#files & about & headcanon ft. shiro.

[entrepy]

tl;dr:  Shiro’s family are people he would not only die for, but people he has unwavering belief in and has given a part of who they are, to create who he is, and likewise, they contain a part of who he is, within them.    

Shiro is second generation American. I headcanon Voltron to be set roughly around 100 - 150 years into the future. Shiro’s parents were drawn out to America to join the rest of their extended family who also made the move throughout the years, though leaving behind Shiro’s grandparents on his father’s side. Shiro’s mother was pregnant with Shiro’s older sister, Toshiko, during their move. Shiro was born 3 years later, in Sacremento, where they’d settled down. ( I also imagine migration is a lot less of a hassle in this time ~ but I’ll make a post of how I imagine the VLD post-modern world would differ to our current reality later. )

The four of them were extremely close. Shiro grew up loved and supported and getting up to mischief with his big sister. Shiro was extremely close to his mother when he was young. His father was a little strict and slow to understand some Western constructs, but was overall open-minded if he could see that it was what was best for his children. Shiro could confide in his sister literally anything under the sun. This bond only began to fracture when Shiro was diagnosed with MND*1 at age 16, during his first year at GG.  

VLD doesn’t mention Shiro’s family at all. Not at the Kerberos launch, not in his visualisation during lion bonding, and not when the group return to Earth. These facts are what has prompted the headcanon that Shiro’s parents and sister are no longer alive.

~I haven’t hashed out the circumstances around this too much but here’s a brief timeline of the events -       He loses his mother at age 6 due to terminal illness -       He loses his father at age 20 due to a hit and run -       His sister is caught in the Galra cross-fire, leaving behind her husband and two year old son*2.

Shiro is no stranger to loss, starting with the fading memories of his mother. Life keeps taking and taking from him. Every moment of success or happiness, seems only to be rewarded with pain and more suffering. And this cycle continues for him as we are introduced to him in VLD i.e. reaching the edge of the solar system - only to be captured by the Galra, finally escaping and returning to Earth – only to be launched back into space and having to fight in an intergalactic war, finding a semblance of peace with new friends and new purpose – only to die, is brought back to life – only to live with the debilitating guilt and dysphoria of living in another’s body. And so on.

A year or so after his father’s death is when I headcanon that Adam proposed to Shiro. The accident was a reminder of how unguaranteed life really is, and they already felt like they didn’t have enough time with the imminent worsening of Shiro’s illness. Adam was Shiro’s family. Adam made Shiro happy. At this point, Shiro had begun to notice the pattern of happiness and loss, and a part of him was expecting to lose Adam. (This may or may not have played a minor part in Shiro’s decision to go on the mission. Just a minor part, but significant enough to mention, all the same).

Shiro always had a close friend in Keith. There was something in him that called out to Shiro, and his gut instinct turned out to be right. The fact that they both understood loss beyond their years must’ve helped the understanding they had with each other, though they never spoke about it beyond the conversation we saw in VLD about Keith’s father. Keith is Shiro’s family. While in space, this bond only strengthens as they face the hardships of war and hard decisions together. Keith becomes an irreplaceable part of Shiro’s life. 

Pidge, Hunk, Lance, Allura, and Coran are an unlikely group of people that are thrown into Shiro’s life path but find a place nestled in the twists and curves of it. Without a common cause to fight for, they may never have even met, let alone become a united front, an understanding forming between them that can come only from shared experience, impenetrable. But life isn’t about what doesn’t happen, or what could’ve happened; it’s about what does happen and it’s outside of your control. There’s a closeness he feels with them that can’t be manufactured by any other means apart from trusting someone with his life, and having them trust him of the same.

He feels a special closeness with Allura. She, too, has suffered and lost, in greater quantities than even Shiro can fathom. She, too, has had leadership placed upon her, based sheerly on the fact that there is no one else to carry the burden. Sometimes they butted heads, but they always believed in each other, and more importantly, they believed and wished wholeheartedly for the same future. Their bond strengthened when Shiro’s soul passed through Allura to enter his new body – something that also allowed him to receive Allura’s Altean crystal as the energy source for his cybernetic arm, and perhaps even pilot the Atlas as a mecha-tron. Allura was    is Shiro’s family. 

In summary, Shiro’s family are people he would not only die for, but people he has unwavering belief in and has given a part of who they are, to create who he is, and likewise, they contain a part of who he is, within them.    

*1 Please see Shiro’s illness headcanon - to be linked. *2 I didn’t want to stray too far from canon, but I’m also holding onto the headcanon of Shiro having a sister. So in my canon, he asks Commander Iverson about Toshiko when the crew return to Earth who informs him of her fate ~ he doesn’t find out about his nephew until later. In any non-canon AUs, Toshiko is alive.

#files & about & headcanon ft. shiro. #ooc.

[entrepy]

A list of Shiro’s scars & where he got them from ( for my own reference because I’m always forgetting what my headcanons are akdjfhg. )

The suture scars from the Galra taking his arm ~ I headcanon that the decision to take his arm came from Haggar, who sat in on a trial and recognised that Shiro would be all kinds of helpful in the future to her ( perhaps she had a vision of the five human paladins and how convenient it would be to have a spy among the ranks. Then again, Ulaz also recognised something in Shiro, so perhaps it was nothing more than his defiance in the arena that he became the chosen ). I imagine this is about 7 months into Shiro’s imprisonment, also 7 months without any medication. There are signs of contractures in his right hand fingers, something that has become noticeable when he stops using his right hand during battles. Haggar’s solution is amputation, which also gives her enough flesh and DNA to start the cloning process, and rewards Shiro with a weaponised prosthetic for his trouble, which, of course, plays into her own plan because she needs Shiro to be an even more formidable force than he already is. Because these are surgical scars and Ulaz was the surgeon, I imagine the surgery minimised unnecessary scarring ( so Shiro doesn’t have the roguish scarring some fanworks depict !! ) 

The most obvious one is the scar across the bridge of his nose. I originally headcanoned this as a battle wound, much like his others, but it’s a perfectly symmetrical wound, which seems unlikely in the heat of battle especially across his face. Once Haggar had his DNA for cloning, she also needed his mind. She doesn’t ( at this point ) have Allura’s abilities to transfer ~essence~ between vessels, so would’ve had to use good ole fashioned tech. I imagine something similar that was used on my boy Bucky Barnes for brainwashing, was used on Shiro to extract not just his memories, but the very essence of himself, allowing a complete duplication of mind, body & soul. The majority of Haggar’s work is based around Quintessence so it makes sense that the tech she used on Shiro for mind-extraction would also use Quintessence, but humans are not compatible with this. Even Keith gets burned by it, but recovers, presumably due to his Galra lineage. Whatever singed Shiro across his nose, was the contraption Haggar used for mind-extraction. ( Prompted by this post. ) This mind-extraction process was also responsible for Shiro’s hair turning white at the front.

Shiro has Hangar’s claw marks on the right hand side just at his waist when Haggar attacks him during Allura’s rescue. The scar extends from his navel, wraps around his side to his spine, as the wound “grew”. The scar doesn’t fully heal in the Altean healing pod, but when he comes out it looks much older than it is.

A burn mark in the shape of a hand on his left upper thigh from where he ( read : Kuron ) cauterized an open wound after his “escape” from the Galra ( after the real Shiro died ). As a consequence of Shiro now living in his clone’s body, he also has all of Kuron’s injuries. As this was in the early phases of Operation Kuron Stage 3, Haggar’s interference was minimal so I think Kuron’s actions here mimck what Shiro would have done in the same situation. 

( The rest of this list are non-canon scars, and not a completely exhaustive list either, and all he got in the arena ) ( I may add more to the list above as I re-watch Voltron ~ these are the ones I know from memory only !!!! )

Mouth shaped bite (roughly 30 small triangular incisions of teeth ) on the fleshy part of his left shoulder, closer to his neck than the ball of his shoulder.

3 claw marks from the top of his right shoulder down to just under his right shoulder blade

1 deep gash scar on his chest from the inner left clavicle across his left pectoral (in an outward direction). 

A smaller gash scar intersects closer to his left side (received the smaller one later). 

Multiple scars on his abdomen and lower back ~ he couldn’t tell you when he got them or who gave them to him. He was in a constant state of healing between trials and injuries usually piled on top of each other. 

A different set of 4 claw marks on the back of his lower right thigh (not as deep as the set on his back). 

A chain shaped burn mark loops twice around his right calf from a kusarigama-like weapon of choice from one monster that also could pass electric current through it ( Shiro only survived this electrocution due to his cybernetic arm collecting the discharge ). 

#files & about & headcanon ft. shiro. #ooc. #queue

[entrepy]

major canon & fanon divergences 

( i don’t expect anyone to read this because it’s a lot lmao. this is more so for me to have a reference because i forget things about my own muse / canon. if we’re rping together we’re probably also talking ooc so anything important from this post will be mentioned to you at some point. )

( please note that by canon, i’m referring to my general main verse which includes no interactions with other muses. each interaction with a muse is put into its own verse. new interactions can come into the main verse at any point of the timeline and then diverge from that point. )

canon divergences.

does not marry curtis. they noticed each other because they worked closely as part of the atlas crew and maybe if the time and place were different there might’ve been a chance for them to get to know each other and form something but for shiro, there is a lot weighing on his mind that he needs to wade through

( a ) shiro has been thru Sum shit and he has an endless list of reasons to be sad but i just want to make it known that shiro’s no. 1 source of guilt and just general mind-anguish is the fact that he is living in a borrowed body, that he took from someone who had to die for him to live. 

( b ) at this stage he is also coming in touch with his feelings for keith which have been with him for a while, so even if he was aware of other potential interests … he’s not actually interested back.

adam is alive. he was critically injured in the first wave of attack by sendak and recovered enough only to provide ground support for the second wave. he remains an officer of the garrison and heads training and recruitment. he does not fly again. he’s happily married and reaches out to shiro. they’re amicable, but not close friends. maybe eventually they will be. ( this will obviously be different if i’m writing with an adam muse. )

allura is alive – i need to rewatch the end of season 8 to figure out how, but she’s alive.

after a year or so of captaining the atlas, the need for atlas to be an offensive military ship decreases and shiro consults sam and pidge for their thoughts on deweaponising his prosthesis. the new arm is still powered by allura’s crystal but looks more similar to the galra arm ( except it starts at the shoulder since his bicep??? disappeared magically ), but it’s coloured white and light grey, and the lit up areas are aqua ( same as the crystal. )

speaking of the crystal …  the original arm was designed to operate via a balmera crystal, because that’s what most of altean designs are based off of. however they didn’t have a crystal to use, and sam says the remaining energy required for the arm to work would be drawn from shiro’s own electromagnetic field. he tries it for the first time and … his body rejects it, in what looks like an incredibly painful and potentially fatal way, if it hadn’t been for allura stepping in and replacing the original energy source for the arm with the crystal from her tiara. we don’t ever find out why shiro’s body rejected the first energy source but here are 2 theories:

( a ) shiro’s body is actually kuron’s body, a clone, manufactured by haggar, using ~space science~ and likely some form of quintessence. the electro magnetic field coming off of the clone’s body would vary to that of a human’s, which is what sam would’ve based his calculations on. balmera crystals have incredible properties that aren’t really explained in great detail but we know how powerful they can be, regardless of size. 

( b ) because it’s kuron’s body, maybe the connection to haggar didn’t completely shut off when keith cut off the arm. that flash that happens when the arm connects and shiro’s body starts rejecting it is very similar to the flash that happens when haggar starts controlling kuron earlier ( better explained in this headcanon piece. ) my only issue with this headcanon is that it implies haggar may still have some degree of control over shiro, and I just………….it’s been so overused, i just don’t want that for shiro anymore, so i’m most likely sticking to theory a !!!!!

still on the subject of the crystal, let’s talk about what shiro says after allura places the balmera crystal in his arm ; “i feel strange … i feel – great !” strange, as in he’s feeling something he’s never quite felt before. this is in contrast to what he feels when the first energy source is used in his arm ; “i feel … good,” but he sounds hesitant, like he doesn’t feel good at all, and obviously we see why moments afterwards. the great part is emphasised. he almost seems excited, like he really does feel great, and the scene cuts off with him trialling his arm by making a fist, and smiling. again, the properties of the crystals are pretty much undefined, but they are an immense source of power – what allura’s tiara contains is likely more than enough required to power shiro’s arm, and going back to how allura operated the castleship, and how shiro is able to operate the atlas, i’m loosely headcanoning that the crystal acts as a link between “captain” and “ship”, though obviously, allura herself channels quintessence and has so much more capabilities as a “captain.” 

what does the crystal providing an energy source for not only the new prosthesis, but also shiro’s body mean for shiro? an external boost of energy and human-compatible quintessence is probably the first dose of anything resembling treatment shiro has had since the kerberos mission. i don’t see the balmera crystal nor altean healing pods having the power to edit genes but as far as healing goes, it must have some effect in alleviating pain and / or fatigue for shiro to exclaim, “i feel great !”

( a ) sometimes it’s difficult to write in a universe set in the future because things of our current reality ( social injustices, shit politics, technological limitations etc. ) may not be a reality say 100 years in the future, and add space and alien technology to the mix and you’re sort of left with a lot of potential for creation and imagination and progression but also hindered by the reality of present day and representing present day. i wouldn’t want to “magic” away shiro’s disease or magically come up with a cure, but at the same time i don’t want to take away the possibility for him to be potentially cured ( which is what the “i feel great !” line hints towards ) just because of the limitations of today.

major fanon divergences.

does not qualify as space dad. it simultaneously infantilises the other paladins and takes away from their own journeys of being forced to grow up too quickly and take on the responsibility of fighting in a war, and puts undue stress on shiro who is only ~25 himself. shiro is responsible for his team only in the role of their commanding officer at best

his prosthetic arm is not a sex toy, it’s a prosthesis ( refer to this post on arm related bed time activities )

shiro did not have a romantic connection with keith pre-kerberos. if anything the earliest signs of anything resembling a romantic connection would be late into season 2, but that is pending heavy plotting

shiro came from a happy family … he just lost almost all of it very early on. he grew up loved even though he learnt about loss too quickly

shiro cannot sing lol … i know his voice actor can but i'm ~different~

i think it’s popular headcanon for shiro to have a little sister, or a big family; i wrote his backstory with his older sister before i came across this, so i’m sticking to my original headcanon because his bond with his sister is so strongly formed in my head  

shiro is not afraid of death … but he doesn’t want to die. i feel like his relationship with death needs its own post but the tl;dr version of it is that he had a timer put on his life when he was around 17 years old. life goes from seemingly endless to suddenly very very short ( not just in the sense that his lifespan is predicted to be shorter, but that his body will soon restrict him in movement and opportunity. ) and then kerberos happens, and the arena happens, and voltron and zarkon and he’s reminded that life is short regardless of whether they give you a timer at 17. any moment could be his last and shiro has had a long time to come to terms with this. it makes him incredibly grateful for the present, and of what he’s had in the past. it also is potentially why he prioritises a mission that will take him to see the stars, over a relationship with adam ten years down the track.

if anyone makes it this far … ur the real mvp, thank u for reading my brain ramblings <3

#files & about & headcanon ft. shiro. #ooc. #queue

[entrepy]

𝙇𝘼𝙔𝙀𝙍  001 :   THE OUTSIDE .

NAME : takashi shirogane ( shiro. )

EYE  COLOUR : grey.

HAIR  STYLE   /   COLOUR : white, usually with a lot of top floof and an undercut.

HEIGHT : 6′.

CLOTHING  STYLE : not fussed. he has a few statement pieces that he’ll rewear the fuck out of. other than that, people have taken him shopping so he’s stocked with the staples that he just has to put together and most of the time it works. and if it doesn’t work … it still somehow looks good because it’s shiro. he's somewhat a mix of golf-dad and fratboy.  

BEST  PHYSICAL  FEATURE : this is subjective but he’s been caught checking out his jawline in the reflective metal tray they serve garrison meals on soooo … but also he’s just grateful to be in a body that grants him the ability to do as he wants, in the time that he has, even more so when it’s not his body, and he knows the terrible fate of his predecessor. i mean … there’s gratefulness but also a whole lot of depersonalisation associated but that’s an answer for a different question. 

𝙇𝘼𝙔𝙀𝙍  002 :  THE INSIDE .

FEARS : not being  there  when counted on. 

GUILTY  PLEASURE  : drinking orange juice from the bottle ( it tastes better !!! )

BIGGEST  PET  PEEVE :  apathy.

𝙇𝘼𝙔𝙀𝙍  003 :  THOUGHTS .

FIRST  THOUGHTS  WAKING  UP : it’s gonna be a great day.

WHAT  THEY  THINK  ABOUT  MOST : he is usually tied up with urgent tasks at hand throughout the day so y’know …  surviving  is a big one. but also his mind is chaos. there’s memories, there’s  missing  memories, there’s memes, there’s thoughts of his loved ones all mixed up in there. 

WHAT  THEY  THINK  ABOUT  BEFORE  BED : guilt, but if he can control his thoughts which he attempts to do with a quick bout of mediation, a list of things he is grateful for.

WHAT  THEY  THINK  THEIR  BEST  QUALITY  IS : seeing the good in other people.

𝙇𝘼𝙔𝙀𝙍  004 :   WHAT’S BETTER ?

SINGLE  OR  GROUP  DATES : single.

TO  BE  LOVED  OR  RESPECTED : loved.

BEAUTY  OR  BRAINS : brains but big-brainedness automatically makes u beautiful so ????

DOGS  OR  CATS : BOTH.

𝙇𝘼𝙔𝙀𝙍  005 :   DO THEY …

LIE : if he believes it’s in his and everyone else’s best interest, yes.

BELIEVE  IN  THEMSELVES : most of the time, or at least he fakes it until he makes it.

BELIEVE  IN  LOVE : yes.

WANT  SOMEONE : he has been known to  want, yes, but it’s not his primary agenda.

𝙇𝘼𝙔𝙀𝙍  006 : HAVE THEY EVER …

BEEN  ON  STAGE :yes.

DONE  DRUGS : yes.

CHANGED  WHO  THEY  WERE  TO  FIT  IN : not necessarily to fit in …  & if people don’t see the real him, it’s only because they’re not looking hard enough. 

𝙇𝘼𝙔𝙀𝙍  007 :   FAVOURITES .

FAVOURITE  COLOUR : white.

FAVOURITE  ANIMAL : eagle.

FAVOURITE  BOOK : 101 dad jokes.

FAVOURITE  GAME : whatever the crowd wants. 

𝙇𝘼𝙔𝙀𝙍  008 :   AGE .

DAY  THEIR  NEXT  BIRTHDAY  WILL  BE : 29 feb - it's a thursday

HOW  OLD  WILL  THEY  BE :  eh depends on the verse, i’m not really chronologically locked in here. but roughly between 26 - 28 for main vld, and 30 to 30+ for main non-vld verses. 

𝙇𝘼𝙔𝙀𝙍  009 :   FINISH THE SENTENCE .

I LOVE : keith         lmao why was that the first thing that came up. uh.  

I  FEEL : guilt.

I  HIDE : pain.

I  MISS : the people i have lost.

I  WISH : i could have saved the people that i have lost.

#files & about & headcanon ft. shiro. #ooc. #queue