Idk if someone else has already asked this, but what about a Birdtale au? Like Sans, Red, and Skull are either wild birds or live in an aviary or something like that. They would probably try to preen Mc and sing her courting songs
I did a harpy au ages ago but the recent fanart by @iridescent-serpent has made my 'i love birds' brain go AWOOGA. We're doing it again, folks; zoo edition this time.
Big, clawed, dangerous and scary bird monsters living in a big aviary since they have a habit of hunting down people.
Sans: A beautiful owl harpy with steely grey, blue and black markings that help him blend into blue-toned darkness. Since he's mostly nocturnal, he has two modes: day mode, and night mode.
In day mode spends pretty much every hour napping in his aviary, enjoying whatever patches of sun he finds; he's very cat-like, and he's worked up a reputation of being lazy thanks to his constant napping. Staff can actually go in and out of his enclosure if they're quiet, which is a big deal for a species as aggressive as a harpy. It's important they keep their distance from him to avoid disturbing him, though... he's tired, but he can still lash out with deadly precision.
At night, he really acts like a cat. He's hunting, he's active and terrifying, he attacks with the intent to kill. You hear nothing, you see nothing, not even his eyelights. He blends in so seamlessly with the night that nobody dares go near his enclosure, there's few things as dangerous as an owl harpy at night.
... However, Mc is the exception. Like always. When she's around in the day, he'll sleep through pretty much everything she does. She isn't food or a threat, so why get up? He'll sleep even if she goes right up to him and grabs his wings- which she sometimes has to do, when she's looking him over for injuries or signs of illness. She does all of his medical checkups, and he seems to like the touching, if his purring is anything to go by. And at night, he just uses his incredible silence and camouflage to get up close and steal her keys. He has an eye for shiny things, and a taste for her flustered attention when she looks for him to get her shiny things back.
Red: Red is a big, stunning bird of prey harpy. Something resembling a hawk or eagle; and he's got the hawk foul temper, with a habit of biting and slashing at anyone who encroaches on his territory (enclosure). But a running joke at the aviary, in the same vein as that guy who's 'married' to a crane, is that Red is Mc's husband.
Red is an aggressive harpy who likes to hunt and fight. But he's also a showoff, and apparently, a complete romantic- he's made it clear that he's decided Mc is his mate. He lets her into his enclosure, and he shows all the courtship behaviours under the sun... he displays and shakes his wings, brings her gifts, puffs his feathers up, preens her hair, nuzzles her face like they're knocking beaks. He even sings, and tries to initiate dances.
For Mc, it's a balancing act of what behaviours she does and doesn't reciprocate. She doesn't want to give him ideas, but he gets really cranky (and won't eat) if she totally ignores him. She's learned she can ignore his attempts at dances or nuzzles without him being too bothered- but she absolutely has to accept his gifts, and let him preen.
Harpies, especially hawk harpies, have one mate for life. As much as the other staff tease her for being Red's one true love, nobody can deny that his affections make everyone's lives at the aviary much easier.
Skull: A massive beast of a bird, with a wingspan tens of feet wide, he resembles one of those massive alpine vultures- thick snow-resistant plumage that's very soft to the touch. He once lived a solitary life high in the mountains, so he isn't great with people or other birds, but he has to stay at the aviary because the same incident that caused his head injury also gave him a large scar down the back of one wing that leaves him unable to fly for any longer than a few seconds.
Despite his penchant for gutting people with those giant claws of his, he's very soft and docile with Mc. He's also a highly curious beast- he follows her around his enclosure like a puppy, observing whatever she's doing... he also likes observing her, his face often only a few inches from hers as she works, always letting out a thrumming coo of delight at her presence. He's very soft, and since he used to live in a brutally cold environment he instinctively dislikes the sight of her being cold and is always trying to pull her into his arms to keep her warm.
His only issue is his 'sulking'. When he gets upset that she's leaving, or he thinks someone else is getting too close to the two of them, he likes to pick Mc up and fly/climb to the highest perch point in his enclosure. His wing might be injured but he can still flap, and his time in the mountains made him an adept climber. He'll sulk as high up as he can, squishing her close until he can be food-bribed into letting her go.
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Here's a painted icon commission I did for Frostydeer! This is my first ever painted icon commission as well. :D I haven't painted anything in a long time so it was nice to do something smaller like this to find my footing again before I tackle a bigger painting. I'm trying to shift gears to just rendering these pictures the best I can rather than going for realism, and honestly, it paid off! Expect me to do paintings this way in the future. :3
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