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

[bouchonne]

Oh. Byerly smiles over at her with a wry warmth. Not that he looked at her coldly before - nothing of the sort - but, well, there's extra fondness when you recognize that someone is of the same tribe.

"But they're so muscular," he sighs. "And the shoulders. Don't get me wrong, women's shoulders have their charms, but the combination of a broad masculine pair of shoulders and a well-defined waist - how could you ever forgo that?"

[notathreat]

Ellie had known that Byerly was into guys, but it's still nice to have people react positively when they find out. She's had enough people react negatively to make her wary. She smiles back, laughing under her breath, and holds out her hands to illustrate.

"Okay, but a woman's waist? You rest your hands there and then your palms go out towards her hips- and if you drape your arms around her you can fit your thumbs right into the small of her back where her spine dips in."

This has turned a lot more poetic than she intended.

"Also. Tits."

There it is.

[bouchonne]

"My dear girl."

Byerly looks at Ellie with his face arranged in an expression of droll scandal. But not, as she might think, in response to the vulgarity of tits; instead:

"Why, in the Maker's name, would you ever compel yourself to choose? You can have both." Warmly, fondly, "Sometimes even at the same time."

[notathreat]

"Why choose something you just don't want?" Ellie shrugs, spreading her hands. "Like I can look at a guy and be like, huh, handsome, but it just doesn't do anything for me. Never has."

And it just keeps on rolling, unfortunately:

"And every time you call me dear girl I go back and forth between liking it and wanting to punch you in the mouth and I never know which one it's gonna be."

[bouchonne]

He laughs in return, and offers a grin -

"Why do you think I do it? The worst way a person can feel about you is no way at all. Give me love or give me hatred, and nothing in between."

[notathreat]

"Well, you're doing a fantastic fuckin' job, bud."

Said with obvious affection and a fist knocking gently-ish into his shoulder.

[bouchonne]

"Thank you, thank you." He executes a graceful, courtly bow in return. (They're an odd pair, to be sure.)

"Tell me - I'm dreadfully curious - Is there anyone here you have your eye on?"

[notathreat]

Sometimes Ellie picks the strangest people to be fond of; especially if she doesn't like them initially.

She sputters, though, caught out, and obviously struggles to lie through her teeth:

"What are you talking about? Nobody-butDerrica." She pauses. "It's not like it's serious or anythingbut we're friends and I have the hots for her and that was completely fine until I realized she's one of the bravest people I've ever fucking met and now I think I'm falling for her and I'm completely not ready because the last time I fell for somebody we were practically married and had a house and a farm and a kid and I left them because I was a fucking mess of a person-"

Ellie draws in a deep breath, holds it for a second, and exhales:

"Fuck."

[bouchonne]

Well. That was a lot.

But - leaving the babbling aside (which is hard to do, because he'd desperately like to tease her about it) - Byerly frowns slightly. "I wouldn't recommend getting your hopes up about her. You're not the first young woman I've known who's pined for her - and that pining didn't end well."

[notathreat]

"Yeah, I don't doubt," Ellie says, with the brittle prickliness of someone caught out and very upset about it.

"Don't- tell anyone. About any of that."

[bouchonne]

"No. Certainly not."

He hesitates a moment, then bumps her shoulder lightly with his.

"I'm good at keeping secrets. Well, under most circumstances."

[notathreat]

"Yeah, well-" the pain in Ellie's voice is palpable. Whatever happened, and whatever she did, it wasn't something leaves her sleeping well at night.

"Good."

It doesn't sound good, but it is good. Because she can only say the truth. Even if she's upset, it's good that he knows. She doesn't bump him back, but. She doesn't pull away, either.

"Tell me what happened with that girl, then."

[bouchonne]

This is an unpleasant story, to be sure. But it's not so hard as confessions that deep, of mournful stories of her lost loves. There's a distance to this story: neither he nor Ellie are the ones affected.

"Pining, pining, and then nothing," By answers. He gives a small shrug. "Derrica strung her along for quite some time, and then - from my understanding - declared that she was not someone interested in relationships."

[notathreat]

Ellie's eyes go thoughtful, and she leans her back up against the wall, admitting-

"She was up front with me. That she's never going to be the kind of person who'll be someone's wife. Or even someone for one person."

Ellie shrugs, shakes her head.

"Is it fucked up to say that I was relieved?" She tips her head to look at him. "I can't say I got your marriage either, at first. I still don't think I get the details. What's that about?"

[bouchonne]

Byerly shrugs. Well - if they're agreed up front...He supposes he has no objections. Aside from Derrica's general priorities in the war, he supposes - So it's good that she asks him about that before he starts talking about his feelings about mages.

"It's not so difficult. My dear wife's family wished to exercise certain rights over her liberty, so I married her to usurp their claims."

[notathreat]

Ellie sobers at the very thought- the idea that a family could control their adult child, who's further constrained by society. The idea that having a husband could transfer that control. It seems fucking dystopic.

"Where I'm from people didn't get married unless they really loved each other. It didn't mean much, except to them. It's fucked up that anybody could get put in that position."

[bouchonne]

He tilts his head up in partial agreement. "I think the true monstrosity is the tying of freedom to marital status," he says. "There's nothing inherently wrong with marriage as a contract. But take what I say with a grain of salt; my own ancestors' marriages were so strategic, so focused on consolidating power, that my family tree is hideously narrow."

He gives a lift of his eyebrow, hoping she'll laugh. That sort of humor kills amongst the Southern nobility.

[notathreat]

Ellie squints at him, trying to follow the joke- she doesn't even know the names of both of her parents, so it takes a second for it to land. And when it does, she gives a snort, not exactly laughing. Sorry, By.

"Man," she mutters. "Is there anything nobility doesn't try to ruin?"

[bouchonne]

He shrugs. “It’s less the nobility specifically and more the powerful generally, I think,” he says. “Give a son of a bitch control, and he’ll use it to be a son of a bitch. Like how the mages are kicked around down here, but do the kicking up north.”

[notathreat]

"Yep. And the people who'd probably be best with power usually don't want a damn thing to do with it."

Ellie laughs, humorlessly. She's seen it happen all too often. Things starting out good, then becoming rotten from the inside out. Corruption can happen even without magic or money.

She grows thoughtful, though, reaching up to rub at her jaw.

"I knew a guy, once- he'd been around for almost a thousand years. And he was never powerful, just somebody who knew how to fight. Wanted to be with the guy he was in love with. They were disgustingly cute, kind of like you and Bastien."

You have happened like a bean, Ellie-

"But I asked him why we were here. And he said that he thought it was to do good. Just when and where we can. And I think that guys like him are way more common than the sons of bitches who kick others around."

[bouchonne]

Byerly smiles. He doesn't know whether the expression looks sweet or bitter. Maybe a bit of both.

"I hope so," he says after a moment. He squares his shoulders up against the wall behind him, lets out a little sigh. Says, "I think in my line of work, I've just seen more sons of bitches than the other sort. Sometimes it's hard to remember that the other sort even exists. But a fellow who only sees the moon forgets the sun, eh?"

[notathreat]

"You said it a lot more pretty than I would have," she says thoughtfully. Bitter and sweet can go well together.

"But yeah. I've seen the same stuff."

She pauses, takes a deep breath, pushes it out. "But people can still surprise you. You did."

[bouchonne]

He raises an eyebrow at her wryly. "What, by being less of a bastard than I initially seem to be?"

[notathreat]

"Oh no you're exactly that much of a bastard," Ellie snorts, sticking her legs straight out and laughing under her breath.

"But you also give a shit. Like, a lot more than you let on. Whether it's for your people, or for the world or both."

[bouchonne]

By’s quiet a moment, smiling an ambiguous smile. After a moment, he takes a breath and says, “I’d give everything I have if I could make a real difference.” Then, wryly, “Maker, it sounds so stupid.”