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Flower petals were caught in the winds as Mari waved to the retreating quartet, watching her brother and friends enter the forest. Once they were out of sight, swallowed into the next area, she sat down, the picnic blanket rustling under her weight like a patch on clothes that was about to fall off.
“So, how was it this time?” Mari asked, twisting her head to look back at the boy who had joined her picnic blanket once more.
Basil shrugged, picking a few flowers from the ground, a half formed flower crown already in front of him. “I- I don’t really remember it, again. The memories aren’t really supposed to exist up here.”
“It could change any time though,” Mari sighed, cupping her chin in her hand.
“It could,” Basil agreed, “I don’t know if it should.”
Well, it made sense he didn’t want to remember it, at least.
“Who are you making that one for?” Mari pointed at the flower crown, willing to change the subject. They’d already discussed this a hundred times before. “You just gave one to Omori.”
“Yeah, but he’ll lose it again soon,” Basil mumbled, trying to keep the stems of dandelions from snapping. “I want to be ready when he finds me again.”
“Do you think you’ll have the time to make me one?” Mari wondered if it would last the next time Basil went missing, as they ascended to Otherworld and then drowned in Deep Well. Probably not, at some point, everything Basil left here would just wilt once more only to be replaced when he returned.
“Of- of course!” Basil nodded. “I can use some flowers in my garden, Omori has been taking good care of them recently.”
Mari grinned at her friend, already running her fingers through her hair as she imagined blooms adorning it. “Thank you, Basil!”
Step on to the picnic blanket, and there Mari and Basil would wait, smiling immediately at the figures of their friends. Wouldn’t they stay for a picnic? And oh, Omori wanted to check the quests? Well, Mari took out her notebook, flipping through to see which ones were appearing right now. So, they’d finally found all the ghosts!
Thus, they left, stepping away from them as the duo once again became unmoored.
“You know, I really should start making my picnics in more spots,” Mari mused as she looked out at icy peaks and glimmering moon rock, as the summer sun hit her face and water surrounded her. “Like the Dino Dig place, that sounds fun. What do you think?”
“I- uh- it does sound fun to dig for artifacts,” Basil agreed. “But there are a lot of monsters there, apparently.”
“Well, you don’t have to worry about those!” Mari declared. “I’d protect you.”
Basil giggled, smothering his laughter with a hand, “They wouldn’t dare challenge you, of course.”
“Exactly, I’m unstoppable,” Mari puffed out her chest.
Not that she’d ever do that, of course. Her picnics were in all the right places, set aside just for her. She couldn’t change them, not this late. After all, if she even ripped one of these blankets from the world, she didn’t know what she’d see inside the hole she’d leave.
Sometimes, Mari glared at Basil when they were the only two around. Her hair draped over her face and all she could do was look at the boy, pale and trembling as he reached up to take a photo of her, one that would never print. She wasn’t meant to be recalled like this, after all.
She’d open her mouth occasionally, clearing her throat and trying to make words out of disjointed thoughts, but Basil would just cover his ears and whine. It was useless to speak when he wouldn’t listen, and besides, there were too many contradictions to say.
Mari always wanted to be a good person, a perfect role model, an admirable girlfriend, an idol to be gazed at approvingly. Why then, was she shattered into this monster?
They didn’t talk about those times, after Omori came back and gave them their smiling selves then left again. They were back to being friends, then. And friends just didn’t talk about how they were scared of the other, how they were angry at the other, how they hated the other.
It was lonely, on her picnic blankets without Basil. Not that she didn’t see Omori and the gang often, she was always just around the corner, but still. There was a certain essence of loneliness that could only appear at these times.
“Hello, Something,” A crackling voice greeted her, words that she could barely make out through all the interference. Stranger’s voice was never for her, but occasionally, they still made time for each other.
“Hello Stranger!” Mari greeted her odd friend with a grin, patting Basil’s spot on her blanket. Stranger wasn’t Basil, but someday maybe they would be. It was always Basil in the memories, and Stranger in the premonitions.
Stranger sat, wisps trailing off them and wearing holes in her blanket. Blood dripped off their feet, sinking into the fabric.
“How have you been?” Mari asked, eyeing the being up and down. It had been a while since she’d seen them, they really needed to stop by more often.
“When will you be able to speak the truth?” Stranger replied, reaching up a hand to catch the shadows that dripped from their teeth.
“Hmm,” Mari tapped her chin in thought. “Probably tomorrow, Omori will need to be led to Last Resort, after all. But Kel might stick around to help him out, you never know.”
Stranger sighed, wind picking up and carrying their next words away. They hissed again, just garbled static that Mari didn’t even attempt to decipher.
“Tell Basil hello when you see him!” Mari replied cheerfully. “And if you’re gonna keep taking him away, you should at least stop by more often to keep me company. A bit rude to take my friend then leave me all alone.”
“You should let go of that facsimile,” Stranger said, standing back up and towering over her. If any being that was the same size as Basil could be thought of as intimidating. “He is only a lie too close to discovering he is one.”
“I don’t know, Stranger,” Mari shrugged. “I don’t think any of us are so simplistic that any part of us could fully be considered a lie.”
Stranger fell through her picnic blanket, down to the depth she hid. Oh well, Mari smoothed over the wrinkles.
The stars refracted off of Basil’s eyes in red shatters. “I think it was painful, where I was.”
“Oh,” Mari replied, frowning. “Maybe you should stop finding your way back there, then.”
“It feels important though,” Basil argued. “Doesn’t it to you as well?”
Mari twiddled her fingers, playing with the hem of her skirt- or was it a dress- “It does, but that doesn’t mean you’re the only one who has to keep finding it. I could start looking.”
“But who would guide Omori then?” Basil responded. “You have to be here for our friends, don’t you?”
“So you’re going to look for it again?” Mari asked.
Basil hesitated for a moment, like here it might be possible for him to say. “Yeah,” he finally sighed, “I will.”
“Well,” Mari reached out, ruffling the top of his hair. “I’ll be here for you when you get back.”
“Will you really?” Basil’s brow furrowed. “I don’t think you should be, not for me.”
“You aren’t the one who gets to decide that,” Mari teased. “Besides, that’s what I do. I’m here for all of you, Basil. I’ll be here as long as you need me.”
Mari didn’t have much to do when she waited, the picnics were already prepared and quests already written down. She’d have to ask Basil for ideas of what to do, not that she was bored, more… intermittent.
“Something,” A voice called out to her, and Mari turned around, seeing a shadow walk towards her not in Otherworld or Orange Oasis, not through the trees of Pyrefly or Vast Forest. No, rather they rose from the space between somewhere and here.
“Who are you?” Mari asked, tilting her head until like clockwork all the slides of the world clicked into a full picture. It was like using a microscope in biology class, zooming in and out until focus prevailed. Hair cut up the image just perfectly, slicing the picture into all the correct pieces, her eyes gleaming as she took them in.
A dripping shadow, with just enough outline that Mari could slowly recognize the warped form of a friend.
“I’m just a Stranger,” they responded, words breaking apart as soon as they were spoken, not meant for this world.
“Are you now?” Mari clapped her hands together. “Well, any stranger can become a friend. Care to join me for a picnic?”
Basil clapped the album shut, they’d reached their final memory after looking through it all together. Everyone was smiling, caught in those amazing moments that Basil had made into an eternity.
With a grin, Mari held up the camera and and caught another photo.
“Oh?” Hero asked, turning to look at her. “You surprised me!”
“Let me see!” Kel clambered over his brother’s lap, reaching for the printing photograph. Aubrey grabbed his collar to hold him back.
“We’re all going to look at it together, no hogging it!” She complained.
“We should all just calm down,” Basil cut in, an awkward laugh forming on his lips. “We can just put it in the center and all look at it, right Mari?”
“Hmm,” Mari’s eyes twinkled as she considered it. “Nope, not this time! This is a special photo, just for Basil!”
“For me?” Basil gasped, his eyebrows raising in surprise. Both Kel and Aubrey sagged in disappointment while Hero just shook his head at their antics. Omori stood up, and began leading the group off. He didn’t want to be around for this moment, after all.
Mari passed over the photo, watching it gain color now that it was out of the scene. Basil took it with trembling hands, his eyes widening as he saw a picture just of himself, smiling.
It was the best Mari had ever taken, if you asked her.
Mari waved as she watched all her friends set off for Basil’s house, finally having finished their game of hide and seek. Basil turned around, waving back for the last time in a while. His eyes were closed, and she wondered if they’d gleam red or simply be bright with confusion if he opened them.
Oh well, she’d see him again soon, maybe by then something will have changed.