Tributaries is a pilot study exploring how virtual reality (VR) can become a space for musicking, belonging, and creative self-expression among autistic children. Grounded in community music and neurodiversity-affirming practice, the research asks how immersive technologies might invite new ways of being musical together—ways that honour sensory diversity, agency, and joy. The project takes its name from the image of converging rivers: individual streams of sound and imagination flowing toward a shared body of music-making. Within the VR environment, participants journey through three sonic pathways—Cove, Rapid, and Sea—each representing a distinct emotional and sensory landscape. Through gesture and exploration, children shape sound and space in real time, co-creating a musical world that reflects their unique ways of engaging and connecting. This pilot phase focuses on the lived experiences of participants as they navigate these virtual environments, using qualitative and phenomenological methods to understand the meanings they ascribe to their interactions. Rather than measuring outcomes, Tributaries seeks to listen—to learn how virtual musicking might expand our notions of community, participation, and inclusion. By situating this work at the intersection of community music and therapeutic practice, Tributaries suggests that VR, when guided by relational and humanistic intent, may offer new pathways toward belonging—spaces where autistic children’s musical voices can be felt, shared, and celebrated.