Truth Meme

[folkie]

Truth Meme

Somehow, there is kirin on you.

Most likely, it is the fur of the kirin that was caught in the environment of wherever you’ve been; there is a stray hair on you because one was on the seat you sat on upon the train or because it blew onto the brim of your hat in the wind.

Or it may be because you met the kirin—a playful ungulate moose-sized spirit who prefers not to speak—and engaged with him and gave him a pat, or a scratch behind an ear. Maybe the kirin nosed or licked your hand because you made him laugh (it’s an adorable ‘keh keh keh’ sound).

Unfortunately for both you and the kirin (who had not meant to trouble your day like this, truly), this exposure to his dander has only one reaction, and it happens to 100% of Star Children: you are compelled to tell the entire truth. About what is less specific; you are compelled simply to announce things about yourself—your life, experiences, thoughts, opinions, feelings. No matter if it’s something silly and inconsequential, deep or secretive, life-altering or commonplace. Some may choose to do this by employing Foxi and their relic; others by finding people to exchange truth with to face to face.

When you have met the kirin’s subconscious desire for four hours, you will be free from the truth telling and the recipient of 24 hours of good luck. The good luck will be sometime in the next year rather than in the next day, and you may have no idea where it came from, but you’ll know a lucky day when you have it!

• This meme is game canon unless marked otherwise at the start of threads! Threads can be used for spoons and application samples.
• Assume all characters involved on this meme are affected.
• Characters will compulsively state truths about themselves/their feelings on the network or in-person. Top-levels may include either/both options.
• Please include prompts in your top level.
• All questions will be answered with complete and total honesty. No special abilities, half-truths, or omissions can avoid sharing all of the truth.
• Meme is open until the next truth meme!
• After one month, you may use the kirin mechanic generally in game. It can be one-sided! All truth-telling characters must consent.

Comments

[moseyin]

oh shit

[zacrifice]

can you buy a new relic later if you smash it
bc im gonna smash it

[moseyin]

Buy it from where???

No just wait a minute. I'm coming home, I'll take yours and you take mine

[zacrifice]

ok good i wanted that anyway

[and then he talks to sharon, SO GOOD LUCK WITH THAT WHEN YOU GET HOME IG]

>action

[moseyin]

Hey, [Cloud calls out once he's home, taking his time with removing Monarch and its harness and storing everything carefully by the front door.] You're not naked with a rose in your teeth again, are you? [He's been trying to get better at it, ever since Aerith tripped over where he'd left Monarch on the floor next to his bed when she was trying to sneak in to cuddle. Put things up so the house is less cluttered for the other people he lives with. It's a work in progress.] I'm not gonna complain but it's damn cold, and you're a jungle boy and all.

[When Zack doesn't respond to the playful (truthful) ribbing, Cloud hurries out of his boots a little faster and goes in search.] Yo did you hear- Zack? [He looks rough.] What happened?

[zacrifice]

[Zack definitely doesn't answer coherently. He's in bed (which bed? a bed. one of them. roll the dice) curled up against the headboard with his face buried. Whatever response he offers is muffled, hiding but (unfortunately) still compelled to honesty.

The cause may not be immediately apparent, but a cursory glance will give Cloud a little more information: his relic's been thrown against the wall and lays next to the doorway, its screen cracked, but easily accessed to the conversation he'd abandoned. He did in fact smash it after all.]

[moseyin]

[Oh.

Cloud comes into the room quietly, sitting on the edge of the bed, not quite touching Zack. He contemplates for a moment. Zack's breaths are ragged in the quiet air of the room. Cloud's still compelled to tell the truth so he knows Zack is probably still compelled to tell the truth, but he's not sure what to say or ask here. Something happened and Zack is upset, more upset than Cloud's seen him since Otherworld.

Cloud lifts a hand. Stops, hovering there, worrying at his bottom lip with his teeth before he continues. He doesn't need to ask. He doesn't need to know, doesn't need to accidentally force Zack to tell him something he doesn't want to. Zack's always hated words when an action will do, anyway. He's a tactile person, and right now, he feels too isolated and alone at the head of that bed. Something pulls at Cloud's soul, something that tells him to go steady Zack, already. Fix this.

Without any more deliberation, Cloud crawls up along the mattress until he reaches Zack. He telegraphs with a hand on Zack's shoulder first; if that's fine, if he can manage it, he coaxes Zack to pull his arms away from over his head and put them around Cloud instead. He stays up on his knees, cradles Zack's head in his own arms, and holds it against his chest, dropping his chin atop Zack's hair.

They don't need to talk about it.]

[zacrifice]

[Zack makes a soft, indiscernible noise at the touch; he'd felt and heard Cloud's arrival, so it isn't quite surprise, nor is it a protest. If anything it's a sound of helpless acknowledgement. He accepts this presence, and this comfort, but he doesn't know what to do with it yet.

It takes a couple of seconds - eons longer than it usually takes him, but in this moment it's hard to extract himself from that tight, protective curl, feeling so small despite his actual size - but he shifts his arms as Cloud directs, winding them instead around Cloud and burrowing his face in the other's chest instead of his arms. He's absolutely correct, Zack does prefer this. If asked he's not sure what truth would be compelled from him. He had a fight with Sharon? She's super wrong and super right at the same time? Turns out he is very angry about some stuff and would rather not acknowledge it, thanks? All of those things. He's biting his tongue so hard it bleeds to keep from voicing the tumbling thoughts. He has to say it. He doesn't want to say it.

So he bites, and he bleeds, and he hugs Cloud more tightly. He'll hold it in as long as he can.]

[moseyin]

[Cloud holds Zack there to his chest for a good long while. The sunlight seeping through the window's curtains has time to move across the floor by the time he finally, slowly unwinds; when he does pull back far enough, he notes the red smeared on Zack's chin and starts.] Zack, [he says softly, noting the blotch of blood on his shirt whose warmth he'd thought was tears, and takes Zack's chin in a hand to take a look. The wound's already closed of course, SOLDIER healing having kicked in long ago, but Cloud wouldn't be surprised if there was still a welt.

It's so bad that Zack doesn't even want to say any of it to him?] ...d'you want me to get Aerith?

[zacrifice]

[Zack lifts a hand to smear it over his chin, glancing down to find the red flakes of dried blood on his palm. He'd known he had bled, could taste it in his mouth, but he didn't realize he'd done it enough for some to seep out. Shit.]

...No. 'm okay. [Aerith might be able to coax it out of him too, but truthfully (ha ha) he just hadn't wanted to blurt everything out while this whole truth thing was going on. He'd wanted to at least control the narrative somewhat.

...Saying he's fine isn't going to cut it, now. But at least he knows he can say it. Maybe this thing's wearing off.]

Sorry. [He pats his hand against the blood on Cloud's shirt.] That was fucked up.

[moseyin]

[Wraps Zack's fingers up in his hand and squeezes them, lowering Zack's hand back down to the bed. It's not even an issue.

Cloud finally casts a look over his shoulder at the cracked Relic on the ground. Something definitely happened, but he doesn't want to ask Zack about it if the truth curse if even a little active, still. He hesitates, thinking, before he asks instead,] Can you tell me a lie?

[zacrifice]

Kinda just did. [He's so not okay, dude. But it's a good thing to test properly, so he drags his tongue across his teeth and around in his mouth a few times, swallows to get the taste of blood out of it, then tries again.] 'm secretly a nat blond, too.

[-Yep, truth curse averted. Ask away.]

[moseyin]

Aright. [Scoots back a little to give Zack some room, but close enough for him to reach out in case he wants Cloud nearby. Ready to serve.] So...what happened?

[zacrifice]

[He opens his mouth, almost leading with the fight, but in truth it's not really about that. It was a symptom, not the catalyst.

Instead he scrubs at his eyes, shaking his head.]

Do you think I'm not angry enough?

[moseyin]

[That's...not what he expected. Cloud presses his lips together, trying to figure out if there's something he's missed or if this is just the result of whatever truth curse bullshit is going on right now. Did someone tell Zack he should be angry?]

I...dunno, [Cloud answers, honestly despite the lack of compulsion.] I think you feel how you feel, nevermind what I think you should be. Do you wanna be more angry?

[zacrifice]

[Ha ha, about that.]

I dunno, [he echoes. Unhelpful, try again.] Not really. It isn't gonna make me happier, is it? It seems kinda pointless to me. Just being pissed to be pissed.

[moseyin]

Zack. [This time Cloud reaches for Zack's hand, holding it between his own and pulling it into his lap.] What's this about?

[zacrifice]

[Zack exhales quietly, twisting their fingers to twine together, curling tightly around Cloud's. The grip is almost painful, just a hair away from too much.

It's okay. He's okay. It's not that bad.]

Had a fight with Sharon. She's mad I don't wanna beat up the fox. Or, uh. Maybe. She's mad I'm not mad.

[moseyin]

[Sharon being mad that someone else isn't mad enough is so damn Sharon that Cloud almost sighs and laughs at the same time. Why does she have to be so damn abrasive about it, though...?] She got to you with that one, I guess. [Cloud looks over at the smashed Relic over on the floor, brushing his thumb against the side of Zack's hand and easily ignoring the threat of pain from his grip.]

[zacrifice]

Mm. [He lifts his free hand, rubbing it against his face.] She doesn't like my truth, I don't like hers.

[Shouldn't be surprising. They're very different people, this isn't the first time they've clashed, nor will it be the last. Something about this one, though.]

Shoulda asked me when the truth thing worked. Words not comin' so easy now. [He's only half-joking.] ...Said I was tired. Of being angry. I was pissed off for so long... five years pissed is so long... 'm tired, man. I'm dead. Can't a dead guy just be tired and happy for a while?

[moseyin]

[That I'm dead acknowledgement has Cloud drawing in a breath, now holding Zack's hand back almost just as tightly, but he doesn't interrupt. You're not dead. You're here with me. If you're dead then I'm dead, and we'll be that way together. Now isn't the time.]

...yeah, [Cloud finally manages, after unclenching his jaw. He keeps Zack's hand between his own, on his lap, still rubbing his thumb along the side.] He can. But also sounds like this guy [not saying 'dead guy'] got pretty angry about not being angry. [So...maybe Zack wants to not be angry, but he still is kind of and Sharon pulling at that particular thread just reminded him of the fact? Cloud's crash course in unearthing buried feelings is even more muddled given he was barely in the driver's seat for most of it.]

[zacrifice]

[Can't help noticing that harsh little intake, or the tight squeeze of his hand, so Zack shifts sideways to rest his head against Cloud's. Sorry, he's sorry.]

I don't like it. Being reminded of how angry I was, or... how angry I should be, I guess. Makes me think about what made me mad in the first place. If I let myself think about those days all the time...

[He'd drown. He would absolutely drown. He came out of the lab with his sanity in check and managed to stay kind, stay himself, but hell if some days afterwards he hadn't been hanging on by a single thread.]

...I dunno, man. The other Firsts let Shinra push them into gettin' so pissed off they turned into monsters, hurt people. Kinda scared it'll make me a monster someday, too.

[moseyin]

[Nudges Zack's temple with his own. It's okay.]

You prob'ly already know this, [Cloud murmurs, as they slowly get closer and closer to cuddling (again) the more Zack talks,] but you're different from the other Firsts. You're not gonna be a monster. [It's not about the cells, about whatever strange immunity Zack seems to have to mako poisoning and Jenova, it's about character. It's about Cloud's faith in the strength of Zack's spirit. Zack simply isn't capable of being a monster like the rest of them, he isn't.] It's not in you.

[zacrifice]

[Not in him... Zack doesn't know, one-hundred-percent, if that's true. He hasn't been tested the same way as the rest have- winged and full of voices, raised by horrible scientists, subject to experimentation all their lives. He's had a rough decade or so, but it started out great: he was living his dream. He doesn't want to let himself drown in the stress of what-if, though, either. That's definitely not in him.

Is that all they're allowed to be? Monsters, or heroes? They did kind of sign up for that.]

...'m being stupid. Shouldn't let this get to me.

[It's just a few little comments. Someone else's opinion. What does it matter? He knows who he is, what he wants. And he's doing great.

(Except: why is the truth so damn painful sometimes?)]

[moseyin]

Hey, no, [Cloud answers immediately, and knocks his head against Zack's gently (for a SOLDIER, at least).] Nobody said any of that.