Shinta Kikuchi (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kindledspirit) wrote1999-09-26 10:39 am
kindledspirit) wrote1999-09-26 10:39 am
application
Out-of-Character Information
Name: Jess
Are you over 15?: yes...
Time Zone: -5:00 GMT
Personal Journal:
jesuReliable Method of Contact: plurk:
Other characters in the game: Hilda (
for_truth), Mario (provolone_ranger)Anything Else?: hello it's me again
In-Character Information
Name: Shinta Kikuchi
Game/Series: Osu! Tatake! Ouendan
Teacher/Student/Other: Student
Canon Point: After the second game
Age: 16
Grade Level/Class Taught/Job: Freshman
Dorm or Living Arrangement: A dorm is super good.
Personality:
Shinta is very much like an obnoxious puppy. He's excitable, he's kind of dumb, and
Despite being a perfectionist, he's a nice kid. A smile or a casual "thanks" is the best reward a guy can get to him, and he tries very hard to please folks. He'll go out of his way for other people without hesitation. Maybe that just means picking up someone else's litter, maybe it means helping a little old lady across the street, maybe it means washing the Asahi Squad boat for free... He likes making people happy however he can. He's been brought up to Be Good -- respect your elders, be kind to others, generosity is super good, you guys, for real -- but maybe an ulterior motive of "I want people to think I'm cool" has been shining through a little bit as of late. Shinta is young and easily influenced, and Hayato "I Love Attention, I'm So Dazzling, Watch as I Dazzle You" Saionji is not exactly the best role model for him. Still, Shinta's a good sport. He takes failure with a smile most of the time and he can take his losses gracefully ("now that I know what I've done wrong I'll do better next time"), but even the longest fuses eventually run out, especially if you're an INTENSE TEENAGER. When he burns out it's a spectacularly horrible thing.
He wants people to take him seriously and respect him so bad, though. Shinta wants people to think that he's a stand-up guy. He will do whatever he can to make people think that he can be cool. This means that he can get stupid naive when it comes to earning respect. People he looks up to would never be rude enough to lead him astray, right? So whatever they say goes, within reasonable belief. He may not be the most academic mind in the world but he has a good grasp on right and wrong. He knows the rules and doesn't like breaking them, but if it's for a good cause (or, say, impressing someone he wants to like him) he'll push his conscience aside for a moment to break a curfew so he can walk the dog or clean up someone else's mess or something. Peer pressure is a very powerful force on him. He's pretty gullible, too -- like I said, he isn't the smartest kid, so he'll believe anything that folks he looks up to say without questioning it for a little while. If it's something totally crazy then sure, he'll catch on eventually and be a little disappointed that he's been lied to, but if a teacher jokes that there'll be a test tomorrow you can bet he'll study all day for it.
Despite being an over-passionate young man he does have an all right head on his shoulders. He doesn't harbor much hatred, if any, and he gets so much joy out of helping folks out, why would he do anything else? He's always willing to lend a helping hand or supportive words to friends and strangers, and he's always eager to cheer someone on. He's a cheeseball when it comes to support, sure, but he tries hard to motivate people. Sometimes through dance. He's one of the magical cheerleaders, his willpower is what spurns people to greatness, but if you ask him it's all about the people (or werewolves, or toys, or... text messages...). He's modest about the things he does, no need to thank him, he's just doing what anyone else would. Every achievement is "oh, it's nothing," because as much as he wants the praise it's not worth making a big deal over every little thing to get it.
He's a nice kid that does nice things, but he is still a teenager. Shinta acts like a whiny baby sometimes when he spreads himself out too thin. Hours of hard labor under the sun and he'll start complaining about the weather, if he's already behind on homework he'll whine when he gets too much, that sort of thing. Usually he's just got a "be excellent to each other" sort of hippie attitude about the world, but when his large tolerance for bullshit runs out he can be a little bit of a drama queen. Too many things pile up on him and then suddenly he's in bed moping all day because HE GOT A B-, HIS LIFE IS OVER.
For 99% of the time, though, he's just an over-enthusiastic weenie that wants and believes that everyone should be nice to each other and work together, but he's trying way too hard to set that example.
Backstory:
Shinta was the baby of a relatively wealthy family, like most folks that lived in Asashi. His parents were big fans of charity work and setting out to do well at everything they tried to accomplish, so the philosophies of "doing things for other people is rewarding as heck" and "if you want to do something don't half-ass it" have been with him (and his older sibling) for a long time. Maybe all the Kikuchis are tryhard babies, maybe they're way more normal than Shinta is, the world will never know. Regardless, he hasn't really changed very much over the years.
When he was 9 years old, all the crazy antics that always went down across the river in Yuuhi finally caught his attention. Local news started following all the help they were handing out and Shinta was hooked. It was kind of hard for people not to notice at that point, honestly, but one day he saw a giant rat menace the other town, he heard some guys yell OSU from far away, and suddenly a salaryman grew to the size of a building to fight the giant rat. His mom thought he was joking until the news came on. It wasn't long after that when an INTERNATIONAL CALAMITY took place. There was a meteor hurtling towards the Earth and it was going to destroy everyone on the planet and oh man that was really bad. But something else happened: cheerleaders. Yuuhi's willpower was contagious and it spread like crazy. If they all worked together people could do anything, and with the Yuuhi squad leading the world in cheer they, uh, blasted a willpower laser at the meteor and destroyed it. That was something that happened normally, right?
Whatever the case, that was when Shinta decided that cheering was his destiny, but as he was barely a middle-schooler he was too little for all the cheer squads that popped up after Yuuhi's popularity caused dozens to crop up. He spent a good deal of his after-school time watching a nearby high school's cheer routines, and through hard work and perseverance he joined up with a community sports club's squad when he was in junior high. It was there he met Hayato Saionji, and
He probably scrubbed a few toilets while he studied cheer routines. Either way, he was a member of Asahi squad, and it was THE BEST. He could finally help people work hard at what they needed to do in an environment where kind words and encouragement actually had a tangible effect on folks, and he felt all was right with the world because of it. He and the rest of the squad helped people around town work through their problems, like encouraging a lady to find inspiration for finishing her steamy romance novel, helping a werewolf will himself into not getting all hairy whenever he saw a circle on his hot dates, cheering on a teenager following a close friend's dreams after she passed away (tears shed and group hugs all around for that heartrending tale), and more! The world's a great place when you can make people happy.
Or, uh, it would be if the sun's inevitable death hadn't come about 5 billion years too soon. Japan turned into a horrible winter wonderland with giant glaciers falling out of the sky, and whatever beefs Yuuhi and Asahi had with each other were cast aside so that they could use cheerleading to save the world again. The beefs were set aside to such an extent that the Yuuhi squad shoved the Asashi squad out of the way of a giant block of ice, sacrificing their lives to save them.
Shinta was so moved that he cried a little, but the power of cheer was not to be underestimated. Asashi and the world cheered their butts off to bring the Yuuhi squad back from the dead, and because of this wholesome display of friendship both squads teamed up and lead the world into a cheer that re-lit the sun.
Things were pretty good after that. Uh, at least, to Shinta they were. For a while. All he wanted to do was compare notes with the Yuuhi squad and make better cheers for the greater good, because he's a giant nerd baby. When the time came for Hayato to leave for Smash Academy to cheer them into a better tomorrow, he didn't exactly beg him to take him too, but he did hint that maybe he didn't want to be left with The Boss. Everyone else was fine but Kiryuin kept telling Shinta that he should wrestle the bear he picked up off the streets. Why did Kiryuin pick a bear up off the streets? A mystery for the ages.
Needless to say Shinta tried to wrestle with the bear but he did such a bad job that Kiryuin urged him to pack his bags and go to Smash Academy, too. They would teach him what he needed to know about being a better fighter. And, uh, maybe that his math skills could use a little work while he was at it.
Anything Else?:
YIP YAP YIP
the image links to the artist
Anime is for jerks, and Shinta Kikuchi is a jerk. He doesn't hide his affection for Saturday Morning Cartoons for Babies at all, because he views them as a major inspiration. They're always vapid good vs. evil 'the power of friendship will bring us together and save the day' scenarios, and that cheesy junk is everything Shinta believes in.
If you ask him to do something and he has a picture of the finished product, you are getting that picture. Furniture, crafts, food, those plastic models of robots... Give him directions and a picture and he'll make it perfectly. ...With no creative expression of his own. He can't handle the pressure of ruining something by not following the directions. Boy's gonna be a nightmare in art classes.
In-Character 1st person sample:
[Before Shinta posts on the network people may notice the NEW KID on a mission to pick up litter around the school. Yes, there are people who get paid for that, but if he's gonna be a cool guy then he's gotta do cool things. ...He lives on a planet where cleaning up after people that aren't him is cool. At some point during the day he starts raking leaves, and he whistles an obnoxious J-pop tune while he does. Please do not approach him if you don't like overenthusiastic shitbabies, because he will try to convince you to join him. Come on, man, do it, the satisfaction of a job well done is reward enough, right?]
I think here is as good a place as any to ask: I'm a little late for the start of the new year, what classes still have space available? This looks like a big school, and I didn't think I'd arrive so late. There must be a lot that are full. I'd like to keep the arts classes to a minimum, please.
Does the bear always serve lunch? That's amazing! It must have took years to train him to do that. He's very well-behaved, too. Whoever trained him, congratulations! You've done an excellent job.
Oh! Before I forget... Mr. Saionji! How's your dog doing, sir? I hope you're doing well, too, of course. How is this place treating you both?
In-Character 3rd person sample:
He didn't have anything planned for the next hour, which in retrospect was probably a good thing. Shinta was trying to study the map of campus he recieved and take note of any landmarks that would help him find his way when he walked past the music room.
...There was a piano in there. Was this his chance?
The last time he came face-to-face with this beast of many keys he was trying his hardest to play something (that a kindergartner could play), but he ran out of sheet music and froze up. Nobody else was around to judge him, so maybe he could redeem himself by giving it a go! He glanced at the sheet music that was already sitting at the piano and frowned. No, dude, whoever was here first was doing something really difficult. He'd leave a note saying that the piece looked very impressive later.
In the meantime, he searched some folders around the place for something a little more on his level. This wasn't against the rules, was it? As long as he put things back when he was done, nobody would ever know... He found something short and simple (...Chopsticks...) to play, sat at the piano, and tried to get started. He knew how this tune went! He could do it, no problem.
Wait, hold on, he had to read the whole thing first. Twice. Where were those notes on the piano, again? What hand positions would be best... A full five minutes passed by before he even thought about touching the piano. It's just one song, he could do this! But what if someone hears him mess up and thinks he's some kind of moron? The pressure was mounting on his shoulders. What if he screwed up so badly someone heard and thought 'wow, that Kikuchi kid, what a loser' to himself? He tried to psych himself up to play well but just thinking about making a mistake was really bugging him.
...He got halfway through, methodically pecking at the keys like a grandma at a keyboard, before he froze up and couldn't continue. What if he got something wrong? The music deserved way better than that. It was further than he got last time at a piano, at least... Shinta left the music room looking cleaner than it was when he walked in, and left a post-it note rooting for the owner of that complex sheet music still sitting at the piano.