Paper Skin Trivia/Headcanons
Well, here’s my (abbreviated) Paper Skin headcanon/trivia lists for the main characters. Let me know if you have any questions or want me to expand any more?
Lance
Cuban and Spanish, raised by his Mom and Grandma, came to US when he was 4.
06/21 ETA: Born a werewolf, as were his brothers and sister (werewolf bloodlines in this AU are Matrilineal and he's descended of only wolfmothers, more on that soooooon).
Refers to Cindy as Mama Garrett and Henry by his first name because he is still a little detached (was raised without his dad present in Cuba so it feels weird)
Loves to climb trees and go up high, instinctively longs to climb mountains.
Didn't do that great at school so he decided to put off college and wound up becoming a jack-of-all-trades and a self-taught chef.
Cooking helps him remember his mother, makes him feel closer to her.
Is a cat person, doesn't like dogs and especially hates coyotes and jackals instinctively. (Will try to maul a jackal on sight. Coyotes just get angry growls.)
LOVES cats of all kinds. Will befriend mountain lions during full moon much to their surprise, or break into a zoo and make nice with all the big cats if left unattended.
Okay so one time when he was a teenager he got into the Bronx Zoo and first tried to chill with the leopards/black panther in the jungle exhibit but it was closed, then he tried to go see the snow leopards & the tigers but couldn't get into their enclosures. Somehow figured out how to get to the Lions.
He mauled a rare deer and dragged it into the Lion enclosure to present to them and become an honorary member of the pride.
The Garretts and some other members of their pack had to break in and drag him away
The Lions were not happy that they lost their new pack member but got over it.
Whenever he visits the zoo as a guest you could SWEAR they recognize him and call out to him.
When he's a wolf he prefers deer or other hoofed mammals and second favorite is rodents. (Ends up eating birds just because of his natural tree-climbing instincts. Also he knows Hunk likes them so he brings him pigeons and quails.)
All time favorite thing he's eaten as a wolf was a Moose that he caught for Keith (will explain in a future chapter) with a very lost and confused Caribou as a runner up.
Least favorite is crow or birds of prey but he gets short-sighted when he's wolfy and sometimes just hunts for the thrill of it. He's taken down a red-tailed hawk and an Eagle owl.
Favorite music: Shakira (prefers her ¿Dónde Están Los Ladrones?-era stuff), Gorillaz, TV on the Radio, Robyn, Rihanna
Keith
Was brought into the Shirogane clan at around age 12/13.
Identifies as Asian-American since his Dad was part Korean but does not know where his mom came from. Assumes she was of a mixed background as well.
His dad was sired by Akira Kogane, who was of Chinese and Japanese descent so he wonders if that filters down with vampire progeny?
Speaks very little Japanese, enough to answer Shiro if he uses a well-known phrase but not enough to converse
Has a recurring nightmare where tree branches start growing out of his throat and choke him
Really wants a motorcycle but will settle for a car of his own. Doesn't want Shiro to buy it, he's saving his own money.
He's actually a very good driver and Shiro will let him drive his vehicles.
Studied outside of school with help from coven members that were teachers as also some help from Pidge and the Holts so he was able to get his GED at 19
Very glad he has Umbra for a pet because she is very good at helping him figure out the time of day based on her behavior and feeding habits (yes he forgets that his phone will tell him the time and weather conditions because he is so used to living completely indoors)
Has a bug-out room in the apartment he shares with Lance. It's much bigger than the closet corner and has room for some emergency supplies and he's put up some corkboards on the walls.
Prefers type O blood and tries to avoid AB because it's like OJ with pulp (there's too much extra antigens in it). Loves pork blood when it's Lance's recipe.
Favorite music: Dolly Parton, The Cure, MCR, Siouxsie & the Banshees and PJ Harvey
Hunk
Born a werewolf, mostly Grey wolf but there's some Asian/Japanese wolf ancestry
Full name is Tsuyoshi Garrett (born Tsuyoshi Seido but had it legally changed when Henry Garrett adopted him)
His mom is Cynthia Tsukiyama-Garrett, and birth father is Tsutomo "Tommy" Seido
He considers Henry Garrett his Dad, hence why he took his last name instead of going by Seido or changing it to Tsukiyama
Henry gave Hunk his nickname after his half-brothers teased him about being a "runt"
Was great at school and did some undergrad at Hunter, then left to go to culinary school.
He finished culinary school and worked at his Mom's bar while trying to figure out if he really wanted to work in a fancy restaurant that wouldn't give him time away for full moon stuff
First time he met Shay he choked on his own spit because his mouth went dry and he nearly passed out
Second time was a better impression, his little sisters both caught the flu and were in wolf-form and was finally able to be his sweet charming self because he was so focused on his sisters' well-being that he forgot to freak out that the pretty veterinarian was smiling at him.
Had a full blown panic attack when he cooked for Shay without knowing she was a vegetarian and inadvertently won her heart with how caring and concerned he was.
Is practicing making Kushari because Shay's family is Egyptian and he wants to impress them. He already makes fantastic hummus.
His preferred food as a wolf is any kind of fowl (sparrow, chicken, turkey, etc.) Secretly loves peacock, but resists the urge to break back into St. John the Divine's Cathedral to snarf one up.
Least favorite food as a wolf is any kind of seafood or fish. Loves them as a human but finds them too bony and briny when wolfed-out.
Favorite music: Matt and Kim, LCD Soundsystem, Beck, The Hold Steady, Broken Social Scene
Pidge
Irish-Italian, her parents are very lapsed Catholics
Currently in High School and will end up at Columbia after timeskip
Needs to study an animal before trying to shift. Often pictures or online video is enough but really does prefer to be up close and personal so she can nail any vocalizations that the audio distorts or doesn't quite catch.
Her dad has a mastery of most animal forms and also can do inanimate objects. Pidge will work on that next. It takes a lot of concentration and holding her breath
Keith is her favorite because he'll support her delinquency (he doesn't realize it) and she likes helping him figure societal conventions out. They talk or visit at least once a week if not more.
Pidge would make Keith do her homework as a way of home-schooling him (and it also reinforced whatever she was learning, meaning she'd ace every subject and test), it dropped off after Keith got his GED and started working. Schoolwork still is rather easy for her after so many years of teaching herself good study habits by tutoring Keith.
Shiro being ageless is a stable presence in her life, but she thinks of him as more of her brother's friend or like an eccentric uncle
(Pidge has many eccentric uncles and aunts due to her family being half fae descendants, and half metahumans)
Her favorite food is pancakes. Least favorite is eggplant.
Favorite music: Zoë Keating, Tricky, Portishead, Massive Attack, Modest Mouse
Allura
Was introduced to the underground supernatural community of NYC by her godfather, Coran.
Born and raised in London. Westbourne Gardens area.
Came to the US on student visa and goes to grad school for biochem. Phlebotomy is a way for her to make money and help out Shiro, as Coran's family has known of his for years
No, she doesn't know why Coran has that accent even though he's lived in Brooklyn for as long as she knows
Her pet "mice" are actually Degus. She likes carrying them around in her pockets or purse, they are very well-behaved.
She's never going to bring them NEAR Lance because she knows how much he loves eating fuzzy little rodents
Her favorite food is Candy Floss, least favorite is tomatoes.
Favorite music: Nina Simone, Lana Del Rey, anything Stevie Nicks has done, Ms. Dynamite and Kylie Minogue
Shiro
Names all his businesses after vampire things because he believes in hiding in plain sight (Shuten-dōji was the yokai/vampire that turned him)
Didn't return to his hometown after being turned into a vampire. Was too ashamed and scared he would hurt them. His neighbors and friends assumed he died in the Great Tenmei famine.
Despite his issues with aging, he's tried dying his hair but it looks awful so he just leaves the white streak
Was a very good horseback rider in his youth. Joined the military and was a skilled fighter.
It took a while for him to adjust to motor vehicles. He hit Hunk's grandmother with his car, (but that's how he found the Tsukiyama pack so it worked out and she was fine.)
First cat was named Bobō, a calico. Current cat is Kikō, a tabby.
Prefers type B blood but will settle for O or AB. Type A makes him sneeze after he eats.
Not really a music fan, prefers quiet. He really liked jazz when he first heard it so he sometimes puts on very old, worn-out LPs.
He answers to Takashi or Shiro. Shi-kun or Shi-chan to friends that use his honorifics, later Shiro-kun or Shiro-chan, when he took the nickname referring to the white streak in his hair.
He still has a bad habit of not responding if people address him by Shirogane alone.
(Because "Shirogane-san" was his twin's preferred name)
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This is basically me rambling and thinking out loud about VLD vs. DOTU vs. GoLion names.
VLD: Altea | GoLion: Altea | DOTU: Arus
They paid homage to Arus by giving the Castle of Lion’s host planet that name. However, they used the original Japanese name for Allura’s home planet.
I honestly don’t know why they changed this name in the first place, considering it was a made-up word in both Japanese and English, but I guess, since they had changed everything else...
(Also, Arusians were just...normal humans, not another species.)
VLD: Takashi Shirogane | GoLion: Takashi Shirogane | DOTU: Sven Holgersson
It seems clear to me why they went with Takashi rather than Sven... As much as I love Sven, I don’t think they wanted to deal with his accent again.
Correspondingly, Shiro is now Japanese rather than Norwegian.
(I wonder why Takashi Shirogane goes by Shiro rather than Takashi.)
Basically, VLD just used GoLion’s name here.
(Also, Shiro/Sven was the blue paladin, who wore black, not the black paladin.)
VLD: Katie Holt, alias Pidge Gunderson | GoLion: Hiroshi Suzuishi | DOTU: Darrell “Pidge” Stoker
When Pidge thinks to herself, such as in the official tie-in comics, she refers to herself as Katie Holt. Essentially, she identifies more with her legal name than with the name she came up with to sneak into the Garrison.
Katie is white. Both Stoker and Gunderson are Caucasian (Dutch and Norwegian/Swedish respectively) surnames. There was no logical reason to name her Pidge Gunderson rather than Pidge Stoker, but they chose to differentiate them anyway.
In VLD, Pidge is not a nickname for Darrell, which is yet another (albeit minor) differentiation.
Basically, VLD used DOTU’s name here, with three points of differentiation (false name, different surname, not a nickname).
Everyone else has the same name as their DOTU counterpart except Sendak, who was named Yurak in DOTU (and Sadak in GoLion).
Personally, I think Sendak just sounds cooler.
In GoLion, all of the paladins except Fala (Allura, who wasn’t from Earth anyway) were Japanese: Akira Kogane, Hiroshi Suzuishi, Isamu Kurogane, Takashi Shirogane, Tsuyoshi Seido.
In DOTU, it appears that Keith was still Japanese (Keith Kogane, same surname as in GoLion), Lance was white (Lance Charles McClain), Pidge was white (Darrell “Pidge” Stoker), Sven was white (Sven Holgersson, also that accent), and Hunk was possibly half-Japanese and half-(unspecified) white (Tsuyoshi “Hunk” Garett, so a Japanese first name and a Germanic surname). I’m not condoning this, but it seems the obvious implication given the name changes.
In VLD, Keith is ??, Lance is Cuban, Pidge is white (unspecified), Shiro is Japanese, and Hunk is Samoan.
Keeping all of this in mind... I predict that Keith is still named Keith Kogane, becauseif it survived the transition between GoLion and DOTU, I imagine it can survive anything. I also predict that Lance and Hunk will have new surnames, considering even Katie/Pidge’s name was quite different from the DOTU version.
My head hurts.
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