VN Ren'Py Love & Jealousy [Act 3] [Professor Amethyst Games]

[Fitharia]

MC is the only person that knows, not even Lacey knows.

I am not discounting what happened to her but it does not justify how she acted nor how she is acting.
Shall we remind ourselves ONCE AGAIN that Mia was happy that Lacey got SA?
Lets also remind ourselves that she tried to help her own trauma under the disguise of helping Lacey?
And last but not least, she doesn't know anything about Lacey's childhood and doesn't even know what kind of person Lacey is.
Do you want to know why? Because she didn't care enough to ask.

But wait there is MORE! She admits she understood at some point that she was dealing with a broken girl, do you think that stopped her? Nah she upped the ante! When Lacey tried to clean herself up what did she do? Throw her back into it to the point where she almost died. I mean it was the last hurrah, right? Too bad Lacey had nothing to celebrate about, but who cares.
It was such a good plan, that she tried it twice now.

I cannot think of a single redeeming quality, I honestly can't, nothing she has done during the story has a positive impact.
Zero, zilch, nil.

Well I can't say i don't agree with you, because it was bad what Mia did, but Mia isn't exactly a bad girl, she is just broken like Lacey, and i'm sure the other girls have some bad secret too, sometimes it doesn't show when people had a bad past, but it all depend if they delt with it, did get helped with making amends with their bad past and learned to live again a new life. Sadly Mia didn't get help, she just stayed stuck in her bad past, hence she can't have sex like normal girls would.

 

[Dragonlight]

Not to be that guy, but I did specifically state in my comment that I thought it was possible that Lacey had discovered it earlier. I mentioned the dry heaving with Christine/MC in it because that could explain her dry heaving during the phone call.

I'm not saying that she did discover the reset on that day, just that it's still possible she did.

However, I will die on the hill that she wasn't under the full influence of ketamine during the call. The dry heaving/throwing up may not have been due to withdrawals (as mentioned with how characters throw up a lot when they are disgusted with themselves). The reason I will die on the hill is that we say how loopy and completely unaware she was the 2 times that MC saw her on ketamine. The phone call didn't resemble that at all

I apologize if I misunderstood you, was pretty late in the evening for me so I might have missed your point.
Maybe its possible that she did (doesn`t seem likely to me). I will wait for the author to revisit those events in the future and if he will I`d like to see how he will explain all inconsistencies.

 

[Badboll]

MC is the only person that knows, not even Lacey knows.

I am not discounting what happened to her but it does not justify how she acted nor how she is acting.
Shall we remind ourselves ONCE AGAIN that Mia was happy that Lacey got SA?
Lets also remind ourselves that she tried to help her own trauma under the disguise of helping Lacey?
And last but not least, she doesn't know anything about Lacey's childhood and doesn't even know what kind of person Lacey is.
Do you want to know why? Because she didn't care enough to ask.

But wait there is MORE! She admits she understood at some point that she was dealing with a broken girl, do you think that stopped her? Nah she upped the ante! When Lacey tried to clean herself up what did she do? Throw her back into it to the point where she almost died. I mean it was the last hurrah, right? Too bad Lacey had nothing to celebrate about, but who cares.
It was such a good plan, that she tried it twice now.

I cannot think of a single redeeming quality, I honestly can't, nothing she has done during the story has a positive impact.
Zero, zilch, nil.

Yeah I know it doesn't excuse anything she did, but it makes what she did somewhat understandable.
Like you understand the why, but it doesn't make it better or less excusable.
She thinks doing all she did to Lacey was going to make herself feel better, but it never does or if it does it's temporary and she's chasing it like the next high.
Her trauma is not fixed by more horrible stuff, it's fixed by love. Quite literally the opposite of what Mia did.

Obviously the dev has a trauma fetish everyone has trauma and we need to pick at it as much as we can. Misery is a terrible companion.
Obviously, Lacey would have most likely had a better life if Mia wasn't in the picture. That goes without saying. You don't need enemies with a Mia in your life. But everyone is an enemy in this game so it's a multiplier.
I fully agree with you that we need a MIA pov from the second she started college till current times.
Would be cool, probably never gonna happen though but who knows.

 

[Dragonlight]

Well I can't say i don't agree with you, because it was bad what Mia did, but Mia isn't exactly a bad girl, she is just broken like Lacey, and i'm sure the other girls have some bad secret too, sometimes it doesn't show when people had a bad past, but it all depend if they delt with it, did get helped with making amends with their bad past and learned to live again a new life. Sadly Mia didn't get help, she just stayed stuck in her bad past, hence she can't have sex like normal girls would.

Mia is a walking "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" proverb. I know DeviantFun will say that her intentions were not good and selfish, but I think she really tried to help. She just didn`t understand how, due to her own trauma clouding her judgment. Still there should be some kind of reckoning for her, the fact that she walking around like she is holier than thou is mind boggling.

 

[Badboll]

Mia is a walking "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" proverb. I know DeviantFun will say that her intentions were not good and selfish, but I think she really tried to help. She just didn`t understand how, due to her own trauma clouding her judgment. Still there should be some kind of reckoning for her, the fact that she walking around like she is holier than thou is mind boggling.

Lacey is also walking that path with the MC. But it's always the wrong path to walk on.
It's never about good intentions really, it's always about selfish reasons and about themselves.
"i had good intentions" but not considering the other persons feelings or how it will affect them isn't good intentions.
Mia never considered how what she did would hurt Lacey, Just as Lacey never considered how what she was doing was going to hurt the MC
Both of them are incredibly selfish using good intentions as the excuse.
The MC also still havn't realized that protecting Lacey from the world isn't enough, the one he needs to protect her from is Mia and herself.

 

[AL.d]

She hated MC and Lacey sided with her, realizing too late that it was the case.

Think about this though. With the fucked up stuff they were doing in college, they were both shitting on MC's feelings in the most cruel way. But one of the two was shitting on a dude she had never met and probably never would. The other was doing prom night RPs, making a mockery out of a person who was her supposed soulmate and the reason she made it to adulthood. She definitely knew what ideas like that were about, can't possibly miss that. Out of these two, who would you say is the most despicable person?

On the relapse thing, the way this whole thing went, makes me think there is strong possibility Mia is the monster. Either because she is somehow coerced by the shadowy folks or because of her own fucked love-hate relationship she has with them.

If you think about it, that was the dumbest plan one could ever conceive. Barely even worthy of being called that. During her meeting with MC with the bag, it was like she wanted to get caught. Practically pointing at it and leaving him alone to do whatever he wanted. But of course MC proves once again his level of retardation, by doing absolutely nothing.

Then when she finally meets Lacey, she does the whole thing in way that was impossible to succeed. She practically tells her straight up "hey I want you to relapse, here is a bag of drugs, do it so I can become your man's main bitch". That was never going to work. And Mia is the person who knows adult Lacey better than anyone. She definitely had the blueprint to make that work if she really wanted to. Girls night out, get her all boozed up, meet some horny dudes, get Lacey's validation loop going, take out the drug when the vibes are right. Bam, wifey would be sucking cocks in the toilet in no time.

Of course that's speculation and I might be way off. But the whole relapse plan was very weird.

 

[Dragonlight]

"i had good intentions" but not considering the other persons feelings or how it will affect them isn't good intentions.
Mia never considered how what she did would hurt Lacey, Just as Lacey never considered how what she was doing was going to hurt the MC

That is literally what that proverb is about. Before trying to help understand the situation and how your actions can affect others.

 

[CrysusPariah2]

Think about this though. With the fucked up stuff they were doing in college, they were both shitting on MC's feelings in the most cruel way. But one of the two was shitting on a dude she had never met and probably never would. The other was doing prom night RPs, making a mockery out of a person who was her supposed soulmate and the reason she made it to adulthood. She definitely knew what ideas like that were about, can't possibly miss that. Out of these two, who would you say is the most despicable person?

On the relapse thing, the way this whole thing went, makes me think there is strong possibility Mia is the monster. Either because she is somehow coerced by the shadowy folks or because of her own fucked love-hate relationship she has with them.

If you think about it, that was the dumbest plan one could ever conceive. Barely even worthy of being called that. During her meeting with MC with the bag, it was like she wanted to get caught. Practically pointing at it and leaving him alone to do whatever he wanted. But of course MC proves once again his level of retardation, by doing absolutely nothing.

Then when she finally meets Lacey, she does the whole thing in way that was impossible to succeed. She practically tells her straight up "hey I want you to relapse, here is a bag of drugs, do it so I can become your man's main bitch". That was never going to work. And Mia is the person who knows adult Lacey better than anyone. She definitely had the blueprint to make that work if she really wanted to. Girls night out, get her all boozed up, meet some horny dudes, get Lacey's validation loop going, take out the drug when the vibes are right. Bam, wifey would be sucking cocks in the toilet in no time.

Of course that's speculation and I might be way off. But the whole relapse plan was very weird.

I was thinking something similar with Mia being the Monster, and when MC doesn’t interfere, she considers it some twisted form of consent to her plan

 

[AL.d]

I was thinking something similar with Mia being the Monster, and when MC doesn’t interfere, she considers it some twisted form of consent to her plan

Monster's frustration with him makes sense too. It was like you absolute dumbass, what more do you want? It was right there, handed to you on a plate!

 

[DeviantFun]

Well I can't say i don't agree with you, because it was bad what Mia did, but Mia isn't exactly a bad girl, she is just broken like Lacey, and i'm sure the other girls have some bad secret too, sometimes it doesn't show when people had a bad past, but it all depend if they delt with it, did get helped with making amends with their bad past and learned to live again a new life. Sadly Mia didn't get help, she just stayed stuck in her bad past, hence she can't have sex like normal girls would.

Neither could Lacey.

Mia is not broken, I would argue she is one of the more put together of the cast, her hangup is literally "being scared of penises".
She found a girll with a similar problem and opportunistically used her to do what she couldn't do herself.
Why didn't she get blackout drunk and be used at a party?
Why use someone else, without asking if that is what they wanted, or asking youself if that was a good idea?

Oh hey this girl has a hangup about sex just like me! let's throw her into some gangbangs!

This cannot be justified by "being broken".

Yeah I know it doesn't excuse anything she did, but it makes what she did somewhat understandable.
Like you understand the why, but it doesn't make it better or less excusable.
She thinks doing all she did to Lacey was going to make herself feel better, but it never does or if it does it's temporary and she's chasing it like the next high.
Her trauma is not fixed by more horrible stuff, it's fixed by love. Quite literally the opposite of what Mia did.

Obviously the dev has a trauma fetish everyone has trauma and we need to pick at it as much as we can. Misery is a terrible companion.
Obviously, Lacey would have most likely had a better life if Mia wasn't in the picture. That goes without saying. You don't need enemies with a Mia in your life. But everyone is an enemy in this game so it's a multiplier.
I fully agree with you that we need a MIA pov from the second she started college till current times.
Would be cool, probably never gonna happen though but who knows.

I do not understand the why, quite literally everything she does goes against any reasonable why.

Mia is a walking "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" proverb. I know DeviantFun will say that her intentions were not good and selfish, but I think she really tried to help. She just didn`t understand how, due to her own trauma clouding her judgment. Still there should be some kind of reckoning for her, the fact that she walking around like she is holier than thou is mind boggling.

I'll say what I said in the above response, both the pimp and Lacey have hangups about sex.

Pimp decides that she will use Lacey to get over her own hangup, forcing a broken girl to go down the rabbit hole.
Gangbangs are not a therapy, getting slapped and having your hair pulled is not a therapy.
The Pimp kept on upping the ante, not for Lacey but for herself, it is literally stated in the game.
It became a game for her.
If she had such good intentions, why didn't she do the same for herself or even better by herself?

The truth here is, no matter how we spin it, that she acted horribly without caring about Lacey and her intentions to help are bullshit.
Because if they aren't, then the Author made a big mistake in how he is writing the events.

Think about this though. With the fucked up stuff they were doing in college, they were both shitting on MC's feelings in the most cruel way. But one of the two was shitting on a dude she had never met and probably never would. The other was doing prom night RPs, making a mockery out of a person who was her supposed soulmate and the reason she made it to adulthood. She definitely knew what ideas like that were about, can't possibly miss that. Out of these two, who would you say is the most despicable person?

On the relapse thing, the way this whole thing went, makes me think there is strong possibility Mia is the monster. Either because she is somehow coerced by the shadowy folks or because of her own fucked love-hate relationship she has with them.

If you think about it, that was the dumbest plan one could ever conceive. Barely even worthy of being called that. During her meeting with MC with the bag, it was like she wanted to get caught. Practically pointing at it and leaving him alone to do whatever he wanted. But of course MC proves once again his level of retardation, by doing absolutely nothing.

Then when she finally meets Lacey, she does the whole thing in way that was impossible to succeed. She practically tells her straight up "hey I want you to relapse, here is a bag of drugs, do it so I can become your man's main bitch". That was never going to work. And Mia is the person who knows adult Lacey better than anyone. She definitely had the blueprint to make that work if she really wanted to. Girls night out, get her all boozed up, meet some horny dudes, get Lacey's validation loop going, take out the drug when the vibes are right. Bam, wifey would be sucking cocks in the toilet in no time.

Of course that's speculation and I might be way off. But the whole relapse plan was very weird.

I agree, I never discounted Lacey behaviour towards MC, I made a post previously about how the thing you mentioned was disgust inducing.
Like literally shows how llittle Lacey cared about MC, no matter how much she repeats the opposite.

What I am referring to here is the behaviour of Pimp towards Lacey.

The Pimp plans are always stupid, I think she is either stunted or challenged.
I think she believed in her plan, like she believed in her other plans.

They backfire because she is dumb as a bag of rocks.

 

[Dragonlight]

I'll say what I said in the above response, both the pimp and Lacey have hangups about sex.

Pimp decides that she will use Lacey to get over her own hangup, forcing a broken girl to go down the rabbit hole.
Gangbangs are not a therapy, getting slapped and having your hair pulled is not a therapy.
The Pimp kept on upping the ante, not for Lacey but for herself, it is literally stated in the game.
It became a game for her.
If she had such good intentions, why didn't she do the same for herself or even better by herself?

The truth here is, no matter how we spin it, that she acted horribly without caring about Lacey and her intentions to help are bullshit.
Because if they aren't, then the Author made a big mistake in how he is writing the events.

Hey, never claimed her to be certified therapist.

 

[Badboll]

I do not understand the why, quite literally everything she does goes against any reasonable why.

You are not supposed to understand the why. That's the point. What happened to her in the past is the why, it's not rooted in something that makes sense.

 

[DeviantFun]

You are not supposed to understand the why. That's the point. What happened to her in the past is the why, it's not rooted in something that makes sense.

The why is because she wanted to use Lacey to get over her own trauma.

When seeing her having normal sex didn't work she upped the ante, when that didn't work she pushed for more.
Lacey already has sex, she already managed to go through the basic barrier, Pimp only knew that Lacey, like herself, couldn't have sex.
But she didn't stop because it had become a game now, a game to ruin the life of your friend, not only MC relationship wise, Lacey has porn of her on the net, it could affect her work and all other aspects of her life.
Because she was playing a game with Lacey's life, so she could try and get over her own hangups.

The background of the why is worse than you think and the fact that we are saying that it is understandable baffles me.
It is disgusting.

 

[CrysusPariah2]

I just thought of another way for Lacey to mess up in the future

After all those pics the pimp took that left MC traumatized, Lacey might try reclaiming this as well at some point, by taking pictures that were just meant for MC.

But does so, by going to a professional photographer, who may or may not push the boundaries of what is considered professional conduct.
Wouldn’t even need to go overboard, MC would be triggered by Lacey just allowing someone to do a risqué photoshoot

 

[winterwolf200]

So I got bored and did not wait a full week. Still...
I love the ups and downs of the story. The ups when the MC gets clear headed and his understanding of actions, motivations and relationships grows. It's clearly meant to be cathartic. He still sucks at taking action though, and prefers communication to something like the proper application of violence. And the downs...Well. We all know the downs.
Though what really irks me is that there are still no real consequences to Lacey's lies, even when some truths dawn on the MC.
I mean, I understand that there would only be ONE consequence, and the MC has taken that off the table because he is who he is, but it's still irksome.
There are a couple of points that I feel I need to submit for verification.
1.Some of you say she might hate the MC for not doing more to save her. That may be true. We don't yet know what happened with her parents. But we know that throughout the 13 years Lacey went back "home". The MC had never once considered calling the police or telling his own parents, teachers, no one. Did no other adults notice the classic signs of an abused child ?
Did the MC's parents no know of Lacey existence?
2. I'm confused as to the identity of the "goblin shark". I though she meant Isaac because of the circumstances that prompted that story time. But the way she talks about "it" seems closer to Mia. Or it might be someone still hidden from us? An ACTUAL pimp??
3. How did Barty know about Lacey's plan to have the MC sleep with other women, and such thorough information as to come up with that whole scenario? How did he know WHAT "prompts" to use when she was drugged out of her mind, in order to get such a detailed picture of what Lacey is planning, what her fixations are and what triggers the MC ? Only Mia and Anna have access to most of that information...They act shocked about "the plan" when they see the clip, but they clearly have something similar in mind themselves - Mia's plan, allegedly, that Anna accepts, is to bring Lacey down to their level, "outside looking in", so they can share the MC.
4. And this one seems important. Her excuse for dancing with Will is shady. She says she's texted Mia by mistake, but is THAT really how Mia talks to her?? Mia certainly doesn't bring it up.
5. I suspect Veronica was "on call" so she can record the MC's reaction. Possibly because Barty's security cameras don't pick up sound and what he'd be yelling was all she was instructed to pick up. She was neglectful of her state of undress precisely Swimsuit because she wasn't in an actual company meeting. Maybe it was her handler.
6. Did Isaac say, repeatedly that the wig he makes his Lacey substitutes wear is ...blonde??
7. Did Isaac's blackmailer demand money? I don't believe it's mentioned. Could be dirt on Lacey. Could be compliance with the Special K girls plan. Either way, her identity is probably important.

 

[anongamer1983]

I don't know about you all, but I hope one of the future Acts (one of the last?) will be like Lacey's therapy appointments where she recounts her life from her POV. Like, going into every single thing and her personal thoughts on the things she did (even if it's something she's already said, that way we know it's not a lie from her)

Like, I especially want to know what exactly went through her mind during the sexual encounters and while she cried while listening to the happy birthday songs (or if that was the truth at all)

I think it'd be a very painful Act, so I think it should happen towards the end after she through most of her character development. Maybe each Act leading up to it has its own appointment(s) so that we can relate the things/topics she discussed in the appointment with her growth in the individual act. Then, at the end of the Act, it could be Lacey finally feeling like she's worth more than her parents made her feel, not because of MC's jealousy or whatever, but because she sees herself as a person

 

[anongamer1983]

So I got bored and did not wait a full week. Still...
I love the ups and downs of the story. The ups when the MC gets clear headed and his understanding of actions, motivations and relationships grows. It's clearly meant to be cathartic. He still sucks at taking action though, and prefers communication to something like the proper application of violence. And the downs...Well. We all know the downs.
Though what really irks me is that there are still no real consequences to Lacey's lies, even when some truths dawn on the MC.
I mean, I understand that there would only be ONE consequence, and the MC has taken that off the table because he is who he is, but it's still irksome.
There are a couple of points that I feel I need to submit for verification.
1.Some of you say she might hate the MC for not doing more to save her. That may be true. We don't yet know what happened with her parents. But we know that throughout the 13 years Lacey went back "home". The MC had never once considered calling the police or telling his own parents, teachers, no one. Did no other adults notice the classic signs of an abused child ?
Did the MC's parents no know of Lacey existence?
2. I'm confused as to the identity of the "goblin shark". I though she meant Isaac because of the circumstances that prompted that story time. But the way she talks about "it" seems closer to Mia. Or it might be someone still hidden from us? An ACTUAL pimp??
3. How did Barty know about Lacey's plan to have the MC sleep with other women, and such thorough information as to come up with that whole scenario? How did he know WHAT "prompts" to use when she was drugged out of her mind, in order to get such a detailed picture of what Lacey is planning, what her fixations are and what triggers the MC ? Only Mia and Anna have access to most of that information...They act shocked about "the plan" when they see the clip, but they clearly have something similar in mind themselves - Mia's plan, allegedly, that Anna accepts, is to bring Lacey down to their level, "outside looking in", so they can share the MC.
4. And this one seems important. Her excuse for dancing with Will is shady. She says she's texted Mia by mistake, but is THAT really how Mia talks to her?? Mia certainly doesn't bring it up.
5. I suspect Veronica was "on call" so she can record the MC's reaction. Possibly because Barty's security cameras don't pick up sound and what he'd be yelling was all she was instructed to pick up. She was neglectful of her state of undress precisely Swimsuit because she wasn't in an actual company meeting. Maybe it was her handler.
6. Did Isaac say, repeatedly that the wig he makes his Lacey substitutes wear is ...blonde??
7. Did Isaac's blackmailer demand money? I don't believe it's mentioned. Could be dirt on Lacey. Could be compliance with the Special K girls plan.

A few things about the points

2.) She does say *he* when talking about the goblin shark. I'm pretty convinced she's talking about Isaac because she was tempted to leave with him due to what we know of the story and how she mentions that she was convinced that the goblin shark was all she deserved, that the whale shark was long gone.

3.) Lacey doesn't remember the questions, but she does remember him asking a lot of questions for a long time, and she specifically mentions that the questions got vulgar. A simple "What are your thoughts about MC? Do you have any longterm plans with him? What are your thoughts about MC being friendly with your friends?" could prompt Lacey to talk about her plan while high on Ketamine.

4.) I made a post earlier about how I'm convinced that Mia did this on purpose. We know Mia wanted to make Lacey on the outside looking in by trying to get her back on Ketamine. I think this would an attempt as well. If you look at the words of the texts themselves, it seems like Mia would know that Lacey thought she was talking to MC. I could be wrong, but until proven wrong, I'm convinced Mia did this intentionally to see if Lacey would fuck up

6.) He never says it's blonde as far as I know. He just says it's a Lacey wig and that he makes them say yes when he asks them to marry him as part of roleplay. However, several times there is mentioned to be "a new blonde intern" at where Will, Lacey, Mia, and Anna work

7.) I don't think it's stated what she wanted. However, I do think it's linked. It's possible it was just there to give MC reason to talk to Isaac out of Empathy, but we are told that Isaac was messaged to go to Lacey's house. So whatever the nefarious plans are, it wouldn't surprise me if they still see Isaac as a piece on the board that they want to control

 

[CrysusPariah2]

I don't know about you all, but I hope one of the future Acts (one of the last?) will be like Lacey's therapy appointments where she recounts her life from her POV. Like, going into every single thing and her personal thoughts on the things she did (even if it's something she's already said, that way we know it's not a lie from her)

Like, I especially want to know what exactly went through her mind during the sexual encounters and while she cried while listening to the happy birthday songs (or if that was the truth at all)

I think it'd be a very painful Act, so I think it should happen towards the end after she through most of her character development. Maybe each Act leading up to it has its own appointment(s) so that we can relate the things/topics she discussed in the appointment with her growth in the individual act. Then, at the end of the Act, it could be Lacey finally feeling like she's worth more than her parents made her feel, not because of MC's jealousy or whatever, but because she sees herself as a person

That sounds like a fantastic and likely heart wrenching epilogue idea. Already exited just thinking of it.
Varied dialogue depending on good or bad ending etc…

 

[Maviarab]

communicate openly

Ahhh hahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Well I can't say i don't agree with you, because it was bad what Mia did, but Mia isn't exactly a bad girl, she is just broken like Lacey, and i'm sure the other girls have some bad secret too, sometimes it doesn't show when people had a bad past, but it all depend if they delt with it, did get helped with making amends with their bad past and learned to live again a new life. Sadly Mia didn't get help, she just stayed stuck in her bad past, hence she can't have sex like normal girls would.

Please...stop.

 

[48914891]

The thing with Mia(pimp) is that she's also broken because of what happened to her. First she got raped, then when she came home her brother did it to her as well. Someone who was supposed to be family after she already had something horrible happen to her. That's way worse than just being raped by some random guy.
I don't remember if anyone else knows what happened to her or if she just told the MC, maybe she's just lying to make him feel sorry for her. Maybe she's the monster(she definitely is a monster though) and wanted him to stop her, unlikely but it's the devs story as you said, what he unltimetely decides to do and what he's decided to do might not actually make sense.

MC is the only one who knows