KOHARU UEHARA

Want something enough, you'll make happen. No matter what.

stats

NAME: Koharu Uehara

DOB: 02/07
AGE: 16
ALIAS: Dreamer Papilia
CLASSIFICATION: Dreamer/Novice (soon to be Sentry)
APPEARANCE:
5'5", curvy body type, long hair with some curly wave to it, perfectly manicured nails. Her eyes are light brown, but she wears pink contacts. Her hair is naturally so black it looks blue, but she has dyed it cotton candy blue and straightens it. She is intentionally emulating her Dreamer Papilia look in real life. Needs glasses but wears contacts to avoid them. Confident, arrogant, and changes her fashion wherever she thinks her current one is "outdated."

basics

Koharu is the neglected daughter of a wealthy couple who never had time for her with their busy schedules, always focusing more on their careers and growing contempt and rivalry with each other. She's tried many things over the years to gain their attention, from various sports, beauty contests, talent competitions, modeling and even an acting and music career which saw her rise to the level of a c-rank teen idol. Has changed herself over and over to be who she thinks others want or would value. Nothing ever lasted for long. Then she Awakened into becoming Dreamer Papilia and suddenly her parents were giving her attention again. Becoming a Dreamer was both the best and worst thing to ever happen to her.

She comes across as arrogant, materialistic, and a bit selfish often, but also knows how to fake politeness and empathy enough to get people to like her. Manipulating people into wanting to be around her is all she knows how to do. She's also riddled with anxiety and hates being the center of attention (and has panic attacks often after performances), but fears being ignored way more so she continues to push herself into the middle of things even if it has nothing to do with her. She wants people to want her for herself, but has never taken the time to think of who she truly wants to be, because she believes people will only want her if she's presenting the façade they expect of her.

She's 16, 5'5", and a little thick, but in a curvy way. She's dyed her hair cotton candy blue, wears pink contacts, and uses make-up to make her skin look flawless. Naturally she has hair so black it looks dark blue that is very wavy curly, has light brown eyes, freckles, and needs glasses if she doesn't have her contacts. She walks around with confidence and an air of superiority, although in truth she's very insecure. She likes girls a lot but usually her idea of flirting comes across as attention-seeking and arrogant because she doesn't know how to get someone to spend time with her without manipulating them or changing herself to be what she thinks they want. Of course they expect her to act confident and suave like she gets all the ladies, right?

setting

history

Born to Matsuharu and Keiko Uehara. Very wealthy and successful business execs in television and film marketing. Born in Okinawa but moved to Yumemigaoka when Koharu was 14.
Her parents didn't seem to like each other very much and that turned to outright contempt and rivalry where they would use Koharu against each other.
Koharu was always desperate for their attention, but she basically raised herself. Her parents didn't even bother with a nanny by the time she was school age and simply gave her an account to access for anything she would need.
Was actually a very shy and quiet child when she was little, but realized early on the way to get her parents attention was to be "marketable." It never lasted for long, but she tried with a lot of different subjects.
She made sure to do very well in school, always the top of her class. She asked to try horseback riding and compete and her mother showed some interest, but grew bored when Koharu got second place in her first competition. She gave it up. Same thing with ice skating.
She did other talent competitions. Dancing, singing, beauty contests. She won a few of them, but none of these accolades kept her parents focused on her.
Koharu then started modeling and acting when she was 8 and her parents took more interest then. Her first serious contract was singing a jingle for commercials for a children's doll line, Fluttering Faery Flyers (think Skydancers). She even got to be one of the girls in the second commercial!
She continued with her acting and music career and managed to become a c-rank idol around Okinawa; known and recognizable, but not super famous. More the "I know that girl from X" type and not the "I know her by name" type. She would change her looks and fashion often to try and fit whatever roles and look they might want from her.
By the time she was 12, her parents were back to ignoring her, as they said she wasn't doing enough to really catapult her career into something "special." They paid her for her to have an assistant (on top of her manager) to make sure she got to her appointments and gigs so they didn't have to bother. She still raised herself.
Moving to Yumemigaoka did disrupt the budding idol career she had a bit because being a local celebrity doesn't work if you move, but her parents insisted on living in Yumemigaoka would be the best for all of them.
It's when she's at her lowest when she's 15 that she's attacked by a Nightmare but she ends up so angry that she fights back against it and Awakens into Dreamer Papilia.
Koharu is not happy to become a Dreamer at first. She's actually ashamed. Her parents have mocked Dreamers and the entire "circus" around them, they call it. It's one of the few things her parents seemed to agree on.
So she hides that she's a Dreamer and avoids using the sandglass. That is...until she's curious enough to try it out. The Dream Sphere is different. It's unusual and bright and she doesn't like it...except she kind of does. And so she keeps going back and practicing her magic in the Dream Sphere. It's almost like an escape. Not that she had anything to escape!
Strangely though her powers never seem to "settle" completely. Her sandglass doesn't turn into a normal weapon like she's heard about. It turns into a bracelet with a cocoon dangling from it and when the cocoon "hatches" a group of prismatic butterflies comes out to swirl around her, causing a reaction. The butterflies themselves seem to hurt Nightmares so when first entering the Dream Sphere she will release them like a burst attack over and over, allowing them to deal damage on the Nightmare while she ran at it and then dodged. It tires her a lot, but it did have an effect and could eventually take a Nightmare out, but it takes time to wear them down.
She hides being a Dreamer from her parents for six months.
Then her father offhandedly asks her what she wants for her birthday. He's distracted and not paying much attention to her, but she does say what she wants: to show off her cooking skills (she's been practicing and taking photos of her meals for her social media profile) and have a meal with them both on the Sunday before her birthday.
By some crazy miracle (or argument her parents probably had when she wasn't around), they both agreed to this and she went all out. Went and got all of the ingredients herself instead of just doing an online order as she usually did. She spent hours that day making a five course meal for them. She had a panic attack in the middle of the kitchen when she thought she had burned the sauce, but turned up her music to hide it. Neither of her parents noticed. They were drinking in the lounge and making business calls (and sniping at each other across the room). She got herself together though and finished everything.
The food was amazing (she made sure of it), but her parents couldn't even get a half-hour into the meal before they were speaking to her as a proxy for making digs at each other. ("Oh Koharu, the sauce is perfect. Which spices did you use? I'm so glad you got my discerning palette." "Koharu, your hair is a bit messy, couldn't you have straightened it first? I know you can't help those poor genes passed on to you, but you must take care of yourself in spite of them." "At least someone here knows how to make noodles.")
Soon the not-so-subtle digs turned into outright shouting at each other and Koharu couldn't handle it so she did the first thing she could, turn the sandglass and get herself away from them. Just for a while. Taking out a Nightmare was the best kind of stress relief she could have asked for.
She returned home to her room, waking up with her parents standing over her bed. They knew exactly what happened when she vanished the way she had. But instead of being upset and disappointed with her for being a Dreamer...they were happy. Ecstatic even.
Their daughter, a Dreamer? It was something they couldn't possibly pass up! Suddenly Koharu was being barraged with attention and compliments and her parents asking her what her Dreamer self looked like, how they could use that look in the real world, and potential marketing campaigns that would benefit from Dreamer-connections.
She didn't know how to handle any of this sudden positive attention she was getting, but she soaked it up. She changed her looks yet again to try and emulate her Dreamer Self. She dyed her hair cotton candy blue. She swapped out her normal contacts for colored pink ones. She painted her nails to match. She started wearing butterflies in her hair and on her clothes more often. She would embody Dreamer Papilia whether asleep or awake.
She shortly joined the Dreamer Union at the instruction of her parents, but she told them she wanted to be a Striker. When they looked at her skills as a Dreamer, they asked if she was sure. She said she was. They asked her to reconsider and her parents told her she could stay a novice for a little while so she could "test everything out." They wanted to chronicle her journey as a Dreamer and use it for marketing purposes, so her jumping into a "type" too quickly would ruin the build up and suspense, anyway.
So she has been a novice for a couple months and already settled into her new school, Promised Morning Academy.
She runs into an Experienced Dreamer when fighting a Nightmare who tells her to cut out using her magic that way, it was just wasting energy. She didn't understand what they meant. They explained she was turning a shield into a bomb and sure she might have a ridiculous amount of energy reserves, but eventually she was going to hurt herself at the worst moment doing that.
It is then that she learns her magic is more defensive. The butterflies were trying to guard her, but she kept sending them out to attack instead.
So the next time, only one much larger butterfly comes out of the cocoon, and when it lands in Koharu's palm, she is given a huge boost. All of those little butterflies concentrated into one. She's stronger, harder to injure, and heals faster. So she takes to punching Nightmares instead of running from them, instead. It's somewhat more effective.
It feels like this is the best thing that could have happened to her, except inside she stresses about how long the attention will last.

personality

SELFISH:
Koharu is very focused on herself and doesn't care much about the feelings and interests of others unless they can in some way benefit her. If acting like she cares will get you to pay attention to her, then she'll do it easily, and she can fake sincerity well enough when she wants to, but in general she is far more focused on her own wants and needs. Even changing herself to please others is so that she can get attention and praise from them. Being a rich girl who had boatloads of money handed to her even before she started working herself, so her parents didn't have to spend time with her, also makes her very materialistic. She can get whatever she wants whenever she wants so why not do it?

ANXIOUS:
Although she acts arrogant and confident, Koharu is actually very insecure and filled with anxiety. She hates being the center of attention, it makes her sick and she constantly stresses about messing up. Because if people really, truly see her, and still choose to ignore her, then that means it's her that's flawed and wrong and she deserves it. To be Seen and to fail at the same time is her greatest fear ever. But she's so afraid of being ignored and lonely that she would rather throw herself into the center of things and make people pay attention to her by acting how she thinks people want her to act than avoid being uncomfortable and anxious in large social settings or in front of an audience. She can and will have panic attacks, but usually it's during the cool down phase after she's worked herself up into doing something, such as a big performance or a competition. Once the adrenaline is gone, she crashes.

HARD-WORKING:
Koharu will work herself to the bone on anything she puts her mind to. She's a perfectionist and that means she will work and work and work until she gets something Exactly Right. She will cook the same meal ten times to make it perfect. She will train for hours to perfect her dance moves. She will throw herself entirely into whatever she sets her mind to. The flip side of this is that most of what she does is for attention from others, not self-fulfillment, so once she accepts she is not getting the attention she wants, she will stop doing that activity and move on to something else. This also makes her rather judgmental of others as she believes that if you can't achieve something through hard work, then you probably will fail at it no matter what and shouldn't bother (ignoring that the fact she has endless funds at her disposal to help with her doing whatever she wants). Does this mean she deep down believes she deserves her parents' indifference and neglect because she's been working hard her entire life for their approval and can never keep it? Just maybe.

SOCIALLY TRANSIENT:
Koharu's entire life has been ever-changing and adapting herself to what she thinks other people want and expect from her. She does this because she does not know how to make connections with other people without trying to assess and analyze who they expect when they look at her. This means she can make herself fit into many different situations and social groups if she wants, but nothing lasts, because after a while it will start to feel superficial. And then she'll just change herself again. The switch from the default persona she has to different ones isn't instantaneous, but gradual enough some people might even think they are seeing the "real her," but actually she's just adapting herself to their taste through interacting with and assessing them. People think being adaptable is a good trait, but when it's being used to turn yourself into whatever someone else thinks you should be, it makes it hard to build strong, genuine bonds with those around you. And thus she will move on to the next person or group she's hoping to get that attention and validation from.

INTUITIVE:
Koharu is actually very good at getting a "read" on people. She can see into them and have a very solid insight on who they are as a person and what they like and are interested in. She makes good use of this in adapting herself to different people and situations. The problem is that while she is very good at reading people, their motivations, she also tends to assign a more...cynical view to people in general. So a person who is trusting is "gullible" and a person who is optimistic is "naïve." It still works with her adapting and lowkey manipulating, but this cynical read on people will hold her back from fully understanding people on a deeper empathic level.

LONELY:
This is at the heart of everything about Koharu. She's deeply, terribly lonely. She can't trust people to like her for herself (and doesn't know who that is anyway), so she's always jumping from social group to group trying to find the right people to like her. Her parents neglected her for most of her life and thus she's always looking for someone to validate her and give her that positive attention she craves, but she fears having it at the same time, because that means she can lose it, and thus can't even maintain positive relationships with those who might give it to her, such as teachers and trainers from her various hobbies. She's isolated despite making herself the center of attention so often.

OBSESSIVE:
For all that Koharu is a selfish, needy person, she can also be very self-destructive in how she gives to others. She changes herself to fit them, to be what they want, in hopes of getting back the attention and validation she craves, and this can get to extreme levels if she's that desperate for attention from a person. This is most likely to happen if the person has given her consistent positive attention before and she wants to keep that. She will throw money at them, shower them with attention, even commit crimes for them and act like it's nothing. This makes her open to being manipulated by others if they realize what's going on, or she can stop all over someone else's boundaries and not think about it.

miscellaneous

Koharu is an only child but she does have two older cousins on her mother's side.
Koharu secretly downs energy drinks. Espressos just don't cut it.
Koharu's parents don't believe that she has an anxiety disorder. She hasn't had a panic attack in front of them in years because they think she's "being dramatic."
Matsuharu and Keiko had a one-night stand after a work party and that is where Koharu came from. They married for appearances only and thought they could have a civil working marriage. Instead they all but despise each other now.
While Koharu has a concept of hard work and effort and having a job due to working for most of her life, she does not really have the best concept of money because her parents are more than wealthy enough that they let her have all of her paychecks as discretionary funds and still give her an allowance. Girl is never strapped for cash except that she doesn't really carry cash.
Koharu's sexual awakening was being accidentally kissed by another actress while filming a commercial. They were reading lines and turned at the same time for a moment when they were supposed to be very close to each other. It was barely a kiss, but Koharu had Feelings about it.
Koharu has released one album (Heart Spectrum) and toured briefly when she was 14. It was right after touring that her parents moved them to Yumemigaoka. Her genre of music is basically pop rock and she does play the guitar on most of the songs on the album.
Koharu is left-handed.
Koharu is allergic to bananas. Like needs an epi-pen levels of allergic.

abilities

DREAMER:
After Awakening, Koharu becomes Dreamer Papilia, which allows her to travel back and forth between her world and the Dream Sphere and access magical abilities while within the Dream Sphere. Dreamers are typically stronger, faster, and more agile than their normal selves within the Dream Sphere. As a Dreamer, Koharu has a huge store of magical energy inside of her and she does not wear down easily because of it.

SOARING DREAM ADULATION:
Becoming Dreamer Papilia gives Koharu butterfly wings and she can fly with them. This of course uses up energy and if she wears herself down too much the wings with shatter and disappear.

SHIMMERING DREAM ECLOSION:
The cocoon on Koharu's wrist hatches and a butterfly comes out. Whoever the butterfly touches will be given a boost in physical strength and durability (like having shimmering armor around them) and a temporary Level Up in their magical energy. Koharu can do this more than once during a fight and with more than one teammate, but the more energy she puts into the butterfly, the weaker she herself becomes. Like sacrificing her own HP to boost up someone else's attack and defense points. This does not happen when she uses it on herself but of course it's very useful for boosting someone else's attack or healing abilities so she'll have to decide which is more important during the fight.

EMERGING DREAM AEGIS:
SIGNATURE MOVE (eventually.) A giant prismatic butterfly will hatch from the cocoon on her wrist and envelop Koharu or someone else in a cocoon shield, protecting them from attacks for a limited amount of time. They can still attack but the cocoon with shield them from being hit. This takes a lot energy out of Koharu and she has to be careful. The more energy she puts into this move, the stronger the shield, but the more defenseless she is herself.

PRISMATIC DREAM DISSOLUTION:
This is when Koharu uses her powers improperly. Instead of becoming armor and a power-up for those the butterflies touch, she will release dozens of butterflies at once, draining her energy, and sending them out to attack instead of defend. They work like mini-explosions, dealing damage to the enemy. She could theoretically create a large bomb butterfly out of this, too, but has not done this and has been warned against it because it would take all of her energy and probably hurt her or put her into a coma.

visuals

[OOC] Background Information

KOHARU UEHARA

Want something enough, you'll make happen. No matter what.

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