That is interesting. I've never read this because in EP7 my MC never says Heather so Tommy cheats on her.
That's why I can't understand people not playing all paths/branches and doing different choices across their playthroughs. It always brings you something new and helps to understand things better and notice something interesting. Digging such details in game script is boring, as for me. I do it when I want to know particular links or scenes dependencies, or to quote some part of dialogue as above, bc it's much easier than taking & posting screenshots, bc you must have a lot of saves with right conditions for that to work.
There you can see again that the DIK MC is a brother traitor. Since Nick has betrayed Tommy before, he's definitely a brother traitor, even if it was an honest mistake while under the influence of alcohol. But the MC proves when he doesn't say anything to Heather so he can shut up.
Also one can then see for Heather to earn her destiny with Tommy. Technically, Tommy is cheating on Heather because their open relationship is governed by rules that Tommy doesn't follow. Ergo, it's a scam by Tommy. The Christy thing is clearly a scam because Heather didn't want Tommy to fuck Christy and she told Tommy that beforehand. Tommy broke the rules again because Heather vetoed it.
But in the end I don't care and the two should do what they want.
Code:
he "Tommy's been acting weird lately. And he keeps touching his neck when I ask him why."
mc "So?"
he "So? That's his fucking tell, dude. He's always lying or uncomfortable when he does that."
he "I know something's up. Do you know anything about it?"
mc "(Family comes first...right?)"
Well... it's a very complex topic. This question touches on many topics at once. Male and female equality, in its most sensitive part at first. Like, you know, men can cheat right and left, but women can't. Men who cheat on their wives and girlfriends, at the same time, call all women whores and find justification for their actions in this. Perhaps, this is the most disgusting thing. Much more respect is caused by those who cheat or simply don't commit themselves, but do not justify it by the fact that it is allegedly because women are whores and therefore serves them right. This is a question of morality, upbringing and personal qualities, as well as life experience and a view of life and relationships in general.
Tommy is not an angel. He & Heather agreed to open relationship and pronounced some specific rules. But Tommy, even while being so lucky, can't follow the rules he agreed to.
I don't know what is wrong with this world, and since when telling the truth has become tantamount to betrayal.
Sometimes a lie can be a solution and save something/someone/etc. But in most cases, this is a temporary relief, and the further consequences can be much sadder than they would have been if you or somebody else hadn't lied earlier. This is one of a life lessons that all or most of us learn in a hard way sooner or later.
So this is a question of morality, attitude towards a person - if he is at least a little bit dear to you, or on the contrary, indifferent, or you hate him and want to make him as bad as possible. In the case of Tommy and Heather, this choice is multifaceted. You can sympathize with both or only one of them, or be indifferent to them or hate them.
Personally, I don't see any prospects of success or survival of their relationship. They are extremely toxic. For Tommy, Heather is the same as Sage was for Chad. And he quite frankly talks about it in front of her. We haven't seen Heather's backstory, but the flashback in episode 5 gives a hint why Heather behaves like this, why she endures these humiliations and why she agreed to such a relationship in the first place. They are a facade for each other. I think we will know the exact answer soon.
So, that "Family comes first" slogan is used when it's comfortable and suitable and abandoned when it's not. The same for HOT's, etc.
I figure it's for Nick to have a crush on Heather and behind Tommy's back to make Heather distance himself from Tommy. This may have led to Heather having sex with Nick and perhaps recognizing Heather so she cannot be happy with Tommy.
Looking back at the Heather and Nick thing, the scene with Heather and the MC is even more meaningful than I thought. So far I've assumed that by dismissing Heather, the MC was only confirming his allegiance to his LI. He still does, but there's one more thing, so he'll be honest with Heather without having any ulterior motives to fuck Heather. So the MC isn't like Nick, who is a sleazy little DIK brother traitor.
Many people see Nick as a traitor, a slug, a muddy type, etc. As for me, I suppose it's a deception, from the very beginning, from the very first scene in the library with the missing laptop. This is a protracted misrepresentation and red herring. Most DIKs brothers "pairs" are quite opposite in their characters and attitudes. To simplify - call it "Chick" and "Dik" types. As for me, I think it was a quite clever DPC's trick to bring such characters differences in a such way and link it all with MC affinity system. Nick is the absolute opposite to Vinny.
He likes to study and is diligent in his studies. He smoked weed, but gave it up afterwards. He loves order, look at his room, and compare it with how Vinny lived. He doesn't mind helping and in general he's a good guy with a kind soul. Some of his actions or choices may be perceived ambiguously - but mostly it is because of a biased opinion and attitude towards him.
After all, no one can stop him from having feelings for Heather. Even if his act was to destroy her relationship with Tommy, I think it would be for the best. The longer their toxic relationship lasts, the more deafening the breakup will be and the greater the damage to Heather at least. If the relationship between Heather and Tommy were different, or at least there were some feelings, then Nick act could be called mean, but given the facts, this is not so.
That makes me wonder if Nick didn't betray Vinny too. In EP6 we see that behind Vinny Heather and Quinn are sitting. What if Heather dated Vinny before Tommy and Vinny cheated on Heather with Quinn. Nick told Heather about it, and that's why she breaks up with Vinny.
Nick betrayed Vinny?
![Hide The Pain :HideThePain: :HideThePain:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Knowing who Vinny is (and always was) I can barely imagine it. Nick mentioned that he see him from time to time outside the campus. It shouldn't happen if Nick somehow betrayed Vinny in the past, especially, again, knowing what kind of person Vinny is. Vinny came to college only for parties, drugs and fuck. Probably he was expelled or leaved by himself after first year. I wonder how such different in all ways persons became a friends.
Vinny & Quinn definitely have some backstory. But, it seems that Tommy never fucked Quinn. It's why he becomes so jealousy at Hell week evaluation if MC fucked Quinn on the DIKs mansion roof after smoking weed.
P.S. and... yeah... Now I'm going to say something for which most of you'll throw poops at me
![KEK :KEK: :KEK:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
While most of us bitching and arguing about long animations in EP9, especially that most hated last one with "preps walking", I may say, that if DPC would make all that scenes he shown in this animation as a separate renders, which player have to click to progress, then you would probably hate him even more. Animation is 1m23s long, while "walking preps" takes only 6-7s of it. Some parts of this animation is useless or not really needed, but it really sets up the mood and shows some important moments at the party and outside it (Nick & Heather moment for example). The only issue here that DPC creates such animations with DAZ, while it's absolutely not suited for it. It takes a hell long time to create and pose such animations, and DAZ is slow as hell in rendering of such animations as well. Rendering speeds acceptable for still images purposes, but absolutely unacceptable for animations queues. But after all, such animations creates absolutely different immersion and perception of the game moments in compare with still images you have to click through.