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[shinyidea]

PLAYER
YOUR NAME: Rema
18+?: Yes
CONTACT: luftballons
CHARACTERS IN GAME: Goro Majima
RESERVATION LINK: here

CHARACTER: CANON SECTION
NAME: Mari Ohara
AGE: 17
CANON: Love Live! Sunshine!!

CANON HISTORY: Here at the Love Live wikia + episode summaries
CANON PERSONALITY:

On paper, Mari Ohara reads like a lot of conflicts. She's a School Idol who loves industry metal. She's a rich girl who is down to earth (in spite of some initial attempts to make her the empress trope). She's loud and boisterous but also the director of a school, a job which is usually filled by an adult. Mari's a good example of how things that don't seem to be similar can be. She's not confined to any one trope or any one set of how a person is supposed to act, and she likes that just fine.

On the outside, Mari is loud and boisterous and fun. She's very animated in her actions, preferring loud gestures to quiet ones - why hold hands when you can hug? Why stay on the other side of the room when you can sit close to someone? She doesn't seem to have any real sense of personal space with even her newer friends, happy to jump right into their space and, yes, even feel them up if she knows them well enough. (Mari claims squeezing large breasts makes her feel secure, and who am I to tell her otherwise?) Mari interjects a lot of English and Italian, which at once gives her a sort of foreign air but also heightens her over the top shenanigans. "It's joke!" She'll proudly declare, after saying something someone else probably wanted to hear. Her sense of timing is not really the best. She doesn't seem to let other peoples reactions get her down, she just laughs it off. Mari truly is a character for whom laughter is the best medicine.

One the inside, Mari is more complicated. She's capable of considerable restraint, able to slip into the role of school director even as a student. Mari can navigate bureaucracy and leadership without a problem, although her desire to lead comes more from a place of wanting to help than wanting to stand in the spotlight. With the Aqours, she never tries to be the center or tries to take over leadership from Chika, she's just happy to be part of the group. And for all that she is loud, most of her real work is behind the scenes, acting as a mentor from afar rather than showing up and forcing her will on things. Because of her position as school director, she does have some power to push things one direction or another but she's also really good at gently nudging people from the sidelines.

More than anything, Mari cares about people. Because her personality tends to be so big around everyone, sometimes its hard for the people closest to her to see how much she needs them and is, in turn, needed back. This caused considerable problems with Kanan and Dia in her first year but luckily for all of them they finally figure out how to talk about in when she comes back to school in her third year. This particular instance highlights really well just how much Mari cares - she ends up running through the rain and falling on the way to find Kanan. She slaps her, saying it's a huge deal that she cares about her, but in turn opens herself up to be slapped, too. They end up hugging it out, but the intensity with which Mari cares for people is completely on display here, as well as her ability to take responsibility for her actions.

The example with Kanan and Dia is pretty extreme, since they'd been friends for so long, but her kindness and her attachment is quick to form with other people, too. She's quick to notice the friendship-love-triangle between You-Chika-Riko and confronts You about it, urging her not to make the same mistakes that she'd made by not opening her heart to Kanan and Dia and being honest with them. Mari learns from her mistakes and never wants to see anyone be in as much pain as she had been because of her feelings (and guilt) about Kanan and Dia. Part of it, too, is that as a third year she sees herself as a guide for the younger students, a position of wisdom where she can help out the youth to make good decisions and not waste a whole year of their school life. (Which, when you're a high school student, is a very long time!!)

Because of the set up of the arc of Sunshine!!, we spend a lot of time seeing the responsible side of Mari, the side of her that's trying to make up for what happened with Kanan and Dia. The third years really become involved when they join in episode 9, which is the tail end of the series, but her loud side is definitely still there and very much present. Except in moments where she's dealing with Heavy Stuff, she stays super upbeat and cheerful and prefers to attack problems head on. Her solutions are not always the most orthodox (like becoming the director of a school that might fail or making Stewshine) but she's always got good intentions. And she's always willing to try things and encourage others to do the same. She's very encouraging of all the girls no matter what ideas they come up with, genuinely wishing to see people succeed in the way they want to.

She really does jump in headfirst into everything she does - not just not being afraid to do things, but going at them with full enthusiasm. And that enthusiasm tends to be contagious for other people, as well, her love for things so obvious that they can't help but join in, too, following her bright charisma and enthusiasm so they all shine together. (Get it, Sunshine? Shine together? Nice nice.) Like a lot of her plans, this can end up super over the top -- she's rich and has the means to do some crazy stuff -- but at her heart it's so much about spoiling the people she likes and making sure everyone has a good time. So what if they get a cruise ship and party on it? That's totally normal. And showering people with gifts? If it makes them smile, that's absolutely the right thing to do. And any time she can make people happy, she's gonna dive right on it.

Also, and it almost goes without saying, but Mari loves music. Although she's a big industrial metal fan, she also works really well within the School Idol group and has no problems singing the kinds of songs Aqours does. It's another part of that encouragement, of wanting to help people reach their goals, but she also just loves the feeling she gets when everyone is performing together and singing together. Mari absolutely believes in the power of music as well as the power of love and friendship. There are moments all of those things test her, but she fights on and ultimately repairs both her friends and her career as a school idol.

SKILLS/ABILITIES: Mari is really good at singing and dancing, being flexible and riding horses chocobos and I'm really happy I didn't have to write a Yakuza list of skills and abilities.

She's also a school director, so she's super organized! She has good leadership skills and can take charge although she likes to work in the background.

CHARACTER: AU SECTION
AU NAME: Mari Ohara
AU AGE: 17
PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES: Mari has hazel eyes instead of "lemon" colored eyes. #JustAnimeThings

AU HISTORY:

☀ Born in Germany to a super wealthy family. Mari's mother is Japanese while her dad is of european descent. They run a firm that manages "experiences" for the wealthy. They can hook people with with expensive safaris, renting out entire islands or penthouses on the top of tall buildings. Only the most wealthy can afford them.

☀ Mari spent a lot of time moving from place to place and enjoying some of those sweet experiences. She's done a lot of weird things people probably never get the chance to.

☀ The majority of her schooling, however, was done in Berlin. She uses random German sometimes with her speech.

☀ She does pretty well in school despite all the moving around! Even though she acts pretty over the top, she's able to really focus even in spite of differing curriculum across countries, and she's learned to speak a little bit of a lot of different languages, although her grasp on German, English, French and Italian is best.

☀ As she grew up she got really into the clubbing scene in Berlin. She's not really there for the drinks or the drugs, she just loves the music scene. People dancing together, partying together. She's also really into techno and wants to be a DJ to bring people that kind of happiness!

☀ Unfortunately that means shes got a fake ID and has snuck out behind her parents back once or twice. But it's for a good cause ok!! Music is important.

☀ She's lowkey slowly figuring out how to DJ but she's never done it in public. You can bet in her room though she's holding parties for her stuff animals. Das Geht Ab y'all.

☀ In her travels she's picked up some pen pals and friends here and there but she doesn't have anyone she's super close with that's her age because she moves so much.

☀ Her parents have decided to relocate to Recolle for some new business opportunities! She's really bummed to be doing her last her of high school away from home and away from the clubbing scene, but she's very excited for the beach!

☀ Also she loves chocobo riding! Isn't that nice?

AU PERSONALITY:

Mari has a lot less responsibility in this AU. She's not leading a school or trying to repair broken friendships, not carrying around the guilt of What Happened Two Years ago. In practice, there's not too much difference because she's always been pretty boisterous, although now she has less reason to turn it down.

Because of her clubbing scene, she's a little more willing to be rebellious - sneaking out, owing a fake id. She doesn't have the same school idol (and school director) compulsion to be responsible or Pure, although she still maintains a pretty good sense of right and wrong and doesn't stray too far from the beaten path.

In general, she matches pretty well her canonical personality - she still cares deeply for the people whose lives she becomes involved in, still is loud and fun, and still loves hanging out with all her Galpals.

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