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Truth and Lies

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Truth: Noun. That which most easily appeals to the fears, hopes, and prejudices of the hearer; in essence, a lie.
Lie: Noun. That which causes its utterer to be reviled; in essence, the truth.
Deceit: Noun. Example: A dog rolls on the carcass of a dead possum in order to deceive other animals regarding his identity as a dog (whereas) a man lolls in the scents of church in order to deceive himself regarding his identity as a thief, an adulterer, and a liar (the difference is that the dog does not first have to endure being bored by the possum).
Thorax, 9 Chickweed Lane

Truth, lies, and deception. If only it were easier to tell them apart. Listed are multiple tropes that fall into one of the three categories. And The Shades of Fact offers insight into their fictional equivalents.


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    Tropes of Truth 
First, recognize honest intent, whether expressed as the plain truth or a technical falsehood.

    Tropes of Deception 
Second, learn the myriad shades of deception, purely for self-defense, of course.
  • 2 + Torture = 5: The villain tortures the hero by trying to make them believe something that's obviously not true.
  • Bathroom Search Excuse: Lying about looking for the bathroom.
  • The Beard: A fake spouse or significant other, to hide one's actual marital status or love life.
  • Bluffing the Advance Scout: Aliens want to do something bad to Earth, but the humans trick the aliens' advance scouts into thinking all humans are too nasty to deal with.
  • Bluffing the Authorities: An authority figure thinks someone did something suspicious, but the suspected character comes up with an innocent explanation.
  • Bluff the Eavesdropper: Somebody discovers they are being watched and starts acting to trick the watcher.
  • Bluff the Impostor: Tricking an impostor into exposing themselves by making an obvious mistake.
  • Bluffing the Murderer: Somebody is pretty sure who dunnit, but doesn't know for sure so tries to trick the suspect into confessing.
  • Booked Full of Mooks: A character in a public space discovers that all the bystanders around them are actually another character's employees or co-conspirators.
  • Cassandra Gambit: Invoking a Cassandra Truth to hide something.
  • Confess to a Lesser Crime: When the authorities come asking, the perpetrator will happily confess to being guilty of a minor indiscretion, in order to keep the more serious crime(s) from being brought up.
  • Confusing Multiple Negatives: Multiple negatives deliberately used to throw the listener off-track.
  • Confronting Your Imposter: An impersonator is exposed by the person they're impersonating.
  • Consummate Liar: "Looks are only skin-deep," "The Earth is doomed," "No one who has drunk my tonic has ever died" — all carefully selected truths, intended to deceive, the hallmark of advertisers and politicians. Expect anyone unable to lie whether due to magic, Applied Phlebotinum, or just being a Manipulative Bastard type, to be good at this.
  • The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much: When someone in authority claims a suspicious death is due to an accident, suicide, or natural causes.
  • Cover Identity Anomaly: Missing some basic piece of information about someone you're pretending to be, often forcing you to make up something on the spot.
  • Crocodile Tears: Pretending to cry to gain other people's sympathy.
  • Dead Person Impersonation: Taking the identity of someone deceased.
  • Deliberately Cute Child: Using a cute façade to get what one wants.
  • Destination Ruse: A character lies to a subordinate (usually a parent to a child) about where they are going.
  • Did Not Die That Way: A character finds out they have been lied to about a loved one's death.
  • Dr. Psych Patient: An apparent authority figure such as a doctor is exposed as a mentally-unwell person adopting the role.
  • Embarrassing Cover Up: Where the cover story goes into territory that makes the questioner regret asking.
  • Fake Alibi: A suspect claims to have an alibi, witnesses confirm, yet the suspect is actually guilty.
  • Fake Orgasm: A character simulates a sexual climax (or confesses this fact) to show that a sexual encounter/relationship is unsatisfying.
  • Fake Period Excuse: Pretending to menstruate.
  • Fake Pregnancy: A character pretends to be pregnant.
  • Fake Relationship: Two characters pretend to be in a romantic relationship.
  • Fake Texting: Someone pretends to be texting or checking social media on their phone.
  • Faked Gift Acceptance: Pretending to accept a gift but then destroying it or throwing it away when no one's watching.
  • False Cause: Correlation does not imply causation, but here that is ignored.
  • False Prophet: Someone who lies using religion for personal gain.
  • Fiction As Coverup: Hiding the truth in plain sight by calling it fictional.
  • Forged Message: Writing a message but making it look like someone else wrote it.
  • Gaslighting: Using deceit to intentionally convince someone that they are insane.
  • Gas Leak Cover-Up: A simple, dull, believable excuse for something that is none of those.
  • Gideon Ploy: Tricking your enemies into believing you have more people on your side than you do
  • Girlfriend in Canada: Pretending to be in a long-distance relationship. Has a chance to be a real long-distance relationship despite others accusing otherwise.
  • Identity Impersonator: A ruse to protect a character's Secret Identity by showing both character's identities in the same place together at the same time.
  • I Never Said It Was Poison: Tricking a suspect into revealing something only they would know.
  • Infraction Distraction: When someone confesses to or commits a small crime in order to cover for a bigger one.
  • Intentional Heartbreaker: A character pretends to love someone, only to dump them later.
  • Insidious Rumor Mill: A character lies or manipulates the friends, family members, and colleagues they share with someone they're in conflict with to turn their backs on that person.
  • I Surrender, Suckers: A character pretends to surrender but attacks once the opponent lowers his guard. If this is done by a soldier, it is called "Perfidy" and is a war crime.
  • Language Fluency Denial: Pretending not to speak a language fluently when one in fact can.
  • Liar's Paradox: A stock technique where a paradox is formed from statements where truth and lie simultaneously occur.
  • Looking Busy: Pretending to be occupied.
  • Manipulative Bastard: The mastermind of deception.
  • Manipulative Editing: Editing a video out of context to make it look like something else.
  • Metaphorically True: A statement that is technically true, but extremely misleading without all the facts.
  • Minion Manipulated into Villainy: The loyal minion learns that their helpful dark master who was there for them after their life fell apart was actually the one who engineered the tragedy.
  • Minor with Fake I.D.: An underage character uses a forged identity document to buy alcohol or something they're otherwise too young to access.
  • Move Along, Nothing to See Here: A Stock Phrase for authority figures wanting to prevent people from seeing something.
  • Multiple Identity IDs: When someone has several fake IDs for several fake identities.
  • Mysterious Backer: The characters are only being told as much as they need to know.
  • New Era Speech: A villain who wants to take over gives a speech that is true, but is ambiguous enough to sound like they want to do something good when really they want to do something bad.
  • Obfuscating Disability: Faking a disability to mislead onlookers or throw off suspicion.
  • Obfuscating Insanity: Likewise a character could fake insanity...
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: ...or a lack of intelligence.
  • Of Corpse He's Alive: Pretending a corpse is a living person.
  • Phoney Call: Pretending to make or accept a phone call.
  • Playing Sick: Pretending to be ill to avoid responsibilities or consequences.
  • Propaganda Hero: A hero is either embellished or made up out of whole cloth for propaganda purposes.
  • Propaganda Machine: A program or agency that exists to promulgate an official (and often misleading) version of the truth.
  • Propaganda Piece: Publications geared to influence the public first and foremost, with journalistic integrity as an afterthought or completely absent.
  • Real Stitches for Fake Snitches: Deceptively making it look like a criminal has tattled on their employer or associates, especially when they could be hurt or killed for doing so.
  • Recorded Spliced Conversation: Manipulating a recording to make a target think they're speaking to a real person.
  • Reverse Psychology: Getting someone to do something by telling them to do the opposite.
  • Sarcastic Confession: Telling the truth in a way that comes off as a lie. Often used to support the masquerade, this both deflects attention from the truth now and makes one less willing to accept the truth later.
  • "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: Using supernatural myths and Urban Legends to scare someone for whatever reason.
  • Seamless Spontaneous Lie: A quick, incredibly detailed and not easily disproved lie.
  • Sham Wedding: A fake wedding that's not legally valid.
  • Sick Captive Scam: A captive fakes illness or injury to get the drop on his captor.
  • Social Engineering: Convincing someone that you're someone else, or convincing someone to do something they don't want to do.
  • Slumber Party Ploy: In order to do something or go somewhere they were prohibited from, kids lie to their parents that they are staying over at each other's houses.
  • Staging the Eavesdrop: Intentionally saying something loudly with the explicit intent of getting someone to eavesdrop on it.
  • Sure, Let's Go with That: Alice confronts Bob, who is obviously hiding something, and she concludes something wildly different than the secret Bob is actually sitting on, but Bob confesses to Alice's accusation only because he's covering up something darker or just embarrassing.
  • Trojan Veggies: Tricking a child into eating vegetables by hiding them in a different food.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Name: This innocent-sounding group are not a secret organisation of any sort. You won't even question their involvement or even notice their existence. The name is likely to be technically correct, though.
  • Won't Get Fooled Again: In which the deception only works once.
  • Wounded Gazelle Gambit: A guilty person acts innocent and manages to fool everyone.
  • You Didn't Ask: When a character simply doesn't tell/mention something that's particularly large, hard to avoid in conversation, or just really should have been mentioned.
  • You Said You Would Let Them Go: A villain lies to someone to get them to go along with a plan that will ultimately hurt those that they care about, or otherwise makes a promise that he has no intention of keeping. Often involves use of loopholes.

    Tropes of Lies 
For outright fabrications that may never be discovered as such.


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