Jala Jayaratne

Jala Jayaratne is the main character of Thirsty Suitors. The player follows her journey to reconcile with her family and her exes.

## Story

Jala is on the bus to her hometown Timber Hills after her recent ex-girlfriend Jennifer dumped her. She is determined to fix her relationship with her family because she ran off with Jennifer and didn't talk to them for three years.

Once Jala gets off the bus at night, she goes into the Home Skillet diner to find a ride home. She talks to the Narrator in her head about who to ask for a ride. She considers the options of her parents, her sister Aruni, and her ex-best friend Tyler.

In the middle of their conversation, the Narrator points out that Sergio, Jala's ex boyfriend from third grade, had just walked into the diner. Jala gets into a psychodrama battle with Sergio. After defeating him, they make up and become friends. Jala asks Sergio for a ride home.

The next day, Jala speaks to her mom and dad. Since she didn't contact her family for three years, she finds out that her sister Aruni is getting married. She also finds out from Auntie Chandra that grandma is coming for Timber Hills for the wedding.

Jala sets on a mission to find Aruni around Timber Hills to fix their relationship in time for the wedding. Along the way, she encounters the rest of her exes, who have teamed up to seek closure for how she treated them in the past.

## Thirstpaedia

A bisexual disaster. A hot mess. A romantic dumpster fire in human form. Jala bailed on college and ran off with an older woman who turned out to be bad news. Big surprise.

Now she’s back in her hometown in Timber Hills trying to repair her relationships with her parents, her sister, and her first love… who she kinda unceremoniously dumped on the way out.

Her life isn’t a series of awkward encounters at all!

## Relationships

#### Family

##### Mom

Jala has a strained relationship with her mom especially after she left Timber Hills and didn't contact the family for three years. Every conversation she has with her mom will have some passive-aggressiveness in it. Jala tries to rebuild her relationship with her through cooking as it is an excuse to talk to her.

##### Dad

Jala has a good relationship with her dad. He is very supportive of Jala and is happy that she is back home.

##### Aruni

When they were little, they were close friends. Now, Jala feels distant from Aruni, especially after three years of no contact. Aruni felt guilty about introducing Jennifer to Jala because Jennifer convinced Jala to cut off contact from the family.

##### Narrator

Jala created her as a form of coping mechanism with her disastrous life. She made her look and sound like Aruni.

##### Auntie Chandra

Jala has a good relationship with Aunt Chandra. She goes to her for information around Timber Hills.

##### Paati

Jala respects Paati and is scared of her at the same time.

##### Ahmed Zaid

Jala doesn't know him. She found out from her mom that Aruni is marrying him. She would like to get to know him.

#### The main Ex

##### Tyler

Tyler and Jala are childhood friends. They had an on-and-off romantic relationship. Jala kept breaking up with her for other people. These breakups had Tyler doubting her own sanity and her self-worth.

When Jala came back to Timber Hills, Tyler wanted nothing to do with her. Once she figured that Jala is the key to investigating Bearfoot Park, she decides to work with Jala to shut the cult down.

At the end of the game, Tyler says they can be friends again but Jala is not in her future.