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kijosakka · 2 years ago

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the idea of hikikomori kel has been haunting me these past few weeks so i’m going to dump the au i made for it here

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRETY OF OMORI BELOW THE CUT!!!!!

heavily based off of this fanart by @/aubreymybeloved on twitter, all credits for the art go to them!!!

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role-swaps:

sunny -> kel

basil -> aubrey

aubrey -> basil

kel -> sunny

hero -> mari

mari -> hero

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- kel & hero played sports together; when hero injured his acl playing in a game, he dropped out of the hobby to focus on schooling. in doing so, he also pressured kel to focus on school, since he had been prioritizing sports above school. they end up having an argument, where hero is disappointed in kels school performance, and kel is bitter that he could treat it like a simple hobby when he was so effortlessly good at it, and now just because he got hurt, he wanted kel to give up all the progess he'd made

- they fight near the stairs, and when kel shoves hero, he shoves too hard—sending him over the banister.

- kel freaks out, aubrey was there to witness it. aubrey is the one who mentions the jumprope hero had gotten kel as a childhood (~7 years old) when kel had first expressed interest in wanting to do sports like hero—and so they hang hero, and that’s the ruse

- aubrey and basil were pretty close; basil invites aubrey to his house a few weeks after the funeral. when she’s there, he brings up the photo album, and aubrey agrees to look through it with him

- when basil leaves for a moment, she has a mini breakdown and tears apart the photos with hero in them and when basil comes back and sees what shes done, he kicks her out of his house in fear of hurting her; aubrey goes back home while basil calls sunny telling him he’s scared hes going to hurt someone or maybe himself

- sunny shows up to his house and calms him down, telling him that he needs to do something with his emotions or else hes going to end up doing something he regrets. a few days later, basil starts his descent into something like being a delinquent similar to canon aubrey

- its only after basil really hurts someone in his temper (kim) does sunny step in full time with basil. when basil starts to go overboard, sunny is always there to calm him down

- kim forgave basil pretty much instantly, especially after seeing how distraught he was when he realized the damage he caused. thus, kim accepted him and sunny into her social circle (the hooligans)

- instead of sports like canon kel, sunny is genuinely into the violin. after hero’s death, mari stopped playing the piano, associating it with the many times hero watched or sat in with her as she played. sunny was initially upset, but they ended up talking it out and that was that

- in this AU, sunny started violin shortly after mari decided to play the piano after noticing how much attention it got her from their parents; it didn’t really succeed at getting his parents attention, but his friends would sit in during his lessons and encourage him through it, and he slowly started to associate it with good memories rather than bitter ones

- mari homeschooled for a year, keeping up with her studies even in her grief; to honor his memory, she ends up going to medschool to finish hero’s dream of being a doctor

- she was really distraught over his death, falling pretty deep into depression. however, she ends up seeking help and reassurance from sunny (sunny had a period of time about a year earlier where he had p severe maladaptive escapism, reminiscent of his canon habits) since he’d gone through a vaguely similar thing

- they do end up having a pretty nasty argument, much like canon kel and hero, because sunny feels like mari is putting too much pressure on him to constantly be there for her, and mari feels like sunny isn’t even trying to support her through a very hard time in her life and keeps pushing her away

- after mari explodes at sunny during their argument, and sunny completely breaks down, absolutely bawling and sobbing, she realizes her mistake and they end up resolving it in the loosest terms possible

- mari starts doing regular online therapy sessions until she can find a therapist near her college, and apologizes for putting pressure on sunny. sunny forgives her pretty much instantly, but he does still block out the memory of their fight because it’s such a sore spot—mari doesnt block it out so much as sunny does, but she will look back on it pretty forcefully when she lapses into self-punishment habits. neither of them have really dealt with it or worked through it properly

- mari has a pretty bad habit of not telling her therapist things because she feels like she has to hold on to a certain image and doesn’t want to ‘ruin’ her therapists concept of her, so she doesn’t bring up her and sunny’s fight (until after kel and aubrey end up confessing the truth, and she realizes that she never really got over it)

- sunny retreated into his friendship with basil hardcore as a way to cope, especially after basil started embracing his more brash, angry feelings. the pair relies on the other for absolutely everything

- when mari went off to college, their dependency worsened considerably—when sunny or basil would lapse into old habits, they went to each other, and only each other. with sunnys absent parents, and basils grandmothers worsening health, they both felt like they had no one else to turn to

- this led to multiple secrets and habits being shared between the two; basil sneaks into sunnys house when he has bad nightmares, basil signs when he talks when he’s around sunny to mirror him, all sunny has to do is be there and he basically act as the in-game ‘calm down’ skill for basil, sunny goes to basil if he needs to be grounded/is dissociating too badly on a given day to function properly, etc

- a lot of it is technically harmless, but relying on the other does weigh on them after those four years, and because its routine neither of them want to ‘ruin’ what they have just because of their own feelings

- ^ in an attempt to stop feeling so weighed down by these things, sunny takes up regular drawing and journaling sessions, and basil learns how to crochet and embroider

- ‘white space’ still technically exists, as does ‘omori’ (isn’t given a name in this au) acting as an avatar for sunny, partly because sunny is remarkably bad at handling emotions and needed a reprieve from feeling anything; to him, the best way to handle his grief was to process it on his own, through someone he felt wasn’t him. as such, neither headspace, nor blackspace exist, as he isn’t escaping or suppressing anything

- ^ this above point is mainly because it opens up the opportunity for post-confession kel/sunny bonding

- kel became a shut in due to his extreme grief and guilt—because he literally cannot maintain a happy image because of that guilt, he ends up running away from his problems. instead, he tamps down all his problems and trys out something else; sunnys coping mechanisms

- sunny told the group once, after what happened the year before heros death, that he had really bad escapism issues; creating a false reality in his head that he used to daydream hours and hours away in

- unfortunately for kel, it works a little too well, and he becomes a full time hikikomori. his headspace isn’t as expansive as in canon, but it does get the job done

- he goes by ‘iko’ in his dreams, and unlike omori he isn’t the silent, achromatic avatar; he’s the brightest, and chatty. a representation of how he feels he could be in real life if he “wasn’t such a coward.”

- hero is the one on the picnic blanket, though it’s closer to a caricature of a buffet—reminiscent of his cooking hobby—and aubrey is the one who gets lost every time; sunny, basil, and mari are the ones in kel’s party. much like the canon roles that are being swapped, mari is the healer, basil is the heavy-hitter, and sunny is the wild card/all-around.

- kels headspace mari acts much more like hero than IRL mari does; she acts as an avatar for kel to have his brother with him while not having to witness him being injured or dying in battle

- basil is open with his worries and anxiety, influenced by kels desire and worry that basil didnt feel safe enough around the rest of them, and thats why he always retreated into sunny

- sunny is very reassuring towards kel, speaking mainly to him to represent kels bitterness over him and basils closeness, and his worries that IRL sunny never liked kel and only tolerated him

- aubrey acts a lot like canon basil; shy but bubbly, timid but energetic, worrying but eager; she acts representative of kels hatred toward himself for feeling like he ruined aubreys life, and caused her to be to paranoid all the time. while her and kel still argue in his dreams, it’s lighthearted and easily resolved, unlike the major crime both of them took part in, which kel believes can never be resolved or absolved in any manner

- aubrey retreats back into herself, her normally quelled anxious side high-strung and prominent for four years straight. she’s absolutely terrified of her friends finding out and leaving her behind; of mari, her big sister, being disgusted of her, of basil, usually kind and timid, looking at her with hatred, and of sunny, aloof and non-expressive sunny, being so clearly ashamed of her actions.

- she’s an anxious mess constantly, and often cries when she gets even slightly angry or frustrated, much to her hatred. she does her best to become as invisible as impossible, keeping the truth close to her all the while

- basil ends up taping the photos together, but he drops a few at school, caught up in the heavy last-day-of-school crowd. aubrey picks them up and brings them to him in the park to return them—around the same time sunny ends up dragging kel out of the house.

- sunnys mom and kels mom are very close, and sunny had overheard them talking about how they were most likely going to move if kel didn't improve, especially now that kels mom was pregnant with sally (about 3 1/2 years after the initial incident) and so sunny doubles down in his efforts to speak to kel, holding onto the bare hope that everyone can reconcile again

- basil assumed that aubrey took the photos from him and freaks the fuck out—screaming and lashing out at her. the rest of the hooligans dont really understand, because he’s never messed with aubrey—he usually just ignored her—but since he seems so genuinely upset, they are in full support of him, thinking that she must have done something pretty bad to get him worked up like this

- sunny drags kel all the way to the park, kel having opened the door a few minutes after he knocked---right when sunny started messing with the doors lock audibly. when they get to the park and sunny sees whats happening with basil and aubrey, he steps in

- sunny ends up breaking everything up, but basil, still tense and agitated from the fight, sees kel and spits out the first thing he thinks of, which happens to be mocking kel’s way of grieving his brother

- he immediately regrets it, but he knows he’ll do something he’ll regret even more if he sticks around so he books it and resolves to tell sunny so that he can properly say sorry when hes calm

- sunny apologizes to kel on basils behalf, knowing that basil will apologize anyway, and the pair continue on a string of events basically the same as the canon first day, save for the gift buying. mostly just exploring really.

- much like canon sunnys warped perception of reality, it's not uncommon for kel to not see the railing---he literally just wont register it at all, so it looks like theres no banister near his stairs, similar to canon sunny not being able to see the closet door to the left of the staircase.

- also similar to the canon closet, the small shed kels parents have in their backyard housing the sports equipment also doesnt register to kel

- on the second day, kel opens the door to both sunny and basil. basil invites him outside, and all three of them end up going back to their old hangout spot, where basil ends up apologizing to kel profusely, saying that it wasn't fair of him to have said that, and that even if it wasn't an excuse, he was worked up and agitated at the time

- kel doesnt really understand why basil is apologizing, since he figured he deserved to be called out on how he reacted to a death he caused, but he accepts it and forgives him anyways

- sunny brings up aubrey to basil, and says that they at least need to talk about what happened without going at each other first, but after seeing how kel flinched at the mention of her, decides that they can all help with some of the preparations for mari to come back from college for a bit

- mari ends up showing up in the evening, after basil had left to go speak to aubrey, when kel and sunny are at the house. shes excited to see kel out and about, and ends up suggesting a sleepover for all of them, and they all agree.

- ^ this would have a conversation much like the optional, canon one you can have with kel in the graveyard, where sunny mentions him and maris fight. sunny makes a reference to wanting to stop blocking it out and hopefully getting a chance to talk about it with mari while shes there.

- ^^ also, similar to the canon line after aubrey pushes basil into the lake, it would have themes and direct parallels to what happened with hero and kel (e.g.: 'i know she didn't mean it' 'i just wanted her to leave me alone' 'she expected too much of me because of her own feelings' etc)

- on the third day, basil and aubrey are at the house by the time kel wakes up. basil explains that aubrey explained herself, and even if the photos were a sore subject, he was willing to try to work past it. mari makes a breakfast dish that hero used to make, and even though kel eats it, its so close to heros version that he ends up vomiting anyway, though he blames it on poor eating habits instead

- they kinda just laze around, playing old games and catching up on the mundane things that have been happening. its after everyone lays down and starts falling asleep that things go wrong.

- aubrey declines sleeping in the living room with everyone else, and mari directs her to sunnys current bedroom---shes cracking under the stress of seeing everyone and doesnt think she can handle being in the same room as all of them while they sleep pretending everything is fine

- after everyone is asleep, kel ends up going over to check on aubrey bc of his own guilty conscience, aubrey is staring at the stump of the tree heros body was hung from, which was just barely visible from sunnys window

- confrontation scene happens, im not sure what given weapons they would use?? i guess kel took a knife from their kitchen and aubrey had... something. maybe they were just bare-handed beating each other i didnt really think about this part too much

- unlike canon, i don't think there would be any major things lost like sunnys eye---instead, aubrey was the one who got nearly blinded, since i'm going to say that kel had the objectively better weapon out of whatever they were fighting with

- kels 'omori' fight against his alter ego sees the color palette slowly oversaturating with each phase, until it looks kind of like the end frame floating mirror jumpscare, including the distorted expression. like canon, if he chooses to give up, he'll jump off the roof. if he chooses to continue, he'll end up following a shadowey silhouette of aubrey through the hospital to her hospital room

- in this AU, i'm going to say that both aubrey and kel are eventually forgiven---in the loose order of mari, basil, and sunny.

- mari was the first one to forgive them, even if she had reacted badly at first. she was more sad than angry, really, and after contemplating what had happened, and how she would feel if the roles were reversed (a nod to canon), she forgave them both, though recognizing that their relationship might be strained as they worked through it

- basil ended up forgiving them next, ultimately coming to terms with it and the explanation that actually made sense to him; part of his anger came from the fact that he just didn't understand why hero would do something like that since there was, literally, no warning. knowing the truth gave him the closure that he desperately needed, and he was thankful that they told the truth even if it hurt

- sunny ends up being the last to forgive, mainly because the confession came right after he made a resolution to himself to start fully working through and coming to terms with heros death. he thinks about it for a while, and takes the time to himself to recognize what they both did and work through his feelings concerning the both of them; he does end up forgiving them in the end, because this is my au and i want a happy ending

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