Cheeseball

Species/Type

Fennec Fox

First Appearance

Volume: 1

Part: 1

Chapter: 3

TL;DR

A sonic-powered engineer mutated by the Atomic Heart Engine, Cheeseball rebuilds what chaos destroys using sound, ingenuity, and raw creativity.

Cheeseball — Original

Creative, curious, and endlessly tinkering, Cheeseball had a knack for taking broken things apart—and occasionally putting them back together.

Cheeseball — Post-Mutation

After the Engine’s detonation, sound became her medium. Cheeseball channels sonic force to build, repair, and sometimes weaponize innovation, becoming both engineer and savior in the chaos that followed.

Backstory

Cheeseball was never supposed to be anywhere near the Wyoming Basin. As a fennec fox, her natural home should have been deserts half a world away, where wide sand dunes and dry winds shaped the rhythm of life. Instead, her path to Sunrise Sanctuary came through a far stranger and more fortunate chain of events. She had been part of a small educational wildlife program that traveled between universities and conservation events, helping people learn about rare and unusual animals. The program was well intentioned and run by people who genuinely cared about the animals in their charge, but over time it became clear that the quiet, sensitive fox would do better in a place with more space and fewer crowds. Cheeseball had never been unhappy, but she was easily overwhelmed by constant movement, unfamiliar environments, and the steady stream of curious humans who always wanted to get a closer look at her enormous ears and delicate frame. When the opportunity arose to relocate her to Sunrise Sanctuary—somewhere open, peaceful, and designed for animals to simply live rather than perform—it felt like the perfect solution.

From the moment she arrived, Cheeseball seemed to sense that Sunrise was different. The wide fields, the quiet evenings, and the slow rhythm of the land suited her in ways she had never quite experienced before. She explored carefully at first, moving lightly along the edges of paths and shaded spaces, observing the sanctuary the way a naturally cautious creature does. While she was timid around loud activity, there was a quiet boldness in her personality that emerged once she felt comfortable. Cheeseball was curious about everything—the animals, the structures, the strange routines of the humans who worked there.

One of the things that fascinated her most, however, was sound.

Unlike many animals who avoided unfamiliar noise, Cheeseball became deeply interested in the music that occasionally drifted through the sanctuary from Renji’s small cabin or the workshop areas where radios were sometimes left playing. At first she simply listened from a distance, ears twitching as different rhythms and tones filled the air. But when she heard electric guitar for the first time, something about it immediately captured her attention. The sharp, distorted growl of the instrument, the powerful rhythm of drums, and the raw energy of heavy metal and punk music felt strangely exciting to her. The sounds vibrated through the wood of the buildings and the ground beneath her paws in a way she found mesmerizing.

Before long, Cheeseball began quietly appearing near wherever the music was playing.

She would sit at the edge of the porch when Renji worked late with a radio nearby, or curl up beside a window where the sounds drifted out into the evening air. The guitars fascinated her most—the way the notes bent and roared through amplifiers, the quick bursts of chaotic energy that somehow still felt organized and alive. To Cheeseball it sounded like a kind of language, one she didn’t fully understand but instinctively appreciated.

Though she remained somewhat shy around most of the sanctuary’s inhabitants, the music became a bridge that helped her connect with the world around her. Over time she grew comfortable enough to sit openly nearby while songs played, occasionally tilting her head or flicking her oversized ears as if trying to follow the structure of the sound. Her quiet presence during those moments became something of a small, charming mystery among the sanctuary’s residents.

Cheeseball herself never seemed particularly concerned with explaining it. She simply loved the music.

Despite her delicate size and cautious nature, there was a spark of boldness inside her that emerged whenever those guitars began to scream through the speakers. It was as if the music gave her confidence, allowing her to step slightly further into the world around her. In a sanctuary filled with larger personalities, ancient watchers, and chaotic energy, Cheeseball brought something different—a quiet appreciation for sound, rhythm, and the strange joy of electric noise echoing across the Wyoming evening.

And whenever the first heavy chord rang out across the sanctuary grounds, there was a very good chance that somewhere nearby, just out of sight, a small fennec fox with enormous ears was listening very carefully.