Where We Lie Origins

 

When thinking of Where We Lie, the original working title was the Summer Solstice, as this was about Cyras' birthday. Then, I got the idea of Ahmond owing Owlis money, and finally, this came back to Daybreak.

This story isn't about whether lying is good or evil. Cyras uses lies and truths as ways of protecting herself and others, but protection means several things, whether that means saving someone from harm (Ahmond) or saving someone from being tricked (the kingdomers).

However, I think a lot of times, there's lots of fake stories on the internet. I see a lot of people basically believe anything they read or hear. Lemme go on a weirdly specific tangent: RPG horror stories. Like, ninety nine percent of the time, you can clearly tell if you have a modicum of critical thinking, that the storytelling is bullspitting.

Usually, all RPG horror stories have ONE key player who is causing a major ruckus for everybody, but nobody mentions as everyone thought everyone else was okay with the ONE key player. The ONE key player who is completely evil is always a sexual harrasser, homophobic, a bully. Then the author realizes they forgot the RPG part, so usually they play a mary-sue or are a powergamer. There's always a "younger player" who they "have to give credit to because they played their part so perfectly".

Everyone knows these stories are fake, but no one wants to say anything because they're afraid of victim blaming or of hurting someone who may have gone through trauma. However, what this really does is spread an idea around that you should be careful about RPGs. That if you see one "toxic behavior", that person must be shut down immediately.

I've seen people saying they're so afraid of Art Trades and I see lots of memes about fear of Art Trades. Every single Art Trade I've done has gone through. You could say I'm extremely lucky but, no. I'm not extremely lucky, just that most people aren't scam artists.

There is such a thing of "if something sounds too bad to be true, then probably is."

Lie Detectors are an invention that seemingly gets past the lies. However, Cyras breaks this down the best, as she claims everyone is lying. Even if subconscious, a story will have bias, where someone was a clear antagonist.

Daybreak is the first true villain of N:Era. When creating him, I think I may have struck a bit close to home.

Let's look at who he is: He's a 20 year old college dropout (if he ever went to college), who is more concerned with his engineering and one true interest and trying to get that started up than holding any jobs. He does enough chores that he's not getting kicked out. His dad doesn't really want him home nor does his mom, however the youngest daughter is the baby of the house so she gets first dibs on staying, meanwhile the oldest son works. So Daybreak is the sacrificial lamb.

Daybreak believes he is progress against the stagnant work of Orch.

Now Daybreak isn't inherently dangerous, but the mob who follows him is. Yes, an entire fad sweeping over two weeks isn't entirely realistic and I don't really mean for that to be. Wysdom is a place that is highly noblebright, where you can get mass radical shifts and fads overnight.

To me, the power of cartoons is the exaggeration of truth. N:Era is always gonna be cartoony and have cartoon logic. Part of that isn't just squash and stretch, but also that this gives a more simple view of a complex issue. Because nobody can understand the full complexity, we need simple stories like fairy tales, serving as models.

The reason pseudoscience works is victims want science to be true. That is how lie detectors in real life have gotten their fame even though they're inaccurate and untrustworthy. Some of you either are, or know people into fads backed up by science (and I'm gonna list some for examples. Please don't tell me whether or not these are "real". If they are, they are. If they aren't, they aren't: Polyphasic Sleep, Keto Diet, CICO diet, showering with cold water). However, we have Cyras, who because of her instinctual nature, tends to not believe stuff that sounds too good to be true. She's not worldly in Civic affairs, but does know that life doesn't usually come in simple black and white of truth and lies.

So the awesome spanking plot, where'd that come from, why isn't Ahmond getting blistered?

Well to be honest, you all should have known. The whole plot is her avoiding a whacking. Just simple storytelling structure.

There actually was a plan that Ahmond would get in trouble for something unrelated and Vanos, Mosor, and Kyofi would all whack her at the end of the tale (or tail in this case), but I thought this undermined everything.