Where Can You Find Grey?

me: *points to space* !!!!!!

friend: ????

me: *points to space more violently* !!!!!!!!!

Anne Carson, Grief Lessons: Four Plays by Euripides

📃!!

Send a ‘📃’ for a short drabble involving our muses (Closed) || @kienokoru​

Shiro adapts to alien-care

In the briefest of instances, Shiro became aware of the void of sleep. He wanted to succumb to unconsciousness again (A secondary part of him marvels at the fact that he’s waking up at his own leisure, as opposed to being shaken or jolted awake by orderlies or nightmares), but in his half-asleep state, Shiro felt like something was up. Not wrong, just off—like he forgot something or slept on his leg weird.

As he faded further from dreams, and drifted closer to consciousness, Shiro understood what was the off feeling was about—his arm was wet.

One groggy eye at a time, he peels them open to the dingy motel room turned home-base. His sensations realign themselves with reality, and Shiro realizes that his prosthetic arm is the drenched one. The reason why is simple: Vanx.

Even as Shiro returned to the land of the living, she continued to gnaw on his arm—smearing her slobber all over the place.

It’s pretty gross. In a cute kind of way? No, no—Shiro prefers his limbs not-slobbered-on, even if his prosthetic arm could be power-washed. He half-mumbles in a groggy voice, “Come on, Vanx,” and jiggles his arm to a great clinking of teeth.

Vanx looks up—with her jaws still clamped down on his arm—and stares with big guilty eyes that scream, “I didn’t think you’d catch me red-handed.“

Vanx finally drops his arm and scooches some away. Grunting, Shiro stretches out his back. As sketchy as the mattress looks (and smells), it would’ve been better for him than leaning on headboard. Then again, a little soreness was the least of his worries.

Having popped as many cricks down his spine as he could, Shiro takes stock of his prosthetic arm; at least, he does after smearing it across the sheets, just to get the first layer of slobber off it. As he assesses for damage, Vanx pipes up with a more nervous-sounding yelp, “I swear I did not break any parts!”

Shiro realizes he’s been wearing a more so disgusted look. He is pretty grossed out, but he doesn’t want Vanx to think she’s in trouble. He’s not angry, or even really frustrated, so much as he’s just struggling. He’s never handled kids that teethed, much less kids that teethed like Vanx.

He’s seen her try to eat through walls.

Putting on a warm smile, his voice turns gentle as he tries to reassure Vanx. “I’m sure you didn’t, but we still need to be careful. I need this to get around and fight, too.” He’s been flexing his fingers and everything seems to be in order—no damage, and from the look of things, very few scuff marks. “You don’t want to leave me without an arm, right?”

“Oh.” Vanx blinks and her voice drops to low tone, something that suggests she better understands the gravity of the issue. “I am sorry.”

Shiro let out a small sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

“Yes, I am sure you would be very sad if you could not do any more arm wrestling.”

Shiro blinks at that, feeling a twinge of offense spring up in his gut. “That’s not– I don’t–” He sputters for a moment as he collects his thoughts. “I was arm wrestling long before I got this arm, ”

Vanx makes a face of scrutiny as she looks between either of Shiro’s arms. “But.. your flesh arm is so weak and edible.”

“Well, yes, but arm wrestling isn’t just about strength, you also have to have the proper technique, and–” Shiro stops himself before he goes too deep into that rabbit hole. He ignores the more disturbing half of Vanx’s comment, and tries to not to regret showing her how to arm wrestle.

It helped past the time, and it was fun game they enjoyed.

“Look, it’s not just about me being able to arm wrestle or not. This arm is.. apart of me.” He said the last part hesitantly, like he didn’t really want to admit it. For a moment, his eyebrows furrow together, but his expression evens-out again. “If you need to gnaw on something, then we can get you something like, uh.. chew toy?”

He cringed inwardly at that word choice. It felt a little dehumanizing, offering a little kid dog toys. Vanx, on the other hand, perked up at that. She sounded excited as can be as she practically squealed, “Really?”

Shiro reminds himself, once again, that alien kids usually like alien toys, and those aren’t always like human toys.

“Yeah, sure, I’ll get you the next one we come across.” Shiro laughed at the way Vanx fist-pumped to herself.  He swung his legs over the side of the bed, and as he stood up, he rolls both his shoulder to even more cricks and pops. “But, how about we have another rematch before we start off the day?”

Vanx beamed at the idea and scurried off the bed herself. With just a grunt, she   was already hefting the nightstand from the other side of the bed to the middle of the room (While she lacked any kind of technique, the kid had more than enough brute strength). She always thought she’d beat Shiro at arm wrestling, and Shiro would be lying if he said a small part of himself wouldn’t feel vindicated by beating her yet again.

But it’d all be in the name of fun and games, and it’d make for a good distraction from the grimy city outside.

WITCH AU.

born a rare space witch, shiro spent the first many years of his life learning and developing his magic & potential. even after the passing of his mother put him in an orphanage at the age of 11, he kept practicing, knowing it would have been what she’d wanted. 

while out searching for some herbs for a particular ritual one evening, shiro found himself distracted as he listened to the planets & the stars - and most importantly, the full moon. lost in the sounds of the universe, he was unsuspectingly attacked by a couple of werewolves. the scene was gruesome; blood was everywhere as he was tugged at from either side by the both of them, as they clawed and bit, and attempted to drag him off. at some point during the horror, the boy fell unconscious in combination from shock and blood loss, thus he was unable to witness the beasts being scared off by an unknown entity, leaving him behind in a limp, bleeding heap.

when consciousness found him again, shiro was in an unfamiliar home rather than the dark woods. he was cleaned up, and many of his wounds had been healed to some degree. he had been found in the middle of the night by the earth shaman dox, who had brought him back to his cabin and taken care of him. though nothing could be done to bring back the arm which had been lost during the moments he was the rope in a game of tug o’ war between two giant wolves, dox had been able to heal all of his wounds at least to the point that they were no longer bleeding. over many days, he would be able to continue to heal the injuries until they were nothing but scars.

while initially he stays with the shaman simply to heal, dox invites him to stay rather than return to the orphanage. already at an age where they were bound to kick him out to live on his own at any point anyway, being seventeen, it’s all the more reason to accept. it also feels safer to him to keep himself in the middle of the woods, near as few people as possible, now that he’s been passed the curse of those who attacked him.

thus, shiro joins dox in a semi-hermit lifestyle, assisting the shaman in his work and coming to terms with his new state of being. the curse of a werewolf suppresses the magic of a witch bitten, so shiro has lost access to everything he’s spent so much of his life developing and skills that he would use regularly. with time, he becomes more well-adjusted to things. he comes to like most aspects of his life with dox, and learns a great deal from him - even begins to slowly regain some of his own magic with his help.

Date a boy who curls up on your lap, even though he is 6’ 2" because he loves cuddles

welp. idk why i continue to exist.

nightiingaled‌  /  kit.

❤️ for a starter || @kienokoru​

Rage. It does not make her, it does not become her. Or so she tries to remind herself. But it does exist, in abundance. A river running deep within her veins, deeper than pain, deeper than the nanites. Or was it SORROW?

❝ I hate them! I hate them ! I hate — ❞

Loud bangs echo over her shrieks in the derelict hangar, fists making contact with steel. Steel bends under the burden of her force and crimson splatters like paint in her wake. Again and again, Kit’s rage stained the steel, a masterpiece of emotion and fear.

Behind all the violence, another sound — footsteps. Blinded with rage, Kit launches loose debris at the intruder with a warning wail.

  while he’s not certain what he’s expecting to come across as he tracks down the source of the loud noises, he knows it can’t be GOOD. of this, shiro grows more certain with each step closer, with each increase in volume as he closes in. of course, he’s proven right as he enters the hangar and his gaze finds kit. ---kit, dented steel, and RED spread across it.

     “ whoa whoa whoa, hey--- ”  pace quickening in an instant, he only pauses to dodge out of the way of the thrown debris.  “ kit, hey--- ”

he knows he has to be careful. anyone in such an emotionally volatile state can be potentially dangerous, but kit can be that much more so if she chooses to be. that said, shiro tosses concern for himself out the window and, once he reaches her, he GRASPS for her hands. it’s part to prevent her from causing herself more damage, and part an effort to ground her, to bring her back to the moment. touch always helps him when he has his own episodes, so he hopes it’ll do the same for her.

     “ kit, ”  he starts again, tone gentler but still with enough FORCE to hopefully reach her.  “ kit, look at me. ”

Do you ever just go wow I have a lot of repressed anger

the undercity is a world created entirely by ghost / @grimesucker​. i recommend checking out his blog if the setting interests you because it’s incredibly well developed and full of amazing ideas and characters. i won’t be explaining details of the city here, only how shiro fits into the world. for more info and explanation on certain aspects, you can find that all on ghost’s blog.

age: 17+

nickname most know him by: fifteen  (given to him by dox; because he’s missing a hand, he has fifteen fingers & toes instead of the usual twenty)

original level: med-lev

after the death of his mother, shiro ran from the home for orphaned children  —  something he now recognizes as a dumb mistake.

while trying to survive on his own, he accepted help from someone who worked for 5liip, though he had no idea, and once this was found out by authorities, shiro was marked and sent down to the Undercity as punishment.

within his first few days trying to survive on his own down THERE, shiro stepped in to a fight in order to protect a stranger. this resulted in the majority of his right arm being cut off.

both his being cast down to the undercity and being so injured were actually planned by 5liip and executed at his order. shiro is seen as a perfect way to get at dox, who has a weak spot for kids and the ability to heal. though he’s unaware of it, shiro is a tool for 5liip to attempt to weasel his way closer to dox for his future plans.

a slumbrat finds the bleeding shiro and brings him to dox, who heals the injury and thus saves the boy’s life.

from here, shiro takes to crashing on dox’s couch, at first allowed to stay until he recovers. even once he has though, with nowhere to go and very little understanding of the undercity, shiro sort of just… stays. dox never actually kicks him out. he becomes an uninvited roommate but is eventually accepted as actually living there.

he helps dox out wherever he can, part to earn his keep and to try to pay the guy back. in particular, he helps out with the kids that dox watches over.

dox makes shiro a prosthetic arm. it’s low quality, made from spare parts he has around, but it’s functional and shiro  is eternally grateful for it.

shiro is regularly sent baskets of food from 5liip, an “apology” for his fate of being trapped in the undercity.

the slumbrats don’t accept shiro in the beginning, as he comes from an upper level, something he catches a lot of shit for. over a long span of time, however, they do come around, as he’s become something of a big brother to them all, helping dox to take care of them and often putting himself at risk for them.

in kind, dox and shiro develop a familial relationship over time. they’re brothers, they mean the world to one another, and will protect one another at all costs.

though it never affected him much when he was on med-lev, as they have technology to suppress and treat such things, shiro is chronically ill. in the undercity with none of the treatment he once had, he is faced with the symptoms for the first time in his life. the disease is one which affects his muscle function, causing them to tense and tighten severely to the point of pain and even difficulty moving the affected part of his body. some days it’s manageable and others he can’t really leave his bed.

overall, shiro remains fairly naive and idealistic compared to most others residing in the undercity  —  he doesn’t believe that everyone down there is terrible and he often steps in to help others, strangers or not. it’s something dox continues to give him shit for, though it never convinces him to stop.

this is an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE from shiro’s main undercity verse, an offshoot in a different direction which eventually meets with ghost’s ‘inheritance’ verse for dox.

initial events unfold the same, but this verse diverges in shiro being successfully manipulated by 5liip after meeting him face to face in the undercity. shiro agrees to join the gang {black bracket}, believing the things that 5liip tells him about it not being what dox has told him and accepting the help the gang leader says it will provide him.

this ruins the relationship between shiro and dox, the latter of whom hates gangs more than anything else. shiro is kicked out of dox’s home.

5liip replaces the prosthetic dox made for shiro which a much higher quality one.

shiro undergoes training to improve his fighting skills and he begins accompanying 5liip on jobs once he’s shown to be talented.

originally, he’s still little more than a tool to eventually bring dox to 5liip, to put dox in charge of the gang (shiro still, of course, completely unaware of this fact). he proves himself to be useful as much more than his, however, and ends up holding the interest of the gang’s leader.

5liip enforces the beliefs shiro gained from growing up on an upper level, that the people of the undercity (those unaffiliated with the {black bracket} gang, at least) are awful and undeserving of sympathy. this makes it easier to mold him into a perfect soldier.

shiro climbs through the gang’s ranks quickly, eventually becoming something of a third in command. 

eventually, shiro becomes a legitimately feared figure, as he’s a frighteningly talented fighter, has become quite ruthless, and, completely trusting in his leader, does whatever 5liip asks of him.

when 5liip dies and passes on leadership to dox, shiro is apprehensive at first. he’s been angry with dox for years for being kicked out and abandoned over one decision, and he’s grieving over the loss of someone who had been so important to him. he still trusts 5liip, however, and thus accepts dox as the new leader of the gang regardless of how he feels about the guy.

it takes time, but the two do make up and start to improve their relationship again.

dox makes shiro his second, but relegates him more to duties around the base rather than sending him on any jobs that require violence, not liking what 5liip has effectively turned him into.

this is frustrating to shiro, who feels he’s far more useful in the field, but he does as he’s told regardless.