H'lo!
With 2025 winding down and the new year just around the corner, now was the time I felt to take a step back and look at some of the things about this year that happened and reflect on them.
Namely, Laik the Wolf and the Crossworld Traveler series. I'm going to break down each subject I want to talk about into smaller sections for better cohesiveness and organization purposes.
So, without further adieu…
My return to the Sonic the Hedgehog series
This hadn't been something I expected. Like, ever. I had a falling out with the series years ago, around the Wii era and just never recovered for that. I had played and enjoyed (immensely) Sonic Unleashed on the PS3, but I jut kinda ignored the series for the longest time after that despite Sonic, along with Mega Man, being two of the three consistent characters during my childhood.
So I played Sonic Frontiers on my Steam Deck last year as Hurricane Helene absolutely ripped a new one in my state and I found myself legit enjoying it, despite all the hallmark jank that Sonic Team has made part of their image ever since going 3D. It hadn't been the turning point for the rekindling, but served as a spark.
It was the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie and my picking up the IDW comics on a whim that turned that spark into a world-razing fire that skyrocketed Sonic the Hedgehog straight to the top of interests for me, and it has nearly been a year now and that feeling has not wavered.
In that time, I've amassed a huge collection of both 2 inch and 4 inch Jakks figures. All of the hardcover omnibus IDW collections. Various articles of clothing, accessories, the missing Switch-era games aaaaand just about every TV series currently available on blu-ray or DVD.
It's been nice actually submerging myself in a fandom community again, with my making some new acquaintances and connections along the way, which is the perfect segway into…
Laik the Wolf
Where do I even begin with my mascot character? Originally beginning life as a simple conversion of my (then) fursona, Advrik Drahcir into a Sonic-styled OC, Laik's existence snowballed shortly after that and began to take a life of his own on. His design changed drastically, taking on a mew native Mobian look versus "This guy looks like this when drawn using Sega's Sonic rulebook".
And really, what can I say about my little guy that I haven't already said numerous times over the last several months? I love this character to absolute death as he embodies absolutely everything that I have been striving toward these past several years in my character creation hustle. He's more than just a Sonic the Hedgehog OC, and while he(and his friends) have the appearance of something out of Sega's flagship series, their reach goes far beyond that.
Sonic OCs in Name Only, is the best way to describe them currently.
The Crossworlds Traveler Series
So here's something. Laik & Co. Hadn't originally been invisioned as replacements for Advrik and his unruly band in Last Tail, which had already gone on hiatus earlier this year due to a lack of interest in the characters and the world I'd created during a dark period in my life.
It was a world I didn't want to play in anymore and was lacking a lot of elements that I liked to play with; It was very dank, critical of everything and depressing. It honestly took too much from the oppressive, naricssistic material Vivziepop and Spindlehorse were/are putting out, and I wasn't liking that. That wasn't me, nor was it the type of material I wanted to be writing or have associated with my person.
So with the steadily intensifiying interest in Sonic once again, the amusing concept of crossovers being a thing in the (then) upcoming Sonic CrossWorlds Racing game, I began to brainstorm something new; Something that would be all encompassing of all my previous works, bringing together elements from Secret of Memoria and Last Tail, trimming the fat, and creating something using Sonic the Hedgehog and crossovers as the framework.
Thus, Crossworlds Traveler, or simply 'The Crossworld Series' was born.
Yeah, who would have guessed a racing game with Sonic, the Yakuza guys and Spongebob would have acted as the kindling that would ignite my biggest and probably best written project yet?
Currently, the overall Crossworlds series sits at 148,661 words, and that's including the side/deep-diving stuff in the form of DAYLIFE. The main cast consists of eight original characters, all with ties to canon characters in some way, and I want to go over each of them here next.
Athena the Otter/Caspian the Wisp
The second character introduced to my world. She comes from a well-off family in Soleanna. A bit ditzy, but well-intentioned. She's intelligent but one wouldn't exactly expect that when talking with her. She came to Central City in search of Laik after being fed some information about his ability to travel to other worlds; Her goal to go with him, bring back a new species of fish from one of these worlds and make a name for herself in the marine biology field she went to college for.
Currently, Athena is living in Eclair the Rabbit's apartment building in Memoria Village, located in the Brick Hedge Zone. Her character arc has stalled for the time being.
Root the Cicada
The third and originally planned final party member in Laik's crew. Root came about after the real life cicada emergence this year inspired me. I love insect-based Mobians, and cicadas are like my favorite bugs, so it only felt natural.
Root's a trouble child, constantly fighting with the death and destruction he'd witnessed in his young life during the Egg Empire War. It has turned him into a sometimes bitter, perverted child who has aged well beyond his ears; This constantly conflicts with his wanting to just act his age and be a kid, something Laik and crew encourage greatly.
Root's character arc is an ongoing thing involving Lanolin and the Restoration, as it was the Resistance fault that Root ended up like he did.
Raiza the Cat
Originally intended as the romantic partner for Laik, Raiza quickly developed into something bigger than that; With shy, timid personality(coded only), she posesses a unique ability to sing in voices that aren't her own, while also hearing songs and melodies from "other worlds". Her reasons for joining Laik are still unclear, but appear to be related to her own odd, almost Phantom Ruby-based abilities.
As of the time of writing this article, she is currently going through her first character arc.
Balsam the Bison
The muscle of the group and another one with a kinda sad backstory. Partly inspired by the story I had concocted for Desmond Mogu in Last Tail, Balsam was more or less thrown out of his family home and encouraged to go out into Mobius and find something for himself.
I didn't want Balsam to just be the meathead of the group because I like bucking expectations. That said, he can be a bit slow on the uptake, but he's a very caring father-figure in the group that will rip Badniks apart with his bare hands.
Eclair the Rabbit
Ahh, now here's an interesting one. Eclair is a product of the times. An influencer, an internet celebrity, what have you. She's short, ill-tempered and has a lot of money and power (via an army of rabid fans). I wanted Eclair to have some substance besides being the eye candy fan service character, but I've yet to finalize how that will materialize in the future beyond supplying the rest of the cast with a place to call home.
Sevii the Fox
My girl. My head girl and my love, err, Laik's love, eventually. Sevii was the character I both wanted to make and did not want to make, because I knew as soon as I did, she'd get all my attention. Inspired by Tifa Lockhart and Diane Foxington, Sevii is another face out of the Azure Lake Zone and a black belt in Wing Chun kung-fu, same as Laik. She's athletic, well-mannered thanks to her training under Master Yip, and strong.
Her reasons for finding Laik are enshrouded in mystery, as neither he nor Sevii ever remembers training together under Master Yip, yet the two were in the same classes and even appear in photos together.
Renfri Loveless the Maned Wolf
Ren has a heck of a lot going on that hasn't been put out publicly yet as I'm waiting for the right time to actually post her solo chapters. The few times she appears in the ongoing only convey enough to vaguely hint at what's going with her behind-the-scenes, but I like to think I haven't been too vague or obvious one way or the other with her.
TRAVELER NO. 8: Codename: "Corv"
New guy coming soon. Design heavily inspired by The Guyver. He's a raven, and that's all I'm divulging.
Infinite the Jackal (Spoilers!)
At this point in the story, Infinite has briefly died and then revived by the four Master Generals (Bowser, Azala, Sigma and ???). He's shed the mask and the reliance on the Phantom Ruby and has regained a significant amount of muscle mass and additional strength.
As it stands, he is sitting idly by while the last pages of the Necronomicon are collected by the Generals, which when gathered, will grant him the passage to summoning Cthulhu and bringing about the end of existence— Should Laik and the Crossworld Travelers fail, that is.
Lanolin the Sheep (Spoilers!)
As the story has progressed and moved away from heavy use of canon faces, so did the once planned romance between Laik and Lanolin; something that will still exist in art and stuff, but for the purpose of my story, I'd rather such tropes be between original characters and not the work of others — Thus the return of Lanolin to her commandeering personality following the Riverside incident with Laik and the Whurwilf.
As of the time of this writing, she is in possession of five of the Chaos Emeralds that Laik has found while traveling off-world.
The Setting
Following the Mushroom Kingdom arc of season 2, I introduced the Brick Hedge Zone to the world of Mobius; located to the northeast of Central City, named for the red, brick-like lava rock that formed the many mountains and hedge-like protrusions that run along the cliffs. But more importantly as far as its name goes is the fact that Brick Hedge Zone is named after the central town in my previous project 'Last Tail', which took place in Brickhedge(which is also the name of my Animal Crossing Horizons town), located (somehwere) USA!
But wait, it gets deeper than that, for in the Brick Hedge Zone, located high atop the tallest platueu in the zone, is the small village town of Memoria; home of Eclair, who lives in a remodeled apartment building that her great grandparents had once maintained. The name 'Memoria' comes from the first huge writing project I took on that had fallen apart due to mismanagement, titled 'Secret of Memoria', again the town at the center of it all was called Memoria.
Now, with my own zone and small village acting as characters of themselves within my Sonic AU, my cast have a place to call home that allows me to tell the sort of stories I'd have to otherwise contort my mind and intentions to tell if I kept everyone in Central City.
Fan-fiction this still is, but I want to contribute my own elements to the Sonic the Hedgehog universe as well while still playing with the toys it has given me.
The Future
With season 3 in its beginning phases and Raiza and Sevii being explored, the finish line is beginning to come into view for this specific plot line involving Infinite, the Necronomicon and Cthulhu. I would ideally like to wrap this up in less than ninety chapters total if possible, but I don't want to put that sort of restriction on myself for a multitude of reasons.
A lot of loose plot threads are going to be brought in and tied together soon, with some more being left hanging free for future ongoing storylines.
Finally, I have decided to cycle the title of the series down just a bit more and call it simply Crossworlds, or 'Laik & The Crossworlds' if I wanted get technical. But keeping it to a single word title looks neat while still making it clear what the heart of the story is, which is crossovers.
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