#outofunderdogs

( disclaimer!: all of this was the canon decided to take place after those three months of waiting to be reborn!! if you still want to have talked with eli at all in that time, or have any ideas/want to join in on some things eli gets into post-despair, shoot me a message!!) 

New Home, New Beginnings

After their grand escape from Gaia and being able to enter Tokyo with Nara's aid, Elijah, with Ume, decided the best course of action was to immediately look for some sort of place to have shelter amongst the governmental ruin. 

The pooled together what money they had, managing to get into Elijah's savings, and managed to find a place in Tokyo well within their price range. It was two bedrooms, nothing fancy, but it wasn't terrible either. It was comfortable, and a great start. Plus, they're close to Ms. Mori, ayo.~

I mean, unless there's some sort of thing in Tokyo that keeps them from staying like?? ? If it was found out they were the Collective's property that had escaped and were snuck in by Nara... then they'd probably just. End up becoming nomads.

Elijah, after giving Ume a whole schpeal about how they needed them and how, after everything, they couldn't just leave their friends out there when they had no where in mind to turn to, ended up inviting both Alphonse and Riko to stay with them. (it probably would have been more but al's already on the couch... sorry kid...) 

They all get along weirdly well??? Ume and Eli get the biggest bedroom of course (no one wants to walk in on that lbr...), Riko gets the other tinier bedroom, and Al...well he kinda gets the whole living room congrats bud !!! 

They end up cooking for each other. Eli wakes up super early like always and makes them breakfast usually. Riko helps sometimes. He goes all out too like... freakin' pancakes and smoothies with fresh fruit to start the day. The benefits of living with Eli...

They have family game nights??? Like once a week. Riko and Eli get REALLY COMPETITIVE WITH THEM and it shocked Ume and Al at first but Ume ends up just... using that to pull out a win in the end. Al just... kinda smiles and goes along probably... poor baby. 

Family movie nights too??? Probably. Eli probably get them all to watch romcoms a lot. Claims its because they're ridiculous and easy to laugh at and make fun of because they're so corny... but secretly really likes them and cries at every one like a NERD. 

They basically just... learn to live with the past horror that's happened to them, using each other as mutual supports to get over what they need to. It's just... a really sweet household and rEALLY HELPFUL TO ALL OF THEM. It's just great... I love these four oh my god...

Homecoming

Once things are settled in Tokyo, Elijah does his best to sneak out of the city and fly over to the Democratic Republic of Congo. (with ume of course )

Thankfully, I doubt the fighting and anarchy would have reached there?? At the very least not to Bibi and Tuma's smaller village. 

So they would have been able to meet up with them!! Yay!! Happy, tear-filled reunions all around !! 

After Tuma notices Eli's gauges are gone and his tattoo, Elijah explains what really happened to all of them, and the fact that, yeah. He really did die, but is now a clone of his past self. It was TERRIFYING to bring up at first, but as anyone who know Tuma or Bibi would expect, they just shrugged it off. It didn't matter what body he was in now. He was still Elijah. He was still with them.

They love Ume too holy shit. Especially Bibi. Bibi tries to trick her into letting her make her a wedding outfit. Too bad Eli noticed and started freaking out... another time Bibi... another time... 

Eli probably??? Ends up getting his ears re-pierced and starts on getting his tattoos back. Probably new tattoos though. New life, fresh start and all that... 

Operation: Rekindle 

Seeing the deplorable conditions the world is in upon their re-entrance, Elijah is heartbroken. Humanity...the thing he loved so much despite all the pain and moral dilemmas it caused him, was in absolute shambles. The light it always had at the end of it's tunnel was flickering, faltering, with the civil wars that the Collective and Doctrina Artifice were creating. 

He couldn't just sit by and let the light be snuffed out, not without trying.

So, he came up with a plan. He was going to try and bring back the light of humanity in a peaceful way, through word. He would try to rekindle it, through his videos and speeches. 

He knew it was dangerous, god he did. He knew just putting his face out there again might paint a fuchsia bulls-eye right on his chest, and that he might be putting those he was living with in terrible danger... so he asked them if they were okay with it. They were, albiet maybe reluctantly. So... he started small.

He wasn't sure how many people still followed his vlog, not after his long absence and the hundreds of worried messages and questions about next updates that he received, but he logged on. And he made a post. A video. Explaining that the Collective had done something terrible, and he had been caught up in it. He then went on to make a speech about how, despite all the despair he witnessed firsthand, he still held onto hope. And that others could not lose that. Hope and light would be their biggest weapons against this turmoil around them. 

Even if they couldn't stop the fighting peacefully (and boy, did he stress peacefully), at the very least they could not let themselves succumb to it, and not lose their humanity with it. 

So, a small movement was started. Operation:Rekindle. It started on his vlog, Elijah uploading videos every few days encouraging people to do this and that to keep their hope alive, basically have virtual peace rallies on his now members-only vlog, for security reasons. 

But eventually...he'd move to start doing face-to-face, super secret rallies as well. He'd still be terrified for a while about doing anything too public, and getting the Collective's eye on him or his friends. He might get more public later on? ??  Idk I didn't think that far wh oops sorry.... 

Eventually they'd probably start having to move around anyways... to keep the Collective off their backs and to help spread the word... using money they earn from donations and their talents to rent places here and there as they need them... 

Something bad probably happens at one point?? ? Because they're going against the anarchy?? ? who know 

I didn't think s uper far into this I'm trahs bUT THIS ALREADY GOT TOO LONG SO

WOW OKAY SORRY ABOUT THIS NAOKS.... 

Elijah never talked with Naoki personally, so all his impressions and thoughts about him were dependent on his viewing him in trial, and also his relations to other people.

At first he very much wasn't a fan of him, not disliking him, but just a little peeved off by the fact that he was the one to suggest Alphonse clean off Lee's chest with his hair. Even if it did work in the end... it caused them both embarrassment, Alphonse more so since he had to take off his shirt as well, revealing his burns. 

But then Naoki proved time and time again just how intelligent he was, and he got together with Aqua, and Elijah appreciated how he dealt with the rowdy roughboy, and how Aqua seemed to calm down after being with him. So he gained a few points. 

He also gained a few points from being friends with Riko, who Elijah grew to appreciate immensely in the end. 

BUT THEN HE LEFT HER. 

HE LEFT HER WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT, EVEN AFTER THEY WERE PROVED TO BE SENTIENT STILL. 

Elijah was so angry over that, because he would see how it would affect Riko, even if the girl didn't want to show it. He knew it would hurt her, all of her friends leaving her, and calling those who stayed behind idiotic. And while he understood they wanted to just get out of there... 

WOAH DO THESE TWO NEED TO SORT SOME SHIT OUT

They were chill at first. Lee was one of the first people he saw in death, and was the one who proved to him they were still sentient, and still playing this game, and along with Riko tried to calm him down. Yeah, that's cool. He defended her in trial, and, despite not being able to totally forgive her actions, sympathized with her fear, and knew she was just acting out of it. She was still a good person, as proved by how many friends she made in a short period of time.

But then......... she done diddly did it. 

She used the "H" word on him. Dropped the bomb. "Hypocrite"... she turned him into a sorry, sobbing mess on the floor while his gf was getting executed. 

But she was completely right. And he knew she was completely right, and that's why he was so terrified.

He was so scared to talk to her after that. Well... perhaps scared isn't the right word. Unprepared? Anxious? Those might be better. The fact was, from then on out, Lee just became a reminder of his biggest character flaw he had, and the fact that it wasn't just himself that could see it anymore, that it was starting to affect others. And because of that, he didn't want to see her, no. Not until he could change. Not until he could make a difference in this game and prove to her that he wasn't just talk, but he could actually follow his words too. 

She was the first one who convinced him to combat his hypocrisy head-on, instead of just trying to hide it and brush it under the rug. 

He never thought of her any differently for the memory thing. 

What he did think of her differently for was cutting her freakin head off and sequentially making him forceably relive one of the most terrifying moments of his life. Thanks Lee.........

He never quite forgave her for that, mostly because he never could understand why she did it. It caused so much pain for so many people in that room and there... wasn't any reason for it in his mind. She just caused senseless pain to all parties involved. 

The drawing was nice though.... he'll treasure that. < 3

NO MATTER WHAT THEY DID, TAMAKI IS STILL CHILL IN ELI'S BOOK!!

Ever since the library where they made the change, albiet it was obviously strange and uncomfortable for them, to call Eli by his first name instead of his last, Elijah's held Tamaki in good regards. Sure, they don't have the best tact with people. Sure, they're kind of grouchy and cynical. But he still believed them to hide a wonderful light inside themself. 

Then the thing with Nicanor... and then after that the whole last Mastermind trial, where their uncaring attitude shown in full force... that pissed Elijah off. Which is saying something, to be able to get this boy angry with you. 

But if Elijah's anything, he's understanding, and forgiving. So once the tensions of the moment calmed, his anger would have disappeared, though he wouldn't forget about it entirely. 

And then he'd have found out FINALLY about them being together with Imogen, and he'd have like them even more. 

WOW OKAY KAHORI THOUGH.... 

Elijah only ever saw her at trials, and what he saw wasn't the... best of Kahori. By the time the games connected, a lot of shit had already happened, and it changed the both of them. Since he was busy lying on the ground half dead during Koyomi's trial, he first saw her only at Nanoka's trial so... the only thing Elijah ever saw Kahori as was sad, hurting and bitter. 

And it kind of hurt him? ?? 

He watched her a bit, not too much. There was too much else going on for him to focus but he still took notice of her. 

And god did he want to help her, or at least try. 

That poor girl lost someone so incredibly close to her, and Elijah knew how that felt, even though he had experienced it from the other way around. She needed someone to be there for her. She needed someone to care, and not just fuel her bitterness. 

But then she chose to leave them, and that hurt even more. 

AH YES.... the babes who never talked but actually had a pretty decent impact on each other. 

While Elijah never formally talked to Mitsu before the big trial at the end, he definitely respected her. A whole lot. Not only for being the one to call Monomi and save him from bleeding out and dying again but also for her title. God, does he respect that title immensely. She must have so much patience, so much faith, and so much love for others to devote herself to teaching people a subject that most others like to sweep under the rug, or giggle about in private. She truly must just want to help others, and god does he appriciate that in a person above all else. 

Takumi also put in good words for her, so that helped his impression as well!! 

He'd be SO FREAKIN GLAD to see them get together in the end, and after the big end trial, he'd definitely end up approaching her at one point to properly thank her for what she did. 

Also... double dates?? ? In the Animus?? ? Yes??  

I think they would end up getting along incredibly well, if given the chance, and when Elijah stopped overextending himself and actually could talk whoops. 

YO OKAY THE PEN PALS THOUGH......

I won't even get into how much Imogen meant to him and how much she actually did for his heart and his sanity before the game actually started, because that would be an entire essay on it's own. Her letters often times were this boys saving grace, his buoy in his torrential sea of uncertainty in himself, his ideals, and his humanity. She was the sister he never had, and often times the mother as well. His first baby crush was on her too, but because of the distance and Eli being a weenie it never went anywhere. If they had met in person before Hope's Peak though... he would have been ALL OVER THAT HELLO ATTRACTIVE AND HIS PERSONAL ANGEL. 

In the end, after game though... his thoughts for her never really changed from that. He stills sees her as that buoy, and he hopes he was able to be that for her as well. 

But then.... that flub. In the middle of the game. Remember that time where everyone voted for Imogen as mastermind? You never would have guessed that Elijah was the one behind it all. After visiting Arcadia and finding some things he thought to be too coincidental... his tendency to get hung up on things and over think (like what usually happens in his introductions) caused him to somehow connect Imogen to being possible mastermind? ??? And he told Ume and Alphonse to get them to snap him out of it and... they kinda just.... agreed and then.... Ume brought it up in trial and he pieced some coincidences together and... yeah.

He was never as relieved as when they were wrong though. 

He was terrified she wouldn't forgive him after it all, but was more than realized when things smoothed out. 

BUT THEN SHE DIED.

AND HE HAD /NO IDEA/. BECAUSE HE'S A GODDAMN DINGUS. 

After the huge MM trial he probably... went up to her and started sobbing and clinged onto her for a good twenty minutes at least. Even if they could come back to life she still had to go through all that pain and? ?? He felt like it was his fault. Not entirely, but in some way, he had a hand in her end. Because he had let himself get killed. Because he didn't go to Tartarus enough to talk with her. Because he wasn't the friend to her that she was to him.......

He would tell her all that too. If there's one person he's open to more than anyone else (perhaps even Ume sometimes), it's Imogen.