November: 13
Fandom: Original/prjct_wildchild
Characters: Emmett
Summary: Philosophy of lying and breathing under water.
Warnings/Ratings: None
Truth was something that happened to other people.
Emmett knew the difference between truths and lies. Truth was real. Lies were fake--fabrications of the mind.
"There are stars on the ceiling."
Sometimes lies were bad ones.
"I understand."
Ambiguous.
"No, I don't mind."
When everyone knew you lied, was there really a point to lying at all? To making it beleivable?
"I'll find her."
Oh, and how important it now was to tell the right lie, which was actually the truth when they KNEW you were a dirty liar and had taught you to be one with every word. Emmett, this is a lie. Emmett, this is the truth. Emmett, you must never tell a truth. You must never be true.
You are a lie.
Well, not he himself, that was being just a bit over dramatic. The lie, the fake, was just everything everyone else knew about him. A very bad lie, because everyone knew he was a lie, but he had learned. He had schooled himself to never let himself slip any truth into his words, because that would be lying, in a way.
It struck him all as very backwards and nonsense, but he did it. He was good, whatever else he was. A liar by training, but the child everyone always knew to lie all the time, so basically the most truthful person Emmett knew was himself. The liar.
(They'd given him a book, once. Jakob the Liar. Shown him what lies could do to someone. To a people, how they could give hope and despair all at once. It also showed him how large lies were. How they grew and morphed and you had to be SMART to keep them up and running. How the best had that small, skewed nugget of truth at the center.)
That wasn't all of his training. There was the water breathing. They had tanks for him--pure water, pool water, ocean water, and pond water. He wondered how many like him they'd drowned before they'd gotten him right. What happened to the failures? Did they die? Did they get adopted out? How many took that first breath of water and felt their lung burn and reject instead of the heavy weight of water surging in and out so smoothly?
Emmett didn't know, and he'd never asked. Hard to lie when asking a question, but he felt that he didn't want to know that. He had enough problems without feeling like the end result of a line of dead kids. A liar was enough of a burden for him to carry while he was lying under the water, breathing in and out for as long as he could without choking.
"Fifteen. Try for twenty next time." Captain pulled him out of the chilled water, letting him slid out of the tank and onto the mats below. Emmett coughed up a lungful of water. Breathe freezing water for twenty minutes.
"NO problem," Emmett wheezed. Unlike everyone else, Captain gave him that scar crooked smirk.
"You do that, Emmy, you do that."
Because, Captain always said, one day people will f------- believe you, and you better be ready for it. Emmett just thought the former Seal was a sadist.
Who would ever believe a liar?
Characters: Emmett
Summary: Philosophy of lying and breathing under water.
Warnings/Ratings: None
Truth was something that happened to other people.
Emmett knew the difference between truths and lies. Truth was real. Lies were fake--fabrications of the mind.
"There are stars on the ceiling."
Sometimes lies were bad ones.
"I understand."
Ambiguous.
"No, I don't mind."
When everyone knew you lied, was there really a point to lying at all? To making it beleivable?
"I'll find her."
Oh, and how important it now was to tell the right lie, which was actually the truth when they KNEW you were a dirty liar and had taught you to be one with every word. Emmett, this is a lie. Emmett, this is the truth. Emmett, you must never tell a truth. You must never be true.
You are a lie.
Well, not he himself, that was being just a bit over dramatic. The lie, the fake, was just everything everyone else knew about him. A very bad lie, because everyone knew he was a lie, but he had learned. He had schooled himself to never let himself slip any truth into his words, because that would be lying, in a way.
It struck him all as very backwards and nonsense, but he did it. He was good, whatever else he was. A liar by training, but the child everyone always knew to lie all the time, so basically the most truthful person Emmett knew was himself. The liar.
(They'd given him a book, once. Jakob the Liar. Shown him what lies could do to someone. To a people, how they could give hope and despair all at once. It also showed him how large lies were. How they grew and morphed and you had to be SMART to keep them up and running. How the best had that small, skewed nugget of truth at the center.)
That wasn't all of his training. There was the water breathing. They had tanks for him--pure water, pool water, ocean water, and pond water. He wondered how many like him they'd drowned before they'd gotten him right. What happened to the failures? Did they die? Did they get adopted out? How many took that first breath of water and felt their lung burn and reject instead of the heavy weight of water surging in and out so smoothly?
Emmett didn't know, and he'd never asked. Hard to lie when asking a question, but he felt that he didn't want to know that. He had enough problems without feeling like the end result of a line of dead kids. A liar was enough of a burden for him to carry while he was lying under the water, breathing in and out for as long as he could without choking.
"Fifteen. Try for twenty next time." Captain pulled him out of the chilled water, letting him slid out of the tank and onto the mats below. Emmett coughed up a lungful of water. Breathe freezing water for twenty minutes.
"NO problem," Emmett wheezed. Unlike everyone else, Captain gave him that scar crooked smirk.
"You do that, Emmy, you do that."
Because, Captain always said, one day people will f------- believe you, and you better be ready for it. Emmett just thought the former Seal was a sadist.
Who would ever believe a liar?