#truthseer

Sees through all lies. Including spoken words, written words, and visual illusions.

She’s immune to any kind of mind-alteration as we saw with that hate beam in Latveria from that Red Skull thing that one time.

The ability to make pink hair look perfectly natural.

And that’s it. How can that be it when she absorbed all of the abilities tied to the Andvaranaut ring and, by extension, the gold which Andvari cursed with capital T Truth. The same Truth that radiated out to its new owners, peeling the cores of themselves free. It revealed the forgiveness of a father, the bloodlust of a brother, and, in the case of Fafnir, transformed his exterior into the gold-gluttonous dragon he’d always been at heart.

The ring Verity absorbed is the same gold. So why not let her get up to some heavy-duty magic in the same vein? An in-canon excuse might be along the lines of her never using much of her power because she’s never had the need. No big threats have ever fallen on her—short of becoming BFF to Loki and all the harrowing nonsense that entails—and so the only power she’s used has been the one she can’t turn off, i.e. truthseeing.

But let’s say she gets cornered by a threat which surprises that latent Truth mojo out of her.

She runs into one of the megalomaniac villains set on taking over the world? Verity gets in his radius and the guy starts ogling every reflective surface, going full-on Narcissus and forgetting to enact his evil plan. He gets carted off to super prison by getting lured into custody with a full-length mirror.

Some master illusionist or telepath waltzes in to brainwash the masses? Verity isn’t sold on it. Suddenly, everyone around her finds themselves just as immune; she’s radiating clarity the same way the sword Gram did. Mastermind and Selene the Black Queen simultaneously remember they were late for an appointment somewhere several miles away.

Mystique slinks in to try and frame a hero? Verity can tell the hero isn’t who they say they are, even if it’s not an illusion. Boom, Shadowcat is now blue, red, and yellow all over.

Politicians happen? Verity sits in the audience. The guy behind the microphone finds himself incapable of reading off the teleprompter or notes, and instead begins rattling off the many illegal and/or morally disgusting things they’ve been up to and where to find evidence of the same.

Civil War III: Electric Boogaloo is on the horizon? No it isn’t, because Verity is going to keep magically hitting everyone with the Mallet o’ Truth until the heroes all recognize each others’ points and sit down and do the talking thing without punching. Yes, even when the villains inevitably try to exploit the situation because, again, DRAMATIC AND ENDANGERING MISUNDERSTANDING #736 gets vetoed when everyone knows the truth of what happened.

Anti-villain turns up to cause trouble? Verity ‘Rehabilitated Loki with the Power of Friendship and Not Buying into Their Bullshit’ Willis asks why they’re doing what they’re doing. Instead of the preset monologue, anti-villain breaks down into full therapy mode. Squirrel Girl hears about it from Loki and immediately gets Verity’s number for her contacts. Villain redemptions can now be speedrun via FaceTime.

I imagine the latter would get passed around the super community. Verity finds herself unofficially hired to do phone-in truth readings whenever the heroes go up against someone doing freaky illusory and mind control things.

“Fake. Fake. Fake. Yeah, that one’s Mysterio. Fake. Skrull. Fake.”

I imagine this would make her pretty unpopular among certain baddies who could do without the Truth ruining their plans.

I imagine any tragic accidents they might plan for her would also be handily thwarted by the gods, superheroes, antiheroes, and an entire Victor Von Doom who could and would personally pulp them for threatening her.

Lastly, I imagine Verity would come into her own enough that she would no longer need that kind of protection. Because she could take one look at her assailants and make perfectly accurate reads of them. And make them manifest. Full fairy tale mode.

“You know what I see when I look at you? The real you? I see cowards.”

Poof, chickens in business suits.

“I see pigs.”

Poof, hogs in police uniform.

“I see parasites.”

Poof, giant ticks in political offices.

“I see living sewage.”

Poof, sentient turds in HYDRA green and supremacist costumes.

“I see what you are under the dress-up and false names and lip service. I definitely saw you behind all the muscle you sent after me. The ones who came back to you as cockroaches. And you think this is just me getting sadistic, right? Doing the run of the mill vengeful reality warping. I’m not. I can’t ‘warp’ anything. I can only reveal the Truth. Plain truth, magic truth, spiritual, mental, physical, whichever, whatever. And honestly? You shouldn’t be so worried about me. What you should worry about is the fact that in this world where magic and monsters and all kinds of mystical things have been proven to exist, over and over, that you are still this rotten on the inside.

“Doctor Strange and the other wizard types can put you back the way you were. It won’t matter. Because if you go on like this? If I don’t start seeing a better Truth on you real soon? You are going to one of the actual factual physical Hells. One L, two Ls, Limbo, Netherworld, Hades. There are plenty of options. So, the next time you decide to start your next self-serving scheme in what I’ll guess is the very near future, I want you to stop and think about that. I want you to think about where you’re heading once the mortal coil runs out.

“And I want you to know that I’ve told you the Truth and nothing but the Truth.”

And they do know. They know and know and know long after they’ve been returned to human form, after they buy or bust their way out of prison…and start going into charitable overdrive.

People start saying Verity Willis the same way they say Jean Grey. She becomes a title unto herself.

Loki couldn’t be prouder.

Through several wet tissues, they get out, “Oh, you really did it. You’ve gone full trickster. I need to get a baby book just to commemorate this: Verity’s First Karmic Transmogrification. I’m making you a cake. I’ll have Lorelei and Sigurd steal us some Vanir wine. Thor can hang up balloons and streamers in one of Asgard’s dining halls. We’ll have a pinata shaped like Sleipnir.”

And, because there really is no shutting off the truth in her case, Verity is horrified to find they mean every word.

“Why is he shirtless?”

Oh, he was masturbating

VS.

Oh my god Definitely

Was probably made as a cutesy nickname for him that he liked as a child but then he realized how immature and feminine it is and he really didn't want to be stripped of his masculinity that much