Reign
>insert narrative of reign here, with much bravado<
Ministry
Official Board
- Sushu Xia: Kaichou, Ojou, prez
- Jeremy O'Brien: veep
- Kat Snyder: Treasuratrix
- Andrew Shu: Acqs and Shady Dealings
- Jim Holland: Librarian
- Eric Prendergast: Webmonkey, Master of The Wired
- Cat Davis: veepa, club girlfriend, secretary?
Ninjas
- Arthur: ex-secretary
- Jono: Geek Champion
- Brian: Wordsmith
- Geoff: Ninja of the Shadows wields Darkness as his Weapon
Events
Sakura-Watching Party (Garden Party), Nov 5
None was left un-touched by The Tentacle.
Anime Screened
Duel I: Amitie
Jim challenged Jeremy for the Rose Bride.
The duel was held in Stuart 102. The rose bride was presented and, um, examined. The two duelists and the audience took turns filling in the blank to questions read by the moderator. Points were awarded to number of duelist-audience word matches.
The game was closely tied at the score of 0 until Jim won three points with apt use of "sword". Upon sensing his imminent loss of the Rose Bride, Jeremy took the opportunity to undress the Rose Bride, feel her up, and slap her around. Jim chose to put the Rose Bride in a glass cage. He has also used the Rose Bride to revolutionize Law School applications.
Victor: Jim
Duel II: Choix
Kat challenged Jim for the Rose Bride.
Jim and Kat clashed in a game of Utena-themed Charades, per End of the World's instructions as read by Sushu. Teams wrote categories for each other, categories which proved to include "glass birdcage" and "incestuous feelings." The tiebreaker of pantomime rap proved unnecessary as Jim defeated Kat in straight sets, retaining the Rose Bride for another week.
However, Kat got muchos brownie points for showing up as Angst!Anakin
Victor: Jim
Duel III: Raison
Eric challenged Jim for the Rose Bride.
In this disturbingly vicarious duel, members submitted to Sushu. Sorry -- I meant they submitted lists of things they wanted to do at Ohtori Academy to Sushu. Eric and Jim competed to guess the identities of the writers. List items proved colorful, with "steal the Akio car," "find a nice coffin to live in," and "hack into the planetarium control system" among the items. Jim retained his title, due to winning what degenerated into a staredown between the combatants over who would first be correct when they inevitably pointed the finger at Jono as each list's author.
Subsequent to Jim's victory, it was observed that Jim had won the Rose Bride from the Vice President in the first duel and then retained her in consecutive duels, and hence had thus far followed Utena's path as a duelist precisely.
Victor: Jim
Duel IV: Amour
This duel did not take place as planned, as all were too intimidated to challenge Jim for the Rose Bride. Nonetheless, End of the World hinted that all was going according to plan.
Duel V: Adoration
Cat challenged Jim for the Rose Bride.
This duel consisted of a game of competitive Telephone. Each duelist wrote sentences for their opposite number to try to pass successfully through the line of Animekai members. Cat made a valiant effort with her "Shining thing? My shining thing ain't no razor, sis," but Jim succeeded in passing the message with almost no distortion. Jim, on the other hand, produced a tongue twister based on chic chicks, eggs, and shells, which emerged unrecognizable from the telephone. Jim was invited to become Sushu's lawyer. Cat's claim to the Rose Bride died without truly being born.
Victor: Jim
Duel VI: Conviction
Sushu challenged Jim for the Rose Bride.
In a recognition of the elements of Utena shared by other, inferior anime, End of the World pitted the president against the Champion Duelist in a battle of cliches. Jeremy, standing in for Sushu, read a description of a plot point of Utena. The catch? The anime the plot point came from wasn't Utena. Sushu and Jim had to guess what other anime could possibly be being described. The duelists tore through Rose of Versailles, Escaflowne, and Kino no Tabi. When they reached the description of an anime with five color-coded people behind the scenes, one of whom is dating an enigmatic figure, Jeremy guessed Excel Saga and Sushu Power Rangers; neither captured the whole of the clue, and the correct answer was Sailor Moon. Metropolis similarly stumped the duelists, Jim guessing Last Exile and Sushu Galaxy Express 999. In the end, it all came down to what anime basically started the exact same way Utena did, with a kind traveler upon a mount rescuing a girl from her plight, and the girl deciding to become just like him. Sushu declined to answer, but Jim correctly guessed "Kino no Tabi." Thus Jim retained his title for the fifth consecutive duel -- and in beating the President, proved himself even more destiny-infused than Utena herself.
Victor: Jim
Duel VII: Soi
Andrew challenged Jim for the Rose Bride.
Getting back to basics, this duel's rules were simple: whoever's rose first hit the ground would lose the duel. In a best-of-three series, Jim's rose was twice knocked from his chest. For the first time, the Rose Bride passed to hands other than Jim's.
Victor: Andrew
Duel VIII: Labourer
Jono challenged Andrew for the Rose Bride.
A mysterious duelist of the Black Rose appeared, seeking not to capture the Rose Bride, but to slay her. Drawing a piece of cardboard tubing out of the Animekai president's back, Jono revealed duel rules presumably entrusted to him by his unknown master. The game was "Rock, Paper, Anything," a sort of freeform jan-ken-pon in which combatants could choose anything as their pantomime weapon, provided it was Ohtori-themed. Voting would ensue, and best three out of five would win the duel. Andrew won the first round, with his handstand Castle in the Sky rendition defeating Jono's pathetic-looking Akio car. However, Jono proceeded to take three consecutive matches with his creative interpretations of a boxing kangaroo, topless males, and boy-love. Jono thus won the Rose Bride, leaving the duels in an unprecedented situation: what happens when a duelist of the Black Rose wins? Jono declined to kill the Bride immediately. Time would tell what lay in store.
Victor: Jono
Duel IX: Semer
Jim challenged Jono for the Rose Bride.
A game of Pictionary turned bad, this duel saw the duelists try to communicate Utena themes to their team members via chalkboard illustrations of dubious fidelity. Jono successfully depicted "secret lesbian love" and "one hundred dead Black Rose duelists," the latter of which was guessed inside of ten seconds by an overenthusiastic team member. Jim scored with "the thousand swords of mankind's hatred" but was unsuccessful with "the power of miracles," resulting in a victory for Jono.
Victor: Jono
Duel X: Pleuvoir
Kat challenged Jono for the Rose Bride.
Mokushi kushimo shimoku kumoshi moshiku shikumo. Such was the phrase End of the World demanded that the duelists repeat until one duelist's tongue twister fu was proven worst, leaving their opponent the champion. A respectable performance on both sides ultimately ended in Eric causing Kat to slip up on "shimoku," though the way in which Eric was responsible for her loss is a secret known only to Kat.
Victor: Jono
Duel XI: Pousser
Eric challenged Jono for the Rose Bride.
Challenger Eric competed against incumbent Jono in a class election that put SG elections to shame. I don't hear SG making elaborate plans for taping Nanami's mouth shut, instituting mandatory gay marriage, planning attacks on sister campuses that we suspect of being terrorists, or mandating shirtlessness for all students. In the end, Eric's creative proposals, including the cloning of the Rose Bride, won out over Jono's decidedly Republican platform, finally ending the Black Rose control over the Rose Bride.
Victor: Eric
Duel XII: Croître
Geoff challenged Eric for the Rose Bride.
A new Black Rose duelist appears! Pulling two long pieces of paper out of a cardboard tube that looked sort of like a sword, Geoff read off the rules for a game of Eat Poop You Cat -- a game where by alternating pictures and captions, a sentence is warped into a second, unrecognizable sentence in a sort of Pictionary/Telephone crossover. Eric put forth a respectable effort, but somehow "Nanami turns into a cow again" got warped to something about butterflies and shirts. As for Geoff... aw, screw it, just look at the results! (Please click this link only if you are 18 or older.) Geoff won amidst helpless laughter from Animekai members too busy trying not to have an aneurysm to applaud.
Victor: Geoff
Duel XIII: Bourgeonner
Jim challenged Geoff for the Rose Bride.
In advance of this duel, Sushu was entrusted with an envelope from End of the World, which proved to contain a deck of "highly collectible" Utena-themed cards. Jim and Geoff battled it out with Pointy Fingers, a Hair Clip, and Arson until all cards were on the table. Jim lost by a narrow margin of 400 points, but received a snack bar from Geoff as a consolation prize. Instrumental to Geoff's victory was a 500-point card that forced him to write a slash fanfic if he lost -- a fanfic which now will never be written. :(
Victor: Geoff
Duel XIV: Fleurir
Isaac challenged Geoff for the Rose Bride.
To everyone's surprise, Isaac emerged from the lands of the Far East to fight on behalf of the Animekai! Isaac and Geoff were forced to guess Ohtori categories based on their items, suggested by club members. The pair struggled through such categories as "Reasons Shounen Bat Comes to Ohtori" and "Ways for Chu Chu to kill himself" in a best-of-four contest that ended two petals all. Geoff's preternatural rapidity at shading one of Isaac's petals left him the victor.
Victor: Geoff
Interlude: Qualifications of a Duelist
At the last regular meeting of the quarter, Brian revealed himself to be the ringleader of the mysterious Black Rose Seminar. Taking the Rose Bride from Geoff, he declared himself the bringer of world revolution and removed the Rose Bride's batteries. But all was not as it seemed, for moments later Brian faded away like a figment of someone's imagination, and has not been seen on campus since. Geoff subsequently revealed that he had secretly extracted the true Batteries of Dios from the Rose Bride prior to Brian's revelation, prompting End of the World to declare that the Rose Bride was only "mostly dead" and would return to the world in due time. In the meantime, duels continued over the Batteries of Dios.
Duel XV: Paix
Cat challenged Geoff for the Batteries of Dios.
Someone said the Duelists got to choose Brides this time, and eventually Geoff won. I'm guessing there was a drinking game or something. That would be fun. I'd be more specific, but I wasn't there, and no one has stepped in as Chronicler of World Revolution.
Victor: Geoff
Duel XVI: Tristesse
Jim challenged Geoff for the Batteries of Dios.
My best guess as to the nature of the game this time: human Jenga. Seriously, someone needs to chronicle the revolution.
Victor: Jim
Duel XVII: Bonté
Geoff challenged Jim for the Batteries of Dios.
Hmm. Maybe the duelists got matchbooks full of used matches, and the first to successfully light one won the duel. Because it was a rematch, see?
Victor: Jim
Duel XVIII: Force
Jono challenged Jim for the Batteries of Dios.
This time I'm going to say the Duelists got given pocket knives and had fifteen seconds to slice up each other's Brides as badly as possible. The Assault and Batteries of Dios.
Victor: Jim
Duel XIX: Evolution
Cat challenged Jim for the Batteries of Dios.
The inside scoop on this one, revealed to me by someone who was actually there, is that Andrew challenged Jim but backed down when he heard the rules. Cat took up the slack, and won in a duel that had something to do with flights of imaginary stairs, presumably a Zettai Unmei Mokushiroku reference. Maybe it was Dance Dance Revolution, only instead of a dance pad there was a Stair Stepper.
Victor: Cat ::Chronicler's Note: This is the first time in the history of the Duels that a female has held the Rose Bride. How disappointing that it's taken so long, given the supposed lesbian overtones of the source material. And strange that I only noticed this because I originally wrote "Victress: Cat" and then went "wait, that looks wrong."::
Duel XX: Résolution
Sushu challenged Cat for the Batteries of Dios.
Cat defeated Sushu in what I assume to have been a cross between Tic-Tac-Toe and lasagna. But no time for that! The End of the World announced that the next duel would at last be the duel named Révolution -- and that he would finally reveal himself. What lies in store for our heroine? Tune in -- next week!
Victor: Cat
Duel XXI: Révolution
Brian challenged Cat for the revolution of the world.
Finally, the End of the World unmasked himself. He was Brian -- the super-Utena-fanboy and the Chronicler of World Revolution. Frustrated by the inability of Cat's sword to shear through the Rose Bride's coffin, Brian engaged Cat in a prolonged and very dramatic duel that pitted Cat's shinai against Brian's collapsible paper sword. In the end, Brian's rose was the first to fall. Through the power of friendship, Cat unlocked the Rose Bride's cage, finally revolutionizing the world and bringing an end to the duels.
Prince: Cat
Epilogue: Someday, We'll Shine Together
After the duel called Révolution reached its end, Cat mysteriously disappeared, leaving the newly liberated Rose Bride to set off to find her. Their current whereabouts are unknown. While whisperings persist of games yet unplayed and challenges yet unposed, one thing is clear: revolution has come to the world, and Ohtori Academy is once again at peace.
Tales
Getting kickbacks from the City
Lo, we have now officially received dubious kickbacks from our glorious City of Chicago. We have not been asked to kill anyone yet, but we no longer fear any Yakuza.
Innocent First Years
Wherein innocent first years are absolutely not lured with promises of free Pocky, nor poked with sticks by the Prez, and Cat shows absoluetely no interest in shinies.
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.