Which Friend did you Fact (Part 2)
Jan. 4th, 2026 06:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quonitFull Omori spoilers! I don't think Friend Facts can replace Omori, but it was intended to be broken down to be mostly understood by even people who haven't played the game, so if you reeeaally want to you can watch it anyways. This post will likely not make any sense if you have not played all 3 routes, or watched the video at least.
I've already made a post on the borders, so if you would like to read that go on ahead! This post will primarily focus on the writing and miscellaneous.
This is an long post covering everything and everything with lots and lots of images. Be thankful I am splitting these up
For the past fourteen months I have been working on Friend Facts for at LEAST a couple hours every single day. All of my friends know about it. All of my family knows about it. All of my COWORKERS know about it. Since the day I was invited as comod this has been my first priority.
Since neither me nor Sky (the founder/my comod) [Tumblr] are famous, for the most part, though we had trailers and public posts people were invited mostly on an individual DMing basis. I DMed probably around 200 people on Tumblr- spaced out through days and months so that I did not get shadowbanned and whenever we found someone we wanted to invite. Part of my daily routine for probably around 11 of those 14 months was checking the form responses every few hours and voting which character they should draw. Often we'd enter long debates on this if we didn't immediately see eye to eye.
Writing is most of what I did for the project. We had a writers channel that people had to submit an application to get into, and a document that had all the characters and a place to write entries next to them. Writers would put down their ideas and as a group be given feedback, then me and Skylar would move it over to the "complete" section after it'd been approved and then later Sky would do the final grammar tweaks or whatever when actually putting it into the video.
I spent MOST of my time writing. I did a Nanowrimo in June 2025 (RIP Nanowrimo) writing challenge where you try to write 50k in a month, and most of what I wrote for it was Friend Facts drafts. Like have a random wheel with all the ones unwritten and give it a first draft, or give an older one I wanted to approve a final draft. Later I think starting around September 2025 I would write them in chronological order, so that there was no chance I would repeat myself too much/I could keep better track of which person hadn't been talking as much/keep the mood consistant.
For example, in Last Resort it's just Omori and Kel for the first half until they rescue Aubrey and Hero.
This meant if I was writing out of order, I might accidentally put Hero or Kel there when they're not meant to be.
For the most part while all the entries have stories I can attach to them they were all written by like 3 people minimum. There are only a few I or others can claim total credit for, like I did the mammal household in Orange Oasis and Pidgeon did the mermaids, but even still the group did edit those entries like Skylar changing some of the mermaids to match the art a little better while keeping the core idea and mine being changed for grammar.
In my first post on Friend Facts' comments, I went into more detail on how some of the characters were written and if LJ is gonna die I should probably preserve it here. I'll also clarify some extra points.
Someone told us they forgot they weren't canon and it was the greatest compliment of all time
Omori (Regular Headspace) — He creates this world and thus has extra information on the NPCs, so can make up facts about their life or nature. Usually these "facts" carry a subversive darkness to them, describing how much pain they are in, or referencing something horrible. He doesn't have to be in every entry, but the ones he is in he usually starts them. He very rarely participates in conversations, never says "I" or "me", and is treated for the most part separate.
In Friend Facts he does comment, and it's a reference to the entry for Sunny's Dad as seen in Black Space
Art by melonmango [Tumblr] (Video Place)
Art by Tosteur [Tumblr] [Twitter] (Video Place)
Any time there were repeats from Foe Facts we very much did not want to just copy the entry. We wanted to have our own, since a lot of the fun of the concept of Friend Facts is being able to see Omori comment new things he wouldn't say before. Some of the foes you battle with like "Dorothi" have no Foe Facts, and it makes sense why Omori wouldn't put it in there, but it really sparks the imagination.
It can lead to really good entries like this one that have the magical seven layers of metaphor we're going for. Comparing the Big Strong Tree to Sunny's favorite tree Mari was hanged on, by utilizing foreshadowing thus making the Sunny's Dad entry more clear because the tree was specified, the tree can't be felled because you literally can't do damage to it in game through normal methods, the tree can't be felled because it's not what actually killed Mari, getting a chance to emphasize early how disconnected what Omori says is from the rest of the group, etc etc etc.
Headspace Friends — They don't take anything horrible seriously and often find it so benign they won't acknowledge it, often completely missing Omori's dark comments in favor of whatever they personally think of the creature. They're meant to be perfectly happy imaginary friends, after all
Art by Eggie [Pinterest] (Video Placement)
Aubrey — Focused on appearance, weather it's cute or not. She's also very argumentative and will often butt heads with Kel if he makes a comment.
Art by ren [Carrd] [Instagram] [YouTube] (Video Placement)
Fittingly this artist also drew Memory Sunny, perhaps the cutest entry in the video. (here)
One of the "rules" is that the sun isn't allowed to be mentioned, because Sunny and we want to only bring that up when we're saying a metaphor. As such the sun NPC had to have a joke about it to point it out. That and "The moon always shines brighter in ORANGE OASIS" is one of my favorite random lines from the game.
Art by Penn [Twitter] (Video Placement)
When I wrote him I took a lot of inspiration from the way he talked about himself in one Orange Oasis cutscene, about just saying stuff and not thinking before he speaks. Kel is really kind and thoughtful, and he's anything but stupid- even when he was younger- he's just more likely to say whatever that comes to his mind, even if it doesn't make immediate sense. This makes him very fun to write, and the section where it's just Omori and Kel without anyone else one of my favorites. He's most likely to get the funny jokes out of all of them
Art by Sleup [Tumblr] (Video Placement)
Art by Amon Discord: amon02_1 (Video Placement)
Mari — Allowed to comment as long as she's on the same screen as the NPC. Kind and supportive, responsive to Omori, silly!
Art by SmudgedSketch [Tumblr] [Bluesky] (Video Placement)
A lot of the lines she says tend to err on the implictive side. "Footprints to follow, letters to find... A BASIL to look for, a ladder to climb!". She just has knowledge about Headspace the others don't.
There are large sections of Headspace where she's absent just because of how the map is built, and I think if I were to go back I might try to add her in another place or two... Like maybe she could've been there for some of the Omori/Kel ones in the Last Resort, since the picnic is in the elevator so maybe just a few in the lobby? Not a huge regret though, I just like when she shows up.
Basil — Rarely gets to comment but he does sometimes and it's always VERY DEEP even if it's just a playground NPC.
something something read Stranger essay for flower meaning lol
Basil also VEEERY RARELY appears as a glitch in certain entries! I think the only ones are Citrus, Demi, and Beautiful Mole. He still haunts Headspace even as it tries to kick him out... I think it's a very cute random thing to have done even if it has no basis in canon
Drawing by my gud furiend Vermi [Link] (Video Placement)
Se what I meant about only tactically bringing up the sun? lol
The Companion Guide as seen on the bottom of my website, if you go to the right you can see a column that details some facts me and Skylar wrote about the entries written like a wiki.
Black Space II — Omori's scared and doesn't capitalize any of his text or write his name down like normal.
Drawing by Ryan [Twitter] (Timestamp)
"Sanctions" being in reference to the first Snake entry. These entries are of course about the text, but also largely the effects are important. Like the crab's entry burning is part of the writing, "entry catches on fire" I remember it saying on the column. Sky figured out all the effects so thank her.
Other characters in entries — If it's funny, if they're a variant of a main character (Fast Kel, Cooking Hero), or if they're a great one (Abbi, Big Yellow Cat, Humphrey). To be used sparingly.
Art by Ultra [Tumblr] [YouTube] (Timestamp)
Snaley is one of the "if it's funny" ones, since Snaley reappears trying to prove himself enough to be a party member and keeps dying. It might've also been funny to have Snaley dying over and over as a running gag, like if the thunder that killed him caused the blackout in Sweetheart's Castle. Didn't do that though!
Only people in the party can write in the entries, so many of the NPCs are just Sunny and Kel because they're the only two around.
Sunny — Doesn't have the same authority Omori has over these NPCs. He doesn't know most of them, and will instead just say what he sees in a friendly tone. He may say something silly or be sad about missing out on changes from last seeing them.
Kiisaes [Tumblr] [Bluesky] (Timestamp)
Carol [Tumblr] [Instagram] (Timestamp)
You can also see here another way that Sunny is subtly different from Omori in the way he speaks. No authority of the world, no god, often ends up confused. Doesn't require everyone taking him seriously and sucking up to him so he's more dorky lol
Artist Ollie [Instagram] (Timestamp)
Aubrey — For most of the video she's very aggressive line in game, either paraphrasing canonical dialogue or saying it outright. Once she enters the party she knows a lot about certain people Kel maybe doesn't. She's trying to be calmer but she has some strong opinions still. Tends to be more curt towards Kel instead of yelling when they do have spats.
Artist miakkkkk [Instagram] (Timestamp)
For Headspace it matters less because Sunny made them all up, but for Faraway we have to implant as little headcanon as is reasonable unless we have something benign enough or supported enough by beta stuff. I definitely remember one of my "special skills" was being able to make up entries for NPCs that only had a couple lines that truly told us nothing. You just have to rely on the main cast's strengths at that point! Have fun with making up things!
Other random stuff
Poems - There are quite a few simple poems in the video. I shared the Mari one earlier, but there's also Humphrey, the bread twins in both Headspace and Faraway Town, the fly was gonna be one until that idea was scrapped. There aren't THAT many poems in the actual game of Omori, but one of Omori's most used skills in battle is "sad poem" and him and Sunny tend to speak with a broad artistic vocabulary. Plus it keeps things fresh and entertaining. Most of them were really challenging to write though... took a lot of brainstorming and usually several months.
Swearing - Since Headspace is meant to be childish they're not allowed to cross any barriers for adult topics so it can say a safe place for Omori to be a kid forever. It's narratively important! We wanted to keep the tone of the dialogue similar to how it is in the game, so there's only one "F bomb", also like the game.
Drawn by Sally [YouTube] (Video Placement)
Sunny's growing up!! So proud of him
Grammar - Most proper nouns (names, locations, etc) are fully CAPITALIZED to mimic Omori's RPG dialogue. The only exceptions to this are in Faraway Town when Hero and Kel are talking about "Mom" and "Dad" or whatever. It's the real world, so they're not bound to the same rules, but it looked weird if names weren't still capitalized... We also always used bouncing text instead of italics, since Omori doesn't use italics either.
Queers - Omori takes place ambigiously in the early 2000s in an American suburban neighborhood. Sunny, unfortunately, probably does not know what a transgender person is to his own deep misfortune. However us the creators are very queer.
One debate had early on is that a lot of the characters have ambiguous gender, so the question was if we should just assign genders or use they/them and it/its pronouns. We ended up having a mix. Assigning genders to these NPCs is fine because they're not canonically nonbinary and we're making up headcanons anyways. Using it/its pronouns works for Headspace NPCs because most of them are some form of creature and it's normal to refer to creatures that way. Singular they/them is commonly used by non-queer people in passing, "who left their bag here?" frex. Only one Faraway Town NPC uses non-gender pronouns, and they're the first one!
Drawing by Volta [Tumblr] [Instagram] (Video Placement)
There's one other gender related entry, being
Drawing by Qinliu [Instagram] [Twitter] (Video Placement)
Captain Spaceboy is a borrowed character from another artist's comic, which is distinct and does not have to do with the Omori canon. The original version, as confirmed by the creator after Omori came out, is a trans boy. All the Space Pirates got unique backstories so we thought it'd be funny to reference in that fact in a subtle way, since the way it was phrased it could also mean either "before he was a captain" or "before he was a boy" lol.
Omocat did not know about this when making Omori but it makes some comments like this age REALLY FUNNY. Obviously it's meant to be about the change from "Captain Spaceboy" to "Space Boyfriend" to "Space Ex-Boyfriend" to "Space Husband" to "Space Ex-Husband" but like... if the character is transgender that adds even more to the list, pfff. Trans affirming father XD
Drawn by ysther (♥) [Tumblr] [YouTube] (Video Placement)
So that was also referenced
Gay people -
Art by Rowan [Tumblr] [Instagram] [Twitter] [YouTube] (Timestamp)
Jay x Pretty Boy isn't canon in Omori (should'a let you set them up on a date lmao) but they're from a comic Omocat made where they are gay and get married. "They must be really good friends" is a common joke made when people are oblivious to a gay couple.If you want, Sunny's "nigh unmatched" comment could be about Basil lol
Friend facts is gen with no shipping like the game, not trying to push anything other than the Omori narrative here. There are some references here and there though. It is a project about "fandom passion" after all...
Usually when there were duo entries we'd try to pair up people who shipped the characters, like Swingset Aubrey and Sunny had two sunburn artists draw it, and the Sunny and Basil at the lake entry by two Sunflower artists, and Omori Sunny one drawn by Omosun artist. I saw at least two people appreciating eggsoupery (popular sunflower artist) drawing the memory lane in the comments.
Chell [Tumblr] [Instagram] [YouTube] (Timestamp)
Fonts - The main two fonts used are from the game, the regular font and the scary font. The one used in the Churchgoers entries and when Basil gets pushed into the lake is a custom font I made to look like Sunny's handwriting as seen briefly in the merch.
[Timestamp]
My brother's second entry from Mountain- reminds me a lot of mid 2000s YouTube animations. They really wanted to get better at draw humans, so I gave an excuse when we needed backup lol
This is also one of those rare exceptions to "who gets to be in the entry". The churchgoers aren't literally writing anything down, not like headspace NPCs sometimes might, it's Sunny writing their words. It's a little confusing but I felt like a break in style really worked for the churchgoers segment.
I'll dig up a download link if anyone asks.
Drawn by Zipwisp [Carrd] Timestamp
Fast Kel's was handwritten by Skylar while running around the table with a pencil lol. Method acting?
As I also said in my last post, I made the "Companion Guide". I spent 10 hours working on it straight when I first made it, and it took a lot of upkeep from me and Skylar. It existed as like a script for the final video. When entries were completed they were moved over there. In the final week of the project we had to go back and edit every single entry again to be accurate to the video, stuff like small grammar tweaks mostly but still important. SOME were entirely rewritten, but only on Discord and in the video and as such weren't in the guide.
Me and Morny spent many hours in the final week on the project working on it. Also included names, which before since it was an early draft not public were often our searchable developer names for them like the Basil in bed being called "wet sad basil" lol...
The credits were and still are a massive detail. When everyone filled out the form to participate, a required question is "how do you want to be credited?" where people listed their usernames and their social media. Usually, it was not links. There are 516 artists and 712 entries. One by one the artist needed to be cross referenced with their character (or characters, which was a headache since bonus characters were on a DIFFERENT form), their social media copied and pasted with a fancy little link credit. and then every single one double checked to make sure they didn't deactivate, and if they did, if it was on our fault for linking the wrong place or theirs for deactivating.
Because this project took 14 months to make, lots of people had changed their URLs and/or usernames. We did create a news post and social media post asking participants to check their credits, and lots of people DID give us updated links. There was one person who told us right AFTER the video had posted "My credit is wrong I was just too shy to say anything" fsjkfd... dude... Thankfully these people have recourse because the Companion Guide we can edit any time with the true links is linked in the video description/on the website. I made the website within the last few months and I'm not very good at it but i am passionate about these sorts of things so HOPEFULLY its good enough.
It's mobile friendly, too!
I could probably give you 5 fun facts about every single entry, dig up drafts for even more hours than I already have, but I'm gonna stop myself here for now. A part 3 about some of my artistic contributions should be out soon enough. Hopefully you appreciate this specific snippet of my behind the scenes!
no subject
Date: 2026-01-08 07:33 am (UTC)RIP, Nanowrimo.. You were too good for this world.
You never stop to think just how MUCH characterization is in Foe Facts before you start writing something similar. Friend Facts entries were the first time that I really had to pay attention to that. |D
"Someone told us they forgot they weren't canon and it was the greatest compliment of all time."
Exactly, these entries feel so much in the spirit of the game that it feels as if it was Omocat who gathered 500 artists and wrote those entries herself!
The seven layers of metaphors thing is true, it's amazing how much lore was considered and put into a small block of text!
"Aubrey — Focused on appearance, whether it's cute or not. She's also very argumentative and will often butt heads with Kel if he makes a comment.
She also usually seems to show the most sympathy to Headspace residents.
I was wondering what's with the "spiky moon". XD
I can imagine the Duckie family was hard to portray in art.
"Only starts arguments with Aubrey if he really does witness something different, rather than "just because"."
Was that a snide remark about Aubrey's responses? >:D
Hero and Kel may compete in other things but humor is something that Kel definitely wins in, haha.
Of course, Basil leaves the most deep comments. I like that he appears a few times even if Headspace tries to erase him, it's always a special moment when he has something to say.
It's a SUNNY weather, lol.
Stranger's comments are so sad...
I feel bad for Snaley. :'D
It's right that Real World Hero is more sad and reserved in the entries than the Headspace one, I didn't notice that. Now he longer has random NPCs thanking him for helping them in the past and responding to his charming nature.
"I definitely remember one of my "special skills" was being able to make up entries for NPCs that only had a couple lines that truly told us nothing."
Heck yeah, that's what's called ingenuity and creativity.
Sunny being the one to get the F bomb is funny. The quiet one...
"Fast Kel's was handwritten by Skylar while running around the table with a pencil lol. Method acting?"
Pfff, that's amazing.
"Me and Morny spent many hours in the final week on the project working on it."
YAY, I helped! \o/
The site is pretty good, very convenient in using. Making it mobile friendly is an achievement!
no subject
Date: 2026-01-08 02:07 pm (UTC)A lot of the thought for entries /is/ "how can we express this idea within the wordcount". Such a small space...
Hero is like the Sans of the skeleton family. He's more famous for his bad jokes but Papyrus is the actual funny one. Hero is just sad lol
"it's always a special moment when he has something to say." aww
Now they're just real people in the world in faraway town! they should get more credit just for existing
If a swear word was going to make it into his journal he had to write it himself, no one else allowed lol
no subject
Date: 2026-01-09 02:57 am (UTC)I wish VPN services could help Kiki somehow...
Yeah, I remember seeing it myself, how a lot of the changed entries from the docs were shortened or streamlined in the process.
Skelefamily reference! It's true, Hero is also known for his depressed melancholic side while Kel is the type of person who never gives up, lol.
We should all get credit just for existing. :'D
Sunny censoring everyone but himself, hehe.