Work Text:
Sunny is sitting on a chair. That chair is on a stage, with curtains drawn to block the view from the audience. There is another chair opposite him. That chair is being sat on by a black-and-white copy of himself.
Omori.
“What-” Sunny tries, but Omori shushes him in his signature monotone. “Silence, DREAMER. The show is about to start.”
“What show-” Sunny tries again, but he's interrupted by an announcer saying something inaudible to him, and Omori stands up and walks out, past the curtain, and Sunny’s left alone.
The crowd cheers at Omori’s appearance, and he responds with a “Thank you, thank you, you all are too kind,” in his usual mono-tone of voice. Sunny tunes it out the best he can so he’s left with his thoughts on what the fuck is happening. Why is Omori here? Why is he on a stage? What is happening? Sunny looks behind the chair, and there’s a curtain behind him, too. He doesn’t like that.
“And now, the moment you have all been waiting for. I would like to introduce to you all to our main event. He is the man who makes our world go around,” Omori announces, and Sunny zones back in, knowing exactly who Omori is referring to. “It is the one, the only, the DREAMER himself…”
“Sunny Suzuki!” And with that, the curtains open, and Sunny is bombarded with lights and cheering and the fact that the theatre is packed, and he takes a sharp breath in.
Omori strides back to the chair he was sitting in and sits down, crossing his legs.
“So, what are you here for, DREAMER? Your girlfriend pick on you a little too hard?” Omori asks in monotone and with a completely blank expression, and the audience laughs.
Sunny narrows his eyes. He’s not sure how to respond to that. Or what Omori means by that. “No. I… uhh, don’t know why I’m here, actually.”
Omori has paper in his hand. “Well, we have the reason right here. So, let us see what exactly you have been thinking about.”
Sunny hears a ding, and the audience “Oooooo”s at something he can’t see.
“You have been thinking about Mari? What a shocking turn of events.” The audience laughs at Omori’s deadpan delivery.
“Eh- uhh, yeah. I… have.”
“Now, tell me, DREAMER, why have you been thinking about Mari?” Omori asks, but they both know it’s for the audience’s benefit.
“Well, I- I… I just miss her. Her… smile, her laugh, her… Her, really.”
“Well, that has got to suck for you,” Omori says, and the audience laughs again and Sunny doesn’t like how they’re laughing at him this time.
“...thanks, Omori,” Sunny says, and the audience laughs, and it relieves some tension that they laughed at something he said.
“DREAMER, you must miss her a lot, yes?”
“I- y-yeah, b-”
“Well, what if I told you…”
“Omori-”
“That we have Mari here, right now. Everyone, please give a warm welcome to-”
Sunny takes a sharp inhale of breath.
“Mari Suzuki!” The audience cheers, and the curtains pull back, cheesy game show music playing, as if Sunny got the right answer.
The audience quickly dies down, and Sunny wonders why. Sunny turns to look at the back curtain, and he sees… something. Floating there. Its one eye staring directly into his soul, judging him, damning him. He takes an inhale of breath.
“Oh,” is all Omori says, and the theatre is silent for a moment.
“You care about Mari, do you not, DREAMER?”
“Ye- yes, yes, of course I do-”
“You would give the world for her, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes! Of course, anything-” Sunny looks up, and, for the first time, Omori emotes, a small smile present on his lips.
“Then how come you cannot remember what she looks like?” Omori says, with a slight amount of smugness, and the audience laughs. No, he- he remembers what Mari looks like! She was tall, black hair- or… brown? What was her eye color? Skin tone? Why- why can’t he remember? Why can’t he remember what she looks like?
“Well, that is not an issue, is it? It is an easy problem to fix.”
“What- what- Omori, please-”
“Just make something up, of course!” And the audience gasps and Sunny can feel something towering over him. What haircut did she usually have? What did she wear? What- what did she look like? Why can’t he…
The curtains close over Sunny and Omori steps out onto the main stage. The audience cheers and claps for him. “Thank you, everyone!” Omori shouts, with happiness in his voice.
Why can’t Sunny remember? Why can’t he remember what Mari looks like? Sounds like? Speaks like? He… can’t remember.
“I’ll be here all week!”
Sunny opens his eyes and cries. He sobs. He can’t remember. Why can’t he… he can’t… He sobs, then realizes how loud he’s being. He tries to stop crying, he holds a hand to his mouth, trying to stifle himself, but it’s too late. Aubrey, who’s laying on top of him, wakes up, her eyes flickering open.
“Mmmngh… Sunny…?” She asks. He hopes she doesn’t notice him being awake. It’s not her problem.
“Sunny? Are you alright?” She asks again. “I’m alright,” Sunny tries to choke out, but his vocal cords tear themselves apart and his voice is too shaky, and Aubrey can easily tell he’s lying.
“Nightmare?” She asks, and Sunny nods. He doesn’t want to go into it. Aubrey understands, and hugs him a little tighter.
He breathes in shakily. Think, he tells himself. What did Mari look like?
Black hair, usually held long instead of up in anything. Black eyes, like Sunny. She’d always insist they were very dark brown, but Sunny always called them black. She was nearly as pale as him, despite him getting nearly zero sun. A smile that made any day brighter, a laugh that lit up a room and dissolved tension
He could remember. He was just being overdramatic. Again.
He sobs as fresh tears roll down his face. Aubrey hugs him a little tighter. He sighs, and closes his eyes, hand slipping off his face. From there, he slowly drifts into a thankfully dreamless sleep. When he wakes up, the dream he had is only a faint memory.
Kel, Aubrey and Hero meet at the exit to the theatre. Hero arrives first, keeping a poker face for any staff sprout moles that amy walk by. Kel arrives next, looking oddly sad, with Aubrey arriving last.
“What was that?!” Aubrey asks, infuriated. “They just- bullied that guy on stage! That was supposed to be funny?!”
“It looked like they had a mental breakdown from that… thing.” Hero shudders at the thought of that distorted Mari hunched over the “Sunny” kid.
Aubrey huffed. “We gotta talk to Omori about this.”
“Well… how?” Kel asks, unusually melancholy.
“We break in backstage and confront him!” Aubrey suggests, enthusiastic.
“I don’t know…” Hero contemplates.
“What other option do we have?” Kel asks, and everyone is thrown into silence.
“...guess we’re going backstage, then.” Hero says, convinced.
“Let’s go talk some sense into Omori!” Aubrey breaks into a sprint, rushing forward past Hero and Kel.
“...I hope Sunny is okay.” Kel says.
“Me too, Kel.” Hero says. And with that, they both walk to catch up with Aubrey.