Shadow Version 27

Shadow Version 27 "Eyes that change the world."
Aliases None Age Biologically 16 (in Cult of Ustream) Gender Male Species Diclonius Homeworld Phantasia
Domain Boundlessness Soul Phantasms Vectors
Affiliations Cult of Ustream (Alter Timeline) Relatives None

"I know I am not nearly powerful... or strong enough to do anything significant right now... but when I am, I will stop you."

— Shadow Version 27 to Lord X-Giga-X during the latter's defection from the Cult of Ustream

Shadow Version 27 (simply known as Shadow) is the last Diclonius finalized by GARNET's DEICLONOS Project. He is an attempted replication of the highly successful Diclonius Vortex Version 26, but as his capabilities while in containment proved to be inadequately low, he was considered a failure and thus given the derogatory name of "Shadow". Throughout both the Prime Timeline and the Alter Timeline, he assumes an increasingly important role in his primary story routes, eventually becoming an Outside Observer.

In the Prime Timeline, he plays a critical role to the Malice Continuity in the Oblivion Phantasy canon. He is the protagonist of Forsaken Malign, being a key piece in unraveling the true nature and purpose of the GARNET Research Facility, though he is chronologically first featured as one of the main characters in the Strain of Tomorrow prequel storyline. He also becomes involved in the events of Kirenyun's Imprinted upon learning of the existence of another Diclonius in the planet Mantua, and furthermore, of the disruptive actions of another Outside Observer.

In the Alter Timeline (Cult of Ustream Canon), Shadow is introduced at the start of Season One with Espira Xirro in Ustream, Euthora as the result of an extremely improbable anomaly with a Worldgate in Phantasia. He was initially treated as weak by some members of the Cult of Ustream, most notably Ziolang Hirasu who believed that he would be able to better hone the Diclonius's combat skills on his homeworld of Deveron. Eventually, Shadow gained the respect of some of the other Cultists, integrating himself into the Cult of Ustream as a full-time member, and later earning himself the title of Second in Command.

In Fate/Lunaterra, he is summoned as the Servant Lancer to the Master Valerie Knight. He claims he can also be summoned as Caster or the abnormal class Shielder.

Appearance

Shadow stands at average height for his age—roughly 1.74 m—though his build marginally leans towards the scrawny side of the spectrum. He is relatively pale from having being born and raised in GARNET's underground complex for almost his whole life, though not to the degree that one would notice without careful inspection. He has slightly long, jet-black hair which could be considered to be rather messy and even unkempt to a degree. Shadow's eyes are colored a deep and honest blue, and in general they are focused and overlayed with conviction, though there is still a certain glint of innocence behind them. As an experiment of the God's Clone Project, he was branded at birth with a serial number just below his left shoulder, in uniform, somewhat subdued, desaturated blue lettering that simply displays "027".

He is not one to wear anything specifically notorious or distinctive, preferring mostly monochromatic clothing: he usually dons a black t-shirt with two simple, contrasting gray lines running along the length of the sleeves, along with nondescript black pants; although recently he is also seen wearing an open jacket of similar design with a white shirt underneath.

Personality

Shadow is a rather reserved individual who tends to keep his thoughts to himself. He is quite observant and insightful, and also displays a strong moral character. He is honest as a person—perhaps to a fault, as this translates into an almost comical and foolish naïveté, wherein he trusted everyone during his early days at the Cult of Ustream. He sees value in doing the right thing. Later on, this honesty translates into a burning dedication to fight for that which he wants to fight for as he progresses as a person, breaking out of his cowardly shell. Another defining trait would be his kindness. He is the kind of person who would worry about others (particularly those close to him) more than himself; a trait best distinguished during his early days at the Cult, once again. This does not necessarily mean he's self-sacrificial; rather, it is just in his nature to try to help those around him. Shadow feels that he needs to become stronger in order to be useful to others—something that was perhaps instilled into him in his early days at the GARNET Research Facility.

In the beginning, Shadow was known as being quiet and timid. He seemed rather reserved, even reluctant when he engaged with others, especially if he felt uncomfortable around them for whatever reason. He displayed some hesitation to act from time to time. He appeared to be visibly stricken when people betray his trust, such as when Ziolang Hirasu returns in Season Two of Cult of Ustream canon. Despite his overall timid, uncertain nature, Shadow could also occasionally be expected to show flashes of bravery and courage that allowed him to overcome his trepidations.

As time has gone on, Shadow has become much more direct. He is not nearly as reserved as he was before, especially since his mentality and surroundings have forced him to drop his cowardly attitude. At its broadest, Shadow's mentality has changed from seeing a way to avoid a problem to instead directly address it with the hopes of changing the problem.

Fate/Lunaterra

[TBA]

Skills and Abilities

Inherent Abilities

As a Diclonius, Shadow exhibits several Diclonius-augmented mental faculties. He experiences a degree of precognitive intuition, which is a result of his augmented Mind Component. This extends to, but is not limited to noticing danger or hostile actions against him. At the present time, this precognition is comparable to a very unrefined "sixth sense" of sorts that allows him from time to time to subconsciously use his vectors to defend himself against attacks. Shadow also is prone to heightened sensitivity to the emotional "atmosphere" of a general area. This is somewhat connected to the "sixth sense" explained previously—he can also vaguely perceive emotions such as tension, fear, or danger in the air, and could be compared to some sort of empathic extrasensory.

His intuition or instinct is most notably used in the form of his vectors. Subconsciously, they can and will be used to respond to immediate danger in a variety of ways, most commonly by defending Shadow against attacks if possible, even if he is not consciously aware of them. Shadow himself only has a degree of control over this—most of the time it will seem as if his vectors will act on their own accord to protect Shadow, but in reality it is all a subconscious defensive response. If the perceived threat in question is too immediate or great to address, this mechanism can also be used to attack viciously.

His Mind Component is highly resistant if not immune to psionic effects. Telepathy and similar means of passive communication are not affected, but potentially-disruptive effects like memetic agents, infohazards or psionic manipulation are either highly resisted or completely nullified, depending on the effect in question. Paradoxically, this extends to his physical body and immune system as a sort of "Mind Over Matter" effect. He is notably unable to contract illnesses due to this shielding, and is even immune to magically-engineered viruses (as shown in Forsaken Malign and Cult of Ustream). Similarly, poisons and the like have a drastically reduced effect on him; their onset of symptoms are minimized to be essentially harmless before vanishing altogether in the span of several seconds to a minute, at most.

Magic

In the Alter Timeline, Shadow has displayed a basic understanding of how to manipulate Mana along with performing very basic Spells, but he does not have any distinguished "spelltype" as of yet. Shadow has an innate talent in performing what is referred to as the Multithreading of Spellwork, a form of Spell multitasking: that is, the ability to simultaneously process and thus operate more than one distinct Spell at once, without experiencing slower or more taxing Spellwork due to loss of efficiency or focus. He also has a secondary (although presently undeveloped) talent in the analysis of the Magic phenomenon, as he is ideally able to intuitively understand the workings of a Magical Function without having to see its exact composition, and only by needing to observe the resulting phenomenon for general clues before arriving to an accurate deduction.

As the Servant Lancer in Fate/Lunaterra, he specializes in Counter Magic, although he conserves intermediate knowledge of other types of Magic. He is allegedly capable of manifesting an unnamed World Egg-type Reality Marble.

Counter Magic

Lancer's specialization is in Counter Magic, a particular branch of Magic that nullifies, intercepts, or interferes with other Magical Functions. The most basic realization of this expertise is in the form of Psion Interceptors, invisible "packets" of magically-sustained Psions that are launched like bullets towards a target Magical Function. Each individual packet of Psions is encoded with recursive loops of meaningless, interference-generating information, which then forcefully collide with the targeted Magical Function in order to transfer this interference into the information body of the Spell. As most Spells used in the heat of battle prioritize casting speed and minimal Spellwork, they are unable to maintain coherence after being bombarded by low- to medium- interference Psion Interceptors; the Magical Function will simply break down due to an overload of interference and thus immediately terminate its associated Magic phenomenon.

Special Powers

Soul Phantasms

• Vectors: Vectors are the phantasmal limbs of psychokinetic nature that the Diclonius in question can wield and manipulate. It is their signature ability, or rather, Soul Phantasm. Shadow's vectors have a maximum effective range of 7 meters, and he can also manifest a maximum of 10 of them. At the current point in Cult of Ustream canon, Shadow's control over his vectors is fairly basic. He has the ability to reshape the vectors into the shape of a blade, but has to concentrate in order to form a more "defined" shape with them. Shadow can only control 5 vectors at a time, although he could potentially release a maximum of 7. Shadow can also turn his vectors into a pseudo-intangible state at most, but full intangibility is something he has yet to master.

Domains

• Boundlessness

Possessions

• Voidcore: (Cult of Ustream-only) Shadow was given a blue-hued, dipyramidal jewel known as a Voidcore by the Voidwalker, Careodry. Originally, the jewel was given to Shadow for the purposes of communication between himself and Careodry during the events of the Voidwalker's "game" involving an alternate reality. He was allowed to keep it even after the occurrence of a glitch that caused the timeline in which the game was set to collapse, and the subsequent intervention by the Soul Harvesters. Shadow has used it approximately twice in order to contact Careodry following the alternate reality incident. Despite its infrequent usage, Shadow keeps it on his person at all times, as it is the only way he can contact Careodry. It has already been stolen from his possession once in a minor incident when the Cult visited Nienearcl.

Combat

Presently, Shadow is a fairly defensive-minded combatant, and is very reactionary in nature. He is still largely inexperienced, so attacking preemptively or otherwise engaging an opponent to open the battle is out of the question, unless there is a critical situation. Shadow can use his vectors to defend himself to the best of his abilities, simultaneously gauging the strength of his opponent's attacks to see if he can retaliate in some form. Due to this, his maneuvers are also largely evasive—he will use vectors for mobility as means to gain distance from the opponent or evade attacks, but rarely to approach said opponent and perform an attack of his own.

Relationships

Cult of Ustream

Cult of Ustream

Shadow's relationship with the Cult of Ustream as a collective is pretty friendly. He feels no enmity whatsoever towards the current Cultists (Lord X-Giga-X not considered because of his defection), and although there are still a handful of members whom he can only consider as "acquaintances", he is overall on friendly—or at least neutral—terms with everyone.

• Alexander "CrazE" Knight: CrazE was one of Shadow's closest friends. Despite CrazE's own eccentricities, Shadow appreciated him as a friend and treated him as a trusted figure prior to his untimely death. The death of such a close friend shocked Shadow numb; however, this feeling was less a feeling of devastation, and instead left the Diclonius feeling the dull weight of reality and disbelief. Shadow has come to terms with CrazE's death, still finds that sort of conclusion somewhat "odd." On a subconscious level, Shadow does not truly believe that CrazE is dead.
• Espira Xirro: Put simply, Espira is the person that Shadow trusts the most. The relationship shared by the two of them is not so much a "friendship," however—it is something more akin to a sibling or guardian-like bond. Shadow knows how her mind works, and he places a near-absolute faith in her judgment. Their relationship, despite beginning on rockier terms, comes as a result of many moments of personal growth and happenstance. Despite Espira's originally-malicious intentions, Shadow spares her after having outmatched her—instead, he passed out from his injuries. She also did not opt to kill Shadow, and instead treated his wounds. This primitive exchange is nurtured to evolve over months of fighting and surviving to become a close bond of companionship.
• Fricai: Shadow maintains a somewhat strange relationship with Fricai. He is the only Cultist to make any particular effort to get to know the dragon, although their initial contact was at first somewhat sporadic, and Shadow was attacked by Fricai when first they met. In spite of this, Shadow is comfortable around Fricai, and is able to sympathize with Fricai's situation: the fact that Fricai had been chained up in the basement of Cult Headquarters is highly reminiscent of the Diclonius' own circumstances. Shadow is quite open with Fricai, even in spite of Fricai's fragile mental state.
• Jason Shaver: Jason was among the first few Cultists that Shadow met when he showed up in Ustream. Although the two interacted a bit after their first impressions, a defined friendship was not formed until later, when Shadow first interacted with Fricai. At that point, Shadow began to interact more with Jason—initially regarding Jason's concern for Fricai's mental condition. As Shadow was the first person to talk at length with a "lucid" Fricai, this became a stepping stone for future interactions. Notably, Shadow was one of the first people who became privy to details about Jason's debt with Death, and subsequently during the eponymous incident, that Jason was temporarily leaving because of it. He knows that Jason is struggling with keeping everything in order, and considers it one of his priorities to do something about it and "lighten the load," in a sense.
• Pricilla "Starr" Starkey: Shadow, at first, maintained an amicable relationship with Starr. Though disapproving of her endeavors regarding biological experimentation, he nonetheless respected her as a senior figure ever since she resuscitated Espira. Their friendship was further driven forward by the various circumstances the Cult (and them, by extension) faced in time, most notably their trip to the Azuma Islands and then, CrazE's death. Since then, Shadow has begun considering her as somewhat of a close sisterly figure, which translates to them sustaining an implicit sort of younger brother-older sister relationship not unlike a true familial bond.
• Valerie Knight: Shadow's relationship with Valerie is one that has evolved the most over the course of time. Although their first interaction resulted in Shadow being notoriously punched out of one of the Headquarter's windows, he quickly grew to appreciate Valerie as a close friend over the course of the next few months, facilitated by his promise to the late Alexander Knight to protect her from the Black Assassin; this allowed them to connect emotionally. Despite the strenuous circumstances surrounding the Cult at this point in time which prevented him from realizing or solidifying his own feelings towards her, he becomes romantically involved with Valerie at the end of Season One. Subconsciously speaking, a major portion of the attraction is rooted on his trauma of losing Aurora.

Organization G-X

• Lord X-Giga-X:

Others

• Careodry:
• Ziolang Hirasu:

Oblivion Phantasy

• Aurora Version 24:

Trivia

• Shadow's personality at the beginning of the "reboot" of the Cult of Ustream canon was decided on a complete whim. This shift in personality ultimately led to a complete change in the character respective to the corresponding "oldcanon" version.
• In the Alter Timeline, Shadow never finds out the reason behind his creation nor the purpose of the GARNET Research Facility.
• Shadow's actual chronological age is of approximately 8 years; however, he is developmentally (biologically and psychologically speaking) indistinguishable from a teenager. This is due to the Accelerated Growth Exponent (AGE) program he was subject to immediately after his creation, like all other Diclonii.