Song: Lies by Will Jay

(With some adjustments to the lyrics to avoid as much repeating and make it more accurate to characters in certain places)

Characters: Mergen, Revan, and Garvin.

Context:

To be honest, this just goes over how and why these characters lie. Basically. More or less.

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*We start with Mergen! They’ll lie and then tell their younger brother about it a lot.*

Mergen (21), to his brother over the phone; “I told some guys about being broke… It kinda started out as a joke. I didn't go to college, so what would I know about student loans? Just wanted them all to relate to me…”

Mergen (22), a year later still doing the exact same thing; “Most of my words aren't true. I faked heartbreak I didn't go through. Even when I told them I've never been in love, I already was… Just wanted them all to relate to me.”

*So, a funny thing about Mergen is that they don’t have complete control of their ability and they can definitely use it to help their lying. And that will totally happen at some point.*

Mergen (23), accidentally tapping into their ability a bit; “I don't mean to mislead you, I promise. So uncomfortable being dishonest…”

*Eventually, Mergen will probably admit to their lies, and when that happens, they’ll probably figure out part of the reason why they lie in the first place.*

Mergen (23); “And I think I just realized I would say anything… To come off a little more interesting…”

*Now onto Revan! His part is going to skip around a lot more. Starting with near present times. He tends to use denial a lot. *

Revan (23), referring to everything basically; “I'd rather tell myself if I ignore these thoughts they'll go away, and my toxic traits have changed… Truth is I hate confrontation.”

*Denial and excuses have always been a part of his process actually. It’s basically how he deals with everything.*

Revan (16), referring to an argument he had with Tris; “Deal with it tomorrow, 'cause there's nothing I can do… That's my favorite excuse… Feeding my procrastination…”

*And of course, denial continues, and denial turns into straight up lying.*

Revan (18); “I'll be happy when I've had success… Is that my way to admit I'm depressed? My therapy's working, if it's constant, I pay the price and call that happiness…”

*Unlike Mergen who hasn’t realized yet, Revan has already realized a big reason for why he lies. And it changes nothing, as we all know by now.*

Revan (20), staring into a mirror while getting ready for the day; “And I think I just realized I would do anything… To keep hiding the pain I've been burying…”

*Last is Garvin! His part references a ton of little things all at once in a very short amount of time. But overall, his way of dealing with stuff is shoving it down. But unlike Revan’s denial, Garvin just doesn’t even look at it. He doesn’t acknowledge it. Revan feels guilt about what happened and denies that there are problems. Garvin doesn’t deny anything because his issues aren’t even brought up because they are shoved so far down that he can just ignore that they exist at all. Not that they don’t still affect him, they do. Just in such a way that’s usually dismissible as just Garvin being himself.*

Garvin (25); “Over and over, I keep on repeating, until it all sounds like the truth to me and I cover them up like I'm putting out fires… The last thing I want is for anyone to think I'm a liar.”