I need to yap about some character analysis' I've done because it needs to exist outside my head and it probably won't be obviously brought up in future chapters (unless I do some ol POV switcheroo for all of them back to back or something. But I don't have it planned so :3). I love character analysation if you couldn't tell by the block of text. They're mostly in my head to keep track of, I don't write them down a lot, so I hope it's not too chaotic (・–・;)ゞ
Okay, okay, so, object in motion Tom, Severus and Dakota are all liars (which I hope you guys know as fact haha), but in different ways.
Tom's lying is convuluted, he does it without needing to put energy into it. Everything is a web of half truths, omissions and masks. He weights if the truth or a lie will get him more. He plans ahead CONSTANTLY, already calculating whatever he says will get him what kind of future. Predicating what kind of actions would happen/reactions he would face/consequences that would crop up later. And of course the reward he'd get out of it. It's not inherently malicious, he learned to do it as a child because it was based on his own survival. But it is calculated. It's control he thinks he has, from his response to anything, and to the predictions he makes based on those responses. He doesn't tend to make mistakes, because he has had a life time of experience learning how to better respond/predict to things. (Well, doesn't tend to miscalculate, but sometimes surprises happen that he couldn't even imagine. Like Dakota ( ˵ ° ~ ° ˵ ) hahaha. Just a way for an entire spiderweb of planning and predictions shattering because someone's hand accidentally went through it. It makes him nervous, which makes him plan more but in different ways, to try to get control back. I like to call him a mess but he wouldn't appreciate that XD).
Severus' lying comes as easy as breathing. He lies constantly, mostly to himself. Convincing himself he's worse than he is, or convincing others the same. But there's a few things he wouldn't lie about. Where he's brutally honest about and people will think it's a lie because he's so honest about it. He uses lies and truths as weapons. Spending years as a spy where even his thoughts couldn't be the truth means that sometimes he doesn't know the truth either, he was often not allowed to consciously know the truth. So lying is second nature, but not always on purpose. His perspective on things are just slightly to the left or right, and only occasionally fully what they should be. Layers. Lots of layers. With some key stones of himself that he has and holds onto because those are the only things he was allowed to hold onto. (Getting confronted with any truth makes his foundations SHAKY, giving him a crisis is easy, but only if you're someone he would acknowledge enough to let the words hit him. Truths from people he trusts are like a weapon, and he doesn't have a defense to that. Midlife crisis but only every time someone he holds in high regard says something that shatters his entire perception of himself, and it could literally be ANYTHING that they say. (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞ this man is a massive mess and at least he's sort of self aware about that!!!).
Dakota's lying is a shield. He uses it to hide. To evade. To hide from the world and from himself. He denies mostly, trying not to outright lie. He can, he just prefers not to. Preferring to leave blanks and let everyone else fill in their version of the truth. There's some things he can't lie about, and some things he can only lie about. And his lying was born from the need to protect himself. To become invisible. He doesn't handle being perceived well, and tends to lie more when he thinks people are getting closer to any truth he doesn't want them to know. There's a specific ranking he has, between what he knows is truth and can say, what he knows he must lie about, and what he cannot ever say. And he balances between that constantly. Sometimes using a truth as a shield if he knows he can't get away with blatantly lying or feels he shouldn't. (He doesn't quite know how to be honest without feeling very vulnerable/uncomfortable. There's not a single person in his life he hasn't lied to in some way or form, which means he's never let his guard down completely. People who show that they can be trustworthy leave him baffled. He doesn't know how to let go of his shield.(ノಥ,_｣ಥ)ノ彡┻━┻ Dakota at least knows he's a massive mess with issues, even if he's not quite sure of all his issues yet).
They're three liars, but different kinds of liars. (And different kinds of messes).
乁(. ❛ ᴗ ❛.✿)ㄏhahah as the funny people would say say: "Something something they're a product of their environment and the way they were raised, something something."
