Profile
Summary
Talula "Lula" Momose
Talula is an apprentice horishi studying under the famous Utabori II, the artist responsible for Kiryu's dragon. Along with maintaining an online presence for him, she helps find and communicate with clients with her English skills. She's well-liked by clients and known to be more easygoing than her rather scarily serious master, but don't think this means she takes her job any less seriously. She's ready to dedicate her entire life to becoming worthy of carrying the Utabori name.
When Utabori suddenly goes missing, it's up to her to run the parlor in his absence and discover what happened to him with the help of low ranking yakuza Akihiko Nakazawa.
Personality
introverted
optimistic
calculated
expressive
rational
Talula is easy to get along with for most people. She's open and laid back about most things, but when it comes to something she's passionate about, for example, irezumi or her loved ones, she's really stubborn. Her demeanour may be a bit more assertive and abrasive around men, a habit picked up from wanting to be taken seriously in a male-dominated space like the irezumi scene. She's also quite witty with a good sense of humour, a skill she likes to use for teasing, especially with her friends. However, this initially harmless tendency can take a malicious form when dealing with someone she doesn't like. For example, she enjoys getting a rise out of Akihiko earlier in their friendship when she still perceives him as a shallow new gen yakuza.
She's also a surprisingly effective judge of character with good intuition when it comes to new people, a habit she's picked up from Utabori needing to understand a client's character before tattooing them. This means she can give really thoughtful compliments, but on the flip side, when it comes to not just someone she dislikes but someone she actively hates and thinks is a truly horrible person, she can deliver some genuinely scathing critiques devoid of humour.
Talula also has a lot of childish traits. This is seen in her pettiness and teasing, but also in other ways. For example, she's impulsive, stubborn, can act immaturely when she doesn't get her way, and isn't very independent, being useless at cooking, for example. She roughhouses, doesn't like vegetables, is needlessly competitive about things that don't matter, and so on and so forth. Although of course not totally ignorant as she lives in a red-light district, she's especially oblivious to romantic or sexual matters compared to others her age. This is out of a lack of interest in either. she's a little like if a 12 year old boy were a 20 year old woman LOL
Her loved ones are the most important in Talula's life. After her mother's death, she wants to be someone strong enough to protect those close to her and never have to go through such a loss again. That's the reason why she holds Kiryu in such high regard. She perceives him as a perfect pillar of strength and justice who'd never lose a loved one based on stories of him defeating 100 Tojo men alone or saving Kamurocho over and over again. Surely, someone as tough as Kiryu would never be vulnerable or let his true feelings of weakness be known! As a result, she opts to bottle up her feelings and smother any sign of fear or worry with lightheartedness in an attempt to look unbothered and what she thinks strong is. What she doesn't realize, however, is that this doesn't only make it seem like she's not scared. It makes it seem like she either doesn't understand the severity of a situation or worse: like she doesn't care. This desperation to never appear weak can cause a rift between her and others, who think she can't take anything seriously.
Her dedication to her strong persona also influences her tomboyish nature. She subconsciously believes the traits she wants to embody (strength, capability, reliability) are inherently masculine, and thus tries to align herself with masculinity through her demeanour and dress. She also feels this will make others, especially her majority male clientele, take her more seriously. In turn, also on a subconscious level, she perceives femininity as inherently weak, feeling uncomfortable in feminine clothing and being ashamed of her more feminine interests like shoujo manga or collecting cute trinkets.
Through her friendship with Akihiko, someone who can't "read between the lines" of her behaviour and takes everything she says and does at face value, Talula gains a deeper understanding of how her actions affect how she's perceived and learns to be more open with her feelings, learning that they don't make her weak. read more about that in the relationships section
- IREZUMI!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Basically all music but especially hardcore
- Sailor Moon but keep it on the DL...
- Bothering Akhiko ❤
- Any kind of disrespect to irezumi or Utabori
- Vegetables
- Writing kanji
- She cannot cook at all. Do not let her into the kitchen
- She has severe Asian Flush Syndrome, so she doesn't drink at all. She also had childhood asthma, so she doesn't smoke, either. She does, however, chew a lot of gum. Imagine that one scene from Yakuza 5 where Kiryu tries to smoke a cigarette he had in his hand only to realize he crushed it while making a fist in frustration except with a stick of 5 Gum...
- She's proficient in Tagalog, Japanese, and English although she still has an accent when speaking the last two and is pretty useless at writing anything other than the most basic kanji.
- She was a member of the Judo club at her high school and continues to practice to this day.
Backstory
- Illegally immigrated to Kamurocho from the Philippines with her mother
- Mother died, was taken in by Utabori to be his apprentice
- Utabori goes missing, needs to work with a low ranking yakuza named Akihiko Nakazawa to find him
i.
Talula was born to a Filipina mother and a Japanese father. Her, at the time, only 21-year-old mother had belonged to a wealthy and influential family that exiled her once they discovered she would be having a child unplanned out of wedlock. Her father left when Talula was 5, leaving the two totally alone. While Talula feels nothing towards her father except mild resentment, she does remember the vivid and beautiful irezumi on his back, which sparked her interest in designing her own. She was very skilled, but it was little more than a pipe dream to her. Talula's mother did the best with what she had, which wasn't a lot for someone who'd lived a pampered life with no real-world experience until she was born, but they made do.
When Talula was 14, her mother got a shady job offer. It required her to illegally immigrate to Japan, but they were desperate, and she was proficient in the language thanks to her previous affluent education. Thus, the two left the Philippines behind. However, shortly after arriving in Kamurocho, her mother passed away suddenly. i haven't decided how but umm foul play definitely ☝ definitely something bad...
ii.
And so, Talula was left in a foreign country where she didn't speak the language. For a while, she was alone, fending for herself on the streets before being discovered by a group of copycat tattoo artists who made replicas of Utabori's work. They didn't bring her on as an artist at first but as a translator to fool foreigners into thinking they were receiving authentic pieces, although when they found out about her artistic prowess, they began to use her for that, too. Because she feared turning to the police due to her illegal status, not knowing about communities like Little Asia that could've helped her, the group treated her however they wanted because they'd face no legal repercussions. They provided her with basic necessities like food and shelter but they didn't pay her or enroll her in school.
iii.
She lived like this for ten months before the police cracked down on the group, less for the art theft and more for the unsafe conditions under which they operated. Either way, word reached Utabori, and while he initially didn't pay it much mind, hearing about the teenage artistic genius who worked with them piqued his interest. Using his connections, he arranged to meet with her. He gave her an offer: come stay with him and study irezumi under him or let the police do what they want to her. Obviously, she chose the former. She didn't really have a choice, but she wanted to become a horishi for as long as she could remember, and for the first time in her life, this dream seemed like it could be a reality. Utabori worked with a certain parasitic cop to help her gain citizenship and he became her legal guardian.
Now 15, Talula had become very standoffish and quiet because of her time with the copycat group, where she learned to keep to herself and do what she was told. She'd gained some understanding of Japanese, but the language barrier was still significant which only made her more closed off. However, she was always cooperative with irezumi, practicing hard every day and accompanying him to the parlor to watch him work. She was also diligent in completing chores and did her best not to burden him to show her gratitude. By providing her with the academic support she needed by enrolling her in a competent international school, understanding, and, most of all, patience, Utabori managed to get Talula to open up and make a pretty miraculous recovery.
iv. (actual main story)
Talula continued to study hard under Utabori, successfully graduating from international school at 20 and starting to work on clients herself under his supervision. However, seemingly out of nowhere, vainished in the middle of the night. Talula tried to brush it off initially, assuming he'd be back soon, but when days passed without any sign of him, she started to worry. The police were no help, wanting nothing to do with someone so heavily associated with the yakuza. Thus, Talula tried investigating on her own while simultaneously running the parlour in his absence.
Talula's first client was a Yakuza named Akihiko Nakazawa. She was excited and nervous to meet with a Yakuza client, as they've declined heavily in recent years, and she tried to put on her best act of professionalism like she thought Utabori would've wanted her to, but to her disappointment, Akihiko was nothing like she expected. He was entitled and obnoxious, insisting she tattooed him a phoenix without understanding his character. When she tried to explain the importance of irezumi, he was dismissive, reminding her she was just an apprentice and saying she should just do what she was told to since he was paying. Disrespect towards irezumi is already a touchy subject for her and combined with the already heightened stress she was feeling, the two got in an argument, and she kicked him out.
A week or so later, Akihiko visits again, this time not seeking irezumi but rather information on the whereabouts of her master under the orders of his higher-ups. If Yakuza were involved, Talula realized that meant there was definitely more to Utabori's disappearance, and the only lead she had right now was Akihiko himself. She insisted he let her tag along with him, and while he initially refused to involve a citizen in Yakuza matters, he caved when she, in turn, refused to give him any information unless she could accompany him. Thus, the two started working together towards the common goal of locating Utabori. enemies to siblings arc incoming
v. unimplemented brainstorming whatever stuff
i know this is vague and the details here are subject to change (really all of this is subject to change but especially this stuff) but basically the idea is that utabori was forced to participate in the assassination of some yakuza boss wayy back in the day to help some evil corrupt guy rise to power and he kind of vowed to keep in quiet and in exchange he'd be left alone but now this evil corrupt guy is doing something really bad and now utabori is like "ok i've really got to do something to stop this i can't let this slide" but also didn't want to involve talula so he left without telling her cause she'd really follow him to the ends of the earth and want to help him really badly so he had to be sneaky...
also i'd like to think utabori had apprentices prior to talula but something happened to them to make him not have any more because it's really strange for a horishi as great and also as old as him not to have any?? maybe relating back to the assassination thing maybe he had to participate to save his apprentice's skin or something but then they actually still killed his apprentice. that'd be messed up. and then he was like "i'll never take in another apprentice again...." but he saw himself in talula and she was sopping wet and pathetic and her talent would be wasted if she got deported and stuff so he was like "ok maybe i'll try this apprentice thing again"
i haven't figured out if akihiko's family is AGAINST utabori, wanting him dead so he can't speak on the assassination or WITH him, because they'd benefit from the assassination being leaked and this evil guy being knocked out of power but even if they do they don't have a personal investment in him. so i think at some point in the story akihiko would get his hands on evidence of the assassination and his boss would say "okay the evidence is good enough if you have that we don't need utabori himself so you can stop working with that weird girl and bounce" and even though they'd be working together for like a month atp and they were actually pretty tight and he'd just totally abandon talula for a bit but he'd be like "no this isn't right..." and then choose to like go against his family to help her because the power of friendship or whatever and he doesn't know this but this is just before the omi disbands so he doesn't even face any real consequences LMAO. but he makes the decision under the impression he's totally screwing himself over for her and it shows growth because akihiko kind of starts the story off as a selfish asshole but now here he is totally screwing himself over for this girl he met a month ago
Design notes
- She's 5'5 and pretty muscular. Arms especially.. should always arm-mog akihiko. Probably weighs like 180ish pounds? maybe more idk. she's kind of meant to look "compact" if that makes sense ... broad shoulders, broad hips, pretty big bust, but she resents how feminine her body is so she wears clothes that are too big for her and a compression sports bra so her chest looks flatter
- Big eyes, flat nose bridge, monolids, round face. really baby faced actually. Flat face in general... Her eyebrows are meant to be really diagonal, think Nishiki's. Do not be afraid to give her a big ass forehead
- She's meant to look kind of feline if you know what i mean
Relationships
Akihiko is a low-ranking member of the Matsugane family who she refused to tattoo for his superficial perception of irezumi. Now, the two are practically siblings, with Talula assuming the role of an annoying younger sister who loves to piss off, bewilder, or get any kind of reaction from her older brother.
At first, Talula viewed Akihiko as a shallow new-gen yakuza, and he viewed her as a pretentious apprentice. As the daughter of a man whose whole career revolves around being able to deeply understand his clients, Talula quickly sees through Akihiko's playboy persona. In fact, she has the unique ability to get on his nerves, something she does a lot early in their relationship. She uses this as a coping mechanism for her stress surrounding Utabori's disappearance and is under the belief it makes her appear less bothered and thus more strong. In turn, Akihiko sees Talula as a pretentious little girl way out of her depth and doesn't treat her as an equal, especially because outside of irezumi, she comes off as a very casual person. Taking her at face value and not trying to understand her behaviour any deeper, he starts to think everything is a joke to her and that he's the only one who actually cares about their situation.
A specific point of contention between them is their age. Talula constantly makes fun of Akihiko for being "old," insisting he buys her Staminans with his "grown-up money." While these are entirely jokes on her side, not believing 25 is old and just trying to mess with him, Akihiko truly thinks she's an immature brat in way over her head and that he'd be far better off on his own. Despite their relationship having a lot of issues, though, they did manage to settle on some level of amicability after investigating Utabori's disappearance together for so long. Talula had started to genuinely care for Akihiko and value him as a friend. While Akihiko had started to care for Talula, too, he hadn't noticed it.
These underlying issues were bound to come to a head eventually, though, as during a particularly high-stakes situation, emotions were running high. Talula was more stressed than she had ever been and was acting especially antagonistic to the equally stressed Akihiko. Growing sick of her, Akihiko snaps and shouts at her. His reaction startles her, and she becomes defensive, insisting he was getting worked up over nothing, which only sets him off further on a long, trauma-dumping rant about the death of his mother, his alcoholic father, and everything else awful about his life. While initially feeling sympathetic, Talula quickly loses her pity when he tells her that she couldn't possibly understand what he's gone through since she doesn't know struggle, specifically that she doesn't know what it's like to lose her mother and that he's starting to think she doesn't care much about finding Utabori. Becoming even more upset than Akihiko was, she begins to chastise his selfish behaviour, pointing out that people who "don't know struggle" and have normal relationships with their mothers aren't adopted and raised by horishi. Akihiko, bewildered to timidness by her rage and scathing critique of his character, insists he couldn't have known, but Talula insists he would've picked up on the signs if he'd been willing to look outside himself for one second before storming off.
While at first Akihiko was reluctant to accept what Talula had said, after a couple of hours or so, he figured it wasn't a good idea for them to be apart for so long, even if he didn't feel like seeing her again so soon. Also, to his surprise, he felt a sense of loss about the possibility of their friendship ending. Looking for her at the only place he'd imagined she'd be, he barged into Divine Dragon, Utabori's tattoo parlor, ready to tell her he'd forget about the whole argument if she would and that they should just go back to how they were before, but instead walked in on her crying. Feeling humiliated at being caught at such a vulnerable time, she begged him not to look at her before imploring him to, insisting he must get a kick out of seeing her in such a sorry state. In reality, seeing her with her knees to her chest on the ground acting so emotionally made him think of her as a child. Not a child, as in someone who was a clueless and useless brat, rather, a child, as in someone who was going through a scary situation she wasn't familiar with and really needed someone she could rely on. She also reminded him of himself when he was younger and, in a way, lost his father, too. For the first time in a while, he truly empathized with someone and, more than that, wanted to help them when he didn't have anyone there to help him. So he, being the bigger person for once, approached her first and sat next to her despite her protests. After a minute of silence, Talula admitted that she had realized in her time alone the way her behaviour impacted others. She worked hard to find Utabori but almost seemed to hide that she was putting effort in by acting so casually. She didn't want to look like she cared too much, which, in hindsight, was a bizarre thing to want. Of course Akihiko thought she didn't care, and it was unfair for her to subject him to her insufferable behaviour just because she wanted to look cool. In turn, Akihiko admitted that she was right in criticizing his self-centred nature and that he had no idea what she was dealing with on her own. but like it's not as clean as i'm making sound at all. they're mumbling and fumbling their words and starting sentences over a bunch. lots of "like"s and "y'know"s and "or something"s and "and stuff"s and weird pauses. they probably go for a hug that lasts a little too long and then stare at each other with weird faces and akihiko asks "are you hungry" and talula is like "yeah" and he's like "let's go to akaushimaru" and she's like "ok" and they just get up like they didn't just have a big heart to heart on the floor of a dingy tattoo parlor and go eat some beef bowls
Immediately after the fight, their interactions are awkward. Talula is hesitant and calculated in how she treats Akihiko because she doesn't want to fall into old patterns to the point conversations are stilted and awkward. Akihiko, who doesn't know how to act when he cares about someone, does nice things for her, like buying her drinks from Poppo, but refuses to acknowledge he's doing her a favour and will act weirdly if she tries thanking him or bringing it up. As they get more comfortable with each other, however, their dynamic becomes something that looks very similar to what it was before but fundamentally differs in that both parties understand why the other acts the way they do. Now, Talula doesn't mess with Akihiko because she dislikes him, doesn't take anything seriously, or because she is trying to come off as tough. She likes him, and that's her way of having fun with him. Akihiko acts annoyed because, sometimes, she does piss him off, and she's quick to apologize, but he's mostly just playing along because he finds their banter fun, even messing with her back from time to time. Akihiko learns to look after Talula as the older brother he never had for Talula, and Talula learns to be open with her emotions, and, in turn, accept others'.
Utabori took Talula in after recognizing her potential. Although horishis apprentices living with their masters is a longstanding tradition, one Utabori especially would respect as he's known to be old fashioned, because of her young age, he also acted as her guardian. The two initially seem very different, and one might wonder how the intimidatingly blunt and professional Utabori is responsible for such an easygoing and upbeat apprentice, but, if you look past the surface, you'll see they're similar in ways that go beyond their demeanour. For example, they share the same passion for irezumi and beliefs about its ability to change one's future and she inherited his ability to understand one's character to choose the best irezumi design for them.
He was extremely patient with her as she was very closed off and standoffish, and it took a lot of work to get her to open up. Although not very open himself, he showed his genuine care and desire for Talula to have a better life through his actions. I like to think that their situations were similar when he was her age, so he wants to be the adult he wishes he had. For example, Talula had childhood asthma, and to accommodate this, Utabori banned the smoking of cigarettes inside the parlour, a very controversial decision among his cigarette-loving yakuza clients, but he was firm. He also is the one who bought her a luxurious furisode kimono for her Coming of Age Day, an item typically passed down from mother to daughter. Utabori also helps Talula connect with her Japanese heritage more since her father walked out, as irezumi is a tradition rooted deeply in Japanese culture and requires knowledge of things like Japanese mythos or Buddhist deities.
Talula is eternally grateful to Utabori for all he's done for her and feels as though she has an unpayable debt to him. She thinks that to make him proud, she should become exactly the kind of very traditional horishi he is, but he actually wishes she had more faith in her own abilities and was more willing to find her own sense of identity as a horishi.
Talula is very anxious about Utabori's increasing age, not just because she's nervous about taking on the Utabori name, but also because she's scared to lose the man she's come to consider her father. i love found family!!!!!!
Kiryu, or at least the version of him Talula has made up in her head, is who she aspires to be. She thinks Kiryu is the perfect personification of strength and justice. This is based on yakuza rumours but also on the fact Utabori deemed him worthy of carrying the only dragon he'd ever tattoo on his back, meaning he's got to be a really cool guy! This idolization is unhealthy, however, as it motivates her to try and bottle up her feelings and never show weakness like she thinks he does. Eventually realizing that Kiryu isn't this mythical yakuza legend but is indeed human would be a big step in accepting her own human traits like vulnerability.
His tattoo is the favourite of all of Utabori's tattoos and has a photo of it taped to her mirror so she's reminded of the quality of irezumi she aspires towards.
Talula kind of sort of knows Majima. They met back when she was 16, being referred to Utabori by Kiryu after his horishi passed. When he arrived for his appointment, Utabori was out, leaving Talula to handle the eccentric man alone. Her poor grasp of Japanese at the time, along with his intimidating demeanour, gave her a hard time. Majima seemed to get a kick out of making her squirm, so he intentionally messed with her, too. Talula's anxieties increased tenfold when Majima made a vague comment about having to tell her idol, Kiryu, that the place he recommended wasn't so great after all, which, of course, Majima zeroed in on. He'd almost managed to talk her into tattooing him herself despite having less than a year of experience to save Utabori's reputation in Kiryu's eyes before he came back to deal with him. Even then, while Talula stuck around to observe the tattooing, he continued to terrorize her, making her fetch him Staminans from Poppo, lest he tell Kiryu about the TERRIBLE customer service at this place!!! He also told her stories about Kiryu that weren't lies but were also worded in a bizarre way that made it sound like they had a homoerotic love affair rather than a manly rivalry, which just kind of confused her...
He continued to come to the parlour to maintain his irezumi, but it wasn't long before he went into hiding with Saejima and Daigo. Talula currently has no idea what he's up to, and while she hopes it isn't anything too bad, she mostly doesn't care. She'd be happy to never see him again! Now that she's old enough not to be jerked around like before, the way he treated her really gets on her nerves!
