I thought I'd read all this author's fic, but I don't remember reading this one before - thanks
tinturtle for the rec!
There were a few inconsistencies that made me blink, and a few places that seemed a bit overwrought, and I'm not entirely sure I can believe that the lads speak fluent Italian (!), but I enjoyed it in general. It's a post-Diag story too, which somehow always appeals. *g*
There were a few inconsistencies that made me blink, and a few places that seemed a bit overwrought, and I'm not entirely sure I can believe that the lads speak fluent Italian (!), but I enjoyed it in general. It's a post-Diag story too, which somehow always appeals. *g*
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Date: 2020-09-08 04:46 am (UTC)A string search for "Italian" finds Bodie following the overall topic of an Italian conversation he overhears, Doyle ordering food in "accented Italian", and Bodie "chatting to the shopkeeper in the best Italian he could muster." Those passages might give Bodie more language skills than he ought to have without some explanation, but they hardly suggest he is fluent. Doyle's skills don't sound like anything you couldn't get from a guidebook (or a pre-mission language tape). Are there relevant bits I have forgotten?
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Date: 2020-09-08 09:16 am (UTC)I'm fine with that as a description rather than "fluent" - basically both lads are getting on very well and easily with the language, and I don't see any evidence in canon that they would be (they both use high-school level half-forgotten languages in a half-forgotten way in various eps, Doyle shows that he can mimic accents, and Bodie shows some knowledge of Afrikaaner slang from his time in Africa - explained by his time in Africa, not by his being a polyglot of any kind considering his level of German!), so that part was slightly AU for me. If we'd seen them picking up languages more easily in the eps, rather than stumbling over them, I could have believed it more easily.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-08 01:52 pm (UTC)My failure to be bothered by the issue on my first reading may be down to years in MFU fandom, where suspending disbelief at unlikely language skills is an important competency. *g* (Not that some fics don’t try for realism in that area. As I think I’ve told you before, MFU fanfic as a whole is much more complex and realistic than the show itself.)
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Date: 2020-09-08 10:04 pm (UTC)I was able to keep reading through my disbelief of this one though, so all was good! *g*
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Date: 2020-09-08 10:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-08 11:15 pm (UTC)