shutdowneverything | APP (there be spoilers) (IOLITE MAY WANT TO READ THIS)

CHARACTER INFO

Character Name: Kawara Ryouta

Canon: Hatoful Boyfriend, Holistar

Reference: http://hatoful.wikia.com/wiki/Ryouta_Kawara

Appearance: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120229002010/hatoful/images/5/5d/Ryouta1.jpg

Character Info: In a Dating Sim with Every Archetype Except They're All Pigeons, Ryouta is the kind-hearted best friend your main character grew up with. Instead of meeting on the first day of school, Ryouta met Hiyoko (our heroine the human) when he fell out of his nest, and she saved him by picking him up and putting him back. In a cast of complete absurdity, Ryouta is special by being generally normal... generally.

Ryouta's father was always non-present and busy with research as a scientist until he died, his mother is currently very sickly, and his best friend is a hot-blooded mammal who's more likely to try to crush her enemies than talk through a situation... so, needless to say, Ryouta is a very independent, caregiving, responsible, damage-control boy, who looks out for everybirdie as best he can. The closest friend to Hiyoko, he truly doesn't let species be a barrier when it comes to love and mutual respect. Even when they both know each other's feelings, his biggest concern is that he may hurt her because his lifespan is so much shorter than hers (thinking of his mother, whose husband passed early). He holds down multiple jobs while weak and sickly himself to pay for his mother's hospital bills, and his resume is so prolific that almost every place you visit during the game, Ryouta has worked there - including maid cafes and shrines. (Though, he admits after embarrassment, he likes the crossdressing, and so does Hiyoko, so he's happy to be "Coolene" and serve her if she likes!) Able to keep up with the intensely ridiculous antics of his classmates, he is often a bit of a straight man (straight-pigeon) - but frankly, he usually has to participate if he wants to survive the situation or wrangle his friends. For example, he cleverly prevents his incredibly rich asshole classmate Sakuya from disrespecting maid girls by relating them to ninjas, knowing Sakuya's penchant towards ninjas (and his simple-mindedness...), and gets a full apology from the haughtiest pigeon in school.

To say Ryouta holds up under pressure is an understatement, though everybirdie has his weaknesses and breaking point, and Ryouta's can cause him to make severe mistakes in a haze of emotional lockup. That said, when he is reeling over the dismemberment of the person most important to him, he dedicates his actions towards finding out what happened to cause it, even as he's faint and ill, going against authority in order to do so. As bodies pile up, he encourages the people around him and makes an effort to appreciate the efforts his allies put into survival and moving forward, even while facing a violent stalker and a massive conspiracy together with them. However, he can be driven to despair if left entirely alone, and he can be manipulated; he has given in to a murderer's requests that would Only End In Massive Death before, entirely out of broken heart and broken willpower. Some situations are also just straight up too much for him; when an authority figure he once trusted is stroking his stomach with knife in wing to carve out the donated liver that once belonged to his dead little brother, he is too terrified to run or fight, and only has the presence of mind to beg him to snap out of it until the spirit of the dead brother in his donated liver comes out to help him calm things down. Still, he will listen to his friends when they truly need (or beg) him to, and he can pull strength from them.

He isn't like Hiyoko in that he thinks he can punch his way out of any situation; he's just a common rock pigeon after all, and a weak one at that. But when murders aren't all over the place and nobody is being turned into a bioweapon, Ryouta's ability to call out absurdity - and, in the end, almost always roll with it - is a stabilizing presence.

Memory Loss Considerations: Because Hatoful Boyfriend The Universe is its own ridiculous AUs and includes full-game spinoffs where Nobody Died Horribly and Everything's Fine, we have a lot of examples of how, exactly, things would go if, say, Ryouta didn't remember being slowly weakened and brainwashed into being the mindless berzerk host of the deadly pandemic Charon virus, then volunteering to put himself in cryogenic freeze until there is a cure for what he would wreak upon the world. We even have an example of how exactly Ryouta would handle knowing he murdered his best friend with this virus by simply sharing air with her - suppress the fuck out of it and seek her killer! Considering that, Ryouta might auto-suppress some memories if he gets them in the wrong order, but one thing the Pigeonverse makes clear is: Ryouta's core personality is of a kind, gentle, slightly playful straight man who rocks a skirt and steps up to be a magical pigeon if one is needed. As he slowly learns the truth of his past, he may break, but he can recover if he has any kind of support structure.

Skills: Ryouta has a lot of life skills; he can bus tables, be a hostess, tend a shrine, clean, cook, sort files, data entry, till money, sew, cosplay, and in general keep a nice, clean restaurant and nest. Also, uh, he has the deadly airborne charon virus in him, which will murder every single human in proximity of him once unlocked. If a team, or hell, a crowd, is willing, literally every humanoid breathing air he is existing in would drop dead within a few minutes, and we'll have Personae on damage control busting in on a crying pigeon on a pile of bodies sobbing "i'm sssoorryyyy" I have dreams. (This is, of course, blockable, not just by personae if the skill can be isolated, but also by characters already ingame - Sakuya has already worked on a cure, and could canonly develop the counter for the Charon strain. He Promised.)

Team Considerations: Ryouta's a caring gentle nice pigeon boy who does all the momming for his mom, but hangs out with pigeons who are secret agents with sniper rifles, aristocrats who call everyone drivel, evil scientist murderers (for a certain definition of "hang out," but he certainly puts up with him and makes wry jokes about him experimenting on people the same as everyone else does), a pigeon so delusional his superpower is making his manga delusions reality and dragging others into it, and of course, his best friend, who solves things with her hunter-gatherer instincts (her fists). He is flexible.

Team Placement Request: I'M FLEXIBLE! I mean, a team full of humans with players who delight in occasional terror is best so I might one day pandemic all of them in one shot. But really any team is fine! Maybe not Peridot or Turquoise, because I have already played the Peridot and Turquoise of my heart.

WRITING SAMPLE

IC Survey

Introduce yourself in a few sentences.

My name is Kawara Ryouta, a sophomore at St. Pigeonations. It's nice to -- Eh? "Another pigeon?" I-is that really a surprise? I'm just an everyday common pigeon, I promise... gosh, I'm not used to being particularly special. Is this how Hiyoko feels whenever she introduces herself?

"The suffering of a few is okay if it benefits a great many." Do you agree with this sentiment? Why or why not?

... ...Just because it's true doesn't make it good, or okay! Finding a solution where no one gets hurt or feels all the burden would be best. But if one pigeon had to suffer for the sake of the flock, and it was unquestionably the only option, that's just... what has to happen, right? It's a cruel reality, though.

What event from your past has impacted you the most? Please describe.

Oh, well, there's lots of things! There's always the family you were born into, and the parents you have or don't have... but if I had to pick the thing that impacts me the most, every day, it's definitely meeting Hiyoko. I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for her. Her hunter-gatherer instincts and hot blood always energize everyone around her! Especially someone like me, who's not the opposite exactly, but...

What are three things you're good at, as well as three things you're not so good at?

I'm not very good at swimming, or running, or... sports of any kind... r-really, sports could be on this list all three times. I fall sick a lot, and I'm not great in a pinch fight, and I'm just average in school. Some days I'd really like to be a tougher bird... But I'm really good at cooking, cleaning and working jobs! I'm a fast learner there.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I'd like to be in better health. I'd be better able to do everything I need to that way.

Do you believe in soulmates or love at first sight?

M-maybe, I mean--! I definitely believe in a strong enough connection that souls could reach out to each other. Aah, that sounds really embarrassing, but... I really believe that. And though sometimes feelings grow over time, the first meeting can be pretty momentous, can't it?

"Killing criminals is okay if they've committed a grave crime." Do you agree with this? Why or why not?

Well... if someone really kills others, then they can't exactly complain if someone wants them dead... is the gut feeling, isn't it? But in general, asking a high school student to declare that type of thing when it takes years of social studies to actually make those decisions means you'll get a naive answer... there's probably situations normal people can't really comprehend. But then, I can't comprehend killing anyone, either.

Do you consider yourself a strong person? Why or why not?

No, not at all. I can just do the best I can, and I definitely don't like using my own weakness as an excuse. But saying something like "I'm strong" is just ignoring reality, ahah. It's easy to see compared to really strong people.

If you met a stranger, and were allowed to ask one single question in order to get to know them better, what question would you ask? And, if somebody asked you this question, how would you answer?

Hmm. Maybe, "What's the last job you held?" I'm sure whatever they said would explain a lot about their situation, especially if they dodged or said something wild like "As if I'd work!" It's a good icebreaker. As for me I'd just say I'm a waiter at Torimi Cafe. With any luck they'd want to stop by; it's one of the best places I've worked at, but business is usually slow.

Free section:

Something that symbolizes me? Umm, well... I'm not really sure. There isn't any particularly obvious answer - I'm a pretty common bird, so there's nothing obvious like a flashy tail or red breast. Just something common, like my uniform tie, is probably fine.