#mouseau

These first two pics are Cross and Killer. This mouse AU is based off of Sku's bitty borrowers AU. I don't want to keep taking all of Sku's ideas though, so this mouse AU branches off from Sku's beginning ideas. (Cross is a house mouse who's house burns down and he meets Killer in the woods)

I think that while Killer is trying to teach Cross how to survive through the winter, they encounter Dust, and he was also a house mouse (they can tell because he's wearing a hoodie). Then Cross would try to get help from Dust, since he clearly figured out how to survive winter.

Dust ^

Dust would be very unwilling to help (because his little brother didn't make it through their first winter in the wild, and that forever haunts him now). Cross would ask for advice, and he would tell him something like, "You want my advice? Go back to the bean houses. You won't survive one winter out here." Cross would be very distraught about that, especially since he doesn't know of any bean houses near by. Killer isn't going to give up so easily, however.

Being the annoying little rodent that he is, he would keep pestering Dust unrelentingly until he finally gives in and decides to help them just to get Killer to leave him alone XD

I think maybe Dust would warn them to stay out of a certain part of the forest. There's been a big rat roaming around, hunting and eating the mice there. This would be Horror. Maybe they would accidently stumble across Horror in the winter. Since all the mice are hidden away to hibernate through winter, Horror would have to move into other areas to hunt. This leads him to finding the little group of mice. Dust and Killer have a lot of experience evading predators, but Cross does not.

With Horror skulking around their area, winter gets a lot harder to endure. How will they look for food when there's a big rat just waiting for them to poke their little heads out?

//WARNING: blood and dead mouse past this point//

Some sketches of barn owl Sans in the MouseAU and a finished drawing.

I think he would enjoy watching the group of rodents. At first he tried to catch them to feed Paps, but when they managed to avoid him, they peaked his interest. No rodent has escaped his talons, since he was an owlets.

Paps (an owlet who isn't old enough to fly yet) gets angry with him for letting the rodents escape, knowing that his brother could catch them with ease, even if he missed them the first time.

I kind of want barn owl Sans to have a more realistic look (at least from the rodent group's perspective), so I followed a tutorial on YouTube to make the second drawing. Maybe when he's with Paps, he looks more simplified. The realistic look would make him seem more intimidating when he's around the rodents, and the simplified look would make him look cute and cuddly when he's with Paps.

My idea for Dream and Nightmare. I think they would be escaped lab rats. Nightmare's fur fell out due to experiments, but it's slowly growing back, so right now he's like a pinkish gray color. Once his fur grows back, he will be very dark, pretty much black. He's also blind in his right eye (also due to experiments)

Dust's first night in Killer and Cross' nest was probably pretty awkward, since he hasn't slept with other mice in a long time XD

The three little mice have to wait until Horror is sleeping somewhere before they can go out and look for food. They have some dried berries, nuts, and insects stored in Killer’s burrow, but with three mice to feed, it wont be enough. They need to go out and scavenge for anything edible.

One day while they’re out looking for food, Reaper (a raven) finds them. They try to get away by going through a brier patch, but Cross’s hood gets caught in the thorns. Reaper manages to catch up to them. He can’t go into the brier patch, but with him so close, he’ll catch them as soon as they try to leave. Since he can’t get them right away, he starts taunting them, “ah, little morsels gathering together to form a meal for me. How nice of you to save me the trouble of catching you one at a time.”

During the commotion, Horror wakes up from his nap and finds the tracks the little mouse group left and follows them. When he finds the group cornered in a brier patch and a raven waiting to snatch them up, he becomes angry. He’s waited for several days to catch this group, and at this point, he’s too hungry to give them up to some bird. Too hungry and angry to think of the consequences, Horror attacks Reaper. He manages to get a few bites and scratches in, since he attacked him from behind while he was distracted with the mice. While the two predators are fighting, the mice manage to get out of the thorns.

Unfortunately for Horror, Reaper is much stronger and manages to overpower him. He has the rat pinned to the ground, his talons sinking into his flesh, “well now since you’ve made me loose my lunch, you’ll make a fine replacement. A rat the size of 3 mice is a good trade.” Hearing the rat’s pained squeaks, Cross is reluctant to leave. He wants to go back and help, but Dust and Killer hold him back. Luring a badger away is one thing, but Reaper has flight on his side, so he’ll be much harder to get away from if they manage to get him to let the rat go.

Before Cross can do anything rash, a loud bang sounds in the forest – even Reaper startles at the sound. A hunter is near by. While Reaper is distracted, Horror bites his foot, making the bird release him. The rat lets out a growl, showing that he still has some fight left in him, but Reaper isn’t willing to stick around any longer with a hunter in the area. As the raven flies away, he calls to the rodents, “you were lucky this time, but one day that luck will run out. Death calls to everyone eventually.”

With the raven gone, Horror’s adrenaline fades, and he collapses in the snow. Everything is quiet now, so Cross cautiously approaches, much to Dust and Killer’s irritation. Killer hold onto Cross’s tail to prevent him from getting any closer to the rat. Now that he can see the state that Horror is in, bloody and trembling, Cross knows that even if Reaper doesn’t come back to finish him off, he won’t survive the winter with wounds that deep.

Cross gives a pleading look to Dust and Killer, wanting to help the poor rat, but they aren’t going to let the mouse get himself killed. Dust tells him coldly, “just leave him. Even if you did help him, he would just eat us anyway. Besides, it’s better this way. Now we don’t have to worry about him hunting us anymore.” With two against one, Cross has no choice but to leave Horror and follow the others back to the burrow. However, once Dust and Killer are asleep, Cross takes a few nuts and berries back to the rat. He knows the rat might be hostile towards him, so best to bring a peace offering.

Horror is still in the same spot where he left him, luckily Reaper didn’t come back for him. The rat growls when he hears the mouse approaching him, but when he puts a nut in front of his nose, he quickly quiets, snatching it up and eating it vigorously. Seeing this, Cross realizes that the rat hasn’t eaten in days. He wants to bring him back to the burrow where he’ll be safe and warm, but he’s too small to carry him, so Horror will have to move on his own. Using a dried berry, Cross beacons to the rat, asking him to follow and promising that there will be more food and a warm place to sleep as long as he doesn’t hurt him or the others. Horror doesn’t respond, but with the promise of food, he follows.

Once in the burrow, Horror immediately sniffs out their food stores and starts munching away all their food. Cross worries that he will eat it all, but how can he tell him to stop? Would he even listen if he tried? At least with the food distracting the rat, he’s able to get close enough to clean his wounds. Horror is hesitant to trust the mouse, but he gave him food and a safe and warm place to sleep…

“Horror…” Cross’s ears perk up when the rat spoke for the first time. He tilts his head in confusion, so the rat spoke again to clarify, “my name….is Horror.” Deciding that this would be enough to satisfy the mouse for now, Horror curled up in the nest to sleep.

Dust is furious with Cross when he wakes up to find a giant rat in their nest. How will they survive now that the rat has eaten their food and the nest is no longer safe? While Cross and Dust argue, Killer notices that the rat hasn’t woken up despite how noisy the two mice are being. He cautiously boops his nose. When Horror doesn’t even twitch, Killer concludes that he must’ve gone into hibernation. He tells Dust that he won’t be waking up until the snow melts, so the nest will still be safe.

Welcome to AU’s nobody cares about where Lucas stays up until 4am streaming smash bros and his fanbase turn him into a frog cryptid with a flower crown, because he got excited that there’s tadpoles in his garden pond where he does all his gardening.