Spoilers for the canon OMORI are unmarked, while spoilers for the fanfic itself will be marked depending on the severity,
TRUTH OR LIES
is a ongoing reinterpretation fanfic series for OMORI by akiakianna. It is a running reinterpretation fic centered around Sunny and Basil (Now portrayed as a trans girl named Parsley) framing Mari’a death as a murder, and they and their fellow friends’ try coping with their losses and a threat comes to town for revenge, Sunny slowly starts piecing together the mystery of what truly happen that day.The series comes in five parts, in which only one part is released and is ongoing, CHILDHOOD, which centered around Sunny and his friend group before the day of Mari’s death. The upcoming parts are labeled REUNION, NIGHT, HONESTY, and HEALING.
Tropes Featured In This Work:
- 0% Approval Rating: Aubrey’s Mother, named Annie, is shown to be hated by pretty much everyone in Faraway Town, which she knows of and shows that the feeling is mutual.
- The THUG is collectively known by the town as a monster.
- Abusive Parents: Aubrey’s mother, Annie, is neglectful of her daughter and physically abuses her at times.
- Accidental Misnaming: Played somberly towards the episode “Happy Birthday Abby” in which Aubrey told her mom to get a cake, which she did…but it was a cake she was allergic to, and to make things worst, she spelled her name wrong.
- Adaptational Deviation: As described by the description, unlike the original canon where Sunny and Basil frame Mari’s death as a suicide, they frame them as a murder, which causes two unknown people to take the fall for it. These people are revealed to be The THUG and The Glasses Dad.
- Adaptational Expansion: The show expands upon many other aspects in the game, such as the city and the adults, who are given names and their own backstories. Faraway Town gets more a background and more locations than in the original game.
- Adaptational Gender Identity: Basil in this story is a transfem girl named Parsley, who comes out in chapter 8.
- Adaptational Villainy: Aubrey’s Mother is shown to be just as neglectful to Aubrey as her canon counterpart, but also can be physically abusive to her daughter.
- Basil in this takes one step further, now framing Mari’s death as an outright murder and pinning two people against it, leading to one’s death and the other being thrown in prison for life. Though, one of these people are not an Angel by any means.
- The Aggressive Drug Dealer: Downplayed for The THUG. It is shown that while he does go after kids for selling drugs, it was in order to get them hooked and keep getting much money as possible, and he doesn’t try to be aggressive towards them, instead manipulating them into buying drugs, only getting aggressive when no one is around.
- Ambiguous Situation: Why both The THUG and The Bumbling Father was trying to rob Sunny’s house is unknown as of now, especially for the unnamed Father, who’s a completely nice man from what we seen.
- Ambiguously Absent Parent: Aubrey’s Father, Parsley’s Parents and Dakota’s dad all are not in the story. According to Parsley, they work a lot.
- Barbaric Bully: Roy shows this in Dakotazoid, trying to force Dakota to kiss him as a joke as he calls her ugly before kicking him repeatedly in the gut, and then is willing to hurt Sunny and Mari in a violent, seemingly out of character, rage.
- Beach Episode: The chapter SUMMER shows the group staying at the beach.
- Be Yourself: A played with lesson in “Dakotazoid” as, while Dakota keeps her belief of loving herself for who she is, she does admit she loves to try new things and will change, as long as she does it for herself and not anyone else.
- Bourgeois Bohemian: Aiden’s parents, Morrison and Delilah, are very rich and hippy dippy.
- Big Brother Instinct: Hero shows to be very protective of Sunny and the others, diving in to save Sunny, Parsley and Aubrey when they fell into the water and saving Parsley from The Thug.
- Birthday Episode: Aubrey has this during the chapter “Happy Birthday Abby”
- Sunny gets another one in his respective chapter “Happy Birthday Sunny!”
- The Bully: Zigg-Zagged trope for Roy. He is shown to be a bully towards the friend group and frequently picks on them, however he is shown to be kind towards them at times and even hangs out he treats them well on some days.
- Coming-Out Story: Parsley’s subplot where she comes out as a trans girl.
- Canon Foreigner: Multiple new characters introduced in the story, those being Dakota Thompson, Aiden Goodwin, his younger sister Sabrina, and Roy Perkins.
- Cool Big Sis: Mari is shown to be this towards all the other group kids, and a protective older sisters Sunny.
- Delicate and Sickly: Roy’s sister Amber has cystic fibrosis.
- Doomed by Canon: As said by the summary and how the game goes, it’s made clear Mari’s days are numbered. And by “Don’t Do It”….
- Downer Ending: The final chapter of part 1, CHILDHOOD, ends with Mari accidentally dying after a fight with Sunny, and Parsley covering up the death, resulting in two people being framed for crimes they didn’t commit. THE MAN IN GLASSES, an innocent father of three who seemed to be hesitate robbing the house, was thrown in jail for the rest of his life, while Mayor Perkins decides to bury any other investigating of Mari’s death, resulting in Mari’s reputation being ruined through accusations of drug abuse. The Group became distraught over her death, with Hero lashing out at his little brother while Dakota, Aubrey and Parsley started to become reclusive, while Sunny’s father leaves in the middle of the night and divorces Joyce, leading Sunny to hide away in WHITESPACE.
- Emotionless Girl: Sabrina doesn’t express much emotion towards anyone, being only ever emotional (and it’s barley) towards Sunny when they hang out.
- How Dad Met Mom: We get a story through some chapters where Sunny and Mari’s parents, Daichi and Joyce met, as well as Hero and Kel’s parents, Antonio and Penelope.
- Daichi and Joyce met at the airport, when Daichi was immigrating to America and later married when they were adults.
- Antonio and Penelope were rivals in high school who constantly tried one upping each other, before they’d tarted to fall in love.
- Just Friends: Chapter 5 has that Sunny has a crush on Aubrey, Parsley, and Dakota (a feeling that is mutual) however, they all decide in the end to stay friends until they get older.
- Karma Houdini: Due to Parsley being too scared to report him, The THUG walks free to continue dealing drugs to children.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: The Final chapter of CHILDHOOD confirms that he was killed during a stand off, having been shot to death by police after stabbing a police officer.
- Love-Obstructing Parents: Mari’s Dad, Daichi, is shown to dislike Hero, due to Mari and him being too young.
- Minimalist Cast: A few chapters shows this, with a few chapters just having the group of friends. Most notably Chapter 2 “New Friend” and Chapter 4 “Unexpected Snow Day” which just has the friend group and Chapter 6 “Sunny and Basil are bored” which focuses on primarily the two titular characters.
- Mood Whiplash: Sunny and Parsley decides to clean Aubrey’s house as a birthday gift, and she shows to be grateful and happy. So much so she shows her mother when she comes back. She immediately punches her in the face for throwing away her alcohol.
- Sunny’s Birthday chapter has this at the end, with Sunny and Mari having a tender moment with themselves before it smash cuts to 4 years later with Sunny reminiscing before going into headspace.
- Dakotazoid follows this, as after Dakota saves Mari and Sunny from Roy and Mari bond over Dakota standing up for herself, it suddenly time cuts to Dakota four years later, trying to find out the truth about Mari.
- Morality Pet: Amber serves this towards Roy, who refrains his bullying towards anyone while she’s around.
- Meet the In-Laws: “Parental Advice” shows Mari inviting Hero to dinner, much to Daichi’s disapproval.
- Named by the Adaptation: All of the group’s parents have names:
- Sunny and Mari’s parents are named Daichi and Joyce
- Hero’s and Kel’s parents are named Penelope and Antonios
- Aubrey’s Mother is named Annie
- Parsley’s Grandmother is named Maria
- Not So Above It All: The Mayor decides to participate in the volleyball and is shown to have fun with the rest.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Aiden goes through this in “Unrequited Love” scheming his way through trying to break up Mari and Hero. He gets better.
- Roy gets weirdly violent and more mean spirited in “Dakotazoid” showing complete willingness to physically assault Dakota, Mari and Sunny.
- Seeker Archetype: Seemingly Dakota, who, in the time skip of Dakotazoid, she’s figuring out the death of Mari.
- Mayor Pain: Subverted towards Mayor Ezekiel Perkins. While not by any means a great mayor, he is shown to not be corrupt. This gets played straight somewhat in CHILDHOOD finale, where Perkins willingly buried any other investigations of Mari’s death and is content having her painted as a drug dealer to get rid of THE THUG.
- Parents as People: All the main groups characters, unlike the video game in which they are mostly in the background, has more personality and backstory
- Slice of Life: Childhood’s chapters are mostly made up of much more softer chapters…it doesn’t last at times
- Trans Tribulations: Parsley (formerly Basil) Fey goes through through this during some chapters, coming out to Mari in chapter 8.
