Work Text:
Two shades of purple; one goal.
Two boys lie. They both show this unserious, laidback persona that crumbles once they’re alone. They both claim to hate deception, yet are masters of it. So why is one so, so despised and the other is showered in praise?
One uses his disguise to be unreadable. To be shunned by his classmates so he could achieve the goal. His whole existence was an oxymoron. Black and white, truth and lie, hope and despair. Did you know white represents clarity? Did you know black represents mystery? So what would checkers be? It’s simply all made up of contradictions, his being. He is the character that makes the screenwriter clasp their hands, look down, and sigh.
But a liar’s counterpart isn’t always a truther. Sometimes, it’s a louder liar covered in push-ups and grins.
The latter’s a seemingly open book. He takes the less confident under his wing and makes them puff their chest and straighten their shoulders, look up to the sky and scream “You don’t scare me.” But when the cracks begin to show, maybe he isn’t so simple. He was the star that kept burning even as he collapsed into himself—because to let them see the gravity of it would risk pulling them down too. Instead of letting others take in the fact he’s dying, he hides it. He hides everything—the struggles he goes through every day; just to give his friends the courage it’s always worth fighting. Did you know supernovas glow their brightest when they’re dying? The detective whose job is to know all looked at him and scratched his head and shrugged. But even then, the detective smiled. Because he goddamn did it. He helped them carry out the goal.
Goal achieved or not; killing game ended or not. The truth is in the eye of the beholder, whether the lies made them seem better or worse than their intentions were. How can two people so different, so delusory be united by the same truth they seek? Maybe after all, the ends justify the means.