Forced Honesty Meme

[ua_duibhne]

Forced Honesty Meme

was there something in that tea? spell gone awry? either way you suddenly feel the need
to tell everyone everything you never wanted to admit!

• post your characters
• reply to other characters with questions or confessions!
• spill the tea

Comments

[petcromancer]

It's not that easy. Most of the people I know are already bonded, and most of them are monsters anyways.

And even if they weren't, I don't think they'd want someone like me.

[Wait, what was that last part?? He definitely didn't mean to get into it that much...]

[faithlikeaseed]

Oh, lambkin, there's a bloody great number of Witches out there who think the same thing about themselves. You have a way of making people care for you--which you deserve, by the way, before you say otherwise--and at least one of them would suit. I'm sure of it.

[petcromancer]

My own parents didn't even-- [Nope, he's physically biting his tongue to keep from going down that vein of thought.]

I'm not sure of it. Maybe I need to meet more witches.

[faithlikeaseed]

[Yeah he knows where that's going and isn't quite so quick about biting his tongue.

Or maybe it's just less of a sore spot at this point:] My mother didn't, either. It's grist, now.

[But let them get away from compulsory truthfulness about painful family topics!!]

You surely do. What would you look for in 'em?

[petcromancer]

I told Sokie when she was doing her radio show, someone who can accept my animals. Maybe someone who I could talk to about nature or my studies. I already have Everett, and Trevor too, I guess, so I don't need an intimate emotional or physical connection with them.

[Just a nice, platonic pen-pal bond would be fine by him.]

[faithlikeaseed]

Had anyone promising drop by to look at your animals--hunting a familiar, maybe?

[He could get so into matchmaking... ]

[petcromancer]

A few witches have come for pets, but I evaluated them for pet ownership, not bonding.

[Myr, get your priorities straight!]

...and I tend to notice monsters more than witches.

[faithlikeaseed]

[Teasingly,] No reason you can't do both. You wouldn't want someone who'd not take good care of an animal anyway, would you?

[HIS PRIORITIES ARE PERFECTLY IN ORDER!! He is here to Maximize Growth and Happiness!!]

Ah, well--so long as they're bonded to a Witch, it helps some with the moons. I managed three months with Everett, and Sokie through him.

What about a Witch who wasn't human to begin with? [Even if...so many of them are...]

[petcromancer]

I...don't want to feel like a parasite, leeching off of someone else's bond.

[He doesn't even bother responding to the first thing. Of course he needs someone who's good with animals.]

It might make it easier if they aren't human, but I could deal with a human if they met those other criteria.

[faithlikeaseed]

That presumes you're not giving anything back, lambkin. But you do--you always do.

Hm-mm. I'll keep an ear out, then. What is it about Monsters that draws you?

[petcromancer]

I don't have the power I had on my home world. Historically, that's been the only offering of mine that anyone was interested, until Everett.

[He wouldn't have included that little outlier at the end, except for the forced honestly.]

With monsters, there's a mutual understanding about being an outsider, not quite fitting in. A fellow monster isn't going to be eager to grab a pitchfork or light up a pyre. So when I'm meeting another monster, there's less to worry about.

[faithlikeaseed]

Have you considered that, historically, you've been with company who didn't treat you as you deserve? Mortals might be prone to thinking of each other in terms of what we can give or do for other people, but that doesn't mean that's where our value lies.

I'm glad he's found you.

[Then, a small huff.] I'd almost take you as another mage from that; it's a fair observation. Though I'd say there are Witches who understand that feeling keenly--mine does.

[petcromancer]

I've had the thought, but it's hard to discount the evidence of the sheer numbers.

...I'm glad too.

I suppose some witches might have the same experience, if they had magic before they came here.

[faithlikeaseed]

Were they numbers who all knew each other and moved in the same orbits?

Magic, or another way they were exceptional and frightening. Some of them come from worlds without any magic at all and people still find reasons to drive them out.

[petcromancer]

They were all presumably church-goers, but where I lived, the only ones who weren't were witches and heretics like me. But it was in various villages in different countries. There was something about me people could sense.

That's the nature of humanity, isn't it? To exclude outsiders to make themselves feel more united and safe. I'm never going to be one of those in the circle, so the other outcasts are the only option.

[faithlikeaseed]

[A low breath out.] Maker's name. Your magic?

Humans, elves, dwarves. I don't know that the qunari do it quite the same way, but I suspect they're not so much better than the rest of us--it's in all our natures, as you've said. But as much in our nature, when rejected, to make little societies of our own-- You might talk to a fellow named Asura, on that count; he's a Witch but sees all of us Mirrorbound as his own.

[petcromancer]

I guess. Forms of necromancy are universally reviled. But they knew even before my power manifested. It might have been my hair color, or the feel of my aura that tipped them off.

[It occurs to him belatedly that Myr wouldn't know what his hair color even was. Welp.]

I met Asura out in the Wildes. He...flirted...with me, but I haven't heard from him since.

[faithlikeaseed]

Mmm--you'd have been right at home in Nevarra, much as I don't like the idea personally. But it would have gone better for you; necromancy's an obligation there.

So you're not one of the ordinary human colors? [Rude, Myr, but, well. He is helpless to stop the dumb question.]

Huh. Hadn't thought him for that kind of tease. [Is that disapproving? Maybe!!] Flirted.

[petcromancer]

Really? There's a place that embraces it? [Hector didn't think that was possible.]

It's...silvery. Like an old man might have, except it's been that way since my birth.

[It's not the most outrageous ever, but it had been enough to mark him as odd.

This disapproval, though. Whoops, he hadn't meant to get Asura into any trouble.]

I didn't seek him out either. It's fine. Nothing untoward happened.

[faithlikeaseed]

More than embraces--the Mortalitasi may well run the entire country. It's part of everything they do. I'm surprised most places ban or despise it--it's disturbing and I fear it, personally, but it's licit magic as far as the Chantry's concerned.

[Maybe because on Thedas nobody's protesting, tormented soul is getting stuffed back in its own rotting body to suffer unlife, but that's a difference that's escaped Myr thus far.]

Huh--that sounds lovely. Striking, even, depending on your complexion.

Well, [it'd only be minor trouble; Myr's opinion of Asura is good enough that it would take a far more major disappointment,] so long as nothing untoward happened.

[petcromancer]

That...seems strange. There are a limit to how many necromancers a society can sustain. People only die so fast...unless they are being killed purposefully.

[Hector has no moral compunction about using his old skills, but he doesn't go around killing unless it's absolutely necessary.]

It's just hair. The color's strange, but it's not anything special.

[Hector's been around inhumanely attractive vampires for too long. Myr will have to get Everett or someone else to weigh in on how he looks.]

Just forget I said anything.

[faithlikeaseed]

The Mortalitasi certainly have their usages in war; Nevarra's a conqueror when she can be. But they've got the whole Necropolis to maintain as well--thousands of corpses of their nobility and notables, going back Ages, all reanimated and given their own city to venerate them. [It's creepy and weird, is what it is, but it ain't blood magic.

He may very well ask Everett for a description, sometime.

Then a quiet, amused huff.]

I'm not about to hassle him for it, never fear. Just being melodramatic over my idea of him as a suitable Bond partner for you failing. [wow, thanks, truth serum, lay his entire personality out like this.]

[petcromancer]

Shit. Isn't the world bad enough with just the current living nobility? Who the fuck would want to keep the dead ones around?

[Which, if Hector was a little more self-aware, is what vampires are, but shhhh. He takes to new concepts very slowly.]

You're playing matchmaker now? I doubt Asura would need help finding a bond. He's very handsome, if you're not aware.

[faithlikeaseed]

Nevarrans, apparently. Though since they're all shut up in the Necropolis doing fuck-all they're leaps and bounds ahead of most nobility in my mind.

[Much less troublesome AND sexy than vampires. ]

I wasn't, but I'm hardly surprised; he's got the presence for it. D'you think only someone hideous and desperate would want to Bond with you? ...Because yes, I certainly am playing matchmaker.

[petcromancer]

No. They could be hideous or desperate. Desperation comes from a variety of sources, not just physical appearance.