fallbrookhq:
character name: Rhys Jonathan Wilkes age & birthday: 33, November 3rd 1988 gender & pronouns: Cis man, He/Him place of birth & time in Fallbrook: Birmingham, United Kingdom. Been back in Fallbrook permanently for 1 year district: Downtown occupation: Freelance Photographer & owner of Wilkes Photography faceclaim: Adam Huber secret: Rhys had an affair with a married woman while working as a freelance photographer.
CHARACTER BIOGRAPHY TWs: infidelity, drugs, death, substance abuse
PAST
Rhys Wilkes was born and raised in Birmingham, United Kingdom - born to an American father, Robert Wilkes, and British mother, Stassie Rivers. He is one of the older brothers to Coletta ‘Cole’ Wilkes.
From a young age he would help out his family, his dad in particular, around the bar that used to belong to his mothers family. He would do things such as the dishes and other chores around the place. However, it wasn’t until he came of age he would work long hours into the night, serving alcohol to the town drunks and people wanting to check out the infamous bar, The Barkeep.
When he wasn’t at school, something he wasn’t particularly good at anyway, or working at the bar, he would often be playing around with his dad’s old photography equipment and it was here he not only discovered he had a real talent for it, but also a burning passion. Once high school came, he joined the photography club and did projects such as yearbook photos and prom.
For as long as he could remember, even though their dad did a really good job sheltering them from it, their mother was a heavy substance abuser. This not only took its toll on the family as a whole, but also their economy. Their sister, being the brains of the family, began entering different contests and winning larger lumps of money she decided to put towards the family’s economy. However, the mother found out and slowly started emptying the accounts for the money, eventually draining entirely.
PRESENT
After their dad found out, he decided that he’d had enough and that it was time to move back to America. Rhys, who had decided to skip college in order to help out at the bar while doing some smaller photography jobs around the UK, wasn’t hard to persuade on moving. He was around 21 where he moved to Fallbrook and started working at his fathers old family photography studio.
However, after a short while of taking portraits of the people in the small town it started to get rather boring to him, so he started doing more freelance jobs around the state. At first he was mainly working freelance in Williamsburg, but after he did wedding photography for a socialite’s wedding and had his work published in a wedding magazine, his career kind of blew up and he began traveling the whole country for work.
He eventually ended up in California where he worked for a number of people; one of them being Laura Silva. What started out as a professional relationship soon developed into more and he began having an affair with her, despite knowing that she was married. However, it was a short lived affair as the woman seemed to ultimately devoted to her husband and Rhys was not at all ready to commit to anything serious.
After years on the road doing what he absolutely loved, his permanent residential address was still the apartment above the photography studio where he would often return to recharge his batteries and spend time with his family. He tried his best to return for all the big events, however after Cole lost her fiance, the already slightly over protective older brother started returning home more frequently, even if it was just to check up on her. He eventually decided to return full time to the photography studio in Fallbrook, wanting to keep a close eye on her, and at the same time continue with keeping the family photo studio alive.
Wanted plots & Headcanons
He is very protective over his sister, especially after the loss she suffered and the way their mother treated them growing up. He had tried his best to shield her from the truth about their mother.
Even though he has lived in the US for years now, he has kept his British accent.
Wanted Connections:
He would have gotten to know a lot of people around the country while working freelance, so anything like past clients, former friends / acquaintances from projects he was working on I am happy to discuss!
Close friend in Fallbrook - Can have been before he left to work freelance and that they are now rekindling their old friendship or after he came back.
Ex - The two could have dated very briefly before he left town to work freelance or dated briefly after he returned to Fallbrook because Rhys wasn’t ready to commit.
