Aaaaaaaa thank you so much for your wonderful words! Aesthetically I really wanted to put my best foot forward and have everything be as polished/finished as possible upfront so I'm really happy to hear the VN succeeded there! I'm also glad to hear the writing has been enjoyable and engaging thus far, even with its thematic heaviness - it is a bit of a hard sell!
Perhaps as the author I should not extend my bias to the audience, and give my opinions on the characters at all, but I think HL is quite easy to detest. She has a very particular way in which she justifies and navigates her own actions, mainly to herself, that manifests in a sort of way where you ‘get it’ but it doesn't make it any less shitty or awful. X2-0 unfortunately buys into all of it, and jumps through countless mental hoops to sort of rationalize what she's done to ‘deserve it’ when there really isn't a validation for it. As the relationship isn't completely devoid of anything, X2-0 clings on to the smallest crumb of affection and highlights that above everything else. I think it is quite heartbreaking, personally. LYNDA is... She is trying her best. She is trying so hard and doesn't have a bad bone in her body. She is earnest in everything she does, even if X2-0 refuses to see it.
I'm also a huge fan of that sort of palpable tension and curiosity to really see where it goes in visual novels - I feel it’s a uniquely wonderful medium to tell certain kinds of much more difficult narratives without restraint. Everything comes together to deliver a one two punch as it all unfolds!
It will take quite a while for the full VN to be finished but I want to try to get out the next big part in a kind of timely manner if I can. I don't want to give any definitives but fingers crossed maybe around March!