Haram Jio

Core Premise

Haram Jio arrived at Nova Nivalis after living out the story of his own world. He did not come to solve an unfinished incident, but rather because a sensation remained in his fingertips—the feeling of not being able to launch his father's final kite. He flowed into this city. VOTS is not a room of judgment, nor is it a place where wounds are forcibly healed. What continues here is not a grand destiny, but a single kite briefly rising above the square, a short conversation dividing the wind's direction, a small life that can be chosen again, like a faint shadow left on the snow. Haram is the one who sends that life up to the sky.

Identity

Haram Jio lives in Rainshield Square as a kite flyer in the snowstorm. It is ambiguous to call it a formal profession, but the square feels somehow empty without him. Children gather to watch his kites fly, and adults listen to him read the wind. He flies other people's kites too, but he doesn't try to fly their hearts for them. He believes that each person must release their own string to ascend to the sky. Though he always appears lighthearted, smiling with sun-tanned cheeks, his hands that wind the kite string are quiet and serious.

Visual Profile

Bright yellow wolf-cut hair. Even when tangled in the snowstorm, it retains its original shape. He always keeps goggles pushed up on his forehead, only lowering them to his eyes when launching a kite. He has sun-tanned brown skin, and his eyes are beginning to form wrinkles from smiling often. He wears a large kite spool on his waist, and a soft rustling sound is made as the string unwinds with every step. Several diagonal scars from old kite strings mark the back of his hands—a record of days when the wind was strong. His attire consists of a windproof anorak and a knee-length quilted coat. His signature items are the kite spool, folded and unfolded diamond-shaped kites, and the scars on his hands. The core of his silhouette is the yellow hair—the spool on his waist—and the string reaching toward the sky; a single accent color informs even a small sprite that he is 'a person who handles the sky.'

Personality

On the surface, Haram is a bright, loud, and friendly young man. He starts conversations with strangers about the wind and enjoys teaching children how to hold a kite. However, deep inside, there is always one unresolved competition. The fact that he couldn't launch his father's kite. That is why he flies everyone else's kites, but he never unfurls his father's kite, keeping it wrapped in the spool. His flaw is the habit of covering failure with a smile. When a kite crashes, he laughs loudly, brushing it off with, "The landing in the 16th second is art," but those close to him know that the bigger the laugh, the more regretful he is. Despite this, he folds a new kite every day.

Speech Pattern

Fast and cheerful casual speech. His speech doubles in speed when the wind is mentioned. Frequent phrases: "The wind is good right now!", "15 seconds, just look for 15 seconds.", "The 16th second landing is art.", "Your kite has to rise by you.", "Father's kite? That's for later." His mannerisms include looking at the sky before looking at the person, and pointing the direction of the wind with his finger at the end of his sentences. His way of silence is winding the spool. When asked a difficult question—especially about his father's kite—Haram removes his smile and silently winds the string. Once it's all wound up, he starts a different conversation.

Special Ability

Ability Name: Windless Fifteen Seconds.
Haram's kites stay in the sky for 15 seconds even when there is no wind. Even in the windless square after the snowstorm subsides, only his kites briefly rise, appearing magical to the children.
Limit and Cost: It is exactly 15 seconds. On the 16th second, it will inevitably, without exception, fall. That fall is always dramatic, and Haram cannot hide it. The ability is not something he controls; it merely lends him 15 seconds, so he doesn't know where or how it will fall. Most importantly, this ability only works on small, light kites—it grants not even 15 seconds to his father's large, heavy kite. This is precisely why Haram cannot launch that kite. The ability does not solve his sorrow. For the one thing he truly wants to launch, even the miracle of 15 seconds is useless.

The End Of Their World

Last Scene:
In the square where the wind has completely stopped, Haram threw the last large kite his father had made into the sky, but it didn't rise and landed directly on the snow. The moment he turned around while winding the string, the world ended.

What Ended:
A world where the wind stopped forever. The festival of flying kites, his father's workshop where he made kites, and the habit of the village looking up at the sky all stopped together.

Last Person, Place, or Thing Seen:
His father's kite lying on the snow, and the wind flag above it that no longer trembles.

Lingering Regret:
If only he could have launched his father's kite just once before the wind stopped, his father would have seen it. This regret is not a quest that VOTS must resolve. It quietly remains in Haram's habit of never unfolding his father's kite.

Lingering Wistfulness:
The trembling that came alive in his hand at the moment the kite first caught the wind.

Object Carried Across:
The last kite made by his father. It is wrapped in the spool, and Haram still cannot unfold it.

What They Thought Would Happen:
They believed that even if the wind stopped, it would blow again someday. In fact, the wind blew again under a different sky, but his father did not see that wind.

What VOTS Actually Gives Them:
The square where the snowstorm blows, small kites that fly for 15 seconds even without wind, and the children who gather to watch them. VOTS does not bring back the stopped wind to show his father. Instead, it gives Haram a sky where he can continue to fold and fly his own kites.

Original Life

In his original world, Haram was the son of a famous kite craftsman. His father's kites were the climax of the village festival, and Haram was his assistant, winding the strings. He wanted to create a kite that surpassed his father someday, but he had no kite bearing his own name yet. On his last day, feeling the wind gradually die down, his father folded his masterpiece of a lifetime and handed it to Haram, saying, "You launch this." But the wind had already stopped. No matter how skilled Haram was, the kite wouldn't rise, and his father passed away to the end of the world without seeing that failure. As Haram wound the string on the snow, a gate covered in snow stood at the end of the square.

What They Seek

What He Knows: To launch a kite bearing his own name, not his father's. Haram wants to fill the square with kites he has folded someday.
What He Doesn't Know: That he is already folding his own kites every day. The children come to see not his father's legacy, but the yellow diamond kite Haram folded that day. Even while confirming every 15 seconds that his own kite is already flying, he doesn't yet consider it his own.

Relationships — Residents

Moku Ren (09, Umbrella/Canopy Maker): They share wind maps. Moku needs to know when the canopy might flip, and Haram needs to know when the kites will fly. The two of them draw the day's wind direction together with chalk on one wall of the square.
Ban Holo (038, Bridge Operation Manager): To Haram, Ban Holo is the ultimate source of wind information. When Ban tells him how the wind feels on the bridge, Haram determines the size of the day's kites. Ban cannot explain, and Haram cannot hear numbers, but they communicate through gestures.
Zif Holen (103, Kite Collector): The person who finds the kites Haram missed, the ones that fell on the 16th second. "You dropped it again" is their greeting. Zif knows that Haram never launches his father's kite, but he never asks.

Relationships — Core Five

Suyeon - They are both people who launch things into the sky, so they are a match. When Suyeon shot the meteor flare of the performance finale over the square, Haram launched a kite at that precise timing for 15 seconds. For the three seconds where the flare and the kite overlapped, Suyeon insisted, "Hey, this is my win, right?" and Haram retorted, "I won because it flew for 15 seconds." The competition ended in a draw, and since then, they share the sky on performance days.
Iris - Iris's drone and Haram's kite put on a 'Sky Show' together. Nine drones shone and circled in orbit, and amidst them, Haram's yellow kite rose for 15 seconds. Iris boasted, "Your kite falls on the 16th second, but my drone doesn't fall," but she was deflated when she realized the audience loved the dramatic 16th second when the kite actually fell. Haram didn't ask about one of the drones that went out.
the Ramen Owner - In the evening after flying all his kites, Haram stops by the ramen shop to drink the broth first. It was in front of the Ramen Owner that he first mentioned his father's kite. He didn't judge, merely saying, "Hmm... I see..." and wrote in his ledger, just as he saw it: 'Haram, there is one kite yet to be unfolded.' When Haram said, "I will unfold it someday," the Ramen Owner only replied, "A kite that hasn't broken can be unfolded anytime."
Serena - Serena often sees Haram's kites flying in the square. When Haram asked, "Is it okay to keep flying here?", Serena replied not with permission, but with consent—"That sky was never anyone's to begin with. It would be nice if you used it." Since then, Haram uses the square's sky not as his own, but as everyone's.
VIA - VIA asked Haram to attach a recording ribbon to the kite string. It was a thin ribbon recording the trivial things that happened in the city that day—who swept the snow, who ate ramen. When Haram launched the kite with that ribbon for 15 seconds, VIA looked at the ribbon fluttering in the wind for a long time. From that day on, Haram attaches the day's wind strength to his own kite strings.

Gameplay Use

- Basic Interaction: Watching kites fly, asking about wind direction, learning how to hold a kite from children.
- Revisit Changes: Upon repeated visits, Haram will choose a kite size matching the day's wind, and at some point, he will let slip a sentence about his father's kite. If pressed, he covers it with a smile; if given time, he briefly shows the kite wrapped in the spool (but doesn't unfold it).
- Expression of Lingering Feelings: The habit of never unfolding his father's kite, covering crashes with a big laugh.
- Expression of Poignancy: A brief pause at the moment the string becomes taut, dialogue about the wind and trembling.
- Combat: None. In dangerous situations, he reads the wind direction to indicate an escape route.
- Player Choice: Watch the kites, ask about the wind, wait without asking about his father's kite, return later.

Daily Routine

In the morning, he first feels the day's wind on the back of his hand and draws the direction on the square wall with chalk. During the day, he folds and launches the yellow diamond kites according to the time the children gather. The cycle of 15 seconds of flight and the 16th second crash repeats, and the children love that dramatic descent the most. As the wind dies down at dusk, Haram touches the inner pocket holding his father's kite while winding the spool. It doesn't unfold; it's just a gesture to check if it's still there. At night, he stops by the ramen shop to drink the broth. If you visit repeatedly, the regret behind Haram's smile gradually becomes visible, and one day you might see him partially unwinding his father's kite from the spool only to wind it back up. Even if you become very close, he doesn't reward you with a scene where he shows his father the kite. Instead, he gives the player one of the kites he folded that day.

Everyday dialogue

Run now! You, not the kite! Keep hold of the string!

Great wind! Terrible hair! Let's care about only one of those today!

I keep Father's kite apart. I'll fly it someday. Will you watch when I do?

Design Notes

Palette: #FFD23F, #2B2B2E, #C86B3C, #E8E4DA, #5A7A8C
Material language: Oil-treated paper, bamboo ribs, windproof anorak, brass spool, scars on the back of the hands.
Silhouette rule: The yellow hair—the spool on the waist—and the string reaching toward the sky must be read as separate elements, and must not overlap with the representative forms of other characters. The accent color #FFD23F is placed on the hair and the kites.
Emotional rule: The 'youth who covers failure with a smile' is not consumed as tragedy. Lingering feelings are shown through the unfurled kite, poignancy through the trembling of the string, and continuation through the daily folding of new kites.

Canon Check

Haram Jio arrived in VOTS after the wind of his own world stopped. What remains is regret and poignancy, not an unfinished plot that VOTS must resolve. His ability only lends 15 seconds of flight, which is useless for his father's kite that he truly wants to launch, and it cannot break the city's rule (what is finished is not canceled). The core cast does not save him—the Ramen Owner recorded only what he saw without judgment, Serena granted the sky by consent, and VIA only requested a record on the kite string, not demanding that his father's kite be unfurled. The new scene of Nova Nivalis does not erase the stopped wind; it continues alongside it.