuber style and more to share his own videos of nature and such ā aesthetic video shorts. occasionally his face shows up in the videos, but usually not ; the natural beauty ought to speak for itself. his big break was being featured in outside magazine when he was twenty-six. since then his blog and youtube channel have gained more traction and he received more freelance work than before.
ā his sources of income are sporadic. the jobs at greenhouses he picks up in summers, the income from his photography, the small amount of savings he amassed before turning his back on conventional jobs, and of course his fatherās life insurance policy ( while hardly a kingās ransom āa few hundred thousandā is certainly enough especially with his lifestyle ). he has also shot photo ads for jeep, mazda, and subaru. he gets by because his expenses arenāt particularly high, especially when heās living out of his car. somewhere he knows that this isnāt something he can do forever, but he canāt imagine doing anything else. perhaps in that way, heās stubborn.
ā he has definitely listened to hollow covesā wanderlust ep a million times while driving...
ā rafa isnāt tech stupid. he needs to know his stuff for his photography, to maintain his blog, and to edit his photos, and owns an android smartphone and a laptop. however, he isnāt big on tech as a source of entertainment ( eg. watching movies, using social media outside instagram to post some photos, etc ). he likes to read a lot ( thatās what heāll do if the weather is real bad ), but otherwise you can probably find him out and about with his camera by the lake, on trails, and everywhere outside his shifts at the greenhouse. he also has a guitar that he can play ā doesnāt sing nearly as much, but his voice isnāt bad.
ā venezuelan spanish is his first language. though heād begun learning english at a young age, it wasnāt until their move to texas that he was forced into fluency in order to survive. he remains bilingual to date.
ā i did take plenty of inspiration from nathaniel wise who is a photographer who has lived out of his suv for two years and counting while traveling across the united states. you can see a video of his old set up that i imagine very similar to rafaās here. his vlogs are also sprinkled with aesthetic, artsy nature shots and non-narrated stretches that are the inspiration for rafaās videos as well.
ā tommy martinez is not straight and therefore no muse with his face ever should be either.Ā rafa is bi and has known since he was quite young. he doesnāt view it as a huge part of his identity tbh ā itās just a simple fact as straight forward as that.
PERSONALITY
ā if rafa was a plant, heād probably be a dandelion ā incredibly resilient, insanely adaptable, considered pretty by some and just downright annoying to others, springing up anywhere and everywhere ( even where he shouldnāt ). he rolls with the punches, takes mistakes as things to learn from, often is a rather positive person, and doesnāt let much get under his skin. his approach to much of life is with an incredibly down to earth and practical attitude : it takes that kind of personality to successfully live out of a car for years and to be perfectly content doing it. that laidback and adaptable attitude doesnāt make him much of a planner, however, often down for anything at least once and preferring to āwing itā and assuming that no matter what happens, heāll be able to figure some way out of it without too much hardship. this has been true for the most part, though there have been a few sticky situations ā but nothing drastic enough to change rafaās attitude.
ā he has no shortage of friendliness and often radiates enthusiastic, open energy. he has an uncanny way of making everyone feel like his friend, even just after a short conversation ā and itās genuine, not a manipulative ploy. in that manner, he has no shortage of connections and friends scattered all over which has helped him in his travels immensely. often, heās an open book, not because he trusts everyone, but because he doesnāt have much to hide. his secrets are mundane and harmless ; his life is unconventional and heās willing to share it through stories, through photos, through videos, through his blog which probably gets a little too sporadically undated. people are often drawn to him : a fun and laidback but mysterious figure that adventure just seems to radiate off of.
ā commitments are something rafa struggles immensely with. that probably is no surprise for a man who has so little tying him to one place. that isnāt to say heās inconsiderate : he likes to punctual, if he says heāll do something heāll do it ā his reluctance to long term commitments doesnāt equate to unreliability. but his roots are not buried deep, they are shallow and spread far and wide. romantic relationships especially prove difficult and therefore are something he hasnāt sought out for a long time. he doesnāt like to lead people on and is ( what he thinks is ) always clear in his intentions. but sometimes things happen, sometimes people think they can change you, think that this time they can make you stay. ( itās not that youāre not enough, heād say, itās just that iām not meant to stay ). but mostly, he tries to avoid romantic endeavors. itās not that heās afraid of love ; heās afraid of being stuck.
ā his friendships are incredibly strong, though, and he often keeps in touch with people heās met all over. postcards here, random texts here, showing up at peopleās doors nine months later... rafa is a free spirit and it shows, and his friends are people who understand that ā who let it happen and arenāt intent on trying to tie him down. he hates feeling trapped and when he does, thatās when he leaves. people have tried the youāre getting older, you should more serious life choices talk on him ; so far no oneās been successful.
ā yet rafa often feels like heās yearning for something, but exactly what remains to be seen. perhaps thatās why heās never truly settled down, cross-crossing the americas over and over and over again in hopes that maybe someday heāll simply chance upon whatever heās looking for. whether he roams so much because he lacks reasons to stay or because something continues to call him on ā he tries not to dwell too hard on it. he wouldnāt say heās lost, though, simply unsure of where heās headed but as someone who breathes the ājourney not the destinationā mantra, heās perfectly content in that.
APPEARANCE
ā 6ā²2ā³ 185 lbs ( 1.88 m 84 kg ), a modestly athletic build. rafa is a physical person between all the biking and hiking he does and the work in the greenhouse.
ā light brown skin, often quite tanned, dark black curly hair that falls to the nape of his neck when unbound ( often tied back into a ponytail/bun, especially when heās working in the greenhouse ; other times left loose to to itās own thing ). often looks a little scruffy when it comes to facial hair, occasionally semi-clean shaven when he remembers --- sporting a fair amount of scruff more likely than not.
ā needs glasses for distance but often is wearing contacts save for when heās in his apartment / relaxing for the night.
ā mannerisms : relaxed, relaxed, relaxed. rafa is rarely tense and presents an image of ease even when he truly isnāt. thereās sometimes perpetually friendly about his face and demeanor even when itās in his neutral facial expression and itās no surprise heās someone people approach for questions and conversation frequently. quick to smile and laugh. surprisingly not jittery when he sits : incredibly steady ā sometimes referred to as a reassuring presence.
ā style : simple, earthy, a nearly completely thrifted wardrobe. he doesnāt own too much in way of clothes. simple t-shirts, slim cut pants that are still easy to move in, plenty of athletic shorts, a modest collection of flannels. his clothes trend towards the earth tones : browns, yellows, muted reds, and forest greens ā Ā natural looking things. semi-battered sneakers or boots if itās cold / rainy.
ā jewelry : corded twine or leather bracelets and necklaces if he wears anything at all. rarely metals.
ā tattoos : a simple black line art design of a twisting vine around his left bicep ( a discounted tattoo from a friend who was still apprenticed at a shop ).
ā scars : nothing super prominent, plenty of small marks from various minor life incidents.
ā PINTEREST BOARD
CONNECTIONS
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā ngl, rafaās backstory definitely lends itself to more chem-based present day connections. he has been like.... cross-crossing the united states for almost three years if you wanted to brainstorm maybe a former connection in a different city though !! otherwise the world is our oyster. letās talk things out !!
TAKEN CONNECTIONS
OOC
hello everyone !! iām ollie ( 22, est, they / them ).Ā rafa is super super new, but heās been living in my head for a little while now and i hope you love him as much as i do !!