hard working . guarded . gracious

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"I don't want to be known."

Rafael is an award-winning violinist from Monaco; a highly publicized child prodigy, to the extent of having been a household name during the years he was active under his parent's guardianship. Like any 'child prodigy', he wasn't actually born “””gifted””. His dad comes from a long line of musicians, his mother was a lawyer(turned publicist), and together, the two of them decided that their kid would be a project they could work on together. And so, Raf's future as a musician was charted before he was even conceived. He had a violin in his hands as soon as his little fingers were able to hold one, and the work continued from there.

Music, how well he could or could not perform, became his entire identity. Even as he began planning his escape from the highly pressurized gilded cage his parents had built around him, he leaned on music as the only thing he felt competent at.

He set his eyes across the ocean to attend Juilliard--a viable way to put distance between himself and his parents that they'd not only allow, but fund (with money he technically...'helped' them earn, but he wouldn't dare attempt that conversation with them). And so, he attended Juilliard and graduated--but the intense stress of it was the final nail in the coffin for his love of playing.
School hadn't gone easy on him, and even at the time, he'd have been the first person to confess that he felt outclassed by almost every one of his peers there. Suddenly, the one thing he felt confident and competent doing–he wasn’t sure of anymore. Even his taste in music was not just pulled into question, but pulled apart and dissected to a molecular level.
But--there was little else for him to do, so he dragged himself to keep making music that he could no longer stand making.

He cut off communication with his parents, refusing to return to Monaco, and disappeared into the Canadian north west, aspiring to become an obscure nobody that no one ever asks about. If he is made to talk about music, he discusses it with a weaponized triteness and refuses to get pulled into serious, academic tones.

In BC, he connects with a fellow estranged family member, his uncle on his dad's side--who warmly helps him get settled and comfy in Vancouver. It's been almost ten years since graduating from Juilliard, and he's only just started to claw his way out of the enormous burnout pit he fell into.

And Magritte is largely who he might thank for that.

Despite his penchant to keep people at an emotional arm's length, Magritte somehow managed to bulldoze past his defenses with her emotions on her sleeve and an unparalleled honesty about her goals, desires, and intentions. It was initially difficult for Rafael to believe that all Magritte wanted to do was make music with someone who could keep up with her. Anyone, everyone, who eventually realized who he was--aspired to take some piece of him for their own gain. But Magritte...Magritte just wanted his accompaniment. Above all else, Magritte seemed to enjoy spending time with him--as a human being first and musician second. She never had any desire to use him in any capacity. This fact has finally hooked itself into Rafael's consciousness, and he aspires to maintain her as a perminant fixture in his life.
And so, when he inherits his uncle's cottage on Cortes Island off the coast of BC, inviting Magritte to accompany him there for a year while he takes the time to sort some things out for himsef is a no-brainer.
And, it is on the island's stony shore that he and Magritte eventually make the aquaintence of their third roommate; a beautiful lass who adopts the island's name as her own.