#skeleask

I wanted to wait until Mimic's story ended before answering this but his story has seemingly ended so here we are.

Mimic is a great character that the writers didn't really know how to use nor did the format he was in allow his character to work as well as he could. His design, his backstory, his character it's all amazing but him being a shapeshifter seemed to be the problem.

An imposter plot is always a difficult thing to pull off. Have it be too short and the audience will wonder what the hell the point was, but have it too long and it can be one of the most frustrating things ever for an audience. Mimic was the second one. His arc went on way too long. This problem was heavily compounded with how slowly these issues come out and how short they are compared to other comics. For nearly two years we had him turn this fandom more feral than usual because the writers maybe realized too late that it would be super easy for the heroes to figure out Duo is Mimic so they create an idiot plot in #64. They succeeded with flying colors in making the audience hate Mimic at the cost of turning much of the fan base against Lanolin, something they should have realized was going to happen when they made a relatively new character, who despite being the most rational person in the room, opposed two fan favorites; Silver and Whisper.

its just a sketch so far and nothing that scandalous lmao

but here's a sneak peak...

keep up the awesome work and bringing such cool art into the world 🫶🏼 you make my days :DD

It really is because they are basically a potential power couple that's been disillusioned by the whole situation. Surge sees the whole conflict from a villain point of view thanks to Starline pointing out the whole cyclical nature of it all (and the brainwashing). While Lanolin sees it from the hero point of view after constantly seeing Sonic treat everything as a game while also being a complete loose cannon.

There are a number of reasons

I really like both characters and resonate with them both.

Both of them desire some level of change of the status quo which adds a fascinating dynamic

I've long have had a penchant for ships where the characters are very different from each other. That despite having almost nothing in common they bring out the best in each other along with other hidden qualities.

It's for an AU, but basically Surge and Kit don't join the Restoration, Lanolin doesn't take the Phantom Rider and Clean Sweeps Arc shenanigans very well, and ends up crashing out on a criminal.

Now Lanolin is being chased by the law, and finds herself forced to ally herself with the Imposter Duo, believing that is the only way to make any significant difference in the Eggman Empire conflict.

Surge lets her join, partly because she wants to get a rise out of "having swept off one of Sonic's simps to her side", partly because of a subconscious desire to form a "real" connection (because Kit is literally programed to be her lackey)... And partly because of the big titties.

Those are the essentials of my setup. Their relationship would be more of a slow enemies to lovers rather than what you went for in your AU. And I already planned events where they reveal their vulnerabilities, they grow closer, some heavy setbacks in the relationship, etc.

My main problem would be the first days with them together. Obviously there would be tension and discussions (both of them being incredibly stubborn), but I can't find that "crack". That moment where they see they start to try truly collaborating with each other and see "something" in there.

Any tips that you can give me?

I'll gladly help you! Surge and Lanolin are both characters who desire to see a change in the cycle they see the world has been stuck in for a while. Eggman threatens the world, Sonic sends him packing and then Eggman returns and Sonic beats him once again. The Sonic Cycle as coined by Starline. Both of them are thoroughly sick of this and unlike seemingly everyone else they want to do something about it. Another thing is that actions speak louder than words to them and they've been let down by people they trusted. Given these facts and the details of your au, one solution I see is this: Have Lanolin take a hit meant for Surge.

All Surge's life she's been dealing with people abusing her and spouting their beliefs at her. The only person she's been able to rely on is literally programmed to obey her. So having someone fully willing to spare her pain, even if it's completely unnecessary, would go a long way. Then it could cut to Surge going ballistic on the people who hurt Lanolin and her promptly panicking trying to heal the first person other than Kit to give a damn about her.

On Lanolins end she could a catch a moment of Surge being very kind and sister-like to Kit when she thinks no one is watching. Showing that despite all her attitude and rage, there's a good person in there.

But he had no reason to lie. So there’s the worse option, that he not only erased who they used to be, but utterly destroyed any trace of them.

And if they had families, did he kill them?

I wouldn't put it past Starline, being the perfectionist he is, to not only make absolutely sure there isn't a trail that leads back to him but to also to kill some people's parents just so he could have the perfect subjects. But the main obstacle to them having families theory is the can of worms it opens if it were to be true.

Where the hell are everyone else's parents?

It would be a weird plot point because it expects the audience to be shocked about the absence of parents when just about the entire IDW cast don't have any parents active in their lives with the exception of Cream.

And I guess Jet?!?

It gets weirder if you consider that Tangle and Jewel were childhood friends. Who was taking care of them? Were they orphans or had their parents not died yet?

To make things worse, the opportunity to organically introduce the cast's parents has long since passed.

Why? The Metal Virus is why.

Nearly the entire planet got subsumed by the virus. By the end the only organics left seemed to be on Angel Island. If there were parents wouldn't have all of them done everything in their power to make sure they were safe? It can't even be said the writers didn't think of this because of the Cream and Vanilla subplot.

In short, if there was an opportunity to introduce people's parents, it was then.

Why the writers haven't addressed this is anyone's guess. Maybe they don't think it's important or maybe something was proposed but was shot down by the higher ups who want to keep as much distance between them and the Archie Comics (where much of the cast have parents alive and active in the story) because of goddamn Ken Penders.

This makes sense with the OG cast, I can completely understand not wanting to traverse that legal minefield. The thing is that the same problem with Surge and Kit's parentage extends to the IDW original cast. It would also be kinda weird looking if the IDW cast got parents but the OG cast didn't.

This has been a really long way of saying It's a fun idea but I doubt we're gonna learn anything about their, or any of the casts for that matter, parents.