Application
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Durarara!!
Canon Format: Anime
Character's Name: Shizuo Heiwajima
Character's Age: 23
Conditional: N/A
What form will your character's NV take? Cell phone, made of an extremely durable material (likely titanium) that - somehow - always seems to find its way home to him. Anything else would probably be broken or thrown away a hundred times over during Shizuo's anger fits.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: Shizuo is known as the strongest man in Ikebukuro, and with good reason - when Shizuo gets into one of his rages, he's been known to throw vending machines, cars, trucks, rip road signs out of concrete, literally punch a man out of his clothing - he becomes a berserker. Due to the background of this strength (which I cover in his history section) he's also incredibly durable (a normal knife only cuts about 5mm into him), and he seems to have lost most of his pain receptors.
Shizuo is incredibly proficient at fighting, shown to be able to take on many men at once with ease. In his never-ending pursuit of Izaya, he also ended up teaching himself parkour.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? Shizuo's dormant ability will be that of a soothsayer. Given time in Siren's Pull, he'll be able to tell when people are lying. Lies will be flagged by a sudden strong stench and a churning feeling in his stomach. This will develop slowly and gradually, but even when the ability comes into full fruition it will follow set rules:
1. It has to be a deliberate lie (the person lying has to know they're lying)
2. The lie has to be spoken (nothing written down, body language doesn't count)
3. He has to be within hearing distance of the person (can't tell lies over the NV)
Even with this, people can still step around his ability if they're clever enough with their words (as during the recent truth event).
Weapons: N/A
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: Shizuo Heiwajima comes from a normal, loving family in a normal neighborhood with a normal younger brother. There was no family trauma, he suffered no abuse. By all rights, he should have grown up to be a normal man, and for a while it seemed he would.
This changed when he was still a young boy. Angered because his brother, Kasuka, had eaten his pudding, young Shizuo picked up the family refrigerator as if to chuck it at him. Shizuo recalled that he hadn't even thought about picking it up at the time. He had just snapped. Unfortunately, so did his young bones. He was rushed to the hospital. A familiar pattern emerged soon after - whenever Shizuo grew angry, his body moved on its own, past its own limits. He would throw desks and tables, whatever was in reach - and each time it broke bones and pulled muscles and sent him to the hospital. His young friend Shinra, a science geek, theorized that the strength was the same that some people reported when in adrenaline-producing situations - mothers being able to lift cars to save their children, people breaking down doors with their hands to get into burning homes. But the brain, Shinra further explained, put caps on this in normal people, because the human body can't take that strain; it breaks.
Shizuo never really understood any of that. All he got from the talk was that he was stronger than normal people and that the strength would break him every time his anger triggered it. ...So why hold back? If he couldn't do it anyway, why bother caring about trying? Shizuo continued as he had, and every time he pulled another sign post free, every time he lifted and hurled something ten times his own weight, his body grew stronger. With every bone that broke (by some crazy anime logic) it grew back more durable.
It wasn't until his strength accidentally hurt someone he'd been trying to protect - a kind woman who gave milk to him and his brother - that Shizuo tried to reign himself back in again. He tried to control his temper (as best he could, for there would always be situations that set him off), but more importantly he tried to distance himself more from people. If he couldn't fully control himself, he would have to be careful about who he spent time with. Surprisingly, his brother kept close to him - something about Kasuka's quiet personality never set Shizuo off, and Kasuka wasn't afraid of him.
Things changed again in high school, when he met a boy named Izaya Orihara.
Shinra introduced them, and from the very moment Shizuo laid eyes on him he knew he didn't like Izaya, and he told him so. On the day they met, Shizuo tried to kill him. As Shizuo said, there was no real reason for it; he just didn't like him. But Shizuo screwed up, and in chasing Izaya out into the street he was hit by a car. It was the end of their first match - which would turn out to be only the first of a series. After that day, things began to change for Shizuo. Guys he didn't know would come up and want to fight him, gangs and people he'd never even seen before. He didn't want to fight them - he hadn't even done anything - but day after day he was drawn into fights.
It was Izaya's doing. When Shizuo figured this out it as good as began their rivalry, and it cemented Shizuo's reputation as the strongest man in Ikebukuro. But after graduation, things quieted down for a while. Izaya was said to have been doing something with the Yakuza, Shinra became an unlicensed doctor, and Shizuo - well, Shizuo had trouble keeping employment. He went through job after job, fired each time because of his anger issues. It seemed like it would become a never-ending pattern, until one day while working as a bartender. Kasuka, his brother, had begun a successful career as a movie star, and he showed up to the bar with boxes of bartender uniforms - gifts for Shizuo, so he wouldn't change jobs all the time. It was a touching moment for Shizuo, and he promised to try and keep the bartending position.
That very evening, the strongest man in Ikebukuro was taken down by a team of policemen. Izaya had framed him for a crime before skipping town, and while Shizuo was declared innocent and eventually let go, he had lost his bartending job in the process and broken his promise. Things seemed hopeless until Tom - who was his sempai in middle school - approached him with an offer. Tom worked as a debt collector, and wanted Shizuo to be his muscle. Shizuo refused at first, not wanting a job that required him to fight, but after being assured that he wouldn't have to because his reputation would do the work for him, he agreed. It's the one job he's been able to keep for a long length of time, but he still wears the bartending uniforms his brother bought for him.
Eventually Izaya returned to Ikebukuro, and they began their game of cat and mouse again. Shizuo also joined the mysterious gang known as the Dollars - a gang with no identifying symbols, a mysterious leader and no apparent purpose. It's only recently that the number of members in this group has been revealed (to be the majority of Ikebukuro) and the forces and people regarding it are starting to come together.
Point in Canon: Episode 12. After Celty has revealed herself to many in the city, and Mikado's stunt has shown how many people are in the Dollars, things seems to have settled back into their normal pace of life. Shizuo has returned to collecting debts with Tom, and all seems quiet.
Conditional: N/A
Character Personality: Shizuo Heiwajima doesn't like violence.
No, really.
...No, really. At the heart of him, Shizuo is actually a nice, quiet guy. He has a soft spot for kids and animals, he's a good friend to Celty and he doesn't like to see people (especially women) being taken advantage of. He's a man of few words, simply pleasures and little ambition. He wants to live a peaceful life. This is the real Shizuo, but it's also the one that is powerless to stand up against his own rage. When his anger is triggered it sweeps all of him out with it, to the point that even friends standing in the way sometimes become casualties. Shizuo doesn't like hurting people and he has no desire to kill anyone (excepting a very real hatred for Orihara Izaya, who, as far as Shizuo's concerned, can go die in a fire). It's simply that he can't help it, and his inability to suppress his own body when he becomes angry is a source of shame for him. Shizuo's ongoing goal in his search for a normal life is to become strong enough to hold himself back.
It's because of his own hair-trigger temper that Shizuo self-isolates to a certain degree, careful about who he spends time with and for how long. Knowing that it doesn't take much to set him off, Shizuo would rather withdraw from people, but being only human he can't completely abandon attempts to be around and connect with people. He's been able to form a few friendships with people - Tom and Celty, his brother and even Shinra to a certain extent. As one might expect, Shizuo does best around those with subdued, tolerant personalities; stick him near anyone volatile and you're just bound to get an explosion.
To see Shizuo in full rage is an amazing sight. Simon, a sometimes-friend of Shizuo, once described it as seeing violence in human form; violence given clothing and paraded as a man. There is little sane in the smile that creeps up on his face during such times, or in the wide, wild look his eyes take. It looks as though someone has flipped a switch, and with it Shizuo's personality. It can come out of nowhere, but most often is heralded by a physical tic - Shizuo will break what he's holding (a spoon, a cigarette, a toothpick), throw it down, and grind it under his shoe. This is the only cue the unfortunate target of his rage will receive before the attack, and goodness help those who don't heed it.
As quick as he is to flare up, however, Shizuo can cool down just as quickly. One could liken it to watch the air leave a billowing coat - the anger simply drains out of him, leaving Shizuo looking like the most normal guy on the block... the physical carnage around him aside.
The worldview of the strongest man in Ikebukuro is surprisingly simple. To Shizuo, most everything is black and white. Something either is or it isn't, on the track or off it. Explanations hold little interest for him. He has no curiosity to know how things work or why, more concerned with what is in front of him and what it means in the moment. It's what makes him so infuriating to Izaya, who makes his life on deceit on intricate webs of information - Shizuo is too simple to be tricked.
Deceit is actually one of Shizuo's most noticeable triggers. He's an honest man himself, straightforward in every sense of the word. It's a trait he values highly in others, and those who take the path of lies and half-truths, who spin words like webbing to catch and trick others, are considered by Shizuo to be the lowest scum. It's a very central reason as to why he hates Izaya, and why he gets along so well with animals and children.
Conditional: N/A
Character Plans: Honestly, Shizuo is not a big plan guy. His primary concern (once he comes down out of berserker mode) will be getting a job. ...And then it will be getting another job, and another, until he finally finds one he can keep, because goodness knows he has some issues there.
There will also most likely be some concerns regarding property damage fines somewhere down the line. It goes with the territory.
Appearance/PB: Official character sheet. For being the strongest man in Ikebukuro, Shizuo is surprisingly lean, and he towers over most everyone in the series. He's always seen wearing nondescript bartending uniforms (complete with bow ties) and a pair of blue sunglasses. While a natural brunette, since high school he's been a dyed blond.
Writing Samples
First Person Sample: [it's an accidental video post, the camera partly obscured by what one might guess is the edge of a breast pocket. One can see a man backing up with a worried expression on his face, a baseball dugout in the background]
You don't have enough time? Enough time? You're the only one here, aren't you? So you think you're too good to answer my questions? Haaaaaah?! You think that you can just ignore me and talk about time you don't have like it means something?!
[a hand grabs what appears to be a large wooden pole and tears it out of the ground, and the phone slips out of its holder in the process and falls. The angle of the camera tilts sharply, showing only the sky]
Stop talking about things that don't matter!
[there's a (rather girlish) scream off-screen, and the sound of splintering wood. Dust billows up. The scream gets more distant, suggesting the man was able to run away]
...Tch. [the sound of someone walking forward, a hand around the phone - ]
[ - and then a calm, surprised face looking at it] Eh? It was still on. [he frowns and turns it off]
Third Person Sample: It was all the damn flea's fault.
Shizuo didn't know how, but that didn't matter. This had the stink of Orihara Izaya all over it. Who else would find a way to somehow drop him in the middle of nowhere without him knowing? It was all too weird, too suspicious to be the fault of anyone but the louse. Shizuo couldn't even remember fighting anyone. Had he been drugged? The thought alone was enough to make him grit his teeth and start to stand, ignoring how his muscles ached and his queasy stomach protested.
"Gonna kill him," he muttered darkly as he pushed himself to his feet. "Kill, kill, kill, kill."
Feeling at his breast pocket, he pulled out a carton of cigarettes - and a phone? Eh? Shizuo paused to stare down at it, brow knitted with intense concentration. ...He didn't have a phone that looked like that. Shit. What was this crap? He replaced it in the pocket with a huff, shaking out and lighting up a cigarette. Just a little something to calm him down. It helped sometimes. Blowing smoke into the air Shizuo felt his shoulders relax, anger draining back again for now.
"-Oi." There was a young man hopping the fence and crossing the field. Maybe he knew what was going on. Shizuo yelled again, louder. The man didn't seem to be paying attention. "Oi, would you-?"
"Not now," the man grumbled. "I've got somewhere to be, I don't have enough time for you. Ask someone else."
"...Don't have time?"
As a crumbled cigarette was ground into the dust by a polished black shoe, the unfortunate man realized he may have just made a mistake.