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- Aubrey – “Hey, don't take a picture of me while I'm eating, Basil!”
- Basil – “Ah, I'm sorry, Aubrey. I just thought you looked cute! I'll show you when it's ready.”
Photobomb is the het ship between Aubrey and Basil from the Omori fandom.
Canon[]
The Real World[]
Basil and Aubrey are childhood friends. Aubrey first introduced Basil to the group after she joined it, and she is seen holding his hand while introducing him. It's possible that the two were already friends before Aubrey met the others and she introduced him to them to offer him a larger friend group. While saving up to buy Sunny a violin, the two sold lemonade together.
Basil assigns Aubrey the gladiolus as her flower. Although this is a genus and not a species of flower, it's most likely that the specific flower depicted in-game is the light purple Gladiolus desoto. It's also known as the sword lily, and its description shows that Basil admires Aubrey's fiery spirit and her truthful, earnest nature. It's ambiguous whether the assignment of flowers to his friends is something Basil actually did in the real world, but it's reasonable to presume that Sunny dreamt of words the real Basil once spoke.
Aubrey steals Basil's photo album during her introduction scene in the real world, taking only the pictures of Mari and throwing the rest in the trash. This worries Basil, who later asks Kel and Sunny for help. When Aubrey pushes Basil into the lake, she's shown with tears rolling down her cheeks and asks the others to wait as they take Basil to safety, implying she has more to say. She did it out of anger and she claims that she didn't mean to harm him.
Once Aubrey, Kel, Hero, and Sunny have reunited, Aubrey explains why she started bullying Basil. After Mari's death, Aubrey offered to go to Basil's house with him to study together when she saw him sitting alone at school several months after Sunny stopped coming to school. Basil was pretty quiet on the way. When Basil left for a moment, Aubrey found his photo album and saw that all the photos had been scribbled out with a black marker. Aubrey was quick to pin the blame on him. Aubrey started calling Basil things such as 'creep', and soon, others joined in, cementing Aubrey as Basil's new bully. Aubrey didn't know that it was actually Sunny who did it. Since she thought Basil was the one who spat on Mari's legacy, Aubrey and eventually the new friends that she had made, The Hooligans, started tormenting Basil. In the present, she expresses regret for taking out her anger on him instead of trying to understand him and she wishes to apologize to him. It's not clear if she ever finds out that Sunny was the one who crossed out the photos with marker, and how that influences her opinion of either.
AUBREY: After SUNNY stopped coming to school... I saw BASIL sitting alone during lunch... so I asked him if he wanted to study together at his house... He seemed kind of uneasy about it at first... but after I begged him, he agreed. The walk there was really quiet... BASIL wouldn't even look at me. And when we got to his room, I tried to talk to him... but he said he had to go to the bathroom and ran off. That's when I spotted his old PHOTO ALBUM on his bookshelf. I just wanted to go through the photos, because... well... I guess I just wanted to see everyone happy again. But... when I opened it... BASIL had blacked out all of the photographs with marker! I couldn't believe it... He had even blacked out MARI's face... All of our memories together... It felt like he had destroyed them!
AUBREY: I was so confused... and angry... I thought he was a nutcase. So... instead of trying to understand him... I stole his PHOTO ALBUM and started calling him “creep” and things like that. And eventually... I wasn't the only one calling him names.
AUBREY: I feel like scum for that now. But, you know what... Ever since then, all I've been doing is trying to cut myself off from everyone.
AUBREY: It's kind of funny. What I've been doing is worse than what BASIL did, yet I'm the one who was angry at him... Sniff... I'm such an idiot.
AUBREY: We should go see if BASIL is back home later today. I need to apologize to him... and... I think right now... He's probably the one that needs us the most.
Aubrey apologizes to Basil later on in the game, after she, Sunny, Kel, and Hero have reconciled and they visit Basil's house to check up on him. She suggests they stay with him to ensure he's alright.
AUBREY: Hey, BASIL… This is AUBREY. I just wanted to say that… I'm sorry for the way I've been treating you.
BASIL: …
AUBREY: Will you please say something? We want to know that you're okay.
BASIL: …
AUBREY: I think we should stay here for him.
In the ending where Basil dies, she is seen sad and upset that her friend has died. As they are still friends, even though Aubrey bullied Basil, she still feels bad for tormenting him and possibly pushing him to this fate. In the game's true ending, she's seen standing next to Basil's hospital bed as she, Kel, and Hero wait for him to wake up.
Headspace[]
In Sunny's headspace, before Basil went missing, the two are shown getting along very well, implying they used to be close as children. Aubrey cares for Basil the same way she used to before Mari passed.
Gladiolus, the flower Basil assigned to Aubrey
While the group is on their way to Basil's house, they come across various flower gardens. Basil assigns the gladiolus to Aubrey.
BASIL: Gladiolus! Also known as the “sword flower”! As you might guess, they represent strength of character. Someone who is honest, with strong moral values... someone who stands by their convictions... The gladiolus reminds me of Aubrey, because she’s always true to herself!
When Basil goes missing during the introduction portion of the game, she's distressed over his absence and wants to help find him. She is worried that Basil is unable to protect himself when his friends aren't there for him. This implies that Sunny thinks of Basil as meek, but also that he remembers Aubrey being highly protective of him. Aubrey may have a history of saving Basil from bullies or threats.
AUBREY: At least we found you, OMORI… but I hope BASIL is okay. Who's going to protect him if we're not there?
When the others get distracted, Aubrey has a tendency to remind them that Basil is missing. She's also worried that Basil is too meek to fend for himself and can be easily tricked.
AUBREY: Do you think BASIL is okay? I feel like maybe we should be more worried… BASIL is really trusting… He'll believe anything anyone says! What if someone tricked him into something?
KEL: Cheer up! On the outside, BASIL may seem really soft, but he's actually pretty strong on the inside.
AUBREY: Okay, I'll try to believe in BASIL… Thanks, KEL. Hehe…
Fanon[]
Common themes in fanwork are childhood innocence, nostalgia, reminiscence, lost friendship, guilt, grief, self-deprecation, reconciliation, second chances, understanding, and healing. It's common for Basil and Aubrey to understand each other on a deeper level due to their similar issues of absent/distant parents and fear of being abandoned, as well as their childhood friendship (implied to have existed prior to either of them befriending Sunny and company), and their bond often relies on their mutual understanding of each other's fears and pain.
The three main components of fanon entail canon compliance, alternate universes, and headspace.
Canon compliant fanon likes to explore what their friendship looked like before Mari's untimely death and Basil's withdrawal tore them apart, since they are depicted as being close before the incident. It's also common to explore the time when Aubrey bullied Basil as a juxtaposition against their previously tight bond, often leading to character studies where romance gives the stage to tragedy and grief. A third common branch of canon compliant fanon entails post-truth and post-suicide and how either impacts their relationship. Hurt/comfort is a common theme in this third branch, and sometimes, works even lean into hurt no comfort and heavy angst territory, especially in the Basil suicide route.
Alternate universe fanon can go any direction. The most common type is to explore what would have happened to their friendship if Mari had never died. Alternate universes where Mari did die, but in some other way, or a different character died instead of Mari (oftentimes to characters other than Sunny or Basil) are common as well. These alternate universes can range from lighthearted fluff to heavy angst. Because Aubrey would be a very different person if Mari never died, alternate universes show a very different Photobomb dynamic than the one in canon, which can provide alternative interpretations of the characters that are very appealing. They also often flavor the ship to incorporate very different aesthetics than seen in deathless AUs or in canon.
Headspace fanon tends to be more aesthetic than plot-driven. Some fanon includes a headspace of Basil or Aubrey's own. These works often lean more into their closer friendship in childhood, as well as drawing upon the special care Aubrey shows towards Basil in Headspace
Fans like to say that Aubrey would help Basil with his plants. In a lot of Photobomb fanon, Aubrey eventually helps Basil with dyeing his hair, usually green or teal, mirroring his headspace counterpart. Another common element is moving in with Basil and his caretaker Polly due to her own poor home life and Basil's isolation after his grandmother passes.
Photobomb is one of the more popular ships in the fandom. Among the main Faraway characters' ships, it's one of the lower popularity ships, but it's by no means rare. It less commonly appears in fanfiction but is one of the most common ships in fanart. AUs where the bullying never happened are a common theme in shipping artwork, but canon compliant works are far from uncommon. As of May 2025, it has 269 works on Archive Of Our Own. The primary rivals of the ship are Sunburn, Sunflower, Cotton Candy, and Baseball. It is often paired with Suntan or Starburst (Sunny/Kim).
Fandom[]
- FAN FICTION
- Basil/Aubrey tag on AO3
- TUMBLR
- Photobomb Omori posts on Tumblr
- Bushfire Omori posts on Tumblr
- Omori Photobomb posts on Tumblr
- Bushfire Omori posts on Tumblr
- Aubrey x Basil posts on Tumblr
- PhotobombOmori hashtag on Twitter
- OmoriPhotobomb hashtag on Twitter
- BushfireOmori hashtag on Twitter
- OmoriBushfire hashtag on Twitter
- omoriphotobomb hashtag on Instagram
- photobombomori hashtag on Instagram
- omoribushfire hashtag on Instagram
- bushfireomori hashtag on Instagram
Trivia[]
- Basil and Aubrey were both in Omori's party at different points.
- Watermelon is Aubrey's favorite food. Basil is often represented by watermelons.
- In the real world, Aubrey has pink hair with teal accessories. In headspace, Basil has teal hair and pink accessories.
- Similarly, Basil comments that Aubrey's favorite color is pink in one of his photos' captions. In one of the calendar project photos, Basil is seen wearing pink as he sells lemonade with Aubrey.
- A less common variant of Photobomb is Shutterbomb, where Basil's headspace alter ego Stranger is shipped with headspace Aubrey.
- An additional ship name for the two (Bushfire) comes from Basil's love for plants and Aubrey having a "fiery" personality.
- The ship name Swordflower comes from Aubrey's Basil-assigned flower being the Gladiolus, or the sword lily.
- The ship name Watermelon comes from Aubrey eating a watermelon at the beach scene and Basil being a plant's name, it could also be on how watermelon is Aubrey's favorite food. Additionally, in a room in Black Space, Basil is crushed in a fashion similar to the way watermelons are smashed in Headspace. It could also be from Basil being crushed in Blackspace and as Aubrey is his former bully it is like she "crushes" him.
- In addition to the above reasons, the ship is often associated with watermelons separate from the name because of the colors associated with the two characters: pink and green.
- Some fans see this ship as a femslash ship because of the transfemme Basil headcanon (often dubbed "Parsley") becoming popular.
Gallery[]
- Main article: Photobomb/Gallery
Variations[]
- Burnt Sunflower refers to the ship between the two and Sunny
- Cinnamon refers to the ship between the two and Kim
- Waterwheel refers to the ship between the two and Cris
- Peppermint refers to the ship between the two plus Sunny and Kim
- Summer Breeze refers to the ship between the two and Kel
- Sunshine refers to the ship between the two plus Sunny and Kel
[]
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| Omori Ships • Omori Characters | ||
| SHIPS | het | Baseball Bat • Beachball • HeroMari • Honeysuckle • Paintball • Photobomb • Pink Popcorn • Spaceheart • Sunburn |
| slash | Cactiflower • Goldenrush • Knightclub • Pretty Jock • Sunbleached • Sunflower • Suntan • Sunset | |
| femslash | Graffiti • Kimbrey • Maribrey • Piano Buddies • Sweet Melody • Swedish Fish • Watercolors | |
| poly | Burnt Sunflower • Horizon • Orange Jawbreaker • Piano Trio • SunAkiToya • Sunkissed | |
| family | BowKhael • SunMari • Super Heroes | |
| friend | Secret Hangout • Skill Issue | |
| CHARACTERS | male | Basil • Bowen • Hero • Kel • Mikhael • Sunny |
| female | Aubrey • Cris • Daphne • Kim • Mari • Mincy | |