On a Pale Horse (Umamusume/Youjo Senki)

[WrandmWaffles]

Spoiler: Shirogane Appearance Reference

Here's an approximation of what Shirogane would look like, though she'd normally cut her hair significantly shorter, and the ear ornaments would be have white wings as well.

She looks completely harmless. Definitely not someone scary to have chasing you at 30-40km/hr

 

[WrandmWaffles]

Here's some artwork a reader posted on the Ao3 page of Shirogane in a track race uniform.

Spoiler

Link to original post

Thank you to BungleJucket!

 

[WrandmWaffles]

Here's some artwork of Shirogane from one of the people in my discord.

Thanks Confuzzled!

 

[WrandmWaffles]

Shirogane's Race Outfit by Billjoebaggins

Spoiler

 

[drbilljoe]

Spoiler: Shirogane running

Hopefully this works, gonna finish this one sometime since it was fun to draw.

 

[TheSmallSauce]

Quick appreciation sketch!

So quick that I didn't even draw her ear ornament.

Spoiler: Edit

So quick that I didn't even draw her tail, sacrilege! I'll fix that tomorrow though... Happy Dragonboat Festival to those who celebrate.

Spoiler: Edit x2

Aaaand fixed!

Spoiler: Original Image

 

[TheSmallSauce]

She's Rocking that Hank Hill Ass.

Click to shrink...

I hate that I know what you're talking about and that I immediately visualized it. Have another doodle for your evil.

 

[TheSmallSauce]

Someone better make a bunch of omakes in lunaticmonster's style story. Or multiple such stories in one omake, such as Shirogane Orzel being a local celebrity because she's helping a restaurant delivering orders before being considered for racing by a professional horse trainer.

Click to shrink...

■ Job Experience

Supposedly Shirogane Orezeru had a job before her long career in staked racing...

She was a delivery horse!

That's right, before she was scouted, she was a delivery horse in Fujisawa.

It's said that she never missed a delivery in 3 years

​

Spoiler: WIP

■ Fearsome Beast Pt.1

During her active years, Shirogane had a reputation for intimidating other horses

In her junior year, there were no less than 9 starting gate incidents.

According to a stablehand that took care of her,

There was very good reason for this intimidating aura

​

■ Fearsome Beast Pt. 2

"One night we heard the horses freaking out,

so we went to check on them...

...and we found a bear inside the enclosure.

It was dead on the ground with its skull caved in, and Shirogane was just standing next to it like nothing happened."

​

An illustrated comic in lunaticmonster's style is a lot of work to pull off... Maybe in a couple weeks we'll see.

 

[TheSmallSauce]

Ended up finishing the quick appreciation sketch I did earlier. As always, cleaning up line art was a pain. The shoes were surprisingly tricky to get right, I hope they look big without looking weird.

 

[TheSmallSauce]

■ Previous Work Experience

Click to shrink...

Before debuting, Shirogane Orzel had an ordinary job.

"Having work experince is important."

"You can't rely on your body forever."

Click to shrink...

Delivery Staff.

"It's hot today..."

Click to shrink...

Before being scouted, she was a delivery horse in Fujisawa.

Mum: "Another order just came in!"

Shirogane: "It can't be helped~"

Click to shrink...

In 3 years, she never took a day off.

Click to shrink...

 

[TheSmallSauce]

Inb4 "Because I could not stop for Death - She kindly stopped for me". Like, It's just a race for Shirogane and it'd be neat as the only race she doesn't place in is because of such an incident.

Click to shrink...

It really fits way too well. Death, when personified, is usually portrayed as something slow and steady, something that doesn't need to run to catch you because the crossing of paths is inevitable and the destination is already decided. Whether that meeting happens sooner or later, faster or slower, it happens all the same. Shiro's running style is all about that inevitable, effortlessly relentless pace, which just matches so well thematically with her being a personification of Death. Having this relentless runner stop dead (heh) in her tracks for nothing less than a fatal accident...

(Pay no attention to the fact that the Autumn Tenno Sho would also be her only chance to run against Silence Suzuka, as that's the race where she gets Injured in Umamusume/dies IRL.)

Click to shrink...

Her presence massively complicates Suzuka's story, where Matikanefukukitaru sees the haze of death that hangs around Shirogane and begins getting all sorts of signs from Shiraoki that white is Suzuka's unlucky color, or that she needs to avoid the number four wherever possible. (Shirogane conspicuously in gate four to start the race)

Which of the other supernatural umas would have interesting interactions with Shiro? Manhattan Cafe is going to join in a couple years, maybe she'll see that Shiro has ghosts of her own?

As in, each victory results in her opponents starting the next race with a bigger debuff. Shiro's intimidating habits and performance resulting in her opponents being more wary, more nervous

Yes, her developing a reputation has been discussed before, but I'm imagining that, with each win, she becomes a little more grim, a little more serious- and with the biggest race events in Japan, the utter look of terror on her opponents' faces will be magnified for all to see.

Click to shrink...

And yet all this results in is the most unhinged racing maniacs coming out of retirement to give the rookie a real test in her senior year. Surrounded by maniacs of every creed and color no matter which universe she's in, what on earth could she have done to deserve such a fate?

Spoiler: Team Bonding Exercise

"President, aren't we on the same team?"

"Yes. Your point?"

"I thought you were retired?"

"I was."

"So why are you in your racing outfit?"

"To race, of course, why else?"

"President, I'm just going for a jog."

"Are you now? You could have fooled me with the crowd you've gathered up there."

"Shirogane-san, I hope you're all warmed up. It's quite dangerous to run on stiff legs."

"Air Groove-senpai... Oh, and Narita Brian-senpai too."

"I heard you finally decided to get serious, so I wanted to see for myself."

"I'm also here!"

"Relax C.B, I'm sure you'll also have your chance against our talented little kouhai here. She's quite durable, as we've all seen."

"How did things end up this way...?"

Edit:

And one more drawing before work slaughters my free time.

 

[macdjord]

Omake:
The Japanese Horse Racing Beer League​

Interviewer: "So, what inspired you to create the league?"

Trainer: "Well, it all started in 2005, when Shirogane Orzeł retired."

Interviewer: "She had quite a long career, didn't she?"

Trainer: "Extremely so. Understand, most racehorses start racing when they're two or three years old, and retire after two or three seasons. Shirogane raced for eight years. Frankly, we didn't even want to retire her; she wasn't winning, but she was still showing or placing enough to be a money-maker, and the veterinarian swore she wasn't showing any signs of long-term damage."

Interviewer: "So then why not keep racing her?"

Trainer: *shrugs* "The insurance company categorically refused to cover a racehorse over the age of 10, and none of the major leagues would allow an uninsured competitor.*"

Interviewer: "Most unfortunate. Is that why you founded your own league?"

Trainer: "Not directly. Shirogane didn't take to retirement well. At first it was fine, but as time went on, she started to get depressed. She was barely eating, barely exercising. Nothing was physically wrong with her, according to our vet, but she seemed to have no energy - which, for a mare as tireless as Shirogane, was truly disturbing."

Interviewer: "So what did you do?"

Trainer: "Shirogane's jokey guessed that she was missing the races, so he tried something radical: he put her back on the training regimen she'd been on back when she was competing. And it worked: she came out of her funk almost immediately. It took a couple months for her to gain back the weight she'd lost, but by the end of the year, she was back in racing condition. But that left us with a new problem: Shirogane had always been very smart. Eventually she'd figure out that we weren't training her for anything, and then we'd be back to square one."

Interviewer: "Thus the beer league?"

Trainer: "Effectively, yes. I called up some of the other racing stables and made arrangements for some other retired horses - Still in Love and Haru Urara being the most famous - to meet up for a friendly race. Originally it was just going to be a private event, but the JRA caught wind of it and, since it was the off-season, offered to let us use the Hanshin Racecourse and make it an official no-prize demonstration race. It ended up being such a success that we founded the beer league to keep doing it, with that race retroactively becoming the new league's first event. Besides - we needed more races to keep Shirogane happy."

Interviewer: "And that explains some of the beer league's idiosyncratic rules, doesn't it?"

Trainer: "It's hard to overstate how much Shirogane's needs influenced the structure of the league. We were concerned that, if there were significant prizes, it would turn into just another standard racing league, just with older horses, thus pushing out anyone who, whether for reasons of health or money, couldn't maintain the sort of training schedule expected of an active career racehorse. (Admittedly, Shirogane was maintaining exactly such a schedule, but given she was over 13 years old by then, she was hardly dominating the event.) On the other hand, participating in a race is not cheap, so having no prizes would effectively exclude anyone but the larger stables or those with wealthy private backers. And on the third hand, Shirogane performed better when there was a clear reward for success. So the rule became that every participant got an equal share of the prize pool, except the 3rd-, 2nd-, and 1st-place finishers who got two, three, and four shares respectively, and we fiddled with the overall prize pool until each share was more or less enough to cover a given racer's costs. We also forbade on-track betting, and prohibited trainers and jockeys from betting on themselves to win, in order to limit the financial stakes. There are other things, too: we select our courses and race lengths to minimize the strain on the horses, and our rules on shoving and blocking are even more strict than the rest of Japan."

Interviewer: "Amazing. And all in the memory of Shirogane Orzeł?"

Trainer: "Memory?"

Interviewer: "Wait, are you saying Shirogane is still around?"

Trainer: "I'm saying she's standing right behind you."

Shirogane: *snorts*

Interviewer: "GAHHH!"

Trainer: "Ha! That one never gets old. Here, have a carrot, Shirogane. I'll figure out how you're so quiet one of these days."


* I have no idea if racehorses actually have insurance, let alone if they'd be barred from competing without it, but it seemed like a plausible reason to force a horse into retirement.