burn down the disco

about.

cheating, parental death tw

the first son born to richard and joyce wray was always going to be named elliot. this was decided upon long before the couple even started trying to have a baby. it was richard's beloved father's name and his own middle name, so it was only right that it stay in the family.

when richard and joyce found out they were having a girl, they talked about other names, but joyce had a complicated pregnancy that made their doctor sure they wouldn't be able to have another, so they gave their daughter the name they would've given their son (and joyce thought it was modern of them, to give a girl a boy's name).

elliot vaguely remembers being doted upon through the first few years of her life. her parents didn't think they would be able to have another, so they funneled all of their love into their one. but then, when elliot was six, by what her parents would call a miracle, joyce gave birth to a son, milo.

if you asked elliot, she'd tell you that her parents never made any attempt to hide their favoritism for her brother, but they did try. richard inherited a shipping business based in aurora bay, which his father moved from LA quickly after AB was founded, and the wrays' self-styled modernity meant that they also had no qualms about passing the family business to their daughter. the eldest was still the eldest.

so elliot's childhood was comprised of everything that might constitute good grooming. tutors, tons of extracurriculars to give her a well-rounded skillset, and so on. but while elliot was stuck inside or being shuttled from one activity to the next with exacting expectations placed on everything she did, milo was allowed to do whatever he wanted and remained the apple of their parents' eye. he wasn't burdened by the same expectations, and yet, they were compared (mostly unfavorably, in elliot's case) at every turn.

the only thing that their parents ever enforced that elliot actually came to love was music. they put her in piano classes with a stuffy teacher who eventually turned out not to be so stuffy and ended up mentoring her from age six to the day she graduated high school.

some light teenage rebellion came naturally by the time elliot got to high school. she started to fight with her parents more often, skipped lessons, definitely dyed her hair a weird color, ignored curfew, snuck boys and then also girls, and then just girls into the house. it frustrated her parents, but ultimately they figured it was harmless, a phase. as long as the good breeding they put so much time and money into came back around, they'd be fine.

elliot had no plans for that good breeding to do anything of the kind. she went to college, UCLA, and barely even came home for holidays. her parents didn't know she was graduating with a degree in music instead of business until they showed up at graduation. there wasn't a fight, really — elliot told them she was staying in LA and already had a job and an apartment lined up with some friends. she was a grown woman and she was going to live her own life, and she left before they could argue.

her years in LA were hard and, of course, her access to her family's money was completely cut off. the job she'd told her parents about was really waitressing by day and bartending by night, with sporadic gigs as a session musician thanks to some connections she'd made in college, but at least she was doing what she wanted.

gigs as a session musician started coming more regularly the longer she kept at it and the more people she schmoozed (the good breeding at least made her a very good glad-hander). she fell in with a couple of acts in particular, went on the road with some of them a few times.

she frequently wanted what they had — to be the center of attention, the star, but as talented pianist/guitarist/do-it-all musician as she was, she wasn't a songwriter, nor was she a singer (at least, not to a star-making level, but she can carry a tune). so she made a fitful peace with it; she was very good at one thing, and she let that guide what ended up being a pretty successful career.

although she never completely shed the youthful resentment she had for her brother, the distance helped. she stayed in touch with him more than her parents over the years and would still come down to aurora bay sometimes to visit. that became more regular after he had a baby, whose existence created yet another fitful peace between elliot and the rest of her family after their nearly twenty-year estrangement.

elliot quickly fell in love with her niece, penelope, but unfortunately also fell into bed with bernie, milo's wife. elliot's renewed proximity to her family brought up a lot of old, nasty emotions, and the time and distance had made everyone more bitter. she didn't really think when it came to bernie, she just wanted and then acted on it. but then it just. kept happening. feelings entered the equation late in the game, but they were there — as smug as elliot was about the whole situation, she wouldn't have kept doing it if they weren't.

and then everything blew up in 2019, when milo inevitably found out about the affair. elliot at least had the decency to be a tad ashamed, but she was mostly just mad that they got caught in the first place. although the mess of it all was more than enough reason to flee, unwillingness to let bernie bear the brunt of the fallout alone (and a lot of pettiness) made her stay.

she did leave and went back to LA when bernie eventually ended things with them, not because she wasn't expecting it but because she just needed to put some distance between them.

her mother and then, soon after, her father's deaths brought her back to AB in late 2023 (the obituary read that richard had died from a broken heart, but he was actually just a lifelong unhealthy eater and went because of a heart attack). to elliot's utter shock, they actually hadn't completely written her out of the will, though the split of their assets between her and milo was about 75/25.

she was ready to take the money and run, but then there were the issue of the family business and the house, which richard had, bafflingly, left to both of his kids at an equal share. elliot immediately wanted to sell everything and reap the reward, but milo wanted to keep them. there was no way elliot was going to keep letting her brother get everything he wanted, so they've been at war about it ever since.

she gave up her place in LA and used her share of the money from the will to buy sharky's, a condo in crystal cove, and to keep an estate planning attorney on retainer.

personality

+ headstrong, independent, meticulous

- dishonest, petty, brusque

tidbits.

she did the guitar on pink pony club back in 2022 before chappell roan blew up. it's her favorite anecdote to pull out whenever she's talking to someone in their twenties

became a voting member of the recording academy last year and votes in the rock/metal/alternative categories. broken man by st. vincent was definitely on her ballot for the best rock song this year, mostly because it deserved it but also because that one gif of annie clark and her guitarist has rewired sumn in elliot's brain

has a small scar throughout her right eyebrow from when she and milo were messing around as kids and a vase fell and shattered. it probably never should've scarred, but she kept picking at it so it never healed right

keeps a close curatorial eye on the bands booked at sharky's. she's willing to give anyone a first look, but if they bomb? never coming back

has four piercings on each ear and a massive, intricate back tattoo that took four sessions to complete

won the 'best dressed' superlative in high school and it's still true

wears a carabiner on the left side of her belt iykyk

big hockey fan thanks to a college girlfriend. go kings

has occasionally dipped her toes into producing, but always for friends on demo singles or stuff low-stakes like that. she likes it and the creative control but hasn't gotten many opportunities to do it

has always had pyromaniac inclinations tbh. it's always been little stuff and contained when she has indulged, but she's definitely tempted to just burn her childhood house down and make it look like an accident for the insurance money

was briefly in a throuple with janelle monae and tessa thompson but can't talk about it bc she signed an NDA

connections.

ex sister-in-law of/made a cuckold of her brother with @efficiiency

employer/only mildly disgruntled mentor of @drewohara

childhood best friends but sumn gay was definitely goin on lowkey/it's complicated with @delilahcarreno

pseudo older sis type beat with @paxton-brady through his sister

close friend of @xaviermattthews, @vanessagable / sometime submergence collaborator

made @jasrussell audition for a regular standup gig at sharky's SNL style