Hi Dev,
Thanks for taking the time to comment. Very interesting.
I remain unapologetically fond of Alba despite her being "not human", and I stick by my comment about seeing her as a "woman". (This says a lot about effort put into character development for what is a H novel.) When others consistently stand up for you, when they really need not, it sends a powerful message. Actions speak louder than words. Dave and Alba had a rough start for sure, but that would not be the first relationship with a rough start. Agreed, monster girls are dangerous, but so are humans given the right circumstances, even more so as a collective. And some monster girls seem to act out of desperation to some extent. Desperation is a bad master, and if that element is removed, outcomes and behaviour can be quite different!
In terms of reality, humans are going to have to get used to the idea of entities that are clearly not human but displaying plausible signs of humanity, or subsets thereof. It may be that significant hurdles remain for AI, but progress is being made. Exploring relationships with non-human "humans" has been a theme of fiction for a long time, and can help condition thinking (Asimov's "I robot" series, for example). The idea that monster girls have higher callings than humanity aspires to is also a fascinating idea. Well worth exploring. You never know, we may see the same thing in AI in time.
Seems like this novel has a plan and a future. I look forward to the next episode. I have other thoughts, but I think I will just let you play it out. Too much here could lead to spoilers, enough for the moment.
Is your other game "And now, time to study"? I hope so, as that had potential too. It is quite a while ago I played it. When I first played it, there were jarring moments. When I get a spare minute, I'll replay it and see if there is anything where specific comment might be useful.
Catch you in the future,
Regards,