I've been seeing a lot of a certain trope and I was wondering if it's a thing people actually do. What I'm talking about, is when a character will murmur something quietly that they don't actually want the other person to hear, and then when the other person asks what they said they pretend they said something completely different, or deny saying anything at all. For example: Person 1: what's your favourite thing? Person 2: you Person 1: what? Person 2: I said I really like spaghetti Person 1: huh, me too Person 1: I love you Person 2: what was that? Person 1: nothing Person 2: ah, okay Do people actually do this? Do you do this? I can't imagine a real person's thoughts just slipping out like that unless they're a young child or have some kind of disability. And if it's not a real thing, why is it such a prevalent trope? Is it just to screw with the reader until they read two more lines into the story when they realise the other person didn't hear? I just don't get it...
More like-minded 1:hey! 2:yo, 1:yeah, 2:right. 1:what u doin' 2:nothing man 1:right, right.... And so on
This sometimes happens to me, but only because I often speak too low. Plus people blurt out what's on their mind all the time when they get distracted so I could see something similar happening.
It's to create suspense no matter how unrealistic it actually is. It will only happen to introverts but is impossible for someone with a social life to do this
.....that has happened to me a couple times or so. Like, my mind was occupied with something else, and maybe subconciously i did want to tell them? But not enough to actually do it, so it gets murmured into oblivion
Well I think it does happen,maybe it happens when you have something you want tell somebody but you also know that you cannot say it, so you get frustrated not being able to tell, so to relieve that frustration you just murmur it, it is something which satisfy both condition of not wanting to say and wanting to say, so if the person hearing didn't get you and asks back 'what did you say', you make an excuse or just pretend you didn't say anything... As for this happening to young child or disable person may not be entirely true it may depends on the person who can keep the things within him without any frustration .... this is what I think happens in case of accidental murmurs not sure if does happen like this
I do this accidentally. I don't "murmur" or anything. I speak clearly darn it. But if you don't hear what I say the first time, I am 110% guaranteed to say something completely different when you ask, as a joke. It happens a lot because everyone in the world is hard of hearing. I am too, to be fair. Honestly, I won't believe you if you try to tell me you don't fairly often have to repeat something or have someone else repeat something to you.
in normal condition, probably no. But when you are busy doing something and focus, and people come to ask you sometimes i did that. I'm answering by murmuring rudely due to my temper, i admit. My job take that much stress level to me doing that sometimes. ie : me : *edit and sorting document to send in hour, doing it already for 3 hours* B : hey dude its already mid day, do you want to take lunch with us me : damn you guys just fuck out B : what are talking about me : nope. nah im busy, probably wont take lunch. you guys can go. Bad thing is, sometimes im also said something like that to my boss.
It can happen depending. Let us use your examples and add context. *Person 1 barely puts in their confidence and says their feelings albeit in low voice* Person 1: I love you Person 2: what was that? *After all of Person 1's confidence has been used up, they either feel like that response was a rejection and don't want to make things worse or can't put in enough confidence to continue* Person 1: nothing Person 2: ah, okay
Sometimes I'll say something and they won't hear it and I'll decide that I didn't like how I said it and will change it when replying.
If they don't hear me the first time even though I said it in a clear way I sometimes get mad and just say that is nothing
sometimes when you rethink your words after blurring it out then when the person in question asks what you change your words
If someone suddenly asked me something, I'll sometimes say weird things that are on my mind at that moment.
I have a friend who does this occasionally when I first knew her. She's quite sarcastic and it can come across as rude to people who doesn't know her well so she'll subconsciously mutter her snark instead. It doesn't happen anymore now that we're closer and she can be openly sarcastic. It's a little different from the example you listed. Actually this can also come across as Person 2 really wanted to confess but doesn't have the guts to go all out so he/she choose to mumble it or the confession accidentally slips out instead. If Person 1 hears it: Great! Onus is now on Person 1 to react. Person 2 can still deny that they said anything and run off while alerting Person 1 of his/her feelings. If not: Oh well, no harm done.