☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙ / jeon jungkook, twenty one, he/him, cis male / ⟶ welcome to the big top elijah wright! i heard that you go by aura and that you’re 21 and a trapeze artist? that’s pretty impressive, considering you’ve been with the circus for one year. i heard people say you were creative and adaptable, but also over emotional and impulsive, and that you remind them of bright eye makeup, scars covered by stage outfits and makeup, post-it note reminders. guess we’ll see if it’s true, eh?
hi guys, gals, and non-binary pals- how is everyone? the name is choerry and this is my precious baby elijah. i have been writing him forever and it’s super fun to keep reinventing him with each roleplay i play him in. his backstory is a little sad so please read the trigger warnings before continuing!
tw: mental illness, suicide attempt mention, homophobia, bullying, abortion mention, abuse
tl;dr: elijah wright is a trapeze artist from canada who had a terrible home life growing up. being bullied in high school for being adopted into a white family despite being asian and being homosexual, leading to an unsuccessful suicide attempt. though he came back from it and eventually found a passion for trapeze and joined the circus at age twenty.
elijah was born to a single mother and put up for adoption soon after his birth. it’s not that his mother wanted to, but rather she had to. originally, elijah’s father paid his birth mother to abort him and without his father knowing, his mother ran off with the money and left him for adoption. he has no korean name, no original birth name. just elijah george, given kindly by the hospital.
soon after, the wrights adopted elijah and raised him alongside an older sister. throughout his childhood, he was constantly compared to his sister delilah. it always seemed as if the girl was better at everything compared to him. this somehow leads his mother and father to choose favourites with himself being the favourite of his mother. she babied and spoiled elijah, but gave less attention to delilah in return. vice versa. delilah was treated the same way as elijah was. only by their father instead whilst elijah got almost no affection from him.
as a child, he was very lonely and lacked interest in most things relating to his schoolwork. his mother attempted to enroll him in basketball, taekwondo, among other sports. one that the young boy found a passion in however was gymnastics.
his father was very much against it at first, insisting that it was a “women’s sport” and discouraging his wife from letting their son pursue such a thing. there was almost a double standard in their household as there would be no comment when it came to delilah seemingly doing “masculine” activities.
his mother fought for him to be able to enroll, much against his father’s wishes. unlike her husband, his mother saw the twinkle in his eyes as he danced on the floor and swung on the horizontal bar (which soon became his favourite discipline). the boy was very much skilled and trained day and night in it-- gymnastics became his happy place.
however, no matter how skilled he was in gymnastics elijah’s grades began to slip. the boy was barely passing all of his courses while his sister was top of her class. of course the girl didn’t hold it against the younger boy but his father taunted him with the fact, provoking the son to grow to detest him.
with failing grades and gymnastics as a hobby, elijah slowly became a victim of bullying in his school. in his opinion, he always expected it to happen- if anything the boy thought he was asking for it with his hobby and passion. swinging around on that horizontal bar was the only thing that made the boy truly happy.
he realized he was gay when he was fourteen and fell in love with the most beautiful boy he’s ever seen at the gym. the boy was just about to confess his feelings at age fifteen, only for his love to move to another city across the country to begin to train for the olympics. of course, elijah was proud- but he was also crushed they never stayed in touch.
eventually, the bullying started to become more physical, evolving from the teasing nicknames to gay slurs and pushing him around. the boy too passive to prevent anything from happening- thinking that standing up for himself would only make things worse. the boy would go home and cry until his lungs burnt and his throat was raw. his mother stopped caring, soon siding with his father on most things out of fear that it would spark a huge blow up in the house. after all, it was easier to believe in the child that was succeeding beyond anyone’s expectation for their family rather than the closeted, depressed child.
he began sneaking out at night to go to the gym, to get his emotions out and be free of the household that seemed to be holding him in a chokehold.it was the days that he wanted to die the most, is when he bonded with his coach the most. the older man becoming his best friend, and the first person elijah felt the courage to come out to. the coach supported him more than his parents ever did, and in fact, began to coach the kid for free once he realized what kind of household he was in. the coach even went as far as suggesting that once he turned sixteen, elijah should attempt to be emancipated. obviously, the impulsive teen agreed.
eventually, messages regarding the topics of his homosexuality and pending attempt for emancipation was found by his mother on his phone. instead of sitting down with elijah himself, his mother told his father right away. this leads to a confrontation with his father, pushing him around and screaming in his face until elijah was in tears. because of this, the boy shakes in fear whenever someone raises their voice at him, occasionally even crying if it’s bad enough. his parents accuse him of being ungrateful, calling him a disgrace among other things. his father held him against the wall, forcing him to come out to his family as his father spat in his face.
this altercation caused the impulsive boy to attempt to take his own life in the bathroom of their home that same night. he survives thanks to his older sister’s vigilance in calling emergency services and getting him to the hospital on time. elijah ended up in psychiatric inpatients for the mandatory treatment after attempts, only choosing to voluntarily choose to stay longer for his only sake. his only visitor in that time was his coach, holding him up and encouraging the boy to find himself back at the gym once he got out.
and eventually, elijah dropped out of school to pursue gymnastics full time. his parents somehow agreeing to let him stay at the coach’s home rather than with them (perhaps they just wanted him out of their hair) and signing over guardianship until he was 18 to the coach. this was because the boy was not financially nor mentally capable of emancipation. his elder sister ended up going to university across the country and the two haven’t seen each other since. the coach and his family slowly became his new family, helping him recover steadily.
training and training until he began to grow bored of the horizontal bar, elijah began to grow an interest in circus arts, specifically trapeze. the coach enrolled him in the circus school in his city and he began to learn. the boy loved it, forming a dream to join a travelling circus one day. and in fact, he did.
at age twenty he finally joined cirque la luna and has been touring with them for a year since joining.
