The Making of

Orenj Cloud website is a project made as part of my therapy for my mental well- being in mid 2023. As the pressure of life took its toll, I was burnt out and needed a break to recharge and reset everything. As part of a six-month break, I decided to pour everything into a short story. The initial idea was to tell the story in one linear timeline, but where's the fun in that?

The main topic is the battle of the Past, Present, and Future. This is one of the recurring topics that many of us have trouble with. Does the past dictate the present? or the present is detached from the past?

To try to understand it better, two books come to mind: The Courage to be Disliked, and The Courage to be Happy. The ground idea of the story is teleology and etiology. I was trying to define the blurry lines between causation and purpose-driven.

The map above is the map of the main story (The Kid) that was based on my own life events and challenges in life.

Each storyline has its own character archetypes as shown below (redacted).

Each story is intertwined with another story, creating a circular timeline. This is intended as a means to show that past and future, while correlating with the present, have no power over present time. This concept of circular time is better to be understood via the Epilogue. The story also implements several variations from the original Hero's journey. While the Kid story is linear, the Enchantress story timeline is jumbled up to increase the intensity and play around with the audience's emotions. The Gardener is a milder version of The Enchantress in terms of storyline.

Each story is designed to have a different vibe, reflected by three things: the color scheme, the word choices, and the visual design. The Enchantress, is dark and heavy, intended to share the struggling part with the audience. The color theme is ash and cold. The Kid, is dreamy and hopeful, intended to share idea of the search for happiness with anyone who reads it. The Gardener, representing the future, is light and airy, intended to share the sweetness of small stuff in life.

I hope this story reminds you, my dear audience, that we are all in our own fight. It might be a financial, family, relationship, life-changing event, or even a fight with our own mind. Be kind to others, be kind to yourself. Life is good, should you decide it is.

Orenj Cloud was launched on the 1st of October 2023 under Life in Pink domain, but I decided to merge it into wckd.