El Goonish Shive: Elliot
Mar. 22nd, 2014 06:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellowTedd and Elliot were the first two characters to appear in EGS, so it's Elliot's turn, under the cut.
If EGS has a male lead, it's Elliot. He's tall and athletic, trained in martial arts and (apparently) in parkour, always ready to aid the distressed and defend the defenseless, and attractive - no less than six named characters, including half the "main eight", have been attracted to him at one time or another. He's saved from Marty-Stu-dom by a handful of flaws: stodginess, a distaste for trying new things, an unwillingness to assert his desires against those of his friends, and a refusal to introspect unless goaded to do so. Tedd's father considers him a stick-in-the-mud, and assigned him to chaperone a birthday party for Grace in Mr. Verres' absence. (Considering what did happen at that party, one wonders what might have gone down without Elliot's quelling presence....)
A critical event in Elliot's life began with a simple hang-out with Tedd, during which Tedd accidentally (well, not quite, but Tedd wasn't the responsible party) shot him with the transformation gun, turning him into a girl. The gun promptly shorted out; Tedd estimated that getting parts and repairing it would take about as much time as waiting for the transformation to wear off - i.e., about a month. Needless to say, Elliot was not pleased by this.... Hijinks ensued, leading to Grace's discovery of a way out, via an artifact called the Dewitchery Diamond. According to her research, anyone under an enchantment who touched the Diamond would have the enchantment stripped away. Tedd and Elliot sneaked into the installation where the Diamond was housed; Elliot touched the Diamond; and the enchantment was stripped from him.
There was some fine print, but I'll leave that for Ellen's post. As far as Elliot is concerned, the main consequence is that he Awakened. That is, he shifted from the gradual accumulation of magical energy to actively generating it himself; henceforth, he would gain spells from time to time. Owing to the slightly traumatic nature of his Awakening, he would not have complete control of these spells; owing to the precise circumstances of his Awakening, those spells would, at least initially, involve turning into a girl.
Elliot can, by concentrating, assume any female appearance he can visualize. (Fortunately, his attention to detail is somewhat lacking; he can't masquerade as someone else....) He has four specific avatars that he can assume without concentrating. One is a superhero, who was dubbed (by the Internet) Cheerleadra (to Elliot's chagrin); the others are three alter-egos for the superhero - a mild-mannered girl with glasses, a sultry goth, and a hyperactive and slightly scatterbrained girl who has been named Heidi. (The other two remain unnamed.) On Mr. Verres' advice, he turns female just before going to bed, to prevent an involuntary transformation at an inopportune time. He is slowly coming to terms with all this. (He always dreamed of being a superhero, just not a female superhero....)
For most of the strip's history, Elliot dated Sarah; they had been friends since childhood, and it seemed a natural progression. During the summer between junior and senior years, Elliot took a job at the video rental store where Susan works; soon after, at the urging of the store's manager, they began co-hosting an online movie-review program, which eventually attracted over a thousand viewers. Between the job and the show (which continued even after summer's end), he began spending a lot of time with Susan, and eventually, to no one's surprise, realized that he was attracted to her - and attracted in a different way than to Sarah. Eventually, prodded by Ellen, he realized that his feelings for Sarah were more fraternal than romantic, and broke up with her. The breakup was amicable - Sarah had been contemplating breaking up with him - and they remain friends. Elliot has decided not to reveal his feelings to Susan, partly because she has shown no sign of interest in him, and partly because he has realized that he doesn't really know what he wants. He has just recently begun going out with a new character named Ashley, and even those fans who ship Elliot with Susan have been won over by her. I'll reserve further comment on that for later.
Elliot's a good guy, earnestly determined to Do The Right Thing for people; he needs to learn to let other people Do The Right Thing for him. The good ship Ellisan will sail - but he needs to learn a few things before that can happen. A soppy romantic like yours truly is willing to wait, and to enjoy the process.
If EGS has a male lead, it's Elliot. He's tall and athletic, trained in martial arts and (apparently) in parkour, always ready to aid the distressed and defend the defenseless, and attractive - no less than six named characters, including half the "main eight", have been attracted to him at one time or another. He's saved from Marty-Stu-dom by a handful of flaws: stodginess, a distaste for trying new things, an unwillingness to assert his desires against those of his friends, and a refusal to introspect unless goaded to do so. Tedd's father considers him a stick-in-the-mud, and assigned him to chaperone a birthday party for Grace in Mr. Verres' absence. (Considering what did happen at that party, one wonders what might have gone down without Elliot's quelling presence....)
A critical event in Elliot's life began with a simple hang-out with Tedd, during which Tedd accidentally (well, not quite, but Tedd wasn't the responsible party) shot him with the transformation gun, turning him into a girl. The gun promptly shorted out; Tedd estimated that getting parts and repairing it would take about as much time as waiting for the transformation to wear off - i.e., about a month. Needless to say, Elliot was not pleased by this.... Hijinks ensued, leading to Grace's discovery of a way out, via an artifact called the Dewitchery Diamond. According to her research, anyone under an enchantment who touched the Diamond would have the enchantment stripped away. Tedd and Elliot sneaked into the installation where the Diamond was housed; Elliot touched the Diamond; and the enchantment was stripped from him.
There was some fine print, but I'll leave that for Ellen's post. As far as Elliot is concerned, the main consequence is that he Awakened. That is, he shifted from the gradual accumulation of magical energy to actively generating it himself; henceforth, he would gain spells from time to time. Owing to the slightly traumatic nature of his Awakening, he would not have complete control of these spells; owing to the precise circumstances of his Awakening, those spells would, at least initially, involve turning into a girl.
Elliot can, by concentrating, assume any female appearance he can visualize. (Fortunately, his attention to detail is somewhat lacking; he can't masquerade as someone else....) He has four specific avatars that he can assume without concentrating. One is a superhero, who was dubbed (by the Internet) Cheerleadra (to Elliot's chagrin); the others are three alter-egos for the superhero - a mild-mannered girl with glasses, a sultry goth, and a hyperactive and slightly scatterbrained girl who has been named Heidi. (The other two remain unnamed.) On Mr. Verres' advice, he turns female just before going to bed, to prevent an involuntary transformation at an inopportune time. He is slowly coming to terms with all this. (He always dreamed of being a superhero, just not a female superhero....)
For most of the strip's history, Elliot dated Sarah; they had been friends since childhood, and it seemed a natural progression. During the summer between junior and senior years, Elliot took a job at the video rental store where Susan works; soon after, at the urging of the store's manager, they began co-hosting an online movie-review program, which eventually attracted over a thousand viewers. Between the job and the show (which continued even after summer's end), he began spending a lot of time with Susan, and eventually, to no one's surprise, realized that he was attracted to her - and attracted in a different way than to Sarah. Eventually, prodded by Ellen, he realized that his feelings for Sarah were more fraternal than romantic, and broke up with her. The breakup was amicable - Sarah had been contemplating breaking up with him - and they remain friends. Elliot has decided not to reveal his feelings to Susan, partly because she has shown no sign of interest in him, and partly because he has realized that he doesn't really know what he wants. He has just recently begun going out with a new character named Ashley, and even those fans who ship Elliot with Susan have been won over by her. I'll reserve further comment on that for later.
Elliot's a good guy, earnestly determined to Do The Right Thing for people; he needs to learn to let other people Do The Right Thing for him. The good ship Ellisan will sail - but he needs to learn a few things before that can happen. A soppy romantic like yours truly is willing to wait, and to enjoy the process.
