#hero and basil friendship

[hero-deserves-to-be-happy]

When Sun Shines Again Chapter 4: "To Lead A Better Life:" Part 3

⛅CHAPTER 4⛅ "To Lead A Better Life" Part 3

Chapter Description: When Hero visits Basil one last time before returning to college for the fall semester, Basil gives him a letter that forces him to confront bittersweet memories, painful truths, and the complicated feelings that Hero had tried so hard to bury.

This Chapter is Hero & Basil's Friendship-Centric.

Chapter Word Count: 6700. Link to Chapter 4 on AO3.

Description (for the entire work): When tragedy struck, Hero lost not only his dearest friend but also his dreams for the future. Even years later, Hero doesn't know what his "forever" looks like without Mari in it, but somehow he finds the strength to carry on and build a new life for himself. With his family and friends both old and new by his side, Hero struggles through life's ups and downs--the joys and sorrows he faces in a world without Mari. In the beginning, he's only looking to survive it all, but somewhere along the way, he might find a purpose, a reason he's still here. Maybe there really is a way he can learn to be happy again, and maybe, just maybe, when he's least expecting it, he might even find himself slowly opening his heart to love again--he might even find himself believing that even the darkest, stormiest of times will eventually pass and the sun will shine again.

A Hero-Centric story spanning 15 years of his life post-good end. Focuses on Hero finding healing & building a life for himself after the loss of Mari. Eventually includes him learning to love again after an extremely slow burn. All pairings are tagged upfront. Rated T for heavy themes & some language. Reading the prequel is recommended.

⛅Tags For The Story As A Whole (So A Lot Of These Are "Eventual" Tags):

Romantic Relationships: Main Ships: (Past) Hero/Mari and (Eventual) Hero/OC. Side Ships: Brandi/OC and a brief mention of Mikhael/Bebe are the only side ships involving canon characters.

Platonic Relationships: Hero & Brandi Friendship, Hero & Original Characters Friendship. Some Hero & Kel Siblings Relationship & Brotherly Friendship. Hero & Aubrey Friendship. Hero & Basil Friendship. Hero & Sunny Friendship. Hero & His Family.

Characters: Major Canon Characters: Hero (POV Character), Brandi [Intimidating Girl], Mari and Mari's Memory, & Kel. Major Original Characters (Hero's college friends): Kyle, C.J., Zoey, Tamra, and Lorraine. Other Included Canon Characters: Sunny, Basil, Aubrey, Sally, Hero's Parents, Bebe (Short Haired Girl/Fountain Girl) & Mikhael (The Maverick).

Genre: Hero-Centric Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Slice of Life, College Life, Lost Love, Finding Love Again, Finding Healing After Grief, Slow Burn, Developing Friendship, Developing Relationship, Greiving, Catharsis, Heart-To-Heart Chats, Hopeful/Happy Ending, Post-Good Ending, Hero Needs A Hug, Hero Deserves To Be Happy

Rating: T for some heavy themes and thematic elements (i.e. grief & healing from grief and trauma. Implied/Referenced Canonical Character Death & Implied/Referenced Mental Health Issues including depression & suicide. Mentions of Underage Drinking & Partying). Some language.

Warnings: Major Spoilers for OMORI! Heavy themes and thematic elements (i.e. grief & healing from grief and trauma. Implied/Referenced Canonical Character Death & Implied/Referenced Mental Health Issues including depression & suicide. Mentions of Underage Drinking & Partying). Some Language.

Link to Entire work on AO3.

⛅ Link to the "When Sun Shines Again" Masterlist. ⛅

Full chapter text below the cut. Thank you for reading! ⛅

“Do you have any sevens?” asked Kel.

Twisting her mouth to one side, Aubrey frowned at her cards, but she shrugged her shoulders. “No. Go fish.”

Curiously, Hero glanced down at his own hand, then at a nearby clock on the wall. They had been playing Go Fish for nearly an hour, and Hero couldn’t for the life of him understand how no one had managed to win yet. Even thinking back on the many rounds of Go Fish he and his friends had played in their youth, he couldn’t remember a game that lasted more than half an hour, at the most, but it seemed that ever since they had started playing cards with Basil whenever they visited him in the hospital the games were growing longer and longer.

Hero wondered if that was on purpose—if his companions were somehow purposely dragging the games out so they would have something to do, something to keep Basil distracted so he wouldn’t start crying again. After all, their first couple of visits had mostly consisted of Basil weeping in tearful apologies, and Hero was certain he was not the only one who wanted to avoid that going forward.

Something ached in Hero’s chest whenever he thought of how emotional things had been in the beginning—how fragile Basil had been and that heartbreaking look on his face like he was always on the verge of tears. If Hero was being honest, it scared him, and though it made him feel overwhelmingly guilty to admit it, somehow he couldn’t help but wonder if that’s what his family had seen every time they had looked at him after Mari had died: a shaking, shivering shell of a person they had once known and loved. It was painful to watch, and as much as his heart ached seeing Basil suffer, he could only imagine that his family had suffered even more in watching Hero, himself, suffer in the same way. Knowing he had put his family through that… It was nearly enough to make Hero not want to get out of bed in the morning.

There was something surreal in being on this side of it all. Even having gone through a similar period of deep depression himself—even knowing firsthand how painful and hopeless that darkness and numbness could be, Hero felt completely helpless when it came to Basil and his suffering. He had no idea what to do—if there was even anything he could do to make Basil feel better. This feeling of helplessness coupled with the sickening, twisting feeling in his gut whenever Basil burst into tears at the mere sight of him had given Hero a new and incredibly painful appreciation for Kel and what his brother must have been through these last couple of years stuck on the periphery of his loved ones’ collapsing world. But maybe that was Kel’s strength. He could be so supportive and attentive to the needs of the other people around him, and he just had this way of knowing what might help someone, even someone at their lowest, feel better. It had been his idea to start playing cards to cheer up Basil, after all.

After a long and ongoing debate about whether or not the three of them should just stop visiting Basil altogether, Hero, Kel, and Aubrey had sat down with Polly to discuss whether or not their visits were actually helpful or were just hindering Basil’s recovery, which, Hero knew, was the last thing any of them wanted. When Polly had told them that she thought that it would be much more hurtful to Basil if his friends never came around, Kel had suggested that they try to think of activities to do when they visited so Basil would be too busy to think about being sad.

It turned out Kel was right. They soon found that their visits with Basil at the hospital went much more smoothly if they all did an activity together—sometimes a puzzle, other times arts and crafts. They quickly settled into playing board games or, more frequently, cards just like they used to when they were kids.

As time went on, Basil seemed much happier, especially when he was distracted. The color slowly returned to his face. He started tending some flowers in the hospital’s garden and even started taking some photos again. Most promising of all, the last time they had visited, Hero saw Basil laugh for the first time in possibly years at a silly joke Kel had told them about a pirate’s pet parrot of all things. It was good to see Basil beginning to heal and come back to his old self again. Still, they didn’t want to undo any progress so they kept playing infinite games of cards which, if Hero had to guess, they probably did drag out on purpose, at least on a subconscious level.

“Are you sure you don’t have any sevens?” asked Kel, pulling Hero out of his thoughts. His brow furrowed as he glanced over at Aubrey with narrowed eyes.

“No,” she huffed, growing more exasperated. “I don’t have any sevens, Kel.”

 “I—I have sevens,” sniffled Basil “You—you can have my sevens…”

“Sweet!” exclaimed Kel, reaching across the table to take Basil’s cards, but Hero gently stopped him with a pat on the arm.

“Kel, that’s not fair. You can ask Basil for sevens on your next turn.”

Basil sniffled again, pulling his sweater tightly around his shoulders. “It…It’s okay. I don’t mind. Kel can—”

“You’re ruining the game!” Aubrey interrupted with a huff. “It’s just Go Fish. There’s no reason to get so competitive about it!”

“Competitive?” Kel repeated so loudly that Basil practically jumped. “If anyone’s getting competitive, it’s you!”

As Kel and Aubrey began to bicker, Hero looked over at Basil with a certain concern in his eyes. Hero had always known that Basil was almost as conflict avoidant as him, and it was obvious from the way he cowered at Kel and Aubrey’s bickering—twisting his hands and biting his lip—that he would give just about anything for this fight to be over, including an entire hand full of sevens, if he’d had them. If Hero was being honest, he felt the same way.

“C-c’mon now,” Hero gently interrupted, trying to keep the peace “This is just supposed to be fun. We’re here to visit Basil and spend time with him. There’s no reason to start fighting.”

Kel and Aubrey stopped—each letting out a heavy sigh as they stared down at their hands of cards. “Hero’s right,” said Kel “Who cares about this stupid card game—we’re just happy to see you Basil. We can even do something else if you want.”

Basil’s eyes widened, but a smile twitched in the corners of his mouth. “I don’t care what we do—I’m just glad you’re here. It’s really good to see you guys.” Basil paused and sighed. “It gets…kind of lonely here sometimes.”

Something ached in Hero’s chest, and his expression softened. He couldn’t help but feel sorry for Basil all alone in the hospital far away from his family and friends. Even if he knew it was the best thing for him and was glad that he was getting the help that he needed, it made Hero sad to think that Basil was going through such a difficult time alone.

Hero sighed. He supposed Basil had been suffering alone for a very, very long time, and regardless of the complicated feelings that Hero himself may have been feeling towards Basil and everything that had happened, it was more important to him that Basil wouldn’t have to suffer by himself anymore—that he would never have to suffer by himself again.

He supposed Aubrey had eventually realized she felt this way too. It wasn’t long after their conversation about Basil and her complicated feelings towards him a couple of weeks ago that Aubrey had started visiting Basil again. She had never talked to Hero about it, but he could only assume that, like him, ultimately the love, friendship, and concern she had for Basil far outweighed her own hurts and feelings.

It meant a lot to Hero to see Aubrey offer Basil forgiveness, even when it was hard, and he knew how much it meant to Basil that she was there for him—that they were all there for him, even after everything that had happened. These days, it felt like the only person who hadn’t forgiven Basil was Basil himself, but Hero knew that would be the hardest part of all.

“Don’t worry, Basil,” Kel reassured him, patting his arm. “I’m sure you’ll get to come home really soon.”

Basil bit his lip but nodded as he quietly admitted, “I hope so…I uh…I’ve been really worried…about my flowers.”

“Oh you don’t have to worry about those. Hero has been taking care of them for you!” Kel beamed at Basil, giving him a pat on the back.

Basil’s eyes widened, but his hands began to tremble as he turned towards Hero. “Oh…you didn’t have to do that.”

“It’s no trouble at all,” Hero gently insisted with a slight smile. “Your house is on my way home from the pool, so I stop by on my way home from work. It barely takes any time at all, and it’s nice to have a hobby. Besides, Polly has been doing most of the work.”

“Aubrey and I have been helping out too,” added Kel. “But we’re not as good at gardening as you or Hero.”

Basil cleared his throat. “Well, thank you—all of you. I really appreciate it. I just…”  He paused, biting his lip and staring at his twisting hands. “I just…hope it’s not ruining your summer or taking up too much of your time.”

Aubrey, Kel and Hero quickly glanced at each other with somewhat awkward smiles—silently agreeing not to tell Basil that this had probably been one of the worst summers of their entire lives even without having to look after his garden for him. Hero had spent most of it working long hours at the community pool, cleaning his house, tending Basil’s garden, going for runs around the neighborhood, and desperately looking for anything else that would take his mind off of things. He craved being busy, but more than that he craved a distraction from his crumbling world. Sunny had moved. Basil was in the hospital. Kel and Aubrey were struggling. Everything in Hero’s life seemed to fall apart again this summer—collapsing under the weight of the truth. He could only imagine that Aubrey and Kel felt the same way. They couldn’t wait for this summer to finally be over…but they could never say that to Basil who stared up at them with frightened but hopeful eyes.

“How—how are you all doing?” Basil stumbled, in what Hero could only guess was a desperate attempt to fill the silence. “Is there…anything new and exciting in Faraway Town?”

Hero wracked his brain, but he couldn’t think of even one piece of good news to tell Basil. From the look on Aubrey’s face, it seemed she couldn’t think of one either. They both turned to Kel, who twisted his mouth to one side—his brow furrowing thoughtfully as if he, too, was scrounging to think of something positive to say.

“Uhhh… Hero got a postcard all the way from Venice, Italy.”

“Well…that’s pretty cool” said Basil with a slight smile.

Hero shrugged his shoulders. He supposed it was kind of sad that the most exciting thing that had happened all summer was that he had gotten a postcard from Italy, but his family, Kel especially, had been very fascinated by it. They had never gotten something in the mail from somewhere so far away before.

“It was really cool!” exclaimed Kel “It had a bridge on it.”

“Who was it from?” asked Basil.

“My friend from college, Kyle, sent it to me while his family was on vacation there,” said Hero. “It has the Bridge of Sighs on it. Kyle said he always buys postcards with bridges on them because one of his best friends is a civil engineering major and wants to build bridges someday. He gets her postcards of local bridges from all of his vacation destinations, but he had an extra one this time so he sent it to me.”

Basil smiled. “That was really nice of him. I think my parents went to Venice once. I saw pictures of it, and it was really pretty. I’ve always wanted to go someday”

“Then you should!” interjected Kel “We should all go. Someday when you get out of this place and we’re all grown up and stuff, we should all go to Venice—and then we can ride on those cool boats they have there!”

“They’re called gondolas, Kel,” Aubrey corrected with a huff.  

Kel rolled his eyes, but he beamed at Basil. “Sunny can come too. It’ll be an adventure!”

Aubrey sighed. “It’ll be years before we’ll be able to go to Venice, Kel. We might not ever be able to go there.”

“Well…” said Kel. “In the meantime, maybe Hero can bring his postcard to show Basil the next time we come to visit.”

“Oh wow!” Basil’s face seemed to light up as he smiled at his friends. “I’d love to see it.”

With a shrug of his shoulders, Hero tilted his head and gave Basil a bittersweet smile. “I’d love to show you my postcard, Basil. I’m sorry I didn’t bring it. I didn’t know that you wanted to see it. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be able to come visit you again because I have to go back to college next week.”

Basil’s face fell, but Hero could tell he tried his best to smile at him. “That’s okay” he said. “The doctor doesn’t think I’ll have to stay in the hospital for too much longer anyway. He hopes I’ll get to go home by the time school starts again.”

“That’s awesome Basil!” exclaimed Kel, and Aubrey nodded in agreement.

“I’m so happy to hear that,” said Hero. “I’m sure Kel and Aubrey will take really good care of you and help you get settled back in when school starts.”

“Yeah,” agreed Kel “And if anyone gives you weird looks or something, Aubrey will just beat them up with her nail bat.”

“Kel!” huffed Aubrey.

Before anybody could say anything more, however, the nurse came by to tell them that visiting hours were almost over and that they would have to leave soon. Aubrey and Kel both got up from the table to go to the bathroom before their long drive back to Faraway Town, leaving Hero and Basil alone.

“Are you excited—to be going back to college?” asked Basil.

Hero bit his lip. The honest answer was yes. In fact, he had never been happier to go back to anywhere in his entire life—though he supposed that wasn’t an entirely fair statement. It wasn’t going back to college that Hero was looking forward to—it was the idea of this long, horrible summer finally being over.

He didn’t want to upset Basil by telling him that, however, so he merely shrugged with half a smile and said “A little. It’ll be hard to leave my family again but…I missed school and my friends in the city. Plus, I made plans to see Sunny”

“Really?” asked Basil.

“Yeah. I called him last week and asked if I could take him to one of my favorite coffee places near campus. It’ll be nice to see him again and see how he’s settling in after the move.”

Basil’s expression softened, and he smiled. “I’m so glad to hear that. I’m sure it will mean a lot to Sunny that you want to visit him.” He paused, fumbling around for something in the pocket of his sweater. “That reminds me, I have a letter for Sunny. Do you think you could give it to him for me?”

Hero nodded. “Of course”

“I have one for you too,” Basil continued, handing Hero two envelopes. They were both heavy and lumpy like two small packages rather than letters. Whatever letters were inside must be several pages long.

Hero swallowed hard—trying his best to calm himself with a deep breath. He could only imagine what his letter said, but the truth was, he didn’t want to imagine it. He wasn’t sure he even wanted to read it.

For the entire summer, Hero had been trying his absolute best not to think about what Basil had done. He hadn’t lied to Aubrey when he told her he wasn’t angry with Basil, but he knew there were still complicated feelings, hurts, there under the surface. He supposed he had been running from them—pushing them aside like a kind of self-preservation or, perhaps more accurately, a somewhat desperate attempt at triage.

Triage, Hero thought. That certainly seemed like a good word for it.

In a medical ethics class he had taken last semester, Hero had learned about disaster triage or how to prioritize individual emergencies during a large-scale disaster. It was the best metaphor he could think of for how this summer had felt, especially as far as Basil was concerned. Whatever Hero may have felt or may have been dealing with on his own—it was small and inconsequential compared to Basil’s well-being when he was so fragile and such a danger to himself. Hero knew that he, himself, was hurting. He accepted that, but he couldn’t accept that that mattered, so he had buried his own complicated feelings so deep that he wasn’t even sure what he felt anymore. As he stared at the envelope in his hands, however, his stomach coiled and twisted with the sickening, sinking feeling that as soon as he opened that letter, he wouldn’t be able to run from it anymore.

“Do you…uh…want me to read this now?” Hero stumbled with a crack in his voice. He tried not to sigh too loudly in relief as Basil shook his head.

“It’s kind of long… You should probably read it when you get home. Or uh…”—his voice hitched—“you don’t have to read it at all, if you…”

As Basil’s voice tapered off, Hero reached out to gently pat his twisting hands. “No, um…I will. I’ll try to read it tonight. Thank you.”

“I have letters for Kel and Aubrey too, but I’ll see them when I get to come home so…” Basil’s voice trailed, but Hero nodded.

“I’m really glad that you’re going to get to come home soon, Basil. I’m sure Aubrey and Kel will look after you, but I’m always here too. If you need anything, just call” He reached for a nearby pad of paper and a pen, which Aubrey had been using to keep score during their card game and wrote down his phone number “This is my phone number at college. Feel free to call me anytime.”

As he handed the piece of paper to Basil, Basil smiled and muttered a quiet but grateful, “Thank you.”

Hero sighed. From the look on Basil’s face, he knew that Basil was never going to call him. If Hero had to guess, Basil was probably thinking that as soon as Hero read whatever he had written in that letter, he would regret giving him his phone number and would never want to speak to him again. Hero wished there was a way to reassure Basil that this wasn’t the case, that there was nothing that Basil could possibly say that would ever make Hero abandon him, especially when he needed him most. But as it was now, Hero just didn’t have the words…so he hugged Basil goodbye, wished him well and headed back home to Faraway Town, where he spent the rest of the evening staring at that thick envelope wondering when he would ever have the strength to open it.

When the clock at the bottom of the stairs chimed 8:00 PM, Hero, finally, tentatively reached towards the letter. He held his breath—biting his lip as he carefully opened the seal with trembling hands, bracing himself for whatever might be inside. He pulled out a dense stack of notebook paper which he slowly unfolded counting not two or three but ten pages filled with small, delicate script on both the front and back sides. Thankfully, the pages were numbered.

Hero swallowed hard and staring down at the paper in front of him, began to read.

Dear Hero,

This is the fourth time I have tried to write this letter. My doctor suggested that it would be good for me to be honest with you about my regrets to try to make amends and move forward. I don’t think I’ve been doing a very good job of that, and I’m really sorry if I, or this letter, am a burden to you.

I want to start by saying that I have always looked up to and admired you. I’m sure you know that my family wasn’t ever really around. For a long time, it was just me and my grandma. I never had any brothers or sisters, but I had you and the rest of our friends. You were all like a family to me, especially you, Hero. If I ever had a big brother, I imagine he would be a lot like you—always looking out for me.

You are one of the kindest people I have ever met in my whole life. You always think of everyone else before yourself and try to take care of everybody. Even now, when I know that you’re really hurting, you’ve still come to visit me. You still talk to me and take care of my garden. That really means a lot to me, more than I have the words to say, but I want you to know it’s okay if you’re angry with me. I know I would be. I really hurt you—hurt everybody with what I did, and I am so, so sorry.

I know there’s nothing I can say or do to make amends for what I’ve done, and I’m not writing you this letter to make any justifications or excuses. I only want you to know that you mean so much to me—that my whole life all I ever wanted was to be like you. I never meant to hurt you and knowing that what I did hurt you in ways that I can’t even imagine breaks my heart. But what hurts even more is knowing that even now, even after everything I did, you’re still trying to protect me like you always have.

But you don’t have to do that anymore, Hero. If after you read this letter, you never want to forgive me and never want to talk to me again, I completely understand. There are certain things that can’t be fixed with apologies and regrets. I have a lot of regrets—one of the biggest is hurting the one person in the world I knew would always be there for me. I am so, so sorry…

Hero’s breath got caught in his throat. His eyes burned. He couldn’t read anymore.

“I’m going on a run,” he choked out—frantically reaching for his running shoes. Kel looked up from the video game he had been playing with a confused tilt of his head.

“You’d better bring a jacket. It’s cold out there. I heard on the radio that there’s supposed to be a cold snap tonight.”

Hero nodded, but he couldn’t say Kel’s words really registered with him until he was running against the chilly wind. He wished he had listened to his brother and grabbed his jacket, but at the time he had just been so desperate to get out of there—or, he supposed, more accurately to get away from that letter. There was perhaps something poetic in literally running away from it, but Hero hadn’t really been thinking of that at the time. His jogs were his one lifeline—sometimes the only thing that kept him sane, kept him together when he was about to fall apart. It seemed like the only thing he could cling to now.

As Hero turned the corner out onto the main street again, a cold gust of wind blew past. He shivered. It was far too cold for this time of year. Cold snaps weren’t particularly common in Faraway Town, but they generally happened in the spring rather than the fall, at least as far as Hero could remember. He couldn’t recall a lot of cold snaps. As much as it pained him to admit it, a lot of his memories from before Mari had passed away were becoming hazier and hazier, but he could remember a particularly nasty cold snap from about five years ago…

*-*-*

“And watch out for that unexpected cold front,” said the disc jockey on the radio. “Temperatures will drop to the low 30s and below tonight, so you’ll want to get your coats and sweaters back out for the morning.”

“So much for that spring weather…” huffed Aubrey shaking her head as she stared at her hand of cards. “Also, go fish.” 

Kel groaned seemingly upset about both the upcoming cold snap and the fact he was losing at cards. “I don’t even know where my coat is.” 

“I’ll help you look for it,” said Hero patting his brother on the arm. “I think I just saw it hanging up in the closet.”

As Kel just shrugged and reached to draw some cards from the pile in the middle of the table, Hero felt a hand tugging at his shirt sleeve. Sunny blinked at him then motioned to his coat in the corner where he had left it weeks earlier, back when the weather had finally started warming up.

“That’s very nice, Sunny, but you don’t have to loan Kel your coat. He has one at home, and you’ll need it yourself tomorrow.”

Sunny nodded though his eyes widened in surprise as Mari snuck up behind him wearing his coat and wrapped her arms around him. She giggled as she playfully waved the sleeves around, and Hero stifled a laugh as she teased, “This coat is a little heavier than usual, isn’t it?” 

A slight smile tugged at the corners of Sunny’s mouth, and he let out two quick, heavy breaths—which Hero knew meant he was laughing. Seemingly pleased with herself, Mari’s smile widened, and she ruffled her brother’s hair before slipping out of the coat and handing it to him.

“I already boxed up my coat,” said Basil, nervously twisting his hands. “I think it’s under my bed. I’ll have to go home and check.”

Hero tilted his head at him. Somehow Basil seemed more nervous than usual. Mari seemed to notice as well as her face softened, and she gave him a reassuring smile.

“How about I walk you home?” she suggested. “So I can help you look for your coat.”

“Thank you, but you don’t have to do that, Mari,” sniffled Basil. “I’m sure it’ll be okay.”

“I don’t mind at all. It’ll be easier to look for it with several people helping.”

“I can help too,” said Hero. “After I walk Aubrey home, I’ll stop by and help you look for your coat.”

Basil’s eyes widened, and he held up his hands. “Oh no. You don’t have to do that. It’s really not a big deal at all.”

“And you don’t have to walk me home either,” huffed Aubrey with a slight frown. “I just live a street away.”

“But it’s dark out. I just want to make sure you get home safely.”

Aubrey rolled her eyes, but her mouth twitched in the corners as she shrugged her shoulders. “Alright, fine, but we should probably get going, huh? It’s getting late.”

As they all started to say their goodbyes for the evening, Hero watched as Mari gave him a reassuring smile and a look that said, “Don’t worry. I’ll find out what’s bothering, Basil.”

Hero sighed. Of course she had noticed there was something bothering him beyond just his lost coat. Mari was so good at reading people. She always knew when something was wrong and what to do to make someone happy again. It meant a lot to Hero to know that Basil was in such good hands—though he was sure he would feel a lot better once Aubrey was home safely and Mari had helped Basil work through whatever was troubling him.

After dropping Aubrey off at her house, Hero headed to Basil’s house where he was surprised to see Mari and Basil, who was now wearing his winter coat, out in the yard.

“Basil is worried that his plants will get too cold overnight so we’re going to cover them with some tarps and old picnic blankets,” Mari explained. How she had managed to get Basil to tell her this in such a short amount of time amazed Hero, but he supposed that was just Mari’s way with people. He always admired that about her.

Hero reached for one of the tarps and covered a nearby flowerbed. The cold wind biting at them, loosening the coverings as soon as they had been placed, made the task more difficult than it needed to be, but eventually every flowerbed in Basil’s garden was properly covered, warm enough to survive the cold night.

As the three of them surveyed their work, Basil sniffled. “Thank you so much for helping me. You really didn’t have to do that, but it means a lot.”

Hero smiled as Mari threw her arms around Basil and hugged him tightly.

“It was no trouble, Basil,” she said. “We’re always happy to help. That’s what family’s for.”

Tears pooled in Basil’s eyes as he choked out, “Family?”

“Of course. You’re like our little brother.” Giggling, Mari beamed at him and gently ruffled her hand through his hair. “If you ever need anything, we’ll always be here to help you—no matter what.”

Hero nodded in agreement and patted Basil’s shoulder before giving him a hug himself. Wiping the tears from his eyes, Basil sniffled again before saying his final thanks and goodbyes and heading back into his house.

As Hero and Mari started to walk home, Mari reached for Hero’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. Hero smiled at her, but watching her shiver in the wind, he immediately let go of her hand and tried to disentangle himself from his jacket.

“Here, you can take this…” he said holding out his coat to her.

Chuckling, Mari wrapped the jacket around her shoulders and playfully teased, “What a gentleman! Thank you.” She took his hand again—intertwining their fingers. “You’re always so sweet, Hero.”

Hero blushed. He watched his feet shuffling on the sidewalk as his face grew warm. “You’re sweeter,” he gently insisted. “What you said to Basil back there was so kind. I could tell it really meant a lot to him.”

Mari’s expression softened, and something bittersweet passed over her eyes. “I feel so sorry for Basil. It’s just him and his grandma. He must be so lonely…and he’s such a gentle-hearted person. I…” She paused. “I worry about him sometimes. He needs somebody to look out for him.”  

Hero nodded solemnly, but he gave Mari’s hand a reassuring squeeze.

“Hero?” As Mari looked up with him with wide, kind eyes, Hero’s heart could have melted. A smile twitched in the corners of her mouth as she quietly continued, “Promise me…that we’ll always take care of Basil…?”

As Hero nodded, a bright smile once again spread across Mari’s face. “Of course, Mari. We’ll always take care of Basil…and his flowers too.”

*-*-*

Hero stopped. Basil’s flowers. What if it got too cold for them and they froze before Basil even got to come home and see them?

Rubbing his hands together for warmth, he took off running towards Basil’s house where he found Polly out in the yard putting tarps over some of Basil’s flowerbeds.

“Hi Polly. Can I help?” asked Hero with a slight smile. “I was out on a run when I remembered Basil’s flowers and…with this cold snap coming in…” His voice trailed, but Polly smiled.

“Oh that’s so sweet of you, Hero,” she replied. “I’m just about finished, but if you want to cover that flowerbed over there”—she paused, motioning to her left—“that would be a big help.”

Hero nodded, and he reached for a nearby tarp. His brow furrowed as he turned towards the flowerbed—his chest aching at the sight of the clusters of lilies. Lilies had been Mari’s favorite flower, and Basil had always used to say they reminded him of her. When they were kids, Basil had had flowers that reminded him of all of his friends. If Hero was remembering correctly, his flower had been roses—though he had never felt he deserved it.  

Hero’s eyes narrowed, and he tilted his head. There were rose bushes in this flowerbed too. When had Basil planted these?

“This is one of Basil’s favorite flowerbeds, you know?” Polly said quietly. “When I first came to work here, I once found him curled up in it in the middle of the night during a cold snap like this. He had covered the plants but was worried they still weren’t going to be warm enough, so he took the blanket off of his bed and dragged it out here and curled up next to them himself.”

Polly sighed. “When I tried to tell him that they were probably warm enough now and he could come back inside, he wouldn’t. He said he planted these flowers for his big brother and sister, and he wasn’t going to leave them. I was so confused because Basil is an only child, but…after everything that happened this summer…I started thinking…”

Polly stopped and turned to look at Hero. She didn’t say anything more, but she didn’t have to—Hero knew what she was thinking. He was thinking the same thing.

With a heavy sigh, he sunk to the ground. Something coiled and twisted in his chest as he thought about what these last four years must have been like for Basil. Not only was he grieving the loss of Mari, blaming himself for her death and everything that had come after, but he was grieving the loss of his family too, worrying that as soon as they knew the truth, they would see him as he saw himself: unredeemable, unforgivable, and unlovable. Hero could picture him shivering in the garden, desperately clinging to his few remaining memories of the only family he had ever known—waiting for the other shoe to drop, for them to learn the truth and leave him behind forever.

As Hero stared at the flowerbed, the carefully tended roses and lilies that had always reminded Basil of him and Mari, Hero’s eyes burned and his vision grew blurred and misty. He could hear Mari’s words, “Promise me…that we’ll always take care of Basil…?”

Hero watched as Polly’s eyes widened in concern. As she leaned forward with an outstretched hand, his brow furrowed. He reached up and touched his cheek—cold from the chilly wind and damp from the tears that had finally struggled free.

*-*-*

“H—Hero?” stammered Basil in surprise as he walked into the hospital’s common area.

Hero gave him a slight smile. “Hey, Basil. How’s it going?”

“I…I thought you were going back to school.”

“Yeah…I…I leave Thursday, but I…” He paused—twisting his hands around the handles of the gift bag he had brought with him. “I wanted to see you one more time. I hope that’s okay…?”

As Hero’s voice trailed, Basil blinked at him with wide eyes, but he managed a brisk nod.

“I brought this for you,” Hero continued, handing Basil the bag. “They’re from your garden.”

Basil pulled out a jar filled with roses and lilies that Hero had carefully picked from his garden with Polly’s permission of course. Hero stared down at his hands and took a deep breath. “Polly told me that flowerbed was one of your favorites. It’s still in bloom and really pretty. I hope you’ll make it home in time to see it before the Fall.”

Basil nodded again but sniffled. “You…you didn’t have to do this. And you didn’t have to come either. I…I know you’re really busy.”

“I always have time for you,” said Hero with a smile. “And after I read your letter, I just…I wanted to come see you because…there’s…something really important that I have to tell you.” He swallowed hard with a slight shrug of his shoulders. “I tried writing it down, but I just couldn’t find the right words and I—”

“It’s okay,” Basil quietly interrupted him with a wavering voice. “You can…say whatever you need to say. I’m ready.”

“No. Uh…um…Basil…I—” Hero stopped abruptly. As he watched Basil tremble, watched the tears pooling in his eyes as he braced himself for the worst, his heart ached. He completely forgot all the words of reassurance he had planned to say and practically leapt forward, wrapping his arms around Basil and holding him tightly. He could feel Basil’s shoulders stiffen—could feel him gasp in surprise.

“He—Hero?” choked Basil—his voice cut off by a strangled, garbled sob in the back of his throat. As he started to shake, Hero knew he was crying, and it broke his heart but not as much as his whispered, “I’m so sorry…”  

Hero pressed his chin to Basil’s shoulder as tears began to prickle in his own eyes. He hugged him tighter—hoping that simple gesture would say everything he didn’t have the words to until finally, at long last, he took a deep breath and said, “I forgive you.”

“What?”

“I forgive you, Basil,” Hero repeated in a trembling voice—taking a deep breath to brace himself for the next part, the hardest part, of what he knew he had to say. “I…what happened…it…it hurt me.” He paused—suddenly struck by the weight of those words and of finally saying them aloud. “But…but that doesn’t make you unforgiveable and that…that doesn’t mean I don’t care about you anymore. I forgive you, and I know it’s probably not my place to say this but…I think…Mari would forgive you too and…she’d want you to forgive yourself. It’s…it’s what I want too.”

Hero’s throat grew dry and burned, but he took a long, shaky breath and continued, “You’ve suffered enough, Basil—punished yourself enough. I know you think that’s what you deserve, but that’s not what Mari would want for you. She really loved you, and all she ever wanted was to take care of you. Beating yourself up about what happened, only hurts you…It’s not going to bring her back. I…I”—his voice hitched— “I know that better than anyone. Believe me…if it did, she’d be here.”

Hero stopped—a lump forming in the back of his throat as his eyes burned with tears. “Mari—Mari isn’t…here…anymore…” he stumbled over his words, until finally he pulled away from Basil, placed both hands on his shoulders and met his teary eyes. “But I am, and I will always be here for you.”

At these words, tears began to pour down Basil’s cheeks as if he had never needed to hear something more in his entire life. He threw his arms around Hero and broke down sobbing. Hero’s face softened, and he pulled Basil close. As he gently patted his back, as he often did whenever he comforted any of his siblings, he caught sight of the jar of flowers on the table: the much loved lilies and roses. Hero sniffled, wiping a tear from his eye, as he thought of Mari and her wish: “Promise me…that we’ll always take care of Basil…?”

“I will always take care of you,” Hero gently whispered. “For both of us…”

[woodchipp]

yeah! maybe you could've tried to visit him at the hospital while he was with his dying grandmother and lent a shoulder! but I suppose that listening to Aubrey rant and having arguments about expired soda was more of a priority

>>"Maybe he just needs some time alone..." >>"Could you guys try to talk to him?"

peak caretaker, truly

"We're all here to see you!' have you considered that he may not want to see you? y'know, because he's having a rough patch right now? oh sorry, I forgot that the narrative only cares about Basil when it needs to use him as a punching bag

"Maybe he just needs some time to himself..." then why did you let them into the house in the first place

love the implication that Kel somehow didn't know friends should be there for each other until these past few days. that'd explain why he started giving a shit about Sunny only after he learned that the latter is about to move town lmao

given the characters' behavior towards each other during the game's events, this supposed showcase of True Friendship™ is so shallow it becomes disgusting. I'm impressed!

"we just want to know that you're okay 🥺" you bullied him for four years because you couldn't be arsed to clear up a misunderstanding and then nearly killed him. what the fuck do you think?

"will you please say something? 🥺" he doesn't need to say anything to you

oh, so you, who previously admitted to barely knowing the kid you've been taking care of despite being his caretaker for two years by that point, suddenly know he's going to appreciate his friends crashing on his couch? while he's grieving?

Fuck you and fuck this game's writing.

[stoopystuppy]

bndkawnfanjwfasf i really wanna do this nijisanji x omori au i have lying around 😭😭

[nonbinaryaubrey]

like is there. any other points where they actually interact with eachother or talk about eachother outside of the flower scene at the start and the "wow i sure i am worried about basil" stuff that im forgetting about. or is that literally it

[fishysplayhouse]

Doodle from the otther day because Hero and Basil friendship art is scarce 😿

[kiisaes]

draw what makes you happy! (omori catholic school au)

(more info under the cut)

basil is a TA bc he's one of the only dedicated artists in the school lol

none of them are friends until this class

they got seated randomly (didn't get to choose their table)

i kinda imagined kel to be those religious guys who are genuinely really nice to basically anyone regardless of their "school clique", but can be unknowingly ignorant (he takes on a more mature role here since hero is not as available)

aubrey probably tries acting tough but is secretly very straight-laced

sunny is .. well. sunny. lol. he doesn't have mari-related trauma so he's kinda just an endearing weirdo here

basil isn't exactly a class student like them, but decides that their table is his favorite anyway and he becomes their friend too

oh also , they don't live nearby to each other in this au. makes their friendship seem more like a happenstance this way

[mozzaremi]

finally working on the ghost hunter au that i started a few months ago (?), but i did a complete rehaul on the concept

INFODUMP:

(okok, english isn't my first language and i'll probably edit out grammar mistakes when i'll find them, so please bare with me lol)

Initially, Aubrey and Kel meet as internet pen-pals, both share an interest in horror and all things creepy (tho aubrey prefers the creepy but cute stuff). While Aubrey is more of a casual fan, Kel is a full on enjoyer of anything and everything that's spooky: horror movies, creepy stories, and especially the ghost stuff.

Kel would always share to Aubrey about his fantasies of being a professional ghost hunter and maybe having a tv show all about his and Aubrey's adventures in the paranormal world.

Aubrey and Kel both live in the big city, tho Aubrey often visits Faraway as that's where her mother resides. She would often meet up a friend of her's named Basil: a shy guy who's really interested photography and everything related to plants. While hanging out with the flower boy, Aubrey would frequently do Basil's hair and makeup, later on he picks up some neat beauty tips from her that allowed him to explore his style. The visits to Faraway wouldn't last long, only being there for the weekends and holidays before she'd have to go back to her dad in the city.

Eventually Kel and Aubrey make a blog for Ghost hunting. Their content on there is amateur at best, but they gain a loyal following of other ghost enthusiasts, and non enthusiast, mostly just people who really enjoy kel and aubrey's friendship dynamic and their banter.

In their endevours, they would earn a loyal hater, who goes by "The Maverick" who would nickpick any and all instances of paranormal activity. Although sounding pompous and theatrical, he always finds reasonable proof to debunk all their findings.

Skip a few years, Back in faraway basil has to deal with the grief of his grandmother's passing, he would often stay at the graveyard just to mourn. The graveyard in faraway was infamous for having an unknown being living there, no one knowing if it's human and harmless or something paranormal and dangerous. No one has ever been able to get photo evidence of the entity, so they are more often percieved as an urban legend.

One foggy evening, Basil was back at the graveyard, doing his usual mourning session, when something sat besides him on a bench. Eyes full of tears, he didn't dare to face the person, so he continued with what he was doing. Eventually the person(?) starts asking questions to get Basil to vent to him and maybe calm him down and it works. Felling a little bit better Basil faces the person to see a guy his age in a very strange outfit. Once he got a better look at him, he jumped off the bench realising it's the fabled ghost boy of the graveyard. He runs away, but notes the fact that guy he talked to was very nice...

After that, he starts believing in a life after death, and his grief lessens knowing that possibly his grandmother is in a better place

Basil finds out about Aubrey and Kel making a ghost blog, there the two would film themselves searching through abandoned areas to find ghosts... or something, anything really. While they never found anything scary, they had a very good duo dynamic and Basil became somewhat of a fan of theirs. Basil noticed the poor video quality due to it being recorded on a crappy phone (android lol) and it inspired him to purchase a video camera.

When Aubrey visits Faraway again, he offers his cameraman services to her and she agrees. She introduces Basil to Kel and they all hit it off.

One day, when Aubrey and Kel are feeling hopeless of their Ghost Hunting adventure, Basil tells them the time he met a ghost in the graveyard back in faraway. They both take his word for it.

They get Hero to drive them to faraway, Hero who is a Uni dropout, he really doesn't have anything better to do besides taking up odd jobs to pay rent. He has saved a lot of money throughout the years of being uni-free and working at basically every retail job in the city, so the though of having a road-trip didn't bother him.

Once they are at the town of faraway, Hero hands them a packed lunch, and the gang is off to find a ghost! Being in the graveyard, things felt fruitless, not a lot of things were happening besides the fog that started to form. Kel got tired and started reaching for his bag to get the sandwich that Hero packed him. But there was a problem... there were no sandwiches to be found in his bag... Suddently his eyes meet the figure of the faraway ghost boy who was snacking on a BLT...

Kel alerts his friends to come grab some footage of the ghoul right in front of him, but an issue arose... the video camera wasn't working and couldn't get Sunny in the shot without the device glitching out.

The ghoulish boy named Sunny sees how restless, but persistent the ghost hunter crew was, he found their antics humorous at best, but once the big brother Hero comes to check up on them is when Sunny is on full guard

He summons chains from under the ground, binding the 4 visitors in place. Aproching them again he threatens to suck all the life out of them. They start pleading for their life and a idea accured...

Sunny gave them an offer to help him find his long lost sister...He is unsure if she's still alive or not, but he still feels the presence on her in the living world through the Something chained to his foot. In return he would spare their life and let them film him for their ghost blog. The gang agrees to his offer and just so they don't double cross sunny, he lays a curse on them that if they leave him behind on purpose, they would have their souls taken away from their bodies, turning them into lifeless husks.

AND SO THAT'S HOW THEIR ADVENTURE STARTS! they have this sorta mystery gang adventure going on, traveling across the US to find Mari while also having wacky high-jinxs and sunny allerting the others of ghostly presences in the area for Aubrey, Kel and Basil's ghost hunting blog content, just so they would get enough blog donations to keep traveling!

[prodigal-explorer]

why i hate sunflower (sunny x basil) - a rather unprofessional essay

spoilers for omori below

and also i'm not gonna tag this as hate because it's literally just the truth. cry about it.

respectfully, it's a horrible ship. i might just be saying that because i hate basil, but i just cannot see it ever being healthy. basil destroyed everybody's lives with what he did, and even if they decide to forgive him, what happened to them won't just be reversed. not to mention the codepedent/abusive aspect of the whole situation.

basil expects sunny to dedicate his entire life to him and his emotional well-being. you shouldn't be responsible for anyone's emotional well-being when you're fifteen years old except for your own.

even in the game, there is evidence of something codependent. basil can't function like a decent human being when sunny explains that he's going away. basil literally HURTS SUNNY to the point where he needs to be hospitalized in an attempt to make him stay. and you think that would work romantically? heck no.

yeah, they smile at each other at the end, but does that really mean anything? forgiveness is great, but it doesn't take back what happened and the effects it had. sunny will always remember when he tried to leave and got his eye taken out.

and the fact that sunny is so heavily traumatized because of what basil decided to do to his dead sister is just insane to me. he's always going to see that image. i get that basil had good intentions or whatever but intention doesn't equal effect. if i ran you over with my car, it doesn't matter that i was twelve or that it was an accident. you would still have to go to the hospital.

and when people say "but he was just a kid he didn't know any better!". if basil had the cognitive ability to think of doing that, he had to cognitive ability to stop, or AT LEAST to admit what he did. if he did, then hero wouldn't blame himself for years and years, aubrey wouldn't have been abandoned, and mari would have been respected after she died. what basil did was extreme disrespect to the dead and it gives me chills just thinking about it.

and he did it to sunny's SISTER.

i just don't see why you guys don't care more about that? that's a bit more than a little red flag that is like a red ocean.

end of story, sunflower is a horrible ship and i don't get why the fandom is so obsessed with it. it makes me sick just seeing it.

especially when this is such a beautiful story when you look at it from a friendship pov! why does everything have to be about romance and uwu little gay boys? i know damn well if basil was a girl nobody would be shipping him with sunny, you guys just want a gay male relationship to fixate on and infantilize because that's what toxic fandom people DO. but that's a digression.

anyway if you like sunflower you're a threat to society. womp womp go cry. or better yet stop shipping it that would be lovely.

[bitchliteraria1906]

I don't know if this is a hot take or not, because I haven't interacted with the Omori fandom enough, but I don’t think Kel would forgive Sunny and Basil that easily. I'm not even sure if he'd be the first one to forgive them.

The way I see Kel, he's a very loyal, community-oriented person. He's extroverted, comes from the biggest (and apparently closest) family in the main cast, was the one who made Sunny go out again, and is just overall the glue that holds everyone together and someone who is used to community and friendship and needs these things to feel good.

Mari's death literally took that from him in multiple ways. One friend is dead, the remaining friend group fell apart due to everyone coping so differently, Hero isolated himself and stopped talking to him in the process.

He was the first one to have a birthday after the event, and he spent that birthday completely alone.

I just don't see him taking the revelation that all of this happened because of Sunny and Basil lightly.

There's also the fact that Kel knows how it feels like to have an older sibling who you don't always see eye to eye with, but still love a lot. He has that in Hero just like Sunny did with Mari. This could make him sympathetic towards Sunny and his guilt and grief, but it could also make him more horrified with the whole situation:

"Basil suggested hanging her? And you were okay with it?!"

I can definitely see him trying to face the whole thing with a "What would I do if that was me?" mentality, and coming to the conclusion that Sunny is too cold, because if he was in Sunny's shoes, if he had accidentaly killed Hero, he would never feel okay with lying about it the same way for years.

Ironically, this thought process could also make him more sympathetic towards Basil. Kel is, again, very relationship and community oriented, so maybe he could come to the conclusion that in Basil's shoes, he would also have done anything to protect a friend. He'd still be angry at the lie, though.

Idk, just a thought.

[lilac-gold]

hero & mari's friendship has so many more layers than people typically consider, and it's genuinely so painful to think about.

to begin, they're both people pleasers, determined to impress everyone and act as role models to the younger kids. they settle for nothing less than perfection, mari practicing her piano for countless hours on end, hero earning solely first place awards. they both feel the pressure of everyone's expectations, of knowing that they're obligated to go above and beyond, to do more and more to impress. but nothing is ever enough, not when those expectations just get higher and higher the more they strive to meet them, so it builds up to the point where they can only feel satisfied achieving flawlessness. but flawlessness isn't possible, not when there's always something else to criticise, something that could have been better. they're both placed on pedestals because that's where they want to be, they need to be. they take it upon themselves to be perfect, so perfect is how they appear.

mari is gentle, caring, funny, wise. she offers bountiless good advice at only the cost of your love-- because she needs love, needs the validation that she's doing well or else her efforts will have all been for nothing. she's the perfect older sister, looking out for her little brother and protecting him where necessary. she's the perfect musician, dedicated and quick-fingered, composing masterpieces at the age of fifteen. she's the perfect student, spending hours after school studying to ensure that she does the best she can in her exams.

hero is compassionate, talented, charming, helpful. he offers assistance to anyone, all they have to do is ask-- because he can't say no, not when that would be letting people down. he's the perfect older brother, joking around with kel, setting a good example, keeping him out of trouble. he's the perfect hobbyist, taking an interest in cooking, each meal as good as the last as he puts his all into making them delicious. he's the perfect student, incredibly hard-working and doing his parents proud.

in the real world, hero and mari don't seem to have many friends. they spend all of their time in the group of six. they feature in the vast majority of the photo album's photos, and are often implied to be together in the scenes neither of them feature in. hero isn't particularly close to anyone when he returns to faraway, not seeking out anybody his own age to catch up with. when mari dies, it's sunny, kel, aubrey, basil and hero who are affected deeply.

but they have each other. they talk together, have fun together, work hard together. they understand each other in a way no-one else does, because they're in the same position.

hero isn't just "mari's malewife". mari isn't just "hero's girlfriend". their relationship goes so much deeper than just an implied romantic connection, because in the whole world, these two lean on each other the most. they're both older siblings. they're both straight a students. they're both masters at what they love. they're both the pride and joy of their parents. they're the same in so many ways, and that means they can trust each other.

hero and mari grow up together, and they grow up always trying to impress people. always avoiding disappointing them. they bottle everything up and hide it under warm smiles because they have to be perfect. they can't be anything less, or else they risk losing the images they've worked so hard to build, the images they can't afford to lose. not now, not ever.

they can't tell anyone about their struggles. about how hard a perpetual state of perfection is to preserve. about the crushing weight of expectations that never leaves their shoulders. about the endless responsibilities seizing hold of them in a vice grip, and their own steadfast refusal to burden anyone with their "problems". they're not supposed to have problems. they're supposed to be perfect.

they can't tell anyone, except for each other.

so that's who they go to. they each know the other inside out, know every intricacy and detail of their trains of thought, because their minds work in the same way. they're able to connect, to provide those pillars of support they can't get anywhere else, because they've always been a shoulder for someone else to lean on with no wall behind them to catch any falls caused by the weight.

they listen to each other. there's no judgement, no fear of disappointment. only the burning need to let out the fears plaguing their minds, to be allowed to feel bad, to have someone that won't be disappointed or shocked about their problems. they're teenagers with what feels like the weight of the world atop them, but together, they're able to share the burden.

looking at the other is like staring into a half-faded reflection, because hero and mari are both broken mirrors showing only the images people want to see. the cracks are hidden by their light, any imperfections masked and obscured by the awe brought forth via their achievements. but hero sees mari's silently shattered shards, and mari sees hero's. and they're always, always there for each other to slowly start mending the cracks.

and then mari "kills herself". and hero's left alone.

there's always been an unspoken vow between them, a promise that they'd support each other no matter what. that they could trust each other with anything. and hero stares up at a limp, lifeless corpse, and he doesn't know why mari couldn't trust him with this.

the worst part is, he knew there could have been signs, because he knows mari's endless cheerfulness isn't all genuine. he knows she gets irritable when she doesn't achieve flawlessness. he knows she won't let anyone else see her cry. he knows she's been battling the voices inside of her head for ages now.

but it's only in the months succeeding her death that he truly knows what depression feels like. for a while, there's only his suffocating devastation and grief, only the world-shattering fact that his best friend, his confidant, his pillar, is gone forever. and without her, he crumbles.

he goes to her funeral, and sees a never-ending array of black umbrellas on a cold, wet, miserable day. he holds no umbrella of his own. the water trickles into the unfeeling fabric of his black suit, sends shivers down his spine that should have forced him to react, plasters unbrushed hair to his forehead, mingles with the salty tears spilling down his cheeks. the sun shined brighter when she was here, and now that she's gone, he can only let the chill of the rain seep into his skin.

he returns home, and crawls into bed, into the empty embrace of heavy blankets and a darkness he wishes would consume him, and spends hours upon hours upon hours simply sobbing into his pillow. it seems impossible that she's gone. that the only person he could count on, the only person who understood him, the person he'd vowed to face the world with, the person he's relied on so heavily, is gone. gone forever. gone of her own volition, because she could see no reason to keep living.

hero wasn't reason enough. he wasn't good enough. he's tried so hard for so long not to let anyone down, but it's clear to him now that he's failed her. and that's his breaking point, when the half-sealed cracks all burst back apart. there's no point in trying anymore. there's no way to win. he can't fathom keeping up the picture of perfection without her.

mari wasn't the perfect older sister. she snapped at sunny when he got distracted during practice, brushed off aubrey when the girl offered to help out with the recital, spent her days too preoccupied to offer advice. she wasn't the perfect musician. she couldn't bear the thought of hitting even one wrong note, obsessing over the cursed piece she'd created even as it continuously refused to meet her sky-high standards. she wasn't the perfect student. she didn't even live beyond the start of freshman year.

hero's no longer the perfect older brother. he doesn't respond when kel tries to reach out to him, any words buried under the dirt covering a grave he slowly digs for himself over the next year. he's not the perfect hobbyist. he can't bring himself to so much as think of indulging in his passions, believes that he doesn't deserve to have nice things and no longer finds that spark of joy appear at the prospect of cooking. he's not the perfect student. he doesn't go to school over the next year, completely sectioned off from everyone else as he rots out of sight of the sun.

mari was gentle, caring, funny, wise. mari was stubborn, secretive, secluded, sensitive.

hero was compassionate, talented, charming, helpful. hero was silent, selfish, subordinate, spineless.

hero is all alone. mari is dead dead dead dead dead.

he finds himself following in her footsteps, and holds it all in. really, what else can he do? his only confidant is gone. he refuses to face a world without mari in it. he shouts at the one person who still sees him as someone to admire. he breaks down time and time and time again, a constant disappointment.

but he's seen how mari's death has affected his little brother. he knows how his own would, too. and he can't do that to kel. that would extinguish the one bit of light he has left. the sun may have shined brighter when mari was here, but with kel, some of its glow still remains.

so he gets up. he learns to try again. and this time, he does it all alone.

he reconnects with kel, as false as his efforts feel to himself. he tries not to think of how much better mari was at this, how much easier it had been to put on a grin with her in his life. he watches out for kel, notices when his smiles flicker just a little too much and offers to take him to gino's. perfect older sibling.

he takes up every extracurricular he can find, and brings home trophy upon trophy in each to demonstrate his capabilities. he works hard and learns fast, and is handed shiny plaques of silver and gold that indicate his mastery of skills he can't bring himself to truly enjoy. perfect hobbyist.

he makes up for the year of school he's missed by dedicating hours upon hours to studying. he passes with honours and goes to one of the best colleges he can find. he takes the course he's expected to, and pretends the sight of blood doesn't sicken him to his core. perfect student.

he upholds mari's legacy. he does everyone proud. it's a hollow sentiment.

throughout it all, he doesn't visit mari's grave once. he doesn't so much as mention her name, despite her haunting his every waking and sleeping thought. he misses her more than words can say, but he can't handle looking back on their memories. he claims he's doing just fine without her. he's a liar.

hero's always had a tendency to bottle things up, but after her death, that gets infinitely worse. he doesn't risk getting close to anyone, lest he fail them too. he closes himself off. people like him, people know him, but he doesn't have friends. not really. he's always been a little disliked, a little ostracised, a little different. he cares so much about how others perceive him, but the one group he's never managed to win over is those he was expected to be closest to. that was where both he and mari had struggled.

at least before, they'd had each other. now, hero makes it through the dull, monotonous cycle of his life by himself. he finishes high school, but moves onto college. he leaves behind faraway, but brings a huge piece of it with him. he tries to manage. he keeps it all hidden in neat little rows, fragile bottles on slanting shelves he does his very best to balance. he teeters precariously on the edge of a breakdown with every step he takes, but doesn't let anyone take notice. he wraps it all up under charming smiles and silken words. without the sun to guide him, he fades into the shadows as easily as he breathes. he's just another student, nothing particularly special about him, and while it's different and strange, it's in plenty of ways relieving. average people don't let anyone down. now it's only his parents he still has to impress. he pretends to be happy, and ignores the ghost he seems to be following every footstep of.

hero's alone, but it's better that way. mari died because he wasn't good enough to save her. he won't let anyone else down. never again.

he hopes mari would be proud of him. (he knows she'd hate what he's become.)

i feel like these two are often dismissed due to the lack of focus on their arcs and characters in canon, but there's so, so much about them to unpick that's lying in the subtext. hero and mari are such tragic, interesting, complicated characters, and it's sad to see them be brushed aside. no matter how you see their dynamic, there's so much to explore surrounding them, both separately and as a pair, and i'd love to see more people discussing just how brilliantly complex they really are.

[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.

[tosteur-gluteal]

Omori mlb AU make my brain go brrrr

Question: how different does basil act when he's stranger/mint from his regular self and is he purposefully doin' that or does the kwammi transformation just affect his personality that much?

Glad you asked, anon! Yes, Basil's personality changes whenever he's either his civilian or his hero self, just like RW Basil and Stranger are different. Yet in a sense, they're facets of Basil, the person he really is:

Before Basil turns into a superhero, he's constantly under pressure (parents + bullying) and his only way of surviving this environment is by being overly nice, overly modest. He's trying to stay as unnoticed as possible, while having the best grades and participating in a way to make him look smarter than everyone else. And that irritates a lot of people, because as a results he's perceived as "fake". He has to be that perfect obedient son for his parents; as a result he's really struggling to even know what is his real self.

Being Catmint is really liberating to him. He can be negative, he can be bad mouthed. He can be obnoxious... And yeah, he tries to play it cool. Yet, it doesn't feel like his true self yet.

At the end of the day, it's really his friendship with Sunny/ partnership with Ladybug that helps him through that. When he met Sunny, he noticed that his overly polite self wasn't what Sunny found endearing about him. It was his little quirks he didn't even know he had before, it was his centers of interests, and yeah, his flaws. He noticed that it's exactly what made him love Sunny as a friend and as a crush: He's just a dude. He's just a dude who likes art.

For Ladybug: He realised he doesn't have bare everything by himself. He realised that he can be vulnerable, he can show kindness without the fear of getting percieved as weak. And yeah, he realised he can trust Ladybug.

While he always tried to push Ladybug away, he learnt that actually, there's nothing wrong with camaraderie at work (and god knows how if Ladybug didn't have a crush on Catmint, he definitely wouldn't have the patience to deal with that angsty boy... Or maybe yes, IDK)

So yeah! He's kinda doing it on purpose. Thank you for the ask, anon! Tell me what you think!

[ratqng]

Dude just went through your block and your Midnight!AU sounds fucking awesome. We love Basil angst 😁

How did different members of the group cope with the loss of Sunny? (If you haven't already talked about it)

Also your art is hecking amazing lol

Thank you!

Okay so, we'll start with Mari.

Mari- After the death of Sunny, Mari became more selective of her friends, only trusting a very certain amount of people, more specifically Hero. She still has a liking for musical instruments, though it is a slightly tarnished passion post recital. She is still extroverted in a sense and usually goes out with Hero as well as holding onto that strong core trait of kindness and caring. However, she has a hard time controlling her emotions and usually relies on Hero for emotional support.

Kel- Very similar to the Canon Kel, but after Sunny's death, he matured quickly, although he still puts a big smile on, Kel struggles with processing heavy emotions such as depression. He visits Sunny's grave frequently to update him on what's going on in Faraway. Kel wants the friend group to go back to how it was before and wishes for Hero and him to be closer like before.

Aubrey- She took it very rough, not only did she lose her crush, but her relationship with her role model shattered too. Luckily she did have Kim bring her back to a normal level. In the present, she will avoid any topic in her past, especially when it comes to Sunny or Mari. She denies feeling any sort of negative feelings when it comes to her grief and says how she is just over it. [She is a part of the Idol Gang and uses singing as a way of coping that deep pain inside her.]

Basil- Probably took it the worst, not only did Basil see the incident before hand, but he also noticed Sunny deteriorating. After hearing Sunny committed suicide, he isolated himself more and more, scribbling over the photos of Mari and believing that Mari is solely to blame. He uses gardening as a way to cope, but it's very hard to brush off those feelings of Anger towards Mari. Over the years, he mended his friendships with Kel and Aubrey. Although it is very awkward with Hero and very poor with Mari.

Hero- Took it the easiest. Although it was still a huge blow to him when announced. Deep down, he feels like he failed Sunny and failed the group when they shattered. He has mostly learned to live and let go, accepting that what happened happened, but he is still sad about losing Sunny. However, he usually is more preoccupied with Mari now, usually with her on days he's off.

Sunny - I've been living here for as long as I can remember. I am now perfected.

[woodchipp]

Alright, so

It’s pretty obvious that OMORI’s cast was intended to be seen as a “found family” of sorts - Mari’s the mom, Hero’s the dad, Kel, Aubrey, and Basil are their kids and Sunny’s the baby. It’s supposed to underscore how ostensibly sweet and awesome their friendship was. But IMO there was a different way for the game to use this trope.

It could’ve been deconstructed.

I think it’d have been interesting if the game kept the sugarcoated “family” restricted to Headspace and used the real friend group to show why that trope wouldn’t work out in the real world. Mari’s horrible home life (and her general obsession with being perfect stemming from that) could've compelled her to fashion herself into a “mom” for her friends because a) she’d want to make sure they feel safe and cared for since, well, she and Sunny didn’t get to experience that 🙂 and b) her parents are unreasonably restrictive with her even though she’s the “golden child”, so she really wants to feel in control of something in her life for once.

Tying into the game’s focus on escapism, the group’s “found family” shtick could’ve been framed as one big form of escapism for most of the people involved - they get to pretend everything’s fine and they have everything they could ever ask for because they have their friendship. Basil and Aubrey would’ve seen the group as the family they never had and Hero would’ve seen it as a way to get his mind off his mom’s death (at least until Kel joined the group). Sunny would probably just be happy to have friends, ig lol

Over time, however, the kids’ issues would get increasingly apparent. Maybe seeing his grandma’s health deteriorate would make Basil’s abandonment issues flare up and he’d become firmly convinced he’s unwanted in the group even though everyone’s trying their hardest to make him feel welcome. Maybe Sunny’s resentment of his parents’ favoritism towards Mari and growing sick of being seen as “the baby” of the group despite basically being his besties’ therapist would make him more snippy. Maybe Kel and Aubrey’s squabbles would become exhausting because it’d seem like they do nothing but argue all the time. Maybe Mari would find herself spending less and less time with her friends due to her parents' demands and her burn-out from incessantly working to meet said demands.

Naturally, she would feel additional pressure to maintain her “family” and fix everyone’s problems, but here’s the catch - she wouldn’t be able to, as much she’d want to and as much as she’d try. She is, after all, a 16 yo teenager with a bevy of her own problems she uses her “found family” as a bandaid for. 

She would be aware of that. And it’d gnaw at her.

Cue the recital argument 🙂

Ironically, I think the group’s dissolution would be the best ending for them in this case. The game could even make a point that while their bond helped them get through their childhood years, it’s unsustainable in the present day due to their issues, which they need to work on before they could have a shot at reuniting again

[humornaut]

Chef Sunny’s Kitchen: Hobbies of an Unreliable Narrator

Hey all! Just wanted to do another little post that I’ve seen toyed with but never explored to it’s fullest potential. Spoilers for Omori ahead!

So Omori as a game is no stranger to the concept of unreliable narrators, but often, I see people using that term pretty liberally to explain away situations that don’t really make all that much sense (example, I’ve seen someone say that Sunny’s fridge isn’t actually empty, he’s just refusing to see the rest of the food because he feels he doesn’t deserve it). However, if you spend any amount of time examining the game, you will find that the ways in which Sunny (and Basil) are unreliable narrators are fairly consistent.

To spend a little bit of time on Basil, there are two main reasons that he is an unreliable narrator. Firstly, he is in a massive state of denial throughout the real world sections of the game, not that that is that big of a deal, since we already know the Truth by the time he gives his account of what happened the night of the recital. However, there is another big way that Basil is an unreliable narrator.

Basil’s photo album is one of the primary ways that the player, and by extension Sunny, is familiarized (or re-familiarized) with the past. But there are several ways that Basil’s photo album can be misleading. For instance, the photo album is from Basil’s perspective, so we don’t often get views of what other characters thought about certain events. In addition, things like Sunny and Kel sneaking out to go to Hobbeez or Sunny and Aubrey talking on the swing set aren’t going to be mentioned in the photo album, since Basil would not have been present. Beyond that, unhappy memories such as the Lake Incident won’t be included. Finally, Basil is often noted for enjoying the act of keeping secrets, which is something we see highlighted in nearly every memory during Memory Lane.

To give an example of where stuff like this comes up, we should start at the Rainy Day memory, or rather, the pictures that are associated with it.

(4/29): Just KEL being KEL again... We went to HOBBEEZ, but the shop owner told KEL to leave his jacket outside since KEL was getting all his comics wet. Sorry, SHOPKEEP.

From here, we know that after the Rainy Day memory ends, the four friends head over to Hobbeez to read comics, and then Kel had to leave his jacket outside. But what we don’t see, due to Basil not talking about it in the album, is that they actually split up afterwards, with Aubrey and Kel staying at Hobbeez, and Sunny and Basil going to the secret hangout spot and hanging out at the dock.

They don’t even have the umbrellas, showing that they are intentionally in the same outfits, since they couldn't just re-use the same sprites.

Likely, Sunny and Basil split off from the group to have some kind of private conversation away from Aubrey and Kel. It could’ve been related to Sunny’s crush on Aubrey, since this would’ve been the day that Basil figured it out. Sunny clearly never talked about his crush with Mari, since Mari is shown comparing Aubrey and Kel’s friendship to her own relationship with Hero, so perhaps Sunny was feeling a little frustrated at how close Aubrey and Kel were. He does canonically just walk ahead of the group after Basil calls out his crush, after all. It doesn’t really matter what specifically they talked about, because what does matter is that this is an event that Basil purposefully left out of the photo album, so we are completely left in the dark on what actually happened in this conversation.

But I want to get on to the main thing I wanted to talk about here.

Sunny

So Sunny is such an unreliable narrator that it is sometimes painful. There are two main reasons that Sunny is an unreliable narrator:

Sunny is repressing the Truth, so things like the existence of the closet are ignored, and within Headspace, how important Basil is to Sunny specifically is being repressed until later in the game. This causes quite a few oddities. The Headspace friends (and Hero in the real world) say that Omori has a good memory, but based on things we see throughout Headspace, it seems like a lot of the things that Sunny “remembers” are actually just things about Basil. (e.g. the Headspace photo album shows that Sunny has forgotten that Aubrey’s favorite fruit is watermelon. Meanwhile the least effective smoothie is the Banana smoothie, while the most effective non-dino smoothie is the Strawberry smoothie. Basil is shown in the real world photo album to dislike a banana popsicle, and outright says that he loves strawberries during the Birthday Memory. I may do another post expanding on this concept, because I think it is incorrect to take the statement about Sunny/Omori having a good memory at face value.)

Sunny is an imperfect human that hasn’t seen his friends in nearly four years. The way that his friends are portrayed in Headspace is in many ways, an ideal, and is not representative of how they act in either the current day, or back before the incident.

However, there is one last way that Sunny is an unreliable narrator, and that’s the simple fact that Sunny hates himself.

See, Sunny hates himself on a subconscious level throughout the game. Due to this, many of the things that Sunny does for others or himself were cast away, as they were just no longer important in the face of what he did. Even if he does remember that he did things for his friends growing up, they are never brought up because he no longer sees those things that he did as important. Within Sunny’s mind, the fact that he would listen to Basil talk about anything and everything is repressed until the player enters Blackspace, when Stranger uses that information to guilt Sunny for leaving the real Basil behind. The fact that he did this for Aubrey as well is something that is kept away from the player until he’s having a version of his friends remind him of their bonds shortly before entering a battle within his own mind to keep from losing the will to live in the battle against Omori.

Due to a mixture of all these reasons, Sunny’s relationships with each of his friends can often seem one-sided, especially when it comes to Basil, since so much more of him is being repressed than the others. You will often see the idea floated around that Basil’s liking of Sunny was one-sided, and that Sunny actually considered Kel his best friend, but this simply isn’t the case, it’s just that Basil kept a photo album and Sunny is actively trying to forget everything related to the Truth.

To illustrate what I’m talking about, I’d like to expand on a topic that I briefly mentioned in my previous post: Sunny has a small cooking hobby.

It wouldn’t be surprising for someone like Sunny to have an interest in cooking and preparing food. After all, two of the people that he looks up to the most are Mari and Hero, and both of their food preparation abilities are put on a pedestal within Headspace. Also within Headspace is an extremely wide range of food. A notable exclusion from the Snack list is steak, Sunny’s favorite food (according to his mom). Within the Foe Facts! journal, we can see that Sunny knows nutritional information for cilantro (this is attributed to Kel in the journal, but remember, this is Sunny’s mind, so Sunny would have to know it), and we can also see information about ginger and celery. According to the Headspace description for chocolate, we know that Sunny knows the difference between baking chocolate and regular chocolate. Sunny also has a concept of vegan food, and seems to be preoccupied with what can be considered vegan when it comes to several of the different Bunnies that appear within Orange Oasis.

Bread and toast are also given a large importance within Headspace, which likely stems from the summer before the photo album, when Hero and Mari were working at the bakery. He knows about different types of bread, has a technique called “Bread Slice” in Headspace, and is at least somewhat familiar with the process for making bread, as seen in the area where the Bread Twins are located.

In order to get any deeper into this analysis and talk more about why this information is somewhat hidden from the player, we need to get into just who it is Sunny cooks for.

The table that Basil and Sunny always sit at is one of the most adorable easily-missed details in the game, in my opinion, but I personally find that it connects to Sunny’s cooking interest quite well. After all, there would be no other reason for them to have this table in here if it was just for eating and homework and playing, as there is a full table in just the other room. The fact that this table is seen in a version of the house seemingly taken shortly before the incident is also relevant, because Mari and Hero would have been much more busy and likely wouldn’t be cooking or setting up picnics as much.

I’d like to put forward the idea that many of Sunny’s culinary escapades, outside of the group cooking situations that are mentioned by Hero, were shared specifically with Basil. This is because there are two primary food items that are associated with Sunny’s abilities.

Tofu

Tofu appears a whole lot in Headspace. It is loved by the Sprout Moles, and it is the cheapest food item, since you can get it for a single clam. The description for it calls it “Soft cardboard, basically.”

In the 2018 demo of the game, Basil’s grandmother directly states that tofu is Basil’s favorite food. Since this does not appear in the final game, I would like to point out that Basil’s fridge in Faraway is still the only fridge that has tofu in it, so it can still be assumed that this is intended to be the case.

During the Hikokomori route, there are two books that Sunny is shown to own that are relevant to this analysis. The first is one entitled “The Food Pyramid”, which is just another piece of evidence of Sunny’s cooking interest, and the second, “The Benefits of Tofu”. Sunny having this second book is very interesting, as he himself is shown to dislike tofu greatly. The only conclusion that I can draw from this is that Sunny specifically learned how to prepare tofu for Basil’s benefit.

And indeed, despite tofu healing the least amount of health and costing the least amount of clams, it is still the most clam efficient way of acquiring better snacks in Headspace, as 10 can be traded in Orange Oasis for a random other snack. I like to imagine that this references Sunny trading tofu with Basil for other foods, with the time commitment involved in the exchange referencing the fact that Sunny could’ve just learned how to make the other foods, but he is going out of his way to make something Basil likes, for his benefit.

Pictured: a normal amount of things about tofu for someone that doesn’t like tofu themselves to know

However, the other food that we know about Sunny’s proficiency with is far more interesting...

Strawberry Cake

So this is something that I’ve seen brought up a lot recently, the fact that Sunny knows step-by-step instructions on how to prepare a strawberry cake within Headspace implying he was involved with the preparation of Basil’s birthday cake in the real world, as it is the only time one is seen in the real world, but I think this idea deserves to be examined a little bit further.

First: Sunny knows how to make a strawberry cake, one way or the other.

Second: Sunny is not given credit for making Basil’s strawberry cake during the Birthday memory.

So, here’s what we know:

Hero is given credit for making the cake by Aubrey. However, Hero never actually responds to either Aubrey or Basil’s compliments during the memory.

Aubrey did not help with the cake, otherwise she wouldn’t have given credit to Hero specifically. In addition, we can assume Kel did not help, by virtue of him allowing Aubrey to not compliment him as well. Aubrey also likely does not believe that Mari was involved, because Aubrey would’ve complimented Mari if she knew.

Not everyone would’ve been at Basil’s house while the cake was being made, as this party was a surprise party being held at Basil’s house, so a few members of the group were likely on distraction duty.

Mari teases Sunny for being “camera shy” and tells him that he will get used to it soon enough. Indeed this does seem to be the case, as it doesn’t take long at all for Basil to take a picture of Sunny once he gets his camera back.

“Hehe...” indeed, Mari.

Finally, I would like to point out that just like the visions for the Rainy Day memory, there is a vision for this memory. In Faraway Park, you can find Hero and Kel playing, while wearing their outfits from the Birthday memory, implying that Hero and Kel were not spending their time before the party making a birthday cake.

There are two adorable conclusions that can be drawn then, from Sunny knowing how to make a strawberry cake. I’ll let you take your pick.

Sunny himself made Basil’s cake, either with instruction from Hero or on his own, then was too shy to take credit for it, or even appear on camera with it, with Hero and Mari covering for him and Hero staying silent as he is complimented by Aubrey and Basil. Aubrey is either also covering for Sunny, or is just mistakenly assuming that Hero made it. Sunny may have even told Basil that he made it later, because the photo album says “My friends surprised me with a strawberry cake”, rather than Hero.

Sunny, after seeing how happy the cake made Basil, decided to learn how to make a strawberry cake later.

Either way, Basil’s smile from that day is certainly something that stuck with Sunny, considering Basil’s birthday is covered in Memory Lane, and his own isn’t.

Sunny even has knowledge that Basil doesn’t really like sweets that much, as seen through what Mari says in Orange Oasis. This is something that Sunny only seemed to do for Basil. Sunny’s favorite food is steak, and his way of preparing that is to put it in the microwave. I would like to point out that most people would learn how to cook their own favorite foods first. You don’t have to see it this way, but you could read clear romantic undertones to this behavior. Sunny and Basil’s table in the kitchen is right next to the counter where Mari and Hero like to do their homework. Sunny also looks up to Hero a great deal, and if you interact with the stove in Sunny’s kitchen, he specifically makes a big deal about how Hero is always trying to cook for Mari but makes too much and the rest of the friends get the leftovers. Not to mention that the unknown ingredients involved with the Hero’s Kitchen area of Black Space 2 are linked to Basil in the game’s data, and the sprites are all tofu sprites.

To loop back around to the central point here, due to Basil’s love of keeping secrets, Sunny’s little hobby would not have been recorded within the photo album, because this was just for Basil. Sunny, in the modern day, doesn’t think about the fact that he did this for Basil, because to do that would be for Sunny to value what he brought forward to their friendship, and he can’t do that if he hates himself. And remembering how close he is to Basil at all would be to allow himself to feel guilty for leaving him alone to deal with the fallout of Mari’s death. Sunny and Basil are two unreliable little gremlins, so you need to look a little closer to see how their friendship went both ways, but I promise you, the game does give you a lot to work with if you just look for it.

[kiisaes]

Are Mari and hero dating in the catholic school au or do they not know each other?

they're neither! they're best friends teetering on dating, but aren't officially an item. they knew each other from high school (went to the same catholic school as sunny, kel, aubrey and basil do now) and shared a few honors/AP classes together. they found out they went to the same college through random coincidence and grew closer there!

i'd imagine that since hero and mari weren't extremely close buddies growing up, there was less of a reason for them to hang out outside of school. they were both super busy with academics and religion and mari's dad wouldn't let her hang out with any boys anyway. gotta love that good ol' conservative separation of the sexes (totally not speaking from my own experience here)

in college, they're content with being friends, even though both are pining for each other pretty non-discretely tbh. like they're platonic enough but also lowkey flirty and their college friends all think something going on here. since their relationship started later in their lives than it does in canon, i like to think that both are almost too self-aware at this stage in life where they don't want to risk their stroke-of-fate friendship

anywayyyy here's some catholic school au heromari, bc holy shit? i haven't drawn them at ALL????

they're kinda just college interpretations of the characters, not directly connected to catholic school au, since the catholic school aspect of this au doesn't regularly relate to them anymore. but this is how i imagine they'd look and act

(also, bc hero and mari didn't hang out outside of school during their high school years, neither of them have properly met the others' sibling, making sunny and kel's meeting more coincidental too. not like hero or mari could ever inform kel or sunny about their friend's sibling prior to meeting; they're in college lol, why would they care)