We're talking about romance, not hooking up. The majority of people don't find their significant other through clubs. I would bet that most find them either by first becoming friends, or through friends they know. Show of hands in the thread, how did you meet your current significant loved one (or past loved one if you don't currently have one). For me it was friendship first, not a hookup at a club.
It's an interesting aside, but this threads shows us that many different people have different concepts and ideas about how relationships start, and what makes them compelling, as well as what counts as romance, compared to what is purely physical. Case point that I'm fairly sure will be different from everyone else here:
My relationship started with a friendship and a fondness for one of my partners, and it was backgrounded by an appreciation-becomming-desire at a physical level. At the same time, I also wanted her Bf, but in his case, it was purely a physical want - I was thinking of a, ah, beneficial friendship. The next step was communication and honesty with all parties, and a careful progression of feeling our way out with how comfortable each of us were with things. I came to love my female partner with my whole heart and soul, but for a long time, I still thought of my male partner as being 'her boyfriend' - that part took time to grow. I went through a very difficult experience and having them both there meant the world to me, and these days I can't fathom my continued existence without them - both of them; but this didn't start with jumping into bed with one or the other or both of them, no matter how much I may have wanted to back then, because I understood it would be a bad idea to move recklessly.
Point is, though, that even within the space of this thread, we've seen several different opinions about how relationships start, or should start and they
Can start in any number of different ways.
How they start, though, has a substantial impact on how they grow and what they become, and the writing needs to bear that in mind. For most of the characters, what we see is not what would really count as romance for a majority of people - though many might see several of these interactions as the beginning of a romance, certainly. Each one, on its own, if you have pursued every possible scene building up to it before hand, does make a certain amount of believable sense. It makes better sense if you presume that every one of those scenes is separated by a day or more, and that, by the time we have the goblin party, we've actually been travelling together for a couple of weeks, which honestly seems to be one of the lines of intention - even if it directly crashes into and conflicts with others.
The conflict and forced feeling comes because it doesn't feel like you've been travelling together for weeks at all - it manages to, simultaneously, give you the indication that you've been travelling together for two, maybe three days, if that. It's further compounded by the fact that, not only are these threads all happening, conveniently, on the same night, even where the situation might not really fit a particular character - but also that the threads are not being treated individually or as isolate,d, so they actively lampshade the fact that everyone in camp wants jump you, and you specifically, at once, and they make an in-universe confirmation of this unbelievable oddity.
you either do nothing and rest, or you violate her mind in a moment of lowered defence.
I would like that option!
You HAVE that option. That's what you do, in the post-coital scene if you probe deeper. It's why she resents you and looks eagerly forward to killing you afterwards, if you do it - because you violated her trust when she let her guard down.
The funny thing about the dialogues before and after, and surrounding this element of the story, is that what we actually See in game is that Minthara actually has no clue what the Absolute wants, wishes or expects... She's operating on instinct, and ascribing that as divine command, much in the same way that many religious zealots do.
And that is bad thing?
No, not at all! I was just pointing it out as an aspect of her characterisation. As long as they remain consistent with that moving forward, I think it's an interesting and telling aspect about what she's really got going on.
That said, the disapproval should be in the morning, and a dialogue first. "Have fun last night? Well, hope you're happy with whoever.". Something to indicate they know but not just because of the tadpole or something... Unless they really are going for the whole tadpole shared experiences thing, which, if they are, just creeps me out even more in terms of romance. Everyone KNOWS you're doing it. Ewww.
Shadow's dialogue the morning after seems to directly confirm that they were all very much aware of what you did... which means, yes, everyone in the camp with a tadpole gets to vicariously experience and enjoy/endure your activities, pleasurable or otherwise, if they want to. By proxy, this also means that they know when you take care of yourself, and can voyeur in on that too...and that you can be doing the same to them... sooo... hope everyone in camp is developing a voyeur kink, because they don't seem to have a lot of choice in the matter... especially from Shadowheart, who we have established likes to watch on and disapprove in the back of your mind.
