I get what you are saying. But I am still on the fence about Lacey. She was miserable and suicidal without MC. Was using drugs. Thats the state she was when she met Mia. Listening to voice mails and crying on the bed. And Mia influenced her drugs addled mind. Why Lacey ghosted MC, thats a good question. Didnt want do drag him down ? She thought he was in a better state than herself. She is selfish and clearly did not understand full extent of what she is to the MC. Maybe some other reason. If Mia contacted MC instead of what she did than this would be completely different story. Lacey did not arrive at this point on her own. Yeah i dislike Mia much more than Lacey. She enabled Lacey`s behaviour all the way. Just wanna add that trying to understand is not the same as accepting. I am not rying to whitewash Lacey. She did fucked up. She does need to earn the trust. So she is doing that with her plan. She is trying to prove that sex is just sex for her. Maybe proving to herself even. I agree that this is likely not the only motivation. But she did say that she does not want for MC to share her and wants him to date other women. Not to have sex with. Date. What MC was lacking in college and what is more important to him than just sex. What she couldnt give him.
On the other hand, MC could at any point went to see Lacey himself. Anna managed to get a hold of Lacey. But MC couldnt for four years. I am not putting blame on him. But all this could be avoided if he pulled his shit together earlier. When you cant get a hold of your childhood friend and your most special person for a year and do nothing about it ? Come on man...
God, so frustrated with all of them. I dont remember such fucked up cast in any other game.
I am going to play the devil's advocate here about Lacey once again (this time for a bit of fun):
MC never stopped the contacts, if Lacey felt suicidal and needed comfort the phone was at an arm's length.
Lacey is extremely selfish, exploring and drug use were simply more compelling for her, an immediate reward (addiction behaviour can spark quickly in people predisposed to it) a better way to feel good than talking or spending time with MC.
So Lacey chose that, MC got cucked again and this time not by a human being but by a substance.
Knowing that abandoning him,ignoring him and spiraling into whatever she wanted to do was an absolute wrong thing she built some coping image of MC, so she could enjoy herself without feeling guilty about it.
She had all the ingredients to know that was an absolute lie, she simply chose herself and her fun with the help of Mia (more on her later).
When Lacey, in a moment of clarity, understood that she was spiraling out of control, Anna contacts her and she takes the chance to go back, another immediate reward for herself, so she could feel needed and she could feel less selfish.
On a side note, we hear about Lacey use of ketamine, we are told that it was massive, but we never hear about any OD episode, especially since it was always mixed with alcohol.
Granted, ketamine OD is less dangerous than other substances (If this substance was chosen by the author with this knowledge in mind I have to extend my congratulations, a very nice detail), but the danger is still there and considering the acts she was doing, at least a couple of trips to the hospital would have been necessary.
This does not happen, this brings me to think that whille the usage was high, it was always controlled properly.
MC could have not gone to Lacey, he was completely cut off and maybe respected her space, remember we know that Anna manages to catch Lacey by chance and because she and Mia did not know her.
I see what you mean about proving that sex is just sex for her, I can absolutely see it as one of the reasons aside from what I already mentioned.
On to Mia, the simple fact that she is still around them and MC gives her the time of the day is excruciating.
I am with you all the way about feeling genuine hatred for her, first of all because I hate enablers and in second because this for her was a game, a game to see how much she could push a broken person down the gutter.
And she won the game, she transformed Lacey into something disgusting, objectively so, because she was having fun with it.
Mia doesn't have a sex life for her own reasons so she lived that through Lacey, she wants to see extreme stuff so she made Lacey do what she couldn't and wouldn't do.
The sob story on how she was the one that carried the cumrag named Lacey (that she supposedly cared about) and cleaned her from the gallons of spunk that she was receiving is almost comical.
Mia hated MC because she has some resentment towards men, she hated the fact that she could not be the center of Lacey's world so she tried to erase any sliver of memory or feelings towards MC, so that Lacey could be her own plaything.
She then goes on and plays the "game" with MC, another attempt to sabotage Lacey's life, to make MC distance from Lacey so that she could swoop in and feel the most important person in Lacey's life again, the one that really knows her, the one that really "helped" her.
Mia did this for herself and her own amusement, the small guild trips she goes on in some dialogues are extremely weak, she never aknowledge that she should apologize to Lacey or to MC, she talks about "her punishment", because in the end this is all about her.
And she keeps on going, she wants to see everything crashing and burning around Lacey, and now that we are told that she cares for MC, she starts playing another game with him, feeding him Kelly so that she can have an out.
She is giving him a toy (Kelly) so that she can keep her usual toy (Lacey) for herself.
I mentioned more than once how this is monster behaviour, and it not being recognized or talked about in the game feels a bit out of place, I don't mind if MC does not recognize that because the author paints him as too far gone (I do mind actually because it makes me look at MC with genuine disgust), but Anna? She knows all, saw all and yet now she cares about Mia more than she cares for MC. Christine? She seemed for a while to be the most lucid of all the characters but she also ignored this.
I don't think Lacey was on drugs until after she met Mia and Mia started getting her to explore her sexual 'perversions', from reading the story, Lacey put her sexual adventures in to 3 parts, the first part she wasn't using drugs, probably drinking though to get the courage to have sex, part 2 she was attending college parties so was probably drinking and taking drugs at that time, by part 3 she needed K to get through the sex.
The MC maybe could have found Lacey in college, but Anna was constantly calling and messaging Lacey until Lacey got fed up with it or in a moment or clear clarity of mind thought she would answer knowing it wasn't the MC, but that the MC was in trouble and she felt she had no choice but to find out what was going on.
I mentioned it, you are absolutely right in my view, it could have easily ended after fucking 14 times with Stephen with a "ph".
Mia didn't want to, so she pushed Lacey more "for her own good", Lacey is too addled and selfish that saw this as a great opportunity.
MC was being shut off, Anna manages to get in contact because they don't know who she is, if Mia heard she was calling on MC behalf she would have cut that off, maybe Lacey too.
Remember the three phases often discussed? how it all becomes a blur for her especially in phase 3?
This is another lie, Lacey remembers in detail most of the dicks she took, to the point of associating names and shapes to them up until Isaac, which is supposedly at the end of phase three.
She also associates character traits to the dick owners, another proof that she remembers, even better than Mia, everything that was happening.
She might not remember some details of parties here and there, but she remembers every single relationship she had.
At the beginning we learn that Lacey describes the taste, shape and size of MC dick to Mia, this is not about obsession over MC dick, it is just a continuation of her collection.
