See this is why I suck at chess. I can only predict values that are one step away from a move. After that it's too many variables for me to handle.. and I'm a freaking programmer. I guess to summarize I always thought nick was sad. Maybe because of Heather, maybe Vinnie, maybe loneliness. Who knows.
I think if the Heather and Tommy thing hadn't happened or been discussed at the same time as the "bad stuff" conversation things would have went a lot different. All I see now is he fessed up and got nailed by Tommy on the Heather thing and then he got beat down by everyone based on some data and some speculation. He could very well be exactly as you've described but I don't go out that far, I just wait for all the data.
No shade... it's fun to read your stuff.
Yeah, if not for the fact he slept with heather he could have hold his ground on everything. everything is circumstantial evidence and nothing is solid proof he is guilty. Yes he goes in the room where laptop was, but he could just say that all the diks ran around house looking for laptop. You can throw shade that its suspicious he found it, but you cant disprove the fact that every other DIK had just as much chance to go to that room when they started looking. If Nick were pushing people away from the library (later known and mc's room) then he would be suspicious. but no, there is nothing concere against Nick in this regard in the vacuum.
When alpha's trashed the house and later MC find Nick's room in perfect state Nick explains that he noticed his room was not as badly messed up so he just cleaned up and tidied up so room looked fine by the time MC visited. That is textbook "your word against mine" and without further data neither holds any power. MC cant prove that alphas did not trash Nick's room just like how Nick cant prove that they did. simple as that.
Its the fact that he fucks Tommy's girlfriend and that now there is absolute proof that Nick is not above harming DIKs that suddenly tips the scale on everything else.
Thats the problem when analizing characters psyche. Someone once said how Josy is genuinely happy person and only few times is seen sad. Well, the fact you see her sad is solid ground to believe she is not trully happy and is more likely to be strong person who is capable of putting on the brave face and fake the smile in order to not worry others.
Character is not a matter of probability. 90% happy and 10% unhappy does not always mean "mostly happy all the time".
anyway, i am going on a tangent. My point is that every new information revealed can and most often will change the truth of all the previous facts.
To make it simple, here is example. Secret agent, double agent, triple agent, double crossing double agent. Depending on what kind of agent someone is, a same action, same sentence coming from them can have different meaning and agendas. So question is, what kind of agent is Nick
