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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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[arcanegrasp]

Not better at all, but there's at least an ounce of relief. No more than that. Elias' shoulders remain tense.

"I take it you're here for old stories, then?" He asks, folding his arms. "Unless you're interested in the lighthouse, of course. It's a beautiful piece of architecture."

[maltesefalcon]

"I'm here because I don't understand what's going on, on this island, and any information I can get will help me make a fuller picture of the matter. I am not here to judge you, Elias. But I don't even know where to begin, to try and make everything make sense."

He ceases his preening, turning his cold steel gaze on Elias, but his wings tuck back in a way that makes it clear he's not trying to use his size to bully his way to what he wants.

"I have been looking through old records, as you're aware. But I don't trust them to be unbiased. So I want to get a broader perspective."

[arcanegrasp]

Elias is quiet, perhaps longer than he ought to have been, meeting that hard gaze back with his own. He's no longer raising his hackles when the wings are folded away, but he's still skeptical.

He's not going to turn Cerrit away, though. He nods back to his home.

"Follow me inside, then. I'll try to make everything make as much sense as I've come to understand it."

He wastes little time turning for the door, or heading in. He clears his small dining table of the mess of notes, pressed plant specimens, and books that he'd been sorting through, crowding them to one side of the table. Once he's pulled chairs up for the two of them, he sits, and gestures for Cerrit to do the same.

"You ask, and I'll answer. I'm not sure what you do or don't know, and redundant information wouldn't do either of us any good."

[maltesefalcon]

Cerrit takes the offered chair and spins it around to do the bisexual straddle, for the comfort of his wings, looking pretty at-ease in the house. Oh, he's plenty aware he's alone with an unfamiliar caster, but he thinks this might be okay.

"Retreading what I've learned is a good way to check my knowledge. Honestly, though, the first case file I read relevant to you was October of 16:45. I don't know if that's actually the fairest place to begin or not."

[arcanegrasp]

Elias, for a moment, is silent, looking thoughtful. He weighs just how much is worth sharing; he's not keen to stoke any old flames of Enforcer attention, but it seems he's already failed that mission to an extent, hasn't he?

"No, I suppose it wouldn't be. There's much before all that, a great deal of important context, that outlines the whole thing."

His lips pull into a contemplative frown, and he leans his elbow against the table.

"I'm sure you're aware that, even before the barrier came upon our town, there was rumor that Pumpkin Hollow was... cursed, so to speak," He starts, gesturing vaguely at the mention of a curse. "I've not been able to find anything relating to a curse, speaking in specifically academic terms, but times were getting more and more dire by the day. I've called this place home for some time, now, and even beyond my ties to Neil at the time, there was clearly something quite amiss in our town, and the mere pittance of a lead that I was able to come to understand pointed in one direction for where to look next."

He pauses, and scrutinizes Cerrit for a few seconds.

"What is your understanding of the history of the Leeds' family, if any?"

[maltesefalcon]

Despite the difficulties in reading non-human facial expressions that might exist, it is clear that the look on Cerrit's face is a grimace.

"'My understanding', you're asking, because the public story is incomplete and skewed. The bare facts that are common knowledge, birth and death dates, I have the same access to as everyone. But I'm also a member of the Historical Society, and have called on Leeds Manor socially. I know more than the average newcomer, about the Leeds family."

Deft. Precise. Not spilling any secrets, but acknowledging secrets exist.

[arcanegrasp]

Elias seems unimpressed by the brevity he's offered, but it's something he's come to expect. His time in the West family hasn't exactly garnered himself much open honesty from the Historical Society, any time he's come calling.

"I take it, then, that you've heard of the conflict between the Leeds family and Dr. West."

He leans against the table, looking deeply serious.

"For many years, Neil offered therapy to the Leeds family, as he did--- and does--- everyone in town. Jasper Leeds was a fellow plagued often by nightmares, but just before the end of his use of Neil's services, his nightmares became... particularly horrifying, and relating back to his family. It was shortly thereafter that Jasper stopped using these services, and West Dream Analytics began to take a dive in the public eye. Is all this familiar to you so far?"

[maltesefalcon]

Cerrit clicks his beak. "Was the 'end of his use of Neil's services' due to his death?"

Because that would place things in the timeline better. 16:45; he remembers the dream of the day of Jasper's funeral.

[arcanegrasp]

"Indeed it was. Only mere days after his final appointment, in fact."

Elias hesitates, for only a moment, seeming to consider his words carefully before he speaks.

"I had overheard a bit of what happened, and Neil voiced his concerns to me after Jasper's passing. He'd had thirteen nightmares of being torn apart on a dinner table by his family, and then, shortly after, he passed. It sat strangely with us both, the timing of it. And once Neil began investigating, simply peering into things to try to understand what happened... the decline in both business and communication began."

He lets out a breath. It's a stressful recollection.

"It was hard to tell how much of it was intentional social manipulation, or if some of it was my ex-husband's paranoia getting the better of him. He's always been slightly prone to conspiracy, though nothing so major as this. It came to a point where no answers would reveal anything, and no one would give him access to any information to try to keep the tides of public opinion from pushing back on him. He was reaching a breaking point, and I ran out of other avenues to try to assist. It seemed as though Jasper would have been the only one who could've given us any degree of understanding of what was going on."

So I found a way to ask him, it goes loudly unsaid.

[maltesefalcon]

"The reasons for you not attempting to get a Warrant to summon are clear. You felt like you were getting cock-blocked at every turn. And the nature of the nightmare..." Cerrit trails off, clicking his beak again. Oh, he doesn't sound upset, or even particularly surprised.

"Right. And then you were interrupted mid-ritual by Harriet and Linette. Did you learn anything you found useful, before that?"

[arcanegrasp]

"Unfortunately not."

For the first time, an air of guilt rises to Elias' features, and his frown deepens.

"I wasn't able to finish the ritual before they were able to bring the Enforcers to interrupt. I had just gotten far enough to hear him speak, before I was arrested. I know he knows something, though. I don't intend to try again, of course, I've done my time, but... augh."

He lets out a short, frustrated breath. Not at Cerrit - the frustration seems entirely directed inward.

"If I'd been able to raise him faster, I could have heard him. Maybe gotten some justice for him, poor man. Anything that might've helped."

[maltesefalcon]

"Justice..." And the deal he made strangles the rest of the sentence he might have been about to say. He clicks his beak in frustration, and tries again. "It's a deeper matter than one death." That's no secret, Elias surely already knows that.

"For what it's worth, I think that assigning blame will not resolve the current issues at hand. There's a lack of information-sharing because of existing tensions, and it's hindering progress and I might not have much room to talk, because I have information I am incapable of sharing and..." Click.

Sigh.

"Linette disappeared mere months after that incident. I don't think you were involved in that, but I wonder if the timing had some relevance. Like someone out there might have thought she overheard something during your ritual."

[arcanegrasp]

"Of course, I know it goes so much deeper than that. Not to mention, that if my suspicions are correct, the perpretrators are already gone," Elias tuts. "But the point stands."

There's a contemplative moment, and Elias tilts his head, ever so slightly, eyeing Cerrit for a moment.

"Information you're incapable of sharing, though? Am I to assume these tensions impact you, much the same, or is it a more personal interference that keeps your hands tied? I wouldn't think such a thing should extend to the Enforcers."

[maltesefalcon]

"It doesn't extend to the Enforcers as a group. Honestly, there are members of the force who I think might have acted similarly to you, to discover truth where it was being concealed, in the same situation. People who care more about what is right and what is best than about those in a position of power feel is necessary. Which is good, it truly is."

He says this even as Dahlia's newest adoptive father figure. Someday, Leon and CT and Shen Qingqiu will discover truths Cerrit can't share, and the world within the bubble will change. But he has some trust in them, regarding what comes next.

He wishes he'd pushed Laerryn for truths sooner.

[arcanegrasp]

"So you do understand, then?" Elias asks, tentatively optimistic. "I've not gotten much regard in what I did beyond admonishing or lost favor in the public eye. I appreciate that you can see why I've done what I've done, even if your social ties would've prevented anything similar."

There's a strange mix of vindication and judgement, from someone who doesn't understand the inner-workings at play. He leans into the vindication, however; though he's, for better or worse, never allowed tensions to keep him from prying at the truth, he's certain there's a good reason Cerrit has to.

"Regarding what you said about Linette, though... I've worried about that, for some time. She didn't hear anything that I didn't, but someone who didn't know that could have easily assumed that she did. I don't believe the extent of Jasper's attempted resurrection were ever publicized, and you know how the rumor-mill spins."

He pauses, for only a fleeting moment of quiet, and his frown returns. He glances away for a moment, weighing his options, deciding whether or not to say something. He's never particularly trusted Enforcers, at this point, what's the worst that could happen?

"I've wondered, as well, why... her? If I was the one who'd ostensibly heard something, likely a fair bit more than she did, and I've got no ties to the Leeds family, nor any other family on this island..."

Why am I still here? The question remains unspoken, but a glimpse of survivor's guilt peers through the cracks.

"Perhaps the rumors of a Leeds family curse has some merit, and marriage into it counts. I don't know."

[maltesefalcon]

What can Cerrit say? What words can he use without saying anything Elias does not know, to drive his point home?

"There's a lot of rumors about the Leeds family out there. There's not a Leeds family anymore. Just one woman, in the aftermath of everything. Her parents made choices before she was born, and now she lives with them. I don't know everything, Elias, but...it's all pretty fucked up. What happened to Linette, what happened to all those boys and girls."

He clicks his beak again, looks right at Elias. "You were taken off the board for a year, put in jail. Perhaps that kept you safe. Perhaps someone thought that was sufficient to nullify you as a threat. It's not like you've been talking about all this to just anyone."