I was supposed to just pick out some examples of typical Jamil lines. How he speaks, the vocabulary he uses, things like that. Something I could easily refer to when writing to get the tone right.
But then it kinda blew up, oop – because it’s hard to talk about how a character speaks without also dipping into why they say whatever they say.
Plus then I wanted to get examples of Jamil in different moods, and could not resist some poignant things that were more related to his character or backstory rather than strictly the speech patterns themselves, so… It expanded a bit.
Anyways. Some things I noticed he tends to do:
Sighs (more than I realized)
Snarks
Tch (though could be a more general twst writing choice too)
Stutters when he’s flustered / embarrassed / caught of guard (what a cutie)
Goes ahem like an old man when he’s trying to get back on track in those off-kilter moments
Kinda formal with his manner of speech and choice of words (especially in servant mode) (I always worry I exaggerate this but he sure does do that)
But there’s still some animatedness with the way he emphasises words, for example
(so long-suffering and ready to bark out directions to Kalim oh boy - the way the directness just comes through when he loses it)
sugarcoating his opinions if he doesn’t feel like he can say them plainly (tyrant becomes rigorous, etc.)
sarcasm, sometimes with a side of deadpan, sometimes with a smirk
“Good grief” (another thing I didn't realize was that much of a catchphrase)
Very mild on the level of insults & swears honestly, (I mean, "drat"?) but I imagine this is more of a result of the game's rating (I guess for in-game reasons we can say he's been very conditioned by his upbringing)
I put the screenshots that seemed telling, and some related notes, on to a google sheet. That way one can filter and order it in various ways.
The sheet is probably best viewed on a computer or another larger screen, the screenshots might make it a bit difficult to navigate on mobile.
I did go in with the assumption that Jamil might speak differently pre-overblot (when the servant mask is firmly in place) and post-overblot (at least those occasions where he allows himself to be more honest). Like, there’s the sycophantic (as Leona calls it) flatterer, versus when Jamil’s honestly voicing his own thoughts. Which also shows in how I chose to categorize the screenshots.
Of course events are a bit wibbly wobbly in relation to the main story so can’t be placed in the timeline in the same way, but there are still those occasions where it seems you can tell the difference between the servant mask and a Jamil who’s not saying things just for the sake of appearances.
So, to explain the logic of the sheet:
First column has a screenshot of something Jamil says. The second two columns give the source.
The column for whether or not this happened before or after the overblot is only really used for main story things, since event stories are kinda murky timeline-wise.
Next is whether Jamil seems to be putting on the servant mask or speaking more honestly. This is where get more to interpretation territory, and I’ve not applied it to every screenshot (either because that didn’t seem like the relevant part for that line, or because I couldn’t tell).
The last column of the sheet is where we get most to my personal interpretations. So of course you might read these lines differently than I do, and that’s completely fine, these are simply the aspects that seemed poignant to me. Some notes are simply pointing out specific word choices or style of speech, others delve more into character analysis side of things.
Totally fine if you want to copy this file or modify it to your own needs. All I ask is that you don’t pass off anything I wrote as your own thoughts.
Order of lines is based purely on the order the pics were in my screenshots folder, so guess this is also an insight on the order I played things in, lol.
Tagging some jamil peeps in case y'all find this useful:
After not drawing anything other than geometric doodles on my notes for years I have been struck with the urge to borrow husband's drawing tablet and play around.
Truly, the things our OCs make us do.
Anyways, there was this really fun template from jelly-with-fish that I figured I'd attempt a jamemi version of.
You can find more information on my yuusona Emi (as well as this au where she's a Leech sibling instead) here on the masterlist.
Inspired by certain recent events on the jp server, I finally got back to actually making a sprite for leech!Emi
Some general thoughts & (mild?) spoilers for the current jp event below the cut
Funnily enough, I'd already kinda picked this hair for Emi before Georgina came out. I was looking for something Ariel-like, but turns out this had the added bonus of mirroring Georgina quite nicely.
I did this on top of Emi's og sprite, and ngl, there were some moments of uncanny valley, seeing an eel mouth (Jade's, in fact) on Emi's face, but I'm quite happy with how it turned out in the end. Could always fiddle with some more details (like I was trying to decide if I should have her eyes match the rest of the family in shape more closely), but I wanted to get this done - and wanted to keep some Emi characteristics there.
Plus I'm glad I'm figuring out how to get the hair a little closer to the in-game style (even if I had to do it some details twice because the shortcut I took didn't work so well 😔).
Also almost forgot about her being in Scarabia and needing to change the vest colors, lol. (Yeah she's missing the magic pen and ribbon and all but I just want to share this already so we can deal with that, right?)
Hair is from pngimg.com, everything else is game assets smushed together in various ways.
Since mama leech is apparently taller than the tweels, I feel like Emi just has to take after her in that regard.
Not gonna stop her from wearing heels to tower even more over everyone, tho. (Jamil I hope you're ready to be picked up and being used as a headrest and being held up against a wall because it will happen. At least you've got someone to get those high shelves for you? Be glad she's not quite as squeeze-happy as Floyd is.)
The basketball club was all too eager to recruit her, but she didn't stick it out beyond a tryout. She's not really sporty enough to be into it.
She does go hiking with Jade sometimes, though, but whereas Jade's interest is in the natural world (at least as far as club activities are concerned), Emi is more curious about the material culture and differences in habits and manners.
Unfortunately, she's also a bit of a know-it-all (or confident in her knowledge, take your pick), and has been known to confidently comment on land-dweller stuff only to be told she's mistaken by said land-dwellers. Always embarrasses her, but she's not quite figured out how to shake the habit.
Basically, she's definitely the nerd of the family.
