Aurora O'Reilly
Aurora O'Reilly, formerly Aurora Smith, is a character in Cyberpunk RED.
Hey, everyone! It's your girl, Rory![1]
— Aurora during her livecasts, Tales of the RED: Hope Reborn
Biography
Early life
Aurora was born in Night City during the earliest 2020s. Rory's mother was Gayle Sigmund, a former US Federal Marshall, while her father was C.J. O'Reilly, a media that worked for the notorious Solo of Fortune magazine. Both met in 2020 at the Forlorn Hope bar when O'Reilly was interviewing the establishment's patrons, and fell in love at first sight. They got together, and soon after Gayle was pregnant. The child was unplanned, but not unwanted. O'Reilly made plans with Gayle to permanently move to Night City to raise Aurora together, however, he died during the Fourth Corporate War when trying to report the events in Night City, leaving Gayle with their recently born child alone. Scared, Gayle gave Aurora away to a group home out of the city in order to protect her, hoping to come back for her daughter after the war calmed down. But during the chaos, the group home was destroyed, though the children were evacuated in time. Unfortunately, no one still alive knew where they had been sent to, and any records of the shuffling were gone as well, thus Aurora became lost.
At some point, a young Aurora was brought to an orphanage with only her name. Since nobody knew her real surname, Aurora was given the last name of Smith, like the rest of the kids there, and grew up without remembering her parents. While growing up, Rory became known to be an earnest, raw, and sarcastic person. After leaving the orphanage to find a life for herself, Aurora became a livecasting media working for Boomtown as a gonzo journalist in Night City in order to acquire expensive gear and CitiNet bandwidth to stream impactful events she encountered as news. In exchange, the company got exclusive casting rights and half of her viewers' tips until she got paid out.[1][2]
2044
On May 31st of 2044, Rory was walking on the streets of Little China when a large explosion caught her attention. Using Daisy, her observer drone, Rory approached the site to investigate while streaming the events at the same time. After arriving at the scene, she soon found out an AV had crashed down onto the Prosperity Gardens day market, a place she frequented. The incident had caused the death of a number of locals, though a quick response team in hazmat suits was already cleaning up the place, with no emergency services on sight. Rory was stopped by a Lazarus guard from going into the incident area, telling her they had already talked with the media. Soon after, Rory's rival appeared to mock her, Dyl Rollins. Aurora talked first, though Rollins didn't like it when she mentioned if someone had paid him to be there so fast. Dyl then ordered his henchmen to escort Rory out of the scene. However, she pushed him to escape, though soon realized that the Lazarus guy was after her as well. The guard managed to catch her, but right before he could beat Rory up, two mercenaries appeared to save her. Afterwards they put a cover over her head and pushed Rory into a vehicle, leaving the area quickly. Once far enough, they shoved her back on the street and left. Rory was puzzled, though glad she was still alive and her stream had been popular enough, despite Daisy being completely broken. While eating in a bodega, Aurora watched Dyl's recording of the event, where the Lazarus guards explained the incident had been caused by a group of Iron Sights who had lost control of an AV they had stolen. Rory, however, didn't believe that explanation.
The following morning, on June the 1st, Aurora walked into the Forlorn Hope after an unknown contact had asked for her to be there. Inside she found many patrons, including Kissy and Roxxi, the ones who had saved her life the night prior. They knew where to find her simply because Rory was streaming all the time. Marianne Freeman, the bartender, offered to Rory a special drink for a special occasion. Soon after she also convinced Rory to give her broken drone away to be repaired by the bar's in-house techie, Backhand. In the meantime, Marianne told Aurora to look over the photos around the bar's walls, and one picked Rory's interest; a rare picture of a happy couple, with a woman that reminded Aurora of herself. Marianne told Rory those were her parents, and explained their story to her, about how they met, how her father died, and how her mother lost her. Marianne explained that after those events, Gayle built a wall around her, not letting anyone in. However, decades after, she saw a new media that was streaming all the time on the CitiNet who looked like her, and behaved similar to O'Reilly. Although they were not sure at first, due to Gayle's worsening health, they decided to go after Rory to pinprick her and test her DNA, confirming their suspicions. Marianne invited Rory to see her mother, who was resting in the Hope's clinic, tended by Doc Stoic. After sitting in front of Gayle, the sick woman took her daughter's hand, and Aurora started crying. Both had a small talk about their past, with Gayle explaining why she had left her, and assuring her daughter she had a home at the Hope if she wanted to. Due to how weak Gayle was, they decided to postpone the rest of the talk, however, Aurora's mother died shortly thereafter.
Soon after meeting her mother and losing her, Rory accepted her new family at the Forlorn Hope, becoming a regular at the bar and working to become a great media. Aurora took her father's last name, both to honor her parents and to trade on his reputation as a media. She also joined the Willows, a group akin to a gang that frequented the establishment.[1][2]
2045
Rory was present during the burning of the Forlorn Hope in 2045, and after rubble fell on her, she ended up trapped in the bar's office. Aurora was rescued by John Freeman, who used his cyberchair to take her out. Helped by Marianne and Valence, the four got out in time before the whole building collapsed. Afterwards, they all travelled to the From the Ashes clinic to recover. Once the Forlorn Hope had been rebuilt in Woodland Park, Rory not only kept visiting the bar as a regular, but she also occupied one of the building's studio apartments as her personal quarters. During the bar's inauguration day, Aurora arrived at the Hope one hour prior to the opening night to prepare her drone camera and record the event for prosperity. The fact that the Red Chrome Legion launched a massive assault on the establishment that same night only furthered the importance of Rory's recording.[1]
Equipment
| Type | Items |
|---|---|
| Cyberware | Drone Remote,[2] Right cybereye (w/ Chyron, MicroVideo)[1] |
| Weapons | Polymer one-shot gun, Knife[1] |
| Gear | Daisy (Observer drone)[1] |
Gallery
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Aurora and Daisy on the night of May 31st, 2044 -
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Aurora's first and last talk with her mother
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 SPIVEY C. et al., Tales of the RED: Hope Reborn. Kenmore, WA, R. Talsorian Games, 2024. (pp.7–18,30–33,37,117,120,133)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Hope Reborn+. Kenmore, WA, R. Talsorian Games, 2023. (pp.2,6,22)