one of the most defining — or rather distinct — traits of banshee’s is that she will almost always take you at your word. if she knows it to be factually false, she will always assume genuine ignorance above intentional deceit. in turn, she herself is utterly truthful and her spoken word incredibly blunt. social decorum is a little lost on her; if she has a question, there is a good chance she will ask, no matter how personal. banshee is of a species that communicates by projecting their emotions and intentions around them. it is as natural as breathing. the very idea of deceit was largely foreign until some time before their civil war and the destruction of their planet. ( two utterly unrelated events, but the blessed interpreted the solarstorm as the outcast’s fault; that it is the direct result of them disturbing the peace. ) the ruling council of her caste, the blessed, had an inkling to some degree, but was largely convinced of their own good intentions and as such one might debate just how much of it was deception. their intentions and emotions were true, but fashioned with a larger plan in mind that would preserve the perfection they demanded of their society. the first to truly dabble in deception — in projecting false emotions and hiding malicious intent — were those cast from the blessed’s great trees because they did not fit that perfect image, be it their behaviour or the circumstances of their birth. it is how eventually the civil war starts : outcasts infiltrating the blessed and throwing them from their high and mighty perches. although banshee did have more interactions with the outcasts than your average blessed, having almost become one, she never did learn to weave her emotions into a lie. and now, surrounded by creatures who largely communicate through very specific sounds, where emotions are conveyed through tone and expression, banshee has to make a very conscious effort to understand them. for all intents and purposes, one might call her tone-deaf. she has since learned that these sounds — these words — can easily be false, but not only is she a very trusting creature to begin with( as was ingrained in her as a blessed ), it is difficult to listen for something you know not the sound of. on top of that, she suppresses her own field of emotions and intent because she has learned that most species are not only uncomfortable with it, but are as confused by it as she is with their communication — except hers has a bodycount. she witnessed her own torment cause another’s death, and she is unwilling to take that risk. some more adjacently relevant ramblings over here !