Ok, it looks like it’s time to take this to the next level. I didn’t want to do this, but you’ve forced my hand…
These two mc’s exist in alternate timelines. They do not have all the same experiences (although many may overlap), and so they would never gauge their response on an alternate version of themself under different circumstances.
The mc that goes into the meeting having fucked both Jade and Sage, and just finished dumping Jade over text (definitely the cowards way out!) while deciding to choose Sage (debatably the most dangerous combination), is not the same guy who is just friends with Sage and turned down Jade’s highly unprofessional advances from the beginning.
You’re looking at it from the perspective of a person who is confronted with both (or multiple) outcomes, whereas the mc, in the play through where he was unwantedly molested by Jade, never experienced the whole mother/daughter fuckfest.
When the mc walks into the apartment, he has a sense of foreboding, and it is realised in the presentation of the family photos.
The innocent mc has done no wrong, his focus is to help Maya and this meeting is very important, Maya’s problems have been present since the day they met. Suddenly the mc realised the very person he is going to be asking help from is a woman who sexually assaulted him and threatened him when he did not accept her advances. This is very bad news. This could jeopardise the entire meeting. His presence is endangering the mission! “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”
The fuckboy mc also wants to help Maya, but when he realises who the person he’s looking to get help from is, his “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck” panic is all about himself. He’s about to walk into an ambush. He just dumped this woman, and now he’s gonna ask her for help, all while Sage may innocently disclose that they are a couple now! He is “Fuck. Fuck. Fucked!”
Two different mc’s reacting the same way on completely different tangents because that’s who they are at the time. One who sees the meeting as fucked, the other who sees himself as fucked.
Two unrelated focuses that can acceptably warrant the same response.
Also, at no point am I suggested the mc is just surprised, or relieved. Relief would come if he was presented two doors:
“Behind one of these doors is a woman who you’ve fucked, and you’re fucking her daughter, and you’ve just dumped her! Behind the other door is a woman who sexually assaulted you. Now make your choice!”
When the mc opens the door to find the lesser of two evils, he may be relieved.
But that’s not what this is.
Your expectations are biased because you consider one outcome worse than the other, but the mc only knows the outcome that he’s living, and he panics regardless.
In the mc’s universe, whatever scenario he is living, he’s not weighing up other scenarios, he’s just shitting himself thinking about what’s to come.
And to compound things, no matter the scenario, in all cases, the people he’s hoping for Maya to get help from are Tybalt’s parents. That just makes matters worse.
In all cases, not being there sounds like a good idea. Time to run the the bathroom, where the gravity of the situation sinks in more…
