Starter Marriage, Phase 4

[jimbill62]

The thing that is getting me the most is what triggers the ring to be in the bathroom. If anyone figures that out it would be very helpful.

[Bob42]

Yes, you can post them here. If you find things out during normal gameplay, you don't have to mark them as spoilers.

On a route int phase 4 where the MC meets Renee in the coffee shop and hypnotizes her, he has the option to take her to the restroom and take pictures.  After that when texting with Allison, she asks for pictures and MC says he doesn't have any.  At this point MC and Allison are being pretty open about everything that is going on and there's no reason to hide that there are fun pictures.

[jwik01]

I wish I'd kept better notes in, jeez. 2022?

[djv]

The Lorelei-Ring sequence is the darkest part of the multipath so far...

[Daphne]

The Lorelei-Ring sequence is the darkest part of the multipath so far...

It gets darker.

[Haight]

The Lorelei-Ring sequence is the darkest part of the multipath so far...

It gets darker.

You're kind of implying that Annie has some dark shit going on too...

[ktc1221]

The Lorelei-Ring sequence is the darkest part of the multipath so far...

This lead me down a rabbit hole. It seems clear that Dante, at a minimum, is responsible for some external mc occurring. Whether you lie to Allison or not at the start, she still wants to go with Dante or at expresses interest in him. Dante and Renee's house is also where you find Lorelei's ring, which seems to be invaluable to her ability to stave off any MC attempts. The fact she took it off while at their place suggests outside influence, which it's reasonable to conclude Dante's involvement with our current information. Perhaps im just stating the obvious here, but it has been fun to try and dissect the story from a readers pov. There is a fun gameing aspect because you can always restart and try new options. It's thanks to this that I found both Renee's Cafe scene and Lorelei's ringless mind control sequence which as far as i have tested seem to be mutually exclusive in that you can do one or the other. There is likely even more to discover if I was creative enough or wanted to be meaner throughout.

Lorelei's scene did feel particulalrly dark, given the circumstances. I understand that Mind Control is by definition a gray area morally but you can get up to some pretty heinous things this go around. Its just in stark contrast to the sex you can have with her having given the ring back, it is basically juat as raunchy except she's willingly doing it rsther than hypnotically so.The exception being of course the dom/sub degrees I suppose. Perhaps even that scene is just some latent programming we are yer unaware of.

[jwik01]

The Lorelei-Ring sequence is the darkest part of the multipath so far...

It gets darker.

Gets as in there's more brutal MC already in the extant content, or gets as in there will be still more brutal MC to come in 2027-or-whenever?  Annie's last texts imply that her ex gave her scars or facial tattoos or plastic surgery to make her resemble/match another woman, which is certainly a level of physical control and dehumanization that feels a bit beyond what's been seen so far, but that's yet to be implemented.

My attempts to piece things together, and I'm remembering now that this was an issue for me with the last release as well, is that information you get in one playthrough is not necessarily true in other playthroughs. Do you and Emma have a bit of sordid history in playthroughs where that doesn't come up? Does Renee always have the same job? Is Dante's whole deal the same on all paths through the game or is it adjusted as needed to complement you and your mind-controlling (or lack thereof)?

[Daphne]

Gets as in there's more brutal MC already in the extant content, or gets as in there will be still more brutal MC to come in 2027-or-whenever?

In phase 4, although it's within what I'd call the general MCC limits (such as they are).

My attempts to piece things together, and I'm remembering now that this was an issue for me with the last release as well, is that information you get in one playthrough is not necessarily true in other playthroughs.

This is correct. Some things are constant: The protagonist and Annie were always married and she left him, Allison is the protagonist's girlfriend, Renée and Dante are a couple, Renée had her boobs done recently, Emma is the protagonist's coworker, Lorelei and the protagonist have a sexual history. I would say that (in general, this is not absolute) the facts do not change nearly as much as the reasons and motivations. (One can split hairs over what is a fact and what is a reason or motivation, but that way madness lies.)

[Daphne]

An example that may or may not actually be true (I'm not being coy, I don't remember and haven't gone through the code to find out), it may be a constant that the protagonist and Emma made out at some point, but the reasons for it and how the event is remembered by either party can change. And some facts are subject to change playthrough to playthrough.

And it bears repeating that Starter Marriage is 100% deterministic (make what philosophical hay of it that you will :-) ). The same choices in the same order always produce the same result. The random bits that there are do not affect any outcomes.

[hereno]

Lorelei's scene did feel particulalrly dark

I'm going to bite: I don't really get why her sequence is "darker" than, say, what you're doing to Allison? I suppose it depends on the run. But I mean... this is a fetish about non-consensually mind controlling people into being slaves. It's all dark. (I like the dark stuff.)

[jwik01]

Lorelei's scene did feel particulalrly dark

I'm going to bite: I don't really get why her sequence is "darker" than, say, what you're doing to Allison? I suppose it depends on the run. But I mean... this is a fetish about non-consensually mind controlling people into being slaves. It's all dark. (I like the dark stuff.)

I guess I'd say there's a line between "please don't mind control me I don't want to be mind controlled I specifically don't want to feel powerless in that specific way" and "gee whillickers I sure hope nobody hypnotizes my sweet soft pliable mind while I lay it out on this windowsill to cool *innocent whistling*"  Although that's me being a little silly. It's true that Allison is not giving fully informed consent, but enslaving Lorelei (or trying to) seems to be crossing a boundary she's staked out as one she doesn't want crossed.

[hereno]

"gee whillickers I sure hope nobody hypnotizes my sweet soft pliable mind while I lay it out on this windowsill to cool *innocent whistling*"

I guess I don't think any character (in SM or, really, MCC) is doing this. You don't have to say "Don't do this to me": that's assumed. So any use of MC is dark in my mind.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, I absolutely loved Lorelei's stuff in this chapter.

[Daphne]

One of the reasons I love this kind of multipath story is that you get to provide a wide range of MC "flavors" in a way that no other medium can really do. It probably never gets to quite the light playfulness of EU, but otherwise, I think there's a pretty good selection on offer.

[jwik01]

"gee whillickers I sure hope nobody hypnotizes my sweet soft pliable mind while I lay it out on this windowsill to cool *innocent whistling*"

I guess I don't think any character (in SM or, really, MCC) is doing this. You don't have to say "Don't do this to me": that's assumed. So any use of MC is dark in my mind.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, I absolutely loved Lorelei's stuff in this chapter.

I wouldn't say that sort of eagerness is never present in MCC material though it definitely isn't the default and I don't disagree that nobody in Starter Marriage is in such a mode, just that there's a spectrum of how brutal the MC can be. But yes, I agree re Lorelei.