A few references! (A wip because I got distracted lmao--)
I snatched a few of these from a magma with @oodlesndoodles (I took out Kale if only because I *was* planning on rendering before my distraction) but this doodle features Pretender!Sans, Paps, Gaster, Alphys, and Grillby in their monster forms!
(More rambles under the cut)
Design Choices!:
Sans: He's been underground for a long time but used to live on the surface. I imagine he *does* have the iconic Sans outfit somewhere, but right now he wears robes like the King and Queen used to. (He recieved them when he was appointed Judge by Asgore, but no one really knows their significance because only the Guard and Asgore know of his work.)
Paps: Chose his outfit mostly to match Pretender amd the Guard. His shoulder-pads are like old crystal ball props, and his cape had the same sparke affect as Pretender's hood/robes. Around his waist he wears one of the old lab coats Sans leaves around the house. (<- It belonged to one of Sans' favorite people, the one Paps tries to mimic, so he wears it now instead.) Paps has the markings on his face same as Gaster because Sans has a lot of photos from over the years hung on the walls in his room, and Paps used to see them a lot.
Gaster: He's deceased, so the current plot doesn't see him (he can't interact with K, unfortunately. I think they would've been friends if they'd met in Gaster's prime) but I still wanted to doodle him. This was how he looked towards the end of his life, when most of the lab team had passed and he was starting to fall down. He wore cardigans and sweaters, focusing mostly on comfort rather than safety (he was always cold, but especially so towards the end).
Alphys: Went a bit crazy after Gaster passed. She hadn't been eating for a long time, and she couldn't bring herself to leave the lab, even after Sans retired his studies and moved to Snowdin. She still wears her old lab coat, stained and ripped, and she's worse-off for it. Most who see her think she's a rabid animal that has taken a spot in the labs, cameras abandoned and traps scattered in the lab waiting for prey to fall into them. It's an unsafe zone. Any humans who manage to pass Undyne *always* fall to Alphys.
Grillby: Back to fun times!!! He's a short king (at least coming in at around 5'6" which is small compared to other boss monsters, but big compared to merchants) and still runs his restaurant in Snowdin. Though, it's usually empty these days since he doesn't exactly have much food to serve. And water? He doesn't touch the stuff. Sans goes there often just to keep Grillby company. Most monsters, even if they do see a human enter, won't bother attacking because they know Grillby gets first dibs. Grillby would rather not get blood on his nice counters, though. He wears a vest and button-up with symbols like Pretender's, but otherwise is fairly unchanged from canon.
Extra Notes:
-Alphys and Sans aren't on speaking terms any longer. After Sans gave up the project, Alphys became manic and fell into despair, deciding that she'd do everything herself. Sans tried to see her a few times after that before be realized she'd gone off the deep-end and he only dared to be nearby when Asgore needed him.
-I now believe that MTT would be a positive force for humans. A ghost-monster who wanted to look human, to see if they could pass the barrier. Alphys was in charge of the project before Gaster passed, and constructed a surprisingly sturdy human-like body. It was never tested against the barrier. Now MTT tries to stay by Alphys, even in her madness. He tries to help people by reminding them how humans look, act, and talk, with his show. He helps people who get caught by Alphys' traps. (Gotta talk to Ood, but I'm thinking that Pretender wasn't fast enough to help K on her first time through the lab. It was actually MTT who moved her out of immediate danger before stalling Alphys? Unsure.)
-Grillby likes the taste of human, but there are certain unspoken rules he works by, like other shopkeeps. For him, as long as you pay your bill and follow his one rule (no water (tears do not count as water)) then you're free from his harvest. If a human came in looking for shelter, he'd leave them be.
-Gaster was a brilliant mind, and Pretender took a lot of influences from him over the years. Despite his death, his image and memory lives on in the mannerisms and knowledge of those who knew him. In the grief left in his shadow. In the young skeleton who imitates him partially every day because he made his brother happy a long time ago.
she was a very.. interesting child before she fell down! Always close with her peers, hugging holding hands arms pinkies ect! Of course if you’re from america (I’m American but I know other countries have less of what we call a “bubble” of space between you and another person? We’re just very awkward people when it comes to touch ;^;) you know that even this type of hands on isn’t allowed in schools, you’re suppose to lee your hands or yourself! The teachers were lose when it came to Kale though, do to not having any other reason to yell at her. She’s, to put mildly, a bit of a teachers pet. Teased by her peers for that and her mother, who before the fall wasn’t the greatest.
Thus letting her child wander UP A MOUNTAIN.(kale why you gotta walk so far 😭😭) and She was picking flowers for her mother! A hope that her mom would “act like a mom” to our little kale. Who’s becoming more self aware that her mothers parenting is more laid back and non contact then her friends. (If asked, her father is out of the picture due to illness)
the early teenager slips and falls down into mt. ebbot, of course she assumes that during her rather long fall that she will not survive this, I mean she was in the air for half a minute. It was a BIG FALL. She landed on a bed of yellow flowers, some thorns prodding Kale through her clothes.
After a few minutes on the ground, a small child greets and helps her up(flowey >:-) yeah that’s right spot.. you and that one magma gave me an idea for flowey) The child makes sure she’s okay before the run down of, soul, LV, monsters, and the well known quote “it’s killed or be killed” this spooks our little K, she makes it all uncomfortable when she starts bawling her eyes out.
Flowey is unpleased but offers the girl help, to just take one of their “monster candy” (a lie for her to touch a pellet!!) she does and it hurts, being a weak non LV hungry human. Her HP only reached to a maximum of 40.
Kale goes to run but is met with a flower, had the child sticking out of the flower. She screamed and scrambled away. And slowly but surely we get flowey. Then our queen Toriel will save our small human!!
Jae stays with Tori for months, growing attached to the mother figure she always wanted. Soon she gets curious and snoops around, reading a bit too much of some notes in toriel’s room. Toriel has taken notes on how to look more like Kale’s mother.
Kale didn’t want that, she didn’t need to see her mother ever again. She gets scared and runs down the ruins to escape. (Barely) dodging fire attacks along the way as she bolts to the large doors. Just squeezing through before scrambling through the snow.
At this point she reaches snowdin! Slowly wandering her way through the snowy forest. After some walking, she meets pretender and the “don’t you know how to greet a pal” when kale turned around, she was a very very extra wet cat looking human. I assume pretender had very little faith that she’ll make it longer than the last human. Instead of taking his hand, she’s venting to this stranger about her life since she fell. He’s mildly confused busy just slowly walks with her back to his post. Where she continues her rant. Front here I’ll leave the story to spot! :-) I hope you enjoyed my little ramble.. I’ll make more longer into this au! It’s always in my brain anyway..
*It seems you managed to stumble across a unique trio...
Decided to do a silly lil doodle of my favorite Dopple-trio! :D on the surface I feel like this'd be a daily occurrence. Kale is the most normal of the 3 of them, but I wanted to draw her and Paps having a cute lil conversation. (More ideas below the cut!!!)
Pretender regularly interacts with humans (his disguise slowly recovers, and he continues to mostly abstain from his old habits) and usually appears as "human" as long as he's out. Sometimes in public I feel like ppl would be willing to talk to him, and he's always quick to make it clear that to get to his family people would have to get past him. (Also I think in their neighborhood/town everyone gets increasingly confused because he regularly goes, "Yeah, that's my Kid" some days abd other days he's like, "That's my little sibling" and it's just that he's her guardian and the terms are kinda interchangeable because it's easier to use them than explain the whole situation lol)
Pretender also has no sense of fashion. He's always so close to a neat outfit then takes the wrong turn before he exits his closet lol.
Paps stays in skeleton form (at least for the first few years) even tho it's dangerous, because his human disguise is awful and makes K uncomfortable. Instead he trains genuinely with Undyne and Tender to properly figure out a human shape over about 4 years. Eventually he does have a human disguise, but he's contented in his monster form too.
K I can't say a lot for (beloved @oodlesndoodles is who designed/owns her!) But I'm pretty certain that she'd probably still wear her one monster-style outfit sometimes if only to show her solidarity with her family, or just to mess with people on the streets 🙏
Also:
I love the idea that someone talking to them would take in this info and be like ???????
Last Notes: Human!Pretender is one of my favorite blorbos ever to doodle! His hair texture is probably the most satisfying thing ever! Paps keeps miraculously looking good for this AU??? I've never been able to draw Papyrus before??? Idk what changed, but I love him! And KALE! K my beloved I have struggled so hard to doodle her well and usually fail but I think I did it!!! I love her sm...
Hello @oodlesndoodles and @mylackofgrammaristerrifying I thought you guys might appreciate this thing I was doing:
A layer-guide for Pretender's usual outfit! (And a bonus outfit too-)
This applies to his Human/Gaseous forms too, the skeleton was just the easiest to figure out as a base lol-
His outfit is pretty heavy and thick (think old European royalty style) so it buts "weight" onto his figure when he adds them.
Along with that, his 1st Layer is what he used to wear when he worked in the lab sans the Lab Coat, so anything from that Era can be Layer 1 + Generic Lab Coat. It's thin and stretchy to match his shape-shifting, but he's rarely seen only wearing this unless he's with Paps, K, or someone else he actually trusts. Oh, and he uses it to train (fighting, shifting, etc).
Layer 2 isn't exactly seen on its own? I think if Pretender ever went for the typical "Sans Lazy Guy" thing this would be it tho. Just enough effort to throw on the jacket but not enough to put on his wraps overtop. It's the first heavy layer! It also has the Deltarune on the back of it, but it gets covered by the wraps later on.
Layer 3 is just some weird ribbon wraps secured by the belt (same with the train that drapes behind him). Sometimes he WILL sleep in the entire ensemble claiming he doesn't want to have to put the outfit hack on later. (Paps will sometimes do it for him.)
And then the Bonus is a Post-story/Surface outfit to give an idea of his fashion sense! (This is also AFTER K, MTT, and Blooky force him to go shopping properly and not just wear someone's old mothballed cardigans from the funeral home.) Baggy, thick, clothes are his jam for outdoor wear when he's just going out. Usually multiple layers, he's never without his gloves (or boots. MTT tried to get him to try other shoes but he refused) and a few jewelery pieces that remind him of people he cares about. Also he has a stupid hat that K jokingly offered him, but because it's a similar texture to his hood he actually got really attached. Plus he loves mortifying her by wearing it and doing the "Nya~" thing. Paps thinks it's really fun, and therefore Tender has -20 shame of the damn thing.
His usual outfit is the go-to, but he is *willing* to wear other clothes, especially if an occasion calls for it. He's awful on Halloween the first year he's on the surface. Goes full-out for costumes, and abuses his shifting so hardcore. (Kale, Paps, and MK had SO much candy that year. Pretender just seemed to disappear for a little 'walk' and said he stopped by some houses, y'know?)
