Holy shit. I still have a half dozen entries to go, but this may just have taken my favorite spot.
It's slick. It's sexy. And hell, the man created the engine so of course it fits his aesthetic. The writing is phenomenal. Especially the dialogue. Also I love me some fiction embedded in people's cultures and this scratched that itch real good.
And the Nokia! The callout for me being lazy and not naming the protagonist!
And then the ending. Christ. The ending.
That was so strangely... real? As someone who has recently tried reconnecting with old friends from my teen years, it can be heartbreakingly painful. Hearing how they've moved on. How you've moved on. How quickly relationships can die. How quickly things are forgotten.
God, that line about Dom starting to like those horrible movies and not watching Salkkarit anymore fucking broke me. It triggered something, and I nearly fucking cried. FUCK!
"Was nice meeting you."
UGH! PURKKA, WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY SADISTIC HEART!!!
Okay. I know it sounds stupid, but I don't think an FVN has made me feel emotions like these since I first got into FVNs and read Echo.
I only have two small quibbles. First was the twist halfway with the secret meetings. That felt like it could have been foreshadowed by the characters more and brought up later. That thread just kinda died. In a somewhat similar vein the open relationship chat made me tilt my head as to how that connected after having so many things linked to real events.
Still, what a fantastic read! Loved it. Loved it. Loved it. And hated it. Take your 5 stars and leave me to angst in peace.
EDIT: Also you restrained yourself from using up my yearly umlaut-reading-quota. I appreciate that.