I’m crouched in an empty room, stealing everything. My stealth meter randomly changes to Detected so I stop for a while and wait for it to go back to Hidden. I steal the next item and get a notification that a bounty has been added. I’m still Hidden.
I finish looting and stand up. Suddenly: “You’re under arrest!” A cop charges into the room and starts giving me a spiel. I unload my fully automatic Grendel into their chest at point blank range. Somehow this attracts less attention than quietly picking up comestibles did; no reinforcements arrive, and I remain free to wander around.
I come back to this room about five minutes later for an unrelated conversation. Everyone politely ignores the dead body.
I know this is all, like, just Bethesda game things, but for some reason this time it seems funnier than usual.
Also, minor companion spoilers:
spoiler
If all the companions get as mad as Andreja did every time petty theft escalates to murder, my ship is going to get real empty real fast.
So they went with the Oblivion stealth algorithim.
must have been the wind. Actually I know they did because I was trying to find this enemy and when I did I blasted them to death and my company goes “they must have ran off” like did you not just see me with my shotgun