[Esper] Watabe Tsubasa

FULL NAME: Watabe Tsubasa
OTHER ALIAS:
♬ Watanabe: by most teachers and anyone who mistakenly read her surname's kanji (渡部) as Watanabe. It is another correct alternative reading and -unfortunately for her- one of the most common surnames in Japan. This makes the error all the more likely to occur. Although she used to correct them, she eventually gave up trying over the years.
♬ Ouji-sama (Prince): by her fans.
♬ Watabe/Watabe-kun: by her teammates, who consider her to be their pal, and the manager.
♬ Tsu-chan: by Hajime, her childhood friend.
CURRENT AGE: 17.
GENDER: Female.
OCCUPATION: Student, Part-time entertainer (singer, dancer, acrobat)
SCHOOL: A Certain High School.
FACTION: The school’s Urban Dance Team.


APPEARANCE: She has a tall figure. Her dark wavy hair has been kept short for the past few years. Her big eyes have emerald pupils and long eyelashes. However, the rest of her facial features and her body (which lacks any curves) are very masculine. She has a relatively tanned complexion. She hates girly clothes, therefore, she gave herself leeway to freely express her peculiar sense of fashion. As an example, she wears the school’s male uniform, despite the teachers’ repeated warnings. And outside of school, she tends to dress in jackets, blazers or shirts. She also prefers to cover her head with hats or hoodies for additional dramatic effect. She’s all for theatrics, even in her clothes. Due to her physique and fashion tendencies, she has an androgynous look. Thus, she’s constantly mistaken for a boy by strangers.
HEIGHT: 170 cm (~5'6”.)
WEIGHT:  52 kg (~115 lbs.)
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES: N/A.
PERSONALITY:
Textbook Tomboy
She took the cliché stereotype of a tomboy to its farthest possible representation.  She lacks the usual self-awareness girls tend to have and is more spontaneous in her manners. She’s in fact closer in her relationships and friendships to guys than girls. Her tomboy personality doesn’t help the confusion her appearance causes for others. Her relatively deep voice and the way she refers to herself as “Boku” (僕) makes the misunderstandings concerning her gender even more prevalent.
A Friendly Goofy Teaser  
Easy to get along with. Everyone’s friend. She is the type of person to readily accept someone as they are no questions asked. She can make friends with anyone, even unpleasant people. She has a way of quickly gaining their trust. A quirky and goofy person who doesn’t mind expressing her fondness of people in words, hugs and big displays of affection. As a result, she comes across as too touchy to others. In fact, she’s surprisingly flirtatious sometimes. She likes to tease her fans when on the stage, like winking or pointing at cute girls in the crowd (maybe simply because girls are the easiest to get a reaction out of like squealing in embarrassment, or maybe there's more to it, who knows). But she also enjoys teasing people in real life as well. Their cute reactions are too funny to witness. It never gets old.
Outgoing, Easy-going... Wow, Life’s Easy (not)
She’s a very spontaneous person, who prefers to live in the moment, rather than fretting about the future or dwelling in the past. She enjoys living, doesn't bother herself with what people think of her, and makes sure to savor the thrill of the adventurous way of life. But she’s not mindless of the consequences, she just chooses to turn a blind eye on some trivial things. It’s her utmost priority to live her life to the fullest.
A Free Spirit Who Constantly Questions Authority
She’s far from being a people-pleaser. She hates expectations and being bound down by things or others. She prefers to do whatever she likes, whenever she likes, however she likes: a true rebel. She’s the kind of person to be excited to surprise you with something until you actually ask her to do it; then she’d lose all motivation to go through with it even if she wants to. She loathes being ordered around and told what to do. She would rather make decisions for herself, doing things she finds worthy of her time, and had a personal calling, not just things she was told to do. It’s not uncommon that she’d sneak away during rehearsing if she had something more interesting in mind. This “carefree” attitude (as it would seem to others) led to previous trouble with teachers and the team’s manager.
There’s been only one exception, only one person’s words could dictate what to do: Hajime’s wish.
Cunning When Needed
She's very cautious. She knows she’s no hero, and the extent of her strength. She understands that she’ll probably be unable to do much difference if things go south, especially when high level espers are involved. She knows how to tell apart fun times and serious ones. In her eyes, this life is the embodiment of Hajime’s will and dream, which she has to uphold. That’s why she chooses her battles wisely. She can't go on dying before completing her promise. Nonetheless, if someone pushes her patience beyond its limits, she’s not beyond resorting to physical violence.
 Shrouded In Mystery
She's a person full of inner contradictions. She often preeches things that she doesn't uphold, due to her past. She seems like an open book, full of joy, living the moment. But in reality, she's simply averting her gaze from the hidden pain. Since coming to Acadmy City, she hasn't told anyone about her past besides the existence of her parents. This makes her, even when initially friendly and pleasant, actually hard to know on a deeper more intimate level. She trusts people, but is also afraid of truly opening her still bleeding heart to them. Not out of fear of betrayal, but of being left alone. She wanted no strong bonds again. No second Hajimes. Be it a brotherly relationship or a romantic one. "Casual friends", is where things stop. She learned the hard way, that if you get too close to someone, they're bound to be stolen from you, and you'll get so hurt that your death would seem like mercy. This makes her an enigma to solve, for anyone who wishes to take down the walls she had built around herself.
A Fragile Broken Mind
Due to how she repressed her feelings of loss, she never got to develop a healthy coping mechanism. On the surface, it looks like she has moved on, but in reality she has never truly gotten over Hajime's death. And that trauma scarred her so deep that it left several untreated psychological and emotional issues. She was easily irritable, which explains her inclination for violence. She felt guilty about the boy's death, telling herself how unfair it was that he died so young and she got to live. Her failure at realising his dream of being an Esper intensified her guilt. This made her indulge in (unconscious) self-destructing behavior through getting into trouble with thugs and ditching classes.
A Selfish Blackened Heart
Even though she gives off positive vibes due to her carefree attitude, she's actually quite selfish. Not to the extent of actively hurting others, but she wouldn't play the heroics for others' sake either. Her life was of the most importance. Because it was the only means of making the rest of her Hajime's ambitions true. She always silently cursed the fates, or god, or the universe, or whatever was out there, for taking him away. She also despised Academy City for not making her a higher level esper. Logically, she knew that it was her inability that caused it, and she already blamed herself enough for it. But she still couldn't forgive the city for not providing a solution.

LIKES:
♬ Suits, blazers, shirts.
♬ Jackets: leather, biker style, sweatshirts, hoodies.
♬ Hats: fedora, trilby, gatsby, beret.
DISLIKES:
♬ Academy City.
♬ Being asked about Hajime.
♬ Being called Tsu-chan (it reminds her too much of him.)
♬ Nagging.
♬ School work.
♬ Being ordered around.
STRENGTHS:
♬ Athletic: especially good at street-fighting, acrobatics and dancing.
♬ Singing.
♬ Riding bikes.
WEAKNESSES:
♬ Tendency for reckless behavior.
♬ Fear of intimacy and closeness to people.
♬ Can’t stick to timetables.
♬ Far from being orderly and organised.
♬ Quick to lose temper, sometimes violent.
♬ Has trouble listening to authority figures.
♬ Quick to give up on things if they aren’t amusing enough or don't speak to her on a personal level.
♬ Failing grades and getting retentions constantly due to lack of discipline and not being academically smart.



HISTORY:

   Tsubasa is the only daughter of ordinary parents from a normal middle-class japanese family in Kanagawa Prefecture. They had lifelong neighbors with a young boy: Hajime. He was three years her elder, but since they’ve known each other from the moment she was born, they were as close as blood-related siblings. They would always stick to each other, play together, eat together, even sleep together at a younger age. She would often make a fuss and start crying when separated from him. She looked up to him that much. He was her childhood idol, best friend and brother. And unbeknown to her, once she grew a bit older, he too respected her a lot, and took her words seriously. They had an unbreakable bond of mutual respect and brotherly love.

   Lamentably, he eventually developed acute leukemia. His health rapidly grew worse. Not wanting to go without leaving any legacy behind, he convinced Tsubasa to make a music duo together. He knew she had a latent talent to become a great singer if she put her mind to it, and he believed in her. He, however, was the real little genius, juggling between several instruments at once at such a young age. He dreamed of being a pro musician in the future, before his health took a toll on him. He also had a weak spot for flashy displays and theatrics (that Tsubasa inherited from him), which explains his fascination with Academy City and its espers. He admired them and constantly talked about them enthusiastically. And, obviously, his long ramblings never bored the little girl. But, after his health took a turn for the worst, and his family got the news that he doesn’t have much longer to live, he decided to write a song, as a permanent memorial of his existence, of his dreams. He composed it, wrote the lyrics, and sang a few parts of it as well, but left the lead vocalist role to Tsubasa herself, as a proof, to finally convince his stubborn friend of her true latent talent. Sadly, there was a lot of crying during their work, knowing that these were their last days together.

   After all is said and done, the poor boy passed away, after being admitted to the hospital few weeks prior. This led to a terrible emotional shock to the 13-year old girl. However, she forced herself to “move on”. She refused to show any weakness. She never let herself cry, never shed any tears, never complained, never expressed any loneliness. She didn’t allow herself to mourn and heal properly. She was a chaotic mess inside. A mess of bottled up emotions that screamed to be let free. Maybe this would explain why, right after he passed away, she started gradually gaining interest in boy clothes. Perhaps, she was trying to literally become him. Or maybe, it was simply her raw emotions of grief and admiration manifesting themselves in a subtle way. No one truly knows, not even herself. She never wanted to dwell on the past, especially not her past. She was scared of venturing in there and losing herself forever. So it became her motto to never bother with it, just enjoy the moment. It was the safest way to avoid all the hidden scary thoughts. She had convinced herself that it was what Hajime would want her to do. She had to be “happy”, not realising that a human being couldn’t possibly be joyful all the time. To feel genuine happiness, a person had to heal. And this could be achieved only by going through those hard feelings like grief and pain. She had to live her life to the fullest, for his sake. But as a result, she had robbed herself of her chance to properly heal from the loss of a loved one.

   Taking it up on her sleeves to live life, she would offer it to achieve his unspoken dreams. She knew that deep down he had always wanted to be an esper, so she did everything to convince her parents to send her to Academy City. She knew they didn’t really want or need to. But her life (or, more appropriately, Hajime’s new chance at life) literally depended on it. She had to become an esper, for Hajime’s sake. After a few months she successfully enrolled into Sakugawa Middle School. However, after the initial scans, she was disappointed to learn that she was a mere level zero. She worked even harder since then, attended all of her classes, did all her homework, trained twice as hard as her classmates… but nothing worked. She just got stuck at the same level. Always no sign of any detectable or noticeable power. She was heartbroken and felt betrayed. But she refused to let it get to her, just kept trying and trying while she “moved on” to aim at the next goal. She recalled her friend praising her on her singing, and encouraging her to keep at it. She recalled his dreams of being a renown musician. Thus, she decided to become the best singer known to humanity, just like (she was convinced) Hajime would have been, had he lived longer.

   One day during her sophomore year in middle school, she passed a classroom and heard some nice music coming from there. Excited, she thought they were a band, and that this was her once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to realise her musical dreams. However, upon seeing them, she was disappointed to notice that the music was coming from a speaker, and they were just dancing to it. Just as she was about to leave, a guy (who she would later learn was the captain of the team), calls out to her and asks if she was interested in joining the -what he called- the Urban Dance club. She dismissively said she’d never heard of such a ridiculous dance name and wasn’t interested in dancing. He then assured her it wasn’t as ridiculous as it sounded, and that he had a gut feeling that she was the kind of person who’d actually enjoy it, mentioning that it’s a free dance, for free people. This indeed intrigued her, being someone who valued freedom (ironically not realizing she was still chained by her own past). She decided to give it a try, and (un)surprisingly found herself actually enjoying her time there. However, she wasn’t ready to ditch her (self-imposed) promise to Hajime, so her condition to join them was to let her sing her solos during their shows, to which the captain readily agreed. It didn’t affect their performance anyway. And he was just glad to add a new member, who would turn out to be a key player in the team, true to his intuition. Later on, most of the dance team members that she was close to (including the captain) who graduated, went on to study at A Certain High School, after hearing it had an amazing P.E. teacher. So she followed her friends. Dancing was the only time where she was truly herself. It was her genuine outlet of self expression, without being under Hajime’s shadow. It was her escape from this fragile way of life. The new boost of energy she got from dancing improved her singing performance even more, and coupled with her attractive appearance and her outstanding acrobatics, made her gradually have her own niche of fans among Academy City students, as a tomboy crossdressing dancing singer.

    However, that was only one side of Watabe. Afterall, during high school, her rebellious spirit got even worse. Her adventurous habits often got her in trouble with delinquents. It started simply by Skill-outs somehow taking an interest in her and wanting to recruit her for whatever schemes they had. (They probably noticed her rebellious and anti-system attitude, along with her athletic side, and thought she would join their cause and be a good asset to add to their ranks.) But to their dismay, she obviously said no. She might resent Academy City for getting in the way of Hajime’s dream, in a way. But it was ultimately her own incompetence that made her unable to be a true esper. She wasn’t about to resort to crimes and hurt innocent people who had nothing to do with it. But after those lowly thugs kept bugging her to the point of cutting her way multiple times, she lost her cool once and hit them. This quickly escalated things, and now she’s considered an annoyance to them. Truth be told, she’s not exempt of blame, as she sometimes would go out of her way just to cause them minor inconveniences and mess with their small-scale plans. She wasn’t trying to be heroic or doing it out of a sense of justice. They were just annoying people and she felt like getting back at them, not out of malice, as she doesn't really hate them. She doesn't judge people and she's certain they have their reasons for doing what they do, and she kind of understands their point of view. But, it was just entertaining to occasionally mess with them and get on their nerves. Ultimately, they may have started it, but she kinda brought it upon herself as well. Now she has to deal with the consequences. Her involvement with Skill-out doesn't please her manager (who's also the team manager). He constantly warns her that it might affect her views, and that she had a reputation to uphold as a rising artist. Watabe however, never listens, and always ignores his rants with a waving hand while she leaves the room.


RANK: Vocalist, Key Dancer & Acrobat
LEVEL: 0
???:
She’s a powerless level zero, despite having gone through the Power Curriculum Program. Even after countless years of trial and error, of sweat, blood and tears, she was unable to exhibit any sort of Esper Power; not even a shred of it. She doesn’t even know what her power is supposed to be, or what it’s called, much to her chagrin.

OTHER ABILITIES:
Riding Motorcycles
Since young age she was a fan of motorbikes, fascinated by Hajime and his driving skills. When she became 16, the first thing she did was to get her driving licence. Since then, she takes her favorite vehicle in the world with her wherever she went. It was her way of keeping his soul in her heart. With time, she became quite the fast and competent driver.
Free-style Fighting
Due to several fights on the streets with Skill-out thugs, she learned to fight like them. Being already physically fit and athletic helped a lot. Dancing moves strengthened her upper and lower body muscles alike, making her capable of fighting using both her fists and legs. And she eventually became able to overpower two guys at a time easily, keep up with three on even ground. However, at four she’d start struggling, and any more than that, she’s just asking for trouble.
High Dexterity & Agility
Her outstanding athleticism has helped her more than once when she’s in a pinch. When surrounded by enemies, she often resorts to confusing them with acrobatics and dance moves in order to swiftly evade their attacks and avoid fighting head-on.
Street Smarts & A Great Tactician
She knows how to fight efficiently without over exerting herself. Saving energy, hitting more while doing less was vital to survive against multiple people. Moreover, her cunning mind makes her a quick thinker, able to turn anything in her disposal into a useful tool for combat. She’s quick-witted, able to adapt to the situation quickly.
Keen Intuition
Her experience and many encounters with deminquents helped to sharpen an already strong intuition. She can read the opponent’s move and anticipate his actions most of the time. But her intuition sees use in daily life as well. She can subconsciously feel the type of person she’s interacting with and make an instantaneous decision whether this person is to be trusted or not.
Natural-born Performer
While useless in actual combat, she has a deep powerful voice that charms the listeners, and clean dance moves that captivate the hearts. She’s one of the most famous members on her team, a fan favorite. She enjoys entertaining people and watching their reactions upon seeing her theatrics so much that these eccentric habits tend to slip into her daily behavior and personality.


CHARACTER THEME:
Title (In-universe use, to give some context for the soundtracks)
The B-Girl Is Here (Her main theme.)
Set Your Body Free (Action scenes theme.)
Troublemaker (Comedy scenes theme.)
Riding The Wind (On the bike.)
Joy On Stage (Her most successful solo / Character Song.)
Their Lullaby: Bittersweet Childhood (The duo song of the childhood friends.)
Their Lullaby: Desolate Memory (The melody she’d hum during hard times.)
Their Lullaby: Parting Words (Hajime's theme.)

PLAYER'S NAME: Hiromi.
CHATANGO NAME: YHiromi.
RATING: M for mature (Violent or suggestive content such as 'Ecchi' or 'fanservice' scenes.)
FACE CLAIM: Sera Masumi, Detective Conan.
OTHER CHARACTERS: Yamaguchi Hiromi (dropped.)
MISC. INFORMATION: In fact, I imagine the VA for Tsubasa to be Mirai (A.K.A. Masuda Kurumi), who's singing the character song above.

Sometimes it’s really good to get a taste of your own medicine. Gives you opportunity to ponder things you haven’t thought about before. Still, I’m gonna take a break from even that to fulfil my word.

I. The Whole – Roughening the Edges
There’s many things I have been pondering about recently. One of these is the topic of perfection. A perfect character is usually imperfect. After all, what defines us humans are our flaws. That's the one interesting aspect we have to us. Not the success. Not the glamour. Just that. And that brings me to Watabe herself. She does not seem to have any flaws, except some really minor weaknesses any person really has. Otherwise, she even is a shining idol. She is successful. Good at what she does. And fairly popular with everyone around her. In fact, she is even a naturally good fighter and capable of holding her own. So to say, there is nothing bad about her at all. She just excels at everything. Now, where is the flaw in that?
You could argue that the loss of her childhood friend Hajime had its impact on her, but as things stand right now she has already had her character growth and thus moved beyond these events. What could have weighed down upon her now feels like a source of even more strength.
So what does that leave you at? Well, to put it bluntly: I want you to work some flaws into her character. They can be glaring or they can be many. Just, please make sure to roughen her edges.

II. Other Abilities – License to…?
Lastly, I need you to clarify what kind of bike you are talking about. There is a huge difference between bicycles and motorcycles, after all. One of those being that in order to get a license to ride these in Japan, she would need to be at least 18 years old, which she certainly isn’t yet.

Thanks a lot! I really appreciate that you took the time to do the eval ^^

I. The Whole – Roughening the Edges
Yeaaaah I think I really didn't get the idea across properly haha xDDDD
Concerning her being perfect. I agree with you, and it wasn't my intention for her to be perfect xD I just didn't clarify the flaws enough lol.
I kinda wanted the profile of a physically-inclined person, like talented in the physical department, but lacks in brain effort. Which was why I didn't mention her being a genius or anything (street-smart is something else, I meant it as just field experience and intuition, not actual brains.) The lack of mention backfired on me xD So I specified now that she is a failure at school and not academically inclined.
As for other flaws, in fact, I intended for Hajime's effects on her to be very deep, and not just a normal weakness that everyone can have. But at the same time, I didn't wanna make them too obvious, I wanted to just discretely imply that she had unresolved psychological issues without getting to deep into them (wanted to disclose them during the RP). The way I imagine her, she didn't really go through that growth yet but will go through it in the RP to overcome his death. So, I made the necessary edits in personality and weaknesses to make it clear just how badly it still affects her today, and how huge of mental hadicaps it gave her.
So all in all, added the flaws that I had previosly in mind, I hope it's clear now xD

II. Other Abilities – License to…?
I meant motorcycles. And I just re-checked, in japan they can get a normal one at 16 not 18. 18 is for the big ones. So I changed it to 16 yo instead of 15. (my bad about this error mistook the age). This is the website where I found the info, if it is outdated or wrong just let me know ^^

I don’t really know what it is, but this profile really became a bit flashier, didn‘t it?

I. The Whole – 180° Turn
Originally my criticism was geared towards the realisation that Watabe had turned out to be a too perfect human being. But now it went into the totally opposite direction. By accentuating the suffering she felt as a result of her childhood friend‘s death, you actually managed to go a bit over the top as well. Convince me wrong but the PTSD that death gave her is a little bit too much to be fully realistic. So, my recommendation right here would be to reduce the negative impact that death gave her, if only slightly.

As for the motorcycle thing: I did my homework. You were correct! Sorry for not having researched properly before.

Mugino Shizuri wrote:I don’t really know what it is, but this profile really became a bit flashier, didn‘t it?

Yeeeeeeeeeeah lol I overdid it, didn't I? XDDDDD

I. The Whole – 180° Turn
I removed the whole PTSD and Panick Attacks thing. After deep thought, I realised that it was a bit too much indeed. Especially that, even though people who had experienced loss may get it, it's generally when the loss is either too sudden to process (like an accident) or too traumatising (suicide, murder), or the person even witnessed it firsthand. But the case of Hajime is gradual death due to health weakness, so more likely than not, in this case Watabe should have been prepared psychologically for a potential death, which lessens the likelyhood of PTSD. But as she was really attached to him (to even an unhealthy extent I'd argue) as a kid, I'd say it would still have major effects on her, especially that she never faced her feelings of loss and just ignored them and repressed them. And this in itself might cause the rest of emotional issues that she has (that I kept after the edit, but lessened their intensity.)
So, I edited the personality (the last 4 paragraphs of it: from the cunning to the selfish one), dislikes and weaknesses.
And I just edited the esthetics (symbols & colors) in the overall profile and the test post xD

II. The motorcycle thing
I see, thanks! And no problem xD

One last time, huh? Well, it was a good ride.