Taejin, Shinta | Hunter/Undercover Police

SHINTA TAEJIN,

with criminal mentality

There are two words that most of the people who interact with Shinta Taejin use to describe him; "utter bastard." He's manipulative, he's stubborn, and if he doesn't see a reason to get along with you he will put only a modicum of effort into keeping civil with you. It's not even like one could say that Shinta is a jerk with a heart of gold, because his motivations are all personal and selfish. He really is just a complete and utter bastard, no joke. Still, it's not like he's just a walking collection of character defects, either.

Even if he is motivated by utility, Shinta doesn't go out of his way to offend people he doesn't see a reason to know. In fact, he's usually fairly civil. He's very good at reading people, but he just doesn't like to put in that kind of effort if he doesn't need to. He's got a bad habit of dismissing people based on first impressions, that habit itself seated in a predisposition towards laziness. Thus, he won't pay attention enough to realize when he's steering a conversation into territory that would offend the other person, and then he just won't care when someone he's previously dismissed as unimportant starts acting upset for reasons he doesn't care to guess at.

Shinta doesn't really have many friends. He tries to keep himself relatively unattached, but he does have people he acts like a friend towards. The problem is that most of the time, when he does get close to someone, it's to try and gather evidence on them. That kind of work has a way of making people mistrustful and wary of forming attachments, for fear of having to break them later.

There are a couple upsides to Shinta's personality. When he honestly says he'll do something, that thing gets done. He won't let other people get caught in the crossfire if he can help it; he calls it unprofessional, allowing civilians to get involved, but he really does his job because he thinks it's the best way to protect humans.

appearance

Shinta is both tall and thin, standing at 6'7" and possessed of a lightly muscled frame. His voice is a deep bass; not quite baritone, but still low enough to carry a good distance, and in most circumstances he speaks softly, relying on the difference in pitch to make his words distinct, as if he's apologizing for how naturally loud he is. Similarly, he's usually slouched slightly, trying not to draw attention to himself. He tries his best to blend in, not enjoying being the center of attention.

When he needs to act in an official capacity, he doesn't even need to change clothes to project an entirely different impression. He stands straight and speaks in a more firm, loud voice, channeling all the authority he possesses. He might not enjoy being the center of attention, but with his voice, demeanor, and height, it's really quite easy for Shinta to capture the attention of a room.

Shinta's hairstyle is mercurial; he's actually quite good at changing it on the fly. He carries a pocket mirror and a comb in case he has to turn a corner and look a little different. His black hair is kept ear-length, and he'll either mess it up or comb it straight depending on who he has to interact with. He does usually keep his bangs forward and obscuring his brown eyes, all the better to look nondescript.

Fashion

Shinta favors dark colors in his clothing, typically dressing in dark blues and blacks. His shoes are always black combat boots; he's used to running in them and the protection is invaluable. When the weather permits, he wears a black coat trimmed with white faux fur. Most of the time, his shirt is just a T-shirt and his pants are just black or blue jeans. He does own a suit and a formal uniform, but as an undercover officer, the former hardly ever gets any usage and the latter is stored away in the police station against the day he gets off undercover duty.

Parents
Mother: Sarah Winters-Taejin (Hunter - retired, living in Felici)
Father: Himura Taejin (Hunter -deceased)



Born to a pair of amorous Hunters, Shinta Taejin was raised into the family business, as it were. Worshiping the Huntress Kalidas and distrusting magic were a part of his upbringing, along with a wariness of things that were not easily understood in general. The Taejin family was renowned for their skill in unarmed combat, as Himura had always preferred to rely on his own strength rather than any sort of tool or borrowed strength. That renown has since faded into obscurity, as Himura died in the line of duty, attempting to take down a fire mage and getting burned alive in the process. Sarah had never subscribed to the unarmed combat philosophy her husband did; sure, she could fight without a weapon, but she felt most comfortable with a gun in her hand.

The loss of his father was a hard blow to Shinta, and, if he's entirely honest, not one he's ever recovered from. Himura had always promised to come back home, and then one day he'd broken that promise. If any one incident could have cemented his personality into the manipulative, uncaring bastard that he is today, it was that one. Since the tender age of 12, Shinta has had a hard time attaching to people, and he's sought ways to justify it rather than have someone tell him that he's sick or needs help. At first he was just grieving, but when all anyone seemed to want to offer was pity, Shinta got sick of it. It was around 14 that he made the decision to join the Hunter's Guild; people wouldn't pity him if he was a Hunter, they'd respect him, and he could get back at the terrorists who'd killed his father.

He joined the police straight out of high school, rather than seek higher education. It was a good job for someone with a Hunter blessing, not to mention a little physical training from some friends of the family. He'd never really had a problem with the physical portions of the tests, and, despite his lack of interest in higher education, Shinta was more than intelligent enough to make it through the police academy. After serving what seemed to be the mandatory stint in Traffic, Shinta found himself assigned to the Narcotics detectives. At 25, Dagos sent Felici a request for a fresh face who could handle undercover work on a drug case, and Shinta was tapped thanks to his adaptable, perceptive nature and the fact that pretty much nobody in Dagos would know him.

For the first couple years on the undercover job, Shinta was assigned to a small-time drug ring. Not Uppers, just mundane hallucinogens and opiates. The assignment went well for the longest time, but someone in the gang discovered Shinta's true colors and the Earth Magi who ran the drug ring confronted Shinta. The young Hunter is loath to admit it, but he barely survived that encounter. After several months' medical leave, during which the new civil rights legislation for Magi passed forbidding their being hunted by followers of Kalidas just for being Magi, Shinta finally has his new assignment from the Dagos PD.

Infiltrate the Magi Liberation Movement.

"Well. Shit. This is going to take some doing."

- Heightened Sense of Hearing: This ability is not as impressive as a cyborg's, you cannot hear the heart beat of someone. However, you may be able to hear the panicked breathing of your hiding prey and are able to hear at much greater distances than the average human.
- Unarmed Combat I: As a new Hunter, Shinta received basic combat training and chose unarmed combat as his specialization, given his wariness about metal being used against him. That, and using Jeet Kune Do doesn't require him to carry weapons that might give him away in his undercover work.




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[b]durarara, Izaya Orihara[/b] as [i]Shinta Taejin[/i]