2025-11-24: Such is the Life
- Log: Such is the Life
- Cast: Yua Ooshiro, Ulala Serizawa
- Where: Nice Cafe, Aoba
- OOC Date: 2025-11-24
- IC Date: Wed, Aug 15 2012
- Summary: Yua happens upon Ulala, after her interview with Maya, because sometimes Sumaru can be very small even if the small-town girl insists it's very large. Ulala learns about Yua's marriage... and Yua encourages Ulala in her present lack of marriage.
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
Nice Cafe is, well, a nice cafe. There's not really much else to say! It is past lunch time, and also for some, after their irregular shift for the day ends.
Ulala Serizawa is in line to order a coffee. These days, she has dyed red hair with white long strands, done up in a five-star bun. It must be hell for her to do it up every day (it is). Her makeup is on point, and she has a mole under her right eye as she always has. She's wearing a green-and black two-piece dress with a spider-web pattern, and long black boots. White boxing wraps cover her hands, whether it's a fashion statement or what being unclear.
"Hmm... your strongest coffee, with just a bit of sugar and cream. It's for Serizawa."
Once she has her coffee order placed, she'll step to the side so the next person can take their order.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Did you know? Nice Cafe is actually named after Nice, France. Their salade niçoise is to die for.
Yua's hair is in a bun, too -- a tight, teal bun which binds her long hair right to the top of her head. It calls attention to the eyepatch across the left side of her face. She's sadly had to put on shoes with ankle support now she's done with training for now -- no one is more upset over not being able to wear pointe shoes in inappropriate places than her -- and those shoes and compression socks contrast deeply with the black leotard she's wearing.
She is, as it happens, the next person in line.
... but if fate hadn't struck her to ask Maya, before she left, what the name of that other older girl was, she might have completely missed the name Ulala gives.
However: she did. And that means -- "Eeeh? Serizawa? Like, Ulala Serizawa?" The ballerina (there's a goddamn ballerina behind her) exclaims, rather than stating her order.
That is, until -- "ahem," -- the poor girl at the counter calls her eye back forward.
"O-oh, I'm sorry! Um, please give me some orange juice and socca!"
Yua scrambles to step aside from the line, and so, avoid holding everyone else up.
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
Ulala pivots at the exclamation of her name, double-taking at the ballerina. She was not expecting an eyepatched ballerina to somehow recognize her. She's a lowly lingerie saleswoman! She's not famous!
After taking a moment, which gives Yua enough time to state her order and step to the side, she tilts her head, clearly trying to place why she looks so familiar.
"That's my name, yeah. Have we met...?" They're making her coffee, but she seems more interested in the woman in front of her right this second.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"Oh --"
Yua looks like she's seen a ghost, when Ulala turns to ask, and she actually gets a good look at her face. She's seen her before, certainly -- and far more recently than high school.
Ulala would have trouble recognising her in turn, though.
The Bride wears several veils, and Yua habitually hides her Resonance, too.
"Oh -- oh -- oh, um!" Yua raises a hand, pointer finger up, as she tries to stop choking on the terrible realisation. "It was, um -- Maya Amano! She came to interview me! But then, she asked if we went to the same school? And we did? And she knew us? And, and, and she said you'd chewed out those bullies too, so I asked her to remind me of your name, and!"
"Here's your orders," the girl at the counter interrupts them both, deeply droll.
"Er... can we talk?" Yua asks, a touch defeated by this teenager's sass, as she picks up her bottle of orange juice and plate of nice, bland, easy-to-keep-down bread.
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
Ulala doesn't recognize Yua from the beach, which is a good thing. For right now, she listens to Yua's description of them going to Sevens together, tilting her head.
"Ooshiro-san?" she clicks onto something after a long moment when bullies are mentioned. "You met Ma-ya, huh..." oh that's an affectionate nickname
But, Yua asks if they can talk. She grabs her coffee, and considers, not having anywhere else to go right now. "Sure, I've got time. Lead the way!"
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"Yes! That's me! Yua Ooshiro!" Yua brightens, when Ulala clicks it into place. "Great!!"
Yua proceeds to lead them... to a booth!! Where she slips into one side, putting her plate and bottle of orange juice down. "Would you like some socca?" She asks, smiling to her. "It's very easy food!"
They're just, like, slices of bread. You pick them up and eat them.
"It was a big shock to run into you again," Yua says, blinking her eye. (Just the one eye. She had two in high school.) "But it's really nice how you and Amano-senpai are still friends! Me and Mimi are -- um --"
Yua has an engagement ring on her finger, as it happens. Mokume gane. Very traditional, quite expensive.
"Well, we say we're friends, these days..." Yua claps her hands, together. (Her right hand has a strange decoration on it which she didn't have in high school, too: fabric stretched from a ring around her middle finger to a bracelet about her wrist.) "Can we ask you not to say what it's really like? I know we were very loud in highschool, but, um -- you know, being adults -- it's a different situation!"
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
Ulala definitely noticed the eyepatch being a new addition, but she's not tactless enough to comment on it. Instead, as they take a seat, she considers the offer. "I'll take a piece, please." She was going to save her appetite for dinner, but trying it might be nice.
She'll take one once affirmed again it's okay, placing it on a napkin so she can take a sip of her coffee.
"We're roommates," Ulala says with a nod. "Small world if you met her again and then met me again, huh? Sumaru feels so big some times, but so small other times..."
But then, Yua indicates something. She and Miho are still together... but it's a secret. Ulala smiles sympathetically a bit, nodding. "Of course, of course! My mouth's shut. ...sorry you have to live like that, though. Are you okay...?"
A glance to the engagement ring at that. Ulala hasn't really watched the variety show that Yua revealed her engagement on, it seems, or if she did, she was too drunk and miserable to remember.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"Please, go ahead!!" Yua chirps, both cheerful and generous. Once Ulala's secured her bread bit on her napkin, Yua nibbles at her plate, slowly.
"Oh, don't worry! Sumaru is still gigantic!" Yua adds, her own eye widening. "All of Kukojima feels like it could fit in Aoba alone... three times over!! Sometimes I go into the train station and there are so many train lines I feel like my head's spinning!" Well, that's apparently never changed. Yua was, in fact, a bumpkin. Small-town Okinawan girl in the big city...
God help her if she ever has to go to Shibuya.
"Oh, well..." Yua looks down at her ring, fiddling with it. "I would be happier if I could get married to Mimi... so people wouldn't think it was just something weird, but... but that's not really possible in Japan," her smile is thinner, as she looks back up. "But our families are very supportive, you know? Father -- Mimi's father -- he even arranged for me to marry one of Mimi's cousins, so I could enter her family... his name's Kimitake Ijuuin! He's a very nice man, a policeman..." Are policemen usually very nice men? Well, Katsuya exists -- surely there are other good men of the law out there with him. "Officially, I'll be acting as his wife, but -- but it's okay, our families know I'm really with Mimi."
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
Ulala finally tries her bit of bread, an affirmatively pleased noise leaving her after she does. "Thank you, this is good!" ulala it's bread
For her part, Ulala is Sumaru born and raised, and has ALSO been to Shibuya, so she can hardly imagine somewhere that small, having never been out to the countryside. "Everyone must have known each other better than we do here, huh?"
But about Yua's situation, Ulala listens carefully, taking a drink of her coffee. She does think to Katsuya, as Yua says he's a nice cop. She also thinks about how Literally All The Cops Are Kinda Corrupt beside him, as far as they assume. Maybe Yua did luck out, though...
"Then, he supports you two? That sounds..." She tosses it in her brain. Marriage has always been Important for Ulala... to have one with someone you don't love seems wrong, but she understands that Yua doesn't have quite the same privilege.
"It sounds like a good compromise. You get to be in her family and still be together, and he gets to avoid rumors about being unmarried or whatever it may be..." Well, it's not her place to judge.
Though, Ulala has somehow yet to fulfill her girldisaster quota, as she sighs. That may start to change. "Love's hard though, right? I'm glad it's working out for you, after all these years, even if it's not quite in the ideal way. I couldn't believe back then how awful those girls were being... jokes on them, huh?"
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"It is good! My stomach has been terribly unsettled lately, so things like this have been a real lifeline..." Is Yua SICK is she going to GET EVERYONE AT THE CAFE SICK --
Well, she doesn't look sick. Maybe a little flushed, but it's a hot day!
"Mmhm! Everyone knows everyone!" Yua agrees, still quite chipper. "Mom and Ken-kun went back there so everyone back home could take care of her... now she really doesn't want to leave!"
She nods, with a little nibble-nibble of her socca. "He's been very supportive," Yua smiles. "He just wants a few things... but it's nothing I mind helping him with." Whatever it may be! Yua isn't so cruel as to out Kimitake here, so she doesn't clarify. She just keeps smiling.
"Love is hard," she adds, sympathetically, because of course she only needs the one eye to notice there are no rings on Ulala's ringfinger. "Though... the joke is still a little on me. Ah, I'm a teacher, now, so if people knew the truth they might get quite angry at me for hurting their children... just because I like women." Yua frowns, her expression darkening. "There can be very unkind assumptions. Hmph! I'm no more danger to the youth than anyone, not because I love Mimi, anyway! Though..."
She tilts her head, smiling again. "It sounds like it's been a bit harder for you...? Well, having a woman for a soulmate has come with many challenges in this imperfect world, but I think I am also very lucky Mimi's held fast to me all these years. Finding a man as a young woman seems like it's really challenging...? Especially with so many people marrying their highschool sweethearts..."
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
"Oh no, I hope you feel better..." Ulala says. Yua doesn't look or sound contagious. It's fine.
But about the small town... Ulala nods. "Sumaru's so different. It's amazing how every place is a little different, though. Tokyo's got its own vibe, too."
She won't pry about Kimitake, of course, as she takes another bite of bread. "Well, I'm rooting for you. It sounds like you have a good foundation."
Washing it down with coffee, Ulala listens about being a teacher. "Oh, you're a teacher? Awesome! That must be a lot of hard work..." A small pang of jealousy in her heart. A smarter woman who has figured out her love life, unlike the woman who got held back in high school and is currently single at 24...
And then, Yua pegs the issue. The mention of highschool sweethearts causes another pang, but Ulala's good at holding up a mask, taking another sip.
"Ugh, yeah... all the good men are taken, and I keep getting the bad ones. Cheaters, scam artists, losers like that..." Ulala sighs. "I turn 25 in November, so..."
She's not worried about it. No way! (she's absolutely worried about it)
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"Tokyo is way too big for me," Yua sighs. "If I didn't have Seiji-san to shepherd me around, I'd get lost just getting to Shujin! Apparently there's a train stop right by it, but I'm still not super sure where it is..."
If only her mapping capabilities worked in the real world, too... it's tough out there for a small-town girl.
(She's actually very good at navigating in the wilderness, though. If you had her navigating by stars and weird trees she'd be the star player! What's so different about a building to a weird tree, you ask? The 10000 people clustered around it giving her sensory overload, that's what.)
"Thank you!" Yua sparkles -- like, her portrait does indeed get little flowers and sparklies around it briefly, there's no other way to communicate how charming her smile is -- when Ulala declares she's rooting for them.
"I just work part-time," she clarifies, "I'm running a program to try and divert young people who are at risk of school refusal, so I travel around to a bunch of campuses one day a week!" She pauses. "Except for Kasugayama... I asked to increase my hours to two days a week, for that school. They simply need the program more..." There are so many people who cut class in Kasugayama. So many. "Since I'm teaching them how to dance to give them something to attend school for, it's not too taxing... I've been dancing since I was three, after all!" Which... might explain why she's wearing a tutu in public.
Don't ask me, man, Sumaru's full of weirdos.
But Ulala bemoans all the bad men, and Yua frowns, with concern. "Serizawa-senpai, that's very concerning!" Yua, you can't just say how you feel -- "No man should treat you that way!!" Oh, you're just barging forward, bold as brass, huh? Man, those mood swings have only gotten worse with age. "I bet they think they can mistreat you just because you waited a little longer... oooh!! That's so unfair!" Chomp, she savages a piece of bread. >:E!!!
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
Ulala finishes her bread piece she was gently nibbling on as Yua explains about Tokyo, before smiling back at Yua's fairly charming smile. It does help pierce through any bad feelings.
"Yeah... Kasugayama's been having some rough times..." She was there! She punched the Joker Killer! But it got covered up, so... "Oh, that's amazing. Teaching dancing to the youth... I took a full public course on flamenco, it's really cool." it does not explain the tutu, sorry
But then, Yua gets frustrated on her behalf.. and then believes she WAITED A LITTLE LONGER. Ulala decides not to correct her, though she does appreciate the sentiment, which in many ways helps her get her head on straight. "Right? But I'm sure I'll find someone... got a hell of a deadline, but I can do it." It's not actually a deadline but don't try convincing Ulala of that!!!
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Officially, Yua has to parrot the Kasugayama cover story. Unofficially... well, she's heard enough to piece it together. "Flamenco!" Yua's face lights up a little more, hearing Ulala talk about her dancing. "I love flamenco, too!! I'm not nearly as practiced in it as ballet, but it's so bold...!"
Yua tends to think the best of most things and people, despite, well, whatever left her to lose an eye over the past handful of years; her sunny optimism and belief in her fellow man, in any just world, would have seen her featuring as the Fool of her very own game. ... instead, her friends ended up being a band of bad guys...
... anyway, the point is, Ulala totally waited of her own accord. That's the most logical explanation!!
"Don't give up!" Yua encourages her, with another smile. "I'm sure someone good is out there! He might be right out there around the corner, you know?!" That's probably not how assumedly-straight women meet men, Yua. Do you even know how finding a man works?
(No. No, she does not. She could ask Miho, though...)
<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
"I should take some more courses... they're good skills for a future wife to have." flamenco is not an important skill for a wife to have, ulala
But then, as Yua encourages her, Ulala listens. She doesn't believe a good man is literally right around the corner, but metaphorically... she suddenly slaps her cheeks, finishes her coffee, and then stretches. "You're right! I'll go find someone right now! Maybe a mixer's going on!" ulala wait
"It was nice seeing you, Ooshiro-san. I appreciate the encouragement... can't let it slip through my grasp!"
And then, she stands up, waves once, and then leaves to go get a date!
Or more likely, an accidental one night stand. Such is the life of Ulala Serizawa.