?? // Kira Sakuya // Lucifer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ironically) wrote2011-12-14 10:29 pm
ironically) wrote2011-12-14 10:29 pm
Fourth Skill - Faking Humanity
Faking Human
This is basically Lucifer's skill to be a lying liar mcfucking faker pants. If you do not want to read the essay below I will just summarize by saying that FROM NOW ON Lucifer is going to be acting a lot more Kira, and unless you have LIE DETECTING SUPER POWERS you may think it is awfully suspicious but damned if it doesn't seem completely real.
This is not really 'acting', though that is certainly an element of it. But it really goes beyond that. Lucifer is... able to be whatever he wants to be. He is NOT controlled by emotions the way humans are, so he rarely has an element of appearing false. I.E. pretending to be sorrowful when actually he's loling on the outside. Basically, while most people can only 'really smile' when they 'really mean it', Lucifer can pull out a charming bright smile that looks utterly believable (if WEIRD because you never see him do that), because to him it's not really any more than a series of muscle movements.
And that is a natural ability, not a 'skill'. Just like how you don't need someone to walk you through the steps of how to pick up a glass, Lucifer has always had complete control of his physical responses. To anyone with a good ability to read body language, though, he probably reads really fucking off. Because not only does he not feel things the way most people do, he doesn't telegraph what he is feeling the way a human would. It's not even entirely being intentionally opaque, it's just not hardwired into how he acts. In fact, the reason that the only descriptors I ever use when playing Lucifer are 'amused' and 'eyebrow' is because those are the only two feelings his intentionally telegraphs to the people around him.
So up until now! Lucifer has never made any real effort to convey himself through expression, tone, or body language. He says what he thinks in... not quite a monotone, but damn close. Very stoic. He didn't do more because frankly, he didn't know how, and he didn't care to do it wrong because he realizes that would just be weird. He knows things like 'you smile when you are happy', but he also knows there are a hundred different types of smiles and he doesn't know what goes where. He doesn't know how to connect the dots in a way that would be believable and human and not like ...Data from Star Trek.
Now. Lucifer is a BRIGHT BOY, but non-verbal human communication is still flipping complex, and since he lacks empathy it pretty solidly balances out his natural intelligence. It would take him a LONG FUCKING TIME to learn to perfectly emulate 'being human'.
THANKFULLY. HE SPENT THOUSANDS OF YEARS LIVING HUNDREDS OF DIFFERENT LIVES \=D/
This is the skill Nanatsusaya honed to live among humanity, as anyone. Though he will predominantly wear a Kira-like personality because its the one he remembers most, and the only one that was ever real, he could just as easily be a bubbly young girl or a spoiled child or a bitter old man. He now has aaaalmost complete knowledge of what tones, actions, body language convey.
Of course, it isn't flawless. Humans are still complex and people won't necessarily always pick up the message he is sending (that's how miscommunication works, after all). And he will deal with that as it happens, but he will no longer come off as totally emotionless unless he wants to.
WHICH BRINGS ME TO THE NEXT PART! He doesn't want to.
Lucifer has decided to genuinely invest himself in Peridot, because they are useful. To that end, they would be easier to maintain and manipulate if they think he cares about them, if they think he is someone they can understand and relate to. He is going to tell people the skill he got back was his humanity, and not his ability to fake humanity (=
I will leave it up to the players how much the characters do or don't believe him. He is well aware that it will be a hard sell to some. And he will sell it the way he sells everything: being unerringly convincing as long as it fucking takes.
That said! He really is very good at it. If threads go in such a manner where Lucifer fucks up and it 'feels off' that is fair. But in general, he will not give off a vibe of insincerity (unless it's intentional)! His teasing, boredom, judgment, sarcasm, irritation, etc will all appear very very real.
HOW DOES THIS AFFECT PEOPLE WITH CRAZY AWESOME LIAR DETECTION (read: Cassie).
I'll leave this mostly up to you, Cass =|b The main thing to keep in mind is that Lucifer doesn't have 'tells'. Presumably generally when people are lying the issue is that their mouth says one thing while their body says something else. Because Lucifer doesn't have a groundwork of using body communication to begin with, so even if you can see through his faking, it doesn't reveal something else. There isn't something else. So there's no 'You are smiling but you are really angry', probably more like 'You are smiling but you are really... nothing..?'. Only it's ALWAYS nothing, there is never anything else (outside of very rare circumstances I will hit you up on if it is relevant).
So people like Cassie and anyone else with lying super powers are welcome to get the overall sense that it is not how honesty generally looks to them, but frankly it's probably not how lying generally looks either. People with MIND READING shooould hit me up, but basically he's as mentally opaque as ever. However if you dug in you would probably find that yes he's still awfully close to being a sociopath.
QUESTIONS/ETC GO HERE =Db
This is basically Lucifer's skill to be a lying liar mcfucking faker pants. If you do not want to read the essay below I will just summarize by saying that FROM NOW ON Lucifer is going to be acting a lot more Kira, and unless you have LIE DETECTING SUPER POWERS you may think it is awfully suspicious but damned if it doesn't seem completely real.
This is not really 'acting', though that is certainly an element of it. But it really goes beyond that. Lucifer is... able to be whatever he wants to be. He is NOT controlled by emotions the way humans are, so he rarely has an element of appearing false. I.E. pretending to be sorrowful when actually he's loling on the outside. Basically, while most people can only 'really smile' when they 'really mean it', Lucifer can pull out a charming bright smile that looks utterly believable (if WEIRD because you never see him do that), because to him it's not really any more than a series of muscle movements.
And that is a natural ability, not a 'skill'. Just like how you don't need someone to walk you through the steps of how to pick up a glass, Lucifer has always had complete control of his physical responses. To anyone with a good ability to read body language, though, he probably reads really fucking off. Because not only does he not feel things the way most people do, he doesn't telegraph what he is feeling the way a human would. It's not even entirely being intentionally opaque, it's just not hardwired into how he acts. In fact, the reason that the only descriptors I ever use when playing Lucifer are 'amused' and 'eyebrow' is because those are the only two feelings his intentionally telegraphs to the people around him.
So up until now! Lucifer has never made any real effort to convey himself through expression, tone, or body language. He says what he thinks in... not quite a monotone, but damn close. Very stoic. He didn't do more because frankly, he didn't know how, and he didn't care to do it wrong because he realizes that would just be weird. He knows things like 'you smile when you are happy', but he also knows there are a hundred different types of smiles and he doesn't know what goes where. He doesn't know how to connect the dots in a way that would be believable and human and not like ...Data from Star Trek.
Now. Lucifer is a BRIGHT BOY, but non-verbal human communication is still flipping complex, and since he lacks empathy it pretty solidly balances out his natural intelligence. It would take him a LONG FUCKING TIME to learn to perfectly emulate 'being human'.
THANKFULLY. HE SPENT THOUSANDS OF YEARS LIVING HUNDREDS OF DIFFERENT LIVES \=D/
This is the skill Nanatsusaya honed to live among humanity, as anyone. Though he will predominantly wear a Kira-like personality because its the one he remembers most, and the only one that was ever real, he could just as easily be a bubbly young girl or a spoiled child or a bitter old man. He now has aaaalmost complete knowledge of what tones, actions, body language convey.
Of course, it isn't flawless. Humans are still complex and people won't necessarily always pick up the message he is sending (that's how miscommunication works, after all). And he will deal with that as it happens, but he will no longer come off as totally emotionless unless he wants to.
WHICH BRINGS ME TO THE NEXT PART! He doesn't want to.
Lucifer has decided to genuinely invest himself in Peridot, because they are useful. To that end, they would be easier to maintain and manipulate if they think he cares about them, if they think he is someone they can understand and relate to. He is going to tell people the skill he got back was his humanity, and not his ability to fake humanity (=
I will leave it up to the players how much the characters do or don't believe him. He is well aware that it will be a hard sell to some. And he will sell it the way he sells everything: being unerringly convincing as long as it fucking takes.
That said! He really is very good at it. If threads go in such a manner where Lucifer fucks up and it 'feels off' that is fair. But in general, he will not give off a vibe of insincerity (unless it's intentional)! His teasing, boredom, judgment, sarcasm, irritation, etc will all appear very very real.
HOW DOES THIS AFFECT PEOPLE WITH CRAZY AWESOME LIAR DETECTION (read: Cassie).
I'll leave this mostly up to you, Cass =|b The main thing to keep in mind is that Lucifer doesn't have 'tells'. Presumably generally when people are lying the issue is that their mouth says one thing while their body says something else. Because Lucifer doesn't have a groundwork of using body communication to begin with, so even if you can see through his faking, it doesn't reveal something else. There isn't something else. So there's no 'You are smiling but you are really angry', probably more like 'You are smiling but you are really... nothing..?'. Only it's ALWAYS nothing, there is never anything else (outside of very rare circumstances I will hit you up on if it is relevant).
So people like Cassie and anyone else with lying super powers are welcome to get the overall sense that it is not how honesty generally looks to them, but frankly it's probably not how lying generally looks either. People with MIND READING shooould hit me up, but basically he's as mentally opaque as ever. However if you dug in you would probably find that yes he's still awfully close to being a sociopath.
QUESTIONS/ETC GO HERE =Db