You doomed.
Oh yeah thats not really bad I don’t see what the controversy is for sure it can be interpreted as rape but I just thought it was her being nervous and not wanting to mess up.
Then you know I thought you take what you payed for was you showing her what to do and where to put her hands. Or was it meant as rape? Either way I think it was done as would have happened back in that time period.
@Vendetta so are you back to working on this again (RL sorted out)?
No hurry just a wonderin
***MAZE SPOILER***
@Bikkje Two tips should suffice: proceed straight on at the first junction you come to where this option is available, and when you reach the crossroads turn in the same direction (left or right) as you chose at the very beginning . . . Tip #2 only works if you follow Tip #1! Note that neither tip applies to the Paroled Convict background but should help with all the others.
If all else fails, pull out a paper & pencil and draw the thing as you go, to avoid backtracking–bearing in mind that the directions given are always from your current perspective. For example, if you turn right at a T-junction and it comes to a dead end, when you get back to that junction your options will now be turn left or proceed straight on. If you turn left there, you’d be backtracking the way you came–the very thing to avoid due to the gunmen following you! Draw the thing as you go (on paper or in your mind) and you’ll see what I mean.
@Syndicate Opinions on the subject differ. I personally (from a purely reader’s perspective) would indeed view it as rape. Regardless of the circumstances, one party was clearly unwilling. As a reader I would not therefore choose that option.
My dilemma as the author (taking a completely neutral stance) is whether or not that particular “choice” should even be made available. The situation seemed to suggest that it should, but as @Havenstone correctly pointed out, there are other situations where I, as the author, opted not to remain entirely ‘neutral’ in the choices I made available . . . I’m still wrestling with this one, tbh.
@Raven I’ve never actually stopped; I just had less time to devote to it over the past 5-6 weeks than I had available earlier in the year! Instead, it would be more accurate to say that I have lots more free time coming up once again in the near future, and intend to make the most of it. 
(@Vendetta – I’m not trying to turn your thread into a rape debate. If someone makes a point that I’ve already addressed in something I said earlier, I’ll leave it alone).
@Syndicate, you read Carina as “nervous – not wanting to mess up.” And yes, both of those things are there in the description. But what’s also there is that she’s terrified, that she clearly does not want to have to sell sex, but has to do so to support her family. Read it again – does this really sound like someone who wants the customer to show her “where to put her hands”?
Some people might argue that it’s still consensual sex because she didn’t say no or fight back, etc. But of course she’s not going to do that. She can’t outright say, “No,” because if she does that, her family starves. She can not make any choice that ends with her losing her new “job”. What the character does do is signal to you, in every way she can, that she does not want to have sex with you – through her terror, through her explanation of the circumstances that put the two of you into that room together.
Vendetta gives you the choice to do the right thing (even the heroic thing) in that context. He also gives the choice to do the wrong thing. I’ve written above on why I think some wrong things should only be written about sensitively, and why ChoiceScript stories are a poor medium for writing sensitively about the wrong of rape.
That’s true no matter what “time period” the story is set in – and of course, nothing in the bathhouse episode is unique to 1920s gangland. You could find men making that same choice in any city in the world today.
Why do you keep insisting that she had no choice? She chose to become a prostitute. Most likely because she thought it would be easier than any other profession she might have chosen instead. No one put a gun to her head or the head of anyone she cared about and told her to become a prostitute instead of doing something else for the money she needed. She chose to become a prostitute.
( @Havenstone I have absolutely no problem with the subject being discussed, either here or elsewhere. A line needs to be drawn somewhere and healthy debate & feedback in general helps me to determine where that line should be so far as my own game is concerned. All I would ask of anyone joining the debate is, please, keep it civil. I would hate for the thread to be closed yet again! Many thanks.)
@Shoelip, we’re not given full information about the character, but based on what we’re given, I think it’s a pretty un-empathetic stretch to say she chose it “because she thought it would be easier than any other profession she might have chosen instead.” It’s not impossible to read the character that way, I’ll grant you. We aren’t given details on just how destitute her family is – how many days Carina had to bring in some money before they starved, sickened, got evicted, or whatever.
But does someone who is obviously (a) terrified and (b) miserable to be where she is – so much so that she emotionally melts down with her first customer before she can bring herself to go through with it – seem to you like someone who would have chosen to become a prostitute other than as the very last resort? You can read that scene without concluding that if Carina could have done anything else for the money she needed, she would be out there doing it?
Sorry again for restarting this
I’m sorry but I just don’t accept that prostitution was her only choice and can’t help but think that the only reason you do is because of her sex, even if you don’t realize it yourself.
Well I thought I would just mention that she does jump at the opportunity to work at the bar, even if she earns like 10 bucks every week.
@Shoelip, just so I understand where you’re coming from: do you think prostitution is ever someone’s only choice? (Not counting situations of actual physical coercion, where I think we would clearly agree). Because I can’t help but think that you’ve got some general assumptions about prostitutes that are keeping you from seeing what’s going on with this particular character.
I’m always open to people telling me I’ve got blinkers on. But when I try: “Steve is obviously extremely nervous, trembling with anxiety… he is neither experienced nor comfortable with the situation. Terrified, would probably be a more accurate description… he breaks down in tears and admits that this is his first day, and you, his first customer. He needs the money to take care of his little brother, he explains, as his father broke his leg and cannot work. Sobbing, he begs you not to complain to the boss.” …I’ve got the same reaction, and I’m pretty sure I’d have had that even if I’d read Steve’s story before Carina’s.
Ok, maybe it isn’t sexism, and I’ve really just done a terrible job explaining what I mean. In that situation Steve has already chosen to be a prostitute. I was talking about choosing to be a prostitute. Not changing your mind after the fact.
Sure. And I’m trying to figure out just how much we really disagree about “choosing to be a prostitute.”
Step away from the Carina story for a sec. Imagine that someone (either sex) has a diabetic family member who will worsen and eventually die without regular medication. Our protagonist has hunted desperately to find work, even shitty work, and failed – or maybe they’re in a shitty job, but it doesn’t bring in enough money for both food and medicine. After all this job hunting, they’re now past the point where they can keep pounding the pavement; if they don’t have the money tomorrow, they get to choose between no food and no medicine. There is, however, always work available at the brothel down the street.
Do you think that choice is meaningfully different from a gun-to-the-head choice?
Yes. In the gun to the head choice the choices are death or prostitution. In your example the choices are prostitution or anything else you can think of to acquire food and medicine.
In my example, the person is already trying everything s/he can think of to make money. But today s/he’s out of new ideas, s/he’s out of money… and tomorrow, s/he gets to either cut food or medication.
So what exactly is the difference between this person and the protagonist of the game?
“Yes. In the gun to the head choice the choices are death or prostitution. In your example the choices are prostitution or anything else you can think of to acquire food and medicine.”
Here, the choices are death of a family member (and possibly her/him) or prostitution.