[ TARU KOBAYASHI, HE/HIM, SEN MITSUJI ] is a TWENTY-NINE year old MECHANIC from HAZZARD, WV. They are LOYAL and OBSERVANT but also SUSPICIOUS and SECRETIVE.Â
BASICS
FULL NAME: Taru Kobayashi
NICKNAME(S): Tyler, TyÂ
BIRTHDAY: November 20, 1967
AGE: 28
HOMETOWN: Hazzard, WV
BIRTHPLACE: Prosper, WV
RELIGION: Catholic (part of the driving outside of town for church crew xo)
FAMILY
MOTHER: Mary McDonough (48)
FATHER: Izuka Kobayashi (49)
AUNT(S): Alice Underwood, nĂŠe McDonough
UNCLE(S): Chuck Underwood
SIBLING(S): Hina âHeatherâ Kobayashi (30), Minoru âMichaelâ Kobayashi (23)
COUSIN(S): Olivia Underwood (21), Jack Underwood (25), Leo Underwood (26)
PET(S): A Bichon Frise mix named Kiko a.k.a. Keeks (and a variety of other dumb little nicknames that no one is ever around to hear Taru say). She is 4 years old. She was originally his ex-girlfriendâs but then said ex-girlfriend moved out of state and Taru was like, âWell, now I gotta be responsible for this dog.â Crusty white dog hive, make some noise!
APPEARANCE: Taru is exactly 6 feet tall. He has black hair thatâs cropped short; he cuts it himself in his cramped, little bathroom with a dull pair of scissors so itâs not exactly... chic. He has previously gone through periods where he would just shave it all off too. He doesnât like Maintenance, yunno? He has several tattoos [reference], and yes Iâm stealing them directly from one of Senâs roles. Donât judge me. <3 He also has a little facial hair and a dimple. Oh, and a semi-permanent scowl, of course, but heâs not as angry as he looks. He just be thinkinâ askjdn.
STYLE: Taruâs style guide follows three requirements: cheap, doesnât look dumb, and preferably in a dark color. He usually just wears dark wash jeans, a t-shirt bought from a Goodwill or Salvation Army with the faded logo of some long-forgotten business (sleeves cut off for summer), black boots, and faded leather jacket thatâs basically falling apart. He hasnât worn shorts since he was 10 and if you have a memory of that no you donât. He doesnât follow trends, donât tell him about trends, he does not want to perceive your butterfly clips and swoopy hair. For work, heâs always in his coveralls, and heâs often seen going to and from the garage with the top half rolled down with a plain white shirt underneath. Heâs a simple man, really, and he doesnât have much room or means to expand his wardrobe. As for a special accessory, he is often wearing a crucifix tucked beneath his shirt.
FAMILY: Taruâs dad, Izuka Kobayashi, was born in Osaka, Japan, and originally settled in New York before he made his way to Asheville, North Carolina, where he fell in love with the mountains there and worked hard in preserving the land. He is a businessman and large-format photographer, and he used his equipment and an odometer he made from an old bicycle to catalog the peaks, the distances between them, and their names. In the late sixties, alongside his friend, a librarian named Walter Whitfield, he decided to travel and photograph more of the mountains of America: starting with the Appalachian Trail. It didnât take them directly into West Virginia but Izuka was taken with the landscape and intrigued by the people, so the two men made a detour. Within a couple weeks, he met a young woman named Mary McDonough. They had a short love affair, and then he set off to complete his project. On the journey back, he stopped in West Virginia to see Mary (sans Walter), and she had some big news, baby! Thatâs right: a baby. She was pregnant. He stayed. They got married. And then the mountains called again, and he left again.
Taru is still in touch with his dad via letters, and Izuka comes and goes pretty much as he pleases, but Taru has a lot of resentment. He finds him flighty, irresponsible, and just kinda... dumb. Itâs not that he thinks all artistic endeavors are stupid but they certainly make him feel stupid now.
Taruâs mom, Mary McDonough, works at the Post Office as a clerk. She is HOH, with only partial hearing in her right ear, but resources for deaf and HOH people when she was a kid growing up in Lockhorn County in the 50â˛s were very few and far between. With the nearest school for the deaf and the blind nearly 5 hours away on the other side of the state, her family improvised. There were a few books on ASL in the library, and the McDonoughâs had their own set of signs that they came up with over the years to fill in gaps or when learning the actual ASL for it seemed too daunting or too time-consuming. Her mom had other children to take of, after all, and her dad had a dangerous job in the mines that exhausted him. They couldnât spend all their time reading books, they said. So mostly Mary had to learn to lip read.
Taru is pretty close with his mom. When he was younger, he really put her through hell and now he carries a lot of guilt about it. He helps her with any housework she needs doing but doesnât have the time or energy to. And all the siblings know the zombie mash-up of ASL/McDonough Signing.
Okay, Iâm going to wrap this up fr. Taru has two siblings: Hina and Minoru. Like Taru, as kids they decided to go by English names for a long time because itâs the 90â˛s and racism, and they chose Heather and Michael. Hina was the first to take the stand and demand to be called Hina instead when she was eighteen; Taru has only started introducing himself as such in the past few years. Heâs close-ish with his siblings, more so Minoru than Hina. He and Hina fought a lot over the years. But when Hina was twenty, without so much of a warning, she packed a bag in the middle of the night and left. Minoru got recruited into the military his senior year of high school and left right after graduation. Perhaps all these people âleavingâ has given Taru a âcomplexâ. Who knows, who knows...Â
FRIENDS: In high school, Taru had a circle of friends that his mom described as a âbad influence.â They spent most of their time drinking behind the Hot Stop, smoking/snorting/etc. just about anything they got their hands on and started fights with anyone who looked at them wrong. Or sometimes just whoever they came across: wrong place, wrong time vibes for those guys. When a couple of them got cars, they started racing -- wildly and irresponsibly. And it wasnât until he was 23 that he finally cut most of them out for Reasons.
Nowadays, Taru doesnât really like making new friends. Because itâs literally exhausting. Any friends he has made over the past few years have honestly been inadvertent. Like how he ended up with Kiko, these people just sort of... fell into his lap, and now heâs like, âChrist, now I gotta care about these motherf*ckers too?â But once you have him for a friend, he is pretty ride-or-die, so thereâs that at least if you can deal with his poor communication skills. Like his preference to communicate in grunts rather than words, his laissez-faire attitude about showing up anywhere on time, and his compulsive, defensive dickishness. If so, then you may find something like this inexplicably in your jacket pocket one day. Itâs his love language.
 But anyway, pleas.e... please ., ... plot with me.
LIVING SITUATION:Â Taru grew up in a ramshackle house in Hazzard, a little bigger than a trailer but not by much. His first two years of life, by contrast, were spent in a slightly less ramshackle house in Prosper. But photography doesnât pay well in West Virginia, as you can imagine, so the family relocated. Nowadays, he lives in small, converted office space above Roy Reidâs garage. It has a tiny kitchenette, an even smaller bathroom, and a living room/bedroom hybrid. Itâs big enough for him and his tiny dog, so heâs not complaining. Itâs a mess, but like... an organized mess. Heâs very private and doesnât like a lot of people in his space, so itâs not like heâs often tidying up to impress anyone.
WORK:Â Taru has worked at Roy Reidâs garage as a mechanic since he was 17 years old. His grandpa originally got him the job to help âstraighten him out.â Itâs the only thing he ever shows up on time for, and these days he basically runs the garage himself. Over the years, Roy has become a quasi-father figure to him and heâs very protective of the man, despite the fact Royâs favorite pastime these days is sitting around at the bar and causing public scenes. You canât say shit about him around Taru.
But is being a mechanic something Taru likes? Sure, most days. Itâs methodical, and he likes when thereâs a new problem to solve, but itâs something he just fell into. A lot of the money he makes goes right back into the business to keep it running, while the rest gets saved or sometimes spent on his mom (and previously his ex-girlfriend).
SCHOOL: Taru was an average student until he turned fifteen, and likely played on the schoolâs baseball team if there was one, but then his grades plummeted. He started hanging with the previously mentioned past friends, and most students in the halls started to give him a wide berth. Halfway through junior year, he got kicked off the baseball team and warned that if he didnât get his ass into gear he would have to repeat the year. So as some sort of protest (???) against that, he decided to just drop out at the end of the year instead. (Yasssss, king, Iâm sure that showed them! đ)
ASPIRATIONS: Taru doesnât have many real goals beyond keeping the business afloat. Heâs the last of his siblings in Lockhorn County and he canât be the last one to leave and leave his mom alone. But thereâs also a sense of pride that keeps him here too. Who are they to think theyâre better than this when he canât think of a world outside of it? It pisses him offffff, ay. (Catch him swinging a bat at glass bottles in the woods as his therapy.)
RIVALRY:Â His feelings about the rivalry were at their height when he was a teenager because of Teen Feelings. I think he took it pretty seriously (especially depending on the situation and if he was on the defense), and was a big participant in some shenanigans, but now heâs older and not so preoccupied with it. Because now heâs gotta like, pay taxes and fill out forms and stuff. But thereâs still that seed though thatâll always remain.Â













