: Punctuating narration In a passage of narration, how would one punctuate the following sentence? Italics or quotation marks? The boy walks across the living room as words like weapons, barricades

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Answer: Punctuation is fun. It's up to you. See how much latitude you have?

Fun fact: typesetters, hundreds of years back, insisted on equal pay for punctuation as for letters/characters.

The boy walks. Across the living room, as words like weapons,
barricades and deployments, pass in whispers between his father and
his father's first lieutenant.

"The boy walks across the living room as words." Like weapons,
barricades and deployments. "Pass in," whispers between his father and
his father's first lieutenant.

The boy walks across the living room as words, like weapons,
barricades. "And deployments pass in!" whispers between his father and
his father's first lieutenant.

The boy walks across the living room as words, like weapons,
barricades, and deployments pass. In whispers, between, think his
father and his father's first lieutenant.

Secondary and more serious answer: I think you don't want either of the options you mentioned.

Edit:

Aha. The editor will decide because it will depend on their individual standards but:

The boy walks across the living room as the whispered words weapons,
barricades, deployments, pass between his father and his father's
first lieutenant.

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