2026-04-07: Housewife Confessional
- Log: Housewife Confessional
- Cast: Yua Ijuuin, Ayame Watanabe
- Where: Aoba - Watanabe Residence
- OOC Date: 2026-04-07
- IC Date: Sun, Oct 21 2012
- Summary: While Miho spends Sunday at a luncheon with Tomoki, Yua elects to visit a friend of hers instead of go out with her own husband again. Ayame shares that she's pregnant again, but when she goes into her concerns over miscarriage, Yua shares... a sanitised version of the pressures she's under, too. But even disregarding those ominous demands, her husband is being a little demanding, himself, isn't he...?
- Content warning: Discussion of miscarriage, references to domestic abuse
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
It's Miho's turn to go to a fancy Sunday luncheon; Yua already had to go out with Kimitake for a dinner earlier in the week, but luckily, they've worked out the scheduling such that she was able to spend some time with Miho before they were separated again.
... Yua always seems to be the one putting the most effort into chasing up when the men want to go where, but perhaps this, too, is the job of a wife...?
Kimitake tried to say that they should go out on Sunday, too, but... well, Yua asked if he really needed her again, so soon. He's just been a little... you know, lately...
It's nothing. It's fine!
And he was happy to give her a break, anyway. He even said he wasn't an unreasonable man.
Instead, Yua rings up a friend, to visit someone who won't gift her with shoes that are uncomfortably tight in the name of looking good, or insist she stand with the group and make pleasant small talk when she's really feeling kind of lightheaded, or scold her for taking her medicines where someone might see. None of those things are bad -- really! -- but all those rich people demands, they're just a little...
"Knock knock!" Yua provides her own sound effects, as she knocks. Dressed in her usual leotard -- though it's looking rather tight about the belly now -- and hair up in her usual bun, she carries with her a bottle of fancy pomegranate juice, I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Wine.
She looks happy to be visiting Ayame's house!
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
In some respects, Ayame understands Yua much better than Kimitake. Of course, there are those other respects...
But Miho knows better than both, so isn't that fine? Miho is glad to let Yua do a lot of the scheduling, in part because her job is being increasingly demanding of late. But this friend Yua has rung...
Is home! She was happy to have Yua visit. And indeed, as Yua knocks, she opens the door with a smile. Ayame's in red today, since she was thinking about this color just before. Comfortable, long-sleeved.. a little loose.
"Yua-chan," she says warmly. "Welcome!"
She opens the door and lets her in. Ayame's hair is down, as per her usual. There is a lovely little space for Yua to put her shoes, though not to remove her feet prisons. And...
"And thank you!" She will accept the juice, and lead Yua over to the coffee table and couch. "How are you?" she asks. "I was happy that you asked to meet--Ikkaku has the kids out at the park, so I was just going to spend some time alone..."
But this is nice.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"You look great," Yua smiles, to Ayame, as she hands over the juice. "I brought more pomegranate juice! It's not wine, but it looks like wine!" She giggles, apparently finding this to be amazing technology.
And Yua, naturally, divests herself of her shoes -- comfortable hikers, not her beloved pointe shoes, for that all-important ankle support -- before she steps inside properly. Not doing that would be rude! Sadly, her feet prisons remain, as she takes a seat on the couch. "I'm good!" She chirps, brightly. "Mimi's going to a party today, but I was feeling kind of tired, so I asked Kimi-san if we could just not do that right now... today is a one person day!"
She blinks, though, smiling to her. "Oh, but is today a no person day for you? It's okay! That's important time, too!!" And even more important, when a woman has several children...
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
"Thank you!" Ayame says. "You're not the only one who thinks so today~!" she confides, pleased with her choice of outfit for other reasons, too. Then she beams. "Perfect," she says. "Looking like wine is what counts, anyway. And if it's as good as the last bottle..."
Then it's very good!
Yua is good! "Oh, it's very good to be able to step out of things like that," Ayame agrees. "Some days are better for just a little bit of company." Miho at a party... Kimitake presumably has something like that, too.
The blink gets a shake of Ayame's head. "Oh, no. Ikkaku and I have a bit of a date planned later, so it's no imposition to spend time with a friend now. ...I'm sure as busy as you and she are, you understanding having to 'schedule' a bit."
"But please, have a seat. Would you like some juice?" Since of course it's for drinking.
"A one-person afternoon sounds ideal, in fact." Once Yua has, Ayame will also take a seat.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"Oh, oh? That's wonderful!" Yua smiles, a touch conspiratorially, because she might be very autistic but there are some implications she's taken a special interest in catching.
And it just so happens that 'implications about Miho' are generalisable to other women's relationships with just a little thought experiment...
"It's really good!" Yua chirps, affirmatively. "Mimi likes having wine, and I like having this with her! Since I can't have wine," she adds, informatively. "It's bad for the baby."
She knows Ayame knows that, but she should demonstrate she knows that.
"Just a little," Yua agrees, with a sage nod, folding one leg over the other comfortably. (She still has those completely enviable dancer's legs, even with the swelling. Really, it's not at all surprising that Ayame once thought she could steal another woman's man...)
"Haa... boy, do I know about scheduling!" She puffs out a sigh, leaning back against the couch. "But this is just something we all have to get good at, right?" She wonders, of the sacred trust of housewives, as she looks up to the ceiling, an arm slinging over the back of the couch. "I don't like when I get surprised, so it's up to me to make sure it's not surprising... and everyone's so busy, I always have to chase them up..."
She looks back to Ayame, though, smiling as her leg bobs in the air. "Juice sounds great! And so does that!"
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
Yua gets it! Ayame is succeeding in conspiracy. This is good.
"Of course," Ayame says of the baby and wine's problem there. "It's nice that you were able to find something that feels similar."
It's important to demonstrate these things.
Ayame doesn't stare, but she definitely does notice. Ayame doesn't think of her form as all that enviable in turn, though Ikkaku would be quick to argue with her on that front. ...Perhaps especially since her tops fit more snugly lately.
"I thought so!" Something they all need to get good at. Ayame smiles. "That's just so. Though it helps when you have someone who's willing to go along..." Yua doesn't like surprises, then. That makes sense. "I understand," she says of chasing people up. "The kids have lots of activities, and they never can keep track of exactly which one is when without me remembering..."
Ayame pours the juice!! "Wonderful."
"You're looking lovely yourself!" Ayame comments. "Do I sense a bit of a glow?"
Yua might notice that nothing here is likely to set off her nausea. In fact...
There's nothing particularly smelly at all!!
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"It's like... acting! We can pretend!" Yua declares, smiling, of the fake wine juice.
She doesn't mean for her leotard to be that kind of statement, of course; it's about her identity. Of course, she's told Ayame that she's a good-looking woman herself! (Yua only has eyes for Miho, but that doesn't mean she's unaware of women who look good.)
"Ohhh, it's going to get ten times harder when Hiroki comes in!" Yua laughs, shaking her head. "I already have a binder... oooh, I'm going to need to upgrade it! With butterfly clips! Hey, hey, you have three babies, how big is your binder, Ayawata-senpai?" Not every mom has a binder, Yua...
She giggles, over the lip of her juice glass, when Ayame comments on her glow. "Heehee... guilty! Mimi says I really do sparkle now! For real!!" The warmth with which she talks about her partner comes in stark contrast to the way she goes on, "I'm just lucky Kimi-san let me off the hook... I didn't really want to go to two parties this week."
Sniff, sniff... and Yua does feel very comfortable here!
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
"I do like pretending."
Yua's identity... It's important! And she has told Ayame that, but Ayame is prone to see her imperfections above most things, despite being told otherwise. It's not all bad, though; sometimes she does get the message! Those are generally good days for her and her husband.
But Hiroki, of course! "It will!" Ayame agrees, "Especially at first--it gets... different, after the first while." Not necessarily better. But--senpai!! "Hmmm?" A binder! "Oh! Well, I keep everyone's information in files on the computer," she says. "I'm very comfortable with it, so it's the best way to keep track of the budget and important dates and so on."
She doesn't have a binder!! ...as such.
Sparkling, though. Miho... Ayame smiles. "I hope I can meet her properly sometime. You paint such a vivid picture!"
But off the hook... "I wouldn't want to go to so many parties either," Ayame admits.
"...Not that I'm likely to that soon. I'll have to get used to just juice, too..."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"Ooooh... you're digital! Like Mimi!" Yua chirps, brightly. "I'm not too good with computers... we were too poor to really have one growing up, though we did eventually get a loungeroom computer when I was in high school? But it was mostly my dad's, so... I mean, we used computers in school, sometimes, but usually just in computer classes and in the library?" She tilts her head, with a light frown. "Then I, um, went away for a few years, and when I came back, mobile phones were also computers... Mimi showed me how to use mine, so I'm pretty good at it, but even though she got me a computer too I'm not very good at that. Whenever I use one," she says, with a look of utmost distress, "people call me a hen."
She means that she painstakingly hits every key on her keyboard while staring at it, hen-pecking at her keyboard, because she never learned touch typing.
"You should definitely meet Mimi!" Yua chirps, brightly. "I'll cook us some delicious unagi, Ayawata!!" Alas, such is her fate...
But Ayame doesn't feel like going to parties either, and Yua's eye widens, as she unlaces her leg and leans forward. "Hey, hey!" She exclaims, looking quite shocked. "Does that mean--? Are you having another baby?!"
Yua -- starts waving her hands, realises her juice is sloshing around, puts her juice down on the coffee table, and then flaps her hands gleefully. "Yaaay! How many weeks, how many weeks?!"
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
Like Mimi! Well that's nice. "Oh, that makes sense," Ayame answers. "My parents had computers, and I learned to use them young; they're scientists, and they wanted me to be a mathematician. So..." Ayame gestures, vaguely. "I actually worked at a computer repair shop when I was in university," she says conversationally. "I still build my own computers when I have the time."
"Oh! Oh, dear," she says of being called a hen. And... she can imagine exactly why, yes.
"Wonderful!" She likes eel! Maybe not as much as Ichika...
Yua's eye widens--and Ayame beams, glad that her subtle hint was enough. "I am!" she answers brightly.
Flap flap flap. "Haha. Ten! Almost eleven, now. ...I've been a little dizzier I usually am around this time, and I'm definitely having pregnancy brain..."
"But things seem to be going well, despite some stress. I'm actually already starting to show... I suppose when you've done it a few times your body is less interested in hiding things."
"But I'm very happy, even if it means I'll have to be more careful. My last pregnancy didn't end very well," she admits softly, "So I want to give this little one every chance to succeed."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"Ooooh... so Ayawata's always been a digital monster...! Just like that cartoon!" Yua's not quite thinking of Hidden Creatures, but good try, Yua. "I don't know much about my computer... oh, but there's a fun game on mine! It's called 'Mimesis', and it's all about making a family of these little Mims and helping them live their little Mim lives! But I looked it up online, and everyone thinks it's funny to have their Mims jump in the pool and then delete the ladder so they can't get out... mouuuuu, why can't they make a game where they can climb out without a ladder? I feel so bad for them...!" Yua looks so devastated about how people treat God games.
No one tell her how getting into her Mims has effectively made Yua into even more of a stereotype.
"Almost eleven! So you just found out not long ago!" Yua gasps, when Ayame relates how many weeks along she is. "Are you eating okay? What's been so stressful? Can I help?"
Her flapping stops, when Ayame intimates something darker; she leans forward, to pick up her juice again. "It's okay," she assures her, softly. "When I was just a little girl, my mom was gonna have another kid... he was gonna be Yukiya-kun, me and dad had already built his crib together and stuff... I asked her about it when I grew up, and she said she lost him at twenty-four weeks." It's a significant date: Japan has some of the most advanced pre-term baby support in the world, and babies from twenty-two weeks are saved as a matter of protocol. But the care one can access, for those children, is far better in the cities than in rural areas... even a survival rate of 84% is apparently weighted by privilege.
"I was really worried about Hiroki... I'm still really worried about Hiroki," she admits, her free hand resting at her belly. "So... I don't really know what it's like, but... I kind of get it?"
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
A digital monster! Ayame beams. "Yes," she says. But Yua explains and, "Oh! Mimesis is fun," Ayame agrees. Then she suppresses a laugh, because Yua's reaction is adorable. "Some people do that. But the ones who focus on their houses and so on can get really creative! You should see the way people modify the games!"
Well, perhaps not all of the ways.
But not so long ago! "That's right!" Ayame says. "I am! And, well..." What's stressful? She doesn't get into it immediately. Instead, she listens to Yua relate about her mother's experience, and the pain in Ayame's features suggests that she knows how that feels.
"...We hadn't named her yet," Ayame answers quietly. "But..."
"It was twenty-three, for me. We were trapped somewhere. That incident, three years ago? In Mikage-cho. So... I couldn't get to the hospital, and..."
That was that.
"It's a frightening prospect," Ayame agrees. "Even if you haven't experienced it... you know to fear it."
"But you're helping already, by being my friend. This is a much more comfortable setting than some I could be in. I just have to... remember to be careful. And be mindful."
"So we'll keep going with this together, right? As friends."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"I built a super-big house with pillars and stuff! But making the roof is hard..." Yua sighs, thwarted by a common pitfall in the game. "I wanted to put Shiisaa on it, but there were no Shiisaa! Maybe someone made one when they were modifying it...?"
Yua's Mims are fun! Miscarriage is not. Twenty-three weeks, Ayame relates, and --
"Because you were trapped, you couldn't help her..." Yua murmurs, her gaze dropping, down to her glass of juice. "It would take a wretched women to trap another so," she says, sadly.
She doesn't know who the Snow Queen is.
That's not who she's thinking of.
Even so, she reaches out, with her free hand, to squeeze Ayame's. "It's all right," she assures her. "It's hard for you to be careful, sometimes, isn't it? I... I'm in the same situation," she says, with a touch of strain around her lips. "Even when we're doing our best, sometimes..."
She shakes her head, still with that aura of sadness.
"We're friends, Ayawata," she insists, instead. "Even if it gets hard, I won't think less of you. You didn't really have a choice, either..."
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
The roofs are hard. But shiisaas? "That's possible! They do all sorts of things."
Sadly, Ayame is good at many computer tasks but 'making graphics in 3D' is not her strong suit. No Shiisaas from her...
"Right," Ayame says. "I was very sick. ...There wasn't anything I could do." But a wretched woman...? "I don't know who was ultimately responsible. They said it was a gas leak of some kind, but..." She is not so sure.
In fact, she's sure it wasn't.
But Yua squeezes her hand, and Ayame smiles back at her. "It is," she says. "But... Is the Ijuuins' way of life so demanding...?"
They're friends. So why...?
"Yua-chan," Ayame says seriously. "Are you being forced to do something...?"
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
Anything is possible with the magic of the internet...!
"Oh... a gas leak," Yua says, and sounds even more miserable, to hear about that. (She knows just how often her assaults have been excused this way.) "I see... I'm sorry. What a scary and impossible situation..."
And she does feel terribly for Ayame, aside from her own fruitless self-pity.
Ayame turns it over to Yua, though, and her lips press down on her painted lip. "I," she starts, looking away. "It's not my husband... mm..."
It's not safe to tell her, Yua knows. She'll be punished, and Ayame will be punished, too.
Does that mean she has to lie?
"I... told you I disappeared for some years," she advances, slowly, looking down to their hands. "Um... actually... those people... they're still standing over us. Sometimes I have to... to take a night and... and do what they want. And it's physically demanding, spiritually demanding... I won't go to Heaven," she relates, quietly, because of course Gretchen's made that quite clear. "I have to do awful things, very bad things... even when they hurt people... or allow them to be hurt. I -- I mustn't go into it, it really isn't safe for you... I just... I know... I know it's hard, waiting the next day to see the doctor, wondering if the ways they used me were too much this time..."
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
Yua seems so unhappy. And it becomes clear enough why, soon. "Thank you," Ayame says first. "It was."
But... it's not her husband?
Yua explains. Ayame frowns, thoughtful, listening. what it sounds like, well... It doesn't sound good, that's for certain, even before Yua mentions hurting people.
"..."
"I'm stronger than you might think," Ayame says. "If you ever feel ready... I have some friends, who are good at looking into things like that. Who will protect you, if you let them."
"...But no pressure. I know if it feels dangerous, it would feel dangerous to involve others, too."
She squeezes Yua's hand back, placing her second on hers. "But I understand that part, at least. ...I'm trying to do less... but I still want to help people."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"I wish it were that easy," Yua says, her voice hushed, when Ayame offers a way out. "But they have something I need... mm... when they took me, um..." There's tears in her eye; she can't quite meet Ayame's, weighed down by her shame. "They... got me addicted to some drugs, and... and there's really not any other way to get them." Kimitake's spoken with her about that trick; she knows it's something people use, in making other people disappear, even when there's no lab involved. "I know it's no good... I shouldn't be taking care of other people's children when I'm like that, but... but when I have it, I'm, I'm really fine...?"
Well, if one counts being this emotional as fine. Yua doesn't have to put on the shame she's feeling, though; it's an honest emotion.
"They wanted me, their, their pretty little precious jewel," is it really a blessing to be beautiful?, "but I got other people involved, too... that's why I really can't get you... I've done enough," Yua insists, shaking her head, sharply. "N-now, now... now I have to protect Hiroki, they say I should leave it all to them, but... but it's my fault this happened, you know? It's my fault..." Her fingers curl, in Ayame's hand. "Besides... I can't very well tell those people... I won't be going out some night. They'd punish me for not knowing my place," is that really how criminal organisations work?, "and it would have just been better to do as they said..."
But what if they know what she's said?
Yua herself placed a bug in Ayame's phone...
"I... I'm at least glad no one's making you," Yua says, though her smile is thin-lipped. "But the pressure to not just be taken care of... it's very much, isn't it...?"
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
Something she needs? Ayame frowns, when she explains, which may make it just as well that Yua doesn't meet her eyes; she's troubled. "I see..."
"And these things aren't hurting Hiroki...?" That's something that's key, to her. But...
"I see..." Can't get her involved. "It's not your fault," Ayame insists. "It's their fault, for doing these bad things to you and to others."
But...
"Well," she says, "I won't force you. But if you ever want to try... I'll put you in contact with my friends."
But, still. "...It is a lot," she admits. "Here." Ayame hands over some tissues for Yua's tears. "It's all right. We don't have to talk about that right now."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"I had to be very careful when I was conceiving," Yua says, a touch numb, as she looks back to that time. "I had to go without it for a while, it was very hard on me... but once he was settled in, it was okay. It -- it was okay. It's not hurting my baby... it just hurts me when I don't have any..."
Is she just trying to cope? But Yua sees doctors every week, in her wealth; surely she couldn't be ignorant of the costs.
But Yua can't help but wonder... if Ayame would still insist it wasn't her fault, if she knew what she was really made to do. "Mm," she hums, with a little sniffle, nodding.
She offers, again, to help them. "You're really too kind..."
Yua puts down her juice, so that she can take up those tissues, instead. "Oh," she murmurs, looking down at them, "I ruined my makeup... oh... y-yes, that's for the best," she insists, swallowing. "It's dangerous... it's too dangerous."
She smiles, a touch strained. "I... I'm a difficult woman," she admits, to Ayame. "Life with Mimi's family is complicated, but my life would be complicated, anyway... see?"
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
"I see..." Well, Ayame's not a doctor, even if she's dubious a little about the idea of drugs that aren't hurting the baby. Yua would know, though; she cares so deeply for her baby.
Ayame might. It's hard to know, when she hasn't heard it. Still, being told she's too kind...
"We're friends," Ayame answers, with a little shake of her head. "It's all right."
"That's okay," Ayame says of makeup. "But it is dangerous..."
Pause. "I don't think that makes you difficult," she says. "Just, your situation is difficult, and you're doing your best."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
... Yua thinks it's safer, for Ayame, if she doesn't trust her.
But then, Yua assigns a lot of fault to herself, from where she's standing.
So many people... would be living normal lives, if not for her.
"I'm being so selfish," she sniffles, and of course it's because she's only telling her half the story as she demands her sympathy. "But I just can't help it... oh... thank you, Ayawata. Really..."
It's only half the story, but even half the story is so clearly perilous.
"I am," she insists, dabbing at her eye. "Even -- even when I can't pray to the Hinukan, because Kimi-san said I couldn't have that shrine in his kitchen, I -- I still pray as well as I can, even though I'm being rude!" Yua has previously spoken of being quite religious, but...
... is something like that really okay?
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
"It's all right," Ayame tries to soothe Yua. "You can't help it."
But she is... hmm. "That's..."
She frowns. "That's very unkind," she says. "I could understand having preferences on his part, but to deny you the ability to follow your faith at all..."
Rude.
"...I shouldn't say such things," she corrects herself after a moment. "But..."
"I do not think it's bad to want to pray in your own way."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
And it's comforting, to think that she can't, even if Yua isn't sure if it's true.
"Mm..." Yua hums, crinkling her tissue in her fingers, looking down at it as her hands drop to her lap. "I mean, he... he never said I couldn't? Just... just that the maids would think it was messy, and they'd keep cleaning it up... a-and, um... that the Hinukan would get confused, since his home wasn't really my home... just sometimes I do have to sleep over," she sighs, her shoulders sinking.
"He offered to let me set up my devotionals in the family shrine, but... but that's different," she insists, frowning. "The Hinukan, the Fuuru nu Kami... they live in specific areas of the home. They don't want to go somewhere else..."
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
True or not, it's how Ayame feels for now.
But... "...That's sort of the same thing, isn't it?" she asks. "It's just being more polite about it. By not saying it outright, he avoids telling you 'no' directly, but it accomplishes the same goal." Ayame is willing to explain neurotypical behavior because--Well, she's been with Yua for more than ten minutes total. "I don't know about the Hinukan, but..."
"If you have to sleep over... Well. I suppose it is his house," she allows. But she still doesn't like it.
"That makes sense." Ayame frowns thoughtfully. "Well, I'm sorry. That's difficult..."
"We have a family shrine," Ayame says, "But..."
"I wouldn't want to disrespect your gods, either..."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"He did say I could explain to the maids," Yua says, "but since they're from an agency, I'd have to keep explaining... a-and they'd... they'd think it was just some mess on the kitchentop if I didn't..." She sniffles, lifting her tissue up to dab at her face again. "I guess he didn't mean it like that, but... but with the maids cleaning it up, it was like... like God's home is just trash! Waaaahhh....!"
Yua wails, and it's deeply embarrassing. Given a few moments, though, she takes another tissue to fix those tears up, and her face looks rather frightful, but she surely has a compact in her handbag somewhere. What she pulls out of it, though, as she snifs, is instead... her phone?
"I - I took some photos for mama a while back," she says, as she scrolls through it, and turns it over to Ayame. There, on her kitchentop -- her very spacious kitchentop, Yua has too much money -- there is a small shelf above the stove with an incense burner and offering-bowls, plus a sprig of plantlife. "I'm the oldest woman in our house, so it's my job to pray, and, and to tell the Hinukan what's going on... though sometimes I need Mimi to give the Hinukan water in the morning, if I have to be at Kimi-san's. Hinukan needs a good place to stay, because our home isn't their home... every year, they go back to their home in the spirit world and tell the Gods what we've done."
She smiles, a little shakily. "At least -- at least the Fuuru nu Kami is happy so long as the bathroom is clean. In Okinawa, if the toilet is dirty, bad spirits will come and haunt it and bring troubles to us... but so long as we treat it deferentially and keep it clean and tidy, the Fuuru nu Kami will come to dwell there and protect us from evil. I guess sometimes, a story like that doesn't make a lot of sense on the mainland..." Yua sighs, shaking her head. "It's because in the old days, we handled our waste differently, I guess. But sometimes I look at the bathrooms at school, and I think that if mainlander children grew up in a place which respected that area of the house, they would not get so frightful... I spend so much time cleaning up old gum alone!"
Oh, no.
A woman with Yua's beliefs does work in high school settings, doesn't she.
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
"So it would be a lot of trouble..." Ayame still doesn't like it; she smells a rat there. But she's already presumed and said overmuch. So instead she just reaches out to rub Yua's arm while she wails. She's half-tempted to start crying, too...
But the phone!
"Oh!" Ayame says of the photos. "That's very lovely," she says. "I see..." She nods, thoughtfully. "That makes sense," she says. She is not particularly religious herself, but she knows full well how important it is to Yua--and she's not not religious, either.
"No, that does make sense," Ayame says. "It certainly feels to me as if a dirty bathroom invites unclean things..." Not spirits necessarily, but certainly children.
But different! Hmmm.
"Eugh," Ayame says of the gum. "Yes. Quite. ...But the students should be the ones to be cleaning..."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"Mm," Yua nods, though the way she thinks of it, it's that she's a lot of trouble. Sniffle...
She does smile to Ayame, a touch wan, feeling her hand at her arm. "S-sorry... I came over and I'm just crying over everything... th, thanks..."
The least she can do is... try and talk about something nicer!
"Back home, we worry about furu-utaki spirits, if we disrespected them it was like disrespecting any utaki, any sacred site... and the akaname, that youkai feeds on filth and spreads disease," and it might even ring a bell, for Ayame, because the akaname is known to the mainland too. "And the makura-gaeshi, normally it just disturbs your sleep, but if your toilet is unsanitary it feels it needs to escalate... the furubachi, spirits of neglected objects, and the kijimunaa, they're tree spirits, normally they're quite playful, but they hate disrespect and filth, they'll bring bad luck if they're angered..."
Yua knows an awful lot about all those spirits, but it must surely make sense, with how important it is to her.
"Haa... they should," Yua sighs, "and I do scold them, but they never listen... the teenage boys, especially! If..." No, her time limit is far too much to put on Ayame, Yua decides, when she's already burdened her with so much. "I mean, when Hiroki reaches that age, I should hope I've instilled in him the proper respect for the home...! But they say boys are always so messy..."
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
Ayame listens, and--"It's fine, it's fine," she assures Yua.
Yua explains the spirits and the sacred sites, and some of these are more familiar than others, yes. "Hmmm. So all of that comes from one failure to keep tidy..."
Yes, she must. But they're important to her, so...
If? Ayame wonders, but, "...Yes," she says. "Welll... I will say Isamu-kun has a little more tendency towards it than my girls, but he's learned well enough, too. It's important, after all."
"So I think Hiroki will do fine at that."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
Well, being fair: they're both pregnant. Crying over everything isn't all that abnormal.
... though...
... some of the things Yua's crying about today... are a little more serious than sad ducks in cleaning commercials, aren't they?
"That's right!" Yua nods, and she treats that cleanliness quite seriously. "Sometimes young people disregard all those problems, but I learned all about them from Grandmother and my aunts... I guess it's a little old-fashioned, but I don't mind being like that." She doesn't even know how to use a computer very well...
She tilts her head, as Ayame shares her perspective on young boys. "So he can learn...! All right, all right! Then I'll teach Hiroki to be very respectful of the home, and he'll be a good boy!" Yua declares, grasping a hand to a fist with determination.
"Ahh, but I'm excited," she adds, her smile brightening. "We did a blood test already, but they say that soon, they'll be able to tell if Hiroki is really a boy in the ultrasound pictures, too! Hey, hey, what are you hoping for this time?" She asks, leaning forward. "Do you want another boy, or another girl?"
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
If Ayame weren't so alarmed by those serious things, she might be crying with Yua, too. But there's a certain distance that comes with some kinds of worry...
"It's all right to be a little old-fashioned sometimes," Ayame agrees. She is in some ways, too, though she's very much not in others. Either way, it's just personal taste, isn't it?
But Yua listens, and Ayame smiles. "I'm sure he will," she says.
"Oh good! That's wonderful!" Ayame smiles brightly. But her? "Hmmm, well..."
"I'll be happy regardless," she says first. "I love my girls. But... it would be nice for Isamu-kun to have a little brother. Right now he and Ikkaku are the only boys in the house!"
And clearly that's not too many!!
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"Mm, mm!" Yua, of course, is very much not old-fashioned in the one way that really matters... but Ayame already knows all about that. Apparently, there are other conservative aspects of society which are just fine in Yua's playbook.
Not that she's associated with any toxic conservative movements, or anything.
Sometimes people are just religious for normal reasons!
"Well, he'd be a good boy even if he were messy," Yua appends, thoughtfully. "Because he'd be my little boy...! But I won't invite mischief," she insists.
Ayame, though -- Ayame also wants another boy, and Yua claps her hands together, her smile brightening even further. "Ahhh! Ayawata-senpai, what if we both had boys! They could go on play dates together, since they'd be almost the same age! Wouldn't that be so nice?!" She all but sparkles, as she imagines the glorious, happy future. "I think getting another boy would be wonderful...! Then you'd have two boys and two girls! Everything would be balanced perfectly!"
<Pose Tracker> Ayame Watanabe has posed.
She does! Yua is very much not the Old Tradition in one major respect.
"Yes," Ayame agrees with a smile. "Tht's just so."
Yua claps, and Ayame laughs softly. "That would be so nice!" she answers, her voice warm. "It would. I'd really like that. It's so good to have friends of friends at the right age..."
Also, balance! So Yua's like that, hm? ...No, no that's no surprise.
"Tht would be nice, wouldn't it? Just like a circuitboard."
...Ayame might be a little like that, too...