Shirley Shadow - Tumblr Posts
Shadow house Shirley and Rum Headcannons
(This is implying if they did pass the debut also spoilers for the characters and the story)
"Happiness was right in front of me if only I had opened my heart up sooner"
Shirley
Speaks in the first person whenever she's alone with Rum
Because of Shirley's lively and mischievous personality she absolutely loves to pull pranks on the other shadows and also makes herself look like a victim of the older shadows it's her way of getting back at their dolls for hurting Rum
Unlike Louise who only sees Lou as her face Shirley loves Rum for who she is her shy, timid personality makes her want to hug her no matter what
The only person she actively lets get away with hugging and touching Rum is Emilico because she understands that those two are good friends and she trusts Kate
She sees John as like a big brother figure and he sees her in the same way he actually finds her pranks to be quite funny
Compliments Shawn for how intelligent he is and tells him to take good care of his master because she sees John as being hopeless
She's like MaryRose in the sense that she remembers that she was a morph which is why after they pass the debut she tells Rum that she wants to do a mirror impression with her
She's the one who puts her accessories and does her hair in a mirrored style to Rum so that way anytime they're out and about they can't say that they're breaking Shadow house rules since Rum is technically copying everything she's doing
In reality by doing the mirror impression she actively is defying Shadow house but she makes it seem like she's not because that's how mischievous she is
She gives Rum her lavender bow back because she knows for a fact that that lavender bow on her finger didn't belong to her in the first place
Because her soot power allows her to transform by wearing the soot she admits from herself she takes a great interest in learning sewing so she can make other people's outfits to make the transformation look more believable
She also never told the shadows house that she developed her soot power because she doesn't want to that's a Secret between her and Rum
Whenever she's outside her room she never admits any soot showing how she never lets her emotions get the better of her but when she's in her room her power is so high that she makes soot scalactites meaning she's on par with Kate with how much so she can create
She doesn't like Barbie but she doesn't mind Barbara, this is because from her own experience she knows that the living doll doesn't defy the actual Shadow mistress/master their representing
She knows for a fact that Barbara has a crush on rum which is why she purposely lets them dance together whenever she gets the chance
She gets super jealous when other people try to get close to Rum because she wants to keep her for herself
Because of her sewing skills she likes to dress up Rum like a baby doll in all different types of colors
She'll take off Rum's portrait whenever they're outside of her room on purpose so that way the two can talk to each other even when they're not supposed to be and will take the blame for whenever Rum is about to get in trouble and blame it on Edward since people genuinely don't believe that she's a mischievous person because instead of Rum making faces to represent her Mistresses personality surely actually copies Rum's shy personality in order to keep the shadows house unaware about her true intentions
Likes hanging out with a living dolls more than she likes hanging out the shadows
Even though her soot power is physical at first the more and more she practices it with rum the more becomes the third type of soot power in the sense of it can mess with other shadows and it's all thanks to Rum gaining soot from other Shadow Masters and giving it to her mistress to try for herself
When Shirley eats another person's soot she's able to transform into them even if she's never seen the shadow themselves and after a long time of improving her power she can also use another person's slip power if she's so desires allowing her to gain all three types of powers physical mental and the unspoken type
This makes her one of the strongest shadows Shadow house has to offer but they have no idea about that because she never lets them know so she's never gets to take the special lessons because she doesn't want to
She lets Rum where her clothes because she thinks she looks beautiful in them
Doesn't like to see Rum be treated as nothing more than a mere face
Will transform into the bow on rum's finger to follow her when she has to do morning cleaning
Thinks Louise is developing a crush on rum but at the same time she thinks everyone is because that's how highly she thinks of her living doll
Enjoys dancing with MaryRose but will actively take Rum's portrait off there since it's a private space for a few minutes before the other dolls can get there
Studying can be quite hard for her since she's as smart as rum but doesn't have the same memory so rum tends to remember things for her
Loves to admire the plants sometimes we'll even draw them if she finds the time and will take some back to her room to continue making outfits for Rum based off those flowers
After learning that the research team makes perfumes based off of the flowers in the greenery she tries her hardest to learn how to do that too
Her favorite instrument is a harp and she learns sheet music pretty quickly
She likes the fact that Patrick is a bit more gentle with Rum than any other Shadow she's seen
During the debut Ricky tells surely not to worry because he's sure Rum will come and save her, well after they pass the debut she thanks him for telling her that because in her eyes he was actively looking out for her "darling Rum" and takes him calling her (scary because of her silence) as a compliment
Purposefully uses her transformation power to sneak into the kitchen and grab different types of food for Rum to eat
Doesn't like Sarah but enjoys Mia's company (she won't admit it but Sarah sometimes scares her)
Rum
Her mistress gives her cute compliments and pet names, even when they're outside of her room she calls her that on purpose as a way to differentiate her the Shadow from her living doll
Always gets nervous whenever her mistress has her take off her portrait while they're outside of her room
Thanks to Emilico she's able to speak with her finger more often something surely tends to copy whenever they're outside of their room
Sleeps in her Mistresses bed more often than normal (Shirley tells her to come sleep in her bed because she doesn't like being separated from her)
Thanks to Shirley she's able to make friends with other shadows and living dolls
Secretly touch starved which is why she likes it when her mistress or her friends hold her in the way that they do
The youngest out of the entire debut class so everyone feels an immense amount responsibility to protect her
Always gets nervous around Barbie because of Mistresses Barbara interest in her
Gets flustered whenever John compliments her whether it's in public or in private
Patrick loves spending time with her and enjoys talking about flowers with her and was horrified to find out that mistress Shirley was in a trap with poisonous flowers surrounding her
Louise actively teaches her how to stay physically healthy and she lets Louise use her soot power on her on purpose so that way whenever she needs to act confident she can
Cry's tears of joy whenever Shirley tells her just how much she loves her
Get super embarrassed whenever she wears an outfit her mistress makes her
When she drank the coffee and was back under the brainwashing of the house she was surprised to have her mistress tell her to put on her outfit and when they looked in the mirror together she called herself her "Mistresses face" which terrified her Shirley's fear and worry for her is what helped her break out of the brainwashing
Collect soot from other shadows whenever she starts cleaning in order to bring them back to her mistress
The only person who knows about their secret is Kate that's because she told Emilico
Likes it when Emilico worries about her
When her patients is pushed to her breaking point her personality becomes the exact opposite of her normal personality or Shirley's. Instead of being incredibly mischievous and playful, or shy and nervous, she becomes angry and sarcastic rolling her eyes and getting pissed off at the smallest thing something surely definitely enjoys because it allows her to see a different side to her living doll but it scares everyone else
Because of how shy and timid she is as a living doll everyone assumes that her mistress must be the same and she gets nervous when her mistress decides to use that to their advantage
At first when she did the mirroring act with Shirley before they left their room she was worried she wouldn't be able to handle it so when surely decided to have them communicate with their hands more and made things much easier
After Shirley gave her the lavender bow she was of course terrified by that prospect but when she put it back on her finger she remembered who originally gave her the idea to do that in the first place and she was able to gain her memories of the outside world back much quicker than Emilio did
Because of her photographic memory she's able to remember a lot of things even under the influence of the brainwashing including the form mistress takes whenever she spies on her
Isn't used to compliments so when she was called the super living doll room because of how smart she is she was blushing out of her mind
Is good friends with Maggie a person on her team but surprisingly Doug has also taken a good interest in her and so has Oliver and Susanna
Because of Shirley actively getting mad at the twins for what their dolls did to Rum, whenever they have their daily cleaning the Bell twins sometimes will treat her better and over time actively try to become our friends once they realize just how nice Rum really is
Her innocence and pure Heart combined with her adorable face makes her attractive and easy to approach to many shadows and living dolls, but the one person SHE actively goes to however outside of her friends is Barbara
Her and her mistress are Dorothy's favorites they don't know it but Dorothy really enjoys them… she was the one who picked them out during the selection after all
Dorothy purposefully sent them a gift which was a pet morph the other adults knew about it too but they don't know why she sent it to them out of everyone else to begin with
Shirley doesn't want to become an adult because she knows she'll lose rum if she does and rum doesn't want to lose surely either
They're on good terms with Lulu and Lorelei mistress (Lorelei actively likes Rum and Lulu thinks it's cute because their personalities are so similar yet so different, same thing goes for Candy and Stella)
Matilda finds rum quite adorable and loves to tease her about how cute she is
Candy and Stella are also good friends with them. Candy tries to help Rum become more confident and Stella always hides behind rum and Shirley whenever candy gets angry at her
Has a crush on everyone in her debut class especially emilico
Actively tries to show Shawn what she's capable of, after he complimented her saying that she has guts she wants to show him more of that as a way to prove it to herself
Blushes whenever Ricky pets are on the head even if he's copying his master, and she enjoys when Ricky actively looks out for her so she tries to do the same for him
Always gets nervous whenever Louise talks about how beautiful Lou is but when they're alone Lou makes it clear that she thinks Rum is prettier not because of any makeup she wears but because of her genuine kindness and she never lets her emotions stop her from trying to improve
She gets her rejoicing party coffee sent to her personally because the last time they gave it to her she pretended to choke on it making it seem like the Starbearers were actively trying to hurt her, this was a part of Shirley's plan to get the coffee so she can grow stronger by drinking it since it has some of the Lord grandfather soot in it
Rarely wears makeup even when they're outside of her room she only wears it in front of Barbara or Louise
Sometimes will act like a veiled doll thanks to one of the outfits mistress Shirley made for her in order to find out more information for her team
I love this (they're my favorite)
Rum is the Yarrow
Shirley is the Conium
The symbolism of flowers in Shadows House (part 4)
Master post with all the other topics
Shirley and Ram - the White Yarrow
I found it based on the flowers around the trap that Shirley was put in (more on that later). They look roughly the same as her hairpin.
Yarrow is a beautiful flower that shares twin meanings of healing and love. In the language of flowers, Yarrow's symbolic meaning is traditionally associated with healing which originates from Ancient Greek mythology. The Yarrow plant is also used for divination in Chinese culture.
In some contexts, yarrows are regarded as a cure for a broken heart.
Yarrow represents bravery, especially during war. It’s also thought that wearing the bloom will provide protection and courage.
A Representation of Psychic Powers – Yarrows are said to have mystic powers, so they are also regarded as a symbol of magic. Apart from exorcism, they’re also associated with spells, incantations and animal communications. The bloom is also called snake’s grass, devil’s nettle, death flower, and bad man’s plaything.
Doesn't this sound a lot like both Ram and Shirley? Especially with what we know now about them and their relationship.
But what about the trap?
Yarrow can be confused with the poisonous Conium maculatum.
Master post with all the other topics
Morehead cannons about Rum and Shirley from Shadow's house
(Spoiler warnings of course)
This is following under my Au of what if these two did pass the debut
Head Cannon #1: Shirley expels soot the same way a train expels smoke
One of my personal head cannons for Shirley (at least before I read the Manga) was specifically about the way she would expel soot.
The anime and manga state that each shadow has a soot quantity meaning they have a certain amount of soot that they would expel throughout the day, however the manga also reveals that some shadows can increase the amount of soot they expel thanks to their negative emotions. The less negative emotions you have the lower your soot quantity would be those with higher negative emotions (or higher emotional states) can make their soot quantity grows stronger to the point of making soot scalactites
Examples:
Kate
Barbara
John
Sarah
And that's just naming a few
We know that Louise and Patrick have medium soot quantity, same thing goes for the Bell twins however we've also seen shadows with low soot quantities being able to pass just fine like MaryRose and Matilda (a future debut member) so what about Shirley
We also know that at least for some of the characters the way they expose it is very different from others I won't say the scene line for line from the manga / anime but I will give brief descriptions on what what the anime manga show
Kate's go straight up
John's looks like fireworks
Louise's coils / curves
Patrick's spreads all out
Barbara's appears to expel all throughout her body
And that's about it but if we applied this knowledge to Shirley then maybe her should would be expelled in that of clouds and not just any clouds, clouds that look suspiciously a lot like the puffs of smoke you see from a train kind of like the soot train (but that would imply that she would remember getting on that train to begin with) after reading the manga I think this head Canon might be true
(I mean just look at the way she's expelling soot and you tell me that doesn't look like clouds)
Headcanon #2 Shirley is just like Mary Rose
I've had this idea in the back burner of my mind for a while so we all remember these two lovely ladies right
(Of course we do, I never shut up about at least one of them)
Well isn't it kind of interesting that both of their Shadow Mistresses just so happened to be purple as in the color of royalty, loyalty, magic, and majestic nature
And isn't it also very interesting that Rosemary just so happens to have a mistress who remembers her time as a morph, her past
(I think we all know where I'm going with this one) what if Shirley was no different what if she also remembered her time as a morph before taking on Rum's appearance
Story-wise that would be pretty interesting wouldn't it be cuz if you think about it Mary Rose was described as gallant meaning she has a more tomboyish way of acting just like rums appearance is very tomboy-esque her wiki even states that her hair is styled in a tomboy style, plus if you think about it Mary Rose is the only female character to wear pants so wouldn't it be interesting to have Shirley end up doing the same thing
Some evidence to support this idea is the fact that the wiki states that surely act as if she knows more about the Mansion than what she lets on, which could imply why she never bothered to reach out to talk to Rum herself, maybe she remembers the past as a morph and what this house was capable of and wanted to find a way to save Rum, but could never figure out how, because we've seen that it's not just the living doll who can make contact with the Shadow the shadow themselves can reach out and talk to them if they wanted but she never did
Additionally the manga reveals that Shirley's personality is lively and mischievous and what's more mischievous than going against the shadows house in a very subtle anti-lively way
It could be possible that if these two passed the debut she could have revealed everything she knew to Rum just like Kate did to Emilico, but she doesn't do it on the same day that Kate does she actually waits before revealing it to Rum because she wanted to see if anyone else knew this truth as well finding out that Kate did really help boost her confidence in telling rum because she was scared of what repercussions but when she found out someone else and her team knows about them being humans and not living dolls it gave her the confidence she needed to tell rum the next day
Plus could you imagine her pulling a Candy and Stella approach and defying the shadows house, her pretending to act like Rum, acting all shy and timid (which is the most mischievous way of her defying the Shadow's House of all time) adding on to that imagine her pretending like she doesn't speak all that much or she selectively mute which allows her to get special permission from the starburst to have a rum where a special type of portrait that allows her to speak for her
Headcanon #3 her connection to the Star Bearers
As I alluded to in the previous headcanon I truly do think that Shirley's personality would allow her to gain special privileges from the star bearers what are the special privileges you might ask
Being allowed to let Rum wear special portrait that allows her to speak for her Shadow mistress
Being able to go to specific rooms despite not having a soot power
Checking out areas that only veiled dolls are allowed in
Letting Rum wear specific clothing even if it doesn't match Shirley's outfit
Being able to walk around the house with team 10 (Kate's team)
Why is this well the shadow house views her as a more disabled Shadow but because they passed the debut and rum can speak they allow these privileges since she hasn't started talking just yet this is all part of our plans of actively defying the shadows house by showing that living dolls are their own person
Headcanon number 4 Shirley's (Rum's) hobbies
Speaking of allowing a living doll to think for themselves and be their own person now comes my favorite out of all of them
Shirley herself doesn't care much for having a hobby after Mary Rose explained that this was an important part of a Shadow's life she didn't really care but she didn't want to Rum to be unable to do anything in the house and she knew that she didn't have a hobby she might be seen as a worthless Shadow and get disposed of so what does she do
Have rum be the one to make the important calls on their hobbies, let me explain. She likes doing anything by Rum's side kind of like how Lorelei and Lulu don't like separating from one another Shirley doesn't like doing anything without her "Darling Rum" so she always asks rum What does she want to do
(Mind you here are the options for the hobbies these kids have in both anime and manga terms)
Study in the library
Admire the plants in the conservatory
Nurture your spirit in the music room
In the dancehall Mary Rose herself will instruct you
To improve oneself is a child's top priority embrace that
And mind you this isn't taking in consideration the fact that some of these kids have personal interests like Louise's interest in Art or their powers for example Margarets Powers is sticky soot ivy which makes sense considering her hobby is that of gardening
And notice The exchange happening here more specifically what Mary Rose says here (I'll translate it to anime terms for those of you who haven't read this)
Kate: maybe borrow the books and read them in our rooms
MR: that's perfectly fine. As per the rules there's a notebook in each room meant to catalog your time spent performing activities, if you do not make enough entries you'll be seen as a worthless Shadow with no intention of self-improvement
You can see where the problem comes from when there's a shadow who has no interest in any of this stuff and just wants to sow and draw especially since her power allows her to transform into literally anyone and anything in order to make this authentic she would have to take in a hobby in sewing something shadows house doesn't offer so how do you compromise by doing all of it
More specifically she asks Rum what hobby does she want to participate in? Each and every day they would go to practically every hobby room, sometimes even following Louise to spend time with Benjamin and grow stronger, and spending time with Louise also allows them to learn more about Art and how to draw.
Bear in mind that this has nothing to do with the fact that morphs are easily manipulated because of how malleable they are, this is because Shirley's just curious and has a strong urge to learn, even if it means doing something she's not interested in but if she knows that Rum is interested in it then she'll gladly learn it alongside of her (but she always gives the credit to Rum because she knows that without her she wouldn't be doing this in the first place) which is how she's able to make allies and people like Margaret and some other people like Eve from the first-aid team and Oliver and Jeremiah from the research team
At the end of the day that's who Shirley is, a curious girl who loves learning pretty much anything there is to know, and is willing to improve herself in any way shape or form… but not for the shadows house… it's for Rum's sake. She knows that her real name isn't Shirley (that's her living doll's name) which is why she was so proud of Rum for choosing her own name this made her happy because it showed her that Rum was able to make her own identity, and she wants to do the same (because the name Lily is so close to Shirley she's thinking about choosing that as her name when she's able to get Rum out of the shadows house)
Her biggest hobby is practicing her soot power, specifically eating other people's soot not only allows her to increase her quantity (going from low to high) but it allows her to transform into other shadows despite not seeing them face to face, and sometimes she can use their soot power because she has transformed into them. Which is the big reason why she took on sewing to make her transformation look more authentic, (plus she loves spoiling Rum in all different types of outfits and gifts but that's more on Rum's side of the story)
Shadow house theory
Yay theory time
Anybody who's seen chapter 192 shadows house (Monster) know about this specific type of coffee a type that usually given to the children to help their shadows potential of fusion go up even higher so that way they can become adults the manga chapter itself kind of explains what it does
So I have a major question if this type of coffee changes a Shadow's body is it possible for Shirley to drink this stuff and gain her human form back
The reason why I believe this could happen is because this kind of coffee stimulates their body and it's made clear in the story and that if the shadow master/mistress drinks this coffee it stimulates their body it's supposed to increase the chance of fusion but we know for a fact that thanks to a certain pair that it can do a lot more than making the two fuse
Thanks to Louise knowing the truth about what living dolls are at this point combined with Emilico and Kate trying to break the brainwashing of the coffee the living dolls drink, plus a few other small details like Ricky and Lou's relationship before entering the house it helped Lou break her brainwashing completely, and try to save mistress Louise however we know for a fact that if the fusion isn't complete one of them will die and if it's incomplete in the middle of it both of them will die
For spoiler reasons I want to talk about the chapter frame by frame but won't, so I will say this. Because Louise realized what she truly was she took it in a negative light realizing that she's not who she wanted to be and can never be, (at least in her mind) it made her so upset that she viewed herself as nothing more than a monster (Hey look I call out to the chapter)
(My theory on Barbara also gives us some more details about how these kids mental and emotional states affect their expulsion, link to that theory at the bottom)
Well what we're seeing from Louise is her mental and emotional state dictating how this fusion appearance of hers is looking let me explain.
Because Louise now views herself in a much more negative light than she used to, combining that negativity with the coffee she drank, it didn't JUST stimulate her want to fuse with Lou, but instead stimulated her body to match with how she viewed herself. She no longer sees herself as the benevolent Shadow mistress that she used to be, now she views herself as a monster, somebody who's trying to harm Lou, somebody who's vain and believes she is something greater than what she really is. As she stated it in the manga chapter the world doesn't revolve around her, and while it is good that she finally learned that lesson it also left her with a massive transformation
Why am I bringing up all of this for… context of course
With all of that in mind let's bring up Shirley and her relationship with Rum once again (I love talking about these two so here it comes). Anybody who knows me or has just read the Manga itself knows what Shirley's soot power is: it's Transformation, this is how the manga explains it
And I stated before this coffee can stimulate their bodies into doing more than what they're capable of now. We've seen thanks to Louise that it can physically alter a shadows body into something greater than what we would have ever imagined because of something very important
What the shadow themselves want is how they view themselves
A few chapters before monster got published we got to see Lou and Louise's side of the story. While Kate and the others were trying to save them we got to see what happened to them while all of this was going on, and we saw that while Lou couldn't stop the brainwashing effects of the coffee, Louise was able to help her by using her power on her, she also used Benjamin's training in order to help her ignore the influence that Lou was trying to give her, and keep her from singing so that way they could delay their fusion process. Louise even said "that they were definitely not going to fuse" showing how she didn't want to fuse with Lou in the beginning because she cared about her by this point, at least thanks to the information Kate told her
However another key piece of information that's important about this is the fact that the shadows house knows that the living dolls have influence over their masters, which is why she had to prevent Lou from singing in the first place, because she knew the moment Lou started talking to her directly she could be influenced by her to fuse, and that is the reason for the box of fusion to make sure that the influence is so strong that they literally can't listen to anyone else but their doll to fuse with, and that's unfortunately what happened to Louise. She tried her hardest to fight it off but at the end of the day she was influenced by Lou because of a certain other person taking advantage of the situation Lewis. He's the power allowed him to manipulate what Lou was saying causing her to be influenced by it against her will
But what the chapter monster revealed is: what she wanted vs how she saw herself ended, which up prevailing against what Anthony and Lewis were trying to do to her, but it also shows that what she wants vs how she views herself are two completely different things now
In the past she viewed herself as the prettiest strongest shadowgirl in the house and all she wanted was to become an amazing adult
But now that she knows the truth she doesn't want to fuse with Lou to become an adult, but at the same time she realizes that she's not pretty like Lou because she does not own Lou's face. She might be strong but that's because of Lou. She's nothing like her living doll she views herself now as a monster.
With all of that into consideration could it be possible that if Shirley could start drinking that special Shadow coffee, could it slowly over time to hopefully gain her human form back
Think about it for a moment, we know for a fact that while she and Rum didn't talk to each other all that much in the beginning, we know what she wants she wants to be close to Rum, she wants to support her we see this in the manga itself, as the first thing she ever transforms into was Rummy, the little bow that both of them had on their fingers. She knows that that bow was important to Rum because she saw them use it to speak with her during the debut
How she views herself is a bit trickier, but we know for a fact that she already knows the truth, after all in chapter 95 where we learn how Rum's been doing reveals that, the chapter where Kate broke Emilico out of her brainwashing and told her the truth about where she came from, just so happened to be the exact same day that Shirley went to her room to try and get more information for Rum which, not only allowed her to learn the truth about Rum and Emilico but also herself, and it's even possible that Shirley was around during the master robe ark, because while we never see her in the chapter where it takes place in the manga or the anime itself, we do know that the anime is perfectly fine with going off script to make its own original content for this already amazing work, because the kidnapping Arc that Emilico and Kate went through was not a part of the manga (but that was the first time anime watchers got to see a morph that just so happened to have a cute little curl on the top of its head). It revealed the status of Shirley & Rum before the manga ever did, revealing that those two are okay but they're not in the same place as they used to be, so it also gives Credence to her lively and mischievous personality. She's somebody who's willing to fight for what she believes in and she cares a lot about Rum, and she's willing to do pretty much anything for her. Even going out of her way to dangerous situations together information for her and helping Emilio find out where the secret coffee was so that way they can swap the beans
With all of that in mind it's possible that Shirley & Rum could easily find a way to get back to that room a little bit at a time, and get small ounces of that coffee, because Shirley knows what that coffee can do to a Shadow's body, not only did she see it but that panel of Louise as a hulking monster yeah, not only is Lou trapped in her chest but Shirley is also trapped there too, because she put a listening device into Lou's ear so that way she could hear Ricky's voice, and break her out of the brainwashing. So she knows exactly what that coffee can do to a shadows body and she knows how to get in
If she finds a way to sneak into that room and get some of that coffee little by little they can slowly increase her body's stimulation, combine that with her soot power allowing her to transform into something by wearing the soot she admits, this could not only help her gain her human form back but also increase her soot volume, allowing her to keep her human form much longer or even permanently, but it would also help her get stronger and sneak around places that Rum can't get to because she's a veiled doll, like the normal living Doll rooms and even Kate's room allowing her to transform into other things and even gain the ability to copy other people's power (of course that's my personal theory)
Who knows one day she might go from the tiny adorable morph that we see her running around as back into the sassy mischievous young girl that we know she is maybe we can actually hear her speak more and it will be really cute to see her and rum doing this pose
I don't know just some room for thought what are you guys think of this theory
Here's my first Shadow house theory for context on Barbara
If you also consider the fact that they're both veiled dolls in the story, and he's talked to her but doesn't realize that her Shadow mistress is still alive just like how no one realized his shadow master was still alive the parallels are even more convincing.
(if the story does a 180 and say that these two were somehow siblings and she just forgot about him at one point, or that they knew each other before he went to the manor back when they were in the village I'm going to flip my lid mainly because of the reason below)
every time these two are in the same vicinity as each other I'm terrified he might hurt her, considering it is confirmed he's killed a child (Maggie) before so anytime I see him with her all I can think is
"stay away from her you monster"
not sure what the point of this post is BUT christopher and anthony's hair really reminds me of shirley and rum
the parallels
We will stand together
Shadow house fanfiction
Rum pov
I woke up to the bell ringing apparently there was a special announcement that was going on for the living dolls and shadows so everyone had to wake up a bit earlier than expected but rather than leaving at the posting normally do and I mistress asked me to leave with her by this point I knew she didn't like talking to other people and so I was given permission to speak for her if she still couldn't
"everyone you need to listen up, a mysterious figure was spotted roaming the Halls last night if any of you know what this matters about report to the star bearers immediately" mistress Barbara proclaimed was shocked, I got nervous and clung to my Mistresses arm I can tell the way she held on to me that she was a little worried
as all the shadows were leaving Barbie told the living dolls to stay so we can get cleaning and as everyone was cleaning up I overheard something I probably shouldn't have
"hey Miss Sunshine you wouldn't happen to know about this new incident would you"
*Sunshine… wait she's talking to Emilico*
"If I find out you're a part of this new problem it will not end well" Barbie told her before walking away to go join the other star bearers
Emilico looks nervous as she walked my direction I tried to get away only to bump into one of the Bell twins… the one who's supposed to be mistress Isabel's twin sister
"what do you think you're doing you're supposed to be helping me clean come on" she said quite rudely and she tried to drag me back to our team
"sorry Isa" I said under my breath Emilico heard me and so did she
"what did you say" she once again said but this time pretty loudly as everyone looked closer at me I was getting nervous
"Isa it's a nickname short for Isabel right that's your mistress isn't she" Emilico said standing up for me
"my name is Belle and besides how can you tell which one of us is our Mistresses doll" she said as her other twin came over to her and that's when I noticed a difference
"well you two might be twins but it's the older one who stands up for the younger one right, the younger ones always clinging on to the other one, plus the way you guys look at us… Isa looks at us with a lot of disdain kind of cold while, Mira tends to look at us with more gentle distracted eyes" I described using rummy to speak like I normally do and everyone looked at me surprised
"you can identify as by just the way we're looking at you"
"yeah I mean I remember that you both look at us differently you act cold but you're nice at least that's what I hope" I said before anyone can make more commotion Emilico grab my hand and drag me over to her team
"are you okay we heard everything" another living doll called out to us Rosemary
"I'm okay how about you Rum"
I wanted to answer but I was too nervous after all that commotion so I just stood behind her telling her how I felt
"she said she's okay she's just nervous"
"honestly that's really cute that you're willing to speak for her Emilico" Lou said as she looked at us with such kind eyes
"well yes it is cute you still need to learn to be more confident and speak out loud more after all you're mistress doesn't talk all that much correct if you're going to be her face and her voice you need to speak up if she doesn't talk that much that's fine but if there's a time where you know she needs to be confident then be confident otherwise you're not doing your job correctly" Mia said with a kind of stern cold voice honestly she's a little scary
"I'll try my best to be honest I wish I was a little more like you and Sarah you too are able to mimic each other so well" I said looking down as I tried to help with cleaning my own team didn't even try to come back for me after all
"yeah but you're good too Rum you might not mimic mistress Shirley but you mirror her or more accurately she mirrors you right" Emilico said with the same smile on her face as she tried to encourage me
"that's true no other Shadow master living doll pair does that it might help you stand out a little more" Lou said that she was helping me rearrange the books
"even mistress MaryRose thinks that's impressive and we support you no matter what rum" Rosemary said smiling the only one who didn't seem like they were having a good time was mia
"mirroring each other is fine but please be careful when it comes to the rules I don't want the star bearers hurting you like they did before, you're lucky they're allowing you to speak for your mistress but maybe you should talk to her about this mirroring thing that's already bad that you two are breaking the rules by switching accessories" she told me still sounding a little annoyed
"but to be honest I'd much prefer to have you on our team than you being stuck with the Bell twins" she said that she gave me a head Pat smiling being so kind to me
We continued chatting while we were cleaning and I noticed someone was watching us but I couldn't figure out who it was. Soon we were done with cleaning and I decided to go back to my room a bit early only to run into someone
"oh rum are you okay after everything that happened with the Bell twins" I recognize that voice it was Shawn
"yeah I'm fine… just a little nervous after everything that happened I can only imagine how angry Barbie must be" I said looking down scared
"don't worry about her if she says anything I'll protect you" he said was such a confident smile that I am envied a little
"thank you, tell Ricky I said hi" I said as I walked away smiling
I finally made it back to my room and collapsed into bed I was flustered out of my mind from everything that happened it was only when I removed my hands they notice a black bow tied around my finger
"what the mistress Shirley is that you" I asked as I looked at the bow and she retransformed mind you she wasn't wearing her normal clothes but she didn't seem to care
"you have some good friends I'm so happy I got to see them and hear what you thought of them with my own heart" she said giggling as she brought me up to her room
ever since the debut I learned what her real personality was like, she's very lively and mischievous one of the ways she shows this mischievousness is by pretending to be just as shy as me that way I'm the one speaking for her it's one of her ways of breaking the rules of the shadows house without making it obvious
"I got to say Shirley you're the best living doll I've ever had" she said that she spun me around hugging me using my real name
"mistress I know that's my name at least the name I had before entering the house but you can't call me that outside our rooms" I said worried ever since she broke my brainwashing she's been treating me more like an actual person than a doll and I'm fine with that but I know it will cause trouble
"I know I know but maybe we should start focusing on something really important like my name if we ever managed to get out of here I'm going to meet my own name right something that's similar to yours but it's my own identity" she said walking across the room her spewing out of her like crazy
"careful you're making more so than what the house thinks you're making" I warned her pointing up to her ceiling
"oops you're right my bad" she said smiling well I think she was smiling her tone definitely sounded gitty
She continued to just be a source of energy she was just as silly as emilico she was just having a lot of fun spinning practicing dancing helping me clean and making sure all of her soot has put in a special bag that no one besides myself could get access to
"you're so shy and timid yet you're so cute that's the personality I need to adopt when we're outside my room" she said switching from one topic to another she really likes to talk but at the same time doesn't like to talk to strangers
"I was thinking about something" I tried to get her attention back on focus
"about the whole mirroring thing about how we should mirror each other instead of acting like a shadow and an actual living doll right" she said finishing my sentence
I smiled at her knowing that she knew what I was going to say
Her soot power not only allows her to communicate with me through our hearts but for her to read my mind and hear things that I can hear she can see anything I see and hear anything I heard I really did act like her face because of this power and when she uses it on me my hand goes completely black allowing me to do essentially everything she can as a shadow
"do you think it's a good idea" I asked nervously has she pats my head and holds me close
"it was an idea that came from your dear friend Emilico right, I say let's give it a try" she said was such a gentle tone is she cupped my cheek I noticed that whenever she touches my face no soot ever comes off her fingers which is interesting considering everything else another Shadow touches they expel soot so it's weird that she doesn't do that
"Let's do our best" she said as she looked at me I still couldn't figure out how she felt so all I could do a smile as I agreed we swapped our bows right before we reached for the door handle and all I could think about was how to make her smile
Afterwards we finally left our room and we met up with rosemary and Mary Rose they went on and on about how a shadow needs to develop a hobby to improve their life and just based off of my mistress was saying in her head she was not keen on this
*man they're trying to force us to do more stuff by developing a stupid hobby whatever* she said as I acted the way she did because of how shy she acted we grabbed on to Emily Co and Kate's hands whatever hand didn't have our bow on our finger we grabbed with and we would always talk with the finger that had our bow tied to it something she picked up after watching me talk with my finger
"Shirley wishes to know if we have our own independent hobbies can we teach them to the other children" I said it loud speaking in third person to let them know that this is what my mistress was thinking when in reality I was actually thinking it
"I'm not sure no one's ever asked a question like that"
"No one's ever proposed an idea like that"
Sarah and Mary Rose said at the same time
They decided to ask the star bearers later and for now me and Ricky I mean Patrick were allowed to go developing our hobbies because the other three members of our class had a special lesson with Susanna
*now that's something I'm curious about what's the special lesson maybe Emilico can tell us later for now let's see what these silly hobbies have in store*
"if I remember correctly there's the library, the music room the conservatory in the dance room how about we go to the conservatory first" I said kind of excited to see other types of flowers
*that's my darling Rum, you and that amazing memory of yours* she said with a kind of teasing tone in her head
We saw that Patrick had also gone there and I couldn't hold back how excited I was to see so many pretty flowers
"you're right Patrick these do smell quite lovely" I said out loud speaking my own thoughts
"you two like flowers" a shy voice came from the shadows as I turned to her I realized I knew her
"I know you, you're Maggie you're part of Shirley's team" I said once again speaking in third person as mistress Shirley mirrored exactly what I was doing
"yes that's true Margaret is a part of Shirley's team. Shirley's and Patrick's living dolls is honestly so lucky your friends with Kate's doll right" she said looking at us was such a tender face
"we are but why would Margaret say we're lucky" Patrick piped up Ricky doing exactly what his master was doing
"because Margaret was thinking you are on the same Tina as John and Shirley's living doll because of how close you are with Kate's living doll might get transferred over to her team to be honest those twins have such cruel hearts I hope they just disappear" Margaret said with a coldness to her voice
Mistress noticed how nervous I was getting, I felt her squeeze my hand a bit tighter
"what kind of flowers can we grow here" I asked still quite curious
"I heard that children who like flowers grow up with pure hearts" I heard Margaret say under her breath and she guided us to a place where shadows can grow flowers
"thank you but I want you to know rum is the one who likes flowers I'm interested but not in the same way she is so please if anyone's going to grow any flowers here it'll be her please teach her well Margaret" I said out loud without even realizing it
"was that you talking or surely" Patrick asked me only for my mistress to put up her finger with the blue bow showing how even though she was the one thinking it she wanted to let them know that I wanted this not her but she didn't want to come off as mean so she said it in a way that I would say it
"oh I didn't know living dolls could enjoy things like this that makes Margaret happy please teach your mistress all you know and I'll help you myself" Margaret said and she kept my hands and I could tell just by the way Maggie's reacting that she's happy
"Patrick agrees let's work together to grow beautiful flowers" he said smiling at us
Just before we walked away Margaret handed us a gift
"the flowers you both liked were peonies and Margaret noticed that surely was also looking at lavender so please take them the peonies Margaret grew them herself" she said so shyly we thanked her and left walking with Patrick before Mr Shirley stopped me
*Rum, please look at me* I heard her say but the somber tone in her voice
*please don't push yourself too hard I know you're doing this because we have to follow the rules without making it obvious we're breaking them as much as we can but if you want these hobbies you can have them please just tell me I don't want you to think that I'm using you as my living doll you're my best friend and I don't want to hurt you okay* she said in her head and I could sense that she was a little sad
And that's when I realized the doting dressing me up in her clothes breaking my brainwashing it's not just because she knows that I'm human but because she genuinely wants me to live a good life here even if it's as a living doll
I couldn't say anything back all I could do was smile as we continue to walk but she knew what I was thinking
*I'll try as long as you promise me to tell me when you're tired and you don't want to do something I'm always going to be here for you, you're like the pretty lily flowers that I saw in the garden with Emilico during the debut* those were my truthful thoughts
As we continue to walk an image in my head appeared as I realized it was the first time I finally figured out how my mistress was feeling this whole time she had been smiling for me but it wasn't her smile
But this time it was for the first time ever I saw her smile
A smile that made me realize that no matter what happens in our lives she'll stand by me we'll stand together or a great pair but we're more than that we're a team and no one's going to break us apart
I think the manga just gave us a way to let Shirley gain her human form again
The manga goes out of its way to show how the fragment of favor physically affects the morphs around them and it also goes out of its way to saying this
This means that not only can Shirley possibly gain her human form back and a bit faster than what we expected but this also means another character could potentially come back to us as well
(For anyone who doesn't remember Douglas had a very kind senior that he looked up to named Finn, but because of his old leaders habits of blaming others for his mistakes the poor boy got disposed of, with this being the most likely outcome being his living doll got turned into a veil doll like Rum while Finn himself ended up becoming fuel for the shadows house)
If this theory ends up being true not only can Shirley gain her human form back a bit quicker or there could be another morph that could bring back other living dolls who lost their masters and heck other dolls whose Shadow Masters were unfairly disposed of could come back they just need to be rebuilt from the ground up or find their own identities
I mean after all the manga does make it clear Shirley never actually reunited with Rum after they saved Louise and Lou it could be possible that she still in the unification room if that's the case where is she now plus we also got to see her expelling soot in that tiny morph form for the first time ever
Plus after the most recent chapter monologue gave us all that crazy information it definitely feels like the Manga could be building up for Shirley and Rum to have a big moment.
After all everyone else has had a great moment where they've grown stronger in a way
Physical by
like John protecting Kate's honor,
Patrick increasing his power exponentially, or
Mentally by
Louise finally realizing Lou doesn't belong to her,
and Kate herself has had some pretty good moments.
So why have all this buildup and not have it be paid off by allowing Shirley to essentially exploit the system that we just got laid out before us
And since Christopher is using the morphs to bring back his master, and her power allows her to transform into other people or creatures just by wearing the switch she emits, she essentially has a stronger version of the morphs already given mimic power. If she did have a little bit of that fragment of favor not only could she grow her human form back a bit faster, her soot expulsion could be stronger. Allowing her to transform herself into Christopher if they ever need her to so that way she can learn more about his plans and relate this information back to her beloved Rum and Kate, after all Rum is the only one of Kate's classmates who never drank that coffee Barbara gave everyone during the party, (and it could be possible that she's there during the party and witnessing all of this) meaning the only real living doll not brainwashed is Rum. Which means we could have an actual moment where Rum and Shirley could finally shine
(and plus this would make up for the fact that these two were supposed to be the ones to save Louise and Lou, but instead they opted to give that moment to Anthony which almost got the two girls killed. Plus since Anthony and Rum have worked together, but it's obvious she doesn't trust him, we need to be on the lookout for this man. Considering the fact that he's perfectly fine with killing off people who are like him, I do not want him anywhere near Rum.) (But my previous post I've already proved how angry I am at him for doing that and how I want him to stay away from the little angel)
