Name: Eliot Waugh. Door: Right. Canon: The Magicians (TV). Canon Point: Post- Season 4. Age: 27. Appearance: Link. History: Here. Personality: Upon first impressions, Eliot is a bit extra. When he enters a room he is immediately the centre of it, something he goes out of his way to make sure of, and there's something particularly peacocky about him. It's not just his manner of dress, which is always immacutely tailored, or his flair for the dramatics, but his flippant attitude that aides Eliot's air of self-importance. He's detached and aloof from most things going on around him, including his studies. Eliot, by his own admission, doesn't really try. He says on several occasions that he either failed classes or used sources such as wikipedia and Spark Notes, and has many "all beauty, no brains" moments. Still, somehow effortlessly, he's quite successful at things, and it's clear that he knows this.
A quintessential Mean Girl, Eliot revels in being both loved and hated. He is always quick with a humourous quip or a biting remark, nor is he afraid to be blunt when necessary. He can be quite blunt, too, sometimes coming off as vulgar. Eliot would rather tell someone a harsh truth, whether to hurt them or to smarten them up, than sugar coat facts. He takes a lot of pride in being able to throw a good party (he carries around an Instant Party in a ball), which helps to compound his outwardly nonchalant demeaner. Actually, partying might be just about the only thing Eliot seems to care about. Upon his arrival at Brakebills University, his discipline as a whole suffered a loss in the collective GPA, and you can bet that he's very proud of that.
What most people won't ever get to know, though, is that most of what Eliot presents to the world is (mostly) just a front. For as comfortable as he is in his own skin, he is also incredibly aware of himself - that is, he knows he's got a lot of issues, and while he acknowledges them, he's not sure how to deal with them. This manifests itself in several ways. Eliot suffers from very obvious and very severe dependency issues. His alcoholism goes beyond his Life Of The Party persona, as it's his preferred way to bury his emotions (he carries around a flask that's been enchanted to never go empty). Eliot enjoys that drinking, along with the occasional drug use, means he can blame his choices on the booze. He also enjoys the numbness that alcohol offers. Eliot is described as an addict by others in the show for a reason, and this isn't just limited to substance abuse.
Another major dependency Eliot has is on people. His childhood was largely unloving and unsupportive, so it's no surprise that Eliot does his best to keep people at arm's length despite his desire to let them in. He admits that he gets attached easily and that he tries not to, because, as he says, "things aren't usually worth caring about." His fear of committment comes from a fear of feeling he'll inevitably mess up a good thing. When Eliot decides to open up to a person, they become a crutch for him. Eliot seeks out strength in them along with approval. He finds a large degree of his self worth in what these chosen few see in him, and despite always anticipating being let down, the loss of this trust creates a massive spiral. It's a viscious sort of cycle that results in him once again losing himself in drugs and alcohol until something new comes along to boost him out of it.
His extreme emotional reactions stem from Eliot being a master of compartmentalization. Just like he uses a good drink to put a stopper on feelings, he's quick to brush things off in a dry and somewhat cynical manner. There are several indications that Eliot wouldn't even feel bad if he were to die, and it's this lack of real self-esteem combined with his casual indifference that causes things to build to their breaking point.
Eliot is a better person that he will ever give himself credit for. To begin with, he's actually quite intelligent. Not in a way that he could be called smart, but in an intuitive way - Eliot naturally picks up on difficult magic and is quick to come up with solutions to bizarre problems. When faced with tasks or quests, he displays a degree of bravery that usually wouldn't be assocaited with him. He doesn't blink at the idea of spending a life time away from what he knows if it means (sort of) saving the world, and he faces what should be his death with a resigned dignity. It's this bravery that also empowers Eliot to be vulnerable when he needs to be.
For a man who claims there's nothing worth caring about, Eliot has a large capacity for empathy. In the same vein as his intuitiveness, he has a knack for being able to put people at ease. Sometimes, it's simply about a well placed (and maybe self depricating) joke, but then there are times where Eliot will expose something raw and personal about himself. He takes a lot of pleasure in simpler things, almost thriving during moments of calm when he doesn't have to pretend to be anything to impress people. There's a softness that comes out when no one else is watching. It's a far cry from the detached and mindless Eliot presented to the world, and that's what makes them poignant moments. When combining this caring streak with his tendancies to bravery, Eliot can be remarkably selfless, putting those he cares about before himself. From the extreme to killing someone he loved to save his friends to something as simple as championing their victories at the expense of a loss to him, it's clear that Eliot possesses a lot of goodness in himself that he might never acknowledge.
Powers and Abilities:
Eliot is a Magician, but unlike a lot of popular magic fiction, this isn't something you can wave a wand over and say the right words. It's dependent largely on a series of elaborate hand gestures. It does mean, however, he can do extremely mundane tasks such as hammer nails without a hammer, or slightly more useful castings to peer through veils to see things like magical wards and disguises.
His school of magic is physical magic, with his discipline falling under telekinesis. At his basic, natural ability, he can manipulate things that already exist or create new things. On a more advanced level of magic, there are times when Eliot doesn't need to fuss with hand gesutres and words. As for his telekinetic ability, it manifests primarily during difficult emotional circumstances.
The idea that magic comes from pain is a common thread in his canon, and with everything that Eliot keeps bottled up inside of him, it's not hard to understand why he may be particularly adept at this brand of magic.
Inventory: A cane; his flask; a suit bag containing one outfit (a button-up shirt, a vest, a tie, jeans, and a belt).
Samples:
Sample #1
Sample #2:
It’s almost sad, Eliot thinks, that this might not even be the weirdest thing to happen to him. A part of him wishes it was. There’s a distant ache, a nostalgia for days when the only exciting thing to happen was to try and guess who would get drunk enough to streak through the maze on campus on any given night.
Those, he tells himself, were the days.
Or were they? Eliot would be lying if the events that played out hadn’t given him a sense of purpose. It’s just that when he imagined where it would all take him, the last thing on his list would be Uprooted To A World Fuelled By Depravity. Once upon a time, this would be Eliot’s dream. Like Margo said - they grew the fuck. He’s distinctly glad for the Fillory bullshit in his life to at least prepare for worlds not like his own. No. He should be glad that his life dissolved into a shit show. That makes this shit show easier to take.
He needs to stop trying to reason with himself (that’s how he knows shit is real, he’s trying to reason, and, God, being logical is exhausting). This place? Eliot knows he should have it on lock down. He’s Eliot fucking Waugh, he tells himself. He was the King of Brakebills and High King Of Fillory. There’s not a drink or a drug he hasn’t met that he hasn’t wanted to try. He brought peace to countries at war by seducing another king. And the only thing he’s ever liked more than all of that is sex. He’s seen the other people here. They shy away from it, they cling to their bullshit morals and ride on their high horses, but not Eliot. Eliot is sure that, excluding the natives of Duplicity, he has more experience with kinks than more than half of the others here. If he can’t land himself a fine, silver fox sugar daddy to take care of him, then he’s a disgrace to the legacy he just invented for himself.
Pep talk done, Eliot shrugs into his clothes. He ignores the fact that he’s been wearing the same thing since he got here. A quick spell shines his shoes, a quick fluff from his fingers makes his curls behave, and Eliot exhales. He’s sick of moping around in the Down. No one’s even broken out into a rousing rendition of Skid Row.
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