application ( deerington )

[rosewitch]

IN CHARACTER

Character Name: Anthy Himemiya
Canon: Revolutionary Girl Utena
Canon Point: After leaving Ohtori Academy at the end of the anime

In-Game Tattoo Placement: Over her heart
Current Health/Status: Alive and well
Age: 14. Arguably ageless, but also 14.
Species: Human, probably.

Content Warnings: sibling incest, child sexual assault, intimate partner violence, gaslighting, attempted suicide, terminal illness, & torture

History: RGU | Anthy — if these are insufficient please let me know and I can provide more information!

Personality:

Anthy's story is one of duality as well as duplicity. She is a character best known for being deceptive, a girl who never appears quite right and has a thousand different faces to take on and off when she pleases. At the same time, she's clearly a girl who struggles to balance her different identities, especially towards the end of the series when the balance becomes different from anything she's ever experienced before. Anthy is both manipulated and manipulator, victim and culprit — plus, of course, damsel in distress and witch, the two roles she's best known for.

Anthy left her status as an innocent a long time ago in order to remove her brother's power, a power that was in such high demand that the constant use of it was killing him. She knew he wouldn't survive using it much longer, and she knew he wouldn't stop, so she made him stop. But as a result of doing so, she went from a bystander in Dios's story to its villain — and made herself a witch. The crucial factor here is that Anthy knew what would happen as a result of her actions — not in perfect detail, but she knew that she would be punished severely for taking away something so precious.

She did it anyway. When Anthy cares, she cares deeply and sacrifices parts of herself that she might be better off keeping. In this case, the punishment was not only severe but eternal. In becoming the witch in Dios's story, she became every witch, every villain, and the target of all of humanity's hatred. For thousands of years, she felt the physical manifestation of that hatred stab through her like swords every moment of every day, and it left her a twisted version of what she used to be. She was always a little manipulative and a little callous, willing to do what others would not, but by the time RGU starts, Anthy is bitter and vengeful. She distrusts people by default, because she knows what lies within their hearts, and she knows who they take their anger out on.

Anthy is capable of great cruelty or great kindness. Admittedly, the kindness is more rarely seen and often much smaller than her cruelties. She has a massive soft spot towards animals and will take them in at the drop of a hat, whether the animal in question is a monkey or a cobra. She's also been known to offer genuine comfort to those close to her every once in a while, although you really have to earn that; it's mostly directed towards Utena, sometimes Miki if he's very lucky.

And then there's Anthy's cruelty, which she exercises a lot and is often gleefully creative in its expression. Her cruelty is directed towards people in ways that may at times seem indiscriminate or accidental, but there is always a purpose behind it. At times it manifests so severely it amounts to psychological torture; at other times it's so subtle it's more like brainwashing. Anthy takes a vindictive pleasure in engineering suffering for people she perceives as cruel, especially abusers — which is hypocritical, since Anthy is rarely not cruel, but she couldn't care less about her own hypocrisy. Honestly, her viciousness is the only way she feels she's capable of striking out or expressing her feelings, and it's a feeling that's held true for most of her life.

It's important to note that Anthy is particularly cruel towards those who remind her of herself. The most obvious example of this is her constant persecution of Nanami. While this dynamic is clearly in part self-defense, since Nanami is jealous of her and tries to sabotage her as a result, there are also clear parallels between their behavior that make Anthy's repartees much more vicious. Nanami is just as petty and vindictive on the outside as Anthy is on the inside; more than that, Nanami is a victim of her older brother's psychological and sometimes physical torment, just as Anthy is. Anthy hates to see her weakness reflected in anyone else; it disgusts her, and so she takes every slight Nanami gives her personally, punishing Nanami as a convenient substitute for punishing herself.

If all of this seems to imply that Anthy doesn't like herself very much, well, she doesn't. There are about a million reasons why, but the most obvious is the constant external reinforcement that she's worse than worthless: she's the central figuring of suffering in the world. She's the place where people bury their hatred; to most people in the world, even if only subconsciously, she is the ultimate evil. And Anthy knows this. Add to that the fact that she's been abused by her brother for who knows how long, unable to escape or do much to better her situation, and it's not much of a surprise that she hates herself. Towards the end of canon, as Akio's plan for the End of the World is nearing fruition, she tries to kill herself for reasons that even she struggles to articulate. Still, the implication is that she believes Utena's pain would be less, her fate would be easier if Anthy wasn't there. Anthy is the vehicle of Utena's destruction, so wouldn't it be easier if she were gone?

None of Anthy's positive feelings are easy for her. Once upon a time, her closest bond was with her brother Dios, and look where that got her. The more the curtain over Anthy's true emotion is drawn back over the course of the series, the more the viewer realizes that she's really struggling to keep her feelings towards Utena neutral or negative. She doesn't know, and doesn't want to know, how the world will change if she begins to genuinely care for someone. It will turn her life upside down, when she's found a way — an absolutely miserable way, but a way nonetheless — to cope with the life she's living. She certainly never expected Utena to rescue her, and it's a fact that will leave her reeling for a long, long time. After all, she's very convinced she's not worth it.

Anthy is quick to become a doormat in any relationship. A significant part of this tendency is because, as aforementioned, she does feel she deserves to suffer and that suffering is her role in this world. Additionally, she's been a victim for so long that she's no longer sure how to stop being a victim. Her instincts for preserving her own safety are well and truly shot after all this time.

But the other reason is this: it is very, very easy to manipulate people when they feel sorry for you. If she's seen as the victim, some well-meaning individual will come to "save" her; if she works hard enough, she can get them to do whatever she wants them to. From the very beginning of canon, Utena is marked for death, but Anthy gives no hint of this at the start of their relationship. Instead, she blinds Utena to her manipulations by making herself appear vulnerable and alone — which she is, but in a much more complicated way than she allows Utena to know.

She has trouble making genuine connections and becomes entirely bewildered when they happen anyway. One of the reasons she struggles with Utena is that Utena is so earnest; she's easy to manipulate, but at the same time says exactly what she's thinking, genuinely tries (albeit sometimes clumsily) to understand Anthy, and desperately wants her to be happy. For Anthy, for whom distrust, hatred, and pain have long been the norm, this is genuinely frightening. She'd much rather deny and bury her feelings than invest her time and energy in a positive connection that, to her, seems ultimately doomed.

But at the same time, Anthy has been deeply touched by Utena's kindness. Despite all of her lying and deception, despite who and what she is, despite the ultimate betrayal, Utena sacrificed herself to set Anthy free, and that's not the type of gesture Anthy can deny. At this point in time, Anthy's main challenge is reconciling all of her preconceived beliefs — of her role, of her worth — with a world where someone would do that for someone like her. It's forcing her to look at things in a new light, and while it's painful and incredibly difficult, she is at least trying. Trying isn't something she's done in a fair few centuries.

Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses & Warping:

The issue of Anthy's powers is a little complicated, because the nature of Revolutionary Girl Utena is big-time magical realism, where the rules are made up and the points don't matter. There are a lot of powers that Anthy is implied to control, but they're never delved into with respect to how they work, how she controls them, where they came from, etc. For the ease of roleplaying Anthy's powers in as straightforward a way as possible, I've summarized them below with as much clarity as RGU provides and warped them from there. Obviously, I'm happy to adjust for any changes mods want me to make. All powers that have the potential to impact other players (glamour, illusion, transformation) will be listed in my permissions post for her so that players can opt-out entirely if they want to and will of course not be used without OOC permission on a case-by-case basis.

Also, for completion's sake, Anthy also at one point had access to the Sword of Dios (described in history link), but it's no longer accessible to her and she would have no interest in it in any case. As for current, relevant powers, we have—

IMMORTALITY ⚔ Although she appears to be a 14-year-old, Anthy is very old. Her exact age is unknown, but she is at minimum hundreds and at maximum thousands of years old. As confirmation, Anthy will stop being immortal upon entry to Deerington. I want to confirm as well that it's all right for her to start aging normally in Deerington. Please let me know if this is not the case.

NATURE AFFINITY ⚔ Anthy is much more attuned to the natural world than to people. She has a strong green thumb (which is debatably magical) and the ability to communicate with animals over long distances. She can even bend them to her will at times.
↳ WARP ⚔ I would like Anthy's nature affinity to deteriorate over time so that she begins to cause active harm to flora she spends time near. Eventually, I would like her touch to cause plants to visibly and quickly deteriorate. If it's possible, I'd like her animal affinity to stay as-is.

GLAMOUR ⚔ One of the more frequently-used of Anthy's powers. Anthy is able to manipulate her appearance at will; there appears to be no upper limit to the kinds of glamours she can project.
↳ WARP ⚔ Anthy will only be able to use a glamour resembling someone she knows personally. Once she uses her glamour, she is stuck in it for 24 hours. At the end of this period, she will experience physical symptoms related in some way to a pain that person has experienced. (Example: if she used a glamour of Utena, she'd feel like she was being stabbed in the back.) In the absence of a specifically relevant symptom, the warp will default to extreme fatigue.

ILLUSION ⚔ One of the more frequently-used of Anthy's powers. Anthy is able to manipulate her surroundings at will; there appears to be no upper limit to the kinds of illusions she can create.
↳ WARP ⚔ Anthy's illusion will flicker/glitch after more than a minute of use. The glitching will increase in frequency until, after 5 minutes, Anthy and anyone around her will find themselves stuck in what appears to be a blank elevator.

TRANSFORMATION ⚔ Of objects or living things.
↳ WARP ⚔ Anthy's transformation will still work, but its level of success and side effects will be contingent on her intentions. If her intentions are malicious or cruel, both she and the target will be physically warped beyond recognition for 1 hour. If her intentions are neutral or benevolent, only she will be physically warped for this time period; the target will be transformed as Anthy intended.

ABILITY NEGATION ⚔ Anthy can temporarily negate other characters' supernatural powers.
↳ WARP ⚔ Any use of this power will end in Anthy negating her own powers rather than another person's, as well as losing one of her senses. This lost sense will be RNGed, so there will be a 20% chance of losing any one sense.

Inventory:

⚔ Chu Chu, her pet monkey
⚔ one outfit (pictured here)
⚔ small purse containing a notepad, pen, and a small amount of cash

Writing Samples: 1; 2 continued here; 3

OUT OF CHARACTER

Player Name: Anne
Player Age: 29
Player Contact: passiones or PM

Other Characters In Game: N/A
In-Game Tag If Accepted: anthy himemiya: anne
Permissions for Character: + opt-out
Are you comfortable with prominent elements of fourth-walling?: Yes!
What themes of horror/psychological thrillers do you enjoy the most?: Unreliable narrators/POV characters; perception vs. reality; magical realism; morphing landscapes; you shape what scares you (a la Silent Hill, House of Leaves, etc)
Is there anything in particular you absolutely need specific content warnings for?: Rape, child sexual assault, incest, suicide, eating disorders.
Additional Information: N/A