rpanons | [D] You dirty bird

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I'm playing a character who puts up a front of being much nicer than she truly is. She's not a malevolent character per se, but she is very blunt and much less patient than she forces herself to be around other people (in an attempt to win their favour for her own gain). For the most part she's supposed to be convincing in her act.

I would appreciate tips on how keep her seeming genuine enough ICly, while getting the OOC impression across that she's really not, preferably without blatantly spelling it out in the action tags that she's not meaning what she says. At first I tried portraying it through her body-language but characters who shouldn't (ICly) usually be able to pick up that she's faking started to figure her out. I'm finding it hard to be subtle while giving some indication that she's not honest (sharper characters should be capable of realising, but when every passer-by starts to do so there's likely an issue with my take on her).

Anons, got any tips on how to play a convincing faker and play them well? Also, any advice about this type of character in general would be rad.

Personally I would just settle for having a note about it within your character journal.

If you're playing with people that are picking up on the faking aspect without it being obvious, simply because you're making OOC notes, then don't give away any indications while you're actually playing it out.

Play the character out as being genuine. Have them actually do things that are potentially suspicious but don't actually mention it.
People will either pick up on it or they won't but it's better than having every character suddenly singling your character out.

Hm, that sounds good, I'll consider at least cutting down on how much I mention about her motives in the first place. Thanks for the input, anon.

My main character right now is a manipulative bastard, so I'll share some of the things I've picked up while playing him - these might not work for all characters, but maybe they'll give you something to think about.

- Build up the outer persona first, then worry about if the dishonesty is coming across. If she's been doing this for a while, she'll be used to doing it, and if she finds first impressions to be important, there will likely be no noticeable indications that something is wrong. Save the "she's not what she seems" for when people get closer to her - think about how this works in RL. Most people are blindsided by this sort of person because they never see it coming - because there was nothing noticeable at the start.

- Look at what physical "tells" you've been using in terms of body language. If she's been deceiving people for a while, she would have either gotten rid of the immensely obvious ones, or she would be aware of them and able to work with them if she really can't stop. For example, if she touches her hair a lot and plays with it when she's trying to deceive someone and she's aware of it (because it's been pointed out before, or because she notices that every time someone goes "Uh, are you okay?" she has to drop her hair from her bangs before she answers - if she's actively deceptive, she will notice these repeated behaviors eventually because she'll be trying not to get caught), then she'll likely make sure to play with her hair at times when she's not being deceptive. Turn her "tells" into something that can be passed off as a character quirk if possible!

- On the other hand, some things are decidedly harder to work around; for example, the guy I play has a difficult time looking people full in the face when he's being dishonest. He can do it when he's manipulating them or telling technical truths, but he can't look at them if he's telling a flat-out lie (he has something of a weird code of ethics involving that, and blatant lies bother him to the point that he can't look people in the eye when he's telling them). However, he's learned that certain behaviors will be taken certain ways, depending on circumstance - aiming one's gaze high can be taken as being contemplative/thinking, looking downward implies regret or guilt, looking around and moving closer and keeping one's gaze fixed in the distance looks conspiratorial/like he doesn't want anyone else but the person he's talking to to overhear him, etc - and he gets around being unable to look at people when he lies by modifying his behavior to the situation. This can work for other common lying behaviors as well; it takes some thought, but the point of this and the above section is that you can find ways to modify her behavior to make it look not quite so bizarre, and once you've done that, you can verify what you're doing in action brackets. Make the behavior itself look normal, but have the brackets point out the discrepancy.

- Don't overdo with pointing out that she's not being honest! Continually mentioning it in brackets looks like a PA way of trying to get the other character to notice. Just mention it once in a while; people are better at noticing patterns than you think they are! And if they're not, well, the point is that she's being deceptive, and it's fine if the other character doesn't notice/pick up on the hints. Also keep in mind that you won't always get OOC acknowledgement of the dishonesty being noted in action brackets; that doesn't mean it wasn't picked up on. Just keep moving.

- Pointless compliments! They don't have to be massive or day-altering or enough to get the person to blush/tsun/however they take major compliments, just give people positive feedback once in a while where it isn't necessary. "I like your shoes." "What are you drawing? It's pretty." "Hey, where did you get those headphones, they're cool-looking." "Wow, that's neat." "I didn't know you play piano, that sounds really good." Whatever works for the situation; if it can be opened with a compliment without being over-the-top, do it. The important thing, however, is to not make it look like flattery. Just compliment, then move on. If they're really over-the-moon about it, continue with positive affirmation but don't try to flatter. "Hey, you deserve it, okay~" Then move on.

- Adding on from that, keep conversations moving. Don't let her allow people to dwell on perceived problems or issues with her honesty; "look, a distraction!"-style deflections are just as bad, but have her derail conversations with things that are tangentially related, and do it quickly enough that people won't notice there was an issue until the fridge logic kicks in. Make good use of things that aren't exactly in line with the subject at hand, but close enough that the subject change won't be noticeable, and look like they could have come naturally despite being orchestrated.

Other than that, just remember that the point of deception and playing a deceptive character isn't to show off how clever you or the character may happen to be, and it isn't to show off your knowledge of human behavior (or the character's knowledge in some cases; my own is a bit of a bastard with a superiority complex so he's a bad example). The main fun, at least for me, is in the slow reveal of what's really going on. Don't focus too much on making the discrepancy obvious, just make sure that there's enough there to make any Big Reveals not look like you pulled them out of your ass.

In complete sincerity, hope this helps!

This is all golden, "anon" (haha). Seriously, these are all amazing points and I greatly appreciate that you took the time to write so much out. Thank you very much!

Glad you found it helpful! (Why do I bother with anon, it never works even if I don't say anything...)

(Implying I am any better at being unidentifiable, eheh...)

i'm playing a girl just like that right now. what i have most trouble with is info modding. keep away from [explaining things in brackets] that state the contrary to what she's saying. For example:

"I love your dress~!" [Except not.]

[D] You dirty bird

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