Multitasked Conversation: Difference between revisions

** In the [[Hand of Thrawn]] duology, the [[Con Man]] Flim, [[Dead Person Impersonation|impersonating Grand Admiral Thrawn]], tries to talk down a pirate ally who wants to kill one of Flim's allies. He suggests a new alliance. A Mistryl shadow warrior with a grudge against the pirate is eavesdropping, having taken out the pirate's backup, and when the pirate decides to ignore the offer she kills him. In the ensuing conversation, Flim tells the shadow warrior that he knows what she is, knew that she was there, and his offer was actually for ''her''. Later he admits to his allies that he hadn't known any of that; when she'd appeared he'd just recognized that she was a Mistryl shadow warrior. He's just very good at [[Indy Ploy|rolling with the punches]].

** Thrawn himself pulls off a multitasked conversation in ''Side Trip'', a collaborative [[Michael Stackpole]] / [[Timothy Zahn]] novella in ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe|Tales From The Empire]]''. Disguised as a helmeted bounty hunter, he gets [[X Wing Series|Corran Horn]] to go along with him into a criminal's fortress, then turns a blaster on him and helps the criminals stick Corran in the jail. While Corran blusters and threatens retribution, Thrawn tells him that he looks forward to when Corran gets out, since he's the only one standing between Corran and freedom. Come find him. To the criminals, and admittedly to Corran, this is a threat. To himself and Corran's more rationally-thinking father, who he's come to save, it's an announcement that this is a [[Trojan Prisoner]] scheme, since Thrawn provided a way for them to break out.

 

* This happens a fair amount in ''[[Slings and Arrows]]'', with Geoffrey talking to his [[Spirit Advisor]] Oliver. He doesn't seem to worry much about being comprehensible to anyone else, but he often is anyway (if not necessarily politic—at one point he screams "For the love of God, will you please ''shut up''!?" at Oliver in the middle of a rehearsal).

* Jack pulls this off handily in an episode of ''[[30 Rock]]'', talking to a client on the phone while answering Liz's questions in person.

* In a season five episode of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'', a sleep-deprived Dr. House carries on conversations with a hallucinated vision of Amber Volakis, who died in the previous season. He knows she's not actually a ghost, but since she remembers things that he knows but thought he forgot, he uses her as a hotline to his subconscious. He eventually covers up talking to her in public by wearing a Bluetooth headset.

* Walt does this basically any time Jesse calls him at home in ''[[Breaking Bad]]''.

 

== [[Machinima]] ==

 

== [[Theater]] ==

* Willy Loman from ''[[Death of a Salesman]]'' does this while talking to his neighbor Charley: he imagines that his dead brother Ben is present and gets confused trying to converse with them both at once.

* In ''[[Blithe Spirit (theatre)|Blithe Spirit]]'' by [[Noel Coward]], Charles talks several times to the ghost of his first wife, and his second wife thinks he's talking to ''her''.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* In [http://gigaville.com/comic.php?id=304 this] installment of ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]'', Liquid pulls this off accidentally, giving responses to the ghost of Big Boss that coincidentally sound like responses to what Psycho Mantis is saying.

* In ''[[Touhou Nekokayou]]'', Sanae has a [http://dizzy.pestermom.com/?p=thcomic102 conversation] which sounds like "I'm not treating you as a serious threat" to Meimu and a sort of in-character "[[Stop Helping Me!]]" to Suwako.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Double Meaning Tropes]]

[[Category:Dialogue]]

[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]