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O.R.A.N.G.E. - Byako League [ON]

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Description

Name: O.R.A.N.G.E. [Oracular Reconnaissance Android & Nuclear, Gyromagnetic Engine]
Age: 2 Months (in current state)/28 Years (organic brain)
Gender: N/A (previously male)
Height: 5'11”
Weight: 26st 7lb

Strengths:
Mental Magic - it can use far-sight, can see visions of the future at will, and can psychically attack the minds of others. Its ultimate power is a spell named “Aten Slant”.
Bionic Body - Everything about it except for the biological portion of its brain is mechanical, meaning that it's stronger and faster than the average human, as well as having greater energy reserves and being more resistant to damage. That said, its robotic base is still that of a reconnaissance android, meaning that most battle robots or super-human foes will be more powerful in melee combat.

Weaknesses:
Of Two Minds - although the merging process made its organic and mechanical minds much more similar, they are nevertheless still two separate entities, something which means that it can be easily confused, as both its minds can sometimes come up with different solutions to the same problem, causing it to freeze temporarily as they try to decide which to use.
Magnetic Malfunctions - it can be temporarily shut down by an electromagnetic pulse, like most other machines. Plus, as part of his power comes from magnetically generated energy, magnets destabilise this process, meaning that it's weaker around them and tires much more quickly.
Unskilled Servant - despite its mechanical body, O.R.A.N.G.E. was primarily designed (like the earlier “O.R.A.” models) to be a strategic and tactical cyborg, which means that no one ever bothered to teach it any combat techniques. If an enemy should manage to evade or negate its psychic attacks, then it wouldn't stand much of a chance if they ended up in fighting.

Special Abilities:
Aten Slant - A spell which fires a blast of light energy from O.RA.N.G.E.'s forehead at an enemy. If it strikes then the cyborg must utilise all of its intelligence and willpower to overwhelm its foe in a mental battle. If successful then this attack leaves the opponent's brain in a semi-permanent (the effects can be reversed, but its not easy and requires great psychic power) vegetative state in which it can easily control them. If it chooses not to do so, however, it can just leave them to die; their mind will have deteriorated so much that they won't even be able to breathe without being mentally instructed to do so. O.R.A.N.G.E. prefers not to use this technique, though, despite it being its most powerful weapon, since doing to leaves its own mind vulnerable, which means that if it tried this against someone smarter than itself, then it might be the one reduced to a mindless vegetable.

Weapons:
Its Mind - its greatest weapon is its human brain, which allows it to use psionics to attack an opponent's thoughts directly, not to mention the ability to look into the future to foresee their next actions.
Sickle Blades - it has a sickle-like weapon attached to the back of each hand, which can be used to chop enemies, like a traditional sickle would be, or can be used like a pair of punch daggers (thanks to the twin spikes on the end of each one). These are non-retractable.

Personality:
It adores Meifeng utterly and is determined to protect her at all costs. Is usually serious and is reserved around people whom it doesn't trust absolutely (i.e. almost everyone). Also, its failure to provide for Meifeng the standard of living to which she is accustomed, and to find a way to restore itself to its original forms, has left it often feeling inadequate and prone to bouts of depression. When alone with Meifeng its much more relaxed than usual, and acts and speaks casually towards her, however when addressing her in front of others it uses terms like “Lady Meifeng” and “My Lady”.

Physical Characteristics:
Voice - there are actually speakers in its head, but they can't be seen as they're actually beneath the outer layer of metal, just turned up loud enough that they can be heard through it. The idea behind that is that this way there won't be any weak points through which someone can stab a blade or fire a bullet.
Sight - the same goes for his "eyes"; rather than one big lens which can be pierced easily, he actually has a whole bunch of minuscule cameras on his face, which are just too small to see. This way he'll still have backups if some are broken and no weapon will be able to fit through to tiny gaps in which they are embedded and hit his brain.

Full History (see below for the short version if you don't want to read all this):
Sinclair Rothschild grew up in Perth, a city within the United Kingdom, at a time when the British Empire held immense power, to the extent that they were often known as “the empire on which the sun never sets”, in reference to the fact that they held so much land that no matter the time, there was always a part of the empire in which there was still daylight. He was born into nobility and so was sent to the very best school (and, later, university) available, and chose to study the field of prophesy. He excelled in his classes and it was not long before his brain began to swell up, leaving him looking somewhat out of proportion. Despite the oddness of his appearance, this wasn't actually too weird; all of the great psionics “suffered” from this change, as it was a result of the high concentration of magic within their brains which lead to their visions, far-sight and, of course, their much renowned psychic powers.

At first it looked as though he would complete his studies within another few years and then be enrolled in the tactical, strategic and logistical division of the Empire's army, where he would become an esteemed and wealthy commander, helping to spread his people's influence all across the globe.

But then, one day, all of those dreams came crashing down.
When the Holy Roman Empire resurrected itself.

For years, it turned out, the people of Vatican City had been using their most potent enchantments to block the sight of the oracles of the other European countries from their plans. And then, when they were finally ready, they called up their infinite, indefatigable army from the dust, ashes and rubble that was all that remained of Rome after Italy's nuclear war with Turkey. The ground itself formed an army of gigantic golems, each of which was bonded with the soul of a departed Italian, called back from the afterlife to serve their country once more.

The British Empire had their mages, they had their technology, and they had their pride and joy; a vast navy filled with dreadnoughts whose magic-enhanced cannons were capable of taking down almost any European vessel in a single shot.

But alas, most of their forces were spread out across the colonies. They'd had no reason to suspect an attack, while the Pope and his immortal theocracy had spent decades refining their plans. In less than a week, Britain had fallen, along with almost all of the other Western countries. Once again, Europe belonged to Rome.

Knowing that, as a member of the British nobility, and therefore one of the people around whom the commoners would rally, should their ever be a rebellion, Sinclair quickly came to the realisation that it wouldn't be long before the Italians had him either arrested or killed outright. And so he fled as far as he possibly could; running off to Asia, where, after the sudden collapse of the British Empire, vast swathes of land had been rapidly reclaimed by the newly recreated Celestial Empire of China.

He was able to find employment with one of their noble houses and eventually worked his way up to the position of captain of the personal guards of the Lady Meifeng, the daughter of his master. Over the course of the next few years, though, they got to know each other better and better, eventually falling in love (Sinclair and Meifeng, that is, not Sinclair and her father). After this especially, he grew more and more devoted to protecting her, no matter the cost. Eventually, deciding that he wanted to become more powerful than his current body was capable of being, he asked her father to “upgrade” him with cybernetics, so that he would be better able to serve.

Unbeknownst to him, however, the Lord had actually discovered his daughter's relationship with Sinclair and believed it to be a betrayal of his trust and kindness. He didn't kill the Brit, however, but instead did just as he'd asked... but in a far more extreme manner than Sinclair had ever intended. The Empire had recently developed cyborgs which they called O.R.A.s; machine-soldiers with computer-minds, but which also contained living brains taken from humans with prophetic magic. These brain/computer systems meant that the machines were exemplary scout forces, since they could actually predict enemy movements before the generals had even decided to make them... and there was no chance whatsoever that they would ever betray their masters.

For the creation of Meifeng's personal bodyguard, however, the lord wanted one more powerful than any other, and so created the O.R.A.N.G.E., a dual-engined, nuclear and gyromagnetically powered version which could easily outperform any other, and held within it the vast, swollen brain of Sinclair, one of the most powerful oracles he had ever met.

Unfortunately for him, he underestimated his victim considerably. The computer's advanced A.I. tried to command his as it would any other biological brain, but soon discovered that Sinclair's mind was far more powerful than that of any of the others psions that had ever been used in the program. Unfortunately for him, though, the computer was still astoundingly intelligent. As a result, some of the A.I.'s directives ended up being imprinted upon his consciousness (making him, among other things, physically incapable of disobeying a direct order by the Lady Meifeng), while some of his human emotions were transferred to its formerly cold and logical mind. The result of this was a strange composite entity which didn't fully understand people, and was no longer entirely certain what its feelings meant... but which nevertheless adored the lord's daughter utterly, and was determined to do anything within its power to protect her. Because of these two desires, the machine-man that had been Sinclair pretended to be controlled completely by the computer, and obeyed its master's instructions, even going so far as to stand silently and stoically as the lord explained to his daughter that as punishment for going behind his back and giving herself to a mere commoner, her boyfriend had been recreated as a mindless automaton. Her father left her with it, and for a minute or so O.R.A.N.G.E. stood there as she wept, until it was certain that the old man had truly gone, and then it explained to her the truth.

It wasn't sure how it had expected her to react, however it knew that it was no longer human, and so not really much of a lover any longer, so it certainly hadn't expected her to make the decision that she did next. Frankly, even if it had still been Sinclair, it wouldn't have expected her to react that way. She knew that her father would eventually stumble across the truth, just as he had when she'd been secretly seeing Sinclair, and so she resolved to escape from him, since she knew that only then would the two of them ever have a peaceful life together.

She took her new bodyguard down to their treasury room, where her father's most valuable possessions were kept locked away. It wasn't hard for her to get them in, as she was one of the few people whom he had entrusted with the password. Once inside she stole a scroll of teleportation, and began to chant the spell printed upon it.

She had intended to teleport away to a neighbouring city, where they could then use safer, more conventional means to travel further away. Unfortunately, the lord's own personal bodyguard, an immensely powerful warlock, sensed the magic being cast, and tried to interrupt it, which would cancel her spell and leave Meifeng to be apprehended by the guards. What the warlock didn't expect, however, was to be attacked himself. The only one in the building who could hope to stand up to him for even a minute was Sinclair, and he had been told of that man's fate by his master, so when the psychic attack came, he was utterly unprepared for it, and consequently made a mistake in his own casting.

Alas, rather than allowing the scroll to be activated flawlessly, his mistake ended up introducing an element of chaos into the spell... which sent Meifeng and O.R.A.N.G.E. spinning off into an alternate dimension; far, far beyond the reach of her father...

When they awoke, now trapped in a strange, new world in which nothing made sense, Meifeng was overjoyed. At first O.R.A.N.G.E., for all its mental might, was clueless as to why, but it wasn't long before she explained it; while it was true that she'd had to leave behind everyone and everything she'd ever known, she'd been willing to do that anyway, in order to get away from her father, but now, this way, they were able to be absolutely certain that he would never find them. The human portion of O.R.A.N.G.E. was astounded by this, while the computerised part was upset by it; even with the ability to experience some emotions, which it had gained during the merger with Sinclair, it still couldn't understand them, so had no idea why anyone would ever behave that way; to give up comfort, wealth and luxury for the sake of someone else. As it was a machine created solely to serve, one might have assumed that the first personality trait that it would understand would be altruism. As it turned out, however, that was not the case.

Nevertheless, it wasn't long after her declaration that O.R.A.N.G.E. decided that it hated its composite existence, and became determined to find some way (through either magic, technology, or both together) for its human portion to be restored to its original body, and for its robotic section to be left alone in their current form (although probably with a replacement head, since there would be no need for the oversized one that it currently possessed once the brain was removed), so that they could both serve the Lady Meifeng in their own ways, and so that they could be worth the kindness that she had shown them, even after they became the abomination that was O.R.A.N.G.E..

Alas, no matter whom Meifeng and her bodyguard approached, no one knew how they could ever hope to achieve their goal, and as they hadn't thought to grab any money before foolishly fleeing her father, the two (or three, depending on how you look at it) were left with nothing.

As time passed, O.R.A.N.G.E. got into the routine of doing odd jobs for various people in order to buy food for Meifeng, and to pay the rent for the dingy little apartment which they were renting. Unfortunately, none of its employers were wealthy enough to pay much, and so they never had a great deal of money. Meifeng never once complained, though, and always remained cheerful and optimistic... but even that wasn't enough to comfort O.R.A.N.G.E., who felt that it had failed her, and grew depressed as a result (to the A.I.'s dismay, that turned out to be one of the feelings which it was actually capable of experiencing). Eventually, realising that taking menial little jobs such as the ones which it had been performing so far, and having conversations with commoners who were clueless about both magic and science, as it had also been doing so far, would get it nowhere, the cyborg oracle decided to find a better way to solve its problem. It realised that in order to come into contact with someone capable of separating its component entities, it would have to become a more public figure, rather than simply someone who laboured away in obscurity. And how best could a powerful mage with a robotic, battle-ready body become renowned?

By fighting, of course.

It didn't take it long, once it began using its prophetic visions, to find the ideal opportunity. Apparently there was a tournament of sorts called the “Byako League” which went on around here, which was often broadcast all across the city. This, it seemed to O.R.A.N.G.E., would be an ideal opportunity for it to spread word of its plight amongst the people of this strange, vast city, and hopefully come into contact with someone capable of restoring him to his former selves... and who knew, if he were to actually win then he might actually managed to restore his Lady's fortunes as well...

Summarised History: a British oracle who moved to China after his country was invaded by an army of undead Italian golems, got a job with a powerful nobleman, seduced his boss' daughter, got transformed into a (supposedly) mindless automaton as punishment, and revealed to the girl that he wasn't really being controlled (although his brain did still get kinda broken), who then used a scroll to teleport them both to an alternate dimension (Byako).
O.R.A.N.G.E. soon decided to enter the League mainly in the hopes of becoming well-known enough to get in contact with someone capable of restoring its humanity. Also, it wouldn't really have objected to winning loads of money either.

------

Edit: I've just realised that in the profile image I've used the pronoun "he" to describe O.R.A.N.G.E. that was a mistake, it's actually supposed to be an "it".
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Comments14
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Kanju's avatar
I also had some questions about your characters for the comic. I just want to make sure I portray them right.

1. What's O.R.A.N.G.E.'s personality like? Does he have a sense of humor, or is he very serious all the time?
2. Does O.R.A.N.G.E. ever disguise himself to blend in? Or is that not something he cares about?
3. About Lady Meifeng, what's her personality like? Is she the kind of sheltered princess type, or is she more down to earth?
4. Since I can only see her face in the picture, is there anymore details about Lady Meifeng's design I should know?