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[arcanegrasp]

Elias is often out and about, but he's always glad to hear out anyone who needs to speak with him. Visit him in his home within the lighthouse, catch him out in the bustling city streets, or leave him a letter! He'll get back to you as soon as he can.

((OOC: Gonna get a proper code for this later, don't worry about the format now!!))

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[lasthumanvoice]

"No--I mean. Yes. I mean." Cecil takes a deep breath. "I know you. I have known you. You do not know me. Arguably, I have only known you within the world of a dream, but it was you that I knew, and we cared deeply for another in that time and space. We were friends. Good friends. It was in the time of your past, but it wasn't not real, and I had to find you again."

Right, that sounds perfectly sane.

[arcanegrasp]

Elias listens with furrowed brows, having gone to take a sip of his tea. It didn't make it very far, as he got thoroughly, profoundly confused by the explanation.

It was the past, but not his past, but a dream, but real, and in that very-real-not-real-past, they were friends.

For a moment, he's quiet, and when he speaks, it's all concern. No patronizing, no mockery, just genuine, uninhibited worry.

"Sir, I'm--- sorry, but--- how long were you out in the cold, exactly?"

[lasthumanvoice]

"Elias Coldwood. Doctor Elias Coldwood. You brilliant skeptic, I'm not insane. And I do have proof. As the dream was ending, I told you there'd be an after. You gave me memories to carry, and a way to ensure you'd know that I had spoken to a real you. Something only you would know. A quest. I'm not good at quests, not much of a hero. But here, hold out your hand."

You know how 90% of the time if a guy holds out a closed fists with the fingers down, a girl's going to expect him to hand her a bug? That's the gesture Cecil makes now, with the locket curled in his fist.

[arcanegrasp]

If it were any warmer time of year, Elias would be certain that Cecil was, in fact, going to hand him a bug. It was a very bug-gifting posture. (Not that Elias wouldn't want to be handed a bug--- he'd love it--- but it wouldn't help the "this guy is freezing to the point of insanity" argument.)

He's uncertain, and it's written all over his face, but he opens his hand beneath the curled fist, and readies himself for what exactly proof could be.

[lasthumanvoice]

And there's a note of apology in Cecil's expression as he presses the locket into Elias's hand.

"It's a memorial."

[arcanegrasp]

Elias' skeptical expression shatters like a pane of glass. He holds the locket tenderly, and turns it over in his hands. It was strange, how something so small, something he hadn't seen in what felt like an age, now, could undo him so thoroughly.

It's crusted with sea salt as he opens it, and he looks at the photo behind the glass. He can only bear to look at the girl with dark curls in it for a moment before he closes it again.

"I... I never told anyone where this was, or that I went back to the bluffs. Not even my ex-husband. How...?" He murmurs, clearly shaken to his core. There's a million things he wants to ask, to try to understand what exactly is going on here, a situation so far from his understanding, but they collide all at once, leaving him speechless.

It's only after a moment does he speak, awash in an emotion he can't even begin to describe.

"...What is your name, my friend?"

[lasthumanvoice]

"Cecil Gershwin Palmer."

He takes a slow, careful sip of the tea, melting a little as he swallows. Oh, warmth.

"I know everything I've told you makes no sense. But it is true. You also told me that when you crashed your ship, your failure wasn't only as a captain, but as a father to your daughter. It was the heaviest thing you could think of, in that heavy moment."

[arcanegrasp]

Elias swallows roughly, glancing back down to the locket in his hand. Coupled with that, the sight of it is too much - he tucks it gently away in the breast-pocket of his shirt.

"...I wouldn't have said something like that unless it was a truly heavy moment," He murmurs, quiet in his shock. "But no one else would have been able to tell you such a thing. Not that I'm aware of. And..." He trails off, letting out a quiet, almost bitter-laugh, at his own expense. "Of course, if I were particularly desperate to be believed, I would dredge up something like that. Not your fault, of course, and--- hah, as much as I'd like to say that I wish my dream-self would have you come to me with anything else, what could there have been?"

He catches himself prattling a bit, and returns his gaze to Cecil, from where it'd drifted off to the side.

"...I can't imagine you would have gone to such trouble, were we not particularly close in that dream, would you?"

[lasthumanvoice]

Cecil hesitates before speaking.

"I know that you do not owe me closeness now, in a reality where I never tracked mud on your grandmother's heirloom carpet, and we never watched the stars together on summer nights, and you never played nursemaid when I broke a leg. It is your decision, wholly, whether I am welcome in your life again. I am not who I was in the dream, quite. Not your colleague and co-conspirator, in matters of Astral and Chaos magic. I'm an outsider to this town, and to you. But...in many ways, I loved you, Elias. You were the closest thing I had to a brother."

[arcanegrasp]

Elias' quiet lingers on this for a moment, his heart heavy for memories that he could see vividly, but never shared. It was a strange thing, to mourn a relationship that he'd never had in this life, but clearly meant so much to him in another.

"You're right, that you may not have come to me so many years ago, and created such a foothold in my life. To force closeness where it isn't would be a disservice to all involved."

He hesitates, and moves a hand to Cecil's arm, giving it a small shake for emphasis.

"But you did come into my home, soaking wet and freezing, holding claims that you already knew full and well would lead me to think you were out of your mind," He starts, cracking a small smile. "And though I've done no lessons in years now, I'm sure I haven't lost all of my ability to help get magic into your hands. I've let myself fall into a comfortable isolation for some time now, but if you truly knew me--- and," He pats the pocket he stowed the locket in. "You've proven well that you must have... I must have loved you as a brother of my own. There's much time lost for you, I'm sure, but I think... should you be at peace with the process, I would like to take the time to know you as I once did. The memories will be new ones, but if all you're saying is true, they'll be worth building."

[lasthumanvoice]

"Knowing you, having you in my life in any capacity will be worth it. Besides, you miserable bastard, you need people in your life to bother you sometimes. To eat, to get out of the lighthouse, to come see what's up in town."

Sorry, Elias, your hermitude has officially ended.

[arcanegrasp]

The needling gets a surprised laugh out of Elias, and he blinks. His somber expression warms further.

"Fine, fine! Goodness. Listen to you. If I had much doubt left that you'd known me in some capacity, I suppose I'd have to hang that up, hassling me like that."

There's no bitterness to his tone, of course - for something as new as speaking with Cecil was for him, it felt awfully natural, didn't it? What a strange, wonderful thing.

[lasthumanvoice]

"Good. Though I do have a bit of a nosy question: what happened with Neil?" The shiny dims out a bit, because he realizes he's probably prying into a bit of a sensitive matter now. He remembers how they were together.

[arcanegrasp]

Ah, there goes Elias' own bright and shiny a bit, as well. He mulls on this for a moment, after the fleeting seconds of surprise--- before it comes together that, of course, if Cecil knew him, he'd know about that, wouldn't he? (It was going to take some time for the initial shock of knowledge.)

"It was going to come up at some point, I suppose," He sighs, moving to take a sip of his tea. "Things just... decayed, between us. When we first got together, it was a whirlwind, but as the time passed, he and I became very different people, feeling very differently about the things happening around us. The arguments stacked up slowly over the years, and one day, over dinner... we took a look at it, and realized how little of what made us was there. The foundation was too far gone, and we were better off as colleagues."

[lasthumanvoice]

"Ah." He doesn't actually sound wholly satisfied with that explanation, but he isn't going to press at it, not on a first meeting. "Aaaaah. Aha."

[arcanegrasp]

Elias lifts a brow. He knows that tone all too well.

"I take it you're looking for more? I don't care to go about spreading too much of his business, mind you. It was a fairly amicable separation!"

[lasthumanvoice]

"You don't have to spread his business, El. I just worry." There's a loose hand gesture at the surrounding hermitage lighthouse.

[arcanegrasp]

Elias follows the loose hand gesture, and lets out a light breath, giving a slow nod of agreement along with it.

"No, no. I understand. It'd be a worry I'd have, were it anyone else." He hesitates for a moment, struggling to find his words, a somberness rising to his features as he gazes off to the side.

"...I'm not sure what was happening, when you'd had the dream, but if it was before the barrier, things began to decline - as I'm sure you could guess," He starts, slow and quiet, as if recalling each piece of everything that happened. "We had no idea what was happening. People died in droves, trying to escape the fog. When they came back, they were rattled, and people were desperate for solutions. Panicking masses turned to Town Hall. Seeing that it was a seemingly magical affliction... Town Hall and the masses then turned to the magi."

He's quiet, for a few fleeting moments. The memory clearly weighs greatly on him. He takes the time to have another sip of tea, hoping for the warmth to help ease the aching of old scars.

"I'm sure you know that we couldn't solve it, judging by the way things are now. The pressure made those fractures in Neil and I's relationship crack wide open, and the longer things went on, Neil became more... desperate. Unraveled. The strain pushed us to our limits, and by the time we had nothing left to do but admit defeat, there was nothing left of what we'd started with. And... I struggled to face these people, who were so deeply disappointed in our failure."