Oran

Backstory

As I mentioned in my setting and story subpage, Oran is the Ragna's weapons expert; he is 21 years old and was not born into the State in any way. He has a much more laid-back personality than the other four suitors, as a result of a free lifestyle and a traumatic childhood.

Oran's parents were part of one of the smaller-time gangs back when the war started. They weren't violent people in their lives before the war—just simple Irish citizens who learned to adapt once Crime States began to take over. They joined the gang in order to survive and to protect their young son, Oran's older brother Ciaran. During their time in the gang, they had another son, Oran, who is nine years younger than Ciaran. The gang, who were really just a bunch of innocent families held together by their more violent members in order to survive, brought Oran and Ciaran up like their own, and Oran learned how to survive in a world of violence and poverty very quickly. He grew into his jokster personality primarily as a coping mechanism, as he found that making his family laugh about the horrific situation they were in helped to keep morale high. Ciaran didn't have the same attitude, however; he still had memories of the war, and even snippets of what life was like before the war, and so he thought it wasn't Oran's place to comment on things he didn't know about. When Oran was 12, Ciaran left the gang to wander the cities alone, sailing across the sea to England. Oran was heartbroken, but felt it was his duty to stay with his family and keep them safe, as he had grown to be quite good at destracting and bantering with any enemies the gang came across before the musclemen of the bunch could come along and kill the problem. But it wasn't enough—just two years after Ciaran left, the gang got jumped by one of the nearing Crime States. Oran tried to talk them down, but they killed his parents, along with many of his closest friends, right in front of him. He escaped and, of course, got straight on a boat overseas to try and find his brother.

After wandering the streets for a little while, Oran picks up some skills; he learns how to build explosives from debris on the streets and builds his own makeshift grenade launcher from parts he scrounged. One day, when Oran was around 19 years of age, he was jumped by Ross and his team, who were impressed by his combat skills and charisma. They talked with him and eventually took him back to the State. Despite his plans to find Ciaran, he agreed to stay as a weapons master in return for protection and a safe place to call home. He's been there ever since, and Tokyo built him a brand new futuristic grenade launcher. He occasionally spends time up in their inventions lair, helping to manufacture explosives and weaponry. He never gave up his mission of finding Ciaran, and on his off days he travels as far as he can, asking around under an alias, but still with no luck. It seems that Ciaran changed his name and went into hiding soon after leaving, and Oran can't find him.

Dates and Endings

For Oran's missions, you will be instructed to help roat-test the new weaponry and make sure they're all in working order. You are brought to the shooting range, where you play a space-shooters-esc retro minigame. The more points you get, the more relationship points you get. Then, after a while, Oran will ask you out on a mission.

On your first date with Oran, he asks if you want to sneak into his favourite place in the whole city. He takes you through a system of rickety sky-high bridges, tunnels, and across the tops of buildings until you can see the entire city. You parkour and balance on the edge of the buildings and watch the sunset, and Oran gladly tells you about how he enjoys spending time with you and would love to get to know you more. You can either reject his advances or ask him about himself, at which point he will tell you more about his backstory (though he hasn't told you about his brother yet). The two of you are caught by Goats, and Oran reveals that yes, this romantic location is actually the roof of a Goat hideout. You make a break for it, and Oran displays his combat skills.

On Oran's second date, he asks you to sneak out again, but this time he says he wants to go exploring again. The two of you go out, and if it's the good ending, Oran will tell you about his brother and thank you for being a true friend to him. After having a little look at ground level (which Oran says he doesn't do often since there's always people patrolling), you find a little hidey hole. Inside is a PC, some video games, Goat flags, and a large assortment of guns and weaponry. Oran becomes uneasy and says that you need to leave, but as you're turning to leave, you see Noah in the doorway. Immediately weapons are drawn, as Oran realises that Noah is working for the Goats, and Noah threatens you both. In the bad ending, Oran tried to reason confidently with Noah; however, he's having none of it and says that they both need to die as they know too much. Oran manages to slip past him towards the doorway, and just as Noah is about to kill him, the player hears the sizzling of a bomb about to go off. Oran apologises, saying, "Either we both die, or just one of us does", before grappling away. The player character and Noah both die in the explosion. In the good ending, Oran is far less confident and asks Noah to at least let the player character go in peace, confessing his love. Noah hesitates and is reminded of the friendship that he and Oran formed over their time together, which gives Oran just enough time to throw a bomb towards the entrance; he pushes you out of the way of the bomb, and Noah manages to get away using a secret exit; however, Oran suffers burn injuries. You get Oran back to safety, and he thanks you for showing him true affection.

After achieving Oran's good ending, a version of "Mama" by My Chemical Romance will play during the credits. This is pretty much the emo song, and so it fits with Oran's aesthetic and also has themes of a broken family and sadness hidden beneath a confident exterior, which are all things that Oran displays in his characterization.

MamaMy Chemical Romance · Song · 2006

Art

First Concepts

This initial concept might look a little different from the others, and that's because I did it on the train back from college one day in my sketchbook. Either way, I wanted to block out the shapes, outfits, and hair and really start to get across his silly, confident personality in his design.

I definitely leaned more into the idea of emo with this design; although I initially imaged him being lean and long, I actually quite like the very circular-looking hair and clothes, especially since emo's are known for their baggy clothes. I really loved the idea of him having hair that covers his eyes, and that sparked the idea of him potentially having a messed-up eye (although that idea never really panned out in my later development). Of course I love the idea of him being flirtatious and cutesy, which came across in his sketches here; this is part of the reason he has become my personal favourite of the five suitors, as he feels much more like a real person who doesn't take his situation so seriously.

Outfits

After taking a look at his first concepts, I began blocking out some outfits. Something else to note is that at this stage of his development, I had the idea of making him slightly chubbier than the other four suitors, as I realised at this point that I hadn't really ticked that particular diversity box with this roster.

The first outfit is what I first sketched him in; the shapes definitely aid his round shape language; however, the colours are quite difficult to see, and the concept is a little unimaginative. The second outfit is very nice, in my opinion. The colours in the "band" shirt (forgive my obvious pun with that one) give a little pop to the design, and the plaid trousers make it look a little bit like he's wearing pyjamas, which I actually think lends itself to his aesthetic—many of my peers who I asked also liked the accessories with this outfit. The third outfit is my least favourite. I was trying to go for something, but I missed horribly, and now it just kind of looks tacky and not at all emo in its core (although the crop top has its charm). In conclusion, while I do like the first outfit for its shapes and concept, I will be pretty much entirely running with the second design for Oran.

Hair

Oran's hair is something that I thought up quite early into the process and immediately fell in love with; that was part of the reason I did his initial sketches on the train, as I had the idea and couldn't wait to get it down on paper. Therefore, this process of conceptualising three different hair styles is mostly a formality, as I was pretty much set to go for the first haircut from the word "go". I wanted to try and experiment with some more traditional emo haircuts; however, they both ended up looking tacky and not at all what I would imagine for Oran personality-wise. I do like the inclusion of a white stripe in his hair, however, as not only does it fit with the emo look, but it is also an indicator in pop culture of high stress levels (this originally came from the idea that large amounts of stress can cause your hair to turn white, but has been exaggerated by many pieces of media to provide a visual clue to the character's inner thoughts). That aside, this process did not give me any more insight into Oran's hair, and I will continue to use hair number one for his final design.

Extras

Reference Sheet

This was the last reference sheet I needed to do, and I had a great time with it. As you can probably see, I forgot his arm accessory and bracelet in the video and had to go back and add them later, but I am a big fan of how Oran's final design came out. My musician boyfriend thought that the concept of a "band" shirt was hilarious, so I will be making him his own as a Christmas gift.

The idea that Oran is blind in one eye came up in the first ever concept I did of him, as a reason he covers his eyes with his hair, but it hasn't really come up since. I don't think it's particularly relevant, as of course you can't see his eyes in his sprite, so I decided it would be a fun way to continue his black/white colour theme.

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