#so far i like aubrey and basils stories

[aria0fgold]

Thinking a little bit more about Fairytale Curse AU specifically about Aubrey and Basil for the prompt and I got proper ideas for them!

In the AU, Aubrey and Basil didn’t meet until 16 years old so Aubrey’s first friends are the Hooligans + Rowan. Flower is in the AU too as Rowan’s older brother.

Aubrey wasn’t originally cursed. The ones that did end up getting a curse were the Hooligans and surprisingly enough, Bunbun as well cuz she was around them when the event happened (Rowan was carrying her around). So then we now have a little girl that was originally a bunny and 6 kids turned into dwarves due to the Seven Dwarves Curse.

Bigger problem also is the fact that they couldn’t move at all because where there are seven dwarves, there should be a snow white but there wasn’t any around them during that time so until Aubrey found the group, they were just frozen in place like statues.

Aubrey willingly became Snow White, extending the curse to her and turning the group to normal but whenever they enter a forest they become dwarves again! As long as Aubrey is around whenever they’re dwarves, they don’t turn into statues. It’s a mild curse that isn’t as troublesome, as long as the group stays clear of forests they’ll be fine, although Aubrey has to always avoid any apples. To be on the safer side, she also avoids any dish that contains apples in it. (Even flavored drinks, she doesn’t want to take any chances.)

<>

Polly, Basil’s grandma, Flower, and Rowan were the only ones living in the house. Flower once taught Basil’s grandma wood carving, she would make little dolls out of wood. She made one that she poured as much love and care into, even going so far as to traverse the forest nearby to look for a pretty golden flower to use as a material for the hair. It just so happens that the flower is a magical one.

Basil doesn’t particularly have a curse, he’s a Wooden Rapunzel (combined Pinocchio and Rapunzel’s story ehe. Thought it’d be neat.) A wooden doll with pretty long golden hair, he came to life one day and became a part of the family. The only thing that can be considered a curse for Basil is the fact that his lifeline is connected to the gold flower on his head (the colour helps it blend with his hair!). And although he knows it isn’t much of a curse, he finds the fact that he’s a wooden doll unfair. Much like Pinocchio, he wants to be real one day. (Unlike Pinocchio though, his nose doesn’t grow when lying. But small branches and flowers would suddenly grow out of his body whenever flustered, Polly and Flower has to personally cut those. It seems he’s only like that towards Aubrey, he sure is confused as to why.)

[dannybobany]

Good god it’s been awhile, but at last my dearest Omori Marzenie returns !!

after all these years I finally drew alter boy!! Gosh, that leaves only the as of now unnamed Aubrey monster for the main four-

Design detail ramble ⬇️

Okay okay, flower meaning time guys

So Kel had me a little confused at first since ‘cactus’ is incredibly vague, Basil never specifies what type of cactus he’s talking about but it was surprisingly easy to find the right match-

This is the adorably named strawberry hedgehog cactus, representing resilience and the ability to thrive in harsh conditions- a perfect match to its omori counterpart and most likely the type of cactus Basil would’ve initially been talking about when explaining its meaning, it’s also a good visual match by its signature pink flowers

But that’s just canon, what about those flowers on his sleeves? Well this is where I got a bit silly because those there are anemones, which can mean a lot of things but in this case represent abandonment, which is relevant to what alter boy himself is representing in Marzenie

Kel and Basil have a very awkward relationship, Kel is kind of trying really hard to ignore Basil in the nicest way he can- he isn’t really meaning to do this, he just… doesn’t know what to DO with Basil, Basil won’t laugh at his jokes aside from the occasional very obviously forced chuckle, Basil can’t hold a conversation with him anymore, they just stand there making awkward chitchat smiling at each other in an increasingly uncomfortable manner

So when they do talk, which is rarely, it largely consists of Kel going on for a few minutes about things that have happened to him recently… which are usually accomplishments, which make Basil feel like shit in comparison-

Thus, alter boy, he’s like a less pronounced reflection- there’s still that element of shame where Basil feels worse about himself because of how he views Kel, but there’s something else too… a little bit of mockery, obviously Kel has never done that, but to Basil, being bombarded by stories of all his friends accomplishments, how much better his life is when Basil is barely in it? It hits him like an insult, like mockery

Which leaves alterboy as this… passively antagonistic character, whenever spoken too he only tells Marze how futile everything he’s doing is and saying out loud every harsh truth about the situation, throwing it all in Marze’s face for him to dwell on

This is one of those times where Basil is taking things as being far worse the they are, not that he can help it, but that’s what’s happening

[ryhmus]

MARIQUEST 1

MARI hosts a DnD session...

[MARI is busily setting up a board game on the living room table of the Kel and Hero's house, the others are sat around writing on character sheets.]

HERO; "Hey MARI? Uh, what's up with the wizard hat?"

MARI; "It's for our Spires and Seekers session tonight! Gotta look the part if I'm gonna be a good SM."

HERO; "SM? what's that mean?"

"MARI; "Spire master. It's the person who guides everyone through the game and tells the story. I've been spending weeks with other Hero setting up the narrative so we can play!"

[She proudly shows him a small portion of the script and who was playing]

HERO; "So we got, AUBREY, KEL, OMORI, you, me and..."

STRANGER; "Hello..."

[They turn around to see the shadow standing there in the doorway]

MARI; "Ah STRANGER! you're here...how long have you been standing there?"

STRANGER; "I've just arrived, I apologize for my lateness, Basil and his other counterpart required my assistance in the garden."

AUBREY; "At night?"

STRANGER; "It was a very long day, none of us are built for strength like you or the others are."

MARI; "I see...Well then since you took my invitation, take a seat in the living room and we'll get started soon."

...

One set up later

...

[the dream friends are all sat around the table]

MARI; "Did everyone fill out their character sheets?"

KEL; "Yep! here ya go! I'm gonna be the strongest wizard ever! With my laser beams and missiles this is gonna be a blast!"

AUBREY; "You can't do that! there were no missiles or laser beams back then!"

KEL; "Shows what you know AUBREY! They're magic. You're just jealous your character isn't as cool as mine!"

HERO; "Guys! please don't fight, we haven't even started yet..."

MARI; "STRANGER...this is blank, are you sure you don't want to make a character?"

STRANGER; "I see no reason to pretend to be someone I'm not."

[everyone just stares at him in awkward silence until MARI audibly clears her throat.]

MARI; "We...we can work with this. Okay everybody, are you all ready for a night of adventure?"

KEL; "Aw yeah! let's go!"

AUBREY; "I'm so excited about this! What about you OMORI?"

OMORI; "Mhmm..."

{}{}{}{}{}{}[(START!)]{}{}{}{{}{{{}{

OUR TALE BEGINS IN A SMALL VILLAGE CALLED NOWHERE LAND, FIVE BRAVE ADVENTURERS SET OUT TO DEFEAT AN EVIL SORCERESS WHO THREATENS TO ENSLAVE THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD WITH HER VILE MAGICS...THE FATE OF THE WORLD RESTS ON THESE BRAVE SOULS...

AUBREY, THE FEARLESS BARBARIAN WARRIOR OF THE NORTHERN BUNNY FOLK!

HERO, THE VALIANT KNIGHT-PALADIN OF A FAR AWAY KINGDOM.

STRANGER...THE MYSTERIOUS FAMILIAR OF AN UNKNOWN REALM...

KEL THE WIZARD...A MASTER WIZARD...OF BASKETBALL? OKAY WE'LL JUST GO WITH THAT FOR NOW...

AND OMORI, THE SHADE, SHADOWY AND SILENT ROUGE, QUIET AS THE NIGHT...

THEIR JOURNEY WILL BE LONG AND PERILOUS BUT TOGETHER THEY WILL-

KEL; "Hey hey! er, Sorry to interrupt this early but I really gotta use the bathroom, be right back!"

[KEL sits up and bolts off towards the upstairs.]

AUBREY; "Dang it KEL! couldn't you have gone before we started? Did you have to chug two gallons of soda beforehand?!"

MARI; "Calm down AUBREY it's alright, no need to get worked up over a game. Besides, we just started, so we can wait until he gets back and then continue."

HERO; "In that case, I'll go check on the snacks in the kitchen..."

MARI; "You too HERO? that's fine."

MARI; "So I guess that leaves just us, what do you think little brother?"

OMORI; "Hmm..."

MARI; "Cliff faced as usual, huh? That's okay, I'm just happy that you're here with us tonight instead of sticking to your room."

(One minute of waiting followed by another spent of marching KEL back upstairs to wash his hands)

HERO; "I'm back, the cookies should take a hour or two to bake in the oven. I forgot to ask earlier, how do we play this game again?"

[MARI looked uncertain for a moment]

MARI; "Well...first we've already made characters. You follow the story and when you want to do something in game, all you need to do is roll a dice. You can look at your sheets to see what your skills are if you need to."

...

Now let's begin...

Our adventure begins in the little town of Nowhere where our brave adventurers are resting at the local bar, the bar-maiden comes over and asks-

AUBREY; "I punch KEL in the face."

HERO; "AUBREY..."

MARI; "Are you sure you want to do that?"

AUBREY; "I wanna punch him in his dumb face."

MARI; "...Roll for initiative then."

KEL; "Good luck, you'd have to be really lucky to roll a-

AUBREY "Ooh! a 20...~"

MARI; "AUBREY socks KEL in the face for no reason and sends him flying through a wall. The other taverngoers are visibly upset that their night has just been interrupted."

KEL; "What?! no fair! Well then I hit her back with one of my magic missiles!"

HERO; "Roll the dice bro..."

KEL; "I got a...a 3!? WHAT!?"

MARI; "KEL'S magic missile attack misses completely and blows a hole in the wall, the owner is furious and demands payment for his the property damage.

HERO; "I offer to pay the man the appropriate amount of money to fix his tavern and for our drinks."

MARI; "Roll the dice HERO."

HERO; "Wait, I have to roll the dice to pay for the damages? How is that luck based?"

[MARI scratches her head and looks through the Spires and Seekers guide]

MARI; "According to the playbook, that's the rules...Your luck determines how well it will go."

HERO; "Uh...an 8?"

MARI; "HERO pays the owner of the bar for all the damages but at the cost of all the money you had saved up from your previous adventure.

KEL; "Nice going HERO, you blew all our money!"

AUBREY; "No thanks to you KEL, you're the one who blew a hole in the wall with your dumb missiles!"

KEL; "Y-You hit me first!!"

OMORI; "..."

STRANGER;"That is a very unfortunate start...i hope this gets better soon."

...

Without money the adventurers set out west to seek treasure and fortune elsewhere...Eventually, they come across a warband of orcs escorting a wagon full of plundered treasures but also have several hostages with them as well, what will everyone do?"

KEL; "Shoot a magic missile at them!"

AUBREY; "For once I agree with you, let's fight them!"

HERO; "Why can't we just try and negotiate with the orcs and see if we can talk it with them or lure them away? What if the hostages get hurt?"

STRANGER; "Roll the dice."

KEL; "A 1?...aw nuts."

MARI; "The missile plonks off of the orcs armor and makes them angry, they charge!"

HERO; "I-I uh, er...charm them with my good looks?"

AUBREY; "Roll it."

HERO; "4...Just my luck, of course...Why would I have thought it would work differently this time?"

MARI; The orcs become even more enraged and set their sights on HERO...

STRANGER; "I unleash the shadows to protect my allies!"

[STRANGER rolls the dice, it spins in place before landing]

MARI; "You got a 17..."

MARI; "STRANGER casts a shadow ward around the party and blocks the assault, but it cannot hold for long. What will you do before the ward breaks?"

[OMORI tugs on his sister's sleeve to get her attention]

MARI; "OMORI? you want to tell me something?"

OMORI; (Whispers something into MARI'S ear)

MARI; "Uh, I'm not sure that's even allowed...but okay, just roll the dice little brother, see what you get."

[The monochrome boy picks up the die and drops it on the table. Everyone's eyes going wide as lollipops.]

MARI; "A natural 20...OMORI...slashes through the orcs and utterly and completely decimates them...okay...so, there's a bunch of treasure and the hostages are free, what will you do now?"

KEL; "Magic miss-"

OMORI; "No..."

KEL; "Er...we, take the loot, move on to a safe distance...then I magic missile them."

Everyone; "NO."

KEL; "You're no fun..."

The session goes on through the night with brave adventurers travel through swamps brimming with bandits, to mountain caves filled with ravenous spiders and a haunted castle with a dark curse, The adventurers cleared each encounter with ease and claimed treasures to be shared with all. With KEL the wizard using magic missile every time they came across even the smallest threat, AUBREY picking to fight everything, STRANGER having no clue how anything worked and HERO never being able to do anything in game because of his poor rolls. OMORI always seemed to get perfect twenties every turn by dropping the dice on the table but if something was amiss, no one paid much attention to it for the sake of the game. But soon it came time to bring the game to a temporary close...

MARI; "Oh my goodness! look at the time! it's past midnight! we should really get some sleep for tomorrow!"

KEL; "But...But I just got a cool new sword...Can we keep going just a little longer?"

AUBREY; " Please? I was just about to get my barbarian a new skill too!"

MARI; "Sorry guys, I know you all are really enjoying this, but we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow...Don't want to miss out on the fourth of July celebrations would we?

HERO; "MARI'S right we should all go to bed for the big day."

AUBREY; "Okay MARI good night. KEL, I'm going home."

KEL; "Race you to see who gets to my house first!~"

AUBREY; "You already live here, idiot."

MARI; "Well that was super fun wasn't it? I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did."

HERO; "Heh, even though I never got lucky enough to do anything other than distract things and soak up damage, I had a blast and I'd like to play again sometime."

MARI; "Well I thought you made a pretty good distraction, who could resist such a handsome knight in shining armor?~"

[She winks at him, causing HERO to blush deeply]

HERO; {Blushes deeply} "M-MARI!"

MARI;"Haha! I'm joking! I'm joking! well, how did you like it, STRANGER? OMORI?"

OMORI; (Thumbs up)

STRANGER; "A fulfilling experience...when will we have another one of these 'D and D' sessions?"

MARI; "Maybe next week same time?"

[A burning smell fills the air and a smoke alarm goes off in the kitchen. Upstairs, the sounds of Kel and Hero stirring and a baby crying could be heard]

HERO; "Wait a minute...past midnight?! (*gasp*) Oh no! MY COOKIES ARE BURNING!"

[HERO immediately rushes into the kitchen]

MARI; "Uh oh...Little brother? Why don't you and STRANGER head on back home. HERO and I have to check on the kitchen real quick before it burns down."

HERO; "THE COOKIES ARE ON FIRE!"

MARI; "See you tomorrow!~"

I've never played DnD before don't hurt me...

[woodchipp]

So, I've read the OMORI manga's first chapter.

All in all, it's already an improvement over the game in my eyes.

SPOILERS BELOW.

Things I Liked

The biggest improvement, of course, is that Sunny isn’t locked in a perpetual resting bitch face anymore. He’s appropriately afraid to open the door, shocked to see Basil, aghast at Aubrey calling him a “loser” and terrified of Aubrey herself. And the mention of Mari actually causes him to freak out! Compared to Game!Sunny, it’s quite refreshing to see he seems to have some semblance of a personality here. Now I’m interested to see how Basil’s bathroom breakdown will be handled 🙂

I appreciate that the manga doesn’t fuck around with its plot and cuts straight to the chase. Headspace is boring as hell anyway, and I'd personally take the manga's breakneck pacing over the game's excruciating length. Starting off the very first chapter with Memory Lane’s very last memory was an interesting choice, and it makes a lot of sense given that the violin is the source of all of Sunny’s woes lol

Likewise, I appreciate that Aubrey is violently confrontational right off the bat. At least she’s proving herself to be as unruly as a real delinquent would be lmao. She even calls Sunny out as the coward he is! Her gang is nowhere to be seen so far, which I see as a huge improvement considering they’re barely characters, and I hope they’re excised from the story so that it could focus on Aubrey more 

Basil briefly changing to his Headspace version to reflect Sunny’s tenuous grasp on reality is a great detail. Where was that kind of detail in the source material?

Sunny zoning out into White Space after attacking Aubrey makes sense. I can see why the shock would cause him to dissociate. It also makes sense that Sunny would dream up a playground if he fell unconcsious at the park. That being said…

Things I Disliked

…the way Headspace is introduced is still rather haphazard. I'm not sure why the chapter ends where Headspace began in the game. Unless the Headspace segments are much shorter here, I'm afraid it'll be just as much of a tumor on the plot as it was in the source material

Again, Kel only calls attention to Sunny’s knife and says nothing about Aubrey’s nail bat. It was stupid in the game and it's stupid here. He also stands by while she holds Sunny at bat-point and monologues about how she'll never forgive him instead of, dunno, trying to tackle her so that she doesn't harm Sunny

The artstyle is. a thing. Everyone’s got haystack limbs, including Kel, who’s supposed to be the physically fittest one in the group. The Same Face Syndrome goes without mention

The implication that Omori stepped in and took control of Sunny to attack Aubrey is the one thing I genuinely hated. Come on, are you really going to shirk responsibility for Sunny’s actions on his Evil Mental Illness again? At least Sunny himself was horrified by the act, but still, that was bullshit. can’t wait for the Epic plot twist that Omori forced Sunny to shove Mari down the stairs 

[pterodactylwoman]

Major spoilers for both Ace Attorney Justice for all and Omori

So two of my favorite characters in any media are Aubrey from Omori and Adrian Andrews from Ace Attorney. The other day I was thinking about how there are actually quite a few parallels between these two characters stories. Both had a woman they looked up to and were extremely close to, a mentor to them. For Aubrey this was Mari, for Adrian this was Celeste Impax. Both Mari and Celeste are thought to have taken their own lives but both of these are under suspect circumstances. Aubrey and Adrian then both are looking for some kind of closure. They both start to suspect the men that were close to their mentors and are specifically upset about how their actions disgrace her memory. Both of them try to protect the mentor’s memory by stealing something from one of the men, the photo album from Basil and the Suicide note from Juan Corrida (the nature of both of these items incriminating one person also ends up not being true since the note is forged and the album was ruined by Sunny and not Basil). Both Adrian and Aubrey become much colder people afterwards, building up a mean facade to hide their more kind personalities. Adrian’s icy persona is said to be more like how Celeste was. Meanwhile while Mari is not ever portrayed being like Aubrey in headspace the fact Sweetheart seems to be based on both Mari’s meaner perfectionist side and Aubrey after Mari’s death suggests that perhaps Aubrey is taking after a side of Mari that Sunny is shown to be unwilling to acknowledge in headspace.

These parallels then made me think of some between Matt Engarde and Sunny/Omori. Both being ultimately responsible for Mari/ Celeste’s death despite their roles in the story making it seem like it’s impossible for them to be that way. Both have a more sinister side that is hidden, although Sunny ultimately conquers his in the good ending while Matt embraces it. They both have a scar over one eye. Uhhh… they both have a kitty cat.

This is all to say that there are a lot of thematic similarities between these stories. The futility of trying to seek some idea of “justice” in the wake of a tragedy being the main one that comes to mind.

In ace attorney Phoenix is pressured into defending a man he knows is guilty and his morals are challenged. He questions his own role as someone who fights for justice now realizing the reality of his role as a defense attorney means that he is not always going to have a clear concise about his clients. Of course the story seems less interested in exploring Phoenix’s duty to still defend Matt and does kind of devolve into a very black and white story where Phoenix just has to get rid of Matt’s leverage on him. However the ultimate goal is to expose the truth and all its consequences.

Omori plays things a bit differently but still is about many of the same things. When it is revealed that Sunny killed Mari the player has a similar crisis to Phoenix. The guy that we’ve trust thus far not being as innocent as we thought. But Sunny isn’t like Matt, he isn’t some master manipulator as some fans seem to really think he is. Sunny made a horrible mistake and then lied to cover it up. But Sunny was a frightened child barely keeping a grasp on the reality of what was happening around him. This makes the idea of condemning him for his actions, and getting a sense of “justice” the way ace attorney would want not nearly as desirable. Obviously Sunny can “punish” himself but doing that ends up being horrifying and is one of the bad endings. Once again it is only making a commitment to the truth that any real resolution is found.

Bringing it back to Adrian and Aubrey, the two that inspired this post. Both of them need to accept a truth as well in order to get closure and even those are similar in nature. Adrian is deeply dependent on others, unable to make decisions for herself so she defaults to an icy persona. Aubrey bullies Basil because she believed him to be a fundamentally bad person and her saying that to everyone else got away from her until bullying him just became something everyone did. Both Adrian and Aubrey are able to break free from these cycles when they accept that in truth they have more control over their situations than they want to admit. The truth is that both of them have the agency to change and hold themselves accountable for their mistakes. Both also learn to have a bit more empathy for themselves in this process since Adrian thought herself weak and Aubrey thought herself cruel and undeserving of love but by the end of the story they both start to move away from that. Aubrey’s kinder side is acknowledged by her friends at the sleepover at Basil’s house. Adrian meanwhile is able to smile again and says she feels more like herself.

I seem to remember at one point Omocat had acknowledged ace attorney as an influence for Omori. She didn’t really elaborate beyond that since she was just listing a lot of things as influences but it stood out to me. I don’t really think that all these parallels were what she was referring to. It is perhaps just evidence of the shared dna these games have.

[daikonghost143]

So i got my mom to play omori. Its going to take a veeery long time to finish but I’ll try to reblog and update this post/thread as we move forward every once and a while cause she has some good thoughts about it so far. She unfortunately already know about Mari falling down the stairs from me talking to friends about the game in her general vicinity, but other than that shes going in blind so this should be fun !!

Anyway, so onto her thoughts. We’re at the point where you’re about to go searching for Basil in the Vast Forest and she seems to be enjoying it so far even if we could only play for a few hours. Shes *very* attached to Basil (shes just like me ong /j) and when he went missing she was absolutely horrified. In her own words, “Basil.. very soft soul. He’s- He’s very soft. Uh, he might be gay. I’m not sure, because he’s very sweet and soft spoken and has a flower crown and he, he seems a little gay, I’m very worried for what may happen him if he doesn’t grow a pair.” (She adores him though. When he went missing she grabbed me and was like “oh my god is he okay. If anything happens to him im gonna stop playing i love him so much.” So.. i wish her luck.)

She thinks Aubrey is a little self-centered, very loud, but she likes the confidence and thinks she seems ok. She feels similarly towards Kel, though she seems to like him a lot more. She really just said that he seems very sweet but needs to stop fighting with Aubrey.

She doesn’t really have an opinion on Hero, he’s, “just sorta there. Hes just a normal guy,” in her words. I assured her he gets better, but for now she’s impartial. Mari on the other hand, she’s very concerned for. Aside from her knowing that slight spoiler that she fell, she’s just weirded out that she stays at the picnic all the time, because “after a while that would hurt your butt.” She seems to like her well enough, and thinks she’s sweet but she’s definitely a bit concerned too.

As for Omori, she thinks he seems like a very kind, old soul sort of person but he also scares her a bit because she can tell his story’s going to get very sad eventually.

Overall she seems to like it so far!! Yay !! I’ll reblog with her opinions on story and stuff next time we play :]

[lilac-udon]

Omori au

steam mechanic theme au I had a long time ago but I never developed more

The plot here , story based around mari and hero mostly, mari is a machine doll that looked exactly like human. Met with hero and they group up to find her designer, the law in their world do not let people make full robot/ ai or is not capable with such thing yet, arm and leg body part is the most common prosthetic ppl use. Aubrey have one on the arm, and kel has something for leg support idk (didn’t think that far)

Mari is convinced she was a human, but then realized she not that simple, and conflicted what she actually was.hero is a machinist that was fascinated by her. To seek for the truth she remembers sunny in her memory even if it the memory foggy . So they went on adventure to find sunny

The discovery is sunny in her memory die almost a century ago, sunny wanted to become an artist and mari push him to pursue machinist together, the same as the og of sunny accidentally killed Mari, but like a vegetative state idk , basil his best friend that time was a bioengineer or something preserved mari without sunny agreement just to not let mari die , at least not let her memory die. So sunny became a machinist and finished making mari with basil all his life, and made mari more like an art piece than a robot (just say she really pretty, and die of forgiveness etc peaceful die

And that’s all, maybe I draw something, but I feel like there’s too much plot holes I just give up refining the details

[beevean]

Honestly all the Omori talk makes me feel bad for Basil in the sense that he is a character who is loyal and worries about his friends to the point of committing horrible actions that eat him up inside for them like covering up a murder, yet said friends either dont give the most minimum shit abt him and his feelings or straight up use him as a punchbag. Even if woobified by the writing, he seems like a more interesting chara than the protag by accident

@woodchipp and I compared him to N!Hector, because while he is morally questionable and no doubt he should have suffered the consequences of his actions (bro really came up with a multi-step plan to pretend a girl hanged herself, at 12, that's sick when you think about it), he becomes automatically the most tragic character of the story because he gets beaten to near death, both metaphorically and literally. (and that's when the story doesn't forget about him lmao, because he's actually missing for a good 80% of the plot)

His logic is twisted in an intriguing way. He's so loyal to Sunny that he straight up cannot imagine that he could do a bad thing such as push Mari down the stairs. He's so in denial that not only he came up with that plan, but he also hallucinates Something, the real culprit, the real entity who pushed Mari, because Sunny is a good person and Sunny would never do anything bad! It's a very sad form of denial.

But then you ask yourself, what exactly did Sunny do to earn such trust?

I guess being the pet of the gang was enough to convince Basil that his bestie would never do anything wrong.

And then you add all the stuff that we mentioned in that long post, such as Basil being a victim of unfair bullying by Aubrey (who blames him for ruining their photos, while it was Sunny when possessed by his depression - yes really), nearly drowning because Aubrey pushed him into the lake (neither she nor Kel cared enough to rescue him), the gang not bothering to check on him while he was visiting his grandma in intensive care (instead having a nice picnic near Mari's grave), the gang forcibly having a sleepover in his house while he was locked in the bathroom grieving for his grandma, Sunny leaving him alone while he was having a breakdown (you cannot comfort Basil, but you can run circles around him), you player having the choice to leave him to kill himself...

Yes, Basil is technically a criminal, but much like N!Hector, the things the plot puts him through far outweigh his crime. And I guess that in this comparison, Sunny is N!Isaac, who is a terrible person who has hurt many people but we're supposed to root for him because he found Enlightenment or some shit :)

[apporutte]

basic info on your red thread au?? <33

I love ur art so much omg It just scratches part of my brain your arts so unique and ur au seems rlly cool I’d love to learn more about it <3

(srry for bad grammar I’m dyslexic lmao)

Very short summary would be,

Aubrey is a sweet and kinda troubled girl that gets infatuated with Basil, a very ominous boy from the church. Sunny was the one to initially notice him, drawing him sometimes because he was already there, in front of what he wanted to draw, and Aubrey took interest in the boy in Sunny's art, deciding to see for herself, changing path to the one passing in front of the church, like that everyday. She ends up developing a crush on him. Never speaking to him nor knowing his name for the months to come till her birth father dies, the day of the funeral having to come front Basil for the first time and it all goes downhill from there.

It's inspired (or it initially was, now it's very far from the original story but still) from the Red Riding Hood, Basil being Red and Aubrey the wolf

The little thingy I'm making to tell the story is still in works and I don't know how much it will take, since I'm doing it all alone, but I hope it will be decent at least! It was initially a children's book kinda thing, then the visual novel idea arised when I remembered I have renpy and know the basics of coding, so now the visual novel is in works :>

Thank you so so much for liking my art<33

[shell-raising]

An AU I thought of because I have OMORI brain rot from buying the game and forcing my friends to play.

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Okay. TMNTxOMORI AU. Hear me out, this will be devastating :D

Characters:

Mari=Leo

Sunny=Raph

Basil=Casey

Aubrey=Karai

Hero=Donnie

Kel=Mikey

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

So basically, Leo and Raph are constantly arguing, and although they got better, they still have some resentment towards each other (mostly Raph). One day, when Mikey and Donnie were out at the scrapyard, Leo and Raph get into an argument about leadership, patrol and how stuck up Raph thinks Leo is. The fight gets pretty heated and Raph calls Casey to help him calm down.

Leo intercepts Raph as he’s trying to leave to meet Casey at the entrance to the lair. Raph gets pissed and pushes Leo, which causes him to fall into the put and onto the boxes with their VHS tapes, causing his death. Casey had just arrived and was at the entrance when it happened, witnessing the whole thing.

The rest of the story plays out basically the same except the framing of Leo’s death. Raph and Casey panic, and make it look like Leo committed sepuku and hit his head on the floor when he died. I’m not quite sure about everything in this AU because it’s just a thing I’ve been thinking about and not an actual AU or story as far as I’m aware. I’m not sure where April would fit into the story, and to be honest I don’t know her characterization very well so I wouldn’t know what to do with her character.

Wow you made to the end?Thanks for reading my rant! Let me know if this is something I should pursue or if it already exists.

[acacia-may]

There Is Happiness (OMORI Kelbrey Fanfiction)

Description: Aubrey hadn’t always been this way. She could still remember a younger, less jaded version of herself who was actually excited about the idea of prom. A happier Aubrey who had used to giggle with Mari over the gowns in store catalogs and dream about all of her friends getting dressed up and going dancing together one day. A more innocent Aubrey who used to spend hours making plans for a future that would never get to happen. Her friends never got to go to a prom, and neither did she…Until now that is...

OR

Nearly a decade after the bad ending of OMORI, Kel and Hero plan a fake "prom" to surprise Sally, drudging up bittersweet memories for Aubrey about her friends--both the ones she had lost and, especially, the ones, who like her, had been left behind to pick up the pieces. Will confronting the past lead her to a brighter future?

Kelbrey Slow Burn, Hurt/Comfort, & How Their (Functional) Relationship Developed Over Time After the Bad Ending of OMORI. (Note: This is a standalone one shot that is a completely different bad end AU than my other really angsty bad end AU fic).

Relationships: KELBREY (Romantic Kel x Aubrey) CENTRIC (Functional, Healthy, Slow Burn Kelbrey). There are also important platonic friendships discussed & depicted in flashbacks: Aubrey & Hero & Kel friendship, Aubrey & Kel & Sally friendship, Aubrey & Mari friendship, Aubrey & Kel & Sunny & Basil & Hero & Mari friendship [Aubrey & Kel's friendships with Basil, Sunny, & Mari are a recurring & important theme]. Past Romantic Hero x Mari is referenced/heavily implied.

Characters: Aubrey (POV Character), Kel, Hero, Sally, and Mari (Sunny & Basil also appear briefly and are mentioned).

Genre: Slow Burn Romance, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Developing Romance Through the Years, Angst With A Hopeful Ending, Post-Bad Ending, Many Flashback Sequences, Prom

Word Count: 12,748

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).

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). Kissing.

Link to original post on AO3. Please do not repost to another website.

A/N: Unfortunately, I missed Kelbrey Week because I did not know the ship even existed at the time (and had never played OMORI back in the dark ages of a couple of months ago), but I saw the prompts on Tumblr and was really inspired by the Prom prompt. Not only did the idea of "Kelbrey Prom" get a bunch of wheels turning in my brain, it also just so happened to be the prompt on my birthday, so I felt like it was it was just meant to be and I needed to write this story as soon as I had the idea. So I just wanted to offer a word of many, many thanks to @kelbreyweek for the prompt & inspiration for this story. 💕

Story below the cut. Thank you for reading!

Aubrey slammed her foot on the brake. She had lived in Faraway Town her whole life and still forgot about that stop sign. She probably always would.

The intersection was bustling today, and there was far more traffic than usual for a Saturday night. Aubrey supposed that was to be expected seeing as it was their local high school’s prom tonight, and the streets and sidewalks were filled with gussied-up teenagers in suits and poofy, colorful dresses. Aubrey rolled her eyes, conveniently ignoring the fact that she was in a pink prom dress herself—but at the very least it wasn’t that poofy.

Aubrey didn’t understand all the prom hype, especially now that she was trying to drive with teens darting in and out of the road and the straps of her dress uncomfortably digging into her arms whenever she tried to turn her steering wheel. She sighed. She sounded like such a grouchy old woman.

She hadn’t always been like that. The memories were hazy now, but she could still remember a younger less weathered, less jaded version of herself who was actually excited about the idea of prom.

*-*-*

“They’re so lucky,” sighed Aubrey glancing up from her pizza to watch the group of teenagers who had just walked into Gino’s dressed up in their finest suits and prettiest dresses for the prom.

Mari chuckled but patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry. That’ll be you too soon enough.”

“It’ll be you sooner,” Aubrey insisted with a widening smile. “You’ll get to go in just a couple of years, right?” She paused, then giggled teasingly. “With Hero.”

Hero’s face flushed, and he grew suddenly interested in his piece of pizza. Mari’s expression softened—something affectionate passing over her eyes as she chuckled at him behind her hand. She shrugged her shoulders then teased, “I don’t know. I might have to think about it,” but she winked at him and the blush in his cheeks deepened.

“Why do you even need a date to the prom anyway? Can’t you just go with your friends?” asked Kel as he practically shoveled pizza into his mouth.

Aubrey rolled her eyes and huffed. “Don’t talk with food in your mouth. It’s so gross.”

“You’re gross,” bantered Kel, sticking his tongue out at her before shoving the rest of his piece of pizza into his mouth.   

Aubrey huffed again, but Hero gently interrupted changing the subject. “I think people do go to prom in groups with their friends. You don’t have to take a date like in the movies.” He paused before turning to his brother with a dry, bantering smile. “But if you want someone to take you, I’m sure Kel can.”

“No way! I’m not going to the prom with her. Basil can take her.”

“Wha—what? Why me?” stumbled Basil, bright red in the face.

“Because they always have those flower bracelets at the prom in the movies and you know all about flowers and stuff.”

“That’s called a corsage, moron,” bantered Aubrey. “And don’t worry, I’d rather go to prom with Hector than you.”

With a confused tilt of his head, Kel blinked at her. “Can we take dogs to prom? Awesome!” Kel beamed, and Aubrey rolled her eyes. “I’ll take Hector then, and Basil can take Aubrey.”

Basil’s blush deepened as he twisted his hands. “Well…um…I mean…” He paused, swallowing hard. “Well…maybe Sunny can take you…? He’s probably better at dancing.”

“Sunny will take you,” agreed Mari with a warm smile. “Won’t you, Sunny?”

Sunny pursued his lips together and pensively stared at his hands. Aubrey wasn’t sure but his face seemed a little more flushed than usual. He finally nodded briskly and quietly said, “Okay” though he wouldn’t look up from his plate.

Mari’s smile widened, and she chuckled. “See, problem solved.”

“I don’t understand why we can’t just all go to prom together,” sighed Kel. “You, me, Sunny, Basil, and Hector, and Hero and Mari too even though they’ll be older. We can all just go as friends.”

“That sounds nice,” said Sunny so quietly he was difficult to hear over the low roar and ruckus of the restaurant patrons.

“See!” exclaimed Kel triumphantly. “Sunny agrees with me. We should all just plan to go together as friends.”

“You might change your mind when you get older, Kel,” teased Hero with a dry but affectionate smile. Kel grimaced, sticking his tongue out at his older brother.

“No way!” He huffed then turned to Basil. “You think this sounds like a good idea, right Basil?”

“Wha—what? Oh…uh…yeah okay…” he stammered unsurely.

“Aubrey?”

Kel crossed his arms and glared at her, but Aubrey sighed and conceded, “Alright, but only because Sunny likes the idea. It might be nice for all of us to go as friends, but if I get a date, he’s coming with us too, okay?”

Mari started laughing behind her hand as Kel exaggeratedly rolled his eyes and huffed, “Whatever.”

*-*-*

A bittersweet smile tugged at Aubrey’s mouth. How silly they were then—how innocent. There was a pang in her chest, even now, so many years later as she remembered how they had spent hours together talking and laughing—making plans for a future that would never get to happen. She remembered how she used to giggle with Mari over the evening gowns in department store catalogs, sighing wistfully at the billboards advertising that year’s prom theme at the local high school, and dreaming of the day they’d get to go to one themselves. Aubrey’s chest ached as she sighed. Mari never got to go to a prom, and neither did she…

*-*-*

Tears prickled in Aubrey’s eyes as she glanced over the unworn prom dress still hanging up on the back of the closet door. She would probably feel better if she just shoved it into the back of her closet, but she couldn’t bring herself to. She had worked so hard for that dress—picking up extra shifts at Gino’s to afford such a luxury. She had justified it by reminding herself it was probably the only time in her life that she would get to wear such a dress, and this one was exactly what she had always dreamed: deep pink, floor-length chiffon. As soon as she saw it in the department store, a real, genuine smile had tugged at her mouth for the first time in so long that the sensation had felt almost foreign to her. And when she had finally bought the dress and tried it on for her friends to see, Charlene had quietly said she looked happy in it. She didn’t need to add that Aubrey hadn’t looked happy for a very long time.

A tear streamed down Aubrey’s cheek. She had wanted to wear that dress and go to the prom, but she just couldn’t—not today. Not now. Not without them.

Aubrey sniffled—rubbing her hand across her throbbing forehead. Her headache was so severe that she was actually starting to hear the pounding of her head. Or at least she thought she was until her mother called in a slurred, irritated voice,   

“Aubrey! Get the door.”

Aubrey quickly wiped her eyes and scurried downstairs.

“Tell them whatever they’re selling we don’t want it,” her mother added with a dismissive wave of her hand as Aubrey walked by the couch carefully tiptoeing around the empty liquor bottles which littered the ground.

Aubrey wasn’t sure who was at their front door, but she doubted a salesman would be bothering them at this time of night. Still she mumbled, “Okay” as she turned the bolts of the lock and opened the door.

“Hey, Aubrey,” said Kel with a slight wave of his hand and a friendly smile. “How’s it going?”

Aubrey could only blink at him. He was dressed in a nice, dark suit with an unexpected bright pink tie. If she had been feeling better, she probably would’ve thought of a dry quip to tease him about it but instead she just sighed, ushering him out onto the porch before her mother got irritated by the noise.

“Kel, what are you doing here?” she asked through her teeth. “Aren’t you supposed to be at prom?”

Kel shrugged. “I was there for a while, but you weren’t there so I thought I’d come check on you.”

“Sorry…”—Aubrey’s face flushed—“I tried to call you…”

“I know,” he interrupted. “I got your message. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just…I…uh…wasn’t feeling up to it.” Aubrey sighed, hoping that Kel wouldn’t read too much into it.

“Oh…are you feeling sick? The pharmacy should still be open. I can run down to—”

“No, Kel,” she cut him off, placing her hand on his arm. “That is…uh…I’m fine. You should go back to the prom. I don’t want to ruin your night.”

Kel’s expression softened, and he smiled at her. “Don’t worry about it. The prom was kind of boring without you anyway.” He paused. “You sure you don’t want to—?”

“Yeah,” she cut him off just a little too forcefully, trying her best to frown despite her flushed face.

“Okay…” he said quietly. “Then…do you mind if I hang out here for a little while?”

Aubrey’s face grew warm with guilt and embarrassment. Just because she had ruined her own night didn’t mean she had to ruin Kel’s as well. “You really don’t have to do that.”

“Nah. I want to. I’d rather spend tonight with you than at the dumb prom anyway.”

“Kel, I can’t let you do that,” she insisted, but he smiled at her.

“It’s just a bunch of people dancing and stuff—and sure that’s fun and all but it’s not as cool as everyone acts like it is.” He shrugged his shoulders. “They did hang all these Christmas lights from the ceiling though and that was kinda cool—since the theme is ‘A Night Under the Stars.’” Sighing, Kel took a seat on the porch—leaning back on his hands and looking up at the sky. “But there are real stars out here which are better anyway.”

“Kel…” Aubrey began to argue, but she wasn’t sure what to say. “You can’t just miss your prom.”

“Sure I can,” he shrugged with matter-of-fact nonchalance. “You are, aren’t you? And the prom always mattered way more to you. You were really looking forward to it…” Kel’s brow furrowed thoughtfully. “Did someone break your heart or something so you didn’t want to come anymore?”

Aubrey stifled a breathy chuckle but shook her head. “No. Nothing like that. I wasn’t even planning on going with a date.” She paused, glancing over at Kel’s pink tie. “Won’t your date be upset that you left?”

“Oh uh…” chuckled Kel awkwardly, fidgeting with his tie. “I didn’t go with one.”

“Really?” The question slipped out before Aubrey could think to stop it, but Kel just shrugged his shoulders.

“Yep.” He paused and sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. “To tell you the truth, I—I kind of wanted to ask this one girl, but it didn’t work out. Oh well…”

Aubrey paused. While he was one of her best friends, they never really discussed their love lives or lack thereof. She didn’t even know Kel was romantically interested in anyone and couldn’t even begin to guess who it was. She supposed it was none of her business, but if Kel had left prom early because of this girl rather than just to check on her, it would certainly help her feel better about things.

“Is she the reason you left?” asked Aubrey taking a seat next to him on the porch.

Kel froze, and his cheeks flushed. “Wha—what?” he stumbled, more awkward than she ever would’ve expected from the happy-go-lucky Kel. He chuckled lightly but didn’t say no.

“It’s okay if she is. I wasn’t going to tease you or anything. I just—” She stopped. “I just don’t want to you miss out,” she said in a shaky voice. “Especially not because of me.”

“I already said don’t worry about it. I’d rather spend prom night with you, even if we don’t actually go to the prom.” Aubrey’s mouth twitched, she could almost hear the smile in his voice, but she frowned with a heavy sigh.

“But you already missed the last one…”

“Because Basil—” Kel’s voice cracked. He didn’t finish that statement, but he didn’t have to. Basil had died just a few weeks before their Junior Prom and the last thing either of them had wanted to do was go to some big party, especially one that Basil should have been attending himself, and instead they had spent prom night at the spot in the park where they had always had picnics with their friends, then sitting around Kel’s kitchen table looking through Basil’s old photo albums.

Aubrey had never told Kel that she had been considering skipping prom months before Basil’s death anyway, too saddened by the idea of having to go without Sunny and of Mari having never been able to go to hers. Basil’s death and the note he left behind for them was the final straw. She wouldn’t have blamed Kel if he had still wanted to go himself, but he had told her he was just too sad. She could understand that. Back then, it really felt like neither of them would ever be happy again.

But this year… she had been so determined, so set on going and trying to have to good time because she knew her friends wouldn’t want her to miss out on it on their account. Aubrey’s insides twisted, and her eyes burned, tears prickling behind them again.

“Aubrey?” When she turned to look at him, the faint flush of red had faded from his cheeks and his expression had softened but a look of concern quickly passed over his eyes. “Have you been crying?”

Aubrey’s face grew hot, and she swallowed hard as she frantically swiped at her eyes again. How red and puffy were they that Kel had noticed? “You can’t just ask someone that, Kel,” she replied with a shaky, bantering huff, but Kel only blinked at her.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked, and Aubrey bit her lip. She couldn’t believe him—skipping over the ‘are you sure you’re okay?’ questions and straight to the ‘do you want to talk?’ Aubrey sighed though she felt a blush fill her cheeks and she fidgeted. She should probably expect it by now, given how many deep conversations she and Kel had been having over the past two years ever since Sunny and Basil had passed away. Her chest ached at the thought. Kel was giving her that look now—like he could see right through her, knew something was wrong and knew she was hurting even if she didn’t have the words to say it. She could see his pain too—that hollowness that crept into his smiles, that bittersweet sadness in his eyes. Kel’s eyes reflected the same pain that ached in her chest whenever she thought of Mari or Sunny or Basil. She was sure he could see his own grief in her as well, and perhaps that’s what had led them to find each other in the first place, in the wake of the loss of their friends—clinging to each other like two lost souls, sharing things with each other they could never even begin to tell anyone else.

“You can talk to me,” he gently encouraged her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.

Aubrey took a deep breath. She didn’t know if she wanted to unpack this, and she certainly didn’t want to dump it all onto Kel. She already felt guilty enough that he had left the prom to check up on her. But the look on Kel’s face was so warm and so kind, and the words, the painful truth was eating away at her waiting to be told to someone.

“You remember how we’d all promised we’d go to prom together someday?”

Kel’s brow furrowed. “Not really, but my memories of everyone are getting fuzzy…” There was a painful sadness cutting through his words as he said them.

“It’s okay. It wasn’t a big moment or anything. We were just at Gino’s joking around about it once, after a group of teenagers dressed for prom came in.” She paused. “You said you wanted to bring your dog.”

“Oh yeah…” said Kel with the slight twitch of a smile. “I remember that now. Mari was teasing Hero about taking her someday, and Sunny agreed with me that it would be nice if all of us could go together as friends.” Sighing, Kel paused—something bittersweet passing over his eyes. “You’re sad you couldn’t go with them, aren’t you?”

It wasn’t really a question.

Aubrey sniffled and nodded, and Kel cut her off reaching out to her. “Oh Aubrey, I…”

“It’s not just that. I was actually planning on going. I wanted to go. I bought a dress and everything. I knew it was going to be a hard day, but I was determined to do this. I knew they wouldn’t want me to miss out—would’ve wanted to me to go, even if I was sad they couldn’t be there with me.” Her voice cracked, and Kel nodded solemnly, understandingly.

“But…but…” she stumbled over her words as her eyes burned. “I was out of hairspray and knew I needed some for tonight, so I was riding my bike down to The Other Mart, and I saw there was a group of kids in the park and…” The tears started to pool in Aubrey’s eyes, and she took a deep, shaky breath, barely managing to choke out, “They were making flower crowns…”

She swiped at the tears that began to splash down her cheeks as she stumbled in the bits and pieces of sentences she could manage despite the panging ache in her chest, “I just—I just froze. I…I couldn’t stop thinking about…I turned around and came straight home and I just haven’t been able to stop crying…” She sniffled, wiping her eyes. “I know it’s so silly…to let something like that ruin my whole day, especially when it’s the prom, but I just started thinking about them and how they never got to go to prom and all the things they never got to do and will never get to do and…” Her voice trailed, as her words got choked by a sob in the back of her throat.

“I know,” sighed Kel quietly, giving her a reassuring pat on the back and pulling her into a hug. Aubrey took a few deep shaky breaths as she pressed her chin to Kel’s shoulder.

“It’s so stupid…” she mumbled, angry with herself as she pulled away from him.

“It’s not stupid at all.” He sighed heavily. “You know the other day I was supposed to be picking up a couple of groceries for my mom, and I was in that aisle in The Other Mart where they keep all the soups and sauces and stuff, and there was this lady there with her kids and the one kid dropped this big jar of spaghetti sauce—made a huge mess”—he paused as his breath hitched—”And I remembered that time we all tried to make spaghetti to surprise Hero, and I dropped the jar on the counter and the sauce splattered everywhere—it got in Basil’s hair and… Sunny was blinking at me with sauce all over his face and you were so mad but Mari just laughed…” He paused, swallowing hard. “It was like I couldn’t breathe. I ran out of there—totally forgot about the groceries.”

“Kel…” Aubrey began as she hugged him more tightly.

“I guess the moral of the story is neither one of us should be going shopping at the Other Mart, huh?” Kel chuckled lightly, but he sniffled and Aubrey could feel his shoulders trembling like he was trying not to cry.

They just sat there holding each other for a long time. No words were spoken, but they didn’t have to be. They understood—shared this pain of being the ones left behind. Kel sniffled, and Aubrey wondered if he was crying. It wouldn’t be the first time he had cried in front of her, and she knew—they both probably knew—that it wouldn’t be the last.

“You know, sometimes I think, I’m okay,” Kel managed in a wavering voice. “I still miss them, of course, but I’m not going to just start crying in the grocery store…but then…something like that happens and I just…I don’t know if I’m ever going to be okay. Like there was this whole life that I had before, but it’s all over and now I have this new life and even if things get better and it doesn’t hurt as much all the time, that sadness is always going to be there. There’s always going to be something missing, and I’m never going to not miss them.”

Aubrey sniffled and pulled away from him to look in his face, but that deep, indescribable pain in his misty eyes made her forget her words. She supposed it didn’t really matter. There was nothing she could possibly say that would make him feel better—she knew that better than anyone.

“Sorry,” he said hurriedly as he wiped his tears away. “I didn’t mean to make this about me. I feel really bad for dumping all that on you, especially when you were already upset.”

“No. I’m…I’m glad you told me, Kel,” she said hugging him again. “It’s…nice to know I’m not the only one…”

“You’re definitely not the only one—but it really does feel like you and me against the world sometimes, right?”

A kind, bittersweet smile pulled at the corners of Aubrey’s mouth as Kel wrapped an arm around her and she leaned her head on his shoulder. “Sometimes.”

“Hero too, but…” Kel paused, fidgeting. Aubrey nodded in understanding. He didn’t have to explain. She knew Hero worried especially about his younger brother which made it more difficult to open up to him about all of this sometimes, plus he was away at school and neither one of them wanted to bother him, especially when he was suffering a lot on his own.

“He missed his prom, too, didn’t he?” asked Aubrey quietly, changing the subject. Kel hummed, and she could feel him nod in response.

“But it’s overrated anyway…”

*-*-*

Kel was probably right, and the prom was overrated. That didn’t mean that she didn’t have the occasional regret about not going to hers, however. It wasn’t something she ever really talked about, but if she didn’t know better she would have thought that the fact she had skipped out on hers was part of the reason that Kel had invited her over tonight for the “prom” he and Hero had been putting together to surprise their younger sister, Sally.

Even though Sally was far too young to go to a prom, she was fairly vocal about the fact that she desperately wanted to. Though Aubrey thought it was a little odd to throw a prom for a little kid, she supposed there was no harm to it, and it was sweet that Hero and Kel were always trying to do such nice things for their little sister. She had also offered to help put it all together though she reminded Kel that she had never actually been to a prom so what would she possibly know about it? He said it wasn’t anything too fancy, but still insisted they should all dress up nicely. Just luckily Aubrey had had her unused prom dress from her own senior prom still hanging up in the back of her closet collecting dust. She supposed it was nice to finally get the chance to wear it, even if that meant getting stuck in stop-and-go traffic for half an hour.

Aubrey sighed. There was never any traffic on the way to prom in the movies. The people just got into their car—or their limo—and whipped right to the school without another car on the road. It was more than little unfair. Though she supposed she should know better than thinking of movies, especially teen rom coms, as real life.

*-*-*

“Okay, okay. I know we watch this movie every year, but I still don’t understand: can everybody at this school afford a limo? And where do the limos go when they’re all at prom?” asked Kel between bites of what had to be his third or fourth piece of birthday cake. Hero had been apologizing profusely for the fact it was store bought this year, but they understood he was extremely busy in medical school. They tried to reassure him that Mari would understand too, but Aubrey wasn’t sure if he had believed them. “How do all the limos even fit in the parking lot?”

“I don’t know, Kel,” Aubrey sighed, setting her piece of cake on the coffee table. “Just don’t think about it too much.”

“Listen, I went to prom—well part of it, and nobody came in a limo. Nobody,” Kel insisted forcefully, gesturing emphatically at her with his fork and flinging cake and frosting onto her face.

Aubrey huffed. “Kel!”

“Oh, you’ve got something on your nose,” he teased before playing poking at it with his finger.

“Here’s some napkins,” said Hero, handing her a stack of napkins with that said ‘Happy Birthday’ surrounded by balloons.

“Thank you.” Aubrey nodded at Hero then rolled her eyes at Kel shaking her head, but his attention was transfixed on the movie again, probably still wondering about the limos.

Aubrey sighed. Every year they watched Mari’s favorite movie for her birthday, and every year Kel found something else about it that didn’t make sense to him. Last year, it was how nobody in the school had worn anything even close to the same outfit. The year before that it was how the main character who was supposed to be smart hadn’t ever questioned her love interest’s obviously complicated motivations in asking her to the prom in the first place. This year it was the limos.

Aubrey sometimes wondered if Kel had only started this tradition of chattering away during the movie in the hopes that it would keep her and Hero’s spirits up and prevent them from being too sad that Mari wasn’t there to celebrate her birthday with them. But other times—like now, when she watched him pick up his piece of cake with his hands and shove it into his mouth as the icing squished into his face, she thought it was probably more likely that it was just Kel being Kel.

A smile tugged her lips in spite of herself, but she pushed the thought away. She’d never admit that she was glad Kel was around to ask dumb questions about the movie, and as she watched the small smile in the corners of Hero’s mouth, she was sure he felt the same way.

When the credits began to roll, Hero started cleaning up the cake, plates, and napkins, and Kel started prattling away again. “Why do movies make prom into such a big deal, anyway? They act like it’s the most important thing that will ever happen to you.”

“Well…” Hero sighed, his brow furrowing thoughtfully. “I think they need a climatic moment for the story, and when the characters are teenagers, they can’t have a wedding or something like that so they use the prom.”

“It’s really not as cool as all that though. I was honestly kind of let down.” Kel’s mouth curved into a teasing, lopsided grin before he chuckled, seemingly getting distracted once again by his cake. “This cake was great, by the way!”

“You can thank Aubrey for that. She picked it up from Nona’s.”

Aubrey shrugged. “It’s no big deal. I was in there anyway.” She stopped, not quite ready to admit that she was in that bakery a lot. It was one of her favorite places in their college town, and she liked to treat herself with a pastry every now and again after exams, if she did well on them of course.

“Sorry I couldn’t make one this year…” Hero apologized again with red, apologetic cheeks. “Neuroanatomy is just kicking my tushie.”

Aubrey and Kel broke into raucous laughter. “Your tushie? Really, Hero?” teased Kel.  

“What are you—five?” Aubrey bantered.

“You know what I mean,” sighed Hero. Though his cheeks were flushed, he was smiling in spite of himself. “Medical school is hard.” He sighed again. “I’m sure Aubrey understands being in nursing and all.”

“I’m glad I’m going to be a nurse and not a doctor—there’s too much memorizing. I’m not smart enough for that.”

“Don’t say that, Aubrey,” chimed Kel. “You and Hero are both super smart—you know all kinds of medical stuff. I could never do what you do.”

“Well I’m sure neither of us could ever do what you do either, Kel,” Aubrey insisted, and Hero nodded in agreement. “You can fix anything, and I wouldn’t even know what to do with a welding torch if my life depended on it.”

Kel chuckled his face brightening. “I can show you sometime if you want. It’s really not that hard.”

“Says the ‘Welder of the Year,’” bantered Aubrey.  

“It was only ‘of the month,’ and…”  

“I still have the newsletter hanging up on our refrigerator,” interjected Hero with a proud smile. Kel scratched the back of his neck as his face flushed.

“You can take that down, you know? It’s really not that big of a deal…” He sighed. “I only fix engines and stuff. I don’t save lives or anything like you guys.”

Aubrey sighed, shaking her head. “I’ve never saved a life.”

“I’ve barely even left my classroom,” said Hero. “So you’ve at least got one up on me. You’re in clinicals now, aren’t you?”

Aubrey nodded. “Yeah. I’m trying to get a job as a student nurse too. I just interviewed in behavioral health and psychiatry.”

She stopped abruptly as Kel and Hero’s eyes widened, a certain sadness in them that Aubrey had used to see all the time but which hadn’t been in their expressions in a while. A silence spread through the room, and Aubrey sighed, wishing she hadn’t mentioned it. She was about to apologize for bringing it up and ruining the mood of everyone’s evening, but then she felt an arm wrap around her shoulders and a gentle hand patting her back.

“That’s great, Aubrey,” said Kel with a kind smile and soft expression. “I hope you get it and help a lot of people.”

“Me too,” said Hero. “I think you’ll be great at that.”

“Thanks,” Aubrey mumbled, her face feeling suddenly warm.

“Well, I think this deserves a toast.” Kel stood up from his seat and poured some cups of coffee from the coffee maker for them.

Aubrey quirked an eyebrow at him. “We’re toasting coffee?”

“Yes,” he answered, completely unphased as if it was the most natural thing in the world. He held up his coffee cup. “To Aubrey, soon to be ‘World’s Greatest Nurse.’”

He winked at her, and Aubrey shook her head but bantered, holding up her own cup, “And to Kel—Welder of the Year,”

“Would you stop it with that?” he teased under his breath as a flush of red filled his cheeks. He shook his head and turned to Hero. “And to Hero—who can do anything!”

“And everything,” added Aubrey as Hero turned away from them blushing a bright red.

“You guys…” he mumbled.

“And let’s toast Mari too,” said Kel. “Happy Birthday, Mari!”

“Happy Birthday, Mari,” Hero and Aubrey replied with kind, bittersweet smiles.

As they took sips of their coffee, Aubrey’s lips puckered, and her face contorted as she resisted the urge to spit hers out. Even Hero grimaced.

“What in the world is this, Kel?” She reached for her water to try to rinse out the taste.

“Oh you’re never gonna believe it, but Orange Joe makes ground coffee now.”

“Why?” groaned Aubrey.

“You really should warn us first,” Hero quipped dryly with a slight smile, but Kel just shrugged.

“What? I thought it was pretty good.”

“I don’t know how you drink this garbage. It tastes like rotten oranges,” Aubrey bantered. “It would’ve been better if we toasted with broccoli juice or something.”

“I have some soda in the pantry. Let’s just use that.” Hero, always the peace-maker, got up from his seat and made his way to the kitchen with a gentle smile. Once he was gone, Kel finished off his cup of coffee and turned to her with a soft expression in his eyes.

“Hey Aubrey?”

“Yeah?” she asked, her brow furrowing.

“I think it’s really great that you want to be a psych nurse and everything.”

Aubrey sighed. “I don’t know if it’ll work out, Kel. I mean I just interviewed so…”

“It’ll work out,” he cut her off with a reassuring smile. “I know it will, and when it does, I know you’re gonna be great. I…”—he paused and glanced away from her—"I think you’re really great—at everything.”

Aubrey’s cheeks grew warm from the compliment. “Thank you, Kel. I think you’re—”

She didn’t get to finish that thought, however, as Kel wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into an unexpected but welcomed hug. Aubrey pressed her chin to his shoulder and gave him a pat on the back. She waited for him to let go of her, but he held her far longer than usual.

Finally, he whispered so quietly she almost couldn’t hear him. “Do a good job, okay? For all of us…”

Aubrey nodded. She contemplated pulling away from him, but he ran his hand through the ends of her long hair mumbling, “And Aubrey…Uh…I was wondering…”

“Yeah?” she shivered, in spite of herself.

“Uh…” he began again, and she could feel his hands begin to shake as they gently held onto her.

“Do you want diet or regular? I also have a few cherry—” Hero’s voice stopped abruptly. “Oh sorry… I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

Kel and Aubrey quickly pulled away from each other. Aubrey could only hope she wasn’t blushing as much as she feared. Her cheeks burned, but she and Kel hurriedly talked over each other, reassuring Hero it was fine, and he wasn’t interrupting anything. Aubrey’s head reeled, but Kel seemed completely unphased, politely declining Hero’s soda and pouring himself another cup of Orange Joe.

As Kel stood up from his seat beside her on the sofa, Aubrey could have sworn that Hero shot her a knowing, somewhat teasing smile that made her stomach twist. She bit her lip and tried her best to push the thought away—nervously, reaching for her coffee cup in an attempt at nonchalance and unfortunately failing to remembered it was still full of Orange Joe until she had actually taken a sip. Aubrey grimaced at the bitter taste, but her cheeks burned as she watched Hero’s mouth twitched in the corners at her.

*-*-*

Aubrey wished she could say that was the last time she ever accidentally tried Orange Joe. It wasn’t, but both her and Hero did get much better at predicting whether or not Kel was trying to pawn the drink off onto them. It had a distinctively putrid citrusy odor that, eventually, made it much easier to identify. If she knew Kel, there would probably be a whole pitcher full of it at the “prom” he was putting together even though Hero had insisted multiple times that Sally was much too young for coffee.

It was nice to hear that Hero was going to get to come tonight, too. He had been so busy with his residency that they didn’t get to see too much of them these days. Even Kel who was his roommate said he was lucky if he occasionally managed to catch Hero as he was heading to the hospital when Kel himself was getting home from his third shift at the manufacturing plant where he worked. Hero promised them that he was happy, just very busy, and they respected his need for rest, even if it was starting to feel a little bit like her and Kel against the world again.

That reminded her, she ought to give him a call about the traffic—letting him know she was going to be late.

“Hey Kel,” she began, but his voice, muffled and staticky from what Aubrey presumed was a bad connection, cut her off.

“Hi Aubrey. What’s up?”

“Well, I’m on my way, but I’m stuck in traffic. You would not believe how many cars are out here right now.” Aubrey sighed wearily. “On their way to prom probably”

“Have you seen any limos?”

Aubrey laughed. “No, Kel. No limos. I really don’t think we even have those in Faraway Town.”

“That’s probably true.” He chuckled before changing the subject. “It’s no big deal if you’re late or anything. Just drive safely, and you can let yourself in through the fence to the backyard.”

“Oh, are you having it outside?”

Kel hummed. “Yeah, it was such a nice night that I thought it would be fun to dance out on the porch and stuff. I’ve been practicing my dancing, and I think I’m a lot better than the last time you danced with me so…”

Aubrey’s face grew suddenly hot, but she took a deep breath, trying and failing not to think of the last night Kel had danced with her…

*-*-*

“Okay, explain to me again how you came to win dancing lessons?” quipped Aubrey, quirking an eyebrow at Kel, but he merely shrugged at her.

“Well I bought a bunch of raffle tickets because I wanted this ceramic chicken.” He paused before adding hurriedly with a sheepish smile, “And, you know, to support the hospital and everything too.”

Aubrey sighed and shook her head, but Kel didn’t seem to notice. It was very nice of Kel to come with her to her hospital’s charity benefit. They were raising money to build a new wing which would mean more beds in the juvenile behavioral health ward where she worked as a nurse. She had told Kel that the gala was mostly for the really big donors, and she was just inviting him for his company so he shouldn’t feel obligated to donate anything. Even so, it was sweet of him to try to buy some raffle tickets for some of the less expensive items.

A smile twitched in the corners of her mouth. It was just like Kel to do something thoughtful like that—especially for a dumb reason like wanting a ceramic chicken he could probably buy for himself half-as-cheap at a local home goods store.

“I was going to put all the tickets in the drawing for the basket with the chicken,” Kel prattled on. “But then some of the other people were giving me these weird looks, so I started to put them in the drawing for some of the other raffle baskets too, and I guess I won the one with the dancing lessons.” With a slight shrug of his shoulders, Kel frowned disappointedly. “Didn’t win the chicken though. I was pretty bummed about that.”

“What would you even do with a ceramic chicken?” Aubrey teased dryly.

“I don’t know, but I’d probably get more use out of it than dance lessons.”

A chuckle escaped Aubrey’s mouth as she barely stifled a laugh—turning back to the stove where she was frying some potatoes as they waited for the lasagna they were making for dinner to be finished cooking in the oven. It wouldn’t be nearly as good as Hero’s, but he was far too busy with his residency to cook for even himself these days. They were making this meal to surprise him when he got home and to celebrate his first weekend off in months.

“Do you want to take them with me?” asked Kel as he absent-mindedly stirred the pudding they were making for dessert.

Aubrey tilted her head at him. “The dance lessons?”

“Yeah. It’s for two people, and I didn’t really know who else to bring.”

“What about Hero?” She didn’t realize how silly that suggestion sounded until Kel laughed.

“Hero is a great dancer already, and he’s super busy right now anyway.”

With a conceding shrug of her shoulders, Aubrey sighed. “Isn’t there someone else you’d rather bring, Kel?”

“Nope,” he replied immediately, clearly not understanding the meaning behind her words. “Why would there be?”

“Well…you know…some people think that dancing can have a more romantic connotation, so I was just thinking that if you were interested in someone you might want to bring…” Her voice trailed as she tilted her head confused and inquisitively at the unreadable expression on Kel’s face.

“Oh…uh…well…” Kel chuckled though he rubbed his hand sheepishly across the back of his neck. “Actually, I’d rather take you, but if you don’t want to come, you can just say...”

“It’s fine, Kel.” With a shrug, Aubrey stared down at the potatoes, put the lid over the pan, and turned the stove down to low heat so they could simmer. Her mouth twitched into a bantering smile. “I just meant, you should probably be careful going around asking other girls to go dancing with you. They might get the wrong idea.”

“Is it really that much of a romantic thing?” asked Kel blinking at her.

Aubrey shrugged again. “It is in the movies.”

“But that’s just the movies. They make everything romantic, especially when it doesn’t have to be. Like how they always make it seem like prom is the best night of your life or when the couple dances together there one time, they’re suddenly desperately in love forever.” Kel laughed, but Aubrey frowned.

“I didn’t mean it like—” She huffed, shaking her head. “And what would you know about prom anyway, you barely even went to ours?”

“I went to enough of it to know that it wasn’t super magical or anything, and yeah, I danced with a few girls, but it’s not like I’m just pining for them forever now.” Kel paused, chuckling to himself, and Aubrey’s face flushed but her brow furrowed. Was he making fun of her?

“That’s not the same thing. For some girls it’s different. They romanticize it in their heads”—she sighed—“not me but…”

“That’s because you’re a cynic,” teased Kel.

“And you’re a moron—especially if you think that another girl wouldn’t take your invitation to dancing lessons in a romantic way.”

Kel just shrugged and admitted, “I don’t get it.”

“Well…what if you had danced with that girl, the one you actually wanted to take as your prom date? Don’t you think that would’ve been special?”

“I didn’t get to dance with her—ever actually, but I don’t think it would’ve changed anything. A dance is just dance, isn’t it?” He tilted his head as a bantering smile tugged at his lips. “You’re acting like if I just started dancing with you right now, you’d—?”

“K—Kel?” Aubrey’s breath hitched as he slipped his arms around her waist. “What are you doing?”

“Proving a point,” he insisted with a shrug.

Aubrey huffed. “There isn’t even any music.”

“Oh.” Kel absentmindedly tilted his head before pulling out his phone, presumably choosing a song to play. As the song’s intro began to play, he set his phone on the counter and held out his hand to her.

“Can I have this dance?” he asked with a playfully melodramatic bow, and Aubrey sighed with a somewhat affectionate roll of her eyes.

“Fine,” she sighed. “Whatever will get you to focus on cooking again.”

Kel smiled brightly as he wrapped his arms around her waist again. As he met her eyes, she looked away abruptly—clearing her throat as she snaked her arms around his neck. He was so close to her. Her cheeks felt warm, and she swallowed hard, pushing the thought away. ‘It’s just Kel,’ she reminded herself.

He began swaying—Aubrey shook her head—off tempo with the music. “You really can use those dance lessons,” she teased though there was a certain, uncharacteristic shakiness that seeped into her words. She pursed her lips and mentally kicked herself. What was wrong with her all of a sudden?

She could almost feel Kel’s chuckle reverberating in his chest. “Yeah, well I guess it’s good I won them then.” He smiled at her, and as he met her eyes, Aubrey shuddered in spite of herself.

Kel pulled her closer to him—almost pressing his cheek against hers and began to quietly sing along to the music. Aubrey’s face flushed. Knowing Kel he probably wasn’t even aware that he was singing, but she could feel his warm breath, those affectionate words almost whispered in her ear. For the life of her she couldn’t even begin to guess why Kel had picked what was probably one of the most romantic songs in the universe. The slow crooning of the melody alone screamed romance, but there was so much devotion, so much longing in the lyrics—and to hear them in Kel’s voice... Aubrey inhaled sharply—hoping her face wasn’t nearly as red as she feared.

“How”—her voice hitched, and she pulled away from him—“How do you even know this song?”

Kel just shrugged. “Hero showed it to me. He likes all those old songs, you know? And I thought it would be good for this.” He paused. “Why? Do you like it?”

“It’s fine,” shrugged Aubrey though she found she couldn’t look at Kel for some reason.

When she finally met his gaze again, there was something so warm, so gentle in his expression, and his dark eyes seemed to glisten with an emotion that she couldn’t begin to describe but which made her heart pound all the same. He lifted his hand from her waist and gently pressed his palm to her cheek.

“If this was a movie, this is probably the point when I’d say something corny like…” Kel paused, blinking at her with heavy-lidded eyes before he continued with a gentle sincerity that made her breath catch in her throat, ”‘You are so beautiful.’” He stroked her cheek with his thumb, and as his eyes fluttered closed, he sighed, “‘I’ve wanted this for a long time.’”

Aubrey swallowed hard. She tried to frown even though she was sure her face was bright red from that…that pining underscoring his voice. ‘This is just a game,’ she reminded herself—one that Kel seemed to be getting extremely into, but a game all the same. Still... the way his voice faltered, the earnestness in his eyes made it easy to forget.

“You’ve been watching too many romance movies with Hero…” she quipped, but her voice wavered.

Kel chuckled lightly. “Maybe…”

His hand softly stroked the side of her cheek until the tips of his long fingers began to tangle in her hair. She shivered as she took a long, shaky breath. His lips parted slightly as his mouth relaxed. She bit her lip and watched as Kel did the same.

“Aubrey…” he whispered as she tangled her trembling hand in the hair at the nape of his neck and gently pulled him towards her in slow, deliberate movements that didn’t feel like her own. His long, dark eyelashes fluttered. He was close enough to her now that she could almost feel them against her skin.

Her heart pounded. Her hands shook. He hovered in front of her mere inches away from her face. When he whispered her name again, she realized they had stopped dancing.

As Kel’s eyes fluttered closed, he tilted his head and cupped her face with his hands. His breath was warm against her skin, so close Aubrey could almost taste the coffee and citrus lingering from that awful Orange Joe he loved so much. As she began to lean closer to him, her hand curled around the unruly strands of his hair, and she pressed her palm to the back of his head—pulling him in. Closer. Closer.

He began to lean forward. That space between them was almost non-existent now. Aubrey froze—unable to move, unable to breath. Her heartbeat raced, and she could almost feel Kel’s heart pounding as he stopped, a breath away from her. She gripped the soft fabric of his shirt and shut her eyes tightly. Waiting. Waiting until…

BEEP! BEEP! The sound of the oven timer rang through the living room. Aubrey exhaled deeply though her cheeks flushed. What had just happened?

Kel startled, pulling away from her abruptly. “Oh! The lasagna!” he exclaimed with a bright smile, seemingly, completely unphased by what had just happened, by the fact that they had almost…

Aubrey inhaled sharply, then took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. She bit down hard on her lip. It was just a game to him. Of course it was.

“Alright fine, Kel…” she laughed it off with as much of a frown as she could muster as the music stopped. Her racing heartbeat and wavering tone of voice didn’t seemed to get the memo, however. “You’re right.”

His face beamed. “Seriously?” He chuckled, playfully poking her in the arm. “See, I told you that you didn’t miss out on anything at the prom.”

Aubrey sighed—willing that blush she could still feel in her face away. “Yeah… It’s just a dance—nothing necessarily romantic about that. But you know I agreed with you from the beginning, right? So don’t get too excited about it. I just meant a lot of other girls might get the wrong impression.” ‘Especially if you dance with them like that,’ she mentally added, barely managing to stop herself before the words tumbled out of her mouth.

“Yeah, alright. You know, honestly, I actually kinda see your point now too.” Kel tilted his head and chuckled breathily though his expression was unreadable. Aubrey’s heart raced in spite of herself as she tried to push these thoughts, these feelings, whatever they were away for good.

*-*-*

Aubrey let out a long and heavy sigh. She could feel the blush in her cheeks even now just thinking about it. She hadn’t done a very good job of pushing the memory away. Even though they had never talked about that dance, about that almost-kiss ever again, Aubrey had mulled it over in her mind more times than she could count, until she could almost believe that she had been imagining things, that she had just gotten caught up in the music and dancing and that nothing had actually almost happened. But…—Aubrey sighed—the way he had looked at her…

She swallowed hard and pushed the thought away. This was Kel. Kel—dopey, happy-go-lucky Kel who used to eat spray cheese directly out of the can until she and Hero staged an intervention to ask him to stop and who once got a popsicle stick stuck up his nose because he wanted to see if he could touch his brain with it. Granted he was seven at the time, but still… this was Kel, and Kel was…was…

Aubrey sighed. Kel was sweet and thoughtful. He’d do anything to make his friends and family happy, and he loved making people laugh. He could make friends anywhere he went, and he always found things to smile about. And yeah, he could be awkward sometimes, airheaded, oblivious, and occasionally stubborn, but he had a big heart and even if his words didn’t always come out the way he wanted them to, she never doubted how much he cared. He was a great friend—her best friend, probably if she was being honest, but she wasn’t about to waste another minute of her life sitting around analyzing whether she may or may not have almost kissed him once. And she especially wasn’t going to sit around analyzing whether or not she should have or, worst of all, whether she had wanted to.

“You will dance with me again, won’t you?” asked Kel’s voice through the phone. “I gave those dancing lessons to my parents as a gift, but Hero was helping me practice a little bit, so I think I’ve gotten a lot better.”

“Uh…yeah…sure Kel…” stumbled Aubrey trying her best not to think anything of it.

“Okay, great! I’ve got to go now, but I’ll see you soon, okay? Bye.”

“…Bye…” mumbled Aubrey. She let out a long and heavy sigh, shaking her head and mentally kicking herself for getting so flustered about Kel of all people. It was nothing, clearly…given the way he could mention it so nonchalantly like that. She should just stop thinking about it and worrying that it was something that it wasn’t.

She pushed the thought away—trying her best to think about something else, anything else. What was everyone going to wear tonight? Sally would probably look adorable all dressed up in party dress or a costume if she wanted to be an actual princess—though Aubrey supposed Kel had specifically used the word “prom” rather than “ball” so Sally might not want a princess dress. Would Kel and Hero go all out and rent tuxes or just wear nice suits? Maybe Kel would bring back that bright pink tie from their prom…

Aubrey stopped. That tie. She hadn’t thought about it in years until it got brought up a couple of weeks ago when she and Kel were going shopping at the outlet mall with Sally.

*-*-*

“They’re so pretty,” Sally sighed wistfully with a little twirl as they passed some of the clothing racks filled with sparkly prom dresses. “I can’t wait ‘til I’m old enough to go to the prom.” She giggled and squeezed Aubrey’s hand. “What was it like? Did you get to wear a pretty dress like that, Aubbie?”

Aubrey smiled. Sally had given her that nickname years ago when she was a little toddler who struggled with her “r”s, and it made it happy to think that it had somehow stuck all these years. Her smile quickly faded however, as she awkwardly replied, “Well…Sally…I didn’t actually go to my prom.”

“Oh…” Sally’s eyes widened sadly, and she tilted her head. “I’m sorry.”

“That’s okay,” she reassured her, giving her a gentle smile and a reassuring pat on the head. “Your brother went though—to part of it. He wore this bright pink tie.”

Kel laughed and playfully poked her in the arm. “You remember my tie?”

Aubrey’s face flushed, but she bantered. “It was kind of hard to forget. Why’d you pick a color like that anyway?”

“Oh uh…” Chuckling, he scratched the back of his neck. “I never told you?”

“No…” Aubrey quirked an eyebrow at him, but Sally giggled.

“I wanna hear about it.”

“Well, okay, just for you Sally,” Kel’s expression softened, but he shrugged his shoulders. “But I’m warning you, it’s…kind of silly now that I’m thinking about it…” He sighed. “There was this girl…She was really amazing. I wanted to ask her to prom, but I was really afraid she would say ‘no’ so I kind of chickened out. But she really liked pink so…I thought maybe she’d like that pink tie. Kind of silly, right?” He laughed it off, but his cheeks flushed.

“Did she like it?” asked Sally, curiously blinking up at her older brother.

Kel’s mouth curved into a smile, and—Aubrey blushed—she could have almost sworn he glanced over at her when he said, “Yeah. I think she did…”

“You know, you never told me—that girl, did she go with someone else?” The question slipped out before Aubrey could stop it. She had spent years wondering, worrying if she had ruined Kel’s prom with her own problems or if he was nursing a broken heart of his own that had nothing to do with her grief. It was probably selfish to be bringing it up now after all these years, but she couldn’t give up the opportunity to find out for sure if Kel would have left the prom early anyway, even if she had been there.

“Nope,” Kel shook his head with a sigh, and Aubrey swallowed hard.

“Did you get to dance with her, then?”

A smile twitched in the corners of Kel’s mouth—something unreadable but undeniably affectionate flashing across his eyes. “Eventually…”

“Was she a good dancer?” giggled Sally.

“Better than me.” Kel shrugged, but he reached out to take Sally’s hand and gave his sister a little twirl. “But I am getting better.”

He flashed Aubrey a teasing smile, and she shook her head at him as she stifled a laugh. She knew it was a sign that this conversation was over, but it nagged at the back of her brain for the rest of the day as they absentmindedly wandered from store to store, eventually stopping for soft pretzels at the food court and surprising Sally with a bright yellow bow for her hair. There was no more talk of prom.

When it started storming, they decided to call it a day and headed back to Faraway Town. It wasn’t long before Sally fell asleep in the back seat of her car, exhausted from the long and exciting day of shopping. Aubrey dreaded the silence left by the absence of Sally and Kel’s cheerful prattling, but she was grateful for the opportunity to focus on driving rather than on mulling Kel’s words over in her head. That guilt she had been feeling ever since he had had to skip out on their prom on her account was suddenly fresh again, gnawing at her, getting harder and harder to push away.

“Hey…uh…Aubrey? Are you okay?” asked Kel quietly enough so as not to wake up the napping Sally. “You’ve been kind of quiet…”

“Well Sally’s asleep Kel,” she replied with a tilt of her head as she glanced in her rearview mirror.

“Yeah, but I meant before that…Ever since we were in that department store…”

Aubrey took a deep breath and tried to muster a, “Yeah…I’m just…”

She stopped abruptly. Even if she didn’t take her eyes off the road, she could almost picture Kel’s reassuring smile, encouraging her that she could tell him anything. Maybe it would be best to ask him now when she didn’t have to look in his face...

Before she could decide, however, she pulled into the driveway of Kel’s parents’ house. Grabbing a nearby umbrella, Kel got out of the car and gently lifted a sleeping Sally, draping his jacket over her head so her face wouldn’t get wet from his attempts to carry her and the umbrella.

Kel fidgeted until he was shielding Sally completely with the umbrella, getting himself soaked in the process. Aubrey sighed and shook her head with a somewhat affectionate smile. He was going to be sopping wet by the time he got back to the car, but if Aubrey was being honest, she didn’t mind. It was sweet how much Kel cared about his sister. Aubrey supposed that was really just Kel—he always thought about everybody else and how to make them happy. He’d give a stranger his umbrella if they needed it, even if that meant he’d get himself soaked. It was something Aubrey admired most about him.

Her face felt suddenly warm, and she pushed the thought away, watching as Kel handed Sally off to his mom on the porch. She gave Aubrey a bright smile and a cheerful wave as Kel rushed back across yard. Aubrey waved back.

Sure enough, when Kel got back inside the car, he was dripping water. He ran his hand through his sopping hair.

“Sorry, Aubrey. I’ll clean it up when you drop me off,” he insisted with a sheepish smile, but Aubrey waved her hand.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s just water.”

Chuckling, Kel’s mouth twitched into a lopsided grin, and he shrugged his shoulders, “Okay, now that Sally’s inside…what’s up? Something’s bugging you.”

“I’m fine,” Aubrey said, but she knew Kel knew her too well to believe that.

He sighed, a look of concern passing over his eyes. “Are you sure? Is it something I said…?”

“No…” She bit her lip. “It’s not you. It’s just…”

“You’ll feel better if you just tell me. I know you will,” he teased with a kind smile.

Aubrey huffed. He was right, of course, but she didn’t really want to admit that.

“Why did you leave our prom?”

Kel’s brow furrowed, and his eyes widened in confusion. “What?”

“You know…was it for that girl you wanted to take but didn’t end up asking or was it for…?” She stopped and cleared her throat.

“Well…actually…” Kel stumbled, his face flushing. Aubrey sighed guiltily. She didn’t mean to fluster him like this—it wasn’t fair.

“I just…I know it’s none of my business, and I feel bad asking but I just don’t want to be reason that you had to skip out on our prom, you know? So if you left because you were heartbroken or…”

“Oh,” Kel interrupted. Clearing his throat, he rubbed his hand across the nape of his neck. “Uh…I wasn’t heartbroken or anything, but…yeah, I did leave because of that girl—the one I wanted to ask…”

Aubrey sighed. She didn’t feel as relieved to hear this as she had always imagined she would. She felt almost…sad…

“Do you regret it?” she asked quietly, staring at her hands. “Leaving her there at the prom?”

“What?”

“You know, you could’ve stayed. You didn’t have to miss out on it, especially not to just waste the whole night sitting on my porch…” She cleared her throat though she twisted her hands around the steering wheel, staring intently at the swaying windshield wipers. “Do you ever wish that…things had been different?”

“I mean…I guess sometimes, maybe, but only to wish that you had been there and that everyone had been there to come with us.” Sighing bittersweetly, Kel paused. “Why? Do you?”

Aubrey sighed, adjusting her grip on the steering wheel even though the car was still parked. “Sometimes…” she admitted. “But for the same reason as you, I guess, and…” Her voice trailed, and she could feel Kel shift next to her.

“And what?”

“I’ve just…” Her face flushed as she took a deep breath. “I always felt guilty for making you miss it. I really am sorry about that.”

Kel chuckled lightly and placed his hand on her shoulder until she turned to look at him. “Aubrey, don’t worry about it. I already told you. I wanted to spend it with you.”

His smile was warm, and the look in his eyes was so tender that Aubrey’s hands began to shake as her cheeks blushed rose. She turned away from him, and he shrugged his shoulders and admitted, “I think about that night a lot, actually…in a good way. I don’t have regrets.”

He gently pushed a piece of hair out of her face, and Aubrey shivered but not from the cold and wet of the rain on his fingers. “Aubrey, I…There’s actually…” He stopped and pulled his hand away from her abruptly as water began to drip into her face. “Oh shoot. I’m sorry,” he stumbled, panicking over the damp streaks in her hair.

“It’s okay, Kel…” Aubrey sighed—politely failing to mention that his panicking over dripping water everywhere was just spraying water and making everything wetter. “Let’s just…get you home.”

“Okay…” Kel nodded, but his face was flushed. Aubrey was sure hers was bright red. She could only hope he wouldn’t notice.

*-*-*

Taking a deep breath, Aubrey parked her car on the street in front of Kel’s house. This was probably the worst possible thing she could have been thinking of right now. Why did she do this to herself?

She sighed heavily, burying her face in her hands before she composed herself, pushing all those thoughts away. She didn’t even know where they were coming from, and even if she did, now was definitely not the time to be thinking about any of that. She could almost guarantee that Kel certainly wasn’t. There was no way he was sitting around wondering what would have happened if the timer hadn’t gone off when they were dancing or if water hadn’t started to drip into her face when he was running his hand through her hair. These were just things Kel did without thinking—it didn’t mean anything more to him than that they were just friends, so why should it mean anything more to her? And…perhaps more importantly, why would she even want it to? Why would she want affection for him that would never be returned?  

Her shoes clicked across the pavement as she made her way down the sidewalk and up the driveway to the house where Kel lived with his brother, at least until Hero finished his final year of residency and paid off enough student loans to afford his own place. There was the faint sound of music echoing from the backyard and lights shimmering from what she assumed was probably their decorated porch. As soon as she walked through the gate to the yard, however, she realized she was wrong. There was a beautiful trellis canopy covered in Christmas lights with twinkling icicle lights hanging from the ceiling—underneath it was Hero’s record player, playing classic love songs.

Aubrey froze just staring at it—how it beautiful it was. She didn’t even notice Kel until he chuckled beside her.  

“Aubrey, you made it!” He paused, his expression softening. “You look beautiful. I’m glad I finally got to see your prom dress.”

Aubrey’s face flushed, and she curled her toes in her shoes both at the compliment,  and at the fact that Kel didn’t look too shabby himself dressed in his dark suit with combed hair and shiny dress shoes. “You look nice too, Kel. I see you’re wearing that tie—” she tried to tease him, but her voice cracked. Kel, however, just chuckled lightly.

“Oh yeah…well, you know…” With a slight shrug of his shoulders, he paused fidgeting with the bright pink tie around his neck. “Do you like it?”

Aubrey somehow managed a playful roll of her eyes. “It’s great, Kel.”

“I got you this,” he exclaimed excitedly, holding out a plastic container with a corsage inside.

“Wow, thank you,” she stumbled as he helped her slip it onto her wrist. “You really did go all out, huh?”

Kel hummed and nodded enthusiastically, but Aubrey’s brow furrowed as she glanced around. “So, uh…where are Hero and Sally?”

A faint flush of rose filled Kel’s cheeks. “Oh. Uh…well…about that. They’re not here.”

“Why not?”

“It wasn’t really a lie,” he tripped over his words. “I was just trying to surprise you, but I…I didn’t do this for Sally…”

As he met her eyes, Aubrey shivered and swallowed hard. Kel chuckled sheepishly. “I knew you were kind of upset that you missed your prom, and so I thought I’d make you your own prom. Surprise!”

Aubrey looked around the yard—at the twinkling lights, the trellis, Hero’s record player, then at Kel, all dressed up in his best suit with his pink tie, the kindest look in his eyes and the brightest, beaming smile on his face.

“You...”—she inhaled sharply—“You did all this…for me?”

“Yeah…Is it overboard? I was worried it might be a little overboard.”

Aubrey could scarcely put coherent sentences together—her head was spinning. Kel…Kel had done all of this…for her…? “Why?”

“Why?” Kel repeated with wide eyes. “Well…because it’s a lot…with the music and the fancy clothes and the decorations…”

“No, uh—” she stumbled. “Why did you do this for me, Kel?”

“Oh…well I thought you were upset about our prom ever since we went to the outlet mall, and I thought maybe a ‘do-over’ prom would make you happy.”

Aubrey’s blush deepened as she stared down at her feet. “You…you really didn’t have to do this Kel. Especially since I’m the one who basically ruined your prom in the first place.”

“Aubrey…” He pressed his palm to her cheek—smiling, waiting until she finally looked up at him. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you this whole time. You didn’t ruin my prom—not at all. I wanted to spend it with you. I know I probably should’ve just asked you, but I don’t know, I was just…I had never felt so close to anybody in my whole life, and I thought you were so amazing, I didn’t know what to do with myself…” He paused, chuckling awkwardly with a sheepish shrug of his shoulders.

“Wait…you…you…” she stammered trying to make sense of what she was hearing. He couldn’t have possibly just said…? “You wanted to take me to our prom? I’m the girl?”

Kel’s cheeks blushed red, but he nodded. “You’re the girl.” Aubrey could only blink at him as he chuckled lightly, awkwardly again and joked as he fidgeted with his hands, “You know…if this was a movie, this is probably the part where I’d say something really corny like ‘You’ve always been the girl.’”

As he met her eyes, Aubrey froze. His words may have been corny, but the look in his eyes was so sincere, so…affectionate. She swallowed hard—sure her face must be bright red by now, but she couldn’t move, couldn’t think. She tried her best to take a deep breath and shakily tease him but her voice was wavering, breathy—it almost didn’t sound like her. “Yeah…that’s—that’s really corny…”

“Yeah, I’m no Hero…” Kel chuckled self-deprecatingly. “I’m really not good at any of this stuff…” He bit his lip and looked back up at her with a gaze that made her shiver. “But I really do think you’re great—probably the most amazing person I’ve ever met. I’m sorry for not saying it before.”

“Kel, I…” Her voice hitched. “I had no idea you felt this way…”

“That’s okay,” shrugged Kel. “To be honest, I didn’t even know I felt this way for a long time. It took me a while to figure it out…I was just kind of dense, I guess.” He laughed with a sheepish grin. “When I finally mentioned it to Hero, he gave me this look like ‘it’s about time…’ Then he was the one who was really encouraging me to tell you, but I just never really could figure out how and…then I was worried I was going to mess up our friendship and I didn’t want to make things awkward…But I guess this is kinda awkward, huh? All the movies make it look so easy…”

Aubrey blushed. If one of them should be feeling dense right now, it really should be her. Kel was…Was he really…?

“Listen, uh…you’re really quiet right now. You don’t have to say anything. We can just pretend that I never said anything,” he began to ramble quickly, nervously. “I didn’t want to put you on the spot, I just—I thought that was something you should probably know about me, er, about you, er how I feel about you because I—I really like you and I think you are really great and if you ever talk to me again after this, I would really like to take you to dinner and…”

Aubrey could only blink at him, unable to get a word in edgewise as he let out a long heavy sigh. “And I am totally messing this up…” Sighing heavily again, he ran his hand through his hair, before he met her eyes. “Aubrey…I’m sorry—”

“Don’t be…” Aubrey interrupted, reaching up to stroke Kel’s cheek with her hand. “I know it’s not an easy thing to say…”

“No, but you don’t understand. I tried to practice and everything. I was going to say all kinds of really nice stuff like that you’re probably the most important person in the world to me, and I don’t know what I’d do without you. After Mari and Sunny and Basil…”—his voice hitched—”Things were so dark and so sad…it was probably one of the worst times in my life, and I felt so alone, but then, you found me…and you showed me that even if this world without them is always going to be a little sadder than it was, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still good things in it too. And a lot of those good things were because of you—when we tease each other and we’re throwing popcorn at each other or I’m wiping frosting on your nose or splashing water at you at the beach—when we laugh about corny movies or dance in the kitchen or when we just talk for hours and completely forget about the time…or when your face turns all red when you’re trying not to smile or the way your nose wrinkles when you laugh. And you”—he cupped her face in his hands—“You’re the best thing.”

“Kel—I…I…” Aubrey began to trip over her words, unsure what she even wanted to say.

Kel sighed, his face blushing red as he pulled his hands away from her, and mumbled, “I don’t even know if that makes sense…”

“No, it…it does,” Aubrey said with a reassuring smile. “I…I completely…” She stopped. “Back then, I…I never thought I could ever be happy again, but you showed me I could be, that there’s still…happiness…” Her voice trailed, but Kel wrapped his arms around her and pulled into a tight hug.  

“Aubrey…I’m…I’m so glad…I…”—Kel’s voice hitched—“I just want you to be happy. I want you to be so, so happy. I just never thought I’d ever be lucky enough that you could be happy with me.”

“I am happy, Kel,” Aubrey whispered, unable to think, unable to breath. Something she couldn’t even begin to describe seemed to propel her forward—her whole body almost moving on its own as she pulled back from him just enough to close her eyes and brush her lips against his.

“A—Aubrey?” stumbled Kel with a look more akin to having been whacked on the back of the head rather than kissed.

“Kel, uh…sorry…” she began staring off over his shoulder. “I just um…”

“No, I’m sorry, I just…I wasn’t ready.” Aubrey’s eyes widened, but Kel hurriedly added, “Ready as in prepared not as in ready like I—I didn’t want…because I—I do…”

A playful smile tugged at Aubrey’s lips, but she was blushing too much to actually tease him.

“I—I…” Kel began to stumble again, and Aubrey could have sworn she heard him mumble, “Oh forget it…” under his breath before he finally just threw his arms around her neck and kissed her. His hands tangled in her hair as hers gripped the collar of his suit pulling him even closer to her. She could taste that sickeningly sweet Orange Joe on his breath, but she didn’t even care.

When they finally broke apart from each other, red-faced and breathless. Kel chuckled teasingly, “I guess I should probably ask you to dance now, huh?”

As that familiar song began to play, Kel wrapped his arms around her, and Aubrey slipped her hands around his neck. They swayed in time to the music, and neither one of them could hold back their smiles.

As Aubrey nestled into Kel’s chest, she could feel him chuckling lightly to himself.

“What?” she asked quietly.  

“Nothing it’s just…” Kel pulled away just enough to look at her and meet her eyes as his mouth twitched into a soft, playful smile. “Maybe it really is true what everyone says about prom after all…”

[snailsbigrace]

Pre-Trauma SUNNY Headcanons

(Discontinued)

A/N: Another one from my Wattpad that my friend was waiting for! So I hope that he, and you guys enjoy!

Warnings: One mention of an ed.

Word Count: 1.1k

- Remember when you were young and happy?

- SUNNY is a very very quiet kid even before his trauma, often letting his big sister do the talking for him. 

- He's almost never that far away from MARI, because he's very dependent on her.

- When he gets nervous, scared, angry, sad, happy etc, etc, he always goes to MARI. She always seems to help him calm down or encourage his positive emotions.

- If MARI's not around he'll be upset but will instead go to his mom, if not his mom then BASIL, if not BASIL then HERO, if not HERO then AUBREY, if not AUBREY then KEL.

- BASIL's always been one to go to SUNNY when he needs to vent so SUNNY coming to him is only fair in BASIL's mind. He happily listens to SUNNY, and will comfort him if needed. Always gives him a smile after SUNNY feels better or is done talking about something he's happy about.

- HERO doesn't really know what to do if SUNNY's upset as he leaves that to MARI but will try to make him feel better. If he's happy HERO will just nod his head, giving SUNNY a thumbs up, as well as an awkward smile.

- AUBREY listens. She doesn't interrupt, or even move a muscle. She's not letting him be upset! Not on her watch! She'll hug him for hours if she has to! She's not afraid not to! Though if he's really frustrated about it to the point where he's in tears she'll end up in tears too. Gives him a huge smile after he's talked about something that makes him happy!

- KEL is not the best comfort boy out there, he's not very good at listening either. He'll be focusing on something else. If SUNNY's really upset he'll offer for him and SUNNY to go on a walk and will encourage SUNNY to keep talking. Will interrupt and tell SUNNY about something he likes in response to SUNNY talking about what makes him happy.

- SUNNY is a mama's boy, just like HERO!

- SUNNY likes to watch SWEETHEART with KEL, BASIL, and AUBREY. He almost always ends up moving himself closer to AUBREY.

- Loves to show his friends scores he's gotten on his games,  mostly KEL and BASIL! They always seem impressed!

- The opposite of BASIL who likes thunder, SUNNY hates it! It's way too loud! And why must it rain so much? He likes the rain, but not this much rain!

- SUNNY doesn't eat much, he doesn't have an ed or anything he's just not a very hungry kid, though MARI's concerned about why he doesn't eat as much as everyone else.

- When he does eat he really likes MARI's and his mom's cooking and baking but he also really likes cereal! His favorites are Fruit Loops, Fruity Pebbles, and Lucky Charms!

- He's tried "healthier" cereals but doesn't enjoy them. He finds them too tasteless.

- He's also a huge meat enjoyer! He likes a good BBQ and whatnot! His favorites are steak, chicken, and crab! 

- SUNNY likes to go on walks with KEL and HERO! HERO isn't a big fan of exercise so this is a nice alternative for him. He can handle a walk.

- He likes to listen to KEL and HERO babble about which is better or who is better. He secretly agrees with one of them in his head.

- That being said SUNNY really looks up to HERO! He wants to be just like him when he's 15! SUNNY sees HERO as a super kind and overall amazing guy! He also likes HERO's haircut!

- Likes to stay up later, he's usually not doing much, he's usually playing games or thinking of stories in his head.

- Has drawn the headspace versions of his friends. Not because headspace existed, but because the only coloured pencils he had were white, blue, purple, green, pink, orange, and red!

- He showed BASIL and BASIL loved it! BASIL even got to keep it!

- SUNNY has tried to played catch with KEL before, always ends up getting hit with the ball though.

- He also gets worried when MARI offers to play with KEL or AUBREY. He knows about her bad knee and doesn't really want her pushing herself too hard.

- Will offer to take her place but the two aren't really happy about it because SUNNY isn't the best when it comes to playing games.

- His favorites to play are Red Light, Green Light with KEL, and Hopscotch with AUBREY. 

- AUBREY doesn't tell him he's bad at games, she just tells him how good she thinks he's doing. 

- KEL doesn't tell him about how he's bad at games either, but will recommend that they play something else if he doesn't feel that SUNNY can handle the game.

- SUNNY also likes to play Duck Duck Goose with all of his friends. If he's in the middle he likes to either go for HERO or BASIL.

- He likes how much fun they all have when they play that game.

- Sometimes SUNNY sleeps with MEWO when he's scared and is trying to be brave and not go to MARI's bed.

- MEWO is very unimpressed.

- SUNNY likes to hug HECTOR. Dogs aren't his favorite animal in the whole wide world but HECTOR is a very nice dog!

- Goes into a laughing fit when HECTOR licks his face. 

- He knows how frustrated MARI gets when it comes to the piano and messing up and he doesn't really understand why. 

- He tries to avoid her when she's upset.

- He's very only ever been yelled at once in his life that he can remember so he's not very fond of the idea of being yelled at.

- SUNNY takes very special care of his violin! He cleans it every day so that it's really clean for him the next time he uses it!

- He also likes to help MARI clean her piano if she lets him and HERO isn't already on it!

- Probably needs glasses, but he doesn't tell anyone about his slightly crappy vision. But sometimes he hates having to squint to see what things say!

- SUNNY likes to be by himself. He likes to make stories in his head while he just sits in a completely silent room. He hopes one day he can write a book or something!

- He likes to share his stories with MEWO. MEWO is unimpressed. 

-  SUNNY is a spoiled kid who isn't used to not getting what he wants. He's the youngest so he's the most spoiled after all, but he's not overly mean about it or anything like that, he just gets a little fussy when things don't go his way.

- Complains to MEWO, MEWO just sleeps.

Thanks for reading! <3

[dyesprout0ysphoria]

Guys

Guys

Guys

I was thinking

Basil dies instead of Mari AU

He doesn't die by someone, but drowns

Angsty ass Sunflower AU

TW for anything related to Death, Drowning and I dunno what else

If you cannot read Pictures:

"AU Idea - Basil dies instead of Mari, and he drowns.

Like I think to that one beach memory, and like Mari's trying to teach Sunny and Basil how to swim, and while Sunny has trouble, he eventually is able to swim on his own a little. Basil had more trouble.

When they went off on their own into the ocean with the others, Basil got washed into many tides, probably trying to get farther into the ocean to take pictures but gets too far in and tries to get back to the shore, trying to scream for help, but his legs fail him and eventually he drowns. Only the Faraway gang finds out Basil's missing after a while and later finds that Basil drowned. (Maybe They find out from the news next day or find Basil's body flowing with the heavy tides.)

Sunny is devastated and grows Aquaphobia because of it, So now he got Thalassophobia and Aquaphobia, maybe other phobias that stem from that (Nyctophobia, Because the Ocean is still very much unexplored.). Sunny learns to be scared of Oceans because despite knowing how to swim, Basil drowned, and that's what scares him and haunts him.

Sunny never heard Basil's yells for help when he was struggling to swim back to safety, but just imagining it scares him too much.

Of course, this fear leaks into his headspace, and it also affects Headspace Basil as a whole as The Ocean reminds Sunny of Basil and it sticks with him a lot

-Basil Something (for at least one of them) would probably have to do with the Ocean -HS Basil has similar smell to the feel of being in a beach -Sunny stays away from the Beaches a lot but stays close to Basil because he doesn't want HS Basil to drown like Basil did.

I think? Sunny would still be going outside during 12-16, but it's sort of Similar to Hero where it takes a lot of time to adjust, like, all he'd do is look through his phone, looking through messages and memories that Basil lived in to make Basil's spirit feel like its there, and Dream about headspace. It'd take a while for Sunny to try going

Outside again, But Mari probably convinces him, even though the death of Basil hurts her too, She knows that it probably hit Sunny hard. Harder since, They weren't really, there. It just happened so Suddenly. I'd also like to think that Mari would take more time off of music to try to help Sunny, Because Sunny just stopped doing a lot of things after Basil died. Probably would try getting food and asking Sunny about things.

When Sunny goes outside after a while, he struggles with making connections, because Basil knew him so well and it felt like his world went upside down when Basil drowned. He's trying to do this to reserve his feelings and try to not get himself emotionally hurt again. He even struggles with trying to talk to Aubrey, Hero and Kel cause of it as well.

I think Sunny visits Basil's grandmother as well, because it's probably so hard to know that your grandson died before you. Sunny learns more of Basil than he'd ever know from stories Basil's grandmother would tell him, and it'd feel like Basil was alive again.

Sunny probably gets a lot of Basil's stuff after Basil dies, probably consistantly looking through the photo album and sulking.

Anyways that's my idea and MY EXCUSE TO MAKE ANGSTY ASS SUNFLOWER 👍"

I need to develop more on the others, like Kel, Aubrey, Hero, and Mari, but these are some ideas :D

[ryhmus]

MARIQUEST 2

MARI hosts another DnD session for Kel's birthday...

[MARI is once again setting up the board game on the living room table of the Kel and Hero's home, the others are sat around with thier character sheets from last time out on the table, as a finishing touch, she puts on her wizard hat and sets her hands on the table]

MARI; "Welcome back adventurers, to another round of...Spires and Seekers!"

[She looks to Kel with a bright smile

MARI; "And I'm so happy you could join us today, Kel!"

Kel; "Aw~ you didn't have to for MY birthday."

MARI; "Of course I had to! After so long we just didn't have the time for any sessions. We've been busy!

MARI; "Now let's just have to pick up where we- Do you smell smoke?"

[A smoke alarm starts to sound, HERO looks alarmed and sprints to the kitchen.]

HERO; "Oh no! not the cookies again!"

MARI;"Um, guys? we might have to delay our session for a bit, I'll be right...with you...Hold on HERO! I'm coming!"

[The remaining members look to Kel, he eyes the board and in particular; the Spire Master's hat]

Kel; "Hey, got an idea..."

[Kel picks up the wizard hat and snugly fits it on his head]

Kel; "Well since MARI'S gonna be busy. I'll be your Spire Master today in...

MARI KELQUEST; And the Awesome Quest for the Awsome-sause! (*tm*)

Kel; Eh? eh? pretty sweet right? right? I've never done this before so I hope it's good..."

[AUBREY exchanges looks with OMORI who shrugs]

AUBREY; "Whatever works for you birthday boy."

Kel; Thank you, where did you guys leave off in your last game?"

KEL; "Uh, gee, it's been a while, I don't remember what we were doing..."

BASIL; "I wasn't even here for this.

Kel; "Let's make a new story then, I'll start off *ahem*."

{}{}{}{}{}{}[(START!)]{}{}{}{{}{{{}{

OUR STORY BEGINS IN THE SMALL FISHING TOWN OR...ORANGE...JOESVILLE, IT IS A PEACEFUL TOWN FULL OF PEACEFUL PEOPLE WHO DO PEACEFUL THINGS LIKE FISHING AND OCEAN STUFF...ALSO THEY GOT THIS STUFF CALLED AWESOME-SAUCE AND IT'S REALLY GOOD AND...

BUT!

...SOME EVIL PIRATE DUDE WHO HATES FISHING MESSED UP THE WORLD AND WANTS TO DESTROY THIS VILLAGE, CAUSE HE REALLY, REALLY HATES FISH...THE FATE OF THE TOWN RESTS ON THESE BRAVE SOULS...

AUBREY, THE FEARLESS BARBARIAN WARRIOR OF THE NORTHERN BUNNY FOLK!

HERO BASIL, THE VALIANT KNIGHT-PALADIN OF A FAR AWAY KINGDOM.

STRANGER...THE MYSTERIOUS- OH HOLD ON HE'S NOT HERE TODAY, WE'LL JUST SKIP OVER THIS...

KEL THE WIZARD...A MASTER WIZARD OF BASKETBALL AND AWESOMENESS!

AND OMORI, THE SHADE, SHADOWY AND SILENT ROUGE, QUIET AS THE NIGHT...

THEIR JOURNEY WILL BE LONG AND PERILOUS AND EPIC AS HECK! BUT TOGETHER THEY WILL...

SAVE THE WORLD!

...

AUBREY; "...Cool story so far...(sucks in a breath) yep, good story."

Kel;"Hold on, gotta give you your character sheets and-"

AUBREY;"Wait, wait, wait, we've already got character sheets."

BASIL;"I don't. I don't know how to play!"

KEL; "Oh! You can have HERO'S spot."

Our adventure begins, with our brave adventurers resting at the local ocean-bar, the bar-maiden comes over and asks-

AUBREY; "I punch KEL in the face...again..."

KEL; "Come on AUBS, really?"

Kel; "For real or in the game?"

AUBREY; "Either way's good, he's got a really punchable face."

Kel; "Roll the dice."

KEL; "I swear, if you get lucky a second time I'll-

AUBREY "Ooh ho ho! a 20...~"

KEL; "Oh come on..."

Kel; "AUBREY punches KEL in the face so hard that he flies into a wall and it explodes! Everything blows up!, the bar is but a smoldering crater left in the wake of AUBREY'S mighty blow!"

AUBREY; "Heh, I'm a bad...ass..."

Kel; "Hey! no swearing!"

KEL; "Why you...Well I shoot her with my...MAGIC MISSILE!"

AUBREY; "Roll the dice...Hehe, maybe you'll hit something this time."

KEL; "I got a...10! Get a load of this!"

Kel; "KEL shoots a magic missile and narrowly grazes the owner of the former bar, who is now furious and demands payment for the destruction of his establishment."

BASIL; "Uh I-I offer t-to do work to help him raise enough money to help him rebuild."

Kel; "Roll for initiative BASIL."

BASIL; "Do what? what's initiative for?"

[Kel skims through the Spires and Seekers guide]

Kel; "The book says, you gotta roll this dice thing anytime you want to do something."

[BASIL picks up the die and tosses it]

BASIL; "Uh... it's a...20? that's good right?"

Kel; "BASIL pays the owner of the bar for all the damages but now you have no money! What you going to do?"

AUBREY; "I think we should go look for some jobs to get money."

KEL; "Agreed..."

OMORI;"Hmhmm..."

{]{][{]{}{{}{}{{}{}{}{}{{}{}{}

Kel; "So it's a fabulous day in orange Joe'sville-"

Aubrey; "Hold on. I thought the world was messed up?"

Kel;"Oh yeah, it's dark, and cloudy now..."

BASIL;"Well that's was quick..."

Kel;"...and it's storming milk from the sky... lots of dead, smelly fish everywhere..."

KEL; "Smells like butts and dead people..."

[Everyone gives KEL strange looks]

Kel;"...And it's being attacked by pirates..."

AUBREY; "Already?!"

Kel; "Yeah we're doing this already! The pirates were waiting to ambush you."

BASIL;"I can cast a healing aura I could-"

KEL; "I USE MAGIC...MISSILE...BARRAGE!"

Kel;" Roll it! mini me!"

[KEL rolls the dice, his eyes light up as it lands on a perfect 20...]

KEL; "YES! YES YES YES YES! LET'S DO IT!"

BASIL;"Ow! Not so loud KEL, I'm sitting right here."

KEL;"Sorry BASIL."

Kel; "KEL launches his magic missiles, they careen through the sky like a flock of eagles and dive into the waters amidst ORANGE JONES' fleet."

[*Slams table and makes explosion noises*]

Kel ;"Then it utterly annihilates them in a massive plume of magic smoke! The pirates AND the ocean are wiped off the face of the earth, WITH ONE STRIKE! KEL BLOWS UP THE OCEAN!"

KEL; "WOOOOOOOOO! HECK YEAH!!! I JUST BLEW UP THE FREAKING OCEAN!"

AUBREY;"Those poor fish..."

KEL; "Take that, pirates and ocean!"

BASIL; "Won't the people starve without the ocean?"

KEL: "They can just pick up all the dead fish lying all over. They don't even have to work for it anymore."

AUBREY; "KEL...fish need water to live, the ocean doesn't have infinite fish, they need to reproduce in there. And also, you know? they go bad after a while?"

KEL; "..."

KEL; "Oh...oops..."

AUBREY; "Great job...dummy. You just doomed everyone."

...

One epic, hastily re-written campaign filled with convenient plot-holes, poorly balanced epic battles, overpowered, game-breaking loot and many more magic missiles later...plus a bathroom break...

...

[the friends are all sat around the table, looking well invested when HERO and MARI walk in covered in soot]

MARI; "I see you started without me...Is everyone have fun?"

KEL; "Yeah! I'm the strongest wizard ever! I blew up the ocean, and the pirates and the aliens too!"

HERO; "I see...Kel's been narrating?"

Kel; "I do make a fine DM if I say so myself."

AUBREY; "I'm surprised to say this but...I'm having a lot of fun with this."

BASIL;"Yeah! even OMORI looks like he's enjoying this."

[OMORI looks over at MARI, he has a faint yellow shimmer around him]

MARI; "That's great! because we just finished baking the cake and setting up the party!"

[Immediately the group all stand up and excitedly rush into the kitchen]

Kel; "Heck yeah! celebrating time!"

KEL; "I want to wear the party hats this time! It's my birthday too!"

AUBREY; "OMORI wants to cut the cake!"

OMORI;" Hmm..."

[MARI goes over and begins to pack up the Spires and Seekers board back into it's case]

MARI; "Hey HERO? You think you'd want a turn at being the Spire Master next time?"

HERO; "I got a script for one that I'm writing, care to read it?

MARI; "Let me guess? You're the charming prince and I'm the princess? How sweet.~"

[HERO blushes]

HERO; "I-It's...not done yet..."

[janethealien]

erm guys

I have an omori au in my head

omori faith au..

!!please note I only have the main characters thought out so far!! :(

(more under cut bc uhh nervous, my friend really didn't agree with my choices for characters and that was a bit discouraging..)

ok so first of all kel is john. thats bc he's my favorite and tbh I like au's where sunny isn't the main protagonist.. its more of just a strong gut feeling that he should be john.. (i don't see him working as well with other main characters and opinion moment)

hero is both father allred and garcia, as in he is instead heavily injured during the exorcism.. him and kel don't really contact each other at all due to what happened until later aka chapter 2 onwards..

also!! lisa is sally!! she's doing a bit better than her brothers, just trying to find her way in life and it's going a little worse then anticipated..

aubrey is amy!! i feel most confident with this one because of both not really liking their homes and stuff:p (also!! fyi ages are played around with a little bit to fit the story!!)

basil felt like he was more fitting for tiffany!! aka extreme devotion (he basically did everything for sunny even tho he didn't care..) he sort of knows he's being manipulated, but couldn't care less as long as he's helping sunny..

okay sunny is gary... he gets people to join in the same way as gary does, but instead his personality is just like canon sunny

his story only makes sense with mari!!! who is miriam bell.. aka mari's family runs a cult that she later takes over after they die.. they summon sunny and the two act like siblings so nobody notices anything.. mari dies not bc she was too old for being a vessel, but because her perfectionism led her to do something she was not physically able to handle yet..

OTHER STUFF!!!:

hero, kel, and sally were by themselves for a bit with their mom, and took care of her while taking care of themselves as well!! their mom still dies tho and all the orphanage stuff still happens.. hero eventually becomes a priest, and kel follows his steps since he wants to be like him as sally goes off to do her own thing..

that is all sorry idk I got nervous about this au it's been sitting in my draft because I was worried it had to be the greatest thing ever,,,,,😰

also I may or may not make designs it's just been a silly concept for now

[omori-aus-archive]

Okay. So, based on my love for Acheron/Raiden Bosenmori Mei from Honkai (especially her Oni form), I figured that I would try my hand at an ancestor-type prompt for Omori, with the “Mari” of the story’s design being based directly upon Oni Acheron.

So this is set in the Sengoku period. Our beloved protagonist (the Mari of this) is in her 20s, a young Onna-Musha turned ronin who is also raising her little brother (the Sunny of the story). Due the nature of the era, the siblings are traveling across Japan in an attempt to avoid the wars.

It's not perfect, but it's manageable so far.

There is some conflict between the two, as the brother wants to settle down. The ronin, despite wanting this too, is too afraid of the fact that it's only a temporary thing. She wants it to be permanent. The two then meet some travelers from Colonial Spain and England (Hero and Kel's, as well as Basil's, respective ancestors), who allow the two to stay with them for a while.

The younger brothers quickly get along and understand each other, despite the language barriers. Not sure if Aubrey's ancestor will be here. The English boy is very intimidated by the ronin (with good reason, given her stature and appearance), while the Spanish gentleman is very much in love with her.

Ultimately, the ronin and her brother let their guard down, believing that they can finally settle down. The ronin believes that her brother was right all along and is glad that she's potentially wrong.

Unfortunately, after a couple years of living together, the war finds the siblings again. The rivaling shogun armies find the group, only to find that they're already escaping. The shogun then catch up with them and separate the ronin from her brother. The ronin successfully fights off her captors...only to watch her brother get murdered.

Again, the ronin fights of the attackers...just long enough to cradle her brother as he succumbs to his wounds.

And here is where I don't where to go with this. I could have it where the ronin becomes an Oni to have revenge on the shogun and the wars' participants...or I could have this be even more Omori like and have the ronin dissociate herself from reality.

Most likely, she becomes an Oni out of grief and a desire for revenge, kinda like the Shura from Sekiro.

As for Aubrey's ancestor, she might either be a disillusioned soldier come from Mainland Asia (Korea, most likely) to scout the wars there to plan for any favorites with the winning shogunate or a merchant that has seeked to escape the island back home.