Marzenie time guysss
Here’s the Basil design!
Other versions plus a little elaboration on the design:
Cloakless + wing design versions
So for the sake of specificity I’ve been calling him “Marze” whenever I refer to the in-dream version of Basil, Same naming convention as (Hikik)Omori, but don’t be mistaken, Marze is not an individual like Omori is, Marze is a costume- just the suit that Basil wears while venturing the horrors of his mind, Marze is merely how Basil conforms himself to the world of Marzenie, none of the characters there are really human so it’d be out of place if Basil himself was (this can be viewed as a form of self-dehumanizing on Basil’s part but it’s mostly for the artists sake- the meta explanation is just as important as the in-world one)
Now for the design itself:
maybe the symbolism here is really obvious but I wanna explain it anyway, the Deer parts (antlers and legs) are representative of Basil’s general personality as a whole- he’s skittish and vulnerable yes but when forced deer do fight back, an idea that’s very important to Marzenie given it displays Basil LITERALLY fighting to survive against his inner struggles, that and the creator (me) really likes deer … so there’s that
Otherwise, the wings are Moths wings, which seems like it’s a really simple connection to Sunny and the idea that Moths are drawn to light but it’s a little more literal in Marzenie because it’s not just that Sunny is Basils sun in a metaphorical way it’s that in Marzenie he actually IS, in the world of Marzenie there is a Sun-God character that is very obviously just Sunny, which is both about bit about Basil’s view of Sunny as someone without flaw but also about just how much Basil relies on him… or rather the IDEA of him
Sun-God-Sunny is a very important presence in Marzenie because it’s his very absence that’s made Marzenie what it is, returning to that Map art I made for a moment here
Within Marzenie it’s not just that Sunny is a god but that he’s a dead/‘sleeping’ god, and in his absence the world has become cold and dark (which necessitates that lantern in the desgin above)
Yes Basil had issues before the incident but having friends and having SUNNY made that bearable and something he could have gradually put behind him, being abandoned so suddenly in such a traumatic way has thrown Basil’s mind into a state of eternal darkness, the world of Marzenie is cold and dark and dangerous, and all of this is the most literal possible representation of the damage Sunny’s absence has inflicted on Basil’s mental state
Sunny’s character in Marzenie being the Sun god is also why the center of it and the beginning of the journey is a church, the only hope Basil has anymore is that Sunny will return and they can be friends again, so he’s build an alter in his mind dedicated to this hope, this prayer
Also religious imagery is fun <3, also it’s a parallel to the church of something and how Basil’s house is at the center of Vast forest (and thus the center of Sunny’s mind, they center their places of safety around each other, even if for Basil that place is a tiny candlelit alter in the center of a dark woodland while for Sunny that Place of safety is EVERYTHING in his mind, so vastly different and yet sort of the same <- does any of this make sense? Probably not, who cares, it’s my AU and I WILL ramble as much as I like ok)