#aubrey centric

[cloudsandcrescents]

☁️ New Chapter Update ☁️

It’s way overdue though, in my defense, I never planned on a second part to this. That said, I’m very much the pushover parent who will give their kid whatever they want. (Not really, but that’s my justification for this. Just roll with it.)

Anywho! A much requested part two of Relinquish is now live! I hope you enjoy!

[prodigal-explorer]

a morning in kel's mind - an omori ficlet

spoilers for omori

(cw for mention of thoughts of suicide)

It was time to go to school, but Kel couldn't bring himself to get out of bed.

He couldn't stop thinking about Basil.

Everybody had expected Kel to be the first one to forgive him.

After all, Kel was the least serious one in the group, and he tended to be very merciful when it came to the faults or mistakes of others--especially now that he had grown out of his overly-rude-class-clown phase. Kel forgave a lot of things. He was always willing to move on when he and Aubrey squabbled. He forgave Hero whenever he got angry or annoyed with him.

And Kel was loyal. He always tried to see the good in his friends, even when it was hard. When Aubrey started building walls so people couldn't see how she was crumbling apart inside, Kel still reached out, trying to pull her out of her self-imposed isolation.

It seemed like the right thing to do, the good thing, to forgive and forget.

But when Sunny told Kel, Aubrey, and Hero the truth about what happened to Mari, Kel felt like he had frozen.

He couldn't think about anything except how hellish the past four years had been. Sure, there were good times, but Mari's suicide was what destroyed everything. Aubrey was left all alone when the friend group dissolved, and nobody was there for her anymore. Of course she turned to bad influences; it was only natural when she had no other choice. And the fact that Mari's body was disrespected so terribly made Kel nauseous whenever he thought about it too hard. So he tried not to.

But the one person he couldn't stop thinking about in that moment was Hero. His brother, the boy who seemed invincible to the world, had been completely shattered. Night after night, Kel woke up to the sound of Hero sobbing into his pillow, begging for Mari to come back. One day when Hero was out, Kel read his diary and found nothing but countless entries of Hero hating himself, feeling like he could have done more to help, blaming himself for letting Mari die. There was even a page where Hero asked himself if it would be the right thing to do to join Mari, considering that she died because of his negligence.

That entry had chilled Kel to his core, and when he told their parents about it, and Hero got angry, Kel had been too relieved to be afraid. An angry Hero was better than a dead Hero.

Kel reluctantly sat up in bed, looking out the window at Sunny's old house.

He forgave Sunny eventually. Mari was his sister, after all, and Kel figured that her being dead in a way was punishment enough, morbid as the idea was. And besides, he had moved away. Kel once read on a fortune cookie that distance makes the heart fonder, and he supposed it had been correct. Sunny was easy to forgive.

Basil, on the other hand, was proving to be much harder.

Kel wanted to forgive him more than anything, but it was just so hard. For four years, Kel tried his best to stay by Basil's side, defending him from bullies whenever he saw an altercation, even taking his side over Aubrey's which was very difficult. Even though Kel and Aubrey fought, Kel was unable to feel anything in his heart besides pity whenever he saw Aubrey with that hot-pink hair, wielding a bat that was too heavy.

Basil was the reason why Aubrey didn't trust Kel enough to open up. Kel was too busy accusing Aubrey of being a bully to realize just how vulnerable she had been. And it was all because of Basil, his crying for help ringing louder than Aubrey could even try to compete with. Even when Aubrey hadn't done a thing to Basil, she was still seen as the bad guy.

Maybe Aubrey was right to push him into the lake.

Kel's eyes narrowed just thinking about it. Maybe it was unfair to pin all of that on Basil, but Kel found that he didn't really care. After spending four years acting like the most innocent child on the planet, maybe Basil deserved a little more blame than was due, just to make up for all the blame he'd gotten away from by putting on an act and pretending.

If there was one thing Kel hated, it was liars. And Basil was the biggest, fattest, most revolting liar Kel knew.

When Kel spit into the sink after brushing his teeth, he was a bit shocked to see pink going down the drain until he realized he had simply been brushing his gums too aggressively while thinking about Basil. He sighed and rinsed out his mouth, staring at his own tired face in the mirror.

Was holding onto all of this resentment really healthy? Kel didn't want to be known as the guy who held a grudge. He wanted to be who he used to be: the class clown with no stress, no anxiety, no fear. He wanted to be approachable, somebody who could share a laugh with anybody.

But how on Earth could he do that with the person who broke his brother and destroyed his group of friends? And lied about it for years, leading Kel to believe something that was so far from the truth that it was almost comical? It almost felt wrong to not hold a grudge.

Slinging his backpack over his shoulder, Kel rushed down the stairs. With Hero back at school, the house felt empty once again, but Kel put a smile on his face to greet the baby.

"Hi-hi, Sally-Sally!" Kel cooed, gently ticking his sister's feet before sighing softly, a bittersweet fondness overtaking his voice, "Mari would have loved fussing over you. She loved babies. She and Hero once even got into a little scuffle about whether or not babies have a distinctive smell to them. I guess I owe it to her to check."

He leaned in close, even though it felt strange, and deeply breathed in the scent of his baby sister. Sally giggled at the action, finding Kel to be quite silly. And Kel found himself to be quite silly as well when he realized that Sally smelled like nothing in particular, besides a faint tinge of bananas.

"Looks like Hero wins this one," Kel said with a chuckle, patting Sally on the head before looking for some orange juice in the fridge.

As he did, his phone buzzed, and when he checked the notification, his nose scrunched up reflexively when he saw that Basil was the one messaging him.

"Hey, Kel, do we have a test in biology today? I don't want to bring my textbook if we won't be using them anyway! ^^' -Basil"

Kel sighed and started to respond. It was only the polite thing to do. But as he was about to press send, his finger hovered over the button for a few seconds, suspended in air, and then, Kel threw the phone back down onto the counter with such suddenness that Sally jumped. He couldn't bring himself to care.

Why should he lie about how he felt about Basil? In a way, wouldn't pretending to like Basil be akin to Basil pretending to be a good friend who didn't ruin lives? If Kel did this, acting all buddy-buddy with somebody he despised, was he really any better than Basil? Why would Kel want to do something he hated so much, just for the sake of somebody he also hated? It made no sense, and yet...

Kel wanted to.

He wanted to take the easy way out so badly. If he acted like everything was okay, then hangouts with the friend group wouldn't be so awkward anymore. But no matter what, no matter how many times Kel saw Basil, the only emotion he could process was pure, unbridled hatred.

It wasn't fair, but it was happening anyway.

Was this what growing up was?

Kel picked up his phone and deleted the message before it could be sent, leaving Basil to guess whether or not to bring his dumb biology book as he walked out the front door and headed off to school.

[lilac-gold]

sorry it's been a while, i've been self-isolating for fear of spreading the trope disease. anyway guess who's got that omori tangled au swag now 😎

[s-h-sarah]

My happy dreams, shattered.

Happy birthday Aubrey! I wanted to be ambitious today but I'M LAZY. So, this is what I end up with.

I wanted to commemorate Aubrey's birthday by reading this one Aubrey-centric fic at AO3 but I can't find it for the life of me. Don't even remember the title. It brought me grief all the time I read it.

Maybe other people recognize it? It follows the neutral ending with Basil out of the picture. Sunny already moved out and mostly Aubrey having a bad, bad time. There's depression, discussion about self harm and underage drinking too. There was a girl moving into Sunny's house and she interacted with Aubrey sometimes, their final interaction ended with Aubrey saying that she (neighbour) didn't understand her situation, saying mean things to her and told the neighbour to give the album to Kel.

The first and last(?) paragraph started with a scene on a swing, and Aubrey discusses about it's colour... and that's about what I can remember. Sorry if you can't understand this. I was never good at describing things.

Remember to download or bookmark your fav fic, kids!

Also life update!

I'm currently taking up embroidery! It's looks like shit now but what's important is that I'm having fun.

[mirror-to-the-past]

Day 1, and I am... immediately not too pleased with the story adaptation in the OMORI manga, unfortunately. Pacing is absolutely BREAKNECK SPEED, with the majority of day 3 being zoomed through.

The most criminal decision is that the prologue beginning in White Space and Headspace was swapped for a flashback to the Christmas Day memory, and then Sunny wakes up and meets Kel at the door. No Headspace centric prologue in which we lose Basil, get introduced to the cast from how they are relevant to Sunny's feelings and memory, and develop our perceptions of the supporting cast alongside Sunny's dated memories of them. Just BOOM, here's real-world Kel, Basil, and Aubrey.

And in the case of Aubrey, this ESPECIALLY hurts her real-world character introduction. A large part of what made her character immediately compelling was really being able to appreciate the contrast between her real-world self and her Headspace self, which leads the player/audience to be like "What? But she was so sweet before!! What on earth made her like this? How can I help her become like how she used to be? CAN she be like how she used to be??" She's got fanfic characterization of being much more of a violent bully rather than a girl with bad communication skills and angst for days, particularly in that she is ACTUALLY HITTING PEOPLE WITH HER NAIL BAT. Uhm, WHAT?! (Also HOW on earth did Basil get completely bodied with Aubrey's bat in the side of the head and proceed to get up, unbloodied, the next panel? What are they feeding my boy to make his epidermis and cranium made of steel??) (Edit: Looking at the scene again, it looks like Aubrey might have kicked Basil to make him fall over, right after swinging her bat around in close proximity to his head. They don't really make the flow of action all that clear, so it's easy to have the misconception that Aubrey is being actually more violent than she really is, rather than just putting up an intimidating front.)

In the manga, the character introduction name cards and descriptions only first appeared in the Headspace portion AFTER all of the Day 3 stuff turbo-sped past us, which really makes you feel like all the jumbled together Day 3 stuff that ACTUALLY introduced the characters in this adaptation was just a strange choice.

Other nitpicks, I LOVE how Sunny is so expressive in this when he is afraid and whatnot, but why is Omori so expressive? The whole point of Sunny's Headspace-sona was that he was meant to be a temperate means of repression and giving Sunny emotional numbness- to the bad AND good. It's partly why Sunny's smile at the Good Ending of the game is so cathartic- he triumphed over Omori, so he's more able to feel the positive emotions that "Omori" caused to be stifled.

Also they're really just... putting all the stuff with Mari right out in the open from the beginning, huh? BOOM, here's violin imagery, BOOM your sister is dead, etc etc. I dunno, man...

Anyway here's gay boys

they be lookin'...

lashes for DAYS, also I love how Basil looks so sopping wet. I approve

Basil voice: "Hello everyone~..."

and honorary Hero because they made him look so 💅💅💅 here

Anywho, the art is absolutely LOVELY, I love the style, and the Hellmari panel was *mwah* MAGNIFIQUE. I will at least enjoy the visuals, I am sure.

[thestarwarslesbian]

Booth:...Motorcycles are death machines. I have children, I'm not risking it. Aubrey: Are you saying my life matters less because I don't conform to society's heteronormative, child-centric ideals? Booth: Are you really playing the Bisexual-Male-leaning Card right now?! Aubrey: Yas, Queen. [snaps fingers]

[foxwmulder]

I just found my list of when I categorized every xf episode (mostly through s7) during quarantine lmao

MONSTER OF THE WEEK CATEGORIES

Cultural

Shapes

Fresh Bones

The Calusari

Teso Dos Bichos

Hell Money

Teliko

El Munda Gira

Theef

Prison or Military

Deep Throat

Space

Sleepless

The List

The Walk

Unrequited

Trevor

Religious

Miracle Man

Revelations

Grotesque

Kaddish

All Souls

Signs and Wonders

Millennium

Cult or Satanists

Gender Bender

Red Museum

Our Town

3

Syzygy

Die Hand Die Verletzt

Sanguinarium

Terms of Endearment

Nothing Lasts Forever

Lone Gunmen- or CSM-Centric

Musings of a CSM

Unusual Suspects

Three of a Kind

First Person Shooter

This

Skinner-Centric

Avatar

Zero Sum

SR 819

Brand X

Hollywood AD

Kitten

Arthur Dales’s Tales

Travelers

The Unnatural

Agua Mala

Scully Side Quest

Irresistible / Orison

Chinga

Never Again

Milagro

En Ami

all things

Home Again

Ghouli

Mulder, They Already Destroyed the Evidence!

Ice

Firewalker

Dod Kalm

F. Emasculata

Wetwired

The Pine Bluff Variant

Drive

Wait, It’s Actually Aliens?

Pilot

Jose Chung

Control the Elements

Fire

DPO

Soft Light

Schizogeny

Rush

The Rain King

Medical Anomalies

Young at Heart

Eve

Home

Small Potatoes

Postmodern Prometheus

Founder’s Mutation

Guys Who Need to Eat Weird Stuff

Squeeze / Tooms

2Shy

Pusher / Kitsunegari

Leonard Betts

Hungry

Switch Lives or Linked Brains

Lazarus

Roland

Oubliette

Paper Hearts

Mind’s Eye

Dreamland I and II

Fight Club

Plus One

Time Travel or Warp

Synchrony

Monday

Lost Art of the Forehead Sweat

Ghosts or Past Lives

Shadows

Born Again

Excelsis Dei

Elegy

Aubrey

The Field Where I Died

Triangle

How the Ghosts Stole Christmas

AI Is Out To Get Us

Blood

Ghost in the Machine

Kill Switch

Rm9sbG93ZXJs

Half Man, Half Monster

The Host

Jersey Devil

Humbug

Detour

Bad Blood

Folie a Duex

Chimera

Mulder and Scully Meet the Weremonster

All Monster, No Man

Darkness Falls

Fearful Symmetry

Quagmire

War of the Coprophages

Alpha

Arcadia

Field Trip

X-Cops

Magic, Psychic, or Lucky

Beyond the Sea

Clyde Bruckman

Unruhe

Tithonus

The Amazing Maleeni

Je Souaite

The Goldberg Variation

MYTHOLOGY CATEGORIES

They’re Closing The X-Files!

The Erlenmeyer Flask / Little Green Men

The End / The Beginning

Fight the Future

Uh…Samantha?

Colony / End Game

Talitha Cumi / Herrenvolk

Sein Und Zeit / Closure

I’m Literally On Board Already, Scully

Fallen Angel

EBE

Nisei / 731

Piper Maru / Apocrypha

Tempus Fugit / Max

Tunguska / Terma

Agent Mulder Is Dead! Or Is He?

Anasazi / The Blessing Way / Paper Clip

Redux I and II

This Is Not Happening / Dead Alive

Mulder…You Good?

Demons / Gethsemane

Biogenesis / The Sixth Extinction

The Syndicate Hates Scully

Duane Barry / Ascension / One Breath

Memento Mori

Christmas Carol / Emily

Patient X / The Red and the Black

Why Was This Made

I Want to Believe

Discarded Categories

Creepy White Guy Predator

This Is a Small Town, We Don’t Lock Our Doors

A Nice Trip to the Forest

[polaroid-petals]

The second of my six relationship dynamic pieces for my Stranger-centric post-good ending headspace verse, Tangled in Dreams of Light and Shadow! I’ve added more info for Stranger and Sunny's dynamic in this verse in the masterpost linked above.

Accompanied by a fic, No Wasted Days 🌗

Purple light gently filters through the leaves, casting upon the clearing an ethereal sheen that hasn’t been this bright in some time—one that paints the otherwise orange and green terrain a vivid lavender with solemn lilacs hiding in its shadows, and the sky an odd shade of wine red. It's sickening; sweetness where it does not belong. Like perfume in the water; honeyed and perfect, yet ultimately toxic in its allure. He counts five. Four young figures lie arranged around the Dreamer, making him their centrepiece as he lies peacefully sleeping between his creations. Aubrey and Kel each cling to the Dreamer’s side as Hero naps behind Kel but rests his head against the only awake participant. Mari sits curled up as her lap supports her brother’s head and she gently strokes his hair. The worst case of a relapse Stranger has seen since the Dreamer confessed the truth.

[acacia-may]

8 for the writing asks pls?

Thank you for the ask and for playing this writing ask game.

8. An excerpt of my writing that hurt my own feelings to write.

I've definitely written a lot of things that hurt my own feelings to write, but I cried real, genuine tears when I wrote this scene and was so emotional over it that I actually had to stop and take a break to calm down by the time I got to Aubrey's "because you've always been that person for me" line. I've written a lot of angst and a lot of devastating moments, but I've only actually cried because of my own writing maybe twice(?) in my life (I'm usually not much of a crier), so it definitely sticks out to me and I consider the Aubrey-centric chapter of "When Sun Shines Again" some of the best writing I did last year. Here's a snippet:

With a heavy sigh, Hero turned away from her, staring out of the dark and gloomy window. “You know, I’ve…never really had a lot of fight in me…” he admitted quietly, a faint flush in his cheeks before he let out a light, somewhat self-deprecating chuckle. “It’s something I’ve always thought I should probably get a little more of. But you…” His expression softened, and he smiled at her as he met her eyes. “You’ve always been a fighter, and I’ve always admired that about you. You want to protect everyone—fight for your friends even when they can’t or won’t fight for themselves. But I’m your big brother…”—he took a shaky breath and patted the top of her head—“I’m supposed to be the one protecting you, so you don’t need to protect me, okay?” “But that’s the thing, Hero—you’re everybody’s big brother. Without Mari, you don’t have anybody to protect you anymore. And as long as you feel like you have to protect me and Kel and Sunny and Basil—as long as you feel like you have to take care of us, you’re never going to tell us what’s wrong, so you’re just going to suffer alone and none of us want that. We all worry about you too.” Aubrey paused, wiping her eyes. Hero froze. His hands trembled. He didn’t know what to say—didn’t even know how he felt. To see Aubrey so broken up and worried about him was like a wrench to his heart. First, Kel. Now, Aubrey. Could he do anything without hurting the people he cared for most in the world? “Aubrey, I…” he began to stumble as tears pooled in his eyes. “No, I—” she cut him off. “I didn’t say this to make you feel bad or feel guilty. I just…I know you, Hero. I know the way that things are—the way you always push aside how you feel to take care of everyone else, and I guess that’s part of the reason why I was so upset—because I knew how much you were suffering all alone and how you didn’t have anyone you felt like you could talk to. I know you’re never really going to be able to talk to us about what’s wrong—but I just…I think we all want you to have someone you can talk to. Someone you feel like you don’t have to protect. I know that’s never going to be me or Kel or even Basil or Sunny—you’re always going to be our big brother, but I want to believe there’s somebody out there—maybe even several people—maybe Brandi or your friends from school or I don’t know just anybody…somebody who you feel like you can tell these things to, somebody you can always go to who’ll try to understand and will comfort you and support you no matter what. I want you to find that person, Hero—because you’ve always been that person for me.”

[cloudsandcrescents]

Aubrey likes to be tied up whether she does it herself or has a domme. She’s submissive and needs to lose control sometimes.

A character study prompt, please?

It took me forever to find a way to do this and I probably still got it wrong but I hope you enjoy anon! 💙

[tosteur-gluteal]

is there a masterpost for the omofalls au? and if there is can u link it ? and if not can i get a summary ? :3

Hi! No there isn't any masterpost yet since this AU is really hard to make as I am having troubles making the lore and scenario. It is aaaaa work in progress! (so many rewrites. Help me.) I could give you the premise: Sunny comes back to Faraway Town after four years of isolation in the city. His father tries to mend their relationship but Sunny doesn't seem like he wants to talk to him. So yeah, that's awkward. The first night he spends at his childhood home, he finds a strange book on his bedside table. He vaguely remembers him and Basil playing with it as kids; going to their local forest to "investigate the secrets of Faraway Town". But as soon as he opens it, something strange happens -> drawn introduction This AU follows two POVs: Sunny's (with Kel, Aubrey and friends) and Basil's (with a strange one-eyed creature and other entities). The forest is basically Headspace in that AU, although right now I am trying to change its content to make it more Gravity Falls urifhojdp ♦ Here are the sprites I've made for the gang ♦ Here are their designs The more I think of this AU, the more I envision it being a video game (well, if I ever make it a reality, it will be a "fake" one. A video of a gameplay if I uh. Manage to make that). It would be a point and click mixed with an RPG! And you'd have to decypher codes and riddles to progress. The two POVs would be gamemodes! You'd have to finish the story from one perspective to be able to do the other one. ♦ SOME GAME CONCEPTS: Studying the Grimoire Basil and lifejam

♦ Explore the forest! Fight enemies! Explore the town and find clues about what really happened in Faraway Town several years ago! Be careful, there might be strange individuals trying to get in your way, dare I say, secret societies... ♦

Ship-wise, it's a Sunnflower-centric AU. They will have cute paranormal dates :3 and less cute ones :3 There's also gonna be some Cottoncandy and Goldenrush.

All hails to Nokia!Hero.

Anyways! You can find content for the AU under the #omofalls tag! This AU will either be a fic or a video series. However it is very time consuming to make and as I am writing this, I am starting medical studies which require me to successfully pass a very hard exam at the end of the year. So any meaningful progress on the au will take a good while. △

(oh yeah also my art of the au is very spoilery especially for Basil but i guess y'all don't have much context yurfhizjo i just really like him...)

(If you don't care about that, here are some artworks that contain slight spoilers of the AU but I really really like them)

Basil is really famous in Faraway Town Basil is sus (this is very memey) Spoilery oneshot related to the incident Omofalls Sunnflower in a nutshell

[77ngiez-archive]

please reblog to help get more traction!! if you're interested in both modding and contributing, click the modding option!!

the zine would be digital and free. there would be a discord server for those involvef on the zine. ships and shipping content would be allowed, so long as they focus on at least one hooligan. the possible exception would be aubrey x sunny/kel/basil - it's possible that some content of such ships would be allowed, but for the most part these ships are extremely popular in the fandom and wouldn't really fit the vision of the zine.

feel free to drop any questions you have in the notes!!

[vivitalks]

Aubrey has a Great Regret of her own. Everyone gets one, she figures. Aubrey's is this: after that night, she ran. You run from tragedy. You have to. Aubrey had to, because if she stood still too long, it caught up to her, like she was a stick of dynamite and her trajectory was a never-ending fuse. Wait too long, and the flames would find her. They’d engulf her. She'd be consumed like mom. So she ran. Left her dad behind. She didn't go to the funeral. It's her greatest shame. The biggest question mark punctuating her life. It is not a mistake she intends to make twice.

(some ned-related aubrey-centric angst and turmoil, if that's your jam)

[enbysiriusblack]

Full explanation of your caradoc/emmeline/hufflepuff centric friend group when

started out from me saying how the marauders would not have been the popular group (james would be popular and well-liked, sirius popular but less liked, and remus and peter only known through their friendship with james and sirius). but as a group, they're too ostracising/exlusionary towards others

so the actual popular group is made up predominantly of the hufflepuffs in the marauders year (with a few people from others houses). it includes caradoc, edgar, hestia, benjy, emmeline, amos, florence, florence's boyfriend, davey (mary sometimes hangs out with them, and james gets on with them all very well, but prefers hanging out with the marauders)

most of them are y'know. your classic popular people (at least on the surface)

caradoc is hufflepuff chaser and captain, cloested gay. best friends with edgar, hestia, and benjy. acts like he's in charge of the group

edgar is hufflepuff beater, straight. best friends with caradoc, hestia and amos. thinks of sirius as his rival in wooing girls (he has terrible gaydar)

hestia is hufflepuff chaser, straight. best friends with edgar, caradoc, and amos. joined the group when befriending the hufflepuff boys just after the sorting

benjy is ravenclaw seeker, gay. best friends with caradoc. became part of the group when partnering up with caradoc in potions in first year and instantly becoming close

emmeline is gryffindor, lesbian. best friends with mary and florence. became part of the group from her general socialness and wanting to find more friends other than mary in first year (especially with mary dividing her tine with marlene)

amos is hufflepuff keeper, straight. best friends with edgar and hestia. smartest of the group, but mostly cause he works the hardest

florence is ravenclaw. best friends with emmeline. part of the group mostly cause of emmeline but also after befriending benjy in class in first year

florence's boyfriend is ravenclaw keeper. best friends with florence. is friends with the others but mostly follows florence around (HE is the golden retriever boyfriend)

davey is slytherin in the year below the others. doesn't really have a best friend. hangs out with the group because his roommates don't like him and the group thinks he's funny

(bertram aubrey was previously in this group, but I've changed my mind. i now think he was a very obnoxious nerd, always boasting about his intellect and correcting people (hence james and sirius' prank on him.. although bit hypocritical on their part)

[hero-deserves-to-be-happy]

Hero’s Messy Desk Drawer: An Unsolicited Fic Excerpt

(A/N: This fic excerpt is from a story that utilized our OCs (in an AU separate from our “When Sun Shines Again” series) but wasn’t posted to this blog because it didn’t follow our strict side ship rules and wasn’t really about Hero (aside from a brief subplot). We mods have agreed that this short, Hero-centric excerpt is acceptable, however, and have decided to post it since Mod Acacia’s headcanon about Hero’s junk drawer was just discussed in this post.)

OMORI SPOILERS but no other warnings just friendship and messy desk drawers here. Thank you for reading! 💙🧡🩷

There was something familiar, almost cozy about Hero’s room. In a way, it reminded Kel of the room they had shared back home. The left side of the room was bright and colorful with chaotic clusters of photos and posters on the wall. It was cleaner than Kel generally kept his room, but just as cluttered with books, CDs, school supplies, and bottles of something or other haphazardly strewn across the dresser and desk. Though the bed was made, the duvet was crinkled, wrinkly, and the pillows looked like they had been scooped up and thrown at the headboard in a hurry. Sunny would probably give it a 4 out of 10.

To be perfectly fair, however, it probably would have just looked “lived in” if it wasn’t for the right side of the room: simple with pale, muted colors, but perfectly pristine like something out of a catalog. Nothing was out of place, and there was no clutter to be had: no knickknacks, no mementos, and just three photos in matching gray frames on the desk. Every book, every record, every CD had been carefully placed on the shelf and all office supplies were housed in drawers or an unassuming gray pencil holder. The blue duvet was perfectly smooth with pillows perfectly arranged. Even their coats and bags that had been placed on the bed had been carefully, thoughtfully lined up in a neat order against the wall.

“No guessing which side’s Hero’s, huh?” quipped Aubrey as she climbed over the mattress for her purse. “Always neat as a pin.”

As she began digging through her bag, most likely for the case for her contact lenses, Kel turned towards Hero’s desk to search for the first aid kit. Like everything else belonging to his brother, it was clean, sanitized, boring though Kel felt badly for thinking that. He was happy to see the photos though—the only truly personalized things of Hero’s in the room. One was of him with his group of college friends—laughing together probably at some party just like this one by the look of it. The second was their most recent family photo, and the third was of their group of friends in Faraway Park when they were kids back when Mari had been alive.

Kel’s chest ached. They looked so different back then—especially Aubrey. He glanced over at her now, still digging through her bag, long pink hair rippling down her back rather than the dark brown locks she had sported in that photo and for the majority of her life. Her eyes were different too—an icy teal now from her colored contacts. That reminded him…he had better start looking for those eyedrops.

As he pulled open the bottom left drawer of Hero’s desk, he paused—blinking in surprise.

“Woah!” he exclaimed before he could stop himself.

“What?” asked Aubrey.

“This drawer is a mess,” he mumbled, so stunned he wasn’t even able to look up at her. In an entire lifetime of knowing Hero, Kel had never known anything of his brother’s to be a mess. He sighed and supposed that there really was a first time for everything. Kel’s brow furrowed as he began sifting through odds and ends—a whole junk drawer of papers, notebooks, books, a couple CDs, even some receipts, a few pictures, and who even knew what else. “There’s all kinds of crap in here…”

Aubrey snorted a partially stifled laugh. “I didn’t know Hero could make a mess.”

“Me neither,” quipped Kel, pushing some of the papers around looking for anything resembling a first aid kit.

“Hey uh…” She sighed. “Speaking of Hero…do you think he’s…”—she paused as if trying to think of the right word—“worried that we’d all be upset if he…if he was, you know—dating again?”

Kel stopped, but he sighed heavily. He had just been wondering the same thing after all. He shrugged his shoulders—focusing his attention on digging through the desk drawer, but he answered, “I think Hero worries about a lot of things he doesn’t have to worry about.”

“I just wouldn’t want him to feel like he couldn’t put himself back out there, you know… because of what we’d think or because he’s scared we’d be upset or think he was disrespecting Mari…” Her voice trailed. “I wish there was a way we could tell him that we’d all be happy…without it sounding like we were prying or making assumptions.”

Kel nodded, but let out a heavy, somewhat helpless sigh. “Don’t look at me. I’d probably just say the wrong thing,” he chuckled, self-deprecatingly—rubbing his hand across the nape of his neck.

“Kel…” Aubrey’s tone softened, but he didn’t look up at her, instead choosing to quickly shrug it off and change directions.

“Besides he says he’s not interested in having that kind of relationship anymore anyway, so he probably just isn’t—no matter what we’d think about it. You know how Hero is. He’s been…”—he paused, unable to think of the right word—“really weird about that kind of thing ever since Mari died. I just…I don’t know if he’ll ever want that again…”

As Kel continued rifling through the drawer, Aubrey sighed. “I know…and I understand that. I wasn’t suggesting we push him or anything I just…didn’t want to be part of whatever was holding him back.” She paused, sighing again. “He looked so happy, and…I really like her.”

“Me too. I’m pretty sure she’s the only reason I’m not failing math right now,” Kel bantered with a laugh before his face softened. He knew he didn’t have to say the rest—didn’t have to say how much he loved Zoey for being such a good friend to Hero, for always studying with him or going on runs with him at the crack of dawn, for helping him do the dishes at their college parties or talking to him about his favorite foods or favorite kinds of music, for being that lone voice of reason in Hero’s somewhat chaotic group of college friends, for making him laugh and smile, and, most of all, for bringing something out in him that they had never imagined they’d get to see again.

“But it’s really not like that,” Kel added, though he wasn’t sure if was reminding himself or reminding Aubrey. “They both swear they’re just friends, and I believe them. I mean, I wish…Maybe someday, but I just—it’s Hero. I don’t know if he’s ever gonna be ready for it.” Kel stopped with a heavy sigh—brow furrowing as he pushed some of the papers around in Hero’s messy desk drawer. “I mean…he’s got a bunch of books about widowers in here…”

“Kel, don’t snoop through Hero’s stuff,” Aubrey scolded with a huff.

Kel’s face flushed, but he shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not trying to. It’s just such a mess in here. There’s papers everywhere and notebooks and books and CDs and…ooh! A present!” Curiously if also a little impulsively, Kel picked up a small, wrapped box tied with a red ribbon. “It’s heavy. I bet it’s jewelry.”

“Kel! Stop snooping,” Aubrey snapped at him. He fumbled around with the box before placing it back in the drawer.

“Look, I’m not being nosy. I’m just looking for the first aid kit. It’s not in here.”

Aubrey huffed. “You’re looking in the wrong drawer. Hero said lower right not lower left.”

Kel took a step back to stare at the desk—tilting his head. “Okay but…my right or the desk’s right?”

“Just check the other drawer!”

Kel closed the messy drawer then opened its identical twin on the other side of the desk—nearly empty except for a neat stack of blank notebook paper, a metal pencil case, and a first aid kit. “Found it!” he declared triumphantly—ignoring the way Aubrey was shaking her head at him.

[thiefbird]

Thy Heart Torments (9943 words) by Thiefbird Chapters: 3/? Fandom: Aubrey-Maturin Series - Patrick O'Brian, Master and Commander - All Media Types Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin, Stephen Maturin/Diana Villiers Characters: Jack Aubrey, Stephen Maturin, Diana Villiers, Richard Canning, Preserved Killick Additional Tags: Trans Male Character, Trans Stephen Maturin, Period-Typical Homophobia, Period Typical Attitudes, Period-Typical Sexism, Period-Typical Racism, Period Typical Bigotry, Internalized Transphobia, Transphobia, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Resolved Sexual Tension, NOT Resolved Romantic Tension tho, Duelling, the homoerotic tension of watching the man you love dig a bullet out of his chest, which is slightly ruined by the knowledge that he got shot duelling for your shared ex's honour, Poorly Considered Proposals of Marriage, Poorly Worded Proposals of Marriage, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, HMS Surprise is POB's Stephen-Centric Whumptober and the author is leaning into it, transmasc character written by transmasc author Series: Part 3 of So long lives this Summary:

Finally beginning to recover from his trials at Port Mahón, Stephen Maturin and Jack Aubrey journey towards India, and toward Diana Villiers. A rash proposal turns Stephen towards Jack while he waits for a reply.

The next chapter! And finally some realisation of feelings between Jack and Stephen!