2025-12-20: Submitting to a Higher Power
- Cutscene: Submitting to a Higher Power
- Cast: Yua Ooshiro, and the disembodied and still voice of her mother, Yuna Ooshiro
- Where: Aoba - Penthouse
- OOC Date: 2025-12-20
- IC Date: Tue, Aug 28 2012
- Summary: Yua finally manages to tell her unnerving mother about her wedding. Yuna is... supportive...?
"Mama, hi!" Yua smiles, as she settles down on her leather couch as she connects to Yuna Ooshiro's line.
"Hi, pumpkin! How are you?"
"Good!" Yua starts, though her voice falters. "Good, uh... I'm nine weeks in! Everything's going pretty okay! Just..."
"Just what, pumpkin?"
Yua sighs, her tone growing duller. "You know how... right after Mimi won, we... got pulled back to Japan? It was a work thing, but... Mimi's father, he had a celebration, an announcement... there's something I really need to tell you, mama."
"You don't sound happy?"
"He said... I was marrying Mimi's cousin," Yua relates it like a death sentence. "His name's Kimitake... Kimi-san... he's gay, too, so it's just for appearances, but..."
"Oh, pumpkin. That must be hard. He just told you to do it?"
"He's, um, the patriarch of the clan... he's like Grandmother is? If he says it's what happens..." Yua trails off, a touch unsettled.
"I understand. Having someone certain to listen to can be very reassuring. Is he anything like Miho-chan?"
Yua brightens as soon as Miho comes up. "In some ways, they're really alike! Mimi says her whole family learns how to act like that, all decisive and forceful and stuff... but he really tries to be gentle with me." Her tone grows a touch less certain, as she moves back to speaking about him. "He's trying not to overwhelm me with how things will be, and stuff... and Mimi's talking with him..."
"Miho-chan is?"
"Mm..." Yua nods, biting at her bottom lip as she says, a touch hesitantly, "they're working out how it's going to work..."
"And you're not?"
"... Mimi's better at that stuff than I am," Yua insists, and wonders, for a moment, if that's the way it should be.
"I see... so you've submitted to a higher power."
Yua gasps, and yelps, sharply: "Mama! Don't offend the Gods like that!!"
"Now, dear, I'm not talking about divine power. You've just found someone you can trust your fate to. You returned from the spirit world, so you're all opened up... I'm glad you've found a guiding hand."
"You think so...?" Yua hums, uncertainly, as her finger strokes the edge of her phone over and over.
"Of course. I'm sure this man of yours can offer you guidance, too. Miho-chan will surely set some ground rules for him... strong people like them can protect you. I hear it in your voice... the encroaching dark threatens to consume you, all opened up."
Yua's mother has always known her so well; even the parts she's never told her about, not really. It gives her pause -- leaves her a little shaken -- as she connects Yuna's loose declarations with her own reality. "Mimi... does make me feel a lot safer," she admits, quietly.
"It's fine for your protector to be your partner. Ah, in many ways, it's cleaner... I couldn't convince Fuyu, poor man..."
"You could come back!" Yua says; it isn't the first time she's said it, either. "The wedding's in a few days, you could still --"
"No... I'm afraid I can't, pumpkin. I'm open to the world, too, I have so much still to embrace here... why don't you tell me how the baby's going?"
Yua at least feels a little less disquieted, moving to her other newest favourite subject. "I can't wear my pointe shoes any more... they say I need ankle support," just because it's her favourite, though, doesn't mean she can't find plenty to complain about. "And these weird tight socks... they say something with my blood will go bad?"
"Hypertension and blood clotting, that's what they mean. But you've been okay otherwise? No bruising?"
"Not really, but I've been sick a lot... and feel like I'll be sick even more than that," Yua admits. "It's not just when I wake up, it's all day... they said it's, um, hypernemesis." That's not what they said it was, but 'hyperemesis' is a hard word to remember.
"When it happened to me, there were things I could do. Are you eating those crackers like I told you?"
"Yes, mama," Yua affirms, dutifully. "They do help."
"That's great. And you said the ultrasound went well, didn't you...?"
"Yeah!" Yua chirps, her tone growing more excited. "It was just a week ago or so! Hiroki's heart is beating just fine!"
"I'm so glad to hear it. Sorry I couldn't remember... you know how my mind gets fuzzy. But mama's tired now, pumpkin... we were working for a long time yesterday."
"Oh..." Yua smiles, though she feels a touch melancholy. "Then, I'll tell you about it all when school starts up again, mama! You really taught me how to act in the classroom, you know!"
"I know. You'll talk with me later?"
... it's always Yua who rings her mother, not the other way around. "Of course, I will! Bye, mama! I love you!"
"I always loved you."
Yua gazes at her phone, as the line goes dead. Talking to her mother always fills her with a sense of unease -- the feeling that she ought to be doing more for her -- but what can she do, when she insists she's doing important work, back home? Yuna says she can't leave to come visit any more...
... it was always going to be a hard conversation, telling her she was getting married, though she feels terribly for putting it off so long. Yua knew she wouldn't come here, even for that, but... well, she had to try.
Still, maybe... mama's right, Yua thinks. She is the sort of person who... needs someone. Dad said that Father had brought him to meet him already, that he sounded nice... and her dad apologised when Yua was surprised he hadn't warned her, but apparently it hadn't been that long, either. He didn't seem to think Kimitake would cause any problems for her... and Kimitake has been working with Miho.
Mama's advice makes her uneasy, too, but... does that mean she's wrong? Yua, who is, herself, a traditional woman...
Well, of course she'd prize highly the words of her mother.
".. it won't be long now," she says, to herself, looking down at her rich mokone gane ring. She places that left hand at her belly, and takes a deep breath.
"Hiroki..."