Lazarus Trabae

Lazarus "Laz" Trabae (ラザロ トラベイ Razurasu Torabei) is a new recruit of Transtello and is the protagonist of Shift Star. He is the only character who can use Shape-shifting to some degree. As of the beginning of the series, he is 23 years old.

BACKGROUND
Lazarus joined Transtello with the recommendation of an individual named Boss Tai. It's implied that this individual was Laz's teacher. Little is currently known about his past. He has a connection to Elissa Trabae, who is his mother as well as a war hero.

PERSONALITY
Laz is a confident and bold individual. He can be cool, but it's usually a facade. His confidence is easy to shatter, but easy to return as well. He has minor anxiety, making it hard for him to talk with "attractive" people upon first meeting them. Once he gets used to the individual, however, he eases up. He can be childish and talk about meaningless topics at great length (to the point of an argument), but he can also act maturely and cautiously when needed. He acts in a subdued manner when something bothers him, likely because he doesn't like bothering people. However, he becomes either very angry or vocal when his fashion sense is insulted, which is often. He doesn't care much for what people expect of him, but he does put his own expectations on himself to live up to.

APPEARANCE
Laz is a young male with a dancer's build. He has dark skin and gray, almond-shaped eyes. His hair is dark red, short, spiky, and parted to the right. His earlobes are connected to his head, and he has a black hexagram on the top of his left hand. He wears a red cloak with a flipped-up collar and dark red cuffs. A dark red cloth stripe with chain-like buckles wraps around the chest and back of the cloak. He wears a gray, sleeveless undershirt with a gold arrow design pointing downwards, a long, brown, crisscross belt and jeans. His shoes, styled like loafers, are dark brown. He wears white gloves, each with a red hexagram on the top of the hand. He sports a pair of dark red-tinted shades, completing his somewhat poser-esque appearance.

SHIFT STAR ABILITIES
Laz has a rare ability to shape shift in some way. He can shift his hands into metal weapons such as sickles, swords, and even iron handcuffs. Because of this, Lazarus is excellent with blades.

Maki Seo
Laz has formed a friendship with Maki, and she is the only character so far that Lazarus has met outside of combat that he hasn't had trouble talking with. The two spent the day after they met shopping for a new outfit for Maki, which is her current design. He already seems to show familiarity with her despite onlyknowing her for two days.

Cleo Marks
Laz is only really acquainted with Cleo, and is slightly apprehensive due to her stoic nature. He is on a first-name basis with her, and is comfortable enough with her to converse normally.

Uriel R Cielo
Laz already has a complicated relationship with Uriel. His first impression of him is negative because of Uriel's blunt and rather rude remark. However, Laz seems comfortable enough with Uriel to come to him on trivial matters such as which ice cream flavour is better. They don't seem to agree, but Laz addresses him with the same familiarity as he does with Maki.

Elissa Trabae
Laz is the son of Elissa. The specifics of their relationship are unknown, but it's implied they are close.

Boss Tai
Laz has only mentioned Boss Tai once, but has shown aggression towards them. Laz is familiar with Boss Tai and it is implied that he shows the same frustration one would feel when dealing with repeated shenanigans. It is likely that Boss Tai, judging from the "Boss" used in front of both Tai and Uriel's names, is one of Laz's higher-ups.

Ferris Smith
Laz and Ferris have a history together. It hasn't been explained what that may be. Deducing their matching ages and her being 18 at the time of her disappearance, if his accuracy in his estimation in correct, it is likely they may have been classmates. His remark of her "punching him in the glasses" suggests they're not on good terms.

TRIVIA

 * If Shift Star were to be occurring in our world, Laz would be Haitian-North American. His North American half is Native North American.
 * Laz is named after the Catholic biblical figure Lazarus, who was raised from death by Jesus Christ. This is not the reason he was named as such in canon, though.
 * Arc imagines Laz's voice would sound a lot like J Michael Tatum's voice, but with a slightly higher pitch.
 * Laz is pansexual, as confirmed in the Pride picture where he sports the Pansexual flag colors.
 * His personality and design take heavy inspiration from Trigun 's Vash Stampede and Durarara! 's Shizuo Heiwajima.
 * His favorite color is red (obviously).
 * Lazarus actually wears more makeup than anybody else because of the dark circles under his eyes! And he, somehow, finds stress relief in using eyeliner. With or without makeup, he is considered incredibly attractive when he isn't making a face.
 * Laz's name is the second to have the most revisions, second only to Maki. Some of the names considered were Romeo, Lag, Azazel, and the first being Zazz. Arc already had a character named Zazz Buster at the time, and it seemed a bit too strange for the series. She went with just Laz, but ended up liking "Lazarus".
 * Laz's shades actually have a purpose: he's photophobic! He became light-sensitive after staring at a magnesium oxide reaction.