On the one hand, he genuinely is the most unlucky vod in the GAR, to the point of disbelief. If a flowerpot is going to fall of a balcony, it’s going to be while he’s under it. If a walkway gives out, it’ll be while he’s on it.
On Kamino he had the highest scores, especially on situational awareness and over difficult terrain. His reaction times and his attention to detail and his spatial awareness, unmatched.
And then three weeks into the war he takes a head wound and loses it all.
So after that, with the Guard, not only does he have bad luck, but also no real spatial awareness. He walks into doorframes, into tables that have not moved or the edge of a bunk literally screwed into the wall. He has literally fallen down an open manhole on a patrol when covering a shift, three times. And he’s just not as steady on his feet anymore.
He adored art once but lost his ability to see colour. He loved word games and puzzels but now letters and numbers just jumble together.
And he gets these headaches that pound and persist.
But he still has his vode and the Guard is actually safe, so long as he keeps to barrack security and so long as he has vode to look out for him. The commanders won’t let him be taken, the medics are doing everything they can to keep on top of it just in case anything happens. And he doesn’t just manage, he thrives.
And his vode introduced him to charcoal drawing, so that he could only see in black and white didn’t matter. Vode looked up dyslexia tools in the hopes they’d help. Vode who cut up crash mats on the corners he walks into the most. They helped find solutions and work arounds and ways to make things worse.
By a year into the war more than half of the Guard have some sort of disability or another, but Shap was one of the first to arrive. It may have changed their futures from what they’d once believed they’d have, but it certainly hasn’t stopped them.
