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[beautifulleopard]

Player: jenni
Contact: pm & plurk sparklepire
Age: still over 30 ;3;
Current Characters: Goro Akechi

Character Name: Juri Arisugawa
Character Canon: Revolutionary Girl Utena (anime flavor)
Canon Point: The end of Black Rose saga
Age: 16

Crime: Rebelling against the Miracles.

Ok, wtf that means? To disprove/destroy the power of miracles is the driving force behind Juri and what makes her want partake in the magical duels for Rose Bride. For Juri a miracle would mean acceptance and a chance in happiness -- preferably for Shiori to change her heart. However, it would also mean being able to move on from her hurt and let go of that locket she keeps guarding. Basically: accept herself, what happened with Shiori and move on in her life. Be Gay and Proud!

Background: Holy shit. There’s no adequate wiki for Juri… Oh boy here we go:

Revolutionary Girl Utena is a funny series because a lot of weird stuff happens there while... nothing really happening? Basically it's just a huge metaphor for adolescence and growing up. The setting is this huge, isolated school called Ohtori Academy that sort of works as it's own world that's separate from "reality”. We never really see the outside world existing as none of the characters leave the school. Though, there are references and mentions about it in the flashbacks and such. Juri, for an example, we never see in any other environment than in school, but she does mention her members of her family once or twice quickly as a side comment, implying that despite her staying at Ohtori academy for quite some time now she's remained a good relationship to them. After all, one needs a reason in order to exist in the school. (There's lot weird and unexplained stuff regarding the true nature of the said world but I'm not going into more detail about that.)

But what do we actually know about Juri, then?

Ever since being freshman at the academy, Juri showed interest and talent when it came to fencing. She became part of the school's club and her brilliance and excellency was recognized by the captain, Ruka, who took her under his wing and they became close friends while they trained together. Juri was brilliant, beautiful, smart, strong and talented – almost flawless perfection that everyone couldn’t help but admire. Her childhood best friend, Shiori, was also in the school even if not part of the club. She would tag along with her all the time. Shiori was Juri’s opposite, she was small, scared, insecure and weak and would seek protection from her friend. At one point they both became very close to one male student (who some reason stays nameless) who was also part of the fencing club. They formed an intimate trio, three musketeers so to speak. But Shiori noticed that the relationship between Juri and the nameless student was more than that, and that they harboured romantic feelings towards each other – without the other being aware of it. Shiori, too, had started developing romantic feelings for the guy, and fearing that she’d be left behind she told him that Juri was in madly in love with someone else, destroying his crush and stealing him for herself. The trio fell apart and Shiori moved away with her boyfriend, leaving Juri behind.

Shiori had not been wrong to assume that Juri was in love. Because she was, desperately so. She wears a golden rose shaped locket around her neck underneath the school uniform. And inside of it is the picture of her loved one, who is completely unaware of her feelings. Shiori had seen the locket but never inside to it and had even encouraged Juri to be straightforward with her feelings. “Believe in miracles and they will know your feelings.” That was what she used to tell Juri, which then became the greatest motivation and catalyst for her. Because the person who she secretly loves wasn’t the male student but Shiori.

At some point, Juri became one of the few chosen ones who were taken into student council and started receiving letters from someone who called themselves “The End of the World.” In those letters she and the other chosen were told how to open a secret dueling arena behind the school’s forbidden forest. The arena itself took place on top of a long staircase and above it lingered a castle upside down from the clouds. They were also introduced to a girl named Anthy Himemiya, a Rose Bride who possessed magical (miraculous) power that anyone who was engaged to her could use to bring the revolution to the world and shape it according to their wishes. So began the secret and very questionable duels on the arena with the Rose Bride as the prize. It was heavily stressed that Anthy was not a normal girl and that she would happily obey her “fiancee’s’” every wish and command, she would be what they wished her to be and so.

After becoming the new captain of the fencing Juri did, too, take part to these duels, her goal being to obtain the power of miracles – only to destroy them for good.

For some time a male student named Saionji was the the champion and thus engaged to Rose Bride. He was abusive towards her and would often beat her. Rest of student council, Juri included, found this very distasteful but didn’t exactly do anything about it – after all, she was his possession and seemingly accepting towards the abuse. This setting, however, changed when a new duelist who wasn't part of the student council appeared. Utena, a self-proclaimed prince, came and beat Saionji in a duel and became engaged to Rose Bride. Utena was completely unaware of the true nature of the duels, The End of the World, Rose Bride and what it all meant. Still, she continued to fight in order to protect Anthy from ending up into more abusive relationships. Eventually it became Juri's turn to face Utena in a duel and (un)surprisingly enough: Utena couldn't beat her, not even with the magical power of Dios (an eternal prince who's spirit dwells inside the castle above them. idk this is also barely explained in the series). Juri toyed with her during the whole duel and unarmed her, throwing her sword into the air. But before she could declare herself as a winner Utena's sword came down and knocked the rose off Juri's chest, making Utena the winner.

Personality:

Whatever Juri does, she always aims for perfection, executing everything flawlessly without a hair coming out of its place. Juri is elegant, strong, athletic, smart, mature.. Very much everything that you could ever want. It's no wonder that she's gained respect among both student body and the authority figures of the school. Even the teachers are wary around her and try their best to stay on Juri's good side. It should be noted that Juri isn't someone who necessarily aims for authority or respect -- it's just something that comes to her naturally.

Juri is very private person who might seem quite distant because of it, but there definitely is more lighter and kinder side to contrast her seriousness. She acts rather jovial and jokes around when meeting Utena for the first time in person. Utena makes a joke about using the power of revolution so that she doesn't have to study for finals, and Juri later comments jokingly that even with something like that to back her up she'd definitely would have to study. She worries a quite lot about the people who she considers close friends, and isn't above of teasing them. She takes her responsibilities seriously and looks after the members of the fencing club, acting as an older sister figure to most of them. Just because she's extremely private person who doesn't share much about herself doesn't mean she lacks empathy and caring.

The best kept secret in Juri's life is the facade that tells she has her shit together. Because in reality, she doesn't. Juri is a big mess inside: hurt, betrayed and scared. For an example: there is a scene where she's received a letter from Shiori and we hear her response to it. In her own letter Juri tells with a friendly voice how happy she is for two of them, even though a small loneliness lingers in her heart because she misses the good time when they were all together. A perfect, polite reply to an old friend. However, while reading we see that's not how she feels at all: she withdraws to herself as if she's in physical pain and begins to throw things off table from both anger and frustration. She might look alright but inside she's trapped inside a whirlpool of despair, unable to cope with the hurt that can only come when something as sincere and personal as love betrayed. In a genuine fear of further hurt and vulnerability Juri stubbornly clings on the broken heart, scared of showing her true feelings and moving forward.

The actual motives behind Juri's actions and readiness to duels might seem rather... unclear and confusing. She never really explains them and us viewers are left to pick it out from the hints in her inner monologue. What Juri is trying to achieve by gaining the power of miracles? One character in the series suggests that it's because so that the person Juri is in love with will know her true feelings. But the reason why she wants the power of miracles to herself is to destroy them. She wants to prove that miracles don't exist. Not for her or anyone else.

Even though Juri appears always to be in control of herself and hide her pain away from others it doesn't mean that she's numb or made of marble. There are times when it all gets too much for her to bear and she'll lash out. When challenging Utena to duel she attacked her, trying to steal away her ring that's a symbol of a duelist, after she had first told her about the love she had for a prince who she had met in her early childhood. Hearing such miraculous story full of devotion and naivete pushed Juri over the edge and roused her anger. Each duel that Utena faces in the series has a name and the one that Juri's guarding is, as you can guess it, called 'love.' In that duel Utena's own feelings of love and inspiration that her memories of distant prince gave her were put on a test, while reminding Juri how she's held prisoner of her own.

Because that's what she is, a prisoner of sort. As by placing Shiori's picture she also sealed herself inside of the locket. Even after finding out about Shiori's true nature and ill intentions towards her, Juri can't let go. She acknowledges the fact that she would definitely be happy if she could choose who she loved and who not. But she can't. And that's what's keeping her from growing, she is like the chick inside the egg and who's unable to break the shell in order to be born. That's why she needs a way out. To have her feelings understood and accepted, to break free from her prison and let go of her hurt, anything. What she needs is a miracle.

But in the end: there are no such things as miracles.

Abilities:

Despite of all the weirdness that happens in Utena: they're all just regular humans (okay, except for Anthy). So Juri's skills include:

- Fencing. Juri is sort of a genius here.
- Academic skills
- People skills
- Modelling
- Bowling

Inventory:

- Her student council uniform
- Duelist ring
- The rose shaped locket
- Her sword

Samples:
old tdm tl
thread from her previous stay
tdm tl from dec!
Questions: uwu