Warning: this fic contains spoilers for both the Psychonauts games and OMORI.
- "The beginning of a lie.
The end of a tale.
This is a story of a never ending dream finally coming to a close.
And as the curtains begin to fall down, the truth shall come to light and all will be revealed.
And it all starts with a certain Psychonaut arriving in a faraway town."
Psych-OMORI-Nauts: Operation Weed-Out to Sunset! is a crossover fanfic between Psychonauts and OMORI by SoloWingGreekie.
Some time after saving the world yet again, Junior Agent Razputin Aquato is sent by Agent Hollis Forsythe on his first official mission as a Psychonaut. His mission — to investigate suspicious psychic activity in the nearby Faraway Town. It's been in the backlog for 4 years and Hollis figures it shouldn't be too difficult. Just go, discover the source, maybe help out some poor tormented mind, and leave.
But what seems to be a simple mission goes wrong when the subject — one young Basil — turns out to have much more turmoil in his mind than anyone anticipated. After calling for backup, Raz and his friends find themselves in the middle of Basil and his best friend Sunny's darkest secrets and have to help them fight their inner demons.
The completed fic can be read here
.
This fic contains examples of:
- Adaptational Villainy: Sweetheart and her three clones get this. In canon, Sweetheart is an arrogant, narcissitic duchess and Hate Sink, but here she outright tries to destroy Headspace and kill everyone inside. And while her clones are benevolent Optional Bosses in canon, here they are eagerly helping her.
- Adaptational Sympathy: While Sweetheart is given a dose of Adaptational Villainy, she's also made more sympathetic than her canon Hate Sink self. Here, she's realized she is nothing more than a Flat Character created to serve as an antagonist in Omori's story, and she hates it and being reset over and over again, so she desires to rebel against her role by destroying Headspace. She even gets an Alas, Poor Villain moment as Lily sympathizes with her.
- All Just a Dream: The odd events that Raz experiences in much of the first chapter — such as the Faraway citizens being unusually hostile — turns out to be because he is already in Basil's mind and somehow lost his memory of entering it.
- Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: Mari, having helped Sunny overcome his grief over causing her death, exits the story going through a gate that presumably leads to the afterlife.
- A Simple Plan: The story revolves around a seemingly simple mission Raz is given to investigate some psychic fluctuations in Faraway Town. This leads him to jump into Basil's mind as he seems to be the source of it. The simple mission then falls apart when Something attacks and turns out to be way stronger than expected, forcing Raz to call Lili and the other Psychonauts for backup, and it leads to them having to enter Sunny's Headspace and solve his issues as well, further complicating things.
- Big Bad Ensemble: As in canon, Something (specifically Basil's Something) and Omori are the antagonists tormenting Basil and Sunny, respectively, over them causing Mari's death, and the Psychonauts have to defeat both of them before they drive Basil and Sunny to suicide and/or threaten to hurt people in the real world.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- In the first chapter, just when Raz is at the mercy of Something, Lili, Sahsa, Milla, and Oleander jump in, rescue him, and manage to contain the beast.
- In the final battle, just when Omori is about to boot Raz out of his mind for good, Mari and Sunny show up, perform the final duet, and pacify Omori.
- Blatant Lies: After having been caught learning about Sunny accidentally killing Mari, Raz tries to make Basil think he saw nothing. Badly."You saw it, didn't you?"
Basil was standing before Razputin, stressed out, with stir crazy eyes, armed with garden shears.
"Whaaaattt, nooo…I was just…taking a walk?"
Not even in Basil's world would that kind of excuse slide, and it showed, as something appeared out of the boy's torso, almost enveloping him with it's shark-like teeth and black tendrils. - Commonality Connection: In the bonus section of Chapter 2, Aubrey and Oleander bond a bit over their shared love of bunnies and struggles with Abusive Parents.
- Godzilla Threshold: The mental state of Basil is so broken that Sasha, Hollis, and Oleander legitimately consider wiping out his memories entirely to keep him from killing himself — or worse, going completely out of control and endangering all of Faraway Town.
- He Knows Too Much: Basil's Something tries to kill Raz when the latter learns of Basil having helped Sunny cover up his accidental killing of Mari."Since you're so persistent with staying…now that you found the truth…I can't let you leave." Basil approached the restrained Raz, preparing for an attack.
"I'm sorry that you had to see this. But I gave you ample opportunities to leave. I know you aren't a figment of my imagination. Which is why…now that you know the truth, I can't let you leave. Everything will be okay…" - It's All My Fault: Even though she was a victim, Mari blames herself for causing her own death by pushing Sunny too far before the recital, which caused the argument that ended in him pushing her down the stairs accidentally. She spends the last chapter doing everything she can to save Sunny from his own grief in part to fix her own mistake, before admitting she wishes she could go back in time and forget about the recital.
- Joke and Receive: Mari accidentally touches upon Nona's past sins in what was clearly meant as a joke."And what about your Nona, did she take the news well?"
"Well...a lot of stuff happened with her. It turned out that she was a realllyyyy bad person."
"Pfft, what, did she destroy the Valermo Dam and flood Grulovia or something?" Mari sarcastically asked, to which Raz responded with a silent, yet shocked look.
"...No way." She now looked at him dumbfounded by her wild yet accurate guess. He still had the look. - Noodle Incident: When Raz realizes that Kel follows True Psychic Tales, they mention something from the latest issue.Kel: "WOAHHHHHH! You follow the comics too!? That's so rad! Hey, how cool was the latest issue?"
Raz: "Issue #501!? So awesome! I can't believe the Noodler came back with such drastic augmentations!" - Speak in Unison: In response to Aubrey calling the Psychonauts “sci-fi agents that deal with psychic mumbo-jumbo” from “some stupid comic book”:"Is that how kids think of you guys?" Lili telepathically asked.
"We're used to it." All three of the adult agents said simultaneously. - Spirit Advisor: Mari turns out to be this rather than a figment of Headspace — her spirit somehow manifested there and has been trying to save Sunny from his grief ever since.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: In the final battle, Omori constantly tears into Sunny and what a bad person he believes him to be, and that he deserves to die, only for Raz to stick up for Sunny and argue back.Omori: "And how do you think the others will react to the truth? Do you really believe the others will forgive him so easily? Do you expect Kel to reach out to him again when Sunny could not all these years? Do you expect Aubrey to forgive him, like she still harbors some unfounded love for him? Do you expect Hero to be merciful to him, after he finds out that the cause of all his suffering stemmed from him? Do you think Basil will be forgiven, like he hasn't had a part in his sins? Because if you truly believe so...then you and him are setting yourselves up for failure. It's better to just die already."
Raz: "That's not true! Everyone's got a secret that they can't help but hide, an inner demon, a fear they can't admit to! Just because you've been hiding it for so long, doesn't mean you can't start again, that you can't just tell it now that it's happened. You can always try and break free from your fears and burdens, and as long as he tries, his friends will believe in him and forgive him for sure!"
Omori: "Your words are doing nothing but merely whitewashing who he is. Your claim is absu-"
Raz: "So what if it's whitewashing!? At least it's better than your self-deprecation! You're doing nothing but dragging Sunny's efforts down, you're not helping him!"
Omori: "He doesn't need it. I'm the only help he needs." - Title Drop: Raz titles the plan to separate Basil from Something Operation Weed-Out.
- Too Smart for Strangers: Hero informs Kel not to trust the strangers claiming to be Psychonauts by referring to this.Hero: "And Kel, I get that you're meeting your childhood dream heroes. Meeting the Psychonauts must be a great experience for you. But do you know what Mom said about strangers?"
Kel: "Never trust them on first sight?"
Hero: "Never trust them on first sight." - The Worf Effect: Both of the main antagonists do this to the heroes.
- Razputin and his crew have previously taken down two conspiracies to Take Over the World and the powerful General Maligula herself, a Person of Mass Destruction. So it really goes to show just how severely fractured Basil's mental state is that his Something is able to effortlessly incapacitate Raz, and even the agents working together only barely manage to separate Basil from the Something.
- Raz and Lili spend the fic battling mental monsters and giving it their all, and even when they struggled, they could at least fight. Then Omori comes along and boots Lili out of Headspace with a single stab, and even Raz is terrified of him.
