MARI

## MARI SUZUKI

> Steady your heartbeat... Don't be afraid, it's not as scary as you think.
>
> —MARI

MARI is a character that appears in OMORI. She plays a major supporting role in the game and was the big sister of the game's "true" protagonist, SUNNY. Her unfortunate, sudden "suicide" 4 years ago (in-game timeline-wise) is what kickstarted the entire set of events that would transpire in OMORI.

In PROJECT COLLISION, she is played by YOUKAIMINORI. MARI is a restive spirit that curiously did not get a living body and instead lives on as a ghostly apparition which only few citizens can see.

**!! All CWs from OMORI are applied here (text and images are all shown). Spoilers for OMORI are also shown, read this page at your own discretion. !!**

## PERSONALITY

MARI is SUNNY’s older sister and she plays that part to a T. She is loving, gentle and is the sisterly friend in the group that consisted of KEL, AUBREY, SUNNY, BASIL and HERO. She is also shown to be quite playful and impish, as she’s seen to have teased HERO by straight up placing bugs under his school desk as a joke when they were younger, knowing full well he has arachnophobia. Despite that, she is well beloved by her friends for her kindness and loving warmth.

MARI was (and still is) a perfectionist. Pouring all of her time and attention into practicing the piano, playing the same song over and over, and over again for a recital that never happened. Her desire to make her parents and SUNNY proud was the drive for her to pick up many activities such as taking up softball (later had to quit due to an accident) and flower arrangement lessons.

This perfectionism was also the drive that led up to her eventual death, venting her frustrations onto SUNNY when he couldn’t play his part properly and leading up to the fateful argument on top of the staircase.

*In her death, her grave was decorated in a bed of white egret orchids.*

*It meant "My thoughts will follow you into your dreams.”*

As a spirit that was shackled and bound to both her own and SUNNY's trauma and guilt, she did exactly just that. For 4 years straight, she follows SUNNY's adventure in the dream world he had created. HEADSPACE, it was called. For 4 years, she gently nudges SUNNY to forgive himself for the accidental manslaughter he caused that ended her life prematurely.

MARI is forgiving and holds no grudge against her beloved baby brother, all she wants is for SUNNY to find peace with her death, and to find the power to move on from her death and live a full life, one without regrets and heartache.

During her time in COLLISION, she still plays the part of the wonderful yet flawed big sister to a young Hylian named LINK. MARI still has plenty of sisterly love to share to the world, and LINK just happened to remind her of SUNNY (and he can see her even when she's almost invisible to everyone else!). Her mischievous side did not waver either, finding joy in teasing LINK's guardian/adoptive father, BYAKUYA. Though all of the turbulence, MARI truly does cares and cherishes the both of them with all her non-existent heart, as she once (and still does) did with all her FARAWAY friends.

Despite her wishful thinking that she may be able to meet and talk to them again in COLLISION, even as a spirit, MARI hopes that none of them actually comes. All she wants for them is to live peaceful lives back home, without the worry or knowledge that she is "alive".

## APPEARANCE

MARI is a young woman in her late teens/early 20's. She is 5'6 in height and has stark, ghostly-white skin and long, jet-black hair that seems to sway even if there's no wind present. She wears a simple and plain white dress that reaches down to her ankles with short sleeves and nothing else, not even shoes.

## BACKSTORY

MARI was the first daughter of MR. AND MRS. SUZUKI in a quiet, sleepy little town called FARAWAY. Three years later, she would gain a little brother by the name of SUNNY. MARI loves SUNNY very much, and the two siblings became friends with the children next door, KEL and HERO. This group of friends would also expand as they befriended a girl named AUBREY, then eventually BASIL.

The group would do everything together, from their summer vacations to hosting each others birthday parties, from picnics and even celebrating Christmas together.

But as she grew older, she would spend less and less time with SUNNY, as she would practice piano all day long and take college prep classes. She was still around, but not as much as she used to when she was younger. When SUNNY picked up his violin, she was delighted and the two siblings would practice together for an upcoming recital, though her enthusiasm gradually waned and turned into irritation when SUNNY failed to play his part correctly many times until it was the day of the recital.

During this final, fateful practice session, SUNNY once again plays a particular note incorrectly, and with MARI being the perfectionist that she was, she wanted to play the piece from the top. Again and again, and again, until SUNNY no longer wanted to practice and stormed off, ticking MARI off further. Irritation turned into unbridled fury when SUNNY violently threw down his violin on top of the staircase, causing the siblings to be locked in a fiery argument. When MARI sees SUNNY wanting to run away from her anger, she blocks his path and subsequently, gets pushed off by him.

What was an otherwise relatively weak shove, MARI’s bad knee gave out and she fell to her death when the impact against the broken violin below broke her neck.

For the longest time, she was “dead”. Though she has regained her “consciousness” as a form of her HEADSPACE counterpart, and for the next four years, MARI had worked hard to nudge her baby brother to forgive himself for the accident that killed her.

## ABILITIES

As a lingering spirit, MARI can pass through walls without any troubles. She also doesn’t need to eat, sleep or drink as MARI no longer needs human needs to survive.

MARI wasn’t even supposed to be a ghost in the first place, yet due to both her's and SUNNY's trauma and lingering guilt, her spirit was anchored to the world of the living and given form in his HEADSPACE both as a dream-like entity and as a literal manifestation of SUNNY’s fears. Now, freed from HEADSPACE with her little brother facing the truth, she becomes a “true” ghost in COLLISION, but the lingering fears still remain; deeply rooted as some sort of power unknown even to her…

When MARI becomes FURIOUS, that's when her status as a "Manifestation of fear and trauma" truly appears. It was her anger that killed her in the first place after all... MARI's visage warps and becomes twisted, turning her into an one-eyed monstrosity that instills AFRAID to those who see her like this.

Those who are able to brave through her fury will not find to see a monster in her place, but rather... a lifeless, limp body of a deceased MARI. Swaying in the wind, as a makeshift noose made out of a jump-rope wrung around her neck.