Teal Figure [Rita/Kegare]

It was a cold night in the capital of Denmark. And at the top of a tall, lush white luxury hotel building did the likes of Rita Grace stay on this fine evening. With the cold breeze in the air, the cooler seasons were coming, and it was better to spend the night cuddled up by the fire. Despite that, there were other things on her mind.

Being one of the few beings to notice the shift in their reality, Rita Grace knew that this world had been altered when the change happened. It was a surreal event for her to come to grasp with, yet she felt herself falling deeper into this new reality. The old world's ways felt distant to her as she lay atop a warm black robe that overlooked the dazzling city lights of Copenhagen, Denmark. On this cold evening, she let the heater slither in such comforting warmth into her room as she drank a rum and coke mix.

Looking at her computer, she saw how many assets she had left. Everything down to her stocks, businesses, land, and real estate. She did quite well for herself in this reality and could recall all of the gruesome work it took to otherwise achieve this wealth after the depths of the prior world left so much opportunity for her to grasp as the world changed. Still, a lot of it felt -- empty. It was a hard feeling to describe, but her mind felt a burning static in it as she could sense a deep nothingness in her gut as she took another swig of her drink, trying to discern the feeling.

Had everything until now been worth it? Was this change in the world what she needed to better use her powers? It was hard to say, and the murmurs of Kenichi's own upbeat heroic attitude did drift in her head. With all the resources, wealth, equipment, and other goodies at her disposal, was she really even active in her pursuit of bettering the lives of others? She is pretty sure if that male had the opportunities she had, perhaps he'd be doing more to stomp out the seeds of woe in her heart.

So, as the teal eyes of Rita looked down at the dusting of snow outside the busy city streets, she took another chug of her drink to further numb and dull her mind. When that happened, a buzzing sound went off from her phone as the woman glanced at another mindless notification of one of her stocks going down in price. A mere 2% drop, but she honestly couldn't less at the moment. After texting different contacts she met through networking events to reach out and find new contracting gigs for her men, she eventually scrolled through the name "Kegare" and paused for a moment.

It had been many moons since the two had seen each other, so perhaps another visit from her could dull the boredom she was under. In her tipsy state of mind, the concept of hesitation wasn't really in her mind's vocabulary, and she just blurted away.

"...hey, haven't seen you in a bit. Do you want to come over for drinks sometime tonight or this week? I can have someone pick you up, or you can find me yourself. I just wanna chat, miss ya."

Bleh, texting someone this late at night? What the hell was she even expecting?

The text she got was surprising, but Rita did feel somewhat excited. So, after nodding her head, the woman started to get up from her lounging chair to change clothes. Since the village wasn't far from where Rita was, and there had been reports of hollow problems in that location, there wasn't much need to dress super fancy. So all she adorned herself in was a blackened tank top with golden centipedes on it, jean shorts, and a pair of white tennis shoes. Basic as hell, but she had no desire to ruin expensive clothes if things got ugly.

"Be there in a flash! :)"

And with that text sent, she flicked her teal hair, stepped out of the balcony, and jumped without overthinking. As with her speed and durability, a fall from this height didn't concern her as she took off like a bat out of hell. Given that it was a few miles away from her vicinity, the sprint gave her a nice little warm-up as she chugged the last of her rum and coke, throwing it away in the distance as it shattered in the breeze.

Loose, fired up, and at ease in her intoxicated stupor, the woman saw the piles of bodies off the cliff, a bloodied Kegare and a smirk on the woman's face. Then, blinking for a bit, a grin of her own came across her face.

"Bloody hell. Here I thought you were in trouble or something, but it looks like you took care of business."

Of course, Rita was surprised, but in her drunken state, she knew Kegare wasn't a villain. Well, her intuition felt that anyway. But, of course, you can never be sure, but she made herself at home and sat next to battle hardened woman after waving her hand at Kegare.

"Mind telling me what the hell happened to you? Besides the blood on your face, you look far more vibrant than when we last met. Something is different, and I like it!"

"I've seen a few alerts here and there on my own devices lately about it. From the looks of things, it seems like you have it under control, however."

After popping a stick of gum in her mouth, Rita blew a bubble and continued to listen to Kegare as she started to explain her natural habitat. The business stuff wasn't her jam, and it felt constraining more than it was liberating to her. So, to listen to her inner voice, she cut those ties, and it was an interesting thought for Rita to process as she seemed intrigued as her eyebrow rose in response to this information.

"I respect that. Sometimes you have to have the balls to be able to make bold changes if it'll make you happy."

With a thumbs up, Rita gave her approval as she then lowered her hand and looked at her attire. After giving a nonchalant shrug, she chuckled and spoke:

"No sense in wearing a suit to a fight. I figured with how bad the hollow infestation was here, better to dress light and not get my good stuff ruined, right?"

Rita then leaned back for a moment and looked at the night sky before another thought came to mind.

"Before this, I was just tired from the day and having a drink in my robe. I ain't the type to prance around naked, so here we find ourselves."

Now looking back at Kegare, she continued:

"So if you've left the business crap behind, what have you been up to since? Color me curious."

Huh, so she planned to keep living like this? Well, maybe it is better to have a more straightforward purpose. It keeps stress from building up and makes it easier to focus on the present when your plans aren't heavily rooted in the future. With a nod of her head, Rita gestured she approved of it and took a piece of her fruit, savoring the sweet aroma against her tongue as she swallowed it down and pondered on what to even speak of when it came to her own life.

"I've been busy myself. Trying to maintain my land, employees, services, and travel a bit to meet some interesting people here and there."

With a quick reach, she'd pull in her pocket, open up a small glass and chug down another bit of raw rum, contrasting the sweetening taste of the fruit previously eating and replacing her chest with a burning feeling of relief before she spoke out.

"But, to be truthful, I'm just questioning where I want things in the present and future. I don't mind doing this business thing to support my lifestyle, as you have to do something in this life to make money. Though, I ain't sure how far I wanna push it."

After putting the bottle away, a better word came to mind.

"Or hell, maybe everything feels empty, yanno?"

As far as Rita's lifestyle was concerned, it didn't need AS MUCH money as she was making at the moment. She was making enough to feed herself, own different properties, employ other people and still take home a profit after all the taxes, fees, and payments sent to everyone who worked under her. While there was a desire to keep things passively active, perhaps it would be wise to better balance herself and figure out more of what was going on with her soul. It wasn't as if her nest egg would dissolve in the night; she still had time to discern her path.

"You aren't wrong. When I think about it, there is a lot of shit I just frivolously buy because, well, it's there. I wouldn't say it makes me happy as I think I get more satisfaction when my money helps my workers, or I see a direct influence in being charitable. There is only so much crap you can buy for yourself before you get bored of it."

Snorting a bit, Rita wasn't one to mince how she felt, even in a time of uncertainty such as this. After saying what she needed, Rita opted to listen to Kegare. Was she trying to make herself feel important through her business ventures? Hard to say. Rita wanted to feel valued, but once you achieve it, it becomes mundane, and something more potent needs to feed the hunger of the soul, perhaps.

"Maybe it's fine to fuck off for a bit then. Kind of wanna be more charitable with my time/energy, so I might figure out humane shit I can do even on the microphonic level."

Tapping her chin, the woman pondered to herself about something as she shifted her teal eye back to Kegare.

Hmmmmmm. Yeah, that was a pain in the ass.

Whenever that butterfly feeling in her gut started to flutter, Rita assumed something was afoot inside herself. And when she had a second to reflect on it, she wasn't the type to bullshit herself and could feel a crush developing. It wasn't anything super deep at the moment, but the seeds of a crush were growing in her. Of course, that fact would be kept to herself for the time being as it would be weird to bring that up randomly. But, she did find it exciting to be around Kegare since she helped her get out of herself. So it was natural for Rita to feel attraction, so she just rolled with it after blushing faintly for a few moments before shaking her head and making it go away.

"Well, uh, I think hanging with you made me realize I also need to poke my head and enjoy the fruits of my labor more. I find it exciting to be with people, and even just hanging out right now after working so much is a nice escape. So thanks for meeting with me."

There was a pause before Rita blurted out:

"And what made you respond to my text? Color me curious."

When done speaking, Rita began Resisting an urge to blush again. Instead, her body controlled itself as she bobbed her head from side to side, moving her feet freely against the cliff's edge to feel the breeze on her skin to distract herself.