& The Duo Behind
Happy Pride! I hope it’s been a nice month for you so far. Have you celebrated it? I’m aware most of you are some flavor of LGBT+. Considering I’m queer myself, I’m not surprised. Birds of a feather, you know. I tend to keep that side of me low(?) in real life, just in case (being from a small town and all). But I found there’s a pride event this weekend near me and I’m… excited to go, actually.
Alright, enough of my life. I know we aren’t here for that, even if it’s clearly very exciting. That said, since it is Pride month, I want to talk about something. A bit of trivia! That is, the reason I’ve made the changes to the project.
Meet Romeo (left) and Juliet (right).
(Sorry for the lack of color. These are redraws of their old designs, and I’m still deciding if I’ll keep the old color palette).
At some point in 2023, I had the thought: “haha what if Romeo and Juliet but lesbians”. And then I made these two, who have nothing to do with the original play besides the names lol.
Yet at some point, sprinkled between my other works, were thoughts of them. “Who are they? How did they meet?”
I can tell you. And I will! Right now. Citing my own notes (wall of text incoming):
Raised in their mother's dinner theather and the only child growing up there, Romeo has been surrounded by artists their whole life. Romeo has grown to love life and take everything as a gift. A light-hearted lady that took interest in music and ended up learning how to play the drums, the piano and the trumpet. Their mother eventually let them be part of the band after they begged her countless times, and has been playing since they were 18.
Juliet is a socialite and only child of a wealthy family. Although she's thankful for her comfortable lifestyle, she's tired of being the center of attention wherever she goes. Thus one night she escaped during a party and decided to have fun on her own. Unsure of where to go though, she picked a humble-looking establishment. Juliet sat in one of the empty tables in the dinner theater and spent the night enjoying the live music on stage.
What caught Juliet’s attention the most was one of the musicians: the pianist of pink fur. They just... kept glancing at her. And Romeo, whose eyes were drawn to the lady of blue fur. She was... wearing clothes too fancy for a small dinner theather. Something happened to this lady.
Thus, after the show, Romeo decided to strike up a conversation with the serious-looking lady in fancy clothes. Juliet was approached by this pianist, named Romeo, after the show. And thanks to Romeo, Juliet's world opened a little bit.
They didn't start dating instantly, it took time and many meetings before it was brought up. Ah, but perhaps there was some interest from the start from both parties :^]
Now, you’re probably wondering why did I tell you their whole gotdang life stories. First of all, it’s my newsletter about my OCs, you signed up for my TED talks.
Secondly, after figuring out these basics about the two, I started to only have more questions.
What is the setting like? Do I just place them in our world but it’s animals instead of humans? What if I did something else? How can I do that?
I wanted to make a world for Romeo and Juliet. A place where I could envision the couple, their friends & family, their buildings and streets. But their story, even if cute, was a tad simple to work with. And during these brainstorming sessions, the memory of someone hit me: Jesse (our current Anaïs). I had her and these other stick figure OCs I hadn’t touched in eons, stored away since I didn’t know what to do with them. Until now.
As I reworked the cast and figured them out, more ideas for their world came to me. About the Constellations, the legend with the chosen ones, Anaïs as a character, etc. As bonus trivia, the title for the project itself was inspired by music.
If it wasn’t for Romeo and Juliet, I don’t think I’d be here. Doing this project, sharing its progress with you with these letters. All of this caused by impulse, born from a silly little thought. I appreciate you indulging my monthly ramblings so far ✨