I'm not assuming anything. The only thing I'm arguing is that it makes absolutely 0% sense to advance less than 48 hours from "Your not worth it for us to take this chance on you" to "Ok we're all going to try this relationship and instead of being faithful to each other now we can fuck anyone/anywhere." That's the only thing I'm arguing is that it's totally unrealistic and was only done to make the story work.
Part of the problem here is that, quite frankly, Being a DIK is pulling a fast one on us. From poking around in the game code, we
know Maya and Josy will reject the MC in Episode 4 if he has a DIK affinity, or if he never had sex with either of them. Yet when a rejected MC plays through both girl's scenes in Episode 5, we learn they each would have been in favor of the relationship if not for the other girl.
So even though there ARE objective reasons for them to reject the MC, carefully modeled by existing game mechanics, the game will lie to us about those reasons when queried. It's the classic case of someone being voted down unanimously, only for each of the voters to assure the loser in private that they were out voted.
Similarly, when the MC is just friends with them, they will endlessly talk up their attraction. When the MC agrees to be their combined boyfriend, well, now it's nothing special. I think some of it is fear of angering the player again after the fallout from Episode 4. But mostly I think it just comes down to trying to maximize the impact of each individual path.
It seems to me that DPC feels the different branches are free to have their own continuity. So if we follow Maya, in that branch it really was Josy who was hesitant to include the MC; if you follow Josy, it really was the other way around. If that is what DPC thinks, then IMHO he's just wrong. That sort of subjective narrative will invariably confuse the players, and it ultimately undermines the impact of the player's choices because it turns out there are a bunch of other variables crowding those choices out.
What I find so irksome about this particular case is that the problem could have been solved by forcing the MC to take a real interest in the other girls from the start. While the player can choose to avoid sex with Maya and Josy, the MC is absolutely going to make out with and crush on both of them in the first 3 Episodes no matter what we do. But with Bella and Sage, even though the MC shows interest in them, we can actually choose to remain remarkably chaste: a one-time drunken kiss with Bella, and a few not-necessarily-sexual embraces with Sage. Even with Jill, while the MC must date her, we can decline to kiss her at all and are specifically given the option to make that date about sticking it to Tybalt rather than genuine interest in Jill.
That's why it's so weird that the instant the trio form their joint relationship, the MC won't stop declaring he's still dating other girls. He mentions it in the Episode 4 wrap-up. He mentions it to Derek. He mentions it in the video call at night. And it's one of his first concerns when they finally have their big discussion at the picnic. Where the hell was this insistence on playing the field when you were refusing to so much as flirt with Sage, MC? When the MC complains about Josy and Maya cheating on each other, we saw that happen. When the MC insists he's not ready to commit to Maya and Josy, that really depends on what we chose as the player.
If the MC had pursued Sage, Jill and Bella with the same determination he had pursued Maya and Josy, I could believe he was genuinely confused about just how serious his feelings for Maya and Josy are. It would still be weird for the two of them to risk their relationship on a 'no strings' deal, but at least then it could be seen as a concession to how much it mattered for the MC to be sure this was the real deal.
Instead, despite an MC demonstrating time and again that Maya and Josy meant more to him than any of the other girls, the game will refuse to reflect those decisions in this one area. Which would be an easily acceptable oversight if this matter weren't such a crucial part of the Maya/Josy path. I really don't get why it was done this way, but there we have it. Let's hope the problem either doesn't last long or is better handled going forward.
Anyway, I've ranted on this topic several times now. I guess I really needed to sort out my thoughts, but this is going to have to be my final word on the matter.