Resourceful Encounter [Rita/Kegare]

Rita's mind was moving a million miles per second and sometimes even she herself barely took notice of it. Although her face turned a bit red at the comments, she didn't feel embarrassed and instead had a sharkish grin on her face as she figured she was a pretty high-energy person to be around. Therefore, the woman took a nod of the head before coming up with a response:

"Too fast for you? Ya got me: I like being a showy 'gal."

There was then an innocent roll of the shoulders before Rita started following the older woman. Although, in hindsight, her eyebrow rose a bit at the honey comment. Although Rita mostly reserved herself and was just focused on taking her seat for the time being, she certainly felt weird being called that, but she figured it must've been from where she was born. It wasn't even a negative feeling, either. She just didn't seem like the southern type to call people honey and all that. But nah, there goes her mind again. Going too fast. So, Rita took the smoke gladly and lit it up with a lighter in her right sleeve before leaning back in her seat.

"Then we can slow down~ Perhaps I need to myself before I zoom off the ledge."

Rita nodded her with a sense of confidence before narrowing in on the next bit of words spat at her:

"Name is Rita Grace as you know and I'm currently running a bunch of small food, medicine, and other essential services-related businesses across North America and Europe. I figure since the world is blind as to what the next step is, it was best to take advantage of the post-war state and use those profits from those acquired businesses to keep buying up land and build up resources."

With her hand shaped in a gun, she motioned with that hand as if she were shooting at Kegare before going on.

"Whole world is fucked, right? This is the best time to make something of ourselves and perhaps do something good for humanity by making sure it a decent cut of the planet stays in human hands. As my goal is to provide something for my fellow humans in the long run."

Then she eased back in her chair before taking another puff of her smoke and concluding.

"Was that a mouthful or did I ramble on too fuckin' much?"

Rita was like a drug as far as she was concerned. Once you get one whiff of her, the high that radiates from her aura can get you fucked up six ways to Sunday. And if you aren't prepared for that kind of rush? It can be overwhelming. So it was up to her to lower the high a bit and cool her gears. So, her teal eyes focused in on Keagre as she simply nodded her head at her saying it was a lot to take in at once. As what was spoken after that was far more interesting to her. It was the notion of HOW such companies fell into her lap, and that's when Rita's mind went blank for a moment before she instantly snapped back.

"The world is up for grabs, so prior to the war, I did some bodyguard work for high-profile clients, got some riches from 'em and played my cards right as the whole planet was going to shit and pounced when these buzzards died off."

That was the truth. Well, of course, there was more to it, but that's all she needed to know in Rita's mind until she could be trusted. This is why Rita never averted her eyes, kept a cool smile and her body seemed super relaxed as there wasn't a tense bone in her body when she was telling her truth.

From there, Rita decided to take a swig of a drink on the table and observe her murmurs as she seemed to ramble on about her ambitions and being a lively person. Of which, Rita couldn't disagree and why there was a satisfied grin on her face as she proudly nodded her head. The lass could certainly keep a room entertained if she chose to, so it was nice to be complimented in a vain sense on her positive attributes as she liked to herself praised to a degree.

"Thank you for noticing~ I certainly don't like to give people an awful time in my presence if I ain't trying to put an axe over your head or something."

There was a small laugh that exited Rita's mouth before she absorbed all of what the woman said about maintaining this region of power. Of course Rita thought about the potential of conflict when expanding her empire. That was just human nature! If people saw a threat brewing, they would snuff it out before it got bigger. This is why her nose wriggled and she leaned in close to Keagre to meet her bluff.

"If you are a benefit to the world, aren't hostile, and are simply a native of this world trying to build a magnificent empire, then it would seem downright dictator-like to crush someone just running a business, eh? I have some weapons, resources, favors and all that good stuff I can pull; but politically I'm sure I could pull some leverage if people tried to stop me."

Then, Rita would snicker, flick the nose of Keagre and add on.

"And by land, I don't mean claiming entire nations just yet. Just buying up real estate, businesses, open-land space and operating within the confines of the law as this little jewel of mine grows. I have no need to start going around trying to take over the world or anything crazy like that, but I definitely want to start buying up spaces for the future."

After that, Rita leaned back, took a swig of her drink, and let out a satisfied sigh.

"Course, I should probably start sowing the seeds of favoritism and start helping out some of the orgs of this earth more so they see I'm not trying to start some crazy empire. That'll go a long way to not having my throat slit open and my fine-ass body being cooked for dinner."

With a wink of her eye, Rita confidently chuckled before spreading each of her legs out to get more comfortable before closing her eyes and thinking for a moment. When she came to an answer, they opened with stars behind them.

"Nothing is too serious for me. I've seen the blackest part of this world and the richest parts; so I'm down for whatever you got to throw at me, darling."

Ah, ain't it a bitch when certain words piece together a string of unpleasant memories? Not that Rita would fold her cards here, of course. Just a second or two of staring off into space when recalling the visions of blood on her hands, the adrenaline-filled nights and the looming dread of being a mercenary for hire certainly takes it toll during such dark years as there were prior to this relative peace the world was under. As far as Rita was concerned, whatever the hell Earth was turning into was a far better version of the planet than the shithole she grew up in.

Still -- it wasn't time for that. It wasn't wise to divulge your whole life story, feelings, operations, and everything to someone you just met. The woman certainly felt relaxed around Keagre, but there were other things in her heart that weren't as open for the time being. So perhaps bodyguard was a poor choice of words, but she figured she'd redact at a certain point as you can't always be on the pin-point of your own inner story when dealing with the day-to-day interactions of life.

"Politics? I fucking hate it. It's a pain in the ass. But life is fucked up and you can't avoid shit you don't like in it. Sometimes you have the play game you loathe to win and change the rules of it once you have enough chips to make what you want in the world."

There was a hard snort of breath that exited the younger woman's mouth as she flipped her up with it and leaned back in her seat. Nowhere in the four corners of her burning heart did she take pleasure in politics, but they certainly helped in instances if you couldn't outright brute force your way through a circumstance with raw power. Gotta play survival and live to fight another day until you secure that big W of a win. No shame was felt in her game as you had to adapt and do whatever you could to not get slaughtered in this dog-eat-dog world.

With those grim thoughts aside, there was an amused grin on Rita's face as that vain aspect of her personality kept getting patted on the head like a pleased dog getting a treat. Being attractive, driven and all these wonderful things were just icing on the cake as far as she was concerned. Sure, her whole core wasn't a vapid as that, but there is nothing wrong with soaking in a bit of good feeling where you can in this world when others acknowledge ya. It's only human, right?

"Damn right I'm a bundle of sunshine that's easy on the eyes."

Then, Rita rose one finger up and once again flicked the nose of Keagre.

"But wishing to be anyone but yourself is a recipe for hell. Ya have no idea if you'd even recognize who you are or like yourself if qualities of others got in your head, fucked it up, and morphed the essence of who you are. All ya can really do is study the traits of others you admire, break em' down, eat it and let it turn you into whatever version of yourself will be best."

No sense of ill-intent there. Rita was just straight speaking from the cuff with that little bit of cheeky dialogue. Life was hell when you were already a player fighting against the whole world; no sense in making the battle within yourself as hard as the external one. And she'd rather be able to steer someone away from that if she could help it at least.

"So yeah, ya doin' damn good to get my attention. But I can tell you like that, right?"

"Oh, you can certainly overdose on my attention~"

Rita definitely agreed as some parts of herself did indeed feel she was perhaps a hard person to get along with. But, eh, that's not a reason to not still try, right? Better to have tried and lost than to have never tried at all.

Regardless of that tidbit, her teal eyes focused in once more on Kegare as she seemed at a lost in regards to her actions. Why skip out on the meeting? Why miss a chance to network? Why focus on some lonely person like herself? All valid sentiments and she took a moment to close her eyes so that she could gnaw on that thought to respect the woman and give her a proper, honest answer.

Once she had her answer, those eyes of hers opened once more with another tinge of life behind them and she just pressed forward.

"I made enough money, enough connections, and resources today. Why should I stick around further and burn myself out? There is only one of me and if I don't take care of myself nobody else is going to do that."

Blunt, confident, and to the point; Rita wasn't really afraid to express her feelings, so she marched ahead.

"You seem to have a lower sense of energy than myself, so perhaps sticking around with you can bring some kind of balance in my life maybe. So I poke people's brains, get a feel for their energy, and hope something interesting comes from it as life is just a pool of risk. You are always leaving money on the table, so no sense to torture yourself over it if you can find something that makes you more money by being happier and in a good frame of mind to fuck the world's shit."

Now with a content smile on herself, the woman nodded her head to affirm herself of her own words before posing a question back in return.

"Nobody wants to be alone, doesn't that make sense to you?"

At this point, Rita was chilling out a bit. The woman took a few more shots of her drink so that she could relax a bit more. Once you felt the burning flow of liquor entering your chest, that sense of relief was a sensation of bliss as a soft exhale of breath left Rita's lips. Still, it wasn't enough to distract her from what was said and it gave her time to ponder on the little scenario Kegare at posed out before her. Then, on a dime, she replied.

"Don't mean dick to me. You are always in competition with the world, so if they have to use piss-poor tactics like that to try and bring me down, it must mean I'm doing a good job at kicking their ass."

She didn't seem to miss a beat before taking another swig of her drink. With a wriggle of her nose, she carried on:

"How can I be pissed off if they give me something nice to look at on my downtime?"

After letting out a lighthearted chuckle, the woman cracked her neck and closed her eyes to think for a moment. Once a few seconds had passed, she blurted out more of her sentiments.

"'Having resources, money, power; it's important, but there is little point to it if I can't enjoy the fruits of my labor even if it is risky."

Now leaning forward, there was a sharper look in her eye as she spoke before Rita moved each of her hands under her chin and her eyebrow rose.

"Hell, from the minute you are born, we inherit risk. The act of life itself is a slow march toward the risky pit of death. Do you really think we are gonna make it to the end without having encountered hellish risks along the way?"

Although the subject manner was grim, Rita still found a way to crack a smirk as she said her closing words on that matter:

"Regardless of your answer, I'd rather live a life of active risk, than to live a life of inactive boredom as death creeps on me."