I still say there should have been a mechanic where if you kill either of a child's parents, you can't adopt the child. Because what Timfever just described was just... ewww. Wrong on multiple levels. Like the guy who kills his parents and begs the judge for mercy becasue he's an orphan. Only worse.
Hey, Mister "killing is wrong!" Buzz Kill, she's the one who said, and I quote, "You're the best! Can you be my mother?" Was I supposed to make her sad or -- god forbid! -- make myself look bad by saying "no, you already have two perfectly healthy parents, just give them time and they'll get better re all of the sad stuff that happened with your uncle"???/!!!! Just tell her that there's no Santa, why don't ya.
Seriously, the whole chance to do things that are "just...ewww" and "wrong on multiple levels" is, oh, about 80% of the appeal to sandbox games. It's cathartic.
Now, then: back to my latest adoptee...
Oh, I didn't mention that when I found her, she was sleeping at the orphanage (it was like 2 AM), and when I wake her, I'm greeted with "Mama! You're home! Look what I found!"
Note: there is absolutely nothing next to her or in the city of Riften that could be mistaken for a house pet.
My response choices? They are:
"Svari..."
"No, get that thing..."
and "Nope, no pets ever blah..."
The first time, I said yes cause I figured it was just a glitch. but no...we get home and there is no animal anywhere. I couldn't even count the possible ways that having a non-existent pet might mess with my game, so I reloaded the autosave and told her no. (which was sad, what with the poor, innocent, invisible, and intangible animal of some kind having to back to the unforgiving wild...)
So, from my perspective, she seems to have
hallucinated having an animal follow her and adopting it. Plus, she did that
after accidentally wandering to an orphanage about 100 miles away while also mistakenly believing that said orphanage was my house. Wow, that is one damaged child. Or at least that's how I choose to interpret it...
oh, and she does that thing where they end up on or inside of the ceiling beams in your greenhouse, and she does it
a lot. Her dialogue is all mixed up (but I think every kid aside from the four new ones do that for a few days after being adopted) between the just shipped off to the orphanage ranting, like "I hate it here! i want to go home!", the catatonic "mama....", etc, etc. to being at your house, like "the lake is so pretty..." but it's been like a week or longer. Not to mention all of the extra speech options she still has. It's um...interesting, to say the least.
What I'm trying to say here is...I think I've found my ideal match!