Distinctions Without a Difference in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- In Origins, a Mass Effect/Star Wars/Borderlands/Halo Massive Multiplayer Crossover, Admiral Grayson pulls a very long-winded version of this trope. The Republic Intelligence Service doesn't use the Current/Force, except, here's a rather lengthy anecdote about problems they had that would only occur if they were dabbling in that which he just said they weren't doing.
- The Savior and the Scourge:
Giles: I'll have you know that I chose to come here...to escape all the bloody teenage female hormonal insanity! By all that is holy, that many twittering, fighting, whining, overpowered females should never be confined in a single place. It's enough to drive a Shorchak demon to vegetarianism!
Spike: So you ran away.
Giles: I merely made a strategic retreat. - Universe Falls: In "Log Date 7 15 2", Peridot objects to Dipper observing that she seems to be in the middle of an existential crisis.Peridot: I am not having a so-called existential crisis! I'm merely questioning my suddenly changed overall purpose in the grand scheme of reality!
- In Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works] Abridged, Shinji insists he didn't beat Sakura. He just smacked her around a little.
- Australian Ethics:Ron: Hermione, for all our sakes, just calm down.
Hermione: I can't calm down, I'll calm down when I've fixed this!
Harry: I don't know if fix is the right word. I know it's not what you were expecting, but you're going to drive yourself crazy trying to deny the truth. Your parents are happy apart.
Hermione: It's not denial. I'm just very selective about the reality I accept. And I would prefer the reality where my parents are not separating! Or getting a divorce! - The Best Revenge:Harry: I did not faint! I only blacked out just for a little bit.
- The Black Sheep Dog Series: In chapter 24, James denies lying to Lily about the clandestine meeting he's having with Orion by claiming that he simply didn't inform her of the fact. The narration describes this as "a meaningless distinction that not even the most flexible moralist would pretend to square".
- To Catch A Thief:Snape: Mr. Potter, you will refrain from stealing. You will obey all of Hogwarts' rules. If you get caught breaking them, you will earn a detention with me. If you lose points it's two detentions. I don't care who you are, what you have experienced, you are here in Hogwarts and you will be a model student, or be expelled.
Harry: Not happening. First, if I do get caught, it will be a frame job. Second, I don't steal, I liberate useful items for future endeavors. - A Change in Perspective:Greg: Pansy said she doesn't squeal. That only foolish girls squeal and she's far too dignified for that. She said the noises she makes aren't squeals – they're simply loud exclamations of surprise.
- Families and Familiars: Second Year:It had been almost two months since his exceedingly ignominious... no, he refused to call it a defeat. He, Lord Voldemort, had not, and never would be, truly defeated. It had merely been a setback.
- In Harry Potter and the Golden Ring Harry buys his wife a renovated 747.Karen: But you know what this makes us, don't you? A pair of self-indulgent wieners with too much bloody money.
Harry: No, ma'am. We're connoisseurs. - Harry Potter and the Grinning Goblins:Harry: I'm not short, just... not big.
- Harry Potter - Three to Backstep:Daphne: This is the ladies' parlour. Normally, no males allowed. However, we've found it better to at least let the menfolk see the room at least once, when it's not otherwise in use. It tends to stop you men being nosey when it is.
Harry: I... am not nosey; I am merely... inquisitive. - The Legacy Preservation Act:Tracey: I know that I don't know Harry half as well as you, which is almost not at all, but I do know that he isn't going to like being manipulated.
Daphne: I don't intend to manipulate Harry. I am going to discuss things with him and guide him to the decisions and conclusions I want him to reach. - In No Obvious Truths Lucius tries Pepsi for the first time and decides he likes it.Tom: Oh, good, now Lucius will have a new addiction!
Lucius: I do not have addictions! I merely indulge in what pleases me. - In A Rainbow in the Dark Lily casts a hex that makes Dumbledore's nose grow when he lies.Snape: However long it lasts he will deserve every moment of it. Maybe it will make him realize how often he actually does lie.
Lily: He would claim he doesn't lie; he merely dissembles. - Wear Me Like a Locket Around Your Throat:Harry conceded the point and crossed his arms. He wasn't 'sulking', he was conducting a strategic silence.
- Where Paths Cross:Harry: Shouldn't we be heading back? You always tell me to be indoors before it gets dark.
Beth: We are going home, we're just -
Harry: Lost?
Beth: - Following the scenic route.
- An Alternate Keitaro Urashima: Takuya asked Kaolla Su to stop harassing his sister. She whined to Naru and Motoko about how he was 'being mean'; both assumed he'd done something perverted and beat him senseless, sending him straight to the hospital. When Shinobu accuses Su of deliberately goading the pair to attack him, Su insists that she didn't — she just wanted them to "hurt him and make him go away". Shinobu remarks on how that's basically the same thing.
- Discussed in the Spider-Man fic “Dinner for Three”, which features Peter and Mary Jane forming a throuple with Felicia Hardy/Black Cat. When Peter and Mary Jane’s proposal to Felicia is followed by her and Mary Jane giving birth nine months later on the same day, Peter briefly wonders if it would be accurate to call the newborn girls ‘twins’, as they were born on the same day and have the same father but obviously have different mothers.
- The Devil's in the details: While in college, people think that Peter is a mutant whenever they find out that he has powers, especially his mutant friends. Peter insists that he isn't one (being a mutate caused by the spider that bit him, as well as his learned sorcery and his cyborganic components).
- In Hell's Kitchen, Full of Grace, Matt thinks he isn't a "Super" in-spite of having Super-Senses because he doesn't have Super-Strength or a Healing Factor like the rest of the Defenders.
- Mastermind: Rise of Anarchy has Tenya try reassuring his classmates they aren't holding an intervention:Kaminari: Are we sure we want to do this? I mean, interventions never go very well in movies…
Tenya: It’s not an intervention. We are simply pointing out our friend’s self destructive tendencies and letting her know we’re here to help!
Shinsou: That’s the definition of an intervention, Iida. - Mean Rabbit: When Setsuna declares that Izuku hates it at U.A., he insists that he doesn't. He just hates his teacher, his classmates, his reputation and how everyone treats him like crap.
- Oversaturated World: Oversaturation: Two different ways of describing act order for bands, focusing on how the last acts get picked, vs. how the first ones are:Trixie drew herself up and pointed her nose to the sky. "The Great and Magnanimous Trixie knew that any band that followed the Illusions would pale before the glory of our performance."
"Vinyl arranged everything based on how well bands did in the battle," said Fuchsia Blush. "The better you did, the later you went."
Vinyl nodded.
"That's what Trixie said," said Trixie.
Fuchsia smirked. "Lavender and I had to drag her off the stage kicking and screaming when she found out we'd have to go last."
Vinyl cleared her throat and clacked her teeth together a few times.
"Right, and biting. Kicking, screaming, and biting." - Princess Corona does this in The Successors when her sister asks her how her flying lessons went:Corona: Um... awesome! Yeah, they were great. I, uh... well, I'm still having trouble taking off... and staying airborne... and, uh... landing... [Beat] Okay, so I'm not really doing all that great.
- Obito-Sensei: When Itachi declares the Uchiha Clan intended to fatally extract the Nine-Tailed Beast from Kushina and use it to kill Minato, Mikoto protests that he has it all wrong. Their intent, they claim, was simply to use genjutsu to Mind Control Kushina and have her convince her husband to step down, handing the position of Hokage over to Fugaku. Obito points out, however, that Minato would have found that suspicious and never stepped down, forcing them to use Kushina/The Fox to kill him... and if she didn't die in the process, she'd be left Mind Raped into submission for the rest of her life, which wouldn't be any better.
- Advice and Trust: Asuka tells Misato over the phone that she'll do her best to fight Shinji's Don Juan-like charms and keep him from ravishing her. When Shinji questions her on it, she claims that she considers him more of a Casanova type and that she'd be ravishing him.
- Rise of the Minisukas: Tender, one of Pen-Pen's friends, declares that "Just because a Yakuza member runs the company I work at doesn't mean I work for the Yakuza!"
- Nora uses this to deny running a betting ring on when Darrel and Yang would kiss in RWBY: Reckoning.Nora: No, no, it's not betting. We just put some money into a communal account, and depending on when you two engage in certain activities together, we each earn a little bit depending on when we said it would happen.
- on arkanis it rains every day has Rey accuse 'Tag' (Hux) of using the Force after the latter told her that he is not Force sensitive. Tag vehemently denies this.
- The Naked Jedi: Sarza is initially unnerved to learn that Leviathans and Pilots are basically bred to serve, but Pilot points out that it's not all that different from droids being built to serve others.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series: In "She Blinded Me with Card Games":Joey: Shut up, Tristan! You just want to get into my sister's pants!
Tristan: No, I don't. I just want to have sex with her! [Beat] Oh, that's what you meant!
