Hello!

I first wanted to say thank you for over 50 downloads at the time of writing this! Close to 60 now! Wow! I'm incredibly grateful for the support. Over 50 people is a lot... Can you imagine almost 60 people in a room and they each tell you they have your OCs on their computer? Wild stuff... 

I wanted to make this post both as thanks, and to talk about some thoughts with my relationship to love stories as an aroace person. 

If you don't know, aro is the shorthand for aromantic, meaning little to no romantic attraction. Ace is the shorthand for asexual, the same as aro but in relation to sexual attraction. These identities can exist separately, but I happen to be both.

I didn't understand most depictions of love in media growing up. I was confused why every song was about it, why there were TV shows centered around finding it, and I couldn't believe people actually fell like they did. I thought it was made up, that everyone was in on some big societal ritual and no one told me the rules. Maybe some of that accidentally projected onto Jinx, and maybe I found the concept so ridiculous that Avery became a caricature of a love-struck girl.  

I never saw myself writing love stories. And here I am, with my first published game being about a romantic relationship.

This is a strange place to be having these thoughts, since the goal of this game jam is to make something toxic and unhealthy. But this applies in other areas in my brain! I was actually working on another VN, one about the beginnings of a wholesome T4T relationship, before I burnt out, paused it, and shifted gears to this jam. 

I think part of the reason I'm able to write about love now is because of meeting my partner, Lexington. "Wait, didn't you open this post with you saying you're aro?" Yes! I am aroace! But I still have a partner! We are in what's called a Queer-Platonic-Relationship (QPR), a relationship that isn't conventionally romantic, but we're more than friends, a secret third thing. It's a much blurrier, nuanced, self-defined version of love. 

Something that felt foreign now means something to me. 

Again, maybe this wasn't the best place to ramble about love stories considering the content of the game, but Romeo and Juliet is regarded as a powerful story about love overcoming all, despite its tragic ending. 

If you downloaded Juliet's Sol and had any sort of opinion, I would greatly appreciate hearing your thoughts in the itchio comment section, or reaching out on my socials!