2025-08-13: The Song Continues
- Log: The Song Continues
- Cast: Masao Inaba, Ayame Watanabe
- Where: Satomi Tadashi Pharmacy, Lotus Plaza, Rengedai Ward, Sumaru City
- OOC Date: August 13, 2025
- IC Date: June 25, 2012
- Summary: Running into each other at the Satomi Tadashi pharmacy, Ayame and Masao catch up a little--discussing America, cash registers, art, and friends.
<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.
Monday is off to being... Monday. The start of the school week for the people of school age, and the promise of just another busy day in the increasingly weirder city that is Sumaru City. Over in the Rengedai Ward, one Masao "Mark" Inaba's out on an unspecified errand that couldn't be fulfilled back over in the Hirasaka Ward, and his journey through life presently takes him through the turf of Satomi Sister #6, to that familiar store theme. That dreadful piece of music that nonetheless insists that one is going to need these items to deal with any number of extremely fanciful maladies that seem more magical and imaginary to those who don't know better.
'Better?' Hard to say, but, nonetheless, a true statement.
...It is nostalgic, reminiscent of older times. Not the best of times, but the times that helped define himself and others for who they were in a time of great crisis. Less triumphantly, it's the one store that seems to carry a certain magazine of interest that will also go unspecified, but it is somewhat annoying to have to go this far out of one's way to get.
Who knows what sort of dirty tricks Sister #6 is pulling to get ahead of the other sisters in the process...
Masao doesn't wear the same exact beanie he did in his high school days, but it is the same color and has an identical design monogrammed upon it, and he didn't get that much taller. (He is not happy about this point.) Currently he's in the aisles looking up some inconsequential items or another, frowning at some of the labels and otherwise having to deal with the adult burden of really having to look closely and make decisions, and all that.
...It'd be like that even if it weren't Monday. But it is Monday, so here we are.
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
It's Monday all right! Ayame Watanabe isn't sure if that means her husband will be back to his routine of working late immediately or if he's going to continue to bring some work home instead, but she's going to prepare for the best. That means picking up a number of things while she's out doing her shopping for the house today...
Ayame looks much as she did three and a half years ago; she hasn't changed a lot since. She's in a nice blue top with a shoulder cutout and mom jeans (are all jeans she wears necessarily mom jeans?), with a big purse and a shopping basket. She has a number of things in the basket, most of which are unimportant. Some headache medicine, for instance, a few household items...
But as she walks through the store, she turns an aisle cornr and sees Mark. For a moment, she doesn't recognize him--but only because he's frowning. A moment later--
"Inaba-kun?" Ayame says, coming to a stop near him, and smiles. "Hello! Do you remember me?"
A teacher's wife! She visited often enough. She was there, when the SEBEC incident came to be... in the school, with everyone else.
But she looks better now than she did then.
<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.
That is the one, and only Masao Inaba!
"Huh?" He looks up from what he's looking over. "Oh... oh!" He blinks a few times. "Y-yeah, I do. Watanabe-san. Heh!" He smiles. He's still got that wide smile he had in his teenage years, but he's got some stubble on his chin he's let grow out. "Yeah... I came back from America not long ago!"
The circumstances in which he returned aren't the best (though, better than what it could've been, given what is known about the crimes of Ichiryusai Madarame now), but he's not letting that show. Back in those turbulent SEBEC Incident days, Masao didn't make it back to the school with his classmates - the worst was feared regarding him and Kei. Obviously, he turned out to be just fine* (* for being locked up at the police station for exhausting his SP recklessly) in the aftermath, but still...
"How you been?"
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
"That's great!" Ayame is very pleased to be remembered. That wide smile makes her feel a little more cheerful, too. The stubble... Ah, they grow up! "Oh! So you did get to go after all!"
Well, the circumstances of her and Mikage-cho weren't the best, either, though she did recover. That he wasn't at the school means he missed her sudden illness--but she doesn't want to talk about that anyway.
"I'm curious how things were. I've never been, but I have some friends out there..."
A smile back then. "Good," she says. "My youngest, Isamu, is in elementary school now! So that's been a big adjustment. And of course, Ikkaku is doing well--he teaches at Seven Sisters these days." There are rumors about Sevens. She hesitates for a moment, but doesn't share whatever made her pause. "I'm sure he'd be proud to see you now. Are you going to stay in Sumaru long?"
<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.
"Yeah? At Seven Sisters, huh... feels like almost everyone headed to Sumaru City," he rubs the back of his head. He seems to miss her pause in the moment, in the midst of pleasantries of reminiscence and reacquaintance. "Yeah, I moved back here to Japan and would've transferred back to a Japanese art college under an internship, but,"
He shakes his head. "It would've been under Madarame." Everyone knows what happened with that guy now, it was national news! (and quickly became a meme among the youth, they're still drawing up his crying face everywhere.)
"Still... America was great! Time of my life! I mean, catchin' up with everyone at home's been great, too," it has! Unexpected, but those friendships he made in high school are going to be life-long without question. "The scholarship's still good, but... college sitch really is a mess, so, just kinda makin' my way through it, y'know?"
Even with the challenges, he seems - and is - cheerful enough in the moment.
He sobers a bit. "...Stuff goin' all right with him over there? I mean... I know 'bout what happened over there." He does, because he ended up being there for Hannya's funeral - and there was absolutely no love lost between him and that guy in life. And yet...
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
"Oh! Well, I suppose it is a nice place to be... I've certainly enjoyed it. We live over in the Aoba Ward now." She smiles, though that smile fades when he mentions Madarame. "I see," she says. "I heard about that. What a terrible man... It's not right, using the young when you're meant to support them."
But America! "Oh, wonderful." She beams. "It's nice to meet people you used to know, isn't it? ...Though, you made some very important friends at school, too." Scholarship, but... "Ah. I'm sympathetic; college was... bumpy, for me too."
But the question? Ayame sobers, too. "...Yes," she says. "Since the Principal was killed, he's been very busy with work. Okamura-san took over as Principal, but someone has to do her job, and that's fallen on him more than I'd like." Pause. "Oh, not that I don't think his work's important!" she's quick to clarify. "It absolutely is. I just... wish he could be home more often."
"Ah, but you don't need a woman's worries! ..." A pause. "...But," she admits, "It is... concerning, to hear the rumors. It makes me worry."
<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.
"Tell me about it," he says of Madarame. Sheesh, how close was he to being hung out to dry after making stuff in his name instead. (In retrospect, that would make sense to how he seemed so capable in multiple art styles and painting techniques, wouldn't it.)
Still, he listens as Ayame speaks about the aftermath of the Principal's untimely death. "Nah... my folks say the same about me, I get it..." A sheepish look. "Oh, I should've said, my family moved to Sumaru City while I was in America, that's why I ended up here too. They're runnin' their dry cleaning business over in Hirasaka Ward." Another nervous laugh. "Yeah, uh, I've had to move back in with 'em because of all that happened..."
He shakes his head. "Yeah, sure seems like a lotta stuff's just outta control out here, huh? Seems like everyone's on the up and up about it when it's happenin', but never before it does, huh..."
There are two brain cells that want to meet, but they can't reach that far enough on their own.
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
It does make sense in retrospect in that way--but not, to Ayame, ethically or morally.
"Oh," she answers, and gives a sympathetic look. "I can relate," she says. "It gets lonely with everyone off at work or school. I'm sure your family is just happy to get time with you." A smile. "Is that so? Well, that's wonderful! It's so good to be close to family."
A laugh, then. "Don't worry about that, Inaba-kun. I lived with my husband's parents for years after we had Tohka-chan. I bet they're happy to have you around."
The stuff that's out of control, though... Ayame's brain hasn't put it together, either. "Just be careful. They say the Joker is... more than an ordinary man. ...Well, not like you have any reason to be involved with that kind of thing, right?"
All channels have been gagged.
<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.
"Heh, yeah... though mom called me just 'bout every other day, sometimes." Were the two ever separated? He can imagine her trying to call him at a strange hour of the day because of her difficulty in recognizing time zone differences, but that's just how it is, huh.
'Just be careful. They say the Joker is... more than an ordinary man. ...Well, not like you have any reason to be involved with that kind of thig, right?'
SOME NIGHTS AGO AT KASUGAYAMA HIGH
Masao, one of his classmates, and an acquaintance are on the verge of being axe murdered by someone in gothic lolita dress and that is by far the least disturbing thing to have happened within the beleaguered reform school when the Joker Killer was indeed right there.
RIGHT NOW
"...Yeah," Masao shakes his head. "I mean... I'm not gonna lie, if there's somethin' I could do for anybody caught in their sights, well, I'm not gonna run away screamin'."
He was a very mouthy teenager even under duress. That part of his youth hasn't left him yet.
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
"Oh, did she?" Ayame smiles. "You're a good son to take her calls so often."
Ayame... knows that Mark and his classmates were involved in some important things. She doesn't recall all the details, partly because she grew deathly ill when the castle froze over, and partly because it's hard for a person to remember things like that, without a Persona of her own.
"...Well," Ayame replies, "You never were very shy, in my experience. Not that I got to see as much of you as my husband, of course... But he did have stories."
A nod. "Just be careful," she requests. "The things I've heard are really very frightening."
"But I didn't mean to get onto such a thing. How's your art? You mentioned you were in school, of course."
<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.
It's probably for the best that there's not a clear memory that Kei and Masao both decided the best idea in the throes of crisis was to go score working firearms with live ammo from the police station, but when the nearest frame of reference might've been the zombie genre of horror films...
(The guns didn't work on them, turns out.)
"He had stories, huh... was I that much of a troublemaker?" Masao smiles. He knows the answer to that! But he did take his studies a lot more seriously after all that happened.
A nod in acknowledgement about being careful, and then... art. Back to casual smiling. "Heck yeah, I'm still an artist! ...What I got goin' is a little weird right now, a lotta online courses tied back to the school I attended in America, which," he winces, "really... awkward."
"But I'm still doin' up art pieces! You might've seen one of 'em at the festival they had earlier this month, me and 'bout thirty other artists did up some stuff for it. Signed it 'Mark' and everything, heh, I was really proud of that considerin' we had to put our stuff together basically at the last minute..."
He's rubbing the back of his head again. "I mean, when we graduated, we all promised one another we'd become 'great' in whatever we sought to be, and we all know what that is for me!" Still a bit of a braggart sometimes, that Inaba.
He exhales. "...Life ain't always makin' that easy though, that's for sure."
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
That would definitely be awkward.
"Haha," Ayame laughs softly. "You were there!" Yes, the answer says. But never anything mean-spirited, she'd say. ...Whether that's just rose-colored glasses or not is hard to say.
An artist! Ayame listens. "Oh, that time difference must be a nightmare," she answers comfortingly. "Oh! Yes, I do remember seeing your name," she says, "But I thought it must be another Mark, because I had no idea you were back!" A smile. "It was very good! Very evocative. Very compelling."
But when they graduated...
"Yes," Ayame answers, pleased because she doesn't need any false modesty. A student of her husband's doing well is just a great thing. "...Life never does," Ayame says more seriously. "It complicates things."
"But I'm very glad to see you. ...You said everyone was coming to Sumaru; does that mean some more of your classmates are in the area?" A beat, "Of course, I know about Uesagi-kun..." Brown is on TV!
<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.
"Yeah... sure seems like!" Masao smiles. "Yeah, I'd been in touch every so often with him." The two were basically best friends in high school, considering all the arguments and schemes they got into between themselves. (It is a universal constant that Brown ends up dragging him into everything...)
"I'd gotten in touch with Kirishima-san too, she's... well, y'know how she is!" She's entrusted him with some of the things that have troubled her in recent times, so he's not going to betray those details. "We caught up at our old favorite burger chain, and get this! No, really, get this - the registers freakin' worked. We could eat there! Can you imagine?"
...This was always a thing in Mikage-cho, for some reason. Always the registers never working...
"...y'know, maybe it was kinda hyperbole, but... yeah." He rubs the back of his head. "He's actually the reason I got that gig for the festival, it was a Sumaru TV sponsored thing. I owe that guy a lot." Hopefully not another lost bet's worth of fast food. (this is inevitable)
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
"Oh, good." Ayame would be surprised if those friends' bond frayed already. ...Not that she visited that often after the Incident; she was... indisposed.
But she remembers the students anyway.
"Oh, how lovely! I've seen her in a few magazines, but haven't had the chance to talk with her in a while. Well, I'm not sure what she'd have to say to me," Ayame admits with a laugh, "But it is nice to see her succeeding."
Then a lifted eyebrow. "Registers that work? My. It's almost like they actually wanted your business this time! I can't count the number of times that I dropped in for something only to find..."
Ah, well.
"Oh," Ayame says. "Well, it's good you can help each other out, then."
"...Please, tell the others I said 'hi' if you see them. Maybe sometime you can get in touch with my husband... He'll be happy to hear about how things are going for you. I know he wasn't your homeroom teacher or anything, but he always liked you."
<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.
"Yeah, not a problem, I'll let 'em know," Masao nods. Now, hearing that he always liked him... he laughs at that. That's something he wouldn't have heard every day (or, possibly, ever) in some of his wilder days as a teenager.
(they were kind of mild in the big picture, but shh)
"Yeah... he was a cool teacher." He exhales. "Glad you've been doin' better, too... so, guess we're just gonna go do it, to it, yeah?" With that, he promptly bows, and - upon their eventual disengagement - returns to the matter of indistinct errands before that pharmacy song further drills an earworm-shaped pit in his memory. (it's too late, the Satomi Tadashi Pharmacy song is inescapable in all its forms)