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On a Pale Horse (Umamusume/Youjo Senki)

Shiroganes foray into her new school life with the Golden Generation,some Mejiros,Stay Gold and others look to be going well.

And yeah that staying power will prove useful once she gets up to par with the rest of her classmates.

As for Stay Gold continually staring at her?
Shirogane: Why do I feel like I'm in danger?
 

This is why I added the disclaimer that I only read fanfiction and not the original source, hah...still, by the like ratio I'm either close or plenty of others also missed the mark?

Still, he for sure isn't as immersed in the culture as a hardcore otaku, given his lack of social skills discouraging him chatting about it with people plus his intense focus on work eating into his time... probably, hah
 
It's interesting. There are a lot of things in Umamusume that, on first glance, you might be inclined to simply brush off as conceits of game mechanics or one-off jokes for a gag panel, not 'in character' to what's going on in the 'real story', as such.

But as time goes on and certain things pile up, you suddenly realize: this stuff is all actually happening.

Neo Universe lamenting a friend she never met in a world she'll never see (again).

People literally getting powerups from divine blessings and channeling the spirits of the ancestors.

Mad scientists stopping at nothing to plumb the nature of the world - and getting results.

Sunday Silence haunting her descendants and people like Manhatten Cafe who aren't just seeing things. There are things there doing things. That she can see.

Grandmothers leaving a grimoir for the kids and surprisepikachuface when they try out a ritual in it.

People like Marvelous Sunday or Maruzensky who can just casually slide into an astral realm in certain conditions.

When Rudolf talks about someone going 'in the zone', it's not just a figure of speech; they're literally tapping into another level of existence.

Umamusume is a low key supernatural setting, and I think it's interesting to see authors touch on that aspect.
@WrandmWaffles how supernatural do you plan on having the setting being? I know the zone is a part of the reason that top level umas or a tier above, so this made me curious on how supernatural the zone will be.
 
I think it refers to the fact that Air Groove had complications giving birth to her last child Chopin, though she stood through the pain to nurse them one time.
honestly I took it more to be about how tanya seems to have basically no real motivation as a racer and the comments about her not being from a racing family and the implications that she doesn't have much of a chance due to lacking the extra training and resources that gives being what put air groove off
 
Plus Shirogane hitting people in the trauma buttons even before the races start!
Once she starts doing it on purpose, she might even win the race!

Thanks for the chapter!
Thank you for reading!

Wait someone explain? What did shiro do exactly to set off air groove? I'm not that deep into the uma lore
I think it refers to the fact that Air Groove had complications giving birth to her last child Chopin, though she stood through the pain to nurse them one time.
Shirogane gives off some orphan horse vibes due to her self sufficiency and lack of separation anxiety, since most horses prefer to have other horses around, and her being part Polish caused Air Groove to associate her with Chopin subconsciously. Reportedly Air Groove clung to life as long as possible, enough to either nurse Chopin once, or at least hear him make noise and seem healthy, depending on the source, so for Air Groove the uma, not being around for her last foal is something that haunts her hindbrain, leading her to take a sort of maternal role with other umas. Part of that is also the fear that Chopin wouldn't recognize her, or would be maladapted due to not having a mother.

Is this supposed to say "the bridge of her nose" instead?
Correct, should be fixed now. Thanks.

Also, I didn't realize your comment about Air Groove's trauma was serious rather than a joke, which is interesting.
Trauma ain't a joke! Also there will be time later for Air Groove to lament Shirogane's sense of humor.

Tra-uma...Mood Down

How many trauma points has Shirogane unintentionally triggered for other Umas?
Mostly jumpscares, because not only does she step lightly, she is short enough that for a lot of other umas she's below eye level, and since she wasn't a racehorse in her past life, there's a bit of an effect where their senses don't really register there as being there if they aren't directly interacting with her.

So imagine Aston Machan, but with Symboli Kriss S aura. Given how skittish umas can be, that's rather unnerving.

In her support card event, Stego is able to see these floating light orbs that were actually fragments of memory from some Uma past live as racing horses (one of which includes Silence Suzuke final moment). I'm guessing that the reason why she's focusing on Shirogane is because she has more orbs than usual due to her having two past lives?
These seem to be memories she collected or shared with umas that Stay Gold the horse raced against, so she would not have a light orb that goes into Shirogane. Probably a good thing, given what happens when the orb gets reabsorbed.

Oh right Stay Gold (horse) really liked ponies because he too was smol and Shirogane is tiny honse
Shirogane is actually taller than Stay Gold. By about 3 cm or so.

how supernatural do you plan on having the setting being? I know the zone is a part of the reason that top level umas or a tier above, so this made me curious on how supernatural the zone will be.
It will be supernatural enough that Shirogane's past lives and experiences will influence other racers if she gets into the zone.
 
Shirogane is going to get the reputation as a terror on the longer races, and that isn't even talking about her endurance. She is going to jump scare so many pace setters that didn't realizes she was following in their wake the entire race, only to pop out when they are starting to tire near the end. And on top of that she actively body blocks those that try to pass her. I don't know much about horse races outside of the uma mobile games, but I don't think most horses keep track of other races well enough to move in front of them when they try to move up to pass.
 
Our protagonist seems to be a stealthy girl! I look forward to her spooking some front runner or pace chaser in the future.

I liked that Shirogane didn't even flinch when Seiun did her cutting maneuver. She even has an in-world explanation of being used to weaving past cars and pedestrians, and needing to stay calm to keep the food safe.

I also found it a bit funny how her thoughts about likely not being able to match her peers was pretty realistic, given that its the golden generation.

Something that I'm finding interesting is how Shirogane actively uses her ears to keep track of her surroundings, while nobody else seems to do so. More experienced racers might do it automatically, but at their current level Shirogane seems to be the only one to be doing it on purpose.

I also love how Shirogane is a punny uma. Here comes the one person who would laugh at Rudolf's jokes and it's a dead-pan straight-faced takes-everything-too-seriously kind of girl.
 
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6500m (or rather 4 mile races) races were a thing in the past, where horses were eliminated if they fell too far behind the lead racer. This is where "Eclipse First The Rest Nowhere" comes from; Eclipse was such a monster that no other horses could keep up and all would lose by elimination rather than even getting to the finish line. Modern race horses lack the stamina for that sort of racing in general, since they go REALLY fast. So Shirogane is a sort of monster from the days of yore in that regard.

But Urban running is where you're going to see the injuries really start to appear. An ideal "urban runner" is going to be minimizing shock to their legs because it's all high-impact surfaces. Where a normal uma is probably trying to kick through the ground for their explosive running force, Shirogane's running style is probably almost "bike-like", relying on smoothly maximizing her surface contact time instead, which is also easier to perform with her small body.


As an aside, it just also happens that style is closer to the theoretical model for the fastest speed obtainable. Every moment in contact with the ground allows for more acceleration and every moment not in contact is purely drag. This is why tires are good.

She probably prefers shoes with a soft grippier tread than most other Uma as a result and burns through them at a rate far exceeding her peers. If she doesn't want to change her running style for turf, she may need look into what she's allowed in the way of spiked cleats to make up for the difference.



The talk about explosive force and running methods came to mind when I saw this.

@WrandmWaffles Does Shiro have any specific running style worth mentioning? I saw Chibi-Reaper mention that Icelandic horse gene, and got curious.
Going through the thread has made me wonder.
 
@WrandmWaffles Does Shiro have any specific running style worth mentioning? I saw Chibi-Reaper mention that Icelandic horse gene, and got curious.
Going through the thread has made me wonder.
Pretty sure she does as a consequences of delivering food by foot in a urban area.

This is what I can find regarding her running 'style';
Shiro-chan is running with her ears back to reduce drag and to listen behind her. However...
screen-shot-2015-04-01-at-6-12-22-pm.png
With her tail stiffly out for balance and ears back, she looks like she out for blood, but is completely blank faced.
 
So, Shirogane gets into the zone and suddenly all the other racers start freaking out as they hear artillery fire?
Each hoofbeat as cannon fire, and the water that pools upon the track as bullets. War is hell, and where the Pale Rider walks, hell follows.
 
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It's always good to see slice-of-life Uma stuff, it gives me a real wide smile. Especially that Stay Gold scene where I could picture her all fidgety yet being nonchalant about it. On the racing side, Tanya really does have a lot of options available to her with that much Stamina. It almost feels like she's running like 3 white recovery skills as her innate skills. It's to the point that it feels like she'd be a godly 'Great-Fronter' strategy, though I'm mostly certain this is just an illusion done through how efficiently she runs, slipstreams, paces, and corners. Honestly, with Tanya, you'd never really know until Trainer comes along and puts her to the proper metrics. Though if her stam really is that monstrous, it might make for a pretty painful racer to run against, especially when she starts her final spurt much earlier than others to finally burn it all and hit top speed earlier and for a longer time.
 
Giving her opponents literal shellshock. Tanya 'this is your morning alarm' Degurechaff
Her unique skill would totally be the Salaryman and the Soldier with her in a trench, gearing her up. Then her taking off low across the battlefield, artillery exploding around her and gunfire wizzing past as she breaks through the enemy line.

EDIT:
This is what I can find regarding her running 'style';
She's also a classic case of non-standard body language, because she didn't have another uma in her house to pick up from. There might even be cases where she developed completely unique tells that only make sense to her family and close friends.

Not that she doesn't do any Uma emoting, she did have uma friends after all, it's just probably more muted because her human emoting skills are more adept.
 
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"I'm Seeking the Pearl, always nice to meet a new kouhai!"

Shirogane blinked, taking a moment to realize that this uma was not, in fact, looking for a pearl and that was actually her name. Who came up with this kind of thing?
El Condor Pasa: "And these are my fellow Americans – Kids Lookin' Touchable, and Lookin's Not a Felony!"

Tanya: "..."
 
Each hoofbeat as cannon fire, and the water that pools upon the track as bullets. War is hell, and where the Pale Rider walks, hell follows.
I don't think most peoples understand how truly traumatizing an experience it would be for the other racers.
Here is a recreation of a WW1 Drumfire; or the background sound of an artillery barrage that could last for entire days at a time :
give it a few seconds for it to truly hit.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we72zI7iOjk
 

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