A Balance of Truth and Lies

About a year or two ago, I started writing a fan fiction (insert a groan in here if you really must). This particular one involved two brothers whose lives altered after a chain of events, sending them on a path to grow up as assassins. The other most defining part about the story was that the older one could speak nothing but lies while the younger one could only speak the truth. Even in their thoughts they stuck to this pattern.

Then I stopped updating the story for a good number of months due to various reasons. Over the summer I picked it back up and I’m currently trying to end it. That’s when I noticed how hard it was to have the two maintain their pattern of speech and thought. The younger one couldn’t say anything sarcastic which limited how he responded to some people. His brother, on the other hand, was sarcastic twenty-four/seven or just said a lie in the wrong moment. It became an imbalance that only worked itself out when the two were together.

There is no real flaw for having the two set up that way (well, ignoring the fact that it is really hard for someone to keep that up all the time). However, I found it hard to separate the characters because they worked well together. This is like how truths and lies work together. One can rely completely on one or the other, but it’s hard just to survive on one. Pure truth can be harsh or bland, while lies deceive and often leave a bitter feeling. Most lies that people make up have some base in the truth, while many people would say that using a “white lie” once in a while isn’t that bad. Socially we understand that there is a balance between the two that we try to achieve to live happy lives.

Would speaking only one or the other destroy itself? Probably not, but it will make things a whole lot harder to communicate. It also would make the world a bit boring if you only write truths or lies. There’s a happy medium here, and we’re all pretty much living it.

The end of the story won’t allow the two to continue a polarized life: they will begin to speak with both truth and lies. They deserve a chance to express themselves fully. I hope they like the freedom of full expression.