you can't handle the truth

[bouchonne]

WHO: Whoever wants
WHAT: Kickoff of the truth plot!
WHEN: Right now
WHERE: The dining hall
NOTES: Feel free to use this to post open starters with prompts! Or make your own logs. Or create open posts on the network. Do whatever you'd like. No rules just right

If only the cooks had screwed up the soup. The problem is that it's a particularly nice soup today, full of fresh summer herbs, nicely seasoned, and plentiful. And so it's quite likely that you grabbed a bowl - maybe even got a second helping - and so ingested the potion that a devious hand had tipped in there earlier that day.

The effects begin to set in within twenty minutes of ingesting the soup. They may be mild - your tongue stumbling when you go to tell a little white lie...or they might be strong, and you might be overtaken by a sudden hysterical urge to tell deep truths to anyone who might listen. Or perhaps you skipped that soup, and instead, you're surrounded by babbling, confused people who want to tell you their life stories.

The potion's effects will last for up to two days. And they may at times be stronger, and at times weaker. Here's hoping you'll do minimal damage to your reputation in the meantime.

Comments

[altusimperius]

"I'm sorry," comes spoken almost simultaneously with Bastien's, and though by this point Benedict knows what's going on (and is dealing with it himself), it's hard not to be a little stung.

"I don't want you to think I'm lazy," he says as he gets up, wincing a little as the words spill out, but at least it's not something he's ashamed of thinking. He comes over to help, looking through the scrolls on a shelf.

[cozen]

"I don't think you're lazy. No one thinks you're lazy," Bastien is relieved to hear himself say, but the relief is ruined a second later by, "They think you lack sense and a spine."

A pause, before he adds, "Shit," with feeling, and lifts the collar of his own shirt into is mouth, biting down like that might help.

Barbeau, Barbeau, Barbeau. Maybe it's not here. It's hardly worth this trouble if it is. Maybe he should just leave.

[altusimperius]

Pausing in his sorting, Benedict lowers his hand and falls silent in favor of staring at the scrolls on the shelf.

"I'm trying," he says after a moment, then tentatively continues to look, if only to keep himself from dwelling on the comment. "I'm tired of having that reputation."

[cozen]

Bastien, shirt still in his mouth, nods. He raises one of his hands to give Benedict a thumbs-up. Great plan, great goal. He's not unclenching his teeth. His mouth is safe now; it can't hurt anything.

He tries to communicate with a gesture that he is giving up. Barbeau can wait until tomorrow. It's not worth this.

[altusimperius]

Ugh, how awkward. Pressing his lips together, Benedict nods, preparing to give up himself-- but then his eye catches on an aptly named scroll, and he pulls it down to hand it to Bastien in one motion.

"You're always kind to me, and I appreciate that," he says without warning, without expecting it even himself. "I didn't mean to say that," he adds, "...or that."

[cozen]

Checking the scroll, Bastien gives Benedict a suspicious look. Not a very fair one. But he spits his shirt out to ask, “Why wouldn’t you want to say that? That is a nice and normal thing to say.”

[altusimperius]

"I don't know," Bene admits, squaring his shoulders, "spineless?" The only thing worse than being a traitor is being a kissass, at least as far as Cool Points are concerned.

[cozen]

"That doesn't make sense," Bastien says—which isn't what he wanted to say, so his mouth clamps shut again and takes a breath, in and out.

[altusimperius]

"Sometimes I just say things I think people want to hear," Benedict anxiously shoots back, then turns and covers his own mouth. A beat, and then, muffled, through his hand: "agreeing with you about being spineless means you'd be satisfied sooner and not ask for more detail."

This is hell, they're in hell.

[cozen]

Bastien chews on that. What is the point of truth magic if someone can still say what they think you want to hear? And he also literally chews, on the inside of his mouth, trying to hold his tongue.

"You should put up more resistance, when you are going to say what people want to hear," is what he says when he stops chewing, "and then agree with them after that. It is less suspicious, and it makes people feel powerful to have made you believe something new instead of something you would give into right away. Anyone can do that. Then even when you are being spineless, it does not look so much that way."

[altusimperius]

It's Benedict's turn to bite his shirt, and he holds the collar of it in his mouth while he nods, finding much to his relief that he actually doesn't have anything to say in response to Bastien. It's a good point. He'd also meant it, when he said he appreciates him, but that's downstream now.

"Thank you," comes his muffled reply instead, and before he can stop it, "we should stop talking before I make a bigger arse of myself."

[cozen]

"Probably," Bastien says, and he takes a step toward the door. But also: "Would you betray us again, you think?"

[altusimperius]

"Not intentionally," Benedict mutters through his shirt, knitting his brow at Bastien. "I don't want to."

[cozen]

"Usually treachery has to be intentional. Otherwise it's only stupidity. And that is not the most confidence-inspiring answer you could have given, you know, but... Alright."

Another step away.

"Do I need to worry about By's safety with you? Are you going to knock him out of any more boats?"

[altusimperius]

"Even a promise can still be broken," Bene says, "pretending I'm brave wouldn't do anyone any favors." Please leave Bastien, please,

--at least the next question merits a sheepish smirk. "No."

[cozen]

One more step, humming. He's halfway to the door now. Turning to go would be the right and kind thing to do. But this chance may never come again.

"Do you believe in what we are doing? In stopping Corypheus and turning back the Tevinter invasion?"

[altusimperius]

The smirk fades. "Yes."

Tension builds in his chest, and though the collar of his shirt has since drifted from his mouth, he still tries to hold back the inevitable, and fails: "I've destroyed my family's legacy for it."

[cozen]

One more step, looking satisfied more than sorry. Good for him. Family legacies are for rich people, and Tevinter family legacies are surely for rich assholes.

“Why do you believe in it?”

[altusimperius]

Benedict pauses, only because, honesty or not, he doesn't have a clean and immediate answer to that question. But he speaks up soon enough, brow furrowed as his mouth follows closely behind his brain.

"The Venatori, Corypheus, their sympathizers, they want power for power's sake. They don't care who has to suffer for it. And only they stand to benefit if he wins." He narrows his eyes contemplatively.

"Their version of what Tevinter should be has poisoned the Imperium so deeply that it's become normal, and that's difficult to see until you're forced to from the outside in. ...and it doesn't have to be like that, but it will be. If he wins."

[cozen]

Bastien cocks his head, listening to that, and then finally smiles.

“D’accord,” he says. “You can live.”

A true fact.

“Thanks for the file.”

And he’s out the door.

[altusimperius]

"Uh--"

Bastien has already left.

"...thanks?"