Finally got around to reading this, and what a read. What a damn read.
Spoilers incoming----------
Even the things I initially disliked about the prose (like Stephanie's pompous way of speaking and Hellen's internet-speak) only made the story better once the reveal happens. I think it's easier for me to feel for Stephanie because we get access to her inner world, and we can guess the amount of religious guilt and self-loathing she's going through from the bits and pieces beyond the facade. But the circumstances of her relationship with Chrys are way worse than Hellen's.
Hellen was a kid. A confused teenager. One who did endless harm, yes, but a confused teen nonetheless. Something I've always thought about a lot is when do we, as adults, start going from confused kids trying our best to navigate tough changes to people who are completely responsible for the harm we inflict upon those more vulnerable than us ? Is it the arbitrary 18 ? Is it when we reach higher societal power than our victims ? Or rather than going up, should we look down, and consider anyone above 15 as fully responsible for said harm too ? When do we stop ?
Obviously there isn't any clear cut answer. This is something societies still struggle with today, and will probably disagree on for the rest of human life. But there's one truth that remains when we talk about the standards of perpetrators : a victim has to exists for them to be called so. Someone was hurt. Someone was groomed, someone was bullied and harmed and pushed to the the brink. And because we focus so much on perpetrators, we often don't get to hear the victim's words. How they see themselves. How they lived through what happened to them. How they felt about it all. We as readers can guess about who Chrys was (I have many such guesses myself), but ultimately, we -- just like Hellen and Stephanie -- can only have an idea of who she was. The one living in our head isn't the real Chrys. Nobody knows the real Chrys but Chrys herself, and Chrys is gone.
I usually say something along the lines of "this was a joy to read" but was it ? I don't think I felt much joy reading this entry ; but I did feel very strongly, and I think that's everything when it comes to fiction. Thank you for making this beautiful game !!