Kenjirou Tateyama [楯山 研次朗]

PLAYER: Albiel
ARE YOU AT LEAST 16 YEARS OLD?: Yep.
IF UNDER 18 YEARS OLD, PLEASE STATE YOUR AGE: I'm over 18.
CONTACT: walther
CHARACTERS PLAYED: N/A

CHARACTER INFORMATION

NAME: Kenjirou Tateyama
CANON: Kagerou Project
CANON REFERENCE: Here it is.
AGE: 38.
GENDER: Male.
YEAR IN SCHOOL/FACULTY POSITION: Computer Sciences teacher.
APPEARANCE: Here you go!

PERSONALITY: Kenji has been, not entirely inaccurately, called ‘human trash’ by his students. He speaks in an overly casual tone in the original Japanese and comes across as one of the more eccentric teachers at times, spending entire budgets on fish specimens at a whim, being completely flippant unless you threaten to bring it up to his bosses (to the point where him being late was considered the norm), and actually opting to walk out of the room when he thinks something overly romantic is going on between two students at school rather than try to stop it. He likes to tease, bringing up whatever trivial (but oh so embarrassing) facts on people he can, and is actually rather flaky, though not any less trustworthy when it actually counts, helping in emergencies and providing a shoulder to cry on (and actually being pretty cheerful when talking to students). He actually gave 100 bucks to one of his students once, with no other motive than to have the two-person class enjoy a day at the school festival. Incidentally, he also seems to have had a thing for pachinko.

Kenjirou actually does go to great lengths to help certain students improve their grades (and in this canon, there’s a lot of grades that need improving), giving supplementary lessons, and not reacting well at all when it seems like they’re not giving it their all. Make no mistake, though. He makes no exceptions. Some of his students have had to assist summer classes, and he makes it very clear to another of his students that he'll let them get held back a year the moment they stop making a honest effort.

He is very much a family man. Kenjirou is not only a doting father to his biological daughter in the original canon, but to the three children he adopted. He is shown playing with them, and he speaks with Ayano about her troubles to the best of his ability (it's shown that he's actually incredibly protective of her, particularly in a side material where he starts choking the guy he thinks is her boyfriend. It's more light-hearted than it sounds.) and losing them causes him no small amount of grief. The death of his wife is in fact what kicks him off into a downward spiral we hopefully won't witness in this AU.

There are some eccentricities going on with Kenjirou. His likes and dislikes seem to establish him as an anime fan, but this never really comes up. He also seems to be a fantastic programmer, able to make full-fledged games in a week (why he never decided to go into this field is up for debate, but it's doubtful Kenji's grades speak highly of him). He also has a penchant for collecting specimens, with the aforementioned fish being one of them, with the fact that his house has several of these revealed later.

Lastly, even though Kenjirou can get as quirky as they come, he is also an adult, and every now and then he actually takes on the tsukkomi role. This is particularly noticeable with his more assertive students, who can get him to act incredulous at their actions.

POWERS/ABILITIES: Dual personality: Kenjirou has what at first could be mistaken for dissociative personality disorder. Multiple personalities, basically. It’s not really a normal psychological disorder, since that would imply it’s simply Kenjirou acting differently. No, he has an actual other mind living inside him, as evidenced by the red eyes that appear when he’s being possessed.

While Kenjirou himself is smart, his other personality is on a whole other level, possessing knowledge Kenjirou has never even learned (it tends to tone down a bit so as to not make its presence too obvious, although it may decide to change that given its new environment). Fortunately, the other personality is actually helpful towards Kenjirou (if for no other reason that the fact they share a body/living circumstances), so he has been known to quite literally sleep on a problem in order to think of a way to solve it.

AU HISTORY: Kenjirou was born in Japan, his power becoming evident almost as soon as he started developing a personality. Initial signs were subtle, and were mistaken for budding misanthropy by his relatives, but after seeing Kenjirou have trouble with basic questions, such as things that happened only yesterday, the truth became clear.

Kenjirou couldn’t directly contact this other part of him, of course, but he gave it his best shot. Given how this other part of him manifested at night, Kenjirou was known to leave notes that would be answered in the morning (usually rather aggressively). His relationship with the other part of him started… poorly. Understand that staying inside a room all your life is hardly anyone’s idea of a good time, but it was necessary so that he didn’t get outed as a mutant. His family knew already, yes, but they preferred to feign ignorance if he kept things under control. While Kenjirou locked himself inside his room at night during the early days of his condition, both parts of him came to an understanding upon establishing that, if word of his mutant power came out, they both would be in a lot of trouble. Thus, Kenjirou gradually started allowing his other personality the freedom of going outside if it didn’t draw attention to them. Though actually in possession of 20/20 eyesight, Kenjirou took to wearing glasses with reflective coating, which covered his eyes enough as to avoid questions.

Once he got accustomed to this arrangement, this was a great deal for Kenjirou, since he could sleep at any time and suffer absolutely no repercussions for being unproductive (so long as he remembered to write down what actually needed to be done). Still, this privilege didn’t mold him into the most responsible person. While in high school, it was often commented that he was way too flippant about his classes, considering what a good student he was, but given how there was no evidence of anything truly unusual, he managed to get into a good college with no problems, with him deciding to enroll as a Biology major.

College presented its own set of problems in the form of Kenjirou having to live in a dorm. Though Kenjirou tried to reach a compromise with his other personality, having a roommate became an issue, and eventually it came to light that Kenjirou was spending no time at all on sleeping (you try staying still for 6 hours every night). While being a mutant was bad enough for the school administration, the nature of his power didn’t make things better, and so he was kicked out of college, deciding to enroll in another one as a Computer Sciences major.

By the time he started studying again, Kenjirou had already developed a bit of a reputation. He was forbidden from wearing glasses, and had his eyes regularly checked by school faculty in order to make sure he wasn’t cheating. This resulted in Kenjirou getting terrible grades, and almost getting kicked out again for entirely different reasons.

Being seen as the posterboy for mutant powers making you complacent has something of an influence on your work ethic, though. Aiming to disprove everyone who said he couldn’t do it without his ability, Kenjirou decided to start studying more, and eventually got through college fair and square.

Eventually, he got married and started to raise a family. Kenjirou was very clear to the other personality that it was never to come into contact with his family, and it was all too happy to comply, given its antisocial nature.

By the time he applies for a job at Xavier, Kenjirou has been teaching for quite some time but, being sick of mutant discrimination, has sought out a less hostile workplace.

SAMPLES

NETWORK SAMPLE: Good evening. How is everybody? I thought we should try something new this semester.

You know how in some schools they give online courses? Well, this is something like that. Basically, today’s class is going to be held through the network. It’s a special case, so let’s just say all of you are in attendance.

[It all sounds well and progressive in theory (if extremely careless and inconsiderate to most students), but the background of Kenjirou’s video feed tells another story. His room is a complete mess. Leaks dripping some mysterious liquid can be seen in the ceiling. The walls seem just about ready to give in. A cat hisses at another in the background. Whatever experiment Kenjirou was carrying out, it got a little out of hand. Ever so willing to multitask, Kenjirou would very much prefer to take care of this and give class at the same time.]

[As if not noticing any of this, he lines up a small stack of papers by lightly banging them on his desk.]

Now then! Let’s make things a little interesting today. Have any of you tried making a webpage before?

LOG SAMPLE: Kenjirou has never been a particularly responsible man. On the rare occasions where he’s actually put his mind to something, it’s always been with a very short-term goal in mind. Rarely does he actually stop to think about the future, and how his actions will change it.

In short, he’s exactly the sort of person you don’t want teaching a class full of children.

Nevertheless, a job is a job. Though it didn't seem like his dream career prospect twenty years ago, things turned out in such a way that he ended up teaching 'temporarily', and once you start getting experience in something, it's not always easy to change to another path.

"Being an adult is tough, huh..." The sheer fact that Kenjirou would say this after two decades of said status as an adult is indicative of how much he's grown. At the very least, he's grown very knowledgeable in the subject he's going to teach.

Well, intends to teach, at least. Thus far, Kenjirou has failed to satisfy the expectations of several schools, failing to get through the job interviews each and every time. He’s made an effort to disguise his own inadequacies as good traits, of course, but even a polished up Kenjirou Tateyama seems to be at a lower level than your average teacher.

“Aah... Well, no problem. No problem. We’ve got this.”

And despite all this, Kenjirou does not seem the least bit worried. Perhaps a little underhandedly, Kenjirou has opted to apply to a place where the pool of candidates is substantially smaller. Truth be told, Kenjirou has rarely acknowledged his abilities before now, but he’s not the type to ignore it when it becomes an advantage. Looking at the gate of what could very well become his new place of employment, Kenjirou walks in, the sense of purpose and determination typically associated with such a task conspicuously absent.