APPLICATION

OOC

NAME: Ilana
AGE: 18+
CONTACT: ltmutiny
CHARACTER(S): N/A

IC

NAME: Edwin Courcey
AGE: 25
SUITABILITY: N/A
CANON: The Last Binding
CANON POINT: A Marvelous Light, end of chapter 15

ABILITIES: Edwin is a magician, though one of little power. Unfortunately, the magic system in The Last Binding is pretty well laid out in HOW magic is accomplished but not necessarily in the scope of what is possible. This is a handful of spells/kinds of spells that are featured in the series, but not an exhaustive list:
- detecting locations of people
- clocks that run on magic
- writing instruments that take dictation on their own
- warding spells (to keep either magical or non-magical people out of a place, apparently by making them feel as if continuing forward is WRONG/making them feel unwell, not by physically preventing them from entering)
- erasing memories
- creating fire
- stopping/restarting a heart
- illusions
- levitation
- transmuting/transforming objects
- invisible shields ("umbrella spells")
- invisible knives(?) (Edwin "cradles a small sharpness" at one point and cuts himself with it)
- freezing a lake
- mending broken objects
- "echo" spells (being able to see a image of people - maybe also animals? - in a defined space and time period in the past)
- healing spells

Again, it's worth noting that Edwin himself has very little power, and as he explains it, it's something that can be exhausted, like strength. There are "great spells", workings of great power, but Edwin just can't do them. (For example, freezing a lake is something ANOTHER magician does, someone with much more power than Edwin.) There are a few times in the course of the first book at least where Edwin knows how to do a spell but has to rely on a more powerful magician to actually do it, or it is implied that he would have to, like erasing memories.

VICES:

• socially inept
  Edwin is just Not Good With People, even by his own admission. One piece of reflection we get early on is that he "doesn't deal well with most people". He prefers solitude (or thinks he does, anyway) and books over conversation. He is "woefully out of practice making friendly overtures". A lot of this has to do with the environment in which he was raised, or more precisely the fact that he was bullied and abused (emotionally and physically) by his older brother for years. This has led to him emotionally distancing himself from other people, which hasn't done his social graces any favors.
  
  Still, some of it is just who Edwin is. He tends to focus on the practicalities of a situation and forget being polite to people in the course of conversation. When he witnesses Robin being affected by a curse that's been put onto his arm - one that's meant to cause pain - his response is "Well, at least now we know what it does. Good." He gets pushy with Robin again after finding out that Robin is seeing glimpses of the future, without seeming to take into account that Robin might be tired (it's at the end of a long day, where Robin has suffered another attack via the curse and has been dumped headfirst into a magical house party). In a later book, upon meeting someone with a new and novel ability he launches right into speculating about it and it's only when he's prompted by Robin that he performs social niceties ("muttered pleasedtomeetyou as if it were a word in another language").
• mistrusting
  A description of Edwin's character from another character's perspective: "He had a way of looking at you as if he saw all your worst qualities and was waiting to have them turned onto himself like knives". Again, this is really largely to do with the way (most) of his family has treated him, especially his older brother. His sister is much less actively malicious but is very self-absorbed and seemingly uncaring about the feelings of others. His father resents him for being born with so little magic. As a result of all of these things, Edwin really, really feels as if he can't open himself up to other people, lest he eventually fall victim to them hurting him as well. In fact, the central romantic conflict of the book is Edwin being reluctant to really let Robin in, holding him at arms length (or at least some length) for most of the story. Even when they have sex for the first time, Edwin thinks "if they both wanted this, then surely [he] could have it without giving too much away of himself....he could still scrape together a few ways to keep himself safe". There are so many descriptions of Edwin as shielded or shuttered throughout the text. He just fundamentally does not really want to be known by others and getting him to let down his guard is a long struggle.
• lack of self-worth
  Firstly, being the one non-powerful magician in a family that is otherwise one of the oldest and most powerful magical families does a hell of a number on your self-confidence, especially when your family and the people around you obviously resent or pity you for it. Edwin has definitely internalized that, given that we get a mention of his "own disgust at what he was compared to what he should be".
  
  But even otherwise, Edwin doesn't seem to give himself much grace in anything. He often thinks of himself as cowardly ("Edwin Courcey wasn't a fool. It was the one thing he had to pride himself on. He certainly couldn't congratulate himself on his pluck") and mocks himself for things that are actually kind of impressive ("And I thought I was so ingenious when I came up with this one on my own", about creating a library cataloging system of his own when he was 12, just because Melvin Dewey happened to have created a similar system 10 years before he was born). In a later book, someone else observes of Edwin: "there was no self-belief to act as a shield. For Edwin the insults had been real and raw and grinding him down since the beginning of his life". Edwin just really, really doesn't think much of himself at all. Except for his own intellect. (And even then sometimes, as evidenced, he can be self-deprecating about that too.)

VIRTUES:

• intelligent
  Edwin's just smart!! Again, he was twelve when he devised a cataloguing system like the Dewey Decimal System and he constructed a spell to go with that can either send a book ladder to the right portion of the shelves or physically pull the correct books to him. He creates spells that may not be used by any other British magician - though that may partially be because as he says, British magic has gotten very incurious and uncreative - and he is the one who ultimately unravels the central mystery of the first book, despite a lot of people trying to work it out. He may not work things out immediately but he does work them out and usually before other people. At least academic things.
• principled
  Edwin isn't necessarily a kind person, but he is a good one. Towards the beginning of the book, before Robin is attacked and has a curse set on him, Edwin plans to use a potion to erase his memory. However, when he learns that Robin has been attacked, he realizes that he can't do that because leaving Robin with a curse on his arm and no memory of what's going on would be cruelty that Edwin doesn't believe it. He's the only one who seems to be upset when Robin falls prey to magic that is either harmful or takes advantage of him after that - once when his sister hits Robin with a charmed arrow by mistake, once when a combination of spells puts Robin's life in danger. He also prevents Robin's sister from having her memory erased by Edwin's sister. Really, he's mostly being a decent person (though there's also evidence that he's also a caring person, like lunging across a train carriage to be by Robin's side when he suffers a bout of pain via the curse) but considering he's surrounded by plenty of people who aren't very decent, it is something to note!
• dedicated
  "That was it, the word that fit Edwin better than controlled. He was thoughtful, dedicated and precise." - Robin Blythe
  
  Despite his insistence that he's a coward, Edwin doesn't let go of a thing once he's sunk his teeth into it. He decides that someone has to figure out Robin's curse and get rid of it, decides that person is him, and sets about doing that despite the fact that it puts him in more than a few situations that are really objectionable to him. First, he takes Robin to see his (Edwin's) ex who - the last time they talked - was incredibly unkind to him, who he knows is going to be unkind to him. (And he is.) Then he takes him to his family's home, where he knows that he's going to be subjected to the same kind of behavior that he always is. He keeps working at and researching the curse on Robin's arm despite multiple setbacks. And he doesn't have to do any of this! As Robin points out: "I daresay most magical chaps would have simply tipped me into the hands of that Assembly of yours, instead of spending so much time and effort trying to help me."

SURVEY

▶ I REGULARLY MAKE NEW FRIENDS.
▷ 5 - INCREDIBLY NO. As discussed in his vices: Edwin is bad at people. (Also he's sort of used to not making friends by choice as a result of his brother's emotional abuse, since that was used against him when he was younger.)

▶ SEEING OTHER PEOPLE CRY MAKES ME WANT TO CRY TOO.
▷ 5 - Edwin is not unsympathetic but it's implied in later books that he has a sort of unsentimental side (specifically, that he's not a "kind-hearted" person) so no, he isn't about to get chocked up just because someone else is.

▶ I OFTEN MAKE A BACKUP PLAN FOR A BACKUP PLAN.
▷ 4 - While Edwin is pretty meticulous with research, he doesn't seem overly concerned with planning too far ahead, or at least not regularly.

▶ I USUALLY STAY CALM, EVEN WHEN UNDER A LOT OF PRESSURE.
▷ 4 - Not really. Edwin can force himself into calmness, but his reaction to stress tends to be that he shows that stress. In response to various times that he and Robin are in danger, he "rows with panic and little grace", has an expression that is a "curdled mix of fear and relief" in the wake of an attempt to lift Robin's curse that goes wrong, his hands shake after he's been attacked and he's trying to figure out what to do next. He can perform under pressure, but that doesn't mean he performs calmly.

▶ I AM VERY SENTIMENTAL.
▷ 4 - Honestly Edwin doesn't have much to BE sentimental about. His childhood was Not Great and I think on the whole he has probably trained himself out of getting too attached to things.

▶ EVEN A SMALL MISTAKE CAN CAUSE ME TO DOUBT MY OVERALL ABILITIES AND KNOWLEDGE.
▷ 3 - Definitely not his KNOWLEDGE (Edwin knows that he's pretty smart) but he does tend to beat himself up when he makes mistakes. (For example, when he uses a drying spell on Robin, his love interest, that wipes him out for using any more magic for the day and then Robin finds himself in danger, Edwin's response is "Why hadn't he thought, why was he so useless".)

▶ I AM MORE INCLINED TO FOLLOW MY HEAD THAN MY HEART.
▷ 1 - And how. Though Edwin does sometimes have pangs of wanting to follow his heart, he's been taught time and time again that it's a bad idea and that he should approach things rationally and as distantly as possible. Most of the time he succeeds.

▶ I AM PRONE TO WORRYING THAT THINGS WILL TAKE A TURN FOR THE WORSE.
▷ 1 - Absolutely, especially when it comes to interactions with other people. Edwin is always on his guard for an interaction to turn hostile. See: mistrusting.

▶ I ENJOY WATCHING PEOPLE ARGUE.
▷ 5 - His entire childhood was being bullied so no. He very actively dislikes arguments, either ones he's involved in or ones he's witnessing.

▶ I TEND TO AVOID DRAWING ATTENTION TO MYSELF.
▷ 2 - More or less yes. Again, thanks to the bullying.

▶ I OFTEN DO THINGS AT THE LAST POSSIBLE MOMENT.
▷ 4 - Edwin is definitely not a procrastinator - he likes getting things accomplished. There's definitely no textual evidence for him putting off anything, but then again there's definitely an urgency built into the action of the book. That being said, it feels appropriate to assume that he might put off non-urgent social matters. (There is a part of the book where he thinks to himself that if he'd been braver, he would have made social overtures to a character who is murdered at the start of the book. Presumably it's something he wanted - he was in love with the man - but never worked himself up to.)

▶ I FIND IT EASY TO EMPATHIZE WITH A PERSON WHOSE EXPERIENCES ARE VERY DIFFERENT FROM MINE.
▷ 3 - Honestly it's a bit hard to say since canonically we don't see Edwin interacting with anyone WILDLY different from him. The MOST different we get are Maud and Robin, who are still British people of a certain class, even if they're non-magical. That being said, aside from his inherent difficulty in interacting with other people in general, Edwin probably does the BEST job of empathizing with Maud and Robin than almost all of the magicians we meet (at least in the first book of the series). At the very least, he sees them as whole people and not playthings.

▶ I BECOME BORED OR LOSE INTEREST WHEN THE DISCUSSION GETS HIGHLY THEORETICAL.
▷ 5 - Edwin LOVES theory, give him theory and puzzles and scholarly discussion. Honestly it's one of the times where he gets much better at talking to people.

▶ I RARELY FEEL INSECURE.
▷ 5 - He's been told his whole life that's he's basically worthless and he believes it. He's basically always insecure. (Except, again, in his knowledge. He's pretty secure in his knowledge.)

▶ I AM STILL BOTHERED BY MISTAKES I MADE A LONG TIME AGO.
▷ 2 - Fascinatingly for someone with such a low opinion of himself, there's no real textual evidence of Edwin stewing over past mistakes. That being said, it isn't hard to extrapolate that in moments of duress or when he's really feeling shitty, he might reflect back on places where he went wrong and feel stupid about them.