[app] Inugami // Onodera Ritsu

[shirato]

Character Information

Name/Alias: Ritsu Onodera
Fandom: Sekaiichi Hatsukoi
Canonpoint: End of Season 1 (anime)
Gender: Male
Age: 25

Physical Description: Here! He's really normal all around, so there's not much in the way of distinguishing characteristics.

History: Here!

Personality:

No love's like the first.

As a result of his one and only relationship ending badly, today's Ritsu is a very jaded individual. Along with the fact that rumors had spread about his successes at work being attributed to familial favoritism (seeing as his father runs the company), his self-confidence took a beating. At least he was mature enough to handle the accusations with dignity... No, that's completely untrue. Deciding to show everyone up by making it on his own, purely outside the realm of his father's influence, he immediately quit his job and sought work with a new company.

Adversity makes a man wise.

When it comes to work, Ritsu does his best to maintain professionalism. This is extraordinarily trying for him as he begins his new job as a manga editor. First and foremost, he had his heart set on literature, his specialty and prior experience to editing. Secondly, he ends up in the shoujo manga department which puts out material traditionally geared towards high school girls and... well, romance: something he has only a few select and bitter memories about. And the last issue is that it turns out his boss is none other than his first love, the one who broke his heart so thoroughly that the entire experience became a trauma to him. By now, he has forgotten most of the details of their time together and even his face, but now that they're together again, Ritsu is in a position which requires the two to collaborate. Frequently.

In fact, he has to collaborate with several individuals, each an important brick in the road to publishing a manga. It's not very different from his time as a literary editor, and yet it is. The addition of art to the process is an extreme variable, something he comes to learn very quickly. No matter how much emotional strain he might be going through, he can't afford to delay the communication process. He does, however, try to find creative ways to avoid direct contact with someone he'd rather avoid, such as sending a fax to his boss despite the fact that they're next-door neighbors.

Still, he hates to be called out for halfhearted performance. He doesn't tend to notice when he's holding back, but one bad experience increases both his caution and determination. He prepares himself well, even staying up late at nights to ensure his work is up to par. Though he gets nervous when under a certain amount of pressure, he maintains his composure well enough to impress, generally. Even though he often finds himself lost in thought as he dwells on anything that happens to bother him, he does his best to push it out of his mind and focus on the task at hand. It helps him to consider those who are impacted by his work: his coworkers, the authors he represents, and of course, his boss. However, despite the fact that he thinks he's keeping his emotions in check and perfectly hidden, it's incredibly obvious when something is on his mind and having it called to attention only tends to make matters worse. He's easy to fluster, and he dislikes being teased since he has a hard time differentiating jokes from seriousness. Because of this, he can easily take something the wrong way, creating a big issue out of even a harmless comment.

In love there is both dotage and discretion.

His insecurity also causes his trust issues. He has difficulty letting others get close to him, and in a severe attempt to protect himself from getting hurt again, he is quick to deny anyone who tries. He makes excuses to the point where he, himself, believes in them wholeheartedly, and as such, he has trouble understanding his own feelings. In the end, he doesn't even trust his own judgment, and so he keeps pushing his troubles to the side as if they don't exist while he distracts himself with work. However, his emotions tend to get stronger as he ignores them, and it isn't until they've built up to a level he can no longer hold in that he'll release them all at once. When he reaches this point, he can even spout off cruel accusations, partly because he wants to gauge the reaction, but also in part because he can make himself believe those accusations as truth. He gets irritated after these kinds of thoughts plague him too long, and it certainly shows when he is upset with someone, even though his reasoning isn't necessarily clear to the other... or himself.

He is prone to bouts of depression, anxiety over his quality of work, and most importantly, whether he really has the skills necessary to perform accurately. But on top of that, he can be stubborn— something that works in and out of his favor depending on his mood— and he is most certainly a hard worker. Though he gets down from time to time, it usually isn't very long before he makes a recovery, and when he does, his motivation tends to increase tenfold. Sometimes, insulting him is more effective than praise, but both can spur results. After all, he desperately wants to prove himself, and equally, he wants to see proof of his hard work paying off. He will go to great lengths for this, sometimes literally as proven by the time he hopped on a plane to Hokkaido to secure his author's late manuscript by the already extended deadline, even taking on the role of her assistants who had all come down with the flu. Though the entire company was ready to give away her manga's feature spot for the month, Ritsu alone believed that she could still make it, and thanks to his efforts, she did.

First impressions are the most lasting.

Generally, Ritsu is friendly and polite, placing the well-being of others in high regard despite the occupational need for deadlines to be met regardless. He does his best to maintain these traits even with those he doesn't get along with, especially should they be a coworker. Depending on his mood, he might not be able to keep every comment to himself, but he's apologetic should he ever take something too far. He has difficulty distancing himself from his emotions, for better or worse, and it's only so long before he has to voice what he's been keeping to himself for so long. He's extremely earnest, and though he doesn't realize it, still rather immature. Running away from his problems has become so commonplace for him that he doesn't notice how lonely he's made his own life. Even with platonic relationships, Ritsu tends to keep people at arm's length. He makes acquaintances rather than friends, still preferring to keep to himself for the most part. He can be coerced into social gatherings, perhaps with a bit of effort, but he's always going to be hesitant first. He just wants to keep his life as routine as possible and his mind occupied before all of his negative thoughts start seeping in again.

Abilities: Ritsu's abilities are pretty normal and workplace-oriented. As an editor, it's his job to correct manuscripts for pacing, mood, and overall framework. Working with manga artists specifically has expanded this knowledge to include artistic endeavors as well, such as paneling and applying screentones.

Samples

Dialogue: TDM Thread with Schezo
Exposition/Introspection: TDM Starters