Chapter Text
Chapter 1 - Conjoined Space
Welcome to WHITESPACE. You’ve been here for as long as you can remember.
OMORI was lying on the ground, facing the endless white void above him. He felt completely relaxed and comfortable, because everything was okay. Another day, another adventure in the realm of HEADSPACE. It didn’t matter to him, all that mattered was doing what he was created to do… Yet something felt off to him, as he nearly tripped on one of the three other figures asleep on the ground. They were black and white like OMORI, yet they showed emotions in their slumber - the small boy had a smile on his face, as the taller one shivered a bit at the coldness of the floor, the girl seemed angry even in her sleep. All three of them shot awake at the same time.
The oldest instantly sits up and gets onto his feet, gripping his shoulders a bit to try and warm up. “Holy crap, this floor’s freezing!” he whined, only to turn to the younger boy, stretching out a bit “...KEL? What are you doing here?”
“Oh, hey HERO! Wow, you haven’t been in one of my dreams since like… a few weeks! Wonder what thing you’re gonna cook for me this time,” KEL mused. This naturally confused HERO, “...KEL, I have no idea what you’re talking about… and, do you really only dream about me so I can cook you food?” HERO turned around, “SUNNY? AUBREY? Is that you?” he says moving over to OMORI, who takes a few steps back to gain some distance from this intruder. AUBREY looked around with a mean scowl written across her face, clearly not wanting to be here. “I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I definitely don’t wanna be dreaming about you guys of all people… Especially you, SUNNY.” OMORI once more just took a step back, drawing his knife - the gesture almost would have made him seem anxious, if not for his stone-cold expression.
KEL raises his hands up, taking a step forward to placate OMORI, “Whoa, whoa, whoa there SUNNY! No need to pull any weapons out here, it’s just us, your friends!” OMORI doesn’t respond, holding the knife towards them all “This is all just a dream, then… a very weird dream. And a lucid one, apparently,” HERO remarks. “Yeah, it’s my dream!” KEL boasts. “Are you saying that the rest of us aren’t real, KEL?” his brother asks, a smile handed back in response: “Well, duh.It’s not like you guys are actually here right?”
“Well, who’s to say? Maybe you’re fake and this is my dream?”
“What?! No way! You’re only saying that because I was thinking about it!”
AUBREY steps past the brothers as they argue about who’s real and who’s fake. She couldn’t be bothered - she clearly knew this was HER dream… right? She walked straight up to OMORI, unphased as he held the knife between her eyes, glaring at him with annoyance. “...After all this time, I can’t even picture how you’d look today… kind of sad. Not that it really matters to me, I don’t even know why I’m dreaming about you jerks, anyways.”
“HEY! AUBREY!” KEL yells running up to her, only to narrowly dodge a fist to his face. “Whoa! Watch it! You almost hit me!” He stumbles backwards from her extended hand. “That’s the idea, dipshit. I don’t want you near me. I just want to wake up and get back to my life.”
“Well, EXCUSE ME for trying to say hello to you!”
“Too little too late, moron! Leave me alone!”
“What did I even do to you?!”
“You should know! It’s my dream after all!”
“No way this is my dream!”
“Hey now, stop it you two!” HERO stepped between them, pushing them apart. “Look, I can’t tell whose dream this is, if any of us are even real or if this is just some sort weird fever dream I’m having after spending one too many nights cramming at college, but we’re only gonna find out whenever who’s in charge wakes up,” HERO reasoned, to which AUBREY scoffed. “I think therefore I am, dumbass. I can’t prove it to you, but I know I’m real,” she scoffed. HERO moves over and gently rests a hand on AUBREY’s shoulder “Things must be really different if you’re wanting to get away from us this badly, AUBREY… Want to talk about it?”
AUBREY suddenly quiets for a moment, before pushing HERO’s hand off, “Let’s just find a way out of this place, it’s creeping me out.” KEL jogs up to OMORI and raises a hand up in the air, “Heya SUNNY! High five?” OMORI just shakes his head no, hardly taking a second to even consider it, before turning back to his rug and sitting down after pocketing his knife. Despite his emotionless face at the moment, inside he was panicking, wondering what was going on… How had these three infiltrated WHITE SPACE? This was supposed to be his domain…
“...Is this your stuff SUNNY? I’m not sure I remember you having any of this...” KEL ponders, moving up to the rug, before gasping and scooping up MEWO, “IT’S MEWO! Gosh, I haven’t seen you in like four years!” HERO chuckles at his brother’s excitement, “Remember KEL, it’s just a dream. That’s not really MEWO, it’s just an imaginary version of it. Just like you’re very possibly an imaginary version of yourself.“ KEL blinks for a moment, before snickering with embarrassment, “Right, right… Sorry, I kinda forgot.”
“We’re in a blank white room KEL, how the hell could you forget we’re in a dream?!” AUBREY says, clearly annoyed at KEL’s ever-consistent lack of common sense. “Look, I was just excited to see MEWO, get off my back already...” KEL places the kitty cat down and looks at the other objects on OMORI’s rug: a laptop, a sketchbook, and a box of tissues. “Man, this doesn’t seem like a lot of stuff to do anything with… Wonder why I’m even dreaming about it.. .Oh! Maybe it’s like, one of those prophetic dreams about the future! These all must symbolize something about what’s gonna happen! Like MEWO must mean I’m gonna get a cat or the tissues means I’m gonna cry over something-'' KEL rambles about what these items could mean for a minute or two, before looking up at the black light bulb, dangling from a string that went to the roof… well, IF there was a roof. “I wonder what this is supposed to represent then...”
He thinks aloud, before reaching out to try and touch it, only to get a knife near his throat by OMORI, HERO stepped in, pulling OMORI back “SUNNY! What are you doing?! You can’t just keep pulling a knife out on us! We’re your friends! Matter of fact, why do you even have that?! You’re gonna hurt someone or even yourself!” HERO yells, as KEL backs away from the lightbulb, “HERO it’s fine! I’m sure SUNNY had a reason, probably doesn’t want me to touch this.” OMORI dodging the questioning of his weapon from KEL’s defense of his actions.
“He probably doesn’t want you to break it, KEL. It’s probably our only light source in here” AUBREY says, turning to a door and ignoring KEL’s argument on the lightbulb not even providing light “Nevermind it anyways, I think I found a way out of here.” she states, heading towards the door, HERO walking up with her “Careful AUBREY, we don’t know where this door leads to.”
“It’s probably better than being stuck in here with you, KEL, and the psychotic, knife-wielding SUNNY over there” she replies, turning the doorknob, HERO sighs a bit, “Well I’m not gonna let you go alone” under AUBREY’s breath she remarks “it wouldn’t the first time...” before HERO can ask what she said, KEL runs over “Hey don’t forget us!” he shouts, dragging OMORI over by the shirt. A hollow voice rings out,
Are you sure you want to leave?
AUBREY glanced around, trying to find the source of the noise, and instead finding only more whiteness. “YES!” she shouts, yanking the door open as a bright light consumes them.