2026-02-23: Dreams
- Log: Dreams
- Cast: Ayame Watanabe, Maya Amano
- Where: Watanabe Apartment, Flower Castle Apartments, Aoba Ward, Sumaru City
- OOC Date: February 23, 2026
- IC Date: September 30, 2012
- Summary: Ayame invites Maya over for tea to get to know her better, and the two have a talk about work and family.
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
It's Sunday, and tht's a good day to see people! So Ayame has invited one Maya Amano to her home in Aoba, in the Flower Castle apartments. The area is nice and tree-filled, and they have a large apartment on a higher floor with an indoor entrance. It's morning, and Ayame is bustling about waiting for her guest, having prepared a few things to try to make her comfortable when she shows.
The door has a friendly 'Watanabe' marker on its door, noting the family within, and Ayame gave directions. Her phone is handy!
And if and when Maya shows, Ayame will open the door and greet her warmly. "Amano-san! I'm so glad you came!"
They've been able to work with each other on Team Whoop-ass business... But do they really know each other yet?
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"Thanks for having me," Maya says warmly. She makes a show of looking around outside, though she was able to survey the area well enough when she first stumbled onto the property. "Your complex is really nice! It feels exactly like the kind of place where someone'd raise a family." Nothing like the apartment complex she resided in with Ulala.
Maya wasn't insecure about it, though, though if Ayame had wound up at their complex, Maya knew already that Ulala'd be on her to straighten up before Ayame visited. Maya couldn't help but feel thankful that she was invited over instead of the other way around!
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
It may be better to save Ayame seeing Maya's apartment for a day in the future. ...It might be fine!
Maya smiles back. "Then please, come in!" Outside, on the balcony, she has a lovely garden; inside, it's very neat, despite the three children who live here. There's a nice blue couch nearby, done with other furniture in a nice little area for sitting and entertaining; on the table is a pot of tea on a tray, and the smell of... cookies!! Ayame bakes. ...She's not sure what a cool lady like Maya would like, but everyone likes cookies, right?
"You're welcome!' she says. "Please, come in! Have a seat, make yourself comfortable."
A girl at a table in the dining area looks up from her game system and waves. "Hi!"
"Koume-chan, remember to stand up when greeting new people."
"Oh, right!" She does so, and waves; she's about nine years old to look at her, and she looks more like her father than her mother.
"This is Koume-chan, my second-oldest. Koume-chan, this is Miss Amano! She's a friend."
"Hi, Amano-san!"
"Feel free to go back to your game, dear."
Then Ayame will lead Maya to a SEAT. "...So I hope I didn't take you from anything too exciting!"
Warning 'my-desc' for Ayame Watanabe(#524PenA):
player is missing description
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Maya takes the SEAT. "Sunday's the one day I plan on not doing anything!" Unless there was Team Whoop-Ass business, anyway. "Is Koume-chan the only one home?" Maya couldn't help but feel curious; out of all of her peers, Ayame was the only one married, and even more, the only one with kids.
Maya expected someday she'd be a mother and a wife, too. But that future seemed so far off that it felt like an almost impossibility now.
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
"Perfect," Ayame says. She assumes Maya has all kinds of interesting business--but then, Ayame never had more than a part-time job before becoming a mother. "Tohka-chan's finishing some homework in her room," Ayame answers. "Ikkaku's back in his office, and Isamu-kun was napping earlier... though he might wake up anytime. I'd be happy to make more introductions, if you like."
She smiles, and pours Maya a cup of tea. "Sunday's not exactly a free day for me, but everyone made space for me today."
"...May I ask you something, Amano-san?"
If she gets the affirmative, "...What's it like, spending so much time on your career? I married young, so I never really went very far in things like that..."
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"Thanks." Maya curls her hands around the hot cup of tea. Though fall technically began a week before, it didn't feel with it. It was as warm outside as it was on any average summer day. Still, Maya found comfort in the warmth of the cup, even despite the heat outside.
"Well." Maya thinks, her gaze set at the ceiling. "It can be pretty demanding. Editor-in-Chief Mizuno is on me so much that it feels like she's my mother." A beat, and then Maya shakes her head. "She's not anything like my mom," she quickly clarifies. "But like a mother that isn't ever satisfied with anything you do."
Despite her answer, Maya's tone remains upbeat. She clearly isn't too torn up by Editor-in-Chief Mizuno's constant nagging. "Are all your kids school-aged?" she asks. "If they are, it should be a lot easier to go back to work. There's a few mothers that work full-time at Kismet Publishing." Though there were also plenty like Ayame, who left their job once they were married. In fact, that was pretty much the norm.
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
Ayame is just trying to be welcoming, of course. ...Tea is good for you! Right?
But Ayame is curious. She laughs softly at Maya's description of her editor. "I know the type," she says, and it's an understatement. "It seems like she keeps you busy, then. It must be a challenge!"
Clearly Maya's fine with it, yes. And Ayame can answer, "Yes! It makes the house a little lonely when they're all gone," she admits. "Isamu-kun shouldn't grow up yet. I'm not ready!"
"hmm. That's interesting to know. It's nice to have options. ...I'm not sure what I'd do, though; I was in school for mathematics, but I dropped out when I was pregnant with Tohka-chan..."
"Ah, i'm not sure why I'm telling you all that. I suppose I just think that if we're going to see all this danger, we should know a bit more about each other."
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"I think so too!" Maya nods enthusiastically. She'd wanted to get closer to all of their teammates, too. That's how you build team camraderie! Team spirit!
"You could go back to school, too," Maya offers. "Waseda's been offering online courses for almost a decade now." Not that Waseda would be a likely target school for a busy mom.
"What did you want to be when you grew up?" Maybe that'd help them settle on a potential job!
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
Team spirit!!
"I suppose I could! Wouldn't it be strange for all those young people to have me around, though?" She's not sure. But still...
Ayame smiles. "Actually," she says, "Back then, it was more about what my mother wanted," she admits. "She wanted me to be a professor or a researcher. ...But as for me..."
"Well, I wanted to have a family," she says. "I'm happy where I am," she clarifies. "I knew I wanted to be able to be closer to my children. I just... wonder, sometimes. It's a very different life from the one I chose, so I can't help but be curious what it's like."
"...My parents didn't really approve of my choices, you see."
"But now that we have this 'power', I can... do more, in the world, than I could before."
"It helps quiet that voice in my mind that says I'm not doing enough."
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Maya nods at the appropriate points, listening attentively to Ayame as she speaks. "Why didn't they approve?" In the end, it seemed like Ayame was doing good for herself. Shouldn't they just be happy for her success, no matter what it wound up looking like?
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
"They said I was wasting my potential," Ayame sighs. "And that Ikkaku wasn't good enough for me. They'd long told me that boys were just a distraction, and, well... I was certainly distracted."
"Tohka-chan was unexpected, you see. We weren't married or anything; we were just together, Ikkaku and I. They actually wouldn't even give me permission to marry him... i was lucky I turned 20 before the baby came."
"But lately we've reconnected. It's... difficult, sometimes."
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Maya frowns at Ayame's explanation. "Do they still not approve of Ikakku-san?" she asks. She can't imagine many grandparents would disapprove of their child having children early after this much time had passed... but there was a first time for everything.
Warning 'my-desc' for Ayame Watanabe(#524PenA):
player is missing description
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
"I'm not sure," she admits. "They seem to be better on him, but maybe they're just pretending so they can see their grandchildren. On the other hand, he's very successful now--he's going to be Seven Sisters' new vice principal, after all."
"...But, well, they compare him to their idea of what I should've done."
A shake of her head. "I don't want to be like that. I want to meet my children where they are. To let them decide the sort of lives they want to lead."
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"Really? I'm a Seven Sisters Alum!" Maya is glad that they're moving so fast to bring in a replacement. And even more glad that it's someone she feels she can put her faith in -- anyone Ayame thought highly of, Maya thought highly of by proxy.
"Your way is more healthy," Maya says, nodding. "I don't know what I'd do if my mom didn't support me."
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
"Oh!" Ayame says, and her smile gets even warmer. "That's wonderful. It really is a nice school. I'm hoping that this means we can really settle in Sumaru--we've moved around a bit before now, but with a more stable position, maybe we can get a house..."
But she seems happy that Maya approves. "Thank you," she says. "I know what I'd do," she says. "And, well, I did it."
"...But maybe I'm unfair to them; they just had strict ideas. I don't want to cut them out of my childrens' lives or anything. ...Probably."
"Anyway," she says, "You certainly know more about me now! What about you? Any particularly interesting stories you're working on? Any men in your life? I'd like to know more about Amano-san!"
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"The only men in my life are the mean in Team Whoop-Ass," Maya says with a laugh. "I don't even know if I'd have time to date, even if I wanted to." True, Maya wanted to be able to balance her family and her career, but she didn't have a family of her own -- yet.
Besides that, she really needed to see the Joker Killer story through to the end -- no matter how long it took!
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
"Haha," Ayame answers, "You could do worse for friends! Even that Baofu seems to have a good heart, I think." But no time... "That makes sense. I'm sure work keeps you busy, on top of all this business..."
Elsewhere, across the room, Koume's ears perk up. She hears the word 'whoop-ass' floating from a conversation she mostly can't hear. She will use it one day.
But ehre and now, "Maybe things will calm down once we can stop the Joker Killer," she says. "I'm committed! I'm going to do my best!" Fire in her eyes!!
"...Oh, would you like a cookie?" she offers. "I baked them earlier. They're my sister's favorite."
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"Yeah! It's been ages since my last one." Maya smiles. Their little apartment had a stovetop, but not an oven. And even if they had one... Maya was pretty sure she'd burn them.
"Does Ikakku-san know about what's going on?" Maya is intentionally vague in her wording, just in case he suddenly slipped into the room when she was in mid-sentence.
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
Ayame slides the little plate over and hands it out to Maya. They are chocolate chip!
"He does," Ayame confirms. "The Joker Killer actually targeted him," she says more quietly. "That's when I awoke to my Persona. Unfortunately he doesn't have one of his own, but his mind for organization is at our disposal!"
"...The kids don't, of course."
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Maya looks back in the direction of the dining room, where Koume is still playing on her gaming console. Maybe if they were older, but...
Maya takes a nibble of her cookie. "Mmm, good!" Another bite. "Homemade cookies are the best!"
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
Maybe. But Ayame's oldest is eleven; that's too young, right?
But Maya likes the cookie, and Ayame beams. "I'm so glad!" she says.
"Do you get online much?" she wonders then. "That's one of the nice things about staying at home--I have the chance to talk to people online all over the world..."
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"I am -- a lot of my research starts online." Maya wasn't a total techhead, but she at least knew how to use a computer capably enough. "Are you on twitter? We should exchange handles!" Kismet had actually started printing social media profiles along with their name in the staff section at the end of the magazine. Unlike most of her other colleagues, she already had one set up.
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
"Oh! That's handy." Ayame didn't know, but it makes sense now that she does. "I am! Let's do that!" Ayame pulls her phone--her phone has an app for this--and will totally trade.
...As it happens, Maya will find if she does any digging that Ayame has quite the online presence!
But for now... more cookies!