i am curious about the violin (soulmate au), so Basil doesn't have that mark and sunny does if so i want to know who is the secret soulmate lol (you don't have to answer if you don't want to)
Hi dearie! I love to answer y'all don't even worry about that! I might not always answer because life kind of imploded on me, but I treasure everything you guys send!! As for this, well it's one of my favorite twists in Broken Melodies, so let's get into it. I'm just really hoping people follow along with me, because this could get misinterpreted. Also TW: Sunny/Basil Fight and everything that comes with it
Romantic soulmates are the most common, but they aren't the only kind of bond a person can have. Platonic soulmates are not unheard of, and in fact well known.
These kind of bonds usually happen between a parental figure and a child, but they can also happen between extremely close friends, or even siblings. There isn't an across the board way of distinguishing one bond from another, but those who share the bond are always in agreement on what kind of bond they have- whether platonic or romantic. Regardless of the type of soulmate, losing them is still the worst pain a person can go through and still live.
There is one kind of soulmark that is extremely rare, a kind that almost never happens- a trauma mark
Trauma bonds are rare because they only happen when a person is in mortal peril, long after a person is born. These types of marks aren't natural, they're created during moments of extreme stress. There isn't a lot of research into how exactly trauma bonds are formed, but these are not the same as other soulmarks.
The unfortunate reality was that most trauma bonds are short lived, as most people who form a trauma bond succumb to whatever had caused enough emotional distress that their soul had linked itself to another.
For those that do survive, the connections between soulmates are stronger than any other type. The link between them is forged not by blood or whatever force there might be, but by a person's trust in the other to protect them. To save them.
That night during their fight, Sunny was more frightened than he had ever been. The night of the concert, he hadn't had time to be frightened, he had been thrust deep into White Space before he could fully process his horror. But seeing Something surrounding him and Basil, having Basil swipe at him with a silver pair of shears...Sunny was completely caught in the icy grip of terror. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't calm, there was nothing but fear. He couldn't begin to think, couldn't even start to try and rationalize what was happening.
Basil tackled him and pinned Sunny down underneath him. Sunny blindly thrust his arms up pushing against Basil who was pressing down on him. Sunny's arms, already weak from years spent doing nothing but lying in bed, were screaming in exhaustion. He was going to lose. He was going to die. Basil kept saying Everything Was Going To Be Okay, but it wasn't. Sunny was going to die. He couldn't save them. He was going to die.
Sunny felt the same feeling he had in the lake, when Something was holding him under, wrapped around his ankles like a vice. It was the same darkness, the same cold. When it had him, Mari had saved him. She had pulled him back into the light. Mari couldn't save him now, he had killed her. He had killed her, and now he was going to die too, because he had made it so she couldn't save him.
Except. Except Mari hadn't saved him. Not this time. He had thought it was her, the arms pulling him up to the surface had felt like hers, but they weren't hers. It was Hero. Hero had saved him yesterday, Hero had pulled him out of the water.
Sunny wanted Hero here. Sunny needed someone else to save Basil, to save him. His wrist blazed in a searing burn, and Sunny gasped, his arms giving out from the strain and the hurt.
At the same time, in the quiet and peace of the living room, Hero shot up with a loud shout, somehow not startling the rest of the house into waking.
He was gripping his own wrist in a bruising grip. The strange fire on his arm settled almost as soon as it had come. Hero blinked through the sudden tears of pain and looked down.
There was Mari's mark, as black and empty as it always was. Her music notes drifting down the back of his hand, limp and lifeless. But under them was something new. Hero flipped his hand over, staring down in bewilderment.
Starting at his wrist and extending down his forearm was a violin. It wasn't a large mark, it was barely as long as his palm, but it pulsed with a throbbing ache. It was a soft brown color, not grey like new marks should be. Hero shouldn't have any new marks, yet somehow he instinctually knew who's it was. There was only person that made sense.
But Sunny didn't have marks. Sunny. Hero looked across the room. Kel was snoring next to him. Aubrey was on the couch, her face uncharacteristically soft and vulnerable.
Hero heard a loud cry of pain from behind him in Basil's room, and his right eye exploded in agony, starbursts flodding his vision. Sunny.
He was up and running before Polly, Kel, and Aubrey even woke up.
