All spoilers for this fanfic series and the canon OMORI are unmarked. You have been warned.
"I did love her. And I did kill her," Sunny admitted.
"But… she loved me and she hurt me," he continued.
"But… she loved me and she hurt me," he continued.
Hands
is a fanfic series for OMORI written by scitydreamer. It's a Dark Fic that reinterprets elements from the game's story to read Sunny as a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of none other than his own beloved sister, Mari, leading to him pushing Mari down the stairs in self-defense. This is the true root of his trauma, and Omori's purpose in creating Headspace was to protect him from the truth by creating a Mari who truly loved him instead of viewing him as her personal sex toy.
The first fic, Hands, explores Sunny's life with Mari as he suffers her torment, and how it eventually leads to the incident that killed Mari. The second fic, Will You Forgive Me, My Best Friend?, switches to Basil's perspective as he slowly realizes the ugly truth about his two dear friends and eventually stumbles upon Sunny killing Mari. The third fic, Truth, explores the Good Ending of the game as Sunny finally confesses the truth- not just that he killed Mari, but why he did so- and his friends' reactions to it. Finally, Recovery follows the friends as they deal with the revelations and try to recover from their wounds.
See also False Heaven, a similar fanfic inspired by this one but taking place in a somewhat different continuity.
Tropes featured in this work:
- Adaptational Context Change:
- Some of Mari's canon dialogue and unused Something dialogue is repurposed to make Mari sound predatory towards Sunny. For example, her catchphrase, "All it costs is your love!"- the love in this case being her sexual assaults. "Don’t be afraid. It’s not as scary as you think." has the same meaning here. And Something says "Sunny... I love you" is because that is what Mari would say while molesting him.
- While the first two stories follow the tracks of the original story, the context of events are very different. Mari’s death, while still possibly unintended, was caused in self-defense from her rape attempt, and Basil’s crushing guilt comes from not hanging her like he did in canon, but from his failing to recognize that Sunny was being abused.
- Adaptational Self-Defense: Canon Sunny killed Mari in a horrific accident. This Sunny killed her in self-defense due to prolonged sexual abuse. He still feels immense guilt over it.
- Adaptational Villainy: Needless to say, Mari wasn’t a sexual predator in the source material and genuinely cared about the people around her.
- Arc Symbol: Disembodied hands and Mari's body have new meanings added to them, with "Something" acting out what Mari did to Sunny while she was still alive.
- Arc Words:
- "Love". Specifically, Sunny and Mari's love for one another being put into question, as well as Mari using it as an excuse to sexually abuse her brother, all the while saying she loves him. This even puts her catchphrase "All it costs is your love!" under a worse light.
- "Everything is going to be okay. She won't hurt you anymore."
- Big Bad: Mari in the first and second stories is Sunny's sexual abuser and the cause of all his trauma. Even after her death, her actions cast a shadow in the two following stories.
- Broken Pedestal: Mari was seen as the Cool Big Sis by Sunny's friends, and The Heart of their group, to the point that her death caused them to split up. Needless to say, they all have a lot of trouble coming to terms with the reveal that she had been sexually abusing Sunny, with Aubrey and Basil in particular getting traumatized secondhand. Basil, who is noted as having trusted Mari greatly, becomes unable to bond with Polly (his caretaker) because he thinks she might do the same to him, and Aubrey goes from dying her hair pink because Mari wanted it, to openly expressing a desire to kill Mari herself. Kel takes it a little better, but still needs time to process it.[Kel] found it hard to believe that the girl that everyone looked up to, the girl that his brother collapsed over, may have been a monster. But he believed regardless. He believed in Sunny’s clear anguish and fear.
- Brother–Sister Incest: An unwilling example, with Mari sexually abusing her younger brother, Sunny.Sunny couldn’t find stability. Every piece of advice Mari had ever given him just reminded him of something darker about her and he hated it he hated it he hated it he hated it
- Dark Fic: This story combines the trauma the canon Sunny suffered from his beloved sister's death with that from him being molested by her.
- Date Rape Averted: Sunny's friends save him from being molested by Mari twice- once by Basil concerned about Sunny, and once by Kel looking to surprise the siblings. Naturally, Sunny is grateful for being saved.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Despite everything, Sunny manages to get the truth out and comes to properly get therapy.
- Harmful to Minors: A flashback in Will You Forgive Me, My Best Friend? shows Basil watching a mystery drama with his grandmother only to end up witnessing the beginning of a rape scene. His grandmother ends up giving him The Talk, but about rape specifically.In one case, there was a show where a man shoved a woman into bed, reaching out with his hands to rip at her clothes while she cried -
Grandma had turned off the television, shaking her head. “They don’t need to show that stuff for the mystery. Television these days is getting to be too much.”
“Grandma, what was happening there?” Basil remembered asking her in confusion.
His grandma shook her head. “You’re too young to know what it’s about.” - Killing in Self-Defense: While still an accidental murder, the specifics reason of Mari's death in this continuity was Sunny pushing her away from molesting him.
- No Antagonist: Downplayed in the two sequel fics, where Big Bad Mari is already dead, and like in the canon game, the only thing Sunny faces against at large after Mari's death is the trauma handed to him. But despite her absence, Mari's abuse still lingers in the minds of Sunny, Basil, and the other friends once they realize the truth.
- Not So Stoic: Since Aubrey noticed Sunny reserving genuine smiles for intense joy and mild scowls for intense anger, she's especially disheartened when Sunny audibly cries.
- P.O.V. Sequel: Will You Forgive Me, My Best Friend? recalls the first fic's events from Basil's perspective.
- Rape as Drama: The series deals with Sunny struggling with the trauma his sister gave him.
- Show Within a Show: Basil and his grandmother are shown watching mystery dramas. They teach Basil things like not going out at night, muggers like to hide in alleyways, and such.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Aubrey in the present, fitting with her delinquent theme. If there is a swear word uttered in the fic, there's a good chance it came from her mouth.
- The Talk: In Will You Forgive Me, My Best Friend?, Basil is said by the narration to already have gotten the "birds and bees" talk from his grandmother after he witnessed a sex scene in a romance show. But when he witnesses the beginning of a rape scene in a mystery drama, his grandma has to give him a different talk explaining what rape is.“Listen Basil. You remember the birds and the bees? That’s usually for people that love each other. But when one person doesn’t want it… when they’re hurt by it… that’s something called rape. It’s something that really hurts a person and it scars them for life.”
“Scar?”
“Not a physical scar, but a scar in here,” she pointed at her head for emphasis. “It’s something that destroys people. So Basil dear, if there’s anyone that ever tries to do that to you or makes you feel uncomfortable… please let someone you trust know.” - Talking Down the Suicidal: In the climax of Truth, Omori and Hero do this to Sunny when he is about to jump off the hospital roof. Omori tells Sunny that You Are Not Alone while Hero apologizes for not believing Sunny about Mari molesting him and promises to hear him out.Omori: You came so far in accepting me, and accepting what she did. You’re not alone anymore. Your friends know now. Even if it’s hard, you’ll always have someone in your corner. Aubrey loves you. Basil loves you. Kel loves you. Hero loves you. And now it’s time to love yourself. You don’t need to hide who Mari was anymore.
- Taught by Television: Basil learned quite a few things from watching mystery dramas with his grandmother, like it being dangerous to go out at night, how to dig a hole, and the concept of rape.
- What the Hell, Hero?: When Sunny confessed to what Mari did to him and to killing her, Hero at first tries to deny it, claiming that Sunny's only saying all of it because he's still delirous from the fight with Basil last night. This absolutely angers Aubrey and Kel (albeit to a lesser extent than her), while Sunny, horrified at Hero refusing to believe him, runs off to the hospital roof and tries to end himself.“Sunny… Sunny’s still recovering from the fight with Basil,” Hero said, sparing a glance at the still unconscious boy. “He might have a concussion, or maybe he’s still delirious from whatever medication they put him on.”
“Maybe!?” Aubrey snapped.
Her yell made Sunny back up further away. She cast him a sad, apologetic look before turning back to Hero. “You think that’s fake?” She asked, in a milder tone.
- "I'm sorry I hit you, but you shouldn't have made me done it. I love you, you know."
