Ketamine works against depression, you don't feel depressed anymore.
It is actually used clinically to help people with chronic depression and in SOME cases it helped people get past sexual trauma.
The last one is a bit off the hook since it doesn't work with everyone.
I mean, it would be nice to ferget about the abuse, your shitty life, feelling worthless and going to bed hoping to not open your eyes the next day.
She tried to kill herself.
Of all the things to attack you went for the most bellievable.
Ok the author doesn't know how to write ketamine and cherry picks the effects and long term effects, but it is a minor thing overall.
She found Mia, that promised to hep her overcome one of the thing that was killing Lacey inside: not being able to have physical contact with MC.
The problem is that Mia is a disgusting human being, that never understood Lacey's problem, never understood Lacey at all and she pushed her on worse and worse things every time.
Mia coached Lacey for hours and hours and pushed a broken girl into her game, so she could pimp her out, so that she could see the "pure Lacey".
In reality Mia was using her for her own purpose of living her sex life vicariously.
She never understood why Lacey woulnd't say no to her, never understood why then Lacey spent a lot of time crying afterwards.
We are told time and time again that the only reason Lacey did these things is to please Mia, her only friend.
It became a game of looking for Mia's approval, to the point that we know that Mia was happy only when she started fucking two guys at once, this in turn made Lacey happy.
She wasn't ready to suck and fuck untill she discovered the brain reset, yes that is rather weak, but at that point Lacey knows this:
- she isn't worthy of MC anymore after all she has done
- she knew that what she did was hurting MC
People are skimming over how Mia destroyed Lacey's life by abusing a stunted child that was looking for approval and gratification, sure Lacey is guilty as well but she is also a trauma survivor + addict with low impulse control.
Let me start by saying I also criticize Lacey heavily for these things.
The main issue is that we don't know what is on Lacey's mind at that time, Barty found videos of her, a thing that she doesn't want MC to know.
The tennis group is Lacey trying to get accepted and valued.
Sure she knows that something is not right, but at that time it seems her brain damage is on full blast.
That said, the tennis group is also related on her addiction behavior, she does things that gratify her, she likes tennis and being appreciated and complimented so she will do it.
I'm not trying to defend her here, in my rewrite she gets kicked in the ass a lot about this, as it is completely unacceptable, but we have to try and understand the character.
She has shitty motivation, she is a compulsive liar, in her head nothing was wrong and yet it was.
None of her explanations make complete sense because she doesn't make complete sense, she is not sane.
And lets not forget, Lacey is super easy to manipulate.
She did understand that what she was doing was wrong, honestly the groping her ass on the ladder was a stupid thing to write, an abused child that doesn't recognize inappropriate touch? come on.
She does understand bad stuff is happening, she is super stressed out by this, super stressed to having to lie to Mc constanty.
But in typical Lacey behaviour she did what she wanted to because there was a carrot at the end, a new job etc.
Jared was playing the long game, until he had enough and tried to rape and blackmail her.
Granted, no one knows what happened at those parties, but if we try to understand Lacey enough, in all her insanity, that is a line I don't see her crossing.
She probably got groped a lot tho.
We aren't looking for normal people logic here, that is the problem, her action doesn't always make sense to a sane person, sometimes it is a bit too much and it is clear that the author is looking for shock value.
I can't say much here, MC is the worst written character by a mile, he should be renamed as NPC.
Like I can't find a single positive thing about him, to the point I have probably rewritten 90% of his lines.
This also is bad writing for Lacey, as she is described as super non confrontational but when it comes to MC she is ALWAYS confrontational.
I don't know if you are there yet but at some point she will hurt MC intentionally due to a misunderstanding, non confrontational my ass.
This is what I meant before, to actually enjoy this game you have to let go of the shock value tactics and try to understand the characters, I want to talk about the five boxes but we will do that in the question below
Yeah, this is another problem, sometimes the author gets lost and start writing really weird pseudo therapy dialogues.
All Lacey's explanations to the boxes actually make things worse, I had to rewrite MC responses quite a bit.
Because no matter how much of a doormat MC is, the answers from Lacey are awful, but MC comebacks are WAY worse.
Lets say that MC is this pseudo therapy guy that likes to talk like that, ot that is how he used to talk with her when she was abused, a way to connect.
How can you not stand your ground, especially when she recounts the events with Mia, or the abandonement.
Sorry I wish I could try and find a way to make it better, but it is probably one of the worst written parts of the game.
I get it, the author is trying to give us a glimpse on Lacey and maybe feel compassion, but there is none there, no acceptance of her mistakes and so on, just deflection and MC is there like a smoked fish.
I said it previously, only one confrontation gets explained later, but she is NEVER confontational with anyone aside from MC.
Not confrontational with Mia, nor with Anna, neither with Jared or Evan when they talk about her bouncy tits and ass.
You need a bit off suspension of disbelief here, especially because we know Lacey is terrified to lose MC, yet she acts like he is her "lap dog" (cit.) that will never leave, and while this is true, it is hard to reconcile the two things.
But lets not forget that Lacey is super selfish and narcissistic, this is admitted freely
"This" is his self worth, the years lost waiting for her, acceptance for the past, happiness, being taken care of, living life with the woman he loved for so many years, all the experiences he couldn't have and even material things such as a nice house.
The problem I often talk about is that she is unable to deliver ANY of these and that MC might not even want most of this.
Lets say I've spent my 20s as a shut in, in my 30s or 40s I might not want to relive being 20s again to go party, my priorities and needs might have shifted.
She can't take back her or his past, she destroyed any possibility to be 100% happy, because even if she is happy she will forever know that she deprived MC of his firsts sexual and non sexual alike.
MC love language is touch and sex, but none of that was reserved for him, none of it will be theirs only.
Because this is what it is, Lacey will never be his and only his, it is only his turn.
It is just MC turn on the carnival ride, the probem is that someone puked in the ride, left garbage all around and there are used condoms on the seats.
It might be the last ride, no one else will get to ride it again, but it is ruined nonetheless.
Even when Lacey tries to do something special for him, you know she is picking up from her past, it is not special, nothing could ever be.
She chose others for 1460 days, he was never her first choice, the person she wanted to be next to.
Honestly? this is my favourite part of the writing and I hope it gets explored properly and doesn't get the five boxes treatment, even if it does look like that sometimes.
Lacey's effort to repair something that is irreversibly broken, and that both she and MC have to live with.
The concept of sending Mc to therapy is often thrown around, but there is no therapy that can fix that, he can either accept to be a forever sloppy second OR leave.
What she has done cannot be forgiven not forgotten, it has to be accepted and see what can you do with the broken pieces.
As the game goes on (act 2 mostly) we understand Lacey more and what she wants to give him and those are good things, the problem is that it is too little too late, her past is just too big of a roommate.
