This has been sitting in my inbox as a reminder since November. I wanted to get 6.99.12 out before I replied - and then 6.99.12 took way longer than I thought it would. But now that it's out, I can spend some time to answer. Note that this isn't the mythos of LemmaSoft - which is based on the Tales of Lemma games. But it's the story of the characters that inspired Ren'Py.
Eileen and Lucy were meant to be characters in a visual novel I was planning on making. (I never did.) Eileen is the result of a series of "drawings" (I think most were SVG vectors) I did, back when I tried to learn to create art. The programmer art version you can see (for example, at
http://bishoujo.us/) is the ninth version I did. At least one older version of Eileen exists here:
http://web.archive.org/web/200910161717 ... 6022.shtml
I forget the title of the game - or even if I had one - but I do remember the plot, at least somewhat. I remember that I was going with a quasi-religious supernatural thing. The personalities of the girls are pretty much the opposite of the ones Mugenjohncel eventually gave them in his works (which are kind of the canonical forms that everyone knows today.) Eileen was meant to be a sort of wild girl that got into a lot of trouble, and Lucy was meant to be straightlaced, the class president type. Both went against their supernatural stereotypes - Eileen was meant to be an angel, and Lucy a devil.
(The gold hairband Eileen wears - that's meant to invoke a halo.)
I don't recall much about the plot of the game. I do remember the ending - both girls would be recalled to their respective realms, but wouldn't want to go. (There was an element of Good Omens there - both Aziraphale and Crowley are more comfortable on earth than heaven/hell, respectively.) I recall quite explicitly the good ending would be reached by the POV character jumping in with the disappearing heroine, doing something in the supernatural realm, and bringing her back to earth.
Moonlight Walks Spoiler:
Ending 4 of Moonlight Walks - which is the ending that inspired the work - has the same sort of attitude to it - the idea that a bold (dumb?) romantic gesture will get rewarded.
This was kind of my response to Japanese works from the early 2000s or so - there tended to be a lot of anime and games that had sad endings in which the protagonist has to accept fate. And I wanted this to be about a protagonist who rejects fate, which is an attitude I love.
In general, I remember the original idea for the game - and my circle, American Bishoujo - was the idea of taking visual novel (and explicitly, Bishoujo games), and applying American attitudes and situations for them. So instead of the shrine festival, there would be a fireman's fair. There would probably have been a visit to a shooting range, at some point. And so on.
The game never happened, and I kind of doubt I'll ever get time to make it - even if I had the time, I have at least two better ideas in me. So the characters kind of belong to Ren'Py - and the community - now, which is why I'm thrilled when people give Eileen and Lucy cameos in their own games.
