If you get too worried about what might go wrong, you might miss the chance to do something great.
BASICS
RETIRE INFO: adopt if Voltron crew is still in play, retire if not
NAME: Shiro
GENDER: male
PRONOUNS: he/him/his
ORIENTATION: pansexual
BIRTHDATE: Midwinter 2740
AGE: thirty-one as of Early Summer 2771
LOCATION: High Reaches Weyr
OCCUPATION: bronze rider, Careful Dad, weyrling mentor
WING: Firestorm
APPEARANCE
EYES: gray
HAIR: black, cut short on the sides and left long on top. His forelock turned white in his late teens thanks to stress
HEIGHT AND BUILD: six feet and seven inches, a fucking tank with Shoulders
PLAY-BY: Takashi Shirogane, Voltron: Legendary Defender
FULL APPEARANCE:
Once, you couldn't tell Sven and Shiro apart. Even when they were dressed differently, it was too easy to confuse them for each other so far as appearances went. They have the same gray eyes that are the spitting image of their mother's, set under thick eyebrows. They even wear their hair the same way, cropped close on the sides and left long on the top.
But time has taken its toll on Shiro. He sprouted a white streak in his hair during his first round of candidacy, and that has only grown. Nearly his entire forelock is white, never having had the decency to first go through the varying stages of gray. There is a massive scar spread across the bridge of his nose. A bare inch further up, and he would have lost his vision. Most of his other scars are on his chest and back, and they are extensive. One of the worst is actually on his right arm, dragging from his massive bicep down to his wrist. It's left him with limited dexterity on that hand, and his strength is noticeably different on that side. Not debilitatingly so, but definitely noticeable.
He carries himself tall, which only serves to emphasis his wide shoulders. His waist is perhaps too narrow for someone his size, which has to do with his extreme need for control. He does not like to change his wardrobe, and he has put on a substantial amount of muscle since he Impressed Lalauth, so most of his clothes are tighter than they were designed to be.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:
disordered eating
Careful Dad is Careful Dad. Shiro considers all sides of a problem before he acts, and he does not like to rush into things. There is a right way to act, and a wrong way to act, and Faranth help anyone who thinks that evil is the right way to act. Shiro has very set ideas on how people should be treated, but he is fallible. If sacrificing one person will save many, he will go for the greater good. That doesn't mean he likes it - Shiro can and will put his entire wing in harm's way if it means rescuing a wayward rider. No one is too small or unimportant to warrant his care, but there is a definite hierarchy of people he is close to. At the top is his once-identical twin brother, Sven. From childhood, Shiro and Sven were best friends. Now that they are both bronze riders, they carry their burdens differently. Shiro is cautious in his actions to balance Sven's recklessness. His brother acts like nothing bothers him, but Shiro worries no matter what.
For someone so very capable of violence, Shiro is startlingly opposed to solving things with his fists. He doesn't even like to use his rank. There is power in peace, he honestly believes that. He often acts as a mentor figure because he can keep his head in a crisis. If there is time to make a decision, then there is time to make the right decision. What that 'right' decision might be, however, is heavily influenced by his cautious nature. Shiro has been through a lot in his life. His first attempt at candidacy left him with a tendency towards hypervigilance, while the attack that separated his first and second attempts at candidacy gave him a need for control.
Shiro does not like needing so much control. He thinks it makes him an overbearing bronzerider, stamped from the same mold that created his nightmares. His efforts to balance this extreme need for control with his desire to be a better person manifest in bizarre eating habits. Shiro tends to put arbitrary requirements on his meals. It also results in a tenuous grasp of his temper when confronted with people using differing coping methods. He is easily frustrated, and does not have any constructive or healthy outlets for this frustration. This leads to his magnificent physique, but also contributes to his overall exhaustion.
HISTORY
FAMILY: mother and father deceased
Twin Brother - Sven, dragonless - identical twin,
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: Keith of blue Shinadoth (Devil) - Late Summer 2744, Moonshot Wing
BIRTHPLACE: High Reaches Hold
HISTORY:
blood
isolation as torture
disordered eating
Shiro and Sven, Sven and Shiro. Never one without the other, because these twins were best friends. Not that unusual. Sven was more likely to get into trouble, but even if Shiro didn't instigate it, there he was in the thick of things. That was how both Sven and Shiro Impressed a white fire lizard before they had quite turned thirteen. Being imaginative, contrary, and very much in sync with each other, both twins named their flits the same thing: Black.
Shiro's Black turned out to be a protective mother of a white. She never rose or chased, but Shiro never had the chance to be anything less than perfectly turned out if she had her way. It was almost like having a very small, very finicky mother around.
The twins were Searched during the same visit, brought to their tithed weyr at fifteen. Already having a fire lizard at that age brought them favor with the candidate master. Shiro's bulk made him a favorite to Impress bronze.
Candidacy was rough, particularly for Shiro. Shiro had not yet grown into his long limbs, and the candidates were encouraged to be brutal to each other. How else would they become bronze riders? Because only metallic dragons mattered, and the more ruthless the riders, the more favor Golre would show. Shiro fought, and often, until he was so stressed that he quit sleeping. That was his fatal mistake, as it turned out, because facing a volatile clutch while sleep deprived is a recipe for disaster.
Shiro was mauled by a pair of brawling hatchlings, instigated by a brown who had gotten too close to his bronze brother's chosen rider. One gave him the scar across his nose, while the other maimed his arm. Prompt medical attention might have saved his arm's functionality, but medical attention was only for those who were worthy. Shiro was left to bleed out on the Sands. Sven was the one who got him help. By the time Shiro's wounds were seen to, his arm was nearly lost. His scars are more extensive than they should have been, because there were consequences for being mauled.
Being mauled? For a weyr like High Reaches, where bronze riders reigned supreme, the crime of endangering a bronze hatchling was a serious charge. Death would have been the preferred punishment, but Sven wouldn't have it. Since he was still favored to Impress high, Shiro was instead isolated from the rest of the candidates. He was trotted out for clutches once he was healed enough to be more than a liability, and sequestered again when he didn't Impress. Shiro had feared bronze riders before, but that fear turned to panic the longer he spent as a candidate.
That might have been his life until he died, and died early, except for Golre's ambition. The bronzes fell, and High Reaches surrendered. Shiro went to Fort, desperate to get away from the memories at High Reaches. He refused to stand again, too afraid of riders to risk it again. If Lord Evander hadn't closed Fort's borders, he might have gone to the hold. What did a damaged former-candidate have to offer?
But when Serapheth's maiden flight saw her caught by a brown, Shiro finally accepted that maybe he was free of High Reaches. Maybe, just maybe, Fort held a better chance for him to get the chromatic of his dreams. Blue, probably, but maybe a green. Shiro saw greenriders in positions of authority at Fort, so things had to be better here. He made friends with a small group of chromatic riders - his first friends since High Reaches turned candidates against each other. He certainly hoped that he would get another chromatic.
This dream was not to be. Shiro was passed over by an oddly colored hatchling, and then by a green before the largest egg of the clutch, the Element of Forgiveness, broke shell. Shiro hoped it was a particularly dark brown, a hope that shattered when Tuckal and Serapheth both celebrated the birth of a bronze. Shiro panicked, but didn't make it more than a step before the bronze hatchling shoved her nose into his stomach.
Please don't be upset by my color. I know I don't look like the best, but I'm yours, and we have a lot to accomplish.
Despite his best efforts, Shiro ended up a bronze rider after all. Lalauth was not a typical bronze, however, and Shiro was determined not to become like Golre's bronzeriders. He was mentored by an older blue rider until he graduated. Shortly after graduation, and joining Midnight Wing, Shiro was gifted a fire lizard egg. This hatched into an arrogant green. Being somewhat older now, and not in cahoots with his twin, Shiro named her 'Gamora' rather than 'Green'.
When Sven wanted to stand at the newly renovated High Reaches, Shiro battled back his fear in order to support his brother. If Lalauth had been less supportive, or less of a secret dork, Shiro would never have managed to walk back into High Reaches. The very stone brings back memories, and if Sven hadn't Impressed at gold Terminath's first clutch, Shiro might not have lasted long. But he did, and Shiro signed up to be a weyrling mentor for his brother. Now that they are both bronze riders, they have a much better chance to bring help to a world sorely in need.
