was thinking of shipkids and remembered this one AfterDream shipkid I made and never posted, since I also wanted to draw the tween, teen, and adult versions of them too. So have the baby since that’s all I have rn
Their “legal” name is Copperplate, after their font, but they’re also called Apple :)
since they’re hands are behind their back here, I’ll just say that their hands are just normal, tiny skeleton hands. Their sleeves go to around their wrists.
Some design notes and Lore under the cut(long):
I based them after Dream being associated with a more golden color, like with his crown, being yellow, etc, and Geno being associated with blood -> which has also a coppery taste to it. So! Apple was designed with the concept of “copper” in mind. They ended up with a lot of fall/autumn colors because of that.
I also pictured them being a boy scout(or uh. kid scout)/having scout vibes. They’ll actually be a boy/kid scout in their tweens, but fresh after their creation, they’re just an adventurous little kid. They really like wandering around—less so climbing trees and eating rocks or whatever. Although Cousin Frisk(Aftertale!Frisk) definitely encourages the later kind of behavior lol.
And when Apple becomes an adult(or more like, 16), they work as a baker!
Apple can sense emotions, but can’t really influence them the same way Dream or Nightmare can. I’ll elaborate at the end since it’s kinda gross…
I really thought naming them “Apple” would be funny, but I couldn’t think of a reason as to why their parents would ever name them that. I have some Lore Thoughts about skeleton names, and how they’re all named after the fonts they’re born with. If you change your font, you also tend to change your name—like that’s the same thing for skeletons. Although, for Geno, I think of him maybe changing his font to Comic Neue so that he and Sans don’t share a font but are still “the comic twins” or something. He still goes by Geno, he’s just a bit weird like that(weird in relation to normal skeleton-monster naming conventions).
So Geno(or the specific Geno variant I have in mind while shipping these two, Genome, but that’s lore for another day) and Dream wait for Apple’s first word/words to give a name to them. This is happening right after Gaster helped make the kid’s vessel.
you see, right after Apple came to be, they were a little spirit, and a little accident too(science-experiment related accident), so the parents panicked pretty hard and when into a save screen so the baby spirit wouldn’t immediately die. Although after actually getting to the save screen, Geno did consider just letting that happen, since neither he nor Dream wanted a child. They weren’t even together romantically, they’re only friends. He doesn’t tell Dream this, though.
Then Aftertale!Gaster(based on CPAU Gaster a bit, so his personality is Strange) shows up—they weren’t even in Aftertale, he got in through the Void—and fawns over his new grandchild. Then almost immediately runs off to make a “Vessel Maker” for the kid so that they can actually survive. Geno apologized for his father’s actions, but Dream laughs it off. Dream asked if he wants a kid, this kid, and Geno deflected by asking the same thing back.
Dream wasn’t entirely sure, but…the kid now existed, and it felt…wrong to him, personally, to let them die off now. But, if Geno wanted to, he’d be okay with letting this new soul pass away in peace, before it was really conscious. So basically, if he wanted to go with a spirit abortion. Spirits like Apple or the Dreamtale twins aren’t really “alive” until they have a vessel, and they’ll simply dissipate if left unhoused.
The parents could easily make another spirit…if they knew exactly how they created Apple. It’s harder for a guardian spirit and NOT THAT to make a child then a guardian spirit in their own, and it takes a lot of energy from the guardian spirit either way. Geno could tell that Dream was exhausted, and he seemed to actually want the kid. Gaster was being annoying about this already, and you know, Geno basically already had some child raising experience with Papyrus, surely a little spirit child would be easier to raise, especially with Dream’s—and likely the rest of Geno’s family’s—help.
So Geno basically ending up saying, “fuck it, sure, but you’re helping,” which Dream obviously agreed to. It’s his kid too!
When Gaster came back, he basically had set up his own version of the Deltarune Vessel/Goner Maker, just with skeleton parts he “happened to get a hold of somewhere.”
And after the new “couple” created the child’s vessel(who had far more boring and grey clothes on), Dream was thinking about what they should name them. Geno wanted to go with the reliable “wait for the first word” approach I mentioned earlier, which Dream agreed to. Then Gaster piped up with the idea of naming the kid “Apple.”
Copperplate’s first word was then “Apple.” Clearly, it was fate. …or just Gaster’s intervention. The child goes by both name, now.
Apple actually likes to eat apples, it’s one of their favorite foods! …which isn’t too great since Dream doesn’t like seeing others eat apples, given the state of his soul—and just his general apple-related trauma. So when Apple’s like, a tween-to-teenish, they sneak off to eat apples and apple related products like the apples are like. Drugs. They do under the table apple dealing with Cousin Frisk or something. An apple for a fistful of Twizzlers or something lol. I’d say that’s being a good influence.
Thanks for reading all this! I have a bit more to share, but uh, it has to do with gross blood stuff. So just stop reading if you don’t like that xD
Apple bleeds a lot. A lot. When they get a paper cut, a crap ton of blood floods out for such a tiny cut. They just have 1) a lot of blood(thanks geno!), and 2) a really good healing factor(thanks dream!). They also have chronic nose bleeds, which are mostly harmless, save for any bystanders emotional distress.
When Apple bakes(and when they’re outside occasionally), they wear a mask so that they won’t accidentally bleed over everything. Sometimes, though, they do intentionally use their blood as a baking ingredient. It’s like a slightly diluted version of pig’s blood, diluted with PURE POSITIVITY. Eating these blood-filled treats will make you feel more positive, and technically the Dreamtale twins can do something similar to that. Dream can’t just freely bleed like his kid, and Corrupted!Nightmare’s goop is too thick to make it into food(although the goop itself can be eaten, but it taste like, well, rotten apple).
Apple’s blood tastes like regular blood, but with a tinge of Fuji apple taste(sweet). Their blood-filled(not really) foods also heal a whole lot! They also tend to just use their blood Straight Up sometimes if someone really needs help. They will feed you their blood. They aren’t too great at regular healing magic, mainly because they don’t use it much, not because they weren’t taught how to(Dream made sure that they knew how to).
Man, I really need to draw their adult version. After I’m done with all my Dusttale stuff I’ll try and whip up a ref—hopefully before ArtFight 😅 but yeah, that’s all!
