the truth serum meme.

[batmotif]

The Truth Serum Meme
The cliche and tired trope used to create conflict or acts of realization.

And congrats, now your character is inflicted by such a trope! Be it magic, drugs, or other means. Regardless of how, your character has lost the ability to lie or be dishonest.

Are you going to tell your childhood crush how you really feel? Or maybe tell your best friend about the double life you live? Perhaps this is a good time to admit to murder... hm.

Leave your character's name in the comment section.

Characters ask you a question, you must reply truthfully.

Have fun, no lying.

Comments

[batmotif]

[But Mara, someone has to put in the effort]

Isn't the answer obvious enough? The outside structures are teeming with corruption, lead by all the wrong people. I can get more done as one man in a single night than the police can in months. They're too busy tied up in red tape.

[snaphiss]

You don't seem very fond of the men and women giving their lives to do the job legally. Not much of a patriot?

[batmotif]

Did I say that? I respect the honest ones, the people who actually give their all to protect innocents, including risking their own lives. But there's only so much they can do within constraints of the law before they reach an impasse. And that impasse will come; Gotham is an unforgiving city.

[snaphiss]

And you have no intention of trying to make it better? That's what patriotism is.

[batmotif]

I'm making it better in the way that I'm able. Others are more equipped to handle change from the inside. [Harvey, for instance, for all the effort he had been putting into it.]

[snaphiss]

All things being fair, I've known men for whom that was the genuine truth. The majority of the Empire's 'vigilantes', though, were truly motivated by fame and the thrill of subverting the law. Undermining Imperial rule while pretending to hold it up.

Can you truly tell me that isn't the case for you?

[batmotif]

[At that, he actually does scoff. There's hardly anything humorous about it.]

Do I look like someone who's motivated by fame? A thrill-seeker? If I wanted, I could have all of that and not even bother being a vigilante.

I do what I do because I can. Because Gotham is my home, and its people need protecting.

[snaphiss]

Hm. Then it seems you're truly one of the rare ones worth leaving intact. But have you really never questioned these things in yourself?

[batmotif]

[Something actually resembling sarcasm ekes out a bit.]

No, I have other people to do that for me. Do you ever question your own motivations?

[snaphiss]

Yes. Not here, but... at home. We're at war. Anyone who doesn't seriously interrogate why they're on the side they're on is a fool.

It's been my experience that if you don't question why you're doing something risky and potentially dangerous, you can't really be sure you're doing it for the right reasons.

[batmotif]

And what made you believe that you had made the right decision?

I've made my choice because I know it's worth it. I want people to be able to sleep at night, knowing that their families can feel safe. Even if I have to give up everything of my own, I need to see it through to the end.

[Yes, it's borderline obsession. Perhaps full blown obsession. But it had become his purpose, and that's all that mattered in the end.]

[snaphiss]

They kidnapped and were preparing to torture an innocent man for no reason other than impatience and opportunity.

Will you continue that here? Can you?

[batmotif]

And was this a revelation? Or just the straw that broke the camel's back? [Do they have camels in SW even]

I can try to. But it isn't the same. Being here, we've had missions pushed onto us, and along with that an incentive for success. But once you've been torn from your life's goal, how do you reorient yourself to someone else's?

[snaphiss]

The Empire of old wouldn't have done it. This was the sign that what was could never be recovered.

You don't reorient. You find a new goal, one that's yours.

[batmotif]

You're right, but it's easier said than done. What's your new goal, then, being drawn into all of this? Winning the war? Finding a way to return safely?

[snaphiss]

Stop the Nest.

[batmotif]

Stop it how?

[snaphiss]

Any way I can. I need more information to move forward, but that is the plan.

[batmotif]

So you don't trust the Nest or the symbiotes?

[snaphiss]

Of course not. Don't tell me you do? I thought you had a modicum of intelligence.

[batmotif]

Of course not. I hate the fact that we have something alien in our heads, with our thoughts are practically tethered together. And we're expected to a fight a war against a nameless enemy.

But until we know more, we don't have much of a choice but to work within the Nest's confines.

[snaphiss]

Of course, if only as a means of gaining more information. We can't move forward without more knowledge of the situation, of this supposed 'war'.

[batmotif]

No. But if we drag our feet for too long, I'm concerned we're going to lose grasp of ourselves in the process. There are already too many hosts eager to use their symbiote abilities without thinking of the consequences.

[snaphiss]

You don't think the abilities should ever be used?

[batmotif]

In an ideal situation, I would say no. But realistically, I have to concede and say "only sparingly".