Shadow Man

“For every day I spent spying on others, there was always a night filled with delightful cuddles and sweet kisses. You haven’t just saved me - you’ve restored the long-lost, sought-after happiness in my life that I couldn’t find on my own. You’ve been my favorite shoulder to cry on, you’ve understood everything about me, and you’ve always been there for me to lean on.”

-Shadow Man, to Gemini Man

Varuna, better known as Shadow Man, is the last Kuiper Droid to exist, and the younger brother of Sunstar and the Stardroids. He is Gemini Man’s husband, Laser Man’s father, and one of the three main protagonists of Counting Stars.

Appearance
Shadow Man is a slender robot of average height. He has a dark gray skin-tight bodysuit that also covers his neck, and his royal blue hood-like helmet has white knobs and a Shadow Blade on the forehead. His royal blue chest plate has a felt-like texture and an upside-down triangular section of white denim with black lacing - this denim has a large slit cut into one of the laces, and it can be reached into from the outside. Attached to his bouncy chest plate are two white, spherical shoulder guards with accents of lilac, and his white arm guards also have lilac accents and royal blue gloves. Under the chest plate is a golden belt, and his royal blue boots have white feet and are topped with circular white kneecaps. There are lilac straps that attach to his elbow and knee joints.

Without his armor on, his curves are much more visible. He has red eyes, no eyebrows, and straight black hair that extends down to his upper back, which he usually keeps tied in a ponytail with a red ribbon. On his back is tattooed 愛, the Japanese kanji for “love” (ai), in black ink. He wears a wide variety of clothing that ranges from tank tops to shorts, though he is quite often seen shirtless with black leggings that have a purple stripe on each side. In addition, he is always barefoot if he’s not wearing his knee-length black boots.

He occasionally wears adornments like bracelets, necklaces, and chokers. Armor or not, he wears his signature red scarf very frequently. Like all the other aliens, he is capable of using his camera eyes, which makes them black with white irises and scleras, and turns his skin light gray - he usually does this when he’s either stalking others or in a bad mood.

Before he was redesigned, he originally looked pretty much the same, but there were a few differences. The blade on his forehead didn’t have the hole inside it, and it could not be thrown. The denim on his chest plate was a pale yellow triangular button, and he lacked his golden belt. His hair was much shorter, ending at his neck, and it was shiny and smoothed forward in a way that looked similar to a faux hawk haircut. He also had long, elfin ears, another trait he shared with his other alien siblings.

Personality
Shadow Man was once curious, soft, and submissive - he was somewhat easily intimidated, and became attached to his authorities quickly. In spite of this, he took a lot of joy from spending time with his family and doing fun things with them - this largely included going on killing sprees during missions, since the Laws of Robotics did not exist, and he loved all the action and horribly destructive things happening at once.

After being reactivated and modified, for a time, he was quite cold and stubborn towards others. He did not speak much, and was a bit too overconfident in his own abilities. He also had a short temper, which usually resulted in him venting through either crying or shredding everything in his path into pieces. He was fiercely protective of whoever he considered his new “master” and claimed it was “honor,” though it was really a hateful and hard outer shell to protect the soft, sensitive true personality he still had - he just didn’t want anyone to see that, so he could avoid being embarrassed. He also lost his psychotic side.

Once his CPU programming was tweaked a bit, his personality warped completely, though it was a change for the better. Now, he is easygoing and carefree towards everyone, and has regained his childlike curiosity from his far past. He is shown to be highly intelligent, sneaky, and clever, as evidenced by his hobbies. He is also a romantic guy, as others say he sounds like he’s flirting no matter what he says. He minds his manners when talking to authorities, but swears very frequently and is very unapologetic towards humans. He has rather fearless, reckless, and impulsive tendencies, as well as an extremely psychotic and sadistic mindset when it comes to battle. Since his brothers found a way to remove the Laws of Robotics from him and themselves, he now continues to express much joy when he kills or talks about killing - this is something many find disturbing, but his family and Gemini Man find it amusing. The latter even considers it cute, and these savage habits are something Shadow Man shares with Elec Man, which is part of what makes them best friends.

Shadow Man is also notably sexual and perverted, as he likes porn, makes a lot of sex jokes, and constantly flirts with Gemini Man in all sorts of ways. He is amused by his husband’s narcissism, and has a penchant for pushing people’s buttons without remorse.

In spite of all this, he actually has a very caring and gentle side to him, especially towards robots with younger minds. If one of his friends or family members is stressed, he is surprisingly sympathetic and affectionate towards them, doing his best to comfort them [his way].

He is also a specialist in the field of robotics, and of all robots, he is the most skilled. He enjoys rambling about the complicated things about robotic science - he shares this habit with Acid Man and Bass, and as such, the three are a known trio of geniuses.

Powers/Abilities

 * Shadow Blade - can spawn an infinite amount of hira shurikens from his forehead and throw them with highly keen precision
 * Massive internal storage space - has a lot of storage space inside himself, and uses it to carry a large hidden arsenal of various weapons
 * Enhanced speed - can run at the speed of lightning
 * Enhanced stealth - can move at any speed and still be entirely inaudible
 * Enhanced flexibility - can bend his body in many ways without hurting himself
 * Camera eyes - can use his eyes to take pictures, record videos, and transfer them to others with this ability
 * Night vision - can see clearly in environments with any amount of darkness
 * Umbrakinesis - can summon shadowy energy to coat himself and frighten others, as well as teleport using shadows
 * Vocal distortion - can make his voice as glitchy, loud, or distorted as he wants
 * Wall-climbing - can attach himself and move freely on walls, ceilings, and surfaces of any kind
 * Harming humans - can bring physical harm to humans

Strengths

 * Highly advanced CPU
 * Highly acute hearing
 * Highly efficient storage mechanism
 * Wide range of weapons, which are very deadly
 * Very quick reflexes, high speed, and incredible flexibility
 * Completely silent
 * Cold resistant
 * Elegant
 * Calm and easygoing
 * Smooth talker
 * Caring

Weaknesses

 * Impulsive and reckless
 * Impatient
 * Highly destructive
 * Ruthless
 * Sometimes rude
 * Somewhat creepy and disturbing
 * Heat intolerant

Trivia

 * Shadow Man’s relation to the alien family rather than the third line of Robot Masters is what NoisyMartian believes to be canon, since she has enough evidence - she also thinks this way without caring that some people consider him to be a brother to the third line of Robot Masters instead.  If this were true, Shadow Man’s relationship with Gemini Man would be incest - this is why they are initially unrelated in her headcanon.
 * The reason Shadow Man changed his hairstyle upon being modified was because he immediately remembered that his closest Kuiper Droid brother, Eris, was now dead - he has watched him die.  Eris’ hairstyle was the same ponytail that Shadow Man has now, and the latter chose that specific style in order to honor his fallen brother.
 * Now that Eris is dead, his closest brother is Sunstar.
 * Like the other aliens, Shadow Man used to have long, elfin ears, but he lost them once he was modified.
 * The weapons contained inside Shadow Man’s storage compartments are as follows:
 * Twenty knives inside his chest plate, which he can pull out and put back through the slit in the denim.
 * Three smoke bombs inside each arm guard.
 * Four grenades inside his left thigh.
 * Eight poison darts inside his right thigh.
 * He is also dexterous with handguns, crossbows, bow and arrow, lances, spears, staves, swords, and whips.  This is because he was trained to be able to use those weapons in his childhood.
 * Like all the other Kuiper Droids, he was once able to shoot laser blasts from his hands.  After being modified, however, he no longer has this ability.
 * Shadow Man, his husband, and their son are all musicians - Shadow Man plays the flute, Gemini Man plays the piano, and Laser Man plays the harp.
 * Due to Shadow Man’s perverted side, he and Snake Man argue a lot despite being best friends.
 * He makes sure to hide this side of him when interacting with innocent people.
 * His voice sounds very similar to that of Fuse Man, another one of his good friends.
 * He received his red scarf from Mercury when he turned sixteen.  It used to belong to Mercury, but wasn’t worn as often as it is now.
 * He also got his real name, Varuna, when he turned sixteen - he was named after the planet Varuna.
 * Now that he has been renamed Shadow Man and more people call him that, he only allows Gemini Man and his family to refer to him by his real name.
 * The nickname "ninja tits" was based off of the fact that his chest plate bounces if he moves around enough - he does this intentionally sometimes, to make his friends laugh or to make Gemini Man flustered. That nickname was originally supposed to be an insult, but it doesn't work on Shadow Man, so it's funny to him.
 * He killed his first victim when he was four years old.
 * He has lost track of his physical age and does not care anymore.
 * He has post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - if someone triggers him, he will become extremely frightened and experience horrifying flashbacks of his past.
 * He is the quietest Robot Master due to his unbeatable stealth.  Curiously, he is also the loudest Robot Master, but this is because of his voice distortion abilities.
 * When not counting Rock, Blues, or Bass, Shadow Man is the strongest and most powerful Robot Master.
 * Despite being almost entirely fearless, he has a comical fear of police.
 * Most of the clothing he wears is the same things he wore when he was growing up - he occasionally digs into the now unused spare bedrooms of his house and finds other suitable things to wear.
 * From time to time, he wears royal blue eyeshadow.
 * While it is rather difficult to embarrass or anger him, if somebody manages to push him too far, his rage is frightening and fiery enough to show them what Hell looks like.
 * This is another thing he is known for, and the reason everybody tries not to set him off.  Everyone, Snake Man included, is very afraid of his furious side, since it is far worse than even Crash Man and Uranus combined.

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