Chapter Text
It flips through the book.
A very old photo album that it’s had forever, ever since its creation; untouched by BLACK SPACE (for the most part, anyways - STRANGER was choosing to not notice the blackening edges of the cover). A relic of time.
The photos are so old, yet they’re not yellowing or cracked. It hurts to look at them. It feels like forever ago. It was, it thinks sadly. It’s been decades for us. Only three years for the DREAMER .
Only three years. Of course, things came to light now - the DREAMER was no longer with them. BLACK SPACE and its surrounding areas were officially safe, with no threat of OMORI. But it couldn’t help but worry… things were off.
It needs to focus.
TOUCH: the slick coverings of the photos
SOUND: nothing.
TASTE: nothing.
SIGHT: the photos. BASIL smiling back at it, surrounded by three others.
SMELL: dead fish.
It looks next to it, at the source. ABBI’s head is looking over his shoulder, her eye blinking as though to conceal long-since-fallen tears. “That is… me?” she asks, her wet breathing starting up again. She brings up her one good arm shakily, pressing a blood-soaked finger to a photo. In it it’s a photo of her - the real her, with the childlike smile and enthusiasm. It’s kind of blurry, but her face is solid. Part of a tentacle covers the lens with the caption, TAKO stole my camera today! It’s kind of hard taking photos with no hands, though…
It nods after a moment of hesitation. “That was you,” it gently corrects, going to rest one of its own hands on hers. It sucks in a quick breath. “Not anymore.”
It gets the impression she’s frowning. “But… how not?” ABBI asks, moving her hand off of the photo and up to her face. She examines it thoughtfully, looking back down at the photo as if she expected one or the other to suddenly change.
STRANGER winces. “That’s something to discuss later, ABBI.” it can’t help but feel… guilty . Guilty for how she is now, hardly able to form a sentence with proper grammar. Guilty for the way she cries and keens and covers where her ears would be when someone raises their voice, when someone mentions OMORI. But it wasn’t your fault. You didn’t get them… punished.
But it wasn’t here to remember TAKO. It looks through the other photos on this page - flower crowns, OMORI and it (when it was still a he, and he was no longer a stranger, but BASIL), various other pictures of it and TAKO. Icy hands of steel grip at its heart, squeezing.
It flips the page again and again. By now it’s close to the beginning - it’s a rather thick book, from all the rewrites it was present for. It had only been about two, but all of the new photos.. It looked rather like a chapter book than a photo album.
Finally it gets to what it’s looking for - a clear photo of it, TAKO… MEIDO, and UNI. Just an otherwise normal picture - the four are smiling (or, well, UNI didn’t really have a mouth, but it was happy), MEIDO even giving TAKO a poorly-positioned bunny ears. If they were happy then… why couldn’t they be happy then?
It looks sadly to ABBI, then down to its barely-visible reflection in the slick encasing. It sees its red eyes look back at itself, the black figure standing out against the white, colourful backdrop of the photo. Because we’re not us, it decides finally. We can’t be happy… because we’re not us. Times are changing.
The MEIDO it knew now was not the MEIDO it knew before. She now took on an unsettling smile… a worrying, new attitude that said Watch out, world, better not get in my way and I’ll do what I want when I want to and nobody will stop me . She had been energetic before - she had been excited and impulsive and even bossy at times… but now she was scary. This new, unchained side of her scared STRANGER as to what she would do. She was unpredictable. HUMPHREY was unpredictable.
It couldn’t imagine what having to be him for years on end did to her. She was different - not in the good way. She thought it didn’t see how she looked at SOMETHING, how she bared her teeth at AUBREI behind her and its back. How she acted so sweet to cover up something much worse.
This was why it was looking in the photos. Did it miss something? Had she always been like this? Something had to be wrong. She couldn’t be like this, suddenly and out of nowhere - she had to have acted this way before. It didn’t want to believe it. It wouldn’t . If something, even the tiniest thing, alluded to her behaviour before…
The door opens, followed by a “I told you to wait!”. It turns around in its chair to the source of the commotion, although it has a feeling it already knows who.
MEIDO, as confident as ever, strolls in, her tail held high and perked up instead of dragging uselessly on the floor. She’s sporting one of her offputting grins, and trailing her is UNI, and behind him SOMETHING, standing helplessly outside of the door.
It squints at UNI. He hadn’t changed much - being a … cat for years probably didn’t do as much as, say, being alone and tortured (like ABBI) or being a human, meat-eating whale (...like MEIDO). Instead, now two of his head points curved off into ears and he donned paws, haunches instead of legs, and a tail. His white coloration he normally had was off, too, turned a sickly-bright blue or red or yellow. He was more LOQUACIOUS than BIG YELLOW, although he was originally the latter.
MEIDO walks right up to it and thumps its shoulder playfully with her own. “Whatcha doin’, BASIL?” she purrs, as slippery as oil, looking down at the photos. It recoils inwardly, briefly stunned by the use of its old name - MEIDO and UNI still knew it as BASIL. As their brother. It knew this, but it was like a punch to the gut every time they used it.
Am I letting them down, changing myself completely?
UNI sidles up next to ABBI, also looking down at the photo album. “Woah, you still have all of these?” his voice betrays no emotion - he just sounds monotonous-ly calm “I had thought…” he trails off, placing a hand down on the album and turning his one eye to STRANGER.
“No,” STRANGER responds, the hands around its heart returning, this time threatening to choke it. “I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.”
ABBI looks to UNI finally, squinting her one eye. “Who..?” she asks quietly, looking to the void creature in bewilderment. STRANGER leans in close and whispers back that it’s UNI, but she doesn’t look any more comforted.
MEIDO, on the other hand, is frowning down at the photos. “You should get rid of these,” she finally says with a shrug. “You have no reason to keep them anymore. Plus, we could go make some new memories!” her grin gets even wider as she turns to it, a new, dangerous light in her eyes. It shudders inwardly. You’re being unrealistic, it shuns itself inwardly. She can’t do anything.
It catches up with the rest of what she’s said. “What? I’m not… going to get rid of them. They’re important to me.”
MEIDO shrugs again. “They’re worthless is what they are.”
It squints at her. This was the her that it didn’t like. “I don’t care if they’re worthless,” it says simply. “They mean a lot to me and it’s my photo album. I’m keeping them.”
She fixes it with a long, odd look, as though he’s being unreasonable. “You don’t have to get all worked up. I was just giving you a suggestion.”
It fixes her back with the same stare. Was it being unreasonable? Was she just ‘giving a suggestion’? Looking at UNI’s equally surprised look (as surprised as someone with one eye and no facial features could be), it thinks not. But it doesn’t have time to respond before she’s talking again.
“Anyways, about those new memories . We can go make some right now . I know the perfect spot to do things and get a snack, nyak nyak !” she laughs that horrible laugh. That was new, too - STRANGER didn’t like it. But she’s my sister. She’s…
It shakes itself. “I’m sorry, I can’t right now. I have things to do,” it adds quickly as it notices her injured look. It casts a glance to SOMETHING again, standing outside the door, wringing her hands together nervously. MEIDO tilts her head in SOMETHING’s direction, but doesn’t react.
“But you’re my brother!” she pouts, frowning at it. “We need to go have adventures!” she cries. “Like we used to!”
“And we will,” it assures her softly. “I have a whole church to run and towns to look after. Although OMORI’s gone…” it says, noting how ABBI and SOMETHING both shudder, “... tensions are still high. I need to clear speculation and set records straight,” it explains. Specifically it was SHATTERED OMORI - others thought it would end up like OMORI and others thought it had every right to live in BLACK SPACE. It had gotten so particularly bad, that others tended to actively harass it.
“I thought you loved us?” she asks flatly, giving it the same odd, hard look. It gapes at her, speechless. Everyone seemed to be taken aback, too, the room suddenly growing quiet outside of the lick of flames from the candles.
“Ex…cuse me?” it blinks, stunned. “I do, but I have to divide my time-”
“And how much have you exactly spent with us?” she frowns at it now, crossing her arms. SOMETHING blinks incredulously at her from the doorway, radiating nothing but a newfound fury. “You’re always in here or with your… other friends.” her voice trails off, but it’s not hard to hear the bitterness underneath it.
Is she mad because it spends time with… AUBREI and SOMETHING? That was just silly - it didn’t love MEIDO, UNI, or ABBI any less. It feels ABBI shift next to it, pressing close into its body. “Loud,” she whines softly into her sibling’s ear, tugging on its shirt sleeves. It nods absent-mindedly.
“I can’t focus on you all the time,” it explains after a moment of thinking. “I run a safe haven, MEIDO. I… I don’t have time for games or adventures anymore.” as it says the words, it feels a longing tug at its heart. It should have time - it had its .. technical childhood ripped away by OMORI. “I love you and UNI, you’re still my siblings… but I have responsibilities now.”
“So you love us and not TAKO?” she flares, her voice raising. ABBI winces again. “She’s your sister too, and you’re telling me you don’t love her? I thought you were better than this,” she growls, not bothering to listen as it stammers to correct itself. She spins around on one heel, flipping her hair back. “Come on, UNI, TAKO. If we’re not wanted , then we’ll leave.”
UNI glances at STRANGER for a moment, as if it’s debating - only to be summoned as MEIDO barks another “ UNI , TAKO ,” and it blinks sympathetically at it and scurries off. ABBI, however, doesn’t move. She wraps her arms around the smaller’s torso in what seems to be a hug, shaking her head to MEIDO and pressing her head underneath STRANGER’s chin. “Loud,” she whines again.
It strokes her head tentacles for a second. “I know,” it murmurs, going to stand up and pull her up. “I need you to stay here for me for a minute, I’ll be back, I promise,” it adds upon seeing the other’s brief distress. I won’t leave you, but I won’t let UNI and MEIDO leave us… no matter how maddening they are. (rather, how maddening MEIDO was.)
It dashes out of the door, briefly stopping by SOMETHING. “Can I leave you here?” it asks, words spilling out of its mouth. “I mean, with ABBI. She needs - she needs someone for her.”
SOMETHING hesitates for a moment. “Sure,” it responds icily. “I’ll be fine.” she turns from it to elegantly waltz into the room, leaving it to scramble after the two departing creatures. Running throughout the church earns it some surprised looks from some visitors - it’s small and nimble, skillfully hopping over the pews and weaving between the other creatures.
It finds them outside of the church, right out of the doors and sitting on the cliff. It pays no mind to the chilly air and cold snow, instead tramping over to them and sitting down. Shame floods over it. “I’m sorry,” it says. “I didn’t mean that. I love all of you and I’ll spend more time with you. If you still want me to, I mean.” it says, sounding small - briefly it feels itself slipping back into the timid, soft-spoken BASIL. It shakes itself inwardly. “I mean, I will spend more time with you. I want you here. We… we all do.”
MEIDO turns back to it, tilting her head to the side just a bit. “We weren’t actually leaving. I was just playing with you -” she gives it a wide grin. “- but now that you’re here we can go do things.”
It blinks, bewildered, casting a glance back to the doors of the church. “But-”
“No buts , little brother,” MEIDO purrs (it always was the younger of the four), placing her webbed hand on its head and pulling it into a hug. “Your maid or whatever can look after everyone, can’t she?”
STRANGER hesitates. “SOMETHING isn’t-”
“Well, whatever she is,” MEIDO shrugs, pulling it into another hug, “she’ll take care of the place. “UNI and I were discussing what we could do, you know? We were thinking you could show us around the place, since you haven’t yet.” there was an emphasis on haven’t yet , and it feels guilt wash over it. MEIDO was right - it really hadn’t put much time into them.
It nods after a moment. “Of course. I should do that.” It looks down at UNI - at the mention of him, he still hadn’t said anything. He looked away from STRANGER, tail flicking ever so slightly and ears pressed back as though uncomfortable.
It looks back to MEIDO, who’s giving UNI a frown. Maybe she’s just mad he’s not as enthusiastic as she is? Those two had always been exceptionally close - if one was there, the other was usually not far behind. But a notion… a creeping, slithery feeling up its spine…
No. She’s your sister, and you have to learn to trust her again.
But the way she looks at everyone as though sizing them up… the way she treats everyone around her…
It wonders if it’s even MEIDO anymore.