Solstice - n. The moment the Sun stands farthest north (in June) or south (in December) in the sky. The June (summer) solstice is the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, while the December (winter) solstice is the shortest day.
It's the summer time...
..and it's so damn boring...
Fun for some, intense yawning for others. A feeling of constant boredom as the days go by. The calendar pages flip, turning the fifth day to the sixth as the dullness brings you down with the rising of the numbers. Ennui in its finest.
There's no one here. Everyone's gone. Gone fishing with their family. Gone to some snooty summer camp with friends. Gone on vacation. Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone!
. . .Well...except for that freak Hettie.
When all of his friends have gone away, what's a bored Leon Sunderland to do? Alone, with only his parents to talk to, Leon decides to break his boredom cycle by seeking out his neighbor, Hettie. That's about when the visual novel begins, with Hettie and Leon meeting eachother for the first time. The focus of this BL OELVN is on those two characters and the situations they find themselves in. The visual novel deals with abuse, gay bashing, intense bullying, external and internal homophobia, and one long summer between friends.
~Information~
Solstice is a Boys Love OELVN, meaning two boys generally "loving" eachother or BXB or yaoi. You can call it by any name, but know this first. This is not the story of an overly feminized boy falling for his taller, more manly match. This isn't about an illicit "kawaii sensei bishi moe z0mg desu desu" (I think I lost two brain cells writing that, haha) and student story. No. This is Leon Sunderland and Hettie Henderson's story. Two kids that just are, without any yaoi cliches that would forever pin them together. They're characters that stand on their own two feet and hand in hand at the same time.
As the visual novel is entirely character driven, I can't talk much about the plot without spoiling the whole thing. Instead, I'll talk about how Solstice reads. It's slice-of-life-ish at times, going from various scenes with Hettie and Leon in them. If you've ever read "The House on Mango Street", you'd probably know what I'm talking about, or, to describe it even better, think about four panel comics turned into a visual novel. One scene, one little comic strip making up a longer story. It's sometimes serious, sometimes funny, but due to Leon's negative personality there always seems to be a darker undertone to things. It's...an experience and a bit of an experiment, as well.
There also isn't one uniform art style to the game. Certain scenes call for certain art styles - twisted scenes turn the style morbid. It's a visual ride as well as a novel one. I'm going to make sure that, even though the VN is "flat", it's full of life at the same time.
Unfortunately, this isn't an IntRenAiMo VN, so don't expect it finished by April. However, this is an inspiring time, so I'm hoping that I can get a large majority of the game finished by mid-April. No release date planned yet. There's around 30k words so far. I'm not the fastest writer in the world, so to reach that much is a huge deal to me. Go me.
~Characters~
* Leon Sunderland: The narrator of Solstice, you'll be seeing the game through his eyes. He has a low opinion of "childish" things and is easily bored. Not the nicest kid in the world, he can be sharply sarcastic when he wants to be. Even so, he seems to find a friend in Hettie Henderson. On clouds: "I see white fluffs. Simple, shapeless clouds. I can't see what [Hettie] sees and I don't know if I really want to."
* Hettie Henderson: Neighbors with Leon, they make friends early on in the visual novel and become "something else" later on. Perpetually happy and highly spirited, he wears an earflap hat and a constant smile. Despite his appearance, Hettie's carrying a secret of his own that shakes everything. On his hat: "It's fun!"
* Sherry: Leon's last nameless ex-girlfriend. Drama, drama, drama.
There's more characters but talking about them would only ruin the visual novel. Bad enough I talked about Sherry. Oh well.
tl;dr version -
A BXB visual novel minus yaoi cliches set over the summer vacation. Sounds like fun.
Attached is an art teaser of Hettie and his hat (art thieves beware - I *will* take action against you). Enjoy, love it and have a nice day.
And on another note, does anyone have trouble writing the opposite gender? Ugh... Normally, I don't, but when it comes to writing romantic scenes it's too easy to make them both girly (I'm a girl, in case anyone was wondering). Oh well.
