He's told me about the Eye. [And plenty else that he won't bother repeating. Again, what matters is Elias's take on things.] He's mentioned you two are similar that way.
[ More circumspect, and unhelpful. Lark, please. ]
We are similar in our service to the Eye, yes. But the nature of our service is very different.
Jonathan is the Archive. He is a record of fears, The Fears, and the times and ways in which they have intersected with our world. The record is physical, marking him bodily, as well as mental, spiritual you might say. As such, he needs to observe fear in much the same way you need air and food and sleep. That is what sustains him, and without it he will die.
[ It's-- mostly true. Elias is fairly certain that Jon himself doesn't know yet the extent of what he is, not having lived through the apocalypse. But it's true enough to tell Lark. ]
[He nods, taking it all in. None of it is new information, but it's different to hear from someone who doesn't feel it the way Jon does.] And you? The Watcher?
[ There's ire in his voice when he answers. This is something he's discussed with Jon many times. ]
Don't make the mistake of thinking that I serve the Eye and the Archivist doesn't. I chose Jonathan and set him on the path, yes, but he is as much a servant by choice as I am. If he had chosen not to serve, he would be long dead.
The Fears do not leave much room for choice when it comes to their victims, Mr. Tennant. You don't choose to open a door and find yourself trapped in a nightmare. You don't choose to be stabbed in the street because you were closest to the woman with the knife. You don't choose to walk on broken glass if you don't see it in the road ahead. These things simply happen to you.
And the choice, to serve these Powers, is to gain the ability to see which doors will lead you into a nightmare, to give you the power to turn aside the knife; to give you another road down which you can walk. One not fraught with horrors you can do nothing to avoid. The choice to serve gives you the ability to choose, where few others can.
I did not have to serve the Eye. I chose to. I did not have to take another body, when the original wore thin. I chose to. I did not have to choose Jonathan Sims, but I did. Any number of days I could have chosen to stop watching and intervene, to lay down the power to See anything I wished and become just another man. I could have chosen to let Jon's predecessor burn down everything I had worked towards. I chose not to.
[ He is resolute as he says it. He knows who he is and what he has chosen to do. ]
And the Archivist did the same. Time after time he came to a junction where he had the choice to press on for answers -- answers he knew were connected to something not of this world, which fed on fear and horror and saw people as no more than a commodity for terror -- and every time he chose to know more. To See. And had he not pushed on, he would not be what he is today. His desire to Know-- wholly his own desire and not something I or the Eye forced on him-- is the reason he has become what he has become.
Knowing things changes everything. If it made Jon something other than human, it doesn't matter to me. He's still someone I trust. He's still someone who considers the beings he feeds off of, and that's more than I would have done. The desire to Know is something we have in common, except that I don't have time for people who lack curiosity and he does.
Then you and I are alike, in that sense. I have no time for people who will not say what it is they want, or who will not try to know the things they want to Know. It is their choice, of course, but not one I can condone.
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What has he told you of what he is? Actually is?
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We are similar in our service to the Eye, yes. But the nature of our service is very different.
Jonathan is the Archive. He is a record of fears, The Fears, and the times and ways in which they have intersected with our world. The record is physical, marking him bodily, as well as mental, spiritual you might say. As such, he needs to observe fear in much the same way you need air and food and sleep. That is what sustains him, and without it he will die.
[ It's-- mostly true. Elias is fairly certain that Jon himself doesn't know yet the extent of what he is, not having lived through the apocalypse. But it's true enough to tell Lark. ]
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Don't make the mistake of thinking that I serve the Eye and the Archivist doesn't. I chose Jonathan and set him on the path, yes, but he is as much a servant by choice as I am. If he had chosen not to serve, he would be long dead.
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But when did I choose Jon? Or when did I choose the Eye?
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And the choice, to serve these Powers, is to gain the ability to see which doors will lead you into a nightmare, to give you the power to turn aside the knife; to give you another road down which you can walk. One not fraught with horrors you can do nothing to avoid. The choice to serve gives you the ability to choose, where few others can.
I did not have to serve the Eye. I chose to. I did not have to take another body, when the original wore thin. I chose to. I did not have to choose Jonathan Sims, but I did. Any number of days I could have chosen to stop watching and intervene, to lay down the power to See anything I wished and become just another man. I could have chosen to let Jon's predecessor burn down everything I had worked towards. I chose not to.
[ He is resolute as he says it. He knows who he is and what he has chosen to do. ]
And the Archivist did the same. Time after time he came to a junction where he had the choice to press on for answers -- answers he knew were connected to something not of this world, which fed on fear and horror and saw people as no more than a commodity for terror -- and every time he chose to know more. To See. And had he not pushed on, he would not be what he is today. His desire to Know-- wholly his own desire and not something I or the Eye forced on him-- is the reason he has become what he has become.
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Then you and I are alike, in that sense. I have no time for people who will not say what it is they want, or who will not try to know the things they want to Know. It is their choice, of course, but not one I can condone.