26-04-13 A clear sign

[Spidrift]

Her choices appear to have been fine. She's the one with the university degree.

Her emotional problems - and her state of denial on the subject - are a whole 'nother matter. But hey, family-based emotional confusion. Wadjagonnadoo?

And do remember that Amber really can't afford to alienate Ruby too far. Aside from any guilt she feels about how her own actions contributed to Ruby's current screwed-up state, she's chosen to keep her porn career secret from Mummy and Daddy. Silly girl. Ruby doesn't have to consciously or overtly threaten to blow that dumb little fact...

[GCRust]

Her choices appear to have been fine. She's the one with the university degree.

And? Just because you have a degree doesn't mean you made the proper choices with her life.

And do remember that Amber really can't afford to alienate Ruby too far. Aside from any guilt she feels about how her own actions contributed to Ruby's current screwed-up state, she's chosen to keep her porn career secret from Mummy and Daddy. Silly girl. Ruby doesn't have to consciously or overtly threaten to blow that dumb little fact...

She hasn't yet - which suggests she's just using it as leverage to lord over Amber. I have zero patience for that kind of family blackmail. Nut up or shut up - drop kick Ruby out the window and move on with life. She's successful on her own - she doesn't need her parents approval for her previous choices.

[Spidrift]

Oh yes she does. Well, forgiveness will be sufficient. One of the first things she said after she met Zii again, over in Ma3, indicated that she was worried about what she'd tell her parents. And I'll bet the she asked (begged?) Ruby to keep her secret, too. If she wasn't worried about it, she could just have told Ruby to publish and be damned years ago.

Yep, Amber has issues, too. But hardly strange ones. "Mummy, I'm a porn star"? Not easy words to say, I think.

But I doubt that Ruby knows that she's using that leverage on Amber. Blackmail is all the more exquisite for being completely unconscious. Anyway, if neither that nor guilt over the way that her own actions (equally unwittingly) helped mess up Ruby's head are sufficient reason for Amber to suck this situation up, then remember that Ruby has kept Amber's secret for her for the last six or eight years. Amber may just possibly feel obliged to her for that.

Alternatively, try the simplest fact of all; Ruby is her sister. She is family. That really does matter to some people, a lot.

Fear, guilt, gratitude, and love. If those four emotions between them can't motivate Amber here, then she'd have to be dead.