VN Ren'Py Love & Jealousy [Act 2] [Professor Amethyst Games]

[anongamer1983]

But something bothering me. I remember when Lacey went to party and texted Mia instead of MC by mistake. And Mia told her something like "Go be slut by yourself don't drag me into this". Was it just Mia banter, or we still don't understand theirs dynamic completely ? Maybe add that to the Lacey had fun pile as evidence. I don't know maybe I am misremembering something.

I'm personally of the belief that Mia did this maliciously knowing that Lacey believes she's texting MC. The lines are

L "Hi Baby"
L "It's your wife"
L "Remember I told you about the newhire?"
L "Our team is going out to celebrate at the club"
L "Veronica is paying for everything"
L "Come meet us"
L "no response"
L "Pleeeeease"
L "no response"
L "Hey it's been an hour"
L "Are you home yet?"
L "Put on your duds and come dance with me"
L "and finally here's your response..."
L "'Why would I want to hang out with you, you silly bitch'"
L "'Leave me the hell alone'"
L "'I have better things to do'"
L "You never talk to me like that."
L "I was so shocked all I could do was ask what was wrong."
L "Your reply, and I quote..."
L "'Go be a whore on your own and leave me out of it'"
L "I mean... what was that?"
L "Couldn't you have just said you were tired?"
L "Or anything..."

Given everything that Mia does in Act 2, I'm convinced this is more of the same.

 

[Enlight432]

I did, funny you mention that, I posted recently how my position on Lacey changed.
She has shown proof, not in words but in actions, additionally there is a strong difference between Lacey 1 and Lacey 2.
Lacey 2 is born in act 1 during the bathroom discussion about how MC acts.

Mind you, I will never get tired about keeping her accountable and I enjoy to see her coming to grips with the past to the point where she can't even give a funny weekend to her man without it biting back.
It is a fitting "punishment" way more meaningful than the smalll and insignificant punishments she gets in the bedroom (especially in act 2).

She is also the only one of the whole group that wants MC to face his feelings and get them all out, not in a perfect way, but it is a distorted therapy for PTSD.
All the rest of the girls? They cheer when MC does exactly the opposite, which is, as far as I understand from the literature, damaging in the long run and will worsen things.

On your analysis of the group I sort of agree, but especially on how MC is just a fucking witness of the whole thing, as usual my motto still stands: everyone loves him but noone cares about him.
They are all acting like Lacey 1, trying to give him what they think he needs.
Not happy about Llacey being the queen? Tough luck, MC has put her there, if you respect him even a little, you would accept it and deal with it under his rules.
Lacey is also guilty of this, but her motivations are driven by fear more than desire.

The pimp modus operandi is always the same, go and get what YOU want and trample of everyone else, because fuck them.
We discover that helping Lacey was actually a bit of a ruse, a convenience so that she could try and get over her hangups.

But you are also wrong her method is not push - no break - push some more, because it doesn't fit what happened with Isaac.
Her method is: this is fun for me - oh you want to stop and clean up - think again let me see if you die this time.
This is half in jest but I want to underline how little benevolence there is in her actions.
In all of this, Mia was having a blast.

We know she never asked Lacey what she got out of all the experiences, mind you, the Lacey that deperately cried when she regained her faculties and was obviously broken.
Because it was barely about her, it was all for the pimp enjoyment, the late croc tears "oh no YOU let me ruin your life" trying to push blame elsewhere are hilarious if not tragic.
She never understood her or even asked about her, same as Isaac, Mia just lingered longer than 3 weeks abusing a "broken shell of a girl".
The fact that she didn't even once considered Lacey's feelings for MC is easily explained, she didn't want MC to have a single piece of Lacey, she thought the same as she thought of her classmate in economics class.
She seduced Lacey to take her away from him, because she hated him and what he represented in her head, the fact that she isn't confronted heavily on the topic is the great sin of this game.

Her actions in this act are harmful to an impossible extent, while Anna is guilty as well her motivations are tied to MC wellbeing, for Mia? It is about what SHE wants, which is more of MC for herself.

Not only that, she fucking brought drugs to a recovering addict that is still wrestling with her urges.
If you didn't think Mia the pimp wasn't full garbage human, I hope you are sane enough to change your mind.

So yeah, she is only asking "what they were doing" now, because she didn't care then and barely cares now.
She was having fun, she was going to parties, she was enjoying molding and pushing Lacey into something hideous (not only for the sex).

There are tidbits on how Lacey was also having fun btw, way more than it is depicted to us until, with many different fun experiences that are not related to sex, another thing I really want the author to explore.

Agreed on MC needing help, sadly the group of friends he has is full of enablers, they enabled Lacey in act 1 and they are enabling MC spiral now.

To be honest, I wasn't surprised by Lacey in Act 2 at all. She turned out to be exactly the person I had judged her to be in Act 1.

This is likely because, in my own life, I avoid judging people based on a single factor. I don't assess individuals solely on their words, actions, or intentions. Instead, I try to consider all parameters simultaneously: their words, actions, motivations, intentions, background, personal struggles, and even their mental capabilities and limitations.

For this reason, I was very pleased that Lacey's storyline in Act 2 didn't surprise me in the slightest. It confirmed that my initial assessment was on the right track, and I hope this holds true in the subsequent acts.

On a side note, I find it fascinating that you, the person you replied to (Dragonlight), and I all have three distinct opinions. The fact that this story and its characters are open to so many interpretations is something I've seen repeatedly while reading this thread over the past two days, and it continues to amaze me. Perhaps this is exactly what the developer intended—to give us all room to breathe and form our own conclusions.
In any case, that was just an aside. I'm glad your opinion of Lacey has become more positive. I suspect you will find her even more so in the upcoming acts.

Lastly, if anyone has direct contact with the developer, please make sure they are aware of how incredibly popular this game has become. It's perfectly fine if they decide to continue with their new game after learning this, but it's possible they are unaware of the community's enthusiasm due to their inactivity on these forums.

See you all in the next update

 

[Dragonlight]

I'm personally of the belief that Mia did this maliciously knowing that Lacey believes she's texting MC. The lines are

L "Hi Baby"
L "It's your wife"
L "Remember I told you about the newhire?"
L "Our team is going out to celebrate at the club"
L "Veronica is paying for everything"
L "Come meet us"
L "no response"
L "Pleeeeease"
L "no response"
L "Hey it's been an hour"
L "Are you home yet?"
L "Put on your duds and come dance with me"
L "and finally here's your response..."
L "'Why would I want to hang out with you, you silly bitch'"
L "'Leave me the hell alone'"
L "'I have better things to do'"
L "You never talk to me like that."
L "I was so shocked all I could do was ask what was wrong."
L "Your reply, and I quote..."
L "'Go be a whore on your own and leave me out of it'"
L "I mean... what was that?"
L "Couldn't you have just said you were tired?"
L "Or anything..."

Given everything that Mia does in Act 2, I'm convinced this is more of the same.

Oh. OK I DID misremember that conversation. It is stuck with me because of how overly rude Mia was. Thank you for clearing that up.

 

[Adhdclassic]

Feel Mia is playing the long game. All that crying feels out of character. Mia is a manipulator. Think she is still trying to remove MC from Lacey life.

 

[anongamer1983]

Lastly, if anyone has direct contact with the developer, please make sure they are aware of how incredibly popular this game has become. It's perfectly fine if they decide to continue with their new game after learning this, but it's possible they are unaware of the community's enthusiasm due to their inactivity on these forums.

See you all in the next update

On their Patreon, the developer did mention that they didn't intend for this game to be as big as it is. I think that's why they wanted to put OTMT on hold because they don't want 2 big projects at once. They mentioned that not intending L&J to be a big project is why it doesn't have things like a gallery and whatnot. They mentioned that they'd make an effort to improve on that for Act 3, so that gives me hope that L&J won't really be put on hold!

 

[AL.d]

I understand the confusion, mind you, I kind of had the same at the beginning when I didn't play it 100% and rewrote act 1 (that made me go through the game in a very thorough way).
The jealousy date is the biggest jumbler of all, since stage 2 is not written particularly well in my opinion, it makes people confused.

Personally I'd argue there is an even bigger jumbler in act 1. The whole Jared pseudo-cheating events make no sense. It's a case of something repeatedly, not only quacking like a duck, but also leaving feathers and even eggs around. But it somehow turns out not being a duck, every single time. Which realistically, has zero probability of happening.

So it was either yet another case of Lacey peddling bs to hide she was intending to whore herself for a job (until she saw there was none), or it was uncharacteristically bad writing for that part.

And just to clarify, I didn’t take your “context” comment the wrong way at all —
it was clear you meant it as a joke, and honestly, it’s a pleasure to exchange ideas with someone who digs so deep into the material. These kinds of discussions are what make exploring this VN genuinely interesting.


But there’s still something I can’t reconcile, and it’s really at the core of my discomfort with the Damian arc:
No matter which route you pick, the MC is clearly suffering, even begging Lacey not to go through with it. She chooses to do it anyway, and then rationalizes it after the fact (with or without drugs).


For me, that specific moment — where she goes through with being shared despite her partner’s pleas and obvious pain — is exactly what convinces me she has, at some level, a desire to be shared.
Not just to “please” the MC or as a passive reaction, but as an act that she owns, even if she never says it out loud.


I totally respect that you see things differently, but unless I missed something, this part of her character/actions remains problematic and unexplained by the logic you presented.


Maybe Act 3 will address it. But for now, that’s the sticking point that shapes my reading of Lacey — and why I can’t see her as only “responding” to the MC’s desires.

Not a desire to be shared per se, but a desire to cause jealousy by engaging with other men. Because it's a given that this kind of situation is one that would cause MC the most intense jealousy. If there was some other way to cause the same intense jealousy, she would be into that. But of course there isn't.

Her issue she has with the hard ntr roleplays (she dislikes them), is that she is forced to see the consequence of that. She craves the validation from MC's jealousy, but if it comes at the cost of him seeing her as an amoral slut, she dreads it. Because she realizes MC sees her as someone out to deliberately hurt him and that's definitely not her desire. Of course her actual desire has hurt as an inevitable consequence so...good luck with that. She even says to him that he is extremely incompatible with her kink.

 

[Diosvincenccio]

Lastly, if anyone has direct contact with the developer, please make sure they are aware of how incredibly popular this game has become. It's perfectly fine if they decide to continue with their new game after learning this, but it's possible they are unaware of the community's enthusiasm due to their inactivity on these forums.

He is somewhat aware of the popularity, on patreon he made two polls, one asking if he should put things on hold or create a small game, the other when the create a small game was vastly chosen was to chose on of 3 possible stories for the new game.

The majority of the comments on the first poll were to express good wishes on him, asking to take care of himself, etc... And the love for L&J was mentioned a lot, quite more than the flagship game On the montain top.

He is gonna do a new small game, just as L&J started, could end being a single Act game, or could develop more in the future. But as now, the intention is to create something new to refresh his creative mind, and then back to the known games.

 

[DeviantFun]

Don't get me wrong I am not defending Mia, just trying to understand her better. I am still consider myself a member of Hate Mia Brigade(HMB). I'm thinking that when she push some idea and not met with resistance then its an OK in her book. Like she helping people to open up. Like its what they need.

Spoiler: For example

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She is righteous in her own mind and inconsiderate. Nuclear combo.

But something bothering me. I remember when Lacey went to party and texted Mia instead of MC by mistake. And Mia told her something like "Go be slut by yourself don't drag me into this". Was it just Mia banter, or we still don't understand theirs dynamic completely ? Maybe add that to the Lacey had fun pile as evidence. I don't know maybe I am misremembering something.



I am actually agree. I think The Monster is a duo. Someone from the crew and some other. Most obvious candidate is Cristine. Why ? She already spied for Jared thinking that she is doing the right thing. She was not fazed by the video and figured it was deepfake pretty fast. And she was overall pretty efficient the whole encounter like she new what she had to do.

But I have even more wild theory ! The big breasted blond, the real actress in the video, is actually Veronica !
The foreshadowed betrayal and the fact that people keep making same mistakes in this story made me believe that.
Plus, Veronica was on zoom call with someone when MC received the video. And she was in such a hurry that she forgot to cover herself ? Come on, Veronica not that scatter brained. She was anxious or afraid or both. She was not expecting that call, but she could not not answer. She is being blackmailed or something. And was delivering report or receiving instructions from her blackmailers. DeviantFun roasted her for her choice to prioritize her career over helping her friends, so I can see her doing that. And after the incident she was asking weird questions. She is SUS !

p.s. Jamie pretty cute not gona lie. Cant wait to see him with longer hair and bigger boobs.

I think we should merge the HMB brigade and the MIP brotherhood at this point.

I agree with you on how the pimp acts, I'd also add that she is way more selfish in her goals (also look at Kelly that was pushed to cut off her previous life).
Add to your "nuclear combo" that she never sacrifices for her "friends" that she is supposed to help, who gets whored out? Lacey. Who has to leave her life behind? Kelly. What does Mia sacrifice? nothing.
She actually gains something from helping, while the helpee always loses.

Btw I expressed the same doubts at the pimp way of talking to Lacey over the phone, it could be the infamous "gallows humor", but it still sucks.
We don't know enough about their privare interactions to draw a conclusion.

I had the same thoughts about Veronica, which I would roast in more ways than one, but she was still half drunk so that might be a reason to forget the shirt.
I don't know, the "Veronica is a baddie but she's being blackmailed" is a used up plotline, I hope it doesn't show up again.

And just to clarify, I didn’t take your “context” comment the wrong way at all —
it was clear you meant it as a joke, and honestly, it’s a pleasure to exchange ideas with someone who digs so deep into the material. These kinds of discussions are what make exploring this VN genuinely interesting.


But there’s still something I can’t reconcile, and it’s really at the core of my discomfort with the Damian arc:
No matter which route you pick, the MC is clearly suffering, even begging Lacey not to go through with it. She chooses to do it anyway, and then rationalizes it after the fact (with or without drugs).


For me, that specific moment — where she goes through with being shared despite her partner’s pleas and obvious pain — is exactly what convinces me she has, at some level, a desire to be shared.
Not just to “please” the MC or as a passive reaction, but as an act that she owns, even if she never says it out loud.


I totally respect that you see things differently, but unless I missed something, this part of her character/actions remains problematic and unexplained by the logic you presented.


Maybe Act 3 will address it. But for now, that’s the sticking point that shapes my reading of Lacey — and why I can’t see her as only “responding” to the MC’s desires.

rhune Thanks, I also enjoy our exchange.
I get it, it is extremely difficult to immerse or even try to understand a damaged person and a fictional one at that.
It is very "out there" but also very "in character".

Lacey is of a single mind, what she wants is absolute, at that time she wanted to give MC this fucking lesson so he would be free from Jealousy.

A strange hang up in Act 1, which is a bit underwhelming, is the fact that MC is all over the place when it comes to what is important for him in this whole situation.
Is it that he felt thrown away after all he has done? Is it that Lacey chose to be pimped for 1460 days over sending him a single text? is it that he was suffering and Lacey wasn't there for him (for me this would be the biggest)?
At some point the story starts to peddle (mainly by the pimp) the idea is that MC problems comes from the fact that Lacey had or could have sex with someone else and she would enjoy it and leave him, all the rest is forgotten.

Lacey sets out to fix that, to show him that sex and love are not intertwined, which I agree, it is a shitty thing to do, everyone has their own feelings about it and as long as they aren't harmful, they should be respected.
This is why Damian happens, this is why the jealousy date happens.

BUT something that could make it easier to reconcile all of it is that:

I think AL.d hits the nail on the head.
I wanted to write my own thoughts but he really put it down beautifully:

Not a desire to be shared per se, but a desire to cause jealousy by engaging with other men. Because it's a given that this kind of situation is one that would cause MC the most intense jealousy. If there was some other way to cause the same intense jealousy, she would be into that. But of course there isn't.

Her issue she has with the hard ntr roleplays (she dislikes them), is that she is forced to see the consequence of that. She craves the validation from MC's jealousy, but if it comes at the cost of him seeing her as an amoral slut, she dreads it. Because she realizes MC sees her as someone out to deliberately hurt him and that's definitely not her desire. Of course her actual desire has hurt as an inevitable consequence so...good luck with that. She even says to him that he is extremely incompatible with her kink.

The only point I will add is that Lacey doesn't only suffer when he sees her as an amoral slut, which is correct to a T, but also dreads hurting him. (ironic since this is all she does in Act 1, I know).
I am glad you changed you pow AL.d, I will take credit for putting you on the path to enlightment

Personally I'd argue there is an even bigger jumbler in act 1. The whole Jared pseudo-cheating events make no sense. It's a case of something repeatedly, not only quacking like a duck, but also leaving feathers and even eggs around. But it somehow turns out not being a duck, every single time. Which realistically, has zero probability of happening.
So it was either yet another case of Lacey peddling bs to hide she was intending to whore herself for a job (until she saw there was none), or it was uncharacteristically bad writing for that part.

It does look bad doesn't it? Laceys says so herself.
She is definitely willing to do so, even to get groped in the hot tub to achieve her goals where I am sure if things got out of hand Lacey would have put at stop to that, what I am unsure about is what "out of hand" means for Lacey in that situation.
in my rewrite I had MC calling "the pimp" out when she says "oh she just spent time having heart to heart discussions with strippers and sometimes dancing", there were drugs at the party, maybe not the ones of her own preferred kind.
I have MC say that she doesn't know what happened really, no one but Lacey can know. (and also that she should shut the fuck up)

plus have you ever seen a stripper relaxing during work? with people with money at the ready they decided to sit down with Lacey instead of trying to hustle? Do you actually think these men would actually leave a stripper alone? What is this? Disneyland? Have you ever been to a strip club or hired strippers? because I have some news for you my boy.

You have to give a bit of rope to the story and engage your suspension of disbelief.

To be honest, I wasn't surprised by Lacey in Act 2 at all. She turned out to be exactly the person I had judged her to be in Act 1.

This is likely because, in my own life, I avoid judging people based on a single factor. I don't assess individuals solely on their words, actions, or intentions. Instead, I try to consider all parameters simultaneously: their words, actions, motivations, intentions, background, personal struggles, and even their mental capabilities and limitations.

For this reason, I was very pleased that Lacey's storyline in Act 2 didn't surprise me in the slightest. It confirmed that my initial assessment was on the right track, and I hope this holds true in the subsequent acts.

On a side note, I find it fascinating that you, the person you replied to (Dragonlight), and I all have three distinct opinions. The fact that this story and its characters are open to so many interpretations is something I've seen repeatedly while reading this thread over the past two days, and it continues to amaze me. Perhaps this is exactly what the developer intended—to give us all room to breathe and form our own conclusions.
In any case, that was just an aside. I'm glad your opinion of Lacey has become more positive. I suspect you will find her even more so in the upcoming acts.

Lastly, if anyone has direct contact with the developer, please make sure they are aware of how incredibly popular this game has become. It's perfectly fine if they decide to continue with their new game after learning this, but it's possible they are unaware of the community's enthusiasm due to their inactivity on these forums.

See you all in the next update

If you took her mental capabilities and personal struggles into consideration, I find it weird that you coulld have predicted THIS Lacey.
All the signs of her improving where there, from the "I KNEW" dialogue forward and everyone and their dog expected an improvement.
The surprise is how fast this improvement came to be, she made giant steps in a very little time.

I think the skewed perception of time comes from this:
Act 1 spans through months, covering the full first year of marriage.
Act 2? 11 days, less than the time Lacey spent bent over by Isaac.

Even if we count the days from the first therapy it should be less than a month, unless I missed something.

I am also glad that people have different perceptions and ideas, this gives me a chance to discuss my favourite game.
Plus, I am always right and you all will have to accept it .

 

[rhune]

I think we should merge the HMB brigade and the MIP brotherhood at this point.


rhune Thanks, I also enjoy our exchange.
I get it, it is extremely difficult to immerse or even try to understand a damaged person and a fictional one at that.
It is very "out there" but also very "in character".

Lacey is of a single mind, what she wants is absolute, at that time she wanted to give MC this fucking lesson so he would be free from Jealousy.

A strange hang up in Act 1, which is a bit underwhelming, is the fact that MC is all over the place when it comes to what is important for him in this whole situation.
Is it that he felt thrown away after all he has done? Is it that Lacey chose to be pimped for 1460 days over sending him a single text? is it that he was suffering and Lacey wasn't there for him (for me this would be the biggest)?
At some point the story starts to peddle (mainly by the pimp) the idea is that MC problems comes from the fact that Lacey had or could have sex with someone else and she would enjoy it and leave him, all the rest is forgotten.

Lacey sets out to fix that, to show him that sex and love are not intertwined, which I agree, it is a shitty thing to do, everyone has their own feelings about it and as long as they aren't harmful, they should be respected.
This is why Damian happens, this is why the jealousy date happens.

BUT something that could make it easier to reconcile all of it is that:

I think AL.d hits the nail on the head.
I wanted to write my own thoughts but he really put it down beautifully:

Thanks a lot for your reply — honestly, you always push me to look at things from a new angle, and I really value that.


I see exactly what you mean about how difficult it is to “enter” the mindset of someone as damaged as Lacey, especially when her actions are so extreme. You’re right, the narrative constantly challenges us to see her as more than just a villain or a victim. And I agree: in her logic, she truly believes she’s doing what needs to be done to “free” MC from his jealousy — even if, as you said, it’s a pretty shitty way to go about it.


Where I keep stumbling, though, is the point where her actions cross from “doing something for MC” into “doing something for herself,” no matter how much she justifies it. When she goes ahead with Damian despite MC’s pleas, it feels like we’re not just seeing a lesson play out — we’re seeing Lacey’s own need for control, validation, and maybe even emotional catharsis take over. Whether or not she admits it (to herself or to him), there’s something almost compulsive about how she pushes the boundary, and it always comes back to that “sharing” dynamic, with or without MC’s real consent.


I totally agree with you on the MC’s confusion too. His trauma isn’t just about sex, or even just jealousy — it’s a tangled mess of abandonment, betrayal, and never feeling like he mattered as much as he should have. Sometimes I feel like the story itself loses sight of that, focusing so much on the sexual side that it misses the core of his pain. Maybe that’s what makes L&J so frustrating and fascinating at the same time.


So, for me, Damian isn’t just about teaching a lesson — it’s about Lacey’s need to act out her own cycle, even if she wraps it in the language of healing. That’s what makes the character interesting, but also what makes the story feel so off-balance and, at times, almost cruel.

 

[Diosvincenccio]

Thanks a lot for your reply — honestly, you always push me to look at things from a new angle, and I really value that.


I see exactly what you mean about how difficult it is to “enter” the mindset of someone as damaged as Lacey, especially when her actions are so extreme. You’re right, the narrative constantly challenges us to see her as more than just a villain or a victim. And I agree: in her logic, she truly believes she’s doing what needs to be done to “free” MC from his jealousy — even if, as you said, it’s a pretty shitty way to go about it.


Where I keep stumbling, though, is the point where her actions cross from “doing something for MC” into “doing something for herself,” no matter how much she justifies it. When she goes ahead with Damian despite MC’s pleas, it feels like we’re not just seeing a lesson play out — we’re seeing Lacey’s own need for control, validation, and maybe even emotional catharsis take over. Whether or not she admits it (to herself or to him), there’s something almost compulsive about how she pushes the boundary, and it always comes back to that “sharing” dynamic, with or without MC’s real consent.


I totally agree with you on the MC’s confusion too. His trauma isn’t just about sex, or even just jealousy — it’s a tangled mess of abandonment, betrayal, and never feeling like he mattered as much as he should have. Sometimes I feel like the story itself loses sight of that, focusing so much on the sexual side that it misses the core of his pain. Maybe that’s what makes L&J so frustrating and fascinating at the same time.


So, for me, Damian isn’t just about teaching a lesson — it’s about Lacey’s need to act out her own cycle, even if she wraps it in the language of healing. That’s what makes the character interesting, but also what makes the story feel so off-balance and, at times, almost cruel.

My thoughts, word by word.

You sure you aint a telepath?

 

[AL.d]

I think we should merge the HMB brigade and the MIP brotherhood at this point.

I agree with you on how the pimp acts, I'd also add that she is way more selfish in her goals (also look at Kelly that was pushed to cut off her previous life).
Add to your "nuclear combo" that she never sacrifices for her "friends" that she is supposed to help, who gets whored out? Lacey. Who has to leave her life behind? Kelly. What does Mia sacrifice? nothing.
She actually gains something from helping, while the helpee always loses.

Btw I expressed the same doubts at the pimp way of talking to Lacey over the phone, it could be the infamous "gallows humor", but it still sucks.
We don't know enough about their privare interactions to draw a conclusion.

I had the same thoughts about Veronica, which I would roast in more ways than one, but she was still half drunk so that might be a reason to forget the shirt.
I don't know, the "Veronica is a baddie but she's being blackmailed" is a used up plotline, I hope it doesn't show up again.




rhune Thanks, I also enjoy our exchange.
I get it, it is extremely difficult to immerse or even try to understand a damaged person and a fictional one at that.
It is very "out there" but also very "in character".

Lacey is of a single mind, what she wants is absolute, at that time she wanted to give MC this fucking lesson so he would be free from Jealousy.

A strange hang up in Act 1, which is a bit underwhelming, is the fact that MC is all over the place when it comes to what is important for him in this whole situation.
Is it that he felt thrown away after all he has done? Is it that Lacey chose to be pimped for 1460 days over sending him a single text? is it that he was suffering and Lacey wasn't there for him (for me this would be the biggest)?
At some point the story starts to peddle (mainly by the pimp) the idea is that MC problems comes from the fact that Lacey had or could have sex with someone else and she would enjoy it and leave him, all the rest is forgotten.

Lacey sets out to fix that, to show him that sex and love are not intertwined, which I agree, it is a shitty thing to do, everyone has their own feelings about it and as long as they aren't harmful, they should be respected.
This is why Damian happens, this is why the jealousy date happens.

BUT something that could make it easier to reconcile all of it is that:

I think AL.d hits the nail on the head.
I wanted to write my own thoughts but he really put it down beautifully:



The only point I will add is that Lacey doesn't only suffer when he sees her as an amoral slut, which is correct to a T, but also dreads hurting him. (ironic since this is all she does in Act 1, I know).
I am glad you changed you pow AL.d, I will take credit for putting you on the path to enlightment



It does look bad doesn't it? Laceys says so herself.
She is definitely willing to do so, even to get groped in the hot tub to achieve her goals where I am sure if things got out of hand Lacey would have put at stop to that, what I am unsure about is what "out of hand" means for Lacey in that situation.
in my rewrite I had MC calling "the pimp" out when she says "oh she just spent time having heart to heart discussions with strippers and sometimes dancing", there were drugs at the party, maybe not the ones of her own preferred kind.
I have MC say that she doesn't know what happened really, no one but Lacey can know. (and also that she should shut the fuck up)

plus have you ever seen a stripper relaxing during work? with people with money at the ready they decided to sit down with Lacey instead of trying to hustle? Do you actually think these men would actually leave a stripper alone? What is this? Disneyland? Have you ever been to a strip club or hired strippers? because I have some news for you my boy.

You have to give a bit of rope to the story and engage your suspension of disbelief.



If you took her mental capabilities and personal struggles into consideration, I find it weird that you coulld have predicted THIS Lacey.
All the signs of her improving where there, from the "I KNEW" dialogue forward and everyone and their dog expected an improvement.
The surprise is how fast this improvement came to be, she made giant steps in a very little time.

I think the skewed perception of time comes from this:
Act 1 spans through months, covering the full first year of marriage.
Act 2? 11 days, less than the time Lacey spent bent over by Isaac.

Even if we count the days from the first therapy it should be less than a month, unless I missed something.

I am also glad that people have different perceptions and ideas, this gives me a chance to discuss my favourite game.
Plus, I am always right and you all will have to accept it .

Didn't really change my POV.

Even if malice is not the intent, if your desires are hurting a loved one and you are aware of it, you shouldn't even been thinking of following them.

It is like the classic line when a cheater gets caught, "I never meant to hurt you". Most of the time, they genuinely mean that. But if following a certain desire has that as an inevitable outcome, going for it makes you a shitty person. It's why most cheaters disassociate their actions from their possible consequence, in order to deal with the guilt.

 

[Arikania]

missing tag: protagonist gender

 

[Maviarab]

missing tag: protagonist gender

So report the OP...game update...tell the mods.

 

[Sayora]

Guys, I cooled down, reread the whole topic, and decided to rethink my attitude towards Lacey by trying to put myself in MC's shoes (I'll say in advance that I couldn't do it completely, my mentality is very different from the one depicted by the author, but I tried) here's what came out of it:
As strange as it may be, but I managed to justify and forgive all her
actions and deeds (except one) - kindness and naivety work wonders at the end of the second act I was more upset by Mia's actions than by Lacey's mistakes. I won't give any decisions or thoughts that guided me, this is a very detailed topic and I'm afraid I couldn't explain many decisions logically, they were made with emotions
And now the grand finale of my useless fluttering
no matter how hard I tried, no matter how hard I tried to be kind and naive
I suffered a crushing failure, the only place where I was powerless was the story with Damien, it turned out to be completely impossible for me justify and forgive it.

Spoiler: just spoiler

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I understand it turned out a bit depressing, but it turned out the way it turned out.

 

[rhune]

Guys, I cooled down, reread the whole topic, and decided to rethink my attitude towards Lacey by trying to put myself in MC's shoes (I'll say in advance that I couldn't do it completely, my mentality is very different from the one depicted by the author, but I tried) here's what came out of it:
As strange as it may be, but I managed to justify and forgive all her
actions and deeds (except one) - kindness and naivety work wonders at the end of the second act I was more upset by Mia's actions than by Lacey's mistakes. I won't give any decisions or thoughts that guided me, this is a very detailed topic and I'm afraid I couldn't explain many decisions logically, they were made with emotions
And now the grand finale of my useless fluttering
no matter how hard I tried, no matter how hard I tried to be kind and naive
I suffered a crushing failure, the only place where I was powerless was the story with Damien, it turned out to be completely impossible for me justify and forgive it.

Spoiler: just spoiler

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I understand it turned out a bit depressing, but it turned out the way it turned out.

Honestly, I relate to your post so much. Like you, I really tried to understand Lacey, to excuse her, to emotionally rehabilitate her. And in many ways, I actually could. Her past, her trauma, her bad choices, even her attempts at redemption — I was willing to accept all of that. I even felt moved by some of her confessions.


But the whole Damien arc is where I hit an unbreakable wall.
Not just because of how extreme it is — but because of how it’s presented. There’s a mix of premeditation, conscious betrayal, and public humiliation (via the webcam) that makes the whole scene not just horrible, but surreal in its coldness.


Like you said: even with empathy, even with kindness, even with naïveté — I couldn’t justify it. I wanted to. I tried. But I just couldn’t. It shattered everything I had built emotionally toward her.

If Lacey had done it while in psychotic denial, in full collapse, I could have seen it as self-destruction. But she was lucid. Lucid and deliberate .

Thanks for putting into words what many of us just felt as a punch to the gut. It's clear I'm not the only one who completely broke at that point.

 

[48914891]

This is correct. I also caught it.

It's also someone who knows everyone....and also someone who knows exactly who he is seeing/when/where etc etc (which can easily come from word of mouth from the new crew group).

If Monster is Christine, the Barty video may be real, and Christine just subbed in some frames of the blonde to deflect for who knows what reason. The convo at the end of Act II references the blonde, but doesn't clarify her actual role in the video. And monster did say worse things are on the way.

I have one save where MC turns down everyone he can and maximizes the reduction in MC love points. That's resulted in Lacey and Christine both being present with sad faces in the interludes. Interesting to see where that goes.

 

[Chaoticjustice]

So I've got a bit of a rouge theory, what if Lacey has secretly developed a kink for inflicting pain and the MC just happened to be her victim

after all she was heavily abused in her youth , so I would say that it wouldn't be uncommon for the victim to then become the abuser

It would grant her some level of power/control that she wants and she may even of rationalized it that by becoming the abuser she is "reclaiming" her youth or some bullshit like that

It could also be that she doesn't even realise she has this kink and that's why it comes across as unintentionally

Now like I said this is definitely rouge .... But think about it she easily gets herself into these situations that effect the MC ...but she barely puts in the bare minimum to avoid them

Now I know this is almost 100% unlikely but I just wanted to throw a Lacey shaped grenade into the mix and see what happens

 

[DeviantFun]

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Tbh you are WAY more compassionate than me irl.

I would have shut her off after she ghosted, sure it would have been painful and all and the memories would have come back sometimes, to remind you of what was lost, but yeah, not for me.
And I do know for sure that because I did it before.

Putting myself in MC shoes I would probably have cut it at the "work" part.
MC already knows that the person in front of him is not "his" Lacey, her whoring out for a job would signal that there is nothing left.
No matter what was going in her mind, a job cannot be more important than your marriage, no matter what but especially in that situation with Jared.

But I agree with you, if I'd ever manage to get that far, the Damian stuff would have been a definite breaking point.

If Monster is Christine, the Barty video may be real, and Christine just subbed in some frames of the blonde to deflect for who knows what reason. The convo at the end of Act II references the blonde, but doesn't clarify her actual role in the video. And monster did say worse things are on the way.

I have one save where MC turns down everyone he can and maximizes the reduction in MC love points. That's resulted in Lacey and Christine both being present with sad faces in the interludes. Interesting to see where that goes.

But how did Christine have the frames ready on MC PC? She wanted to check the video on his phone first, since MC deleted it they moved on his PC.

The convo refers specifially to a deepfake so I don't know, I think we are digging in the wrong direction.

I also have saves like that, what interludes are you talking about? I can't believe I missed something.

 

[Maviarab]

No matter what was going in her mind, a job cannot be more important than your marriage, no matter what but especially in that situation with Jared.

But I agree with you, if I'd ever manage to get that far, the Damian stuff would have been a definite breaking point.

THis. I wonder if this is the way the dev tries to show that he more fucked/broken then Lacey is. No self-respecting man would put up with this shit. None. Not untless being lied to and trampled all over is their kink.

ut how did Christine have the frames ready on MC PC? She wanted to check the video on his phone first, since MC deleted it they moved on his PC.

The convo refers specifially to a deepfake so I don't know, I think we are digging in the wrong direction.

Correct. She downloads it from the server. She did not later it (at that point).

I also have saves like that

Also. I have a save with none of the girls who have betrayed us and I refuse as much interraction with Lacey as possible.

 

[Diosvincenccio]

If Monster is Christine, the Barty video may be real, and Christine just subbed in some frames of the blonde to deflect for who knows what reason. The convo at the end of Act II references the blonde, but doesn't clarify her actual role in the video. And monster did say worse things are on the way.

I have one save where MC turns down everyone he can and maximizes the reduction in MC love points. That's resulted in Lacey and Christine both being present with sad faces in the interludes. Interesting to see where that goes.

Christine fits the technical side if the monster, but i doubt its her.

She knows the name of the other girls, and dosent have a motivation for protecting Lacey if the video were real. She is not exactly in the Lacey fanclub. She wouldnt hide something as bad as what Lacey does in the video from MC.

For the video to be real 2 things should change, one as Christine an MC comments, the audio-movement of the mouths arent in sync, that would need an explanation. Second, we know the 3 times Lacey relapsed, for the video to be real, the Barty interrogation and the sex with him+Reggie should have to become one single occasion, unless lacey is lying about what she remembers doing with Barty, if she meet on more occasions with him or the amount of relapses.