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Cornelius:
Non native speaker but Catholic, and I know the expression. I'm not so sure about how plausible it is to let this misunderstanding stand though. Also, makeup and nuns don't really go together very well.

Morituri:
I'm counting 'gotta be in some kind of trouble' as an answer to both, because it means she's probably there involuntarily, and precipitates the same action in either case.  So if the other speaker notices at all, moving on to planning action is more important than clarifying.

And yeah, makeup isn't part of the usual demeanor for nuns.  Then again most nuns wouldn't be using a ton of cover cream to cover up Maurice Sendak and Edward Gorey illustrations across half their body, including a snarling kitten on one cheek and a double sunburst on the other.  Most nuns wouldn't be generally in the habit of wearing revealing clothes and lurid unnatural-colored hair dye whose shade changes every two days, AND most nuns wouldn't have been on a screaming "fuck all churches" rage just during the previous week on account of discrimination against GLBT folks like herself.  Philo is completely right to look at this pic and think something is awry here...

Dock Braun:
If I may, I'd like to point out that these minor, nigh-insignificant details, are precisely what makes a story interesting, and able to be developed maybe without the reader even noticing. It's what gives realism, and room for a sort of tertiary expression I crave. As for how mainstream readers might react? I think most would pass it over without a second thought; though the latter sort of reader you mentioned, will delight in this: It turns a banal book to a voluptuous volume. Of course, it's your story, so write it as you see fit; If you keep a version preserving such golden details, I'll be interested in taking a read through it.

Morituri:
The more I think about this, I think that most readers who would be bothered by it probably aren't the same ones who'd notice it.

My wife's perceptions aside, I think most average readers won't really notice.  The exchange is in character dialogue, the response is *almost* identical to the response if he'd understood correctly, and the response as understood by the other character is on-point, relevant, and identical in inferred meaning and priorities.   It's a misunderstanding that might as well be a perfect understanding.  I think that to people who'd notice it in the first place, that's probably clear enough not to raise any plot-related expectations.

And finally it's two sentences.  It's over almost before it starts.  And that's how most of the conversational 'blips' in my writing work. 

It works fine for readers who don't notice it.  If they're with Philo and not familiar with the phrase, and they'll pass over this exchange with nothing more than noticing the other character constructed a sentence in a strange way.  If they're with the other character, they either won't even notice that the response didn't quite address the question correctly, or think it's completely natural to just drop it and moving on to something more important.

And for the readers who do notice it, they should be realizing immediately that it *doesn't* raise expectation. Maybe they'll realize the characters come away with slightly different understandings of the conversation that lead each to to exactly the same conclusion.  Or maybe they'll think the characters understand each other just fine and Philo made a joke.

So counting it up, there's five ways to see it, and although slightly different, none of them leads to an understanding of the story that's different in a way that matters.

Which puts my wife in a special sixth category.  But I was sure that she's a very special person when I married her.

I think this kind of conversational blip is going to stay in.  Let it be something most people notice only if they read it more than once.

LeeC:
I am having a really stupid internal argument on what to do with the protagonist regarding his background.  I'm worried if I make him too young, anyone I pitch it to will want to market the story as "young adult" and it may seem too weird to have a big age gap between him and the his detective love interest. On the other hand if he is too old, and closer to his detective love interest in age, I can't really think on why he wouldn't have established himself and why he'd be in some punk gang, let alone feel the need to investigate and avenge his father that was murdered before he was born.

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