Welcome to my hell- I mean... head

A perfect lie is almost always impossible to achieve, specially long-term.

So when your life depends on the truth being hidden, when you are staying for too long somewhere maintaining a façade, you can't rely on lies. You need to erase reality itself. Stacking lies on top of lies until the truth dies out forgotten. No one is able to tell apart reality from tale when the history is constantly being rewriting. You are free to commit errors.

Neil Josten lived from one lie to another, changing names as easily as clothes, but he was only lying. Short-term fixes while on the run.

Hear me out.

Neil has had to lie to stay alive. He is good at reading people, he is good at faking and masking and tricking and manipulating when he is in need. But he is not in need any more.

Neil Josten is the real person who blossomed from a lie when he was given a safe space and people that cared. #10 Fox from PSU is the most real he has ever been able to be. And he knows it.

Neil Josten is a horrible liar because he loves not needing to lie. He is able to lie. He will if needed without missing a beat. But when there's no need? He is deliberately bad at it.

He doesn't try being good at playing amongst us, or werewolf (mafia? How is this game called in English speaking countries??)

He comes up with extremely obnoxious lies that are imposible to mistake with the truth when he doesn't want to answer a question:

Neil breaking into Wymack apartment because he is having a bad night and he is paranoid:

Wymack, still half asleep: Neil? What are you doing here?

Neil: I don't know how to tell you this, but I'm actually a werewolf and there's full moon outside so I can't go back to campus until it's daytime.

Wymack, sighs: does your werewolf form need to talk it out or just being away from moonlight?

Neil: no moonlight is enough...?

Wymack: ... I'm making us coffee.

With the variation of gaslighting media:

Intervier: Neil, what are your thoughts on your teammate Kevin Day and Thea Muldani being named couple of the year?

Neil (who knows it's a fake relationship), looking straight into the camera, the most confused he's ever been: who?

Interviewer: eh... Thea Muldani?

Neil: nono, I know who Thea Muldani is. Who the fuck is Kevin Day?

Interviewer, pointing at the poster behind Neil where Kevin and him are possing together: him.

Neil, stares at it for a good 30seconds before looking back into the camera and whispering: I've never seen him before in my life. Pretty sure that's photoshopped.

Not the most suspicious character. Not the one that makes sense. Just some guy.

And then he commits.

It doesn't matter how much evidence points elsewhere as the story progresses. Neil will spend the entire book inventing increasingly ridiculous theories to explain why his suspect is still guilty. Every new clue gets twisted into supporting his argument somehow. Contradictory evidence? Clearly part of the cover-up. Alibi? Fabricated. Confession from someone else? Obvious misdirection.

Andrew rarely engages with any of it, often ignoring Neil's take altogether, but he continues updating him on the case anyway, so Neil hasn't stopped.

There's also cero context when they talk about it so it leads to situations like this:

Andrew, entering the room: the old lady from the bakery is dead.

Kevin: what? who?

Neil, gasps: she faked her own death, she's smarter than I thought.

Kevin: wha-

Andrew: recognisable body, she is dead.

Neil: she killed herself then.

Kevin: you know what, I don't even wanna know.

Andrew: stabbing herself herself 27 times?

Neil, shrugs: to each their own.

Kevin: ahhh, the fucking book, ok

Andrew: there was another murder after hers.

Neil: Oh, that makes sense. The corpse they found was her secret twin's. Perfect alibi.

Jean: you are butchering the song.

Neil, shrugs: they don't call me the Butcher of Baltimore for nothing, Moreau.

Jean:

Neil:

Jean: you are ill in the head.

Neil: meh, at least my head is doing better than Riko's.

Jean:

Neil:

Jean: