Hobbies: monsters are always hungry, darling, and they’re only a few steps behind you (Horror, Monsters, etc.): Halloween has always been Elijah’s favorite holiday and he does not foresee this ever changing. He will watch any horror or supernatural thriller-style movie or TV show he can get his hands on, whether it’s something with high-brow aspirations, absolute garbage that may not even hit “so bad it’s good” territory, or somewhere in the middle. Although he isn’t a gamer, he will try to play video games if he hears they’re good horror titles (though he usually gets frustrated and settles for watching let’s plays). He’s likewise not picky about the horror literature he reads, though he has a distinct bias toward anything with an explicitly queer bent. He likes to keep up on new media of all these kinds, but also stands by the classics; the SFX may not have aged well, and the attitudes—whether explicit or implied—about race, gender, and/or sexuality might leave a lot to be desired (he’s looking at YOU,
Psycho and
Silence of the Lambs), but the classics influenced their respective genres in big ways and he still wants to know these through-lines, regardless of how much he does or doesn’t respect or enjoy any particular example.
Horror makes Elijah feel things more intensely than any other genre. Monsters
speak to him on a deeper, more viscerally meaningful level than most other fictional characters. Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos, is his boyfriend, thank you for understanding, and if Will Graham is gonna be a prissy little b***h, then Eli is happy to take Bad Doctor Lecter off his hands. Hey, fam, he just got his hands on a copy of a notoriously questionable martial arts/horror movie from the Hong Kong scene of the 1960s, it’s loosely based on some old folktale and it’s been re-subbed by a fan who did a better translation than the official subtitles. Do you want to watch it with him?
don’t get strung out by the way i look, don’t judge a book by its cover (Drag): Once upon a time, Elijah didn’t get cast in a play and he has decided to make it everyone else’s problem for the next foreseeable eternity.
That’s not really the story of how he came into drag, but he likes telling it anyway. Back here in reality, Elijah came into drag in the same way as a lot of people (sneaking out to bars, give or take a fake ID, and hanging around
some drag artist in particular until he got up the nerve to ask her about putting him up in drag). Since then, he has been actively involved in events with his drag family (organizing performances, keeping up with everybody, helping workshop a look or a number, sending random photos related to old inside jokes with texts like “Is this you”) and with the wider drag/queer scene in Destiny City. This has become even more pronounced since the drag sibling who first put him up in anything “abruptly went missing” back in April 2024, following a period of Reiki gradually pulling back from some of his usual activities. Elijah doesn’t really know what’s up with that, other than not believing the “totally went missing, might be dead, who knows” story for various reasons, but since there’s slack to be picked up, he’s picking it up.
His personal drag style as Dorian Gay is extremely ********, toying with the stylings of drag queens and drag kings alike, and sometimes throwing anything that resembles a human gender out the window in favor of doing some weird s**t with monster makeup and homebrew special effects. As he likes to introduce himself, he is the beautiful, gender-transcendent nightmare that your parents warned you about.
i read it in the “tiger beat” (Zine-Making): Elijah Suzuki has a lot of opinions. His life would probably be a lot easier if he didn’t have so many opinions, but alas, he does. Some of said opinions, however, are not adequately expressed through his preferred media of “drag artistry” and “running his mouth around people,” and this is why Elijah started learning how to make zines. He can write whatever poetry or fiction or op-eds he wants, illustrate it in whatever way he wants, then put the whole thing together in a fun little leaflet. Sometimes, he goes the whole nine yards by breaking out actual layout software to make a fancy PDF version, which he then puts actual time into binding properly. A lot of the time, though, Elijah lays out his zines by hand, slaps them on the photocopier at the library, and then folds them up by hand, maybe reinforcing the “binding” with string or staples.
He has never made any money off of this, largely because he “distributes” his zines by leaving them on tables at drag shows, putting a stack out at a local coffee shop with a “FREE ZINES” sign, or shoving them in people’s windshield wipers like he’s distributing a religious tract about hot dads or why you should give your delivery drivers better tips or whatever. Elijah doesn’t care. Money isn’t as important as the simple joy of making and sharing zines.
the cards, the cards, the cards will tell (Tarot): As with a lot of things he has ever been interested in, Elijah was first drawn to tarot because it made his parents very, very mad. Tarot stuck around, though, because he deeply enjoys the wide array of styles in interpreting the cards and the intense debates about things like how the cards interact with each other/affect each other’s meanings, the unique “personalities” of different decks, which spreads are best for which sorts of questions, etc. He can’t add to his collection of decks very often, but when he
can justify splurging on a new one, he’s over the moon about it for weeks and spends a lot of time getting to know the deck. While he does charge for readings on his Etsy page, he’ll give them to his friends for free just to share with them (and usually antsy for them to push back at his interpretations because he thinks a reading is more constructive when the querent actively contributes to the process).
Virtues: without obsession, life is nothing (Passionate/Enthusiastic): Elijah is a very feisty, fiery person, who usually has no trouble motivating himself and keeping himself going. When he takes on a project, he throws himself into it 125%. He cares very deeply about people, causes, activities, etc., and he doesn’t want to hide that care from anybody. Approaching a problem or a difficult situation, to him, always sounds like an opportunity, so he’s going to meet it head-on and try his very best to make things turn out as well as possible. And you’re coming with him! You and Elijah can do this together! Go team! Go, fight, win!
i’m going to be frank with you ‘cause i don’t know who else will (Honest): Yeah, Elijah has heard of the notion that you should play your cards close to the chest and maybe not tell people how you earnestly feel sometimes—but he thinks that’s garbage and he isn’t going to do it. He doesn’t like feeling censored or stifled, so rather than inflict those feelings on himself, he just lives his truth and tells people what he really thinks. You will always know where you stand with Elijah, and if you’re looking for genuine criticism on things you could improve about something, he’s your man. In the interests of being constructive, he will also tell you the things you did that he liked and he might try to make the phrasing not as harsh as it could be? But he’ll still tell you openly what needs work because pretending
nothing needs work won’t help.
ain’t nobody ********’ with my clique (Loyal): Elijah is ride-or-die loyal to the people he cares about. He’s always ready to throw down in defense of them or their honor, and he’s always ready to come make a special delivery of a care package or spend quality time with them. Do you need someone to hold your hair while you’re throwing up? Elijah is right here and he volunteers for this job. Whatever you need, all you have to do is ask. Oh, you need him to drop what he’s doing in the middle of the night to hold your hand because you got dumped? He will do it with no questions asked (aside from maybe “do you want me to key the b***h’s car”). Because you’re amazing, and you’re wonderful, and Elijah needs you to know that you’re very important to him.
because you’re beautiful and you’re young, you deserve to have the best in life (Cheerleader): Do you need some extra encouragement? Okay, Elijah is here to help. He’s revved up for whatever project you’re working on, even if it doesn’t personally involve him at all, and he’s ready to remind you of how great you are whenever you need to hear it. No self-doubt allowed here! If you say something that sounds too negative about yourself, Elijah will counter it by pointing out all the reasons why that doesn’t sound correct to him. If you feel disheartened about where you are in life or what’s going on for you, he will be your personal hype squad and keep being relentlessly positive at you until you listen to him. True, he won’t hesitate to deliver constructive criticism when you need it, but ultimately, that’s all about helping you realize that you’re better than you think you are and making sure that you can do your best.
Flaws:he knows everybody’s business. that’s why his hair is so big, it’s full of secrets (Nosy, Invasive, What Are Boundaries, etc.): Sometimes, people like to establish limits on what they will or won’t discuss with others, or other boundaries for the sake of their comfort……and Elijah often likes to treat said limits like a personal challenge. He looks at people’s personal walls and thinks “Oh, I can jump over that, no problem.” If the walls are ten feet high, he knows where to find a ladder, just give him a minute. No question is too much, no limit is so sacrosanct that it can’t be ignored because he wants to know something, and things are only off-limits for being repeated with others if he is explicitly told, at least three times, that you don’t want him to do this. On the plus, he’s not a hypocrite about this, both oversharing on the regular and actively inviting people to ask him the sorts of invasive personal questions most people think are rude?
But, like, that’s still a pretty lousy “upside” here, unless you are extremely interested in his latest crackpot theory about the Destiny City reservoir cryptid or how much he wants to be a sugar baby to a Hot Dad.
answer me! you’re not speaking from the damn camera, you have a mind! do you think she deserved it? (Confrontational): One of the only things Elijah has failed to learn from his drag mother or any of his drag siblings is how to throw shade. Because shade, proper shade, isn’t simply observing someone’s flaws and cattily commenting on them. Shade requires a level of finesse that, to paraphrase Dorian Corey, doesn’t tell you that you’re ugly because it doesn’t need to, because you
know that you’re ugly. Which is great and all, but Elijah Suzuki does not have the time or the patience for that nonsense. Being two-faced and passive-aggressive is what his parents do, and truly, he does not want any of that in his life. Why can’t he take his problems right to someone’s busted face and directly, unequivocally
tell them that they’re ugly? If they’re messing around with him—or worse, if they’re messing with any of the folks that he considers His People—then why
shouldn’t he fight them about it? Come at him, bro!
Basically, don’t ask him to do anything diplomatic unless you’re actively trying to start a war.
monique was NOT here as a friend of yours, she’s a friend of MINE, darling! (Jealous/Clingy): Elijah is ride-or-die loyal to the people he cares about, and he expects the same from them. Maybe not exactly the same, because he
does understand that some people do not have the physical or financial ability to come deliver care packages in the middle of the night (financially speaking, it would often be smarter for him to do less of that too). But he expects his care and his loyalty to be given back in an equitable amount of care and loyalty, and he doesn’t always remember that “spending time with someone else” is not the same thing as “ignoring Elijah, deliberately blowing him off, trying to get rid of him, etc.” When he feels ignored, you will know about it because he will start whining and trying to say
“Meeee, pay attention to ME” without using those words exactly. He will probably lash out at whoever your “new friend” is (even if said “new friend” is actually your cousin whom you haven’t seen in months). Feeling like he’s being replaced makes him quickly lose his grip on anything remotely resembling rational behavior, and usually ends in a giant mess and Elijah trying to apologize and explain himself like “Okay, I might have overreacted.”
when you see the world through rose-colored glasses, all those red flags just look like flags (Overly Idealistic): Elijah knows very well that things will not always work out for the best just because you think they should—but you can’t be blamed for assuming that he doesn’t know this. Despite knowing that sometimes, people are jerks and sometimes, life sucks for no actual reason, Elijah actively chooses to embrace looking at the world as if the glass is not just half-full but outright overflowing with Good Things. Of course people will always choose to be their best selves (most of them are not his parents or literal fascists, so they will, of course, be interested in being cool to others). Of course everything will work out for the best; it simply does not make sense for anything else to happen, in the weird, rose-colored alternate reality that Elijah chooses to live in. This also feeds into why he can be so confrontational: oh, someone decided to kill his vibe by
not being their best self in a way that he doesn’t like? Jail for one-thousand years is not enough; Elijah has to fight them.
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