ＦＡＣＩＡＬ ＡＣＴＩＯＮ ＣＯＤＩＮＧ ＳＹＳＴＥＭ *

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Let there be Lightman. No, really, that’s the first line of his first book, which tells us two things: one, Lightman is a bit of a self-absorbed troll, and two, he wants people to know about it. In fact, Cal Lightman is kind of nothing like his real-life counterpart, or inspiration, Paul Ekman, other than the fact he’s the world’s leading deception expert and can tell you’re lying just be being in the room with you for five seconds. He’s studied kinesics, which is body language, gestures, nonverbal communication, facial expressions, you name it, for many many years. If your eyebrow twitches when you’re talking, chances are Lightman will be able to tell you what exactly it meant even if you didn’t know it yourself. Of course, ‘able’ doesn’t also mean ‘willing, because he doesn’t really like explain himself when he’s doing the whole magic lie detector thing.

He is also literally just a teenage boy in an older guy’s body, because the man actually cannot stop moving, even in a life or death situation. He slouches, his posture is atrocious, he walks bow-legged and like he’s about to break into a sprint and take the opposite wall in a bar fight. When he sits down, he sprawls and flops, and when he stands upright, he swaggers and lilts and invades your personal space like there’s no such thing as proxemics. (When he’s got a gun pointed at him, he bends almost double tying to get away from it.) He’s short, but that by no means invalidates his larger-than-life presence in a room; he’s compact, which means he can take a few hits before he’s down for the count; and he’s (native) British, which means fuck all, but apparently it pulls quite a few ladies. He is ADHD in a Tim Roth-shaped package. That is not a man you want reading your face like an open book.

He’s also a dick. Not House-level dick, or even Sherlock Holmes-level dick, but there’s got to be some rule somewhere that states ‘all geniuses must piss at least five people off before the sun goes down’ or something, because he’s really good at it. He doesn’t tolerate idiots or liars and the ones he does tolerate, he lets them know. He’s a hypocrite, in that he lies almost constantly, even to the ones he holds dear (and who hold him dear). He’s got an ex-wife Zoe, a daughter Emily, and a best friend Gillian Foster, who also happens to be his business partner. Everyone else is kind of... meh. Meh and a half. Well, he says it, and might think it, but he does care. At least a little. More than nothing. So that’s nice.

But he is a good man, and he does good. He could have gone down a very dark path at one point in his life, but he kept his head above the water and came out all right; he might not particularly like people, in general, but he does like helping them. Everyone lies, but some more than others. Debts he’s owed, people he’s helped, people he’s loved--he will protect them, at all costs, because as much as he likes to come off as a belligerent teen, his priorities lie in a much more adult sphere, and he will respect boundaries when they’re set and tear your head off if you so much as lay a finger on his people.

That said, much of what he does is a game to him. High stakes, yes, but he used to (still is) a gambler, and that affects much of his decision-making where ‘solving the case’ is concerned. He’ll do a lot to make it fun, when that can be afforded, to draw attention to himself. He sticks his nose where it doesn’t belong and sniffs really hard and sometimes he sneezes and upsets the order of things in order to get the answer. The pursuit of truth is probably the only thing he’s ever considered to be his true life goal, and he lives up to that, by searching for it and tearing it out of people and demolishing lies wherever he sees them. Lightman likes to pick at your brain, see what makes you tick, because as he’s said--he can tell you’re lying, but he can’t tell why, and the why is always more interesting.

Lightman founded the The Lightman Group, which is a firm that specializes in uncovering deception for anyone who has the money to pay. It’s made up of four specialists: Cal Lightman (obviously), Gillian Foster (formerly psychology), Eli Loker (head of research), and newly, Ria Torres (a natural at reading intent and body language, Lightman’s protege). Until recently, they were on FBI retainer, and had an agent on staff (Ben Reynolds), but when he was shot down, he got taken off the roster in order to recover. They take cases from simple disputes to government cover-ups to overseas missions, and their success rate is lauded as one of the best in the country. The firm itself is located in DC, which is where Lightman moved when he began his work for the Pentagon.

Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations:

HUMAN LIE DETECTOR | Yep. He can tell if you're lying by studying your face and the micro-expressions you make. He can't tell why, but he'll know. Which is funky.

HUMAN BOUNCY BALL |

PAPA BEAR | His hair trigger is his family and friends, so he'll not so much as bat a lash of they come to harm.

GAMBLER | He plays games and he plays them well. Unfortunately, he also tends to lose sight of the bigger picture when he starts to do this, can get a little caught up with it.

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SAMPLES
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Comms Sample:

[ +1 angry short energetic man, reporting for fuck this game. lightman is pissed and it shows in just how much he’s not gesturing about. ]

Right, you lot. Before we begin, I’ve just got a small--small-ish announcement to make, right? Just in case any of you are from my Earth, 2010 being the year, Obama being the president, shit being the economical conditions, all that, right, if any of you have so much as touched my daughter on this sodding ship, I will kill you.

[ pause to let that sink in, and for him to realise nobody actually knows what she looks like. belatedly, he raises his hand to slightly above his head. ]

Yea tall, long brown hair, seventeen, can scream like a banshee, by the way. And Emily, if you’re here, which I sincerely bloody hope you’re not, I’m near the barracks. Passenger whatsits. If you’re not, then--good. Go bother your mum.

[ this said, he seems to brighten up, and offers a wolfish grin to the camera. it doesn’t meet his eyes, but then again, it wasn’t really meant to. ]

I’m done. Have a lovely one. I’m looking forward to uncovering all the secrets. Do me a favour. Don’t lie. ‘Cause if you do, I’ll know.

[ OLLIE OUTIE. ]