#he can make your relive your worst trauma and he can beam memories straight into your mind but he can't make you talk

[watchingthefog]

I don't think Elias has the ability to Compel people like the Archivist can. I don't think he can make anyone answer him truthfully. But that doesn't matter, because that's not what he wants. It's quite easy to lie to him. He doesn't need to hear the words to Know.

Words are faulty. Ideas, concepts, experiences are too hard to translate perfectly, completely into words. There is always information lost between the speaker and the listener, details that aren't conveyed between what one is trying to say and what the other interprets their words to mean. And when Jonah read centuries old tomes, he mourned that he could not know the full, lived experience of the writer's life from the few words that were inked onto the parchment. He mourned the knowledge that was lost between the words.

So while his collection grew into an archive focused on written and narrated accounts, his powers focused elsewhere.

His interview with og!Elias demonstrated quite beautifully! You can lie to him, quite easily in fact. You can try to hide behind a mask, but Eyes are the windows to the soul. Meet his gaze, and he can See quite easily what you're trying to hide. And when he Sees, he sees as they saw.

Their fear, their firsthand experience becomes his experience. He longs to live, and he will live uncountable lifetimes through the lives of others. Through the eyes of others.

#accidentally started headcanoning Jonah as dyslexic halfway thru this actually #anyway every time i read a fanfic where Elias has the ability to Compel people i go wait wait wait wait. since when did he do that?? #throws me off so much i don't think he can compel the truth out of people! #he can make your relive your worst trauma and he can beam memories straight into your mind but he can't make you talk #Elias isn't about taking away someone's autonomy‚ after all! #yes i know that tag does seem to contradict my last several posts about him but. he wants people to think they made their own choices #yes he manipulates and he backs people into corners and there's no *real* choice. but‚ well. the lack of options are not his fault #(it's literally his fault) #which is why. i think he would make his vessels agree to the possession before it happens. #oh‚ they can cry all they like afterwards about how they didn't understand what they were agreeing to #but did you not want power? recognition? did you not want your life to mean something greater? you made your choice and now you have it all #Jonah <3