Redshift

> "Personally, I would much prefer days like these with no bad people up to nefarious deeds. I do not like using my weapons, even though it is part of my job. Chasing criminals can take a toll on your mood, you should ask Officer Baby Luigi on one of his off-days. I wonder what he is up to right now."
>
>

> -Redshift[1]
>
>

**Redshift** (formerly known as **Red Baby Luigi**) is a major character in the Mushroom City Car Wash universe, who is as an original character created by BabyLuigiOnFire. He serves as the lieutenant commander of the Protectors, where his subordinates simply refer to him as "Lieutenant" respectfully. He has a crush on Dark Light, his superior, though his commander is not fully aware of it nor understands it that well. What distinguishes Redshift from the other Protectors is his red color scheme for his outfit and his Spanish nationality, and he speaks with a Spanish accent, which is distinguished by Spanish punctuation marks whenever he is excited or asks a question.

As with all the Protectors, Redshift shares a similarity to Baby Luigi, and was even named after him in the beginning, though his name was shortened to "Red" before his name change.

Redshift is named after the electromagnetic property of the same name, a phenomenon that occurs when a wavelength gets increased.

## Background

Redshift has been confirmed to come from Almería, Spain, a city in Andalusia. Not much else has been revealed about his backstory in the roleplay.

Redshift appears in a flashback Ray Trace had about his past life, where they first joined the Protectors. Here, he was the sole person to beat Ray Trace at everything he did. While Redshift was polite and kind to Ray Trace, Ray Trace saw Redshift as a fierce competitor and wanted to take him down a notch, despite that basic training is not a competition.

## History

Redshift (as "Red Baby Luigi") first appears in the roleplay in post 1,155, where a rogue Terminator bot abducts Ultra Violet (known as "Purple Baby Luigi") from the Protector base of operations. He exclaims "Mother of God!" in Spanish and pursues after the robot. The robot takes Purple to the Mushroom City Car Wash, where it is promptly deactivated by Flora, who reboots it to stop being hostile.

When Officer Dark Light (as Officer Baby Luigi) eventually leaves the car wash), he puts Red in charge, with Purple assisting him. While Purple questions the motives of Flora and her army of Terminator bots, Red reassures that they are not hostile. Morpheus then gives them pills, in which Red takes while Purple refuses, prompting Morpheus to force-feed Purple the pills. This causes Purple to fall in love with Flora, who required restraining from Red until he is cured.

## General information

### Physical appearance

Redshift has similarities with Baby Luigi, like all Protectors, even being called "Red Baby Luigi" prior to his name-change. He has a large nose, a large head-to-body ratio, and is short compared to the average human. Like all Protectors, he is adorned with protruding wings coming out of his helmet, symbols, and a red cape indicating his official status as part of the Protectors. What primarily distinguishes him from Baby Luigi and the other Protectors is his red-colored outfit. His outfit is inspired from the Spanish military, with a distinguishing round pith helmet commonly worn by them.

Redshift has slightly different facial features than Baby Luigi. He has a wider face, longer sideburns, circular eyes rather than elliptical, and thicker eyebrows. His proportions are less extreme than Baby Luigi, having a taller body and longer arms.

Redshift's voice is best described by listening to Nick's voice from the Spanish dub of *Left 4 Dead 2*, having a deep masculine voice who pitch-shifts to a higher tone when he is screaming or exclaiming.

### Personality

Redshift is a serious, no-nonsense character who is passionate about his duties, which are protecting others. He speaks with an official and sophisticated intonation, and he knows English very well, elapsing into his original Spanish only when he is excited or frightened. Redshift is mostly a kind and positive character who always assumes the best intentions in others and is very happy to give them the benefit of the doubt, though he is introverted and soft-spoken and not the type of character who would attend parties. If the Protector group goes into conflict, it is him that mediates and deescalates the conflict, sometimes doing an even better job than Dark Light, who loses her temper more quickly than he does and descends into simply shouting at others. However, due to his tendency to believe in the benefit of the doubt in other characters, he sometimes lets himself get stepped on by characters who exploit that.

Redshift is a hard worker, to the point of him being somewhat of a perfectionist and a workaholic. He gets easily disappointed in himself if he believes he does not do a good enough job at making sure the Protector group functions properly and places a large burden in himself if he cannot complete tasks. He has a tendency to overapologize if he has made a mistake, such as him getting punched by Flora when he suggests Felicia to date Ernest Tubb and then apologizing much afterward.

One notable aspect of Redshift is his claustrophobia, which he displays in the Paper Mario story arc profoundly when the group of protagonists explore the Dry Dry Ruins, though he ignores it in the "A Light in the Dark" story arc where he, as Misil Caliente Redshift, needs to traverse through sewers to fight Deadly Umbra Dark Light.

### Powers and abilities

Being the second-in-command of the Protectors and passionate about his job, Redshift is a potent fighter. Like all Protectors, he is always equipped with a pair of bracelets that can unsheathe glowing blades corresponding to their color, and those blades are very versatile, being able to cut, light up dark places, and help Redshift climb walls. While not as fast or strong as Dark Light, Redshift can still hold on his own in a battle, though he is more competent if there are more Protectors around, as he is a team player.

When Redshift touches a power crystal, he morphs into Misil Caliente Redshift, which first appears in the "A Light in the Dark" story arc. Misil Caliente Redshift, as his name implies, is a slow and bulky fighter that can fire out very hot missiles from his launchers, which leave behind trails of fire that do not hurt his allies. Whenever the missile hits an opponent, it explodes into flames, leaving more fire onto the battlefield, making him an excellent crowd clearer. If close-combat is required, Misil Caliente Redshift dons enhanced, thicker blades in addition to his original red swords, which was the required weaponry in order to permanently take down Deadly Umbra Dark Light.

### Relationships with other characters

Redshift has a deep crush on Dark Light, where it was developed as he spent time with Dark Light as her second-in-command. Whenever Dark Light gets injured, Redshift is always the first one who arrives at the hospital and is always worried about Dark Light's future, while holding her hand and hugging her, even thinking about kissing her on the cheek. He has taken Dark Light out to dinners multiple times, and wishes that Dark Light spends more time with him than being out policing and managing the group's affairs. In the "The Trial of Flora" story arc, when Dark Light was shot by Agent Smith, Redshift starts openly crying, relaying the bad news without holding back the tears. In the "A Light in the Dark" story arc, because of his close and intimate relationship with Dark Light, he decides that he has to be the one to critically wound her, and while in the process of doing the inevitable, Redshift refuses to speak to anyone and has a stoic expression on his face the entire time, undergoing intense emotions behind it as it occurs. When he is contemplating about disappearing into the night forever, believing that he has mortally wounded Dark Light, it takes Estremo Luminoso Mario to convince him otherwise and ail his suffering emotions. Dark Light had been the one to initiate a full-on kiss to him later on, which completely shocked Redshift.

Redshift views Mario with large amounts of respect, upon knowing how much Mario has done to protect the Mushroom Kingdom despite Mario not receiving any warrior training or having any sort of specialized equipment. He admires him and often suggests getting his help for the Protectors when he feels like it is necessary.

Redshift deeply cares about Chroma Key, treating him like his own son and offering him a lot of guidance and wisdom. He is shown to be very patient with Chroma Key, and when Chroma Key ignored his strict orders and abandoned him, Redshift became highly upset and blamed himself for Chroma's misbehavior.

Blueshift is Redshift's younger sister. He loves her and he misses her much due to her time spent exploring outer space and him training hard to be a Protector. Like typical older brothers, he has used his wisdom to pass down his experience and knowledge onto her, and he gets proud of her accomplishments. Sometimes, he gets a little overbearing on her, but Blueshift never seems to mind.

## Quotes

* "*¡Madre de Dios! ¡¿WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!*"[2]
* "*Soldier, let's not focus on our allies' powers and focus on helping them out in order to save an innocent life.*"[3]
* "*¿Officer? ¿Are these sort of events of what normally happens at this location? I don't quite understand why exterior military forces are so centered on a rather nonstrategic location. I am led to believe that this location is used to cleanse vehicles.*"[4]
* "*Typical Mario Kart race, soldier. You race, you get item boxes, and you hurl items at each other in order to secure a lead. It is pretty popular around these parts.*"[5]
* "*"Huh", can't be your response to everything, Purple. Even though we never had a family, you should at least appreciate how people still manage to intimately care for each other despite not being warriors needing to cooperate to protect others.*"[6]
* "*Again, I apologize for my behavior, Felicia. I had only good intentions and I never thought you would get upset at my choice of words and I did not want to butt into your conversation. I once again ask for your apology and I shall no longer intervene.*"[7]
* "*Gracias little guy. Sigh...sometimes managing this group is very difficult. Our coworkers get into a fight for the pettiest of reasons, and one of us even joined in for "the fun of it". And that food plastered all over the car. Scrambled eggs. What a waste of effort from the chickens.*"[8]