It's a shame that this discussion had to take place in the artiste thread, below an apparent piece of art. I don't really consider chat transcripts as art, but this is an art forum. I'm not going to start a new thread, though.

Once you are in love it's too late. If there was any 'predator' type accusations to made against PHOENIX, they are rooted in the very first messages exchanged. Innocence is naturally corrupted, as numerous people I have known on TW can attest to.

Internet love is largely based in fantasy. We know a small selection of details about the other party, and like those details very much. Yet all the gaps, which are inevitable without the physical communication that real life relationships rely on, are filled in to fit our desires. Our imagination runs riot, and a sweet person whom we know something about transforms into a perfect partner, or soulmate. This has happened to me mutliple times in the past, but internet beings are just as flawed as real life entities.

There is a serious level of scepticism that must be enforced if you are to maintain realistic expectations. Just as we learn from real life relationships, we also learn from internet relationships. One is inevitably better than the last, and I am actually getting quite good at them, but if this is your respective first internet 'love', beware. I wish you all the luck in the world, yet just as 12 year olds holding hands and imaging they will be married just as soon as they are old enough, things rarely work out as expected until we learn the rules those things follow.

there's nine people down here, and you can ask seven of them, and if you can get that price from one of them, I'll let you ask the other two.