Stealing Stories for the Devil

Deceptions. Fabrications. Misrepresentations, shall we say? Yeah, you probably tell plenty of those, but that’s not the cool stuff. No, we’re talking about your kind of lying—when you lie to reality. Because here’s the thing: It always works. The guard gets too caught up in her Sudoku game? You say it, it happens. There’s road work blocking the bad guy’s getaway route? Yep. A massive blackout plunges all of Paris into darkness? Sure. Reality is your plaything. If you can think it, it happens.

That’s not to say that lies have no consequences. Lying is stressful, and the bigger the lie, the more stressful it gets. Small lies? You can usually pull them off without much cost. Bigger lies can actually hurt you. Lie big enough, and you could pay the ultimate price. So blacking out all of Paris is a pretty dangerous ploy—unless you happen to know some specific weakness of the grid. Some tiny little lie that sparks big consequences.

But, hey, you’re great at that sort of thing. That’s why you’re the one saving reality!