Sorting Hat Application
Player Information
Players Contact/AIM/MSN/YAHOO: Faereyjar
Email Address: asakura.miyun at gmail dot com
Character Information
Name: Izaya Orihara
Canon Origin/Series: Durarara!!
Teaching Position and why it suits them: Muggle Studies - Because Izaya really, really, really loves humans, and I don't see how not having magic would change this. In fact, this makes them even more fascinating.
Gender: Male
Age: 21
Out of school living location: Hogsmeade, Scotland, Charing Cross, London and occasionally Shinjuku, Japan (Hogsmeade is where he sometimes disappears off to during the school year, so he can tinker with muggle technology illegally (he likes his charmed laptop). Based on previous information settled by earlier canon-mates and considering their respective similarities, Soho is the equivalent of Ikebukuro of their original canon. Charing Cross I think would then be the equivalent of Shinjuku - just a few stops down the line, very central and a little more populated by businesses/embassies. Izaya likely owns a small apartment/office in the area - maybe squeezed between two buildings. Shinjuku is where he stays when he visits his extended family in Japan, but he pops over to Ikebukuro to piss people off once and a while. )
Blood status: Pureblood, pretty much.
Personality: At first glance, Izaya may seem like a friendly, frivolous and playful young man (you might find him skipping - yes, skipping - through the streets without a care in the world)- but don't be fooled by his handsome looks. That one off-kilter smile might be a hint to the danger that lies beneath; eccentric, intelligent and cunning, he has a mean, ruthless and extremely manipulative streak, making him one of the most feared people in Ikebukuro. He claims to love humanity with all his heart (except for a certain Shizuo Heiwajima), but unfortunately for humanity, this love manifests in his capacity to do harm to others, playing tricks and provoking others simply so that he can observe the results. He thinks of it as a game, pitting the human heart against itself and making a bet on one side or the other - will a person kill or be killed? Will they react in one way or another? Izaya revels in the uncertainty and prefers to be right - but once things become too predictable, he loses interest and moves on to more challenging prey. He sells information for his own enjoyment, making his hobby of human observation into his profession by picking and choosing what he says to make people behave in certain ways.
By example, a pastime of his is finding people who call themselves 'suicidal' and provoking them into showing their desire to live - after all, those who truly wish to die wouldn't put out a call for help and be found so easily. Whatever happens afterwards is of no concern to him, even if they purposely decide to kill themselves just to "prove him wrong".
In his daily life, Izaya styles himself as a person who lives above others and doing all he can (and often succeeding) at living up to his goals. He mimics humanity, taking on other voices (even feminine ones, which he seems to particularly enjoy) to calm or deceive; he plays by his own rules, combining underhanded tactics with cold calculation, he often sets things up for people to take a fall, without directly involving himself in any of the conflict and preferring to watch from afar. Often, even if he is in the field and able to observe directly, he will prefer to return to his own home and observe via news reports or the internet - because hearing it from the human perspective is what makes it so enjoyable.
On the other hand, however, Izaya is still human himself. He is not invulnerable, despite his machinations, and has had his failures. The strangest fact is that he is painfully aware of all these things; after taking into account every detail he knew about a situation, himself, and his own impulses, he will still deliberately choose the worst possible route for the "others" he loves. There are people he cannot predict and therefore cannot stand, like the aforementioned Shizuo Heiwajima, or those who stand out too much, like his own two sisters. Despite everything, he is simply playing a dangerous game with several people at once. As Shizuo is true to his emotions, Izaya is true to his desires - whether they are logical or not.
Izaya may have the skill and ability to threaten the strongest man in Ikebukuro, but it remains to be seen - can he really kill with his own two hands?
Canon Background: Izaya claims that he grew up in a normal family with normal parents - apart from their sense in naming. Despite this, he and his two sisters have very abnormal personalities and very abnormal relationships with others. Little is known about his early life, apart from his strained relationship with his sisters, whom he considers too conspicuous and therefore uncomfortable to be around. At some point, he acquired formidable skills with a flickblade, fluency in Russian and became a master of parkour.
He had been in the same middle school as Shinra Kishitani, who introduced him to fellow classmate Shizuo Heiwajima when they entered high school. It was absolute mutual loathing at first sight and school life became a hectic party of trying to cause Shizuo as much bodily harm as possible - with the eventual aim of seeing him dead. This animosity continued into their adult life, and after framing Shizuo for a crime he didn't commit and ruining his peace, Shizuo declared war on Izaya and banned him from Ikebukuro - correctly assuming that any strange things that happened most likely originated in Izaya's manipulations. Now, whenever Izaya ventures into his old town, trash cans, vending machines, and street signs come flying at him and he finds himself having to run away from his monstrous former classmate.
In more recent times (spoilers here for the light novels and anime - not too much detail though), Izaya has enjoyed provoking young girls to suicide, stealing the heads of mythical beings, and causing chaos in internet chat-rooms. He was behind the incident with Kida and Saki, the gang wars between the Yellow Scarves and Blue Squares and has also recently framed Shizuo for the second time in the murder of some yakuza members, and succeeded in getting him shot. At the moment, his aim is to provoke Ikebukuro into war to awaken the sleeping Dullahan Celty so that she will take him to Valhalla. He has joined the anonymous internet colour gang "Dollars" and is the reason for its widespread activity, despite not being the official founder and leader of the group.
As always, he prefers to work behind the scenes.
Background (AU!Canon; HP): [Dirty!] Izaya Orihara was born in Tokyo, Japan on the 4th of May 1989 to a pure-blooded family of Japanese Wizards. The Orihara line was not an especially rich or famous line; generally middle-class and generally uninteresting. His father worked an average job in the foreign affairs branch of the Ministry of Magic and they lived in the suburbs of Tokyo for the first ten years of his life. His father was often out, and his mother would rarely bother with him, so he lived as any child would have in those early years. However, his grandfather was often around and started to oversee his upbringing and education, forcing him to study relentlessly. After he went with his Grandfather on an "educational" holiday to Ireland, he developed an unnatural obsession with Europe, muggle society and humanity in general - finding people inherently interesting and pursuing answers to his questions with the single-minded tenacity of a child. Few wizards could tell him anything about the muggle world or satisfy his curiosities, but after toying with the people around him, he realized quickly that he was smarter than them and that they were easy to manipulate and control. Observing and learning in his own time, he taught himself English and Russian in the hopes of one day studying in either Hogwarts or Durmstrang. Needless to say, his first crucial manipulative act was to somehow convince his father to apply for an overseas position with the Japanese ministry in the UK before his 11th birthday.
With his parents now permanently stationed in London with the Ministry of Magic, this solidified his place in Hogwarts. He was sorted into Slytherin almost immediately, and spent a lot of time mixing with his classmates during both term time and during the holidays, cultivating a wide range of contacts within the Wizarding community. Though he often disagreed with their views, especially regarding Muggles, he knew how to blend in perfectly and developed his outward personality in accordance with what was expected in order to get on their good side and become known as a perfectly respectable Slytherin student. In his third year, a close acquaintance introduced him to the boy who would become his lifelong enemy: Shizuo Heiwajima.
Izaya had been aware of his existence but had paid him very little attention. As far as he knew at the time, Shizuo was a mildly interesting muggle-born. He seemed to get on well in Hufflepuff and wasn't in the least bit special, until Izaya happened to notice his strange and innate power of physical strength. It didn't seem to be purposefully magically enhanced, which piqued his interest - so when they first met and Shizuo immediately made to punch his head in (for reasons generally unknown, though he has a hunch), Izaya retaliated with equal ferocity - resulting in a chase that would foreshadow the events of the next few years. Using his influence within the Slytherin student community, he challenged several of the cockier gangs of seniors to attack Shizuo, observing his form-mate's reactions, progress and emotional stability. Often, his plans would go awry due to Shizuo's meddling and their mutual hatred became renown among students, despite Izaya's seeming lack of involvement in the most violent action. In Izaya's fifth year, he became prefect. Showcasing his smarts and his good reputation (teachers would mostly only acknowledge the physical conflict - it was a pity, really) while Shizuo's fights often resulted in suspensions, detentions, and a fearsome reputation. Izaya was amused to see him more irritable, more monstrous, and more isolated than before.
This all came to a head at the beginning of their 6th year, when Izaya's provocations resulted in Shizuo being blamed for a girl's death and expelled from Hogwarts. The details of the crime were never fully disclosed, though Izaya himself remembers every detail - for one reason: It had been a hollow victory. Shizuo had been released soon after his trial, and despite his expulsion, showed a distinct lack of remorse for the world he had to leave. Though this in itself was interesting, it had not gone to plan. After the incident, Izaya followed Shizuo's career in London casually, waiting for an opportunity to spring a similar trap on him again. Though he did not particularly enjoy Shizuo's company, he was eager to bring him back to the magical world and into the sphere of his control.
With Shizuo out of the way, Izaya's seventh year went without a hitch - for his own amusement, he befriended and manipulated a young fourth year Griffindor named Masaomi Kida, who piqued his interest as the leader of a rare anti-pureblood gang of younger students called 'Yellow Scarves". Caught up in a web of childish violence, Izaya's expertise and tactical skills gained his young "friend" the upper hand against their rivals but also resulted in considerable injuries to the girl he'd set the boy up with in order to gain his trust. Not that he really cared, since the whole operation went exactly to plan - down to ignoring every message Kida left in his journal. In the end, it all worked out, but Kida harbors an ongoing hatred for Izaya, which Izaya is all too aware of. Nevertheless, he continued to treat the boy with camaraderie, since his charisma and his ability to sustain such a large, unruly gang was to be admired.
After graduating from Hogwarts with top marks in all his N.E.W.T.S, Izaya mixed himself up in some behavior that was not necessarily on the right side of the law. Upon graduation, he felt that there was still more he wanted to learn and moved to London to get a small, low paying job with the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts department in the ministry - simply as a front for his real job as an informant, and for ease of access to archives. There, he made contact with a criminal organization (specializing in muggle artifacts and integrating magic in illegal muggle business) which spent an awful lot of time in violation of both sets of laws. Recognizing Izaya's potential, the leader of the organization made use of his informative skills, while Izaya built up a fearsome underground reputation in Central London as an impartial dealer of information.
What set Izaya apart from many criminals mining the muggle market was his desire to learn and adapt, blending in as far as he could in both worlds and covering his tracks thoroughly; many things were useful in the wizarding world, but nothing quite came close to the muggle invention of the "computer". Izaya had spent many a summer holiday studying the devices and developed a series of programs incorporating charms which worked faster than owls in getting spells to his intended recipient. He had become so proficient in using them that he often used the machines when contacting muggle customers, for whom he posed as a private investigator of sorts. Muggle money was as good as any, after all, and magical bugs to record information were far harder to trace than electronic ones.
Yet, soon dissatisfied with London's overy commercialised dealings, Izaya longed for access to Hogwarts' extensive resources and desired a more lofty cause. His research had encountered norse myths of valhalla based on conflict and with rumours of a powerful dark wizard starting to surface and the potential for conflict, Hogwarts seemed to be the best place to be to observe the action. Setting up a small office in Hogsmeade, he moved his information dealing there and applied for the post of Muggle Studies Teacher, knowing his qualifications would put him in an ideal position to teach his point of view of muggles to the wizarding community: his love and interest for humanity was all-encompassing, and he hoped to share his excitement for the human condition with his students.
(Upon confirming his return to Hogwarts the following year, Izaya made plans to draw Shizuo back into the wizarding community. What he did still remains to be revealed, but regardless-- it is not a coincidence that the once-feared monster of Hufflepuff would be honoring Hogwarts' halls with his presence.) [Diana]
Sample Journal Entry:
AS IZAYA:
Ahh~ Hello everyone, Izaya Orihara here~! perhaps some of you will remember me!~ It's been a long long time and I'm very happy and very proud to be back at Hogwarts. I've missed my old friends and acquaintances so very much, though I'm left wondering if anyone at all misses me... but never mind; walking through the halls has given me such a pleasurable feeling of nostalgia (apart from that unpleasant encounter with Shizu-chan in the grounds -- has anyone noticed the damage in the east side of the castle wall? It might well be a good idea to fix that up, housekeeping. So sorry for making that mess, on his behalf~).
In any case, I'm writing to introduce myself as your new Muggle Studies teacher. I'm so excited to be teaching this subject~ These days, wizards often forget that Muggles are humans too (how frightening!), and humanity has become more fascinating, more exciting, and more unpredictable than ever before! I hope that I can share this passion for humanity with all of you!~ Nevertheless, some of you may still be mildly surprised by my choice of job, especially since i have been away so long and never really expressed much interest in academia. By way of brief explanation, so many things can happen in such a short time, and any thoughts should be reserved for your own journals (I will look forward to reading them there - remember, I'm the same person as i always was, so don't hold back, haha~! I'm serious.... )
In any case, I am here to discuss the course of education I will be offering to you so generously this year~
Before I plan my lessons, I would like those of you in my class to answer this question for me:
What do you believe your life as a muggle would be like?
Let me put it this way: What filters through the grapevine is often so distorted that this course is no longer about simply understanding muggles and how to avoid them or interact in their society, but rather the way that information filters through from one closed society to another. Are you following me?~ After all, for those of you who have not encountered it before, how much do you know of the muggle world, and what are your impressions of it? For those who have muggle family, what are your impressions of that world now? We are in the unique position of being able to observe a wholly separate society so close to ours from the outside. How similar is it to our own?~
Fill your thoughts and reactions to the statements/questions above in the comments - you may treat this as an extra assignment of sorts! I will be dealing out house points accordingly if your answer is more than 200 words long. I do enjoy reading your young, and oh-so-fresh thoughts!
Ah, what i would give to be your age again. Please remember to make the most of your school year, and while you must study hard, all work and no play will make you all very dull boys and girls, and we just cannot have that!
I'd still like it very much if Shizu-chan were to die soon... even if he's useful sometimes.... should a teacher still have such thoughts? hahaha--
--
AS KANRA:
OMG (°Д°))''// ~ have you guys heard, there's someone who used to be a violent gang leader somewhere in the 5th year, and I even heard that he's even become a prefect (´A｀))''' -- isn't that scary? What is Dumbledore doing, doesn't he have some concern over our safety (= A=''')???
Sample Interaction Post in Third Person:
Izaya tapped his wand on his desk absentmindedly, causing his computer to whirr wildly and emit red sparks as it crunched steadily through its numbers. Ignoring the illegally charmed item, he casually tossed the letter he'd been reading aside and petted the school's tawny owl on its head affectionately before sending it out again into London's brightly-lit night sky. The letter's contents were self-explanatory; a list of staff for the next school year, his itinerary and job confirmation, and a notice to make his way to Hogwarts at least a week or so before the first day of school.
Yet, the most important information Izaya Orihara had gleaned from the piece of paper was the following: This September, Shizuo Heiwajima was coming back to Hogwarts.
Humans were truly the most interesting creatures in the world... and where else would one be able to find such a wide-eyed, young, malleable variety than at Hogwarts? Yes, it was time to go back to that wonderful, insane, eccentric, memory-filled school. It was time to see his old arch enemy again, and perhaps it was time to bring the whole feud to an end. After all, it was about time the protozoic lump noticed.
Izaya had been meddling with his affairs for a while now, culminating in a second almost-conviction which would have gone through had he not made one small mistake of misjudging the amount of time a taxi took to plant evidence in a certain place. As with all of his machinations, timing was crucial, and though he doubted a muggle prison's capability of keeping Shizuo contained, it was one way of bringing him back into the world that the once-feared monster of Hufflepuff didn't seem to miss all too sorely. He had to applaud himself, though. Having the advertisement for Hogwarts gamekeeper smack his old arch-rival straight in the face was a brilliant piece of magic. Izaya was simply amused that he'd fallen for the job straight off the bat.
He smiled, laughed, and twirled around in his chair for a moment (swivel charms, what a marvel!), before taking the parchment in his hands again and reading the words as if hungry for their meaning. He ran his fingers over the lumpy parchment and traced the familiar embossed Hogwarts logo with its animals and swirls, closing his eyes to appreciate the rough texture - muggle paper would never be quite the same. He let out a laugh, "This is wonderful, wonderful," he said to no one in particular, because there was no one around to listen. "What will happen this next school year? I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait...."