So What DID Happen to Poet Boy?? ?
SO! Since there is no way I'll have time to thread before endgame posting ends, I decided to do this !! Everything you ever wanted (or didn't want) to know about what Elijah gets into post-despair, under the cut!!!
( 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
W OW TO ALL OF YOU WHO READ THIS ALL DANG... YOU DESERVE A MEDAL AND A SMOOCH. SO SINCE I DON'T HAVE MEDALS.... SMOOCHES YOUR FACE !!!