(meme) TELL THE TRUTH...

[expiationmods]

IC TRUTH MEME...!

- Quite what it says on the tin, really.
- TL with your character
- Other characters ask questions from them, and they have to answer with honesty
- DRAMA!
- remember, the threads from the meme are not accepted as ac.

Comments

[nightwild]

Close enough.

[nuraridouman]

It'd still be a failing grade if you did this on a test. Anyway.


The point is that I'm a youkai that humans find generally really troublesome to deal with. I'd daresay that Seimei got a lot of good use out of me before I finally decided to give him the 'slip'.

[Of course he was still Douman and an aspiring Onmyoji himself, back then. Fortunately having to tell the truth doesn't mean that he has to do it chronologically accurate or deliver any necessary context needed to not misunderstand. Hmmm, coming to think of it, he had gotten fed up with Seimei and decided to ditch him really fast even as a kid, hadn't he? The big name and fame hadn't dazzled him long.]

[nightwild]

I dropped out of school back in middle school anyway.

... That still doesn't seem right.

[nuraridouman]

Is that so? I'm the Principal of a school for youkai. The biggest and best known, actually.

[Does he talk about himself or his school? It's both, actually. Everybody in the realms of the youkai and the gods know that 'the Principal' is synonymous with "Nurarihyon".]

That I didn't want to be in any stories?

[nightwild]

I don't get how or why, but... I met Abe no Seimei here. He wasn't the kind of person you're describing at all.

[They only spoke once, but... She got a good impression of him from that.]

[nuraridouman]

Hah. Isn't the answer to that "riddle" obvious?

That man wasn't Abe no Seimei. He might have been some distant relative getting a kick out of having inherited the name like a title and putting on an act, but I can assure you that his blood was far too mixed to be the real deal. That was a part-youkai if I've ever smelled one.

[nightwild]

"Too mixed"...? Part-youkai?

Everyone knows Abe no Seimei was a half-fox.

[nuraridouman]

Oh? Am I to take that he just came over and introduced himself to you as such? Or that they found his bones and ran some DNA tests?

I've met a lot of half-youkai over the ages, and I've known that bastard Abe no Seimei for years. Whatever he was, he wasn't some puny half-animal.

[nightwild]

I grew up on the storybooks about Abe no Seimei. It was in all of the stories. His mother was the fox Kuzunoha.

Do you think it's possible you're the one who's wrong? You got tricked by someone else using his name?

[nuraridouman]

Impossible.

After all I've seen him in action. Or do you know any other Onmyoji who protected the Emperor and the capital from the terrible Shuten Doji and commanded the four divine guardian beasts Genbu, Seiryū, Byakko and Suzaku? I have even seen him devise some of his most famous magics.

But if you'd rather believe story books that were made for kids....

[nightwild]

Shuten Doji...

[Yeah, that was Seimei, but...]

Wait, the four beasts of Kyoto? That wasn't in any of the stories.

[nuraridouman]

No? But he was the one who set them to protect the four cardinal gates of the city himself. Three of them are still doing that job even today.

[nightwild]

[She thinks.

And she thinks.

And she thinks.

And eventually, just puts her hands to her head in frustration.]

Aaaagh, I don't get it! This doesn't make any sense!

[nuraridouman]

[Douman just chuckles at that. If only she knew who is really telling her all that stuff. Then she wouldn't doubt anymore.]

You know the old saying that there's always a grain of truth in myths? It's just like that. I know the truth because I was alive and around during that time. Why, I even remember the day Abe no Seimei died and the following conundrum vividly~

[nightwild]

Yeah, that part's fine, whatever. That's not the problem.

But you're not lying... and he wasn't lying. So it doesn't make any sense!

[nuraridouman]

Hmm. That's indeed a problem, then.


Maybe you could consider thinking of ways how both of us could be telling "the truth" your homework? Come up with at least 3-5 ways until we meet again. That much should be easy.

[nightwild]

Homework? The hell are you talking about? I dropped out anyway.

[nuraridouman]

Then isn't that all the more reason to sharpen your proverbial claws and train not only your body but also your head from time to time?

[nightwild]

What's the point? I already know I'm stupid.

[nuraridouman]

Says who?

[nightwild]

Says everyone I've ever talked to.

[nuraridouman]

And you'll just listen to them?

[nightwild]

Sure seems to be true. My grades were always terrible. I don't understand what people are talking about most of the time. Everyone else just can understand what's right and wrong, and all I know how to do is swing my fists.

[nuraridouman]

Hm. I'll just talk a little to myself in that case.

[Turning away from her, Douman looks at the horizon, arms crossed behind his back in a typical old-man or teacher manner.]

Where I come from, everybody likes to call animal youkai stupid. And they really are, in a sense. Maybe it is because they are originally animals with weird powers, but if any of them ever manages to get as much as a passing grade on one of their tests that's more than a little miracle. Why, there are even many, many adults of them who can't even properly write their own name!

.....But one of the teachers at Hyakki Academy is an animal youkai, and a damn fine one at that. Even if he can't spell his own goddamn name.

cw: referenced transphobia

[nightwild]

... I'm not an animal. I'm a human.

[But her voice is wavering.]

A human who can't read the mood. A freak who wanted to be a girl. An idiot who couldn't study. Someone who can't lie, can't hide their feelings or play along with the crowd, and broke a kid's nose just so people would leave me alone.

... Maybe it'd be easier for me if I was just an animal youkai.