#this kris has so many issues but they are actually super lucky on the species front which is so funny to me.

[acaciapines]

please tell us how dess would approach kris’ species dysphoria & how she would teach him to deal with it. if she doesn’t just laugh awkwardly abt it and try to ignore it

actually!!! this is the one thing dess has going for her lol, i like to joke that in this au by losing their identity issues kris instead gains mommy issues. but basically, the big thing that even LEADS kris to all their identity issues in the first place is that when theyre like ten they find a book on humans in the library and realize them being a monster is a Lie, and around this time azzy is leaving for college, their parents are divorcing, dess has just gone missing, they're cutting themself off from noelle, and its this perfect storm for everything to go to absolute shit for kris. they lose their monster identity, everyone around them is trying to comfort them by saying 'its okay if youre human we still love you' when kris ISNT human and THAT ISNT HELPING, and theyre angry and bitter and a lot of kris's anger comes out as aggression and when cornered/when they feel theyre cornered they tend to lash out, which then bleeds into them realizing that of course they werent ever a monster because monsters are good always and theyre not a good person and coyotes are bad animals and kris isnt good or a monster and they sure as shit arent a human but maybe they can be THIS...etc etc etc. its a shitshow lol, but you know that we've seen how i write kris elsewhere.

BUT IN THIS AU, none of that happens!!! kris is 5 when dess dips with them and thus never actually finds out they're biologically human, or at least, not in the way they do in my canon. unlike asriel (who sees kris calling themself a monster and worries), dess is like 'alright cool' and just updates her mental kris file with 'is a monster' and so she treats and sees them as such.

that isnt to say kris doesnt struggle with species dysphoria, because they do, and they do probably eventually find out their body is biologically human (tho i havent really thought much about how that goes lol). but when this does happen they have chara who supports them, dess who supports them, frisk who supports them...and while they still idealize DESS to an unhealthy degree not being the only human in an all-monster town (+ having a human parent and sibling) means they never actually start idolizing ALL monsters in that unhealthy way.

so, the kris of this au isnt human, and very much feels uncomfortable when they're read as such. but their family (dess, chara, frisk) know them to be a monster. and they're able to model their appearance to appear more monster-like. i dont have a FULL design for kris yet (cause character design is my achilles heel lol) but they for sure wear a pair of antlers (akin to the horn headband, but these are Real Bone Antlers they probably got at an antique store that were modified so its like, feasible for them to wear these pretty much constantly), some sort of modified shoes/boots so it sounds like hoofclicks when they walk, probably other things i havent figured out yet...

its to the point that kris tends to be read as monster more-so than they're read as human! which has implications for when noelle first meets them, of course...but thats for another time.

and for those who might be wondering 'wait but isnt your kris a coyote?' they are! this kris is the same kris who goes on to be a coyote, its just kris's coyote-ness does have a very physiological origin lol. takes a few very specific circumstances for them to go coyote and not monster. but no matter what they are never a human <3