࿐ * ₊ gabbi garcia. cisfemale. she/her. ⋆ * — welcome to camp zarafa ! ALTHEA CORTEZ is here from VANCOUVER, CANADA currently working here as an EVENT PLANNER to help our guests get through their journey of healing and finding themselves once again. they give off these METICULOUS, EBULLIENT AND VOLATILE vibes who enjoys CALLIGRAPHY, BAKING AND SWIMMING during their free time for a TWENTY FOUR YEAR OLD. ( lia. 21+. gmt-6. she/her. )
¦ profile ¦ background ¦ plots ¦ extra ¦
basics.
full name: althea cortez nickname(s): ally, thea age: twenty four date of birth: december 2, 1996 birthplace: makati, philippines hometown: vancouver, canada current location: siargao, philippines ethnicity: filipino nationality: canadian gender: cisfemale pronouns: she / her orientation: demiromantic, heterosexual religion: agnostic education: graduated high school, various courses at a community college occupation: event planner
background (tldr).
born as the middle sibling out of the three, althea and her family moved from makati to vancouver when she was almost one year old due to a job opportunity presented to her father.
had a really average childhood with all the pressure being poured onto her sister, five years older than her, and pushed to become the example of the other two. all the while her brother who’s only 2 years younger than althea clearly became the unspoken favorite. being the middle sibling was easy most of the time. so long she didn’t do any extraordinary things, neither good nor bad, althea was able to remain below her parent’s radar.
regular high school experience: neither remarkable nor reprobatory grades, a “steady” friends circle (as much as it can be when a teenager), dated a couple of times, part of the swimming team. by junior year, college never figured in her plans (or the lack thereof).
her parents didn’t quite like the idea but after getting help from her sister who talked to them, they didn’t complain as long as she got a job or helped her mom with hers (she was a seamstress), which is what she ended up doing.
it comes as a stroke of luck when her mother gets a call asking if she could help fix a bride’s dress at the wedding’s venue. her mother, quite busy at the moment, sent althea instead and she quickly fixed it before the ceremony started.
about to depart, crisis after crisis started presenting and it was obvious they were a little understaffed (althea learned a couple of years later that two of the assistants got sick on that same day).
with a little bit of free time in her hands, althea offered her help. by the time every crisis had been averted and she was ready to leave, the event planner took notice of her and offered to become an assistant in her company. at nineteen, thea takes the job.
the company is not as big as many others but still renowned enough to have a steady income of clients and at least one event every couple of weeks.
thea was pretty much an errand girl at first and they often sent her to take courses or workshops to learn and hone some skills. (calligraphy, flower arranger, hospitality, etc. she even took an event planning course that went for 9 months, successfully getting a certificate.)
eventually, her opinions start being taken more and more into consideration and she takes more of an active role in the planning process. at twenty one, thea planned her very first wedding (a small one, no more than 50 guests).
she pours all her energy and time into this new phase of her job, loving every second of it and thriving for the compliments she got after every successful event. weddings were mostly her niche, she even planned her sister’s wedding; it doesn’t come as a surprise that she announces the engagement with her college sweetheart, it was actually quite expected. (her parents even implied more than once that they were taking too long).
it’s in one of her events, a birthday party for some socialite, that thea meets the guy that would become her boyfriend for the next two years. despite being surrounded by wealth and pretentiousness, he was unlike any of his peers: sweet, attentive, decent and didn’t pride himself on his parents’ money. it was quite easy to talk and be with him, thus they started dating shortly after.
her life seems to be perfect in every aspect: a good job, more than decent income, a healthy relationship with her boyfriend... her parents couldn’t find anything to complain about… for now.
it’s at the peak of her career as an event planner, that her parents become more and more insisting on questioning her about her status with her boyfriend. “after planning so many weddings, shouldn't you start planning your own?” asked her mother, which thea always dismissed or ignored to avoid any fights.
truth is, even if weddings were a prominent aspect of her day to day, being a bride and going through the whole ceremony wasn’t something she saw happening in the foreseeable future, and her boyfriend seemed to be on the same page… or at least it was an unspoken thing between the two.
it’s the day before her 23rd birthday that she finds by mistake a ring box in her boyfriend’s apartment. knowing exactly what it meant, thea cracked the box open, finding the most beautiful engagement ring she’s ever seen. and it made her feel sick.
putting it back in its place, the whole night thea acted as if nothing happened despite the emotional turmoil she was going through.
when getting home, the first thing she did was try to find an email from one of her friends who told her about some camp in the philippines that could use an event planner. finally finding it buried deep within her inbox felt like all the answers to her problems were in those couple of lines.
in the middle of the night and with a dire need for adventure, thea left with a bag full of her belongings and all of her savings after booking the next flight to the philippines.
