For any authors like myself who don't really draw, worry not! Your image can be a snippet of your AU title in fancy text. I literally made mine in PowerPoint and slapped some symbols on it.
(Mighty is turning 10 and Ray is 5. As a quick headcanon explanation, the trauma and injury Ray sustained the night his parents died is what gave him the stutter. He overcomes it for the most part eventually, but not at this point in the timeline)
------
Ray took a deep breath and pushed open the bakery door. An overpowering smell of freshly baked goods nearly bowled him over. Maybe they had almond cake! Mighty said his mami made it a lot and it was really yummy. Would the ones here taste the same—stop!
Focus, focus! Ray shook his head. He was here on a mission.
He smoothed down his freshly cleaned fur and stomped up to the cashier with his head held high.
"Ahem!"
A lavendar-furred raccoon peered over the counter and smiled. "Hello there, sweetheart! What can I do for you?"
"M-My name is Ray. Do you ha-ha—h-have, have—"
No, no, no! He practiced! He practiced what to say! Ray swallowed against the tightness in his throat and tried again. "Have a j-jo-job f-f-f—"
"Sh-sh-sh, it's all right." The lady rushed around the counter. She knelt and dabbed a corner of her apron on his face. "There's no need to rush, dear. Take your time."
Ray sniffed and wiped a glove under his nose. This always looked so easy when Mighty did it.
"I think I heard something about a job," the lady said. "Did your brother or sister send you to ask around for any openings?"
Ray shook his head and pointed to himself. "J-Just today. A trade." He took another deep breath and spoke slowly. "It's my brother's birthday an' he l-likes cranber-berries. I d-don't have mon-money but I can work!" He flexed his muscles the way Mighty did when he was trying to impress someone. They were nowhere near as cool or as big as Mighty's, but it made the baker lady laugh.
"Well . . ." She gave him a once-over. "I do need some dishes washed and my floors cleaned." She held out her paw. "What do you say?"
Ray beamed. "YES!" He shook her paw with both of his and did a few hops in place. He got a job! A job like Mighty!
---
The lady (her name was Winnow) had a lot of dishes for Ray to clean, but she was really nice. She even gave Ray some cheese and bread for lunch. Mighty's trick worked!
He said that recones—reconis . . . research was important when getting a job. The flyers in store windows weren't useful because those wanted help for months or years, not a few days or weeks. Mighty said to look for places with nice people who wouldn't turn them in to orphanages or get angry. Or to listen and see if one of the workers was hurt or if the people looked to be in a hurry. Those kinds of places were more likely to be okay with getting help for just a little while.
Now, Mighty told Ray these things so he could help Mighty find a place to work, because Ray was too little. He was supposed to search for wild berries and stuff to eat or practice his reading in the library while Mighty worked jobs. It was Mighty's "duty" as the older brother, but he promised Ray could help in a few years.
"Lots of jobs need you to read," was Mighty's excuse when Ray got super angry about not being allowed to help. "They don't got time to read for you, so you gotta study hard!" Ray had a feeling Mighty was just saying that to make him stay at the library and get out of his way, but he supposed it made a little sense.
Anyway, he watched this bakery for two whole days. Winnow was always smiling and was nice to her daughter who also worked in the store. He even saw her use old stuff to feed the birds, instead of throwing it away like other places did. Someone like that had to be nice enough to let him work—and she was!
It was hard work though. His muscles felt all gooey like bread dough and the fur on his arms was stiff from working with soap all day. When it was dinner time, Winnow crouched down and presented him with a fancy cardboard box.
"Some cranberry brie pastry puffs for a job well done!"
Part of the box's lid had some clear, crinkly stuff on top. Ray glanced inside to see two desserts the size of Mighty's paw, pretty as a picture and piled high with roasted cranberries. Even with the box closed they smelled super yummy, but it was more than he deserved.
"U-Um . . . " Ray wrung his paws together. "I-I think that's too much, ma'am. I don't—I didn't d-do enough. I—"
"Oh hush," Winnow said. She gently pushed the box into his paws. "You didn't give up and cleaned everything I asked you to. Besides—I bet your brother is the kind of person who would share his present with you, right?"
Ray nodded. No matter how hard he tried to pretend not to be hungry, Mighty always gave him more food. It was a strange thing, to feel so sad when Mighty seemed so happy, but Ray couldn't help it. He wasn't strong enough yet to ignore his rumbly tummy.
"I thought so." Winnow pat his shoulder. "This way, your brother has no choice but to eat the whole thing."
Tears fell down Ray's cheeks. He gently put the box on the ground and gave Winnow a biiiiiiig hug. "Thank you!" he cried.
"You're welcome, sweetheart." She winked. "Now go find your brother before that gets too cold!"
---
"Hey, buddy!" Mighty rushed to meet him as he neared their current campsite. Ooops. His brother had the smile where he was trying to act like everything was okay but Ray knew it wasn't. It must be a little later than he thought. "Where've you been? Didja see a cool bug or something?"
Ray shook his head. "Mm-mm." He quickly moved the box behind his back and nudged Mighty back with his foot. "Sit down."
Mighty raised a brow but did as he was told. He plopped down around their unlit campfire and rolled his shoulders. It must have been a busy day moving logs. People were often worried when Mighty offered to help, but they always changed their minds when they saw how strong he was. The shocked looks on their faces was Ray's favorite part.
A brief moment of panic seized Ray's chest. Did the presents come before or after cake? . . . He didn't know! It's not like he could ask Mighty, cuz that would ruin the surprise.
Well, if you got cake first then you could get your present all sticky, so the present had to be first.
Ray took a few steps back and placed the box on the ground. Then he dug into his tail to pull out a small gift wrapped in a leaf.
"Happy Birthday, Mighty!" He presented it with a flourish.
Mighty gaped at him. "You remembered?"
"Tch, duh!" Ray rolled his eyes. "'Course I did! You're my b-big brother." It's not like he was a baby or anything. Sheesh. At this rate Mighty might never let him get a job.
Mighty reached out and gently "unwrapped" the present to reveal a bean-shaped red rock. Seeing it so small in Mighty's paw made Ray's insides all squirmy. It was too late now though, so Ray had to really make it sound cool.
"I-I found it in a cave a few—few weeks ago," Ray explained. "It ma-made me think of you." He pointed to the uneven bands of black running through it. "See?"
Mighty's glanced up to give him a fond smile, which was odd. It was just a stupid rock. "I love it," Mighty said. He pulled Ray in for a hug. "Thank you." It didn't make sense for him to be so happy, but Ray wasn't going to argue with Mighty on his birthday. That wouldn't be nice.
Ray rushed back to the box, grateful that he'd found such a nice lady to help him get a better present. Food was more exciting anyway.
"Aaaaand guess what else I g-got?!" He placed the box in Mighty's paws and pulled back the lid. "Ta-da!"
Mighty's mouth dropped even more than before. "Ray, you . . . how did you get this?"
"I didn't steal it!" Ray folded his arms and puffed out his cheeks. "M'n-not a thief!" He held his head up high. "I cleaned a buncha stuff in a bak-bakery an' the lady gave me two cuz she knew you would give me some. She's super sma-smar—Ah!"
Oh no—what did he do?! Mighty was crying! Ray pulled on his ears. Were those evil cranberries? Maybe the lady was just some witch in disguise! Was Mighty going to—
Ray's worries stopped when Mighty shoved the box to the side and nearly tackled him into a hug.
"Huh?"
"Thank you," Mighty whispered. He pulled back and smiled. "This is the best birthday I've ever had." He brushed back the fur on top of Ray's head. "I'm so lucky to have a little brother as great as you."
Phew! Mighty was just being weird again. He did that from time to time, looking sad and happy at the same time, and somehow guilty. It never made sense to Ray, but maybe he'd understand when he was older. That didn't matter now though, because—
"Can we eat it now, Mighty? C-Can we?"
His brother laughed. "Of course!"
----
Ray's present is a raw, red jasper rock. It's said to be a grounding and protective stone which perfectly encapsulates Mighty's strengths, but of course they have no idea about that. Ray just thought it looked pretty and shares the same coloring as his big brother, while Mighty finds it adorable how Ray tried so hard to get him something. Later on, Mighty gets a jeweler to split it and make them a decorative part of the buckles for his gloves in his modern design.
Submissions are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.* Sign-ups will close on May 31st or sooner if all 64 slots are filled earlier.
A public roster is also linked below and will be updated automatically as the mod accepts AUs. You can use this to view the total amount of submissions, submissions yet to be reviewed, and the amount of slots remaining.
*Due to special circumstances, those who signed up for Mini Collision last year before it was cancelled will have first priority.
In response to your ask @westerntails regarding Sonic 4: yikes, that would be crazy! 🤯 I apologize for not responding to it directly, in case that's a leak/spoiler from the upcoming movie, and I don't want to spoil anyone who doesn't want to be spoiled. Guess we'll just wait and see what happens!
Want to know how to make a cheap initiative tracker? One you can personalize and disassemble for easy transport? Specific instructions are below the cut.
Essentially, I painted/color-coded clothespins for all PCs and labeled both sides with character names. You'll notice that there are two green ones. The darker one is for my character, and the lighter one is for her summons. The bright red and yellow clothespins have little strips of dry-erase sheets on them, because they're for enemies and friendly NPCs, respectively. This way, they're reusable and my DM can just write the names/designations as needed (like enemy #1 or mephit swarm). The tiny white clothespins indicate that someone's taken their reaction, and once it's their turn again I take it off.
As you can see by the picture, my summons just finished their turn. Once someone's turn ends, I just rotate the clothespin to the other side of the dowel. When it's time for a new round, I then rotate the entire dowel so the names are on the left again. The set-up also makes it easy to switch characters out as enemies go down or characters join the battle.
----
As shown below, the tracker is in two parts for easy transport: the dowel and the base. The base is made up of a wooden tread wheel, some kind of wooden fixing with a hole all the way through (I'm sorry but I no longer remember what it's called!), and the metal lid of a frozen juice concentrate can. (You don't need two—I also like to use them as paint palettes so I was trying to make it easier to recognize) The dowel is a foot long and I think 0.36" diameter? Whatever the wooden fixing is, it was a little too wide so I cushioned it with foam so the dowel had a more snug fit.
(The clear items the tracker is stored with are cheap character stands! More info about them are under the cut in this post.)
It's such a small thing, but I'm so grateful that I can work from home every once in a while. 💖 While being the coordinator has pushed me to make remarkable strides in overcoming my social anxiety, it's still draining. Having the freedom to take a day away from everyone and finish admin tasks with minimal interruptions is beautiful.
Again, busy working on an event fic, so today's WIP is a collection of fic summaries of things to come. 💖
----
Temporary Foundling
It’s curious how many pivotal moments in history go unnoticed, are undocumented save for the etching on the souls of those who experienced it. The fox that would be later known as Tails was once a newly abandoned infant; barely two years old and left in a forest to die. While his intellect rivaled most adults he was still a baby, and a simple cold was nearly his undoing.
Thankfully, as had happened numerous times throughout history, a wild animal was capable of greater compassion than its “civilized” counterpart, and Tails’ story didn’t end there.
----
I'll be the Shield to Your Darkness
When Tails lies to Sonic, it's usually about little things: like if he went to bed at a reasonable time, if he ate three meals that day, or if he had a normal amount of mints. Sometimes (not often) he'll lie about his feelings, saying that he's fine when he's lonely, or he's okay when he's not. There is one lie though that Tails vows to never let Sonic uncover, because it's for Sonic's own protection.
----
The Care and Keeping of your Half-feral Fox Kit
Sonic barely knew how to take care of himself, and now some wild toddler had what—imprinted on him? Just because Sonic scared off some punk kids with nothing better to do than kick around a fox so small it was surprising he knew how to walk? Not only was Sonic a kid himself—he was a kid with superpowers, on a self-appointed mission doing what he could to stop an egomaniac from destroying Mobius.
And yet there was something about this tiny, two-tailed fox that gave him pause, despite the little guy’s habit of biting or his refusal to wear gloves. Sonic decided to chalk it up to needing a change of pace. He couldn’t deny the freedom of his current lifestyle got lonely sometimes, so why not? It was only for a little while; just until he found the kit somewhere better to live and let the weird hero-worship thing run its course.
Sonic quickly found himself out of his depth, but somehow . . . somehow it was all worth it.
What's life without a bit of D&D hyperfixation? My DM plays Destiny so a lot of our enemies/allies are from the game. Unfortunately, Destiny minis are pretty much impossible to come by and given that none of us players know the game, I wanted to help the immersion.
And so behold—118 homemade minis! They're laminated, double sided, and stand up thanks to binder clips, with a handful of them being various transport vehicles. My DM supplied the images, told me how tall to make them, and how many.
Below are close-ups and then under the cut I'll show how to make your own "vehicles" with stuff from the Dollar Store. The alt text will list the Destiny group.
----
Here's how to make your own vehicles with functional places to put your minis! You can see the vehicles are one-sided to avoid confusion, but they're "paired" with a mirrored image, if that makes sense.
Anyway, since the binder clips keep the mini upright I just glued some tiny magnets to leftover laminated material that's been cut to an appropriate size. This helps stabilize the vehicle while still making it simple to store. The plastic "stands" are all from the Dollar Store. The smaller ones are just plastic shot glasses, while the tall ones are made by gluing a wavy plate to mini cordial glasses.
Hint: these are also GREAT for stands if you have a character/creature that flies! It's about 20 ft tall, but of course you can get different heights by gluing the "plate" to a shot glass or plastic tumblr glass.
Note: Once a chapter in a main fanfic is posted, all WIPs will be removed to keep this from getting too long.
The Fox and the Hedgehog
AU headcanons || AU art: scrunglepaws [1] [2] [3] [4] *new*
Full fics
Of Mice and Elephants (post)
Dyed Menace (post)
Can't Escape a Scuttled Ship (post)
Outliers (post)
Tumblr prompts/WIPs
Mighty and Ray start their journey
Sonic's inciting incident in the battle against Eggman
Tails innocently tries to groom Sonic's arm like a wild
Sonic teaches Tails what platonic kisses are
Sonic tells Tails about Rotor
Tails meets chao!Cosmo *new*
Shadow confronts Tails about bombs
Someone's Waiting for You
NOTE: Most everything from tFatH applies to this AU as well—I just felt it important to separate works without Nine for those who've never seen Sonic Prime.
AU asks || AU headcanons
AU art: scrunglepaws [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
Never Broken, Never Beyond Repair (2/4 chapters)
Sonic teaches sign to Mangey
Nine worries about meeting Tails (chapter 3 WIP)
Nine attacks the Chaos Council (chapter 3 WIP)
Shatterverse communication device (chapter 3 WIP)
Amy gets a hug from Nine (chapter 4 WIP)
Healing is a Nonlinear Process
Clothes shopping with Amy (Nine)
Nine tries to comfort Tails in a thunderstorm
Sonic teases Tails and Nine
Anger management with Knuckles (Nine)
Mechanical tails surgery consultation (Tails & Nine)
Nine experiences snow for the first time
Tails teaches Nine about plushies by showing his own (Tiny Sonic and Dumbo) + flashbacks
Present for Knuckles (Nine)
Nine goes to a Chao Garden
Nine's memory of meeting Tommy Turtle
Nine gets a plushie and gives Sonic one
Changing the Future (title TBD)
Headcanons about feral bros
Nine on a supply run (Forces)
Nine taking care of Tails (Forces)
Sonic in his cell (Forces)
Minor changes Nine would cause (Phantom Rider)
SCU Collection
AU headcanons *new*
Outcast Pack AU
AU masterpost
Mutant Tails headcanons
Mutant Maria headcanons
Oneshot about Maria and Shadow
Banshees, Vector, Gemerl
Werewolves *new*
Miscellaneous
Sunburns and Soup (b-day fic for scrunglepaws set in their Kaleidoscope AU) ART! [1] [2] *new*
These roots are bittersweet (imagined end of the Black Licorice AU by wickedcriminal) + silly drabble *new*
Silver thanks Mangey for saving his life (Valentine's Day Silgey fic for scrunglepaws set in their Kaleidoscope AU) ART! [1] *new*
Sonic is from One Piece headcanon (silly)
(if a link is broken or leads to the wrong place feel free to let me know!)
Context: An anon asked for "tails meeting cosmo chao for the first time". The ficlet anon is referring to is mostly about Nine, but at one point he talks to Tails, who's hanging out with a chao named Cosmo. Timeline-wise, I'd say Tails is either 6 or 7 here.
--
Tails felt oddly nervous. He’d been here many times before but never by himself. Sonic was on one of his runs, which was fine. So what if two weeks and 17 hours had passed and Tails made a little nest of Sonic’s blankets and scant pieces of clothing to sleep in? He was fiiiine.
Anyway, Cream called not long ago, inviting him to come over. Some eggs were expected to hatch today when Vanilla had a time-sensitive errand to run with Gemerl, and she didn’t want Cream to be all alone. Tails didn’t think hatching chao needed much supervision—or Cream for that matter, but Vanilla was weirdly protective—except he had nothing better to do today, so why not?
The green polka-dotted egg shook violently. Tails startled and leaned closer. Was he supposed to help? Tap on the shell to let the chao know they weren’t alone? He snuck a glance toward Cream—
“Chao.”
Tails snapped back, alarmed at how quiet the voice was. The chao was lying face down in the top half of their shell, like it had taken a running leap. Worried that it hurt itself, Tails gently scooped the chao up and cradled it against his chest.
It was a “neutral” type that seemed smaller than usual. Or maybe that was normal? Its body was mostly bright green that faded into peach on its arms and legs. There were also two pink protrusions on the sides of its head that almost looked like flowers.
“Aww, what a cutie!” Cream said. She held up a larger chao that was blue and white. “This is Daisy, because the top of their head looks like a daisy!”
Oh, was he also supposed to name it? Tails glanced down at the chao who stared up at him with trusting blue eyes. “Um . . . “ For some reason the only flower that came to mind was “rose” but it didn’t feel right for someone who was mostly green. Quick, what other flowers were there?!
“Cosmo!” he blurted.
“Ooo, I like it.” Cream leaned closer. “What do you think, Cosmo?”
The chao hmm’d softly, then lifted its little arms to clutch at Tails’ fur in a hug. “Chao, chao!” There wasn’t much force behind the hug, but after two weeks of only himself for company . . . Tails felt something warm settle in his chest.
"It's nice to meet you, Cosmo," Tails said softly. "My name is Tails." Cosmo chirped happily and their pink emote ball turned into a heart.
Unable to trust his voice at the moment, Tails pulled Cosmo in close, nuzzled the side of its head, and tried to ignore the wetness in his eyes.
My parents have an impressive VHS collection, and I thought I'd show how well-loved this movie was by my younger self. I'm pretty sure it's one of (if not THE) first movies for kids my parents bought.
I'm a day early, but it's been a year since my return to tumblr. 🎉 I've made some great new friends and while I can count the number of old friends who are still here on one hand, it's been wonderful seeing you all as well! 💖💖💖
Apologies for the lack of writing content, but that's because my Sonic Big Bang fic is due at the end of this month. I have a few small holes to plug before I can do any minor editing/embellishing, but it's practically done. I can't wait to share it with all of you at the end of June!! It may come as no surprise that it's a multi-chaptered fic, so I'll be posting a chapter a week. The artists I'm paired with are amazing and I can't wait to share their stuff as well!
Sadly, I wasn't able to update my NBNBR fic in April like I planned. The one-year anniversary was the 30th, which means I've only posted 2 chapters in a year, but to be fair to myself — it's 21K words, so I guess with average chapter lengths it's kind of more like 4 chapters? Whatever. I'm absolutely going to finish it, don't you worry. I've got too many plans for the M'n'M trio once they make it to Green Hill to not! I'll likely be able to work on it in between polishing my STHBB fic, so stay tuned~
While media on Earth is full of anthropomorphic animals as main characters, Tom and Maddie want to give their boys a chance to not feel like aliens. To do this, they ask Tails to set them up with the mobian version of IMDB. The two of them spend hours curating a list of mobian-made movies and TV shows to watch, while paying close attention to anything potentially triggering for their kids. Tails downloads their choices, and the family of five (plus Ozzie!) have new favorites for movie nights.
The Freedom Fighters
Their favorite TV show is about a group of young mobians who band together to fight the evil tyrant Dr. Julian (tabby cat), with his right hand man Simon (black-furred goat) and incompetent lackeys Scratch and Grounder (rooster and mole mobians respectively). Among the Freedom Fighters is the chipmunk Princess Sally (Sonic's favorite), a tech whiz walrus named Rotor (Tails' favorite), a rabbit with cybernetic enhancements named Bunnie (Knuckles' favorite), a coyote fighter named Antoine, and an AI lynx named Nicole. While the Freedom Fighters each possess unique skills on their own, they sometimes use "Power Rings" to gain temporary magical abilities. Dr. Julian wishes to roboticize the world, and the Wachowski family is silently grateful that Eggman never tried anything like that.
The Rise of Enerjak
It's a cartoon since there weren't any echidnas to make a live action movie, but according to the mobian IMDB it's believed to be one of the most realistic portrayals of echidna culture, which is why Tom and Maddie added it to the list. This tells the story of Enerjak, an echidna who was given the chance to ascend to a being made entirely of chaos energy, but he became corrupted during the process. He was too powerful to be fully killed, so his spirit was split into pieces and scattered. The movie is centered around Dimitri and his girlfriend Julie-Su, 200 years after Enerjak was defeated. Dimitri becomes an unwilling host to Enerjak, but with the help of Julie-Su and their friends, they manage to seal Enerjak away and free Dimitri.
Extreme Gear: Grand Prix
As best as Tom and Maddie can determine, this is essentially a mobian sports movie, and whether it's based on real events or not is anyone's guess. What's important is the boys love it! The story is centered around two teams: the Diamond Cutters (Tangle, Whisper, and Lanolin) and their rivals the Babylon Rogues (Jet, Wave, and Storm). Tails is obsessed with the idea of Extreme Gear and sets about inventing some of his own, refusing to access schematics as a personal challenge. Tom and Maddie have to discipline Tails and force him to take breaks. Eventually he succeeds, and everyone gets their own personal Extreme Gear. The ones made for Tom and Maddie closely resembles the solar surfer from Treasure Planet, since their center of gravity is different from a mobian.
