>>55457
>though I'd imagine that would scar her a bit more than the mild annoyance she displays.
Reading through her backstory, I do get the impression that she's holding back a LOT of trauma. Killed at a young age, burdened with multiple secrets that could get her killed by anyone, stranded in a strange land filled with stranger people who she still can't open up to, whatever happened in the bazaar to push her away from civilization... I get the feeling she represses a lot, since anyone else probably would have broken down by now.
I mean, when you find her, she's dead in front of the temple; if you'd been any later, she'd have been vulture food. Coming that close to true death would be deeply scarring for most, but she pretty much brushes it aside.
>Did I get the scenario roughly right?
Yes.
>If so, then how do you think she'll take it afterwards?
Honestly? Poorly. After some extended cuddling, when the parasite-induced haze wears off and she realizes what she just did, she hurriedly asks the PC to leave, with very closed-off body language. While it's not in the text I've written (since it's purely from her perspective with no way for the PC to see), she does consider the experience deeply violating in a way that she's not used to, and she needs time to work through what just happened. As a consequence, she refuses to see the player for a couple of days.
>Would she eventually accept that, perhaps nudged along by the PC's input, and might she be swayed to do it again in the future?
Well, my first draft attributed future interactions to the parasites continuing to multiply, increasing the strength of the cravings, with this stage taking place over the course of roughly five feedings as she struggled to work through what to do and kept finding the wrong answers. But since people feel that's too inconsistent with how the parasites currently work, that arc would need to be reconsidered.
But no, at no point do I really have her "accepting" that. Rather, I have her sublimating her cravings into focusing her attention on the PC's breasts and vagina, telling her body that she wants the parts that she does sincerely want, and that it's simply confused as to what's motivating her interest.
Presumably, she'd eventually either resort to drastic measures to get rid of the parasites or go completely mad... But I kind of assume that players would lose interest before it got to that point and just let the parasites finally die.
For reference, I'm assuming this takes place over the course of roughly a week and a half in-game.
>How lonely is too lonely?
Basically? Once you start engaging in risky behavior just to have someone to talk to/sleep with. But I meant that more philosophically than anything game-related.
>The bog's bloody empty without that thing around.
I see... That's true, though it's a bit frustrating to hit the same three events a dozen times before getting to the temple again.
Well, it's probably for the best anyway - things like the -corruption interaction there would probably have to be rebalanced if it was easier to reach.
>I could see her setting up a more permanent shop in the temple.
Ah, I meant more how the PC's supposed to be off finishing the main quest or maybe getting bad-ended. Maybe running off and settling down with one of the NPCs who actually want to date her. Marielle knows about the PC's quest too, so she also knows this is on a pretty firm time limit.
Though that said, she seemed pretty invested in exploring the world - she's certainly attached to the temple at the moment, and looks like she's badly in need of a breather for whatever reason, but... I don't know that she's interested in staying for more than a few months either. Especially once she no longer has anyone sane to talk to there.
Then again, there's definitely something special about that temple... Maybe she'll awaken some strange power that will give her life a true direction. That's definitely outside of scope of this game, though.