#[ BABE ASKIN' THE HARD HITTIN' QUESTIONS ]

[iliyovunjika]

12, 13, 20

@haxuss | THIS GOT DEEP REALLY QUICKLY Development questions ;;

12. How are they bodily expressive? How do they use nonverbal cues such as their posture, stance, eyes, eyebrows, mouths, and hands? 

Shiro has a touching habit. Although he doesn’t like to touch others with his prosthetic, he doesn’t really hesitate to either when there’s no reason to. (Like say if he were injured or the prosthetic was damaged some how, he’d absolutely refuse to do so out of fear for emotive reaction being too high.) His non-verbal ways of concern, showing he’s proud or that he supports someone, is by putting his hand on their shoulder. When he’s worried he gets a little crease in his brow and narrows his eyes a bit, frowning rather than that smile he wears all the time. When he’s not sure what to say or do when something’s going on, he tends to cross his arms and look down because he’s thinking rather hard and focusing on a spot in the floor helps keep to that thought.

There’s a lot of things he does body wise when it comes to expression. Tapping his fingers against his leg will show he’s either anxious or too deep in thought, because this is him tapping out scales or rhythms that calm him down or that he’s habitually gotten into tapping out. Posture wise, he’s just as expressive. When he’s standing there’s three things to tell. If he has his arms crossed and his features seem pensive, he’s either listening hard and seriously or he’s getting irritated (Though to tell if its one or the other, irritation is followed by an even sharper glare.) If he’s standing still with his arms relaxed at his side and his shoulders dropped a bit, he’s actually rather relaxed and simply observing. However, if he’s tensely standing in place and then pacing a bit with his posture rigid, he’s anxious or angry and generally those two go hand in hand for him because its a rarity outside of war council or the battlefield.

One thing to pay mind to mostly is how he’s sitting half the time. If he’s asleep, he’ll likely be sitting upright with his eyes closed and his arms and legs crossed while he leans back against a wall. Most often this is confused for him simply relaxing but really, boy’s tryin’a catch some quick z’s ‘cause gods know he doesn’t sleep enough on a regular time scale. He doesn’t sit often, more akin to walking around, keeping busy, training, or just standing. So the key notes where he’s concerned is to pay attention to his expression. He’ll scowl when he’s having flash backs, brows furrowed and features tense with his hands clenching tightly to his biceps. If he’s in deep thought and sorrowful, he’ll tend to actually let his head drop forward so people think he’s asleep since he’ll keep his eyes closed 80% of the time and only tends to stare at his lap when its something really heart aching because closing his eyes just makes it worse. He’ll just appear relaxed in that case.

Point is, Shiro is actually really expressive in body language rather than verbally. He may not say anything at all but if one knows him extremely well, picking up on these things isn’t hard to do.

13. How do they greet the world — what is their typical attitude towards life? How does it differ in different circumstances, or towards different subjects? Why do they take these attitudes, and why do they change? How do these tend to be expressed? 

Which world? Seriously though, he actually has an optimistic meets realism type look towards the universe. Realistically he wakes up ready for anything, alarmingly alert and always at the ready for what ever may happen. Optimistically, he looks forward to each day he knows that he’s alive and everyone around him is safe. So long as they’re alright, he has an optimistic view. However, when they’re injured, he tends to damn the universe a little while damning himself more. The circumstances are as they are and he has to do all he can to help. That’s how it is to him. He’s incredibly blunt and doesn’t try to sugarcoat the reality he exists in. He doesn’t overlook it but he’s not going to let it stop him because he’s hopeful. After all the universe has done to him one would expect him to have a rather poor view of it but in reality he’s geared up and ready for a fight. He takes on this attitude because if he doesn’t, he knows he wouldn’t be able to fight with them. If he let the universe beat him down and keep him down, he wouldn’t be able to serve as any help at all to them.

On the days when he’s cursing the universe, he’s not pessimistic but he’s not optimistic either. Rather he’s incredibly realistic and logical. When he’s gearing up for a brawl against it and ready to face what ever’s thrown at him, he’s optimistic but keeps a level head and a lot of hope to back his courage in taking a step out of his quarters. In all reality he’s a bit skewed at times and the reason that is is because some days are worse than others and sometimes the horrors that haunt him are more vivid, leaving him with a bitter taste and a brutal visage to face. As for how they’re expressed-- On the good days, he’s training hard and has a lighter step. He’s more active in conversation and keen on the draw with picking things up. On the bad days, he’s training way too much and distracted, overlooking things and not keen on conversing much. The last view is apathy, one he loathes the most. Where he doesn’t care about anything. These are the worst days for him, when he’s suffered so much in a single setting that he’s having a hard time processing it. This shows because he’s not there. He won’t even leave his quarters unless its an emergency. However, getting him out of that apathetic stage is as simple as talking to him despite his wanting to not crawl out of his room. Doing so often reminds him that he has reasons beyond the agony to get up.

20. What kind of individual relationships do they have with others, and how do they behave in them? How are they different between intimate relationships like friends, family, and lovers versus more impersonal relationships?

Protective on all relationships okay, just. Super protective. To the highest power will fight anyone who raises a hand to you.

Strangers: Kind, polite, helpful, always smiling and being supportive if they’re sad. Legit, could not know your name and Shiro will literally be your best friend in a sense of being supportive if he thinks you’re sad. And gods forbid you be a child because then hey you’ve been adopted come with Uncle Not-Bucky and he’ll find your parents or guardian or take care of you in general if you don’t have a guardian. Gotta go fight a war? Stay with grandma Hoshiko and he’ll be back asap.

Friends: Super supportive and always there, never turns a blind eye to you what so ever when he’s in the room, always being attentive to your expressions and how you’re acting to make sure you’re okay, will tell you about times he’s royally fucked up to make you realize everyone can mess up sometimes and its alright to do so, will also tell you crazy stories about school where he ended up in a Jam™ and had to hide from the corporal in a broom closet on a shelf, more open with you than he would be with others at times but not really a whole lot, laughs a lot with you okay like legitimately will laugh genuinely with you not this under the breath chuckle shit he does with strangers.

Close Friends: Supportive? Hah! He’s NEXT LEVEL™ ‘I’m here for you and you are literal sunshine’ to you if you’re a close friend. Is SUPER attentive to you and your needs and will always notice when you’re down or even if you’re just thinkin’ somethin’ weird ‘cause he’s all about those little micro expressions. Will tell you all the embarrassing stories to make you laugh okay literally will not hesitate to tell you about the time he crashed a test ship and crawled out of it while smiling awkwardly at the general like ‘I’m so sorry’ yeah buddy ur def sorry for crashing a multi-million dollar aerial ship. Is more physically adept towards you, will hug you and will even let you sleep in his bed if you’re having trouble sleeping, will even give you forehead kisses and tell you what a good job you’re doing???? LOVES YOU GREATLY???? Srsly don’t even question it. He’s not TOTALLY physical with even close friends but there are definitely some differences here.

Romantic: I’m sorry did u mean ‘I will fucking fight anyone who tells you that you can’t do something’ supportive? ‘Cause that’s this man right here. Super awkward?? Like hold his hand and his ears suddenly turn red?? Hug him and he’s internally screaming?? KISS HIM AND HE’S DOWN FOR THE COUNT??? He’s not used to romanticism anymore. He doesn’t know how to deal with it anymore. He’s literally just a fish out of water awkward and just Trying his Best™. He doesn’t feel he deserves romanticism? Won’t easily fall into it in all reality and is actually kind of “AVERT YE EYES” towards it if he realizes he’s got the beginnings of a crush at all. Simply because he doesn’t feel he can divulge in such things?? But if you do manage to get him he is literally BEST AND WORST BOYFRIEND™ Best because: Always there, always supportive, will listen to you, pays attention to you and everything you like/dislike, tries to learn everything he can about you ‘cause he wants to know and gods he adores you so much?? Just let him love you?? Always keen on doing surprise things for you?? Will let you sleep in his lap while he works on data logging?? LETS YOU PLAY WITH HIS MECHANICAL FINGERS ‘CAUSE HE TRUSTS U SO MUCH AND IS CONFIDENT IN HIS OWN ABILITY NOT TO HURT YOU??

Worst because: Always worries about hugging you too hard or maybe hurting you at all by accident, has really bad episodes that are potentially dangerous which ends up with him a mess if he ever accidentally hurts you, will not stop telling you how much he cares about you, has to leave you to go fight aliens (unless you’re up there with him lbr), is constantly awake?? Like boy doesn’t sleep half the time and when he does its hardly with you unless he’s THAT tired?? Will only actually sleep willingly by you if he’s absolutely certain he’s not going to wake up swinging?? Probably gives you too much space ‘cause he’s worried about smothering?? Doesn’t trust himself at all.

Individual specific: Well that obviously depends on the individual themselves but he’s always trying to learn about other people and their culture, their ways, what they like and dislike, what they don’t want him to do and what’s potentially awful for him to do and what they like him doing. If he fucks up he’s always ready to apologize and explain himself, listen and learn from that mistake to make it up to them and not repeat it. For example, his relationship with Haxus started off AWFULLY lbr. I mean, boy they were SNIDE with each other okay he had absolutely NO filter but when he realized there was a lot more to it he sat down and listened to him. Like, he’s not going to care if you’re a 7ft alien alright he’s going to listen to you and do his best to try to understand. There’s things he CAN’T understand though and he knows that but he is all for trying to learn either way and if he can’t even still he’ll do his best to avoid potentially making things worse. Where it concerns individuals themselves he is a lot more personally adept to THEM. What he applies to another person doesn’t apply to them and he won’t ever cross the paths of that at all if he can help it.

He’ll make comparisons at times in order to understand better like saying ‘Okay so you hunt live animals and bring them back alive. That’s like so and so in this region of Earth’ but he’s not saying they’re exactly alike, he just makes the comparison to get a better grasp on things.

The differences between all these are pretty clear in a sense of how intimate he can be in closer relationships and how withheld he is in impersonal ones. He’s doing his best and sometimes he fails horribly but he tries again to learn better and do what he can.