Elijah Elkwood

"I really am terrible! Simply miserable!" - Chapter Five Elijah Elkwood is the older brother of Petunia and Meredith Elkwood. Despite the fact that he's a minority in the Melbourne society, he works in the government as a politician in Parliament, specifically in Internal Affairs. While he usually appears even-tempered and pleasant, turning to ridiculously affectionate when his siblings are involved, Elijah is also self-deprecating and has a rather negative view of the world around him. He goes by the name "Elijah Gabriel" at Parliament and in the working world.

Appearance
Elijah is a dark-skinned and slim male, who is on the taller side despite having no confirmed height. He has somewhat messy dark lavender-gray hair and pale periwinkle blue eyes. He dresses in a very professional fashion most of the time, wearing nice suits and ties even when not at work. Elijah, along with Meredith, has been described as very attractive on multiple occasions. Cyril once said that their beauty was so apparent that he was distracted by them and forgot to make himself known when he came out of the shadows to meet with them, but he quickly debunked it as teasing. Roland went as far to compare them to "radiant angels who walked the Earth" and said that Elijah's smile was blinding.

In the past, Elijah's typical attire was a white shirt with a black vest with a tie of some sort, and he was always seen with a white bandage wrapped around his right wrist.

Personality
Elijah is something of a strange character, with a quirky personality. While he's even-tempered and patient in the day, as he's very polite to the other politicians as he works in Parliament, he becomes dark and malevolent in the night. Elijah is a man who craves violence, as he describes his gruesome vision of killing to Cyril as more fun when the victims slowly bleed to death. He's well aware of his darkness, appearing very contained as he was describing his hatred for the government and those who see him as nothing but "trash", and when he goes on to muse about how he's "upsetting people left and right". He seems to be very intimidating, as multiple characters shudder whenever he glances over at them with a creepy glare. He's scared Dylan with his expressions and reactions to certain topics that had horrified him, and Petunia even admits that Elijah is somewhat frightening.

However, Elijah is also a very social and light character when it comes to his family and friends. He keeps Meredith very close to him, and teases him lovingly, such as whenever Meredith loses to him in chess and Elijah's tackles him, pulls his face, and calls on his desperation to win a game against him. When he goes to see Mr. Brampton in Parliament one day, he asks Meredith to stay behind and reassures him that he will be alright by himself. He is very fond of Petunia, calling her a plethora of nicknames whenever he first sees her again and has her alone, even going as far to threaten Cyril's life when he believes that he has done something horrible to her. He also respects her opinions, to an extent, considering that he listens to her demands that he free Todd, whom he ordered Cyril to capture; however, he yells at her whenever she asks why he and Meredith were going to Melbourne without her. He is very friendly with Dylan, a former neighbor of his, and quickly accepts hanging out with him and his friends, even though Meredith disliked him, and talks freely with him.

Background
Although Elijah's background is still clouded in mystery, it's revealed that Elijah lived in Alice Springs and Perth before moving to Melbourne. Living near the Alice, Elijah was a troublemaking, but lovable, young child who frequently pestered the other neighbors and his family members. According to Petunia, they were happy while they lived there, and the three siblings were very close, but mentioned that Elijah was frequently busy and would leave the household for periods of time. Some time later, for an unknown reason, he and his family moved away from the Alice and went to Perth, and Elijah never returned to visit his old friends.

In Perth, it has been suggested that Elijah was caught up in many acts of violence against Aboriginals, due to several of Petunia's memories of Elijah being beaten up to where he was bleeding badly and Meredith gave him medical attention. This is also suggested whenever Dylan, after meeting Elijah again in Melbourne, asks him about what happened to him in Perth - seeing a band of medical tape around his wrist - and Elijah looks horrified, likely traumatized, and steers the conversation away from the subject. He's very discreet about the matter, as Petunia decides to not tell Dylan what really happened to him. Following these acts, Elijah and Meredith decide to travel to Melbourne together, likely to seat Elijah as a politician in Parliament, and Elijah has been there ever since - the memories of his past likely fueling his current actions in Melbourne.

History
'''*MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD! READ WITH CAUTION!*'''

Chapters 1-5
Before Elijah's true debut into the comic, Petunia notices a newspaper clipping of Elijah on an alleyway wall and glances at it before heading on to deliver a letter to Clancey. Elijah first appears in the second chapter, asking Meredith if he thinks that he's a villain. When Meredith calls him romantic, Elijah laughs at him, angering Meredith and saying that he reminds him of Petunia - when they would tease him. He muses that he feels so much more awake after the laugh, and Meredith smiles at him. That evening, Elijah and Meredith stand outside to meet up with Cyril to discuss business, when Elijah becomes shocked over his picture that appears in the newspaper. Meredith is about to console him when Cyril comes out of the dark and introduces himself. Elijah calls him rude for watching them without making himself known, and Cyril proceeds to call him and Meredith "beautiful people", whose appearance distracted him. Cyril calls him by his professional name, "Mr. Gabriel", and gives him his rules about accomplishing a job for him. When Cyril leaves and Meredith asks if Elijah can trust him, Elijah claims that he may not trust him - but he likes him.

As they wait on Cyril to finish the job, Elijah plays chess with Meredith while he works on writing what seems to be a speech or a document of importance. After he wins, Meredith complains that he always beats him and refuses to play another game after he offers. Elijah, finding the notion adorable, tackles Meredith and tells him not to cry. Once Cyril arrives, he is shocked to see that the mercenary has Petunia in his clutches, and Petunia is surprised to see that he was the "boss" that Cyril mentioned. He pulls her outside, and ignores Petunia's anger to pull her into a hug and showers her with pet names, saying that he almost had a heart attack. Fearing that Cyril had done something to her, he expresses anger and concern, and instead listens to Petunia's demands to free the government worker whom he had hired Cyril to capture. When she mentions his name, Elijah immediately recognizes the name, associates him with botany, and agrees that they should free him. He demands that Cyril cancel the job and that he take Petunia with him.

Cyril reveals Elijah's dark feelings about the government, saying that he likes to believe that they and the other whites of Melbourne just see him as trash and hate him just because they can. He declares that he wants to kill the worker that Cyril captures slowly and painfully, presumably to send a message to the Violet Investigation Unit, which he seems to be working to protect.

After the pair leave, Meredith and he follow them to the warehouse, to which Meredith asks him why they just didn't go with them to begin with. Elijah claims that he didn't want to upset Petunia more than he already has. He asks if he's upset Meredith and calls himself terrible for upsetting so many people. When they arrive at the warehouse and see Cyril standing outside the door which Todd, Petunia, and another mercenary are behind, he agrees to give Petunia a chance to defend herself - despite Meredith's fear for the worse. Before Petunia can discover that the brothers arrived at the warehouse, they leave.

Chapters 6-10
Elijah is seen peering through Todd's file in the records room with Meredith, and after retrieving the information he needed, feigns to a fellow politician that he lost his way on his way to meet Mr. Brampton. He calls himself an idiot, causing Meredith to laugh and become embarrassed. He says he's sorry for making him laugh and goes to see Mr. Brampton, and Meredith says that he's so bad at apologizing. Although Elijah doesn't appear again until several chapters later, Cyril does threaten to expose Petunia's relationship with Elijah to Todd if she doesn't go to the Eighth Lagoon to meet with him.

Elijah appears again in the Parliament House whenever there is a frenzy going about Todd's capture being reported in the newspaper. Bentham, one of the members of the Violet Investigation Unit, bumps into Elijah and apologizes to him before informing him of what was going on. Elijah declares that he's jealous as it sounds fun. Petunia spots him and Meredith later on, and attempts to avoid them as she and Hana search for information pertaining to Violet and the capturing.

In the flashback chapter, Elijah yells at Petunia when she demands an explanation behind him announcing their departure unexpectedly, and after their aunt says that she should do anything they could do, Petunia follows after them - intending to show Elijah that she's not his useless sister.

Chapters 11-15
Elijah appears several chapters later in a dark room, leaning out of a window into the rain, glancing down at the ground. Meredith, worried about him, bursts into the room and rushes over to him, making sure that he's feeling alright. Elijah assures him that he's okay and hugs him. He whispers to him that he remembers the promise that they made together.

The setting switches over to some of the Investigation members having cupcakes in the dining room of the Parliament House, and they gossip over Elijah. One of the members, Locke, mentions that he was only able to become a renowned politician because he had a sponsor. However, before he can say who the sponsor is, he is interrupted by Clancey. Elijah then appears in a library, receiving some sort of tutoring from one of the other workers, and growing impatient with his slow progress, however, he is stopped whenever Elijah asks if he "doesn't like him very much". He leaves to attend a meeting with Mr. Brampton, however, before the politician can muster out a good apology and leaves with Meredith. Elijah requests that Meredith stays behind and assures him that he will be fine. After the meeting, he sits outside and smokes, and is greeted by Cyril. Elijah gives him some money for the trouble he put him through for the Violet case, and asks that he stay a while and smoke with him. He asks him if he fears death, and when Cyril claims that he doesn't - going on to explain his thoughts in depth - he says that he disagrees and teases about how personal Cyril grew with the answer. Cyril leaves angrily, claiming that he'll see him again in hell.

After Cyril ridicules Meredith, Elijah reveals that their promise is that Meredith must kill him once their plans have been completed.

In the second flashback, Petunia is haunted by the memory of Elijah telling her to always pay her debts back, since she still needs to find Todd and pay back for a cup of coffee he bought for her. When Petunia meets Dylan, he recognizes her as Elijah's sister. After she blacks out, he reveals that Elijah and Meredith met him before she arrived and proceeds to tell her about what happened. Elijah bumped into Dylan while he was trying to order food from a food stall and they recognize each other, in a very loving and affectionate manner. Dylan invites Elijah and Meredith to hang out with his friends, Roland and Marcus, and while the other two attempt to take to Meredith, Dylan and Elijah have a private conversation. After Elijah calls Dylan cute, the latter insults him and pinches his nose, but quickly switches to talking about how he wanted Elijah to come visit Alice Springs again, and Elijah apologizes but thought that no one would miss him. Dylan shouts at him for thinking such a thing and says how much he missed him, leading Elijah to cry. He embraces the man and asks him about what happened when he was in Perth, since he notices that he has a bandage around his wrist, causing Elijah to stare at him in a state of trauma and tells him that he's always been in trouble and laughs about it, scaring Dylan. However, Dylan drops the subject and asks him about Petunia before the person in question cuts the story off. She wonders if she should tell Dylan about what happened to Elijah, but decides not to since he went to great lengths to keep it secret.

When Marcus takes Petunia to Norah's house, in intent that she will stay with her, he introduces her as Elijah's sister. It's that same reason that Dylan wants to keep Petunia with him and the guys, and Petunia becomes irritated that being Elijah's sister is the only reason they are treating her like this, and she feels that he is almost watching her from afar.

Chapters 16-20
When Dylan escorts Petunia to the tram station, the two of them speak about Elijah, Dylan mentioning that he's changed a lot since they were younger. He asks Petunia if he ever speaks to her or even goes to see her, to which Petunia denies. Later, when Petunia attempts to return some money that Cyril gave to her, he asks her why Elijah's so rich, yet his younger sister is so poor, a question that offends Petunia greatly.

An All or Nothing Gamble
Elijah appears as a mischievous child, who has messed up the yard of one of the neighbors - and has done so receptively - and teases him before hopping over the fence. He heads over to sit with Meredith under a tree, who is making a flower crown, and the neighbors discuss how Elijah and Meredith first met when he stopped the latter from beating up Dylan, though he had already broken his arm. But, after the attack, Meredith was always by Elijah's side. When Elijah comes back to the house, he runs away when his mother asks him to say hello to his Aunt Harriet, and Harriet calls him a disgusting brat who she would kill one day. When his mother becomes concerned about Meredith, she approaches Elijah and asks him if he thinks Meredith is okay, and tells him that he really needs to look out for him.

"An All of Nothing Gamble" is an unfinished side-story, that will hopefully be continued and reveal more about Elijah's past at Alice Springs.

Petunia Elkwood
Petunia is Elijah's younger sister, whom he is very protective of. They were very close to one another whenever they were younger, but have grown somewhat separate after the siblings went to Melbourne, though they seem to be close whenever they interact. They both seem to have the same fiery temper, as Petunia and Elijah both yell somewhat frequently whenever they're frustrated. When the two first meet again, Elijah expresses his worry and happiness to see her, and threatens to harm the mercenary whom is working for him and took her to him. The two haven't interacted much since Todd's kidnapping, but Elijah has left a large imprint on her - her memories of him often haunting her and his relationship to her following her around and influencing how many of her friends and acquaintances view her. She doesn't particularly like how many desire to take care of her because she's his sister.

Meredith Elkwood
Meredith is Elijah's foster brother, after his mother took him into the family, and has become incredibly close - practically inseparable - after Elijah took him away from a bad incident. He is Elijah's companion wherever he goes, going to the Parliament House with him for work and to discuss dark plans with Cyril. He serves as his shadow and his bodyguard, protecting and defending Elijah from all threats, as he pulled a gun on Cyril when they first met. His loyalty to Elijah has been criticized by the mercenary, who compared him to a dog. However, Meredith cares so much for the man that he worries that if he were to become distracted or fall, he fears that Elijah would be left all alone with no one to lean on or take care of him. In recent chapters, it has been revealed that Elijah trusts Meredith the way he trusts no other. Elijah has also called Meredith his "honey" and has stated that he can't resist him, when their companionship was drawn into question by Dylan. In the fandom, Meredith and Elijah are commonly referred to as "heterosexual life partners".

Cyril
Cyril is the hit-man that Elijah hired to capture a man from the Violet Investigation Unit, in order to send a message for the government to stop pursuing Violet. However, after Petunia reveals that the target that Cyril captures is too important to be killed, Elijah causes Cyril some trouble by forcing him to kill the mercenaries that were working the job with him and retrieving Todd. Cyril and Elijah share the same dislike for the government, though Elijah has a darker extent - from as far as we can see - and is arguably more sadistic than the mercenary. After the job is taken care of, Elijah goes as far to pay him extra, and inquires his opinion on death, which they disagree on.

Dylan Springbell
Dylan is an old friend of Elijah's, from when he and his family lived in Alice Springs. Despite bullying Meredith, the two of them managed to get along famously, to where their reunion was lavished with affection, arguably the most loving of all his reunions. Dylan expressed how upset he was that after Elijah left for Perth that he never came back to visit, and how much those at Alice Springs really missed him. He worries over Elijah, asking about what happened to him in Perth, after seeing a bandage on his wrist. He also believes that because he's Elijah's friend that he is responsible for taking care of Petunia - or at least he believed that for a while.

Mr. Brampton
Mr. Brampton is the head of Internal Affairs, the department that Elijah works in. He's famous around the Parliament House between the other professionals, but he seems to be very close to Elijah. Between Elijah's many meetings with him and Mr. Brampton calling out in almost a familiar way whenever he steps into his office, it's clear that Elijah relies on him to get through politician life. It is likely that Mr. Brampton was involved with introducing Elijah to his sponsor.

Quotes
''"Meredith, am I a villain?" ''(to Meredith Elkwood, Chapter Two)

"Let me tell you something Cyril. When people hate you, you think they have a logical reason for it. But then you realize they don't. They hate you just because they can. When they look at you, they don't even see a person. You know what they see? Fucking trash. Now do you understand? Hate is quite dangerous''." ''(to Cyril, Chapter Four)

"Look at me. Upsetting people left and right...I really am terrible! Simply miserable''!" ''(to Meredith Elkwood, Chapter Five)

''"I remember our promise. You remember too, don't you?" ''(to Meredith Elkwood, Chapter Thirteen)

"You don't like me much?" (To government employee, and Cyril, Chapter Thirteen)

''"...It's not like I didn't want to visit. I just figured that no one would care...about me..." ''(to Dylan Springbell, Chapter Fifteen)