Honestly, the fact that Leia is attending a book club already makes me wonder what is going on behind the scenes of this club.
Regarding the controversy that Nojiko, as a doctor, should earn much more and other disputes, such as if Nika and Nami are theoretically descendants of a powerful clan, I think the answer is much simpler and lies on the surface. The main character often begins his journey penniless. Even Willy (Viab), a descendant of a powerful clan, a demigod in the flesh with high intelligence and charisma.....can’t even afford his own apartment at the beginning of the game, but can only boast of his intellect in front of Keti, and the results at the beginning of the game are zero.
That makes sense to me, the same sort of thing as every game, the initial hurdles are mundane, because the game needs you to learn the mechanics of interacting without frustrating the player (ie in an RPG, level one rats even if you're a demigod with an ancient sword). It's different in an AVN as there is very little for the player to learn mechanics wise, what the player needs to learn is the characters and the back stories. If things are too complicated from the outset, in either case, people tend to get lost and don't understamd what's going on.
In Ocean's case, he hides things in the background, so things seem like just scenery, until we realise going back that he's woven it in under our noses, simply because it's things we don't expect to see, the focal point guides us etc.
Regards, Willi, he has money from his writing, as far as I remember, he does have an apartment, but he has to either wrap up the lease or sell to have the cash for another one (funny thing is that Mon can afford to live in the apartment block on her police salary, when even Dana flinches at what she is charging; Ben must be doing well...). As for Nika and his outsider status, Ocean want to tell a story about coming home, and resolving or moving past conflicts, so Nika needs to be coming from a different angle than all these (mostly) rich love interests. The story needs his character to be struggling on multiple fronts, and for him to be suspicious/cynical of people, so he is. Ocean can fill the gaps with all kinds of explanations as needed, in order to have the characters start where he wants them. And if anything is disproportionate, it's not really going to ruin the story (the 6 hour drive to the cabin, the three weeks to college that is two a few minutues later, Noji's pay seeming more in line with an orderly/nurse than a doctor, etc). These things are just the obstacles that are necessary for the drama to kick off. If Noji had money more in line with her profession, the rodent invasion would be even more out of leftfield for example.
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