hey. I don't know who this will reach, but my name is Jami Lynne and I worked as a composer for the video game "omori". I understand a lot of y'all played and enjoyed it. And as far as my contributions to it, I'm very grateful for the support and enthusiasm. However, in regards to the character I contributed to the story of that game, "Space Boyfriend", I have to draw some boundaries with some of you.
Please stop digging through my past to look for more information about this character. Nothing I made about this character in the past has anything to do with Omori. Please understand that this musical project of mine was very inexorably linked to myself and my feelings at the time, and in my mind the person behind that project is not the same person I am today. "Space Boyfriend" is very close to a 'deadname' for me. And recently, I have heard from several old friends and collaborators of mine about fans reaching out to THEM about old art or merch they made for me that is no longer available. I need this to stop, immediately.
Whatever is out there online, is out there. I can't and won't try to control that. If people seek my old work out and enjoy it, that's great! I just ask that you understand there is a lot of pain involved in this past project of mine, and it feels like my skeletons are being unearthed without my consent. Please have some compassion about this. And please stop emailing or messaging other people who are not me about this project. There is nothing omori-related to gain from any of this. Space Boyfriend was a very personal and vulnerable project for me, a way to explore myself and my feelings at the time, none of this has anything to do with the character's appearance in the game. Please understand that the Space Boyfriend in omori and the character depicted in my old art and music are completely separate characters. I understand and appreciate the interest, but the thorough investigation of this old art is incredibly invasive and incredibly painful for me. It is already complicated enough to be involved with omori, as I share a soundtrack with someone who is a domestic abuser who's outing was largely ignored by this same fanbase. Please understand how much skin I have in the game on this one. Please have some compassion. Email me about it if you absolutely must, but please leave my old friends and collaborators out of this. Please.
I understand the place of appreciation this comes from, and I appreciate your support. Thank you for understanding.
-Jami Lynne
i just want to reiterate and clarify: this message is mostly about people who have been reaching out to people OTHER THAN ME about old space boyfriend art or collaborations. when i talk about "digging through my past" i am referring to scrubbing old deviantarts or profiles on message boards looking for old artwork or WIPs songs that no longer exist. i just want to convey that space boyfriend was a very emotionally frought project for myself and for many of the people around me as well; it's a very sensitive spot. as such, I'm sure there are some as willing as I am to leave it in the past, who would not appreciate messages bringing all of that back up. So much of this stuff was made almost 10 years ago. Please understand and have compassion for this - that is all that I ask.
Admittedly, seeing fanart of my character, depicted in the way I designed him, with the name and friends I gave him, do make me happy and is not something I want to dissuade. It's complicated! Seeing the name "Halkenna Fairway" posted by other people completely jumpscared me at first because I know the only way people knew that name was by combing through an old deviantart page with my deadname and teen feelings plastered all over it. I do not love that aspect of this, it makes my skin crawl. It makes my skin crawl to see my own lyrics from a very vulnerable part of my life picked apart. But I'm still a complicated flavor of happy that MY iteration of the character could survive, separate from the character that appears in OMORI. Such that, if and when I ever do something with my character again, I want it to be with the full understanding that my depiction of him is in no way related to the character in OMORI. To have connections drawn between the two when none exist would be hurtful to me.
Again, thank you for understanding. I appreciate your support. I am not writing this to scold anyone for their enthusiasm. I just want to share my side of the story, as I have been too afraid to address it for a very long time. At the launch of OMORI and its success that I never could have predicted, I set the visibility of "bug spray (never give up)" to private on my bandcamp, as that is the work with the most emotional baggage for me. I feel very ashamed of the person who wrote that album. But I think hiding it just encouraged the digging and investigating I've come to be less comfortable with. So, it's back, if you want it. Though, I'm sure many of you have found it by other means. It was a cool thought, to have "rare mp3s" that people had to pass around. I hope that aspect of it was fun for you.
Lastly I just want to leave it with this: with Bug Spray now available again, please settle for what is there. Please accept what little of this complicated part of my life I am willing to still share. All of the stuff on the margins, living on old unmaintained webpages; those are the scars of an old, scared, confused child. They have nothing to offer, they hold no answers or mysteries for you. Please let her rest. Please don't dig up her old bones. That's all that I ask.
Thank you for reading.
-Jami Lynne
