Wretched Atmosphere - Zayasu Ritsuko's Awakening

Another night wasted in more ways than one. The solemness of the air wasn't any different outside of the bar than it was inside. It hung thick and oppressive, as if one could breath in the cumulative sorrow of every tortured soul in Endymion. It was a choking sort of bitterness, an all-consuming depression that weighed heavily on the heart like a stone slab. These were the losers in life. The castaways, the outsiders, the forlorn and forgotten. Society's whipped children. Ritsuko was more familiar with that than anyone else. She couldn't forget it. It was her role, her existence, her fate to be an outcast ever since her life was stolen from her. Every night she would lick her wounds with alcohol to numb the ache, but it would never go away.

Last call came and went and came and went again until every dive in Little Tokyo had locked their doors for the night and Ritsuko was left with nowhere to belong. She didn't want to go to her hotel yet. She didn't want to fall asleep only to wake up and live all of this over again. But the broken soul would persevere, if for nothing but out of spite. Ritz knew just how losing tasted, and it tasted like gin and frustration and contempt. She was a loser, her entire life was gone. Her tortured past had destroyed her present and left her with no future. Ritz continued because she refused to let Life win.

The rain would've sent a chill down the loner's spine if she wasn't already three sheets to the wind. The myth that alcohol warmed you up was bullshit, but it made you stop caring about the cold. Ritsuko trudged along through back alleys in the freezing nightly drizzle, swaying slightly as she walked. The festival was tapering down with the rain and late night, but she chose to stay away from it anyway. All those happy people having a good time would make her want to cry or hit something. She felt utterly miserable from the events of the day, kicking herself from opening up and getting her heart broken. The rain made her feel just as terrible on the outside as she had inside. She wasn't dressed for it but there was nothing she could do about it. The delinquent shifted her guitar case from her back to her hand as she loped toward the metro, blank eyes toward the reflective wet concrete. It'd stop the water from collecting and sliding down her back, and it'd be good to have something in her hands to swing at someone regardless. Ritz was an easy target in the back alleys being a tiny drunken Japanese woman and she was wary of getting mugged. Or worse.

Ritsuko didn't have her headphones in for that reason. It'd be difficult to hear someone sneaking up on you or calling out if everything was drowned out with music. She was as alert and cautious as someone as trashed as her could manage, stumbling with purpose and giving off an unfriendly aura. Part of her wanted someone to try something to give her an emotional outlet for her slow-burning hatred and grief. Ritsuko stopped to light a cigarette in one of the washed out streets, hazy vision peering around herself to make certain she was alone as she futilely tried to make a flame in the drizzle. The wetness didn't make it easy for her, nor her poor dexterity at the moment. But she needed something to fill the void, to sate the emptiness, so she kept trying. Even false satisfaction was better than the ache of emptiness.

It was quiet. Dead quiet. Dread permeated the air as the only white noise to be heard was the soft pattering of the rain and Ritsuko's splashing footsteps. The shadows loomed menacingly over the street, darkening the very air and casting the musician into an unsettling black. It was as if someone ripped the stars from the sky, as if some terrible creature siphoned away the spirit of the world around her. Ritz quickened her pace from a forlorn trudge to a quick gait, gripping her guitar in its case by the neck. The haziness of her drunken state only served to make everything seem darker and more foreboding. Her heart began to flutter in her chest, dumping adrenaline into her veins. This was wrong. Her instincts commanded her to flee, but the farther she went the more frightened she became.

By the time she saw the ominous red glow Ritz was already jogging. The soft crimson aura would feel oppressive and threatening... but it wasn't as terrifying as the void of emptiness clawing at her heels. She reasoned that a glow like this had to be neon, an establishment. Light meant people and people meant safety. Usually. The demon you knew was better than the demon you didn't. But underneath the surface she was drawn by something primal, be it an innate fear of the unknown, the mysterious allure of light in the inky and pooling black, or something entirely different altogether. But her spirit sent her there in a straight line without hesitation or concern.

"..."

As she rounded the corner Ritsuko would be met with a disturbing sight. An egg. An egg with a brightly-colored shell. The loner froze, her thinned blood turning to liquid ice. Her heart stopped for what seemed like several minutes. It was... wrong. Such an innocent, innocuous, bright little thing... emanating a blood-red aura in the middle of a darkened alleyway at the mouth of Hell. The contrast terrified her, like seeing a painted doll in a haunted house. Ritz had no doubt that this was a similar situation. But... her legs compelled her slowly toward the impossible object.

"Play me a song, mama..."

The knuckles of the alcoholic turned ghostly white as she squeezed her guitar tighter. It was as if she awoke from her agonizing hell into a terrifying nightmare. Her skin crawled up and down her body as her breaths became shallow and panting. A lump lodged itself firmly in Ritsuko's throat as she attempted to understand this phenomenon. She didn't need to understand it to be afraid of it, however. The air turned... expectant. As if it were waiting for her to react.

Don't you want to play, Ris-chan?

The unpleasant ghost of a memory forced itself into her stunned mind, shocking her back into the moment. Aoide began to hum inside of her case, a long, drawn-out crackle of static feedback barely audible over the rain. To Ritz it may have been a siren.
"W... What...?" she managed to choke through her terror in a wavering voice.

A crying shriek crept into the woman's mind, bouncing around the walls in her skull as the light from the egg flickered brightly. It was like a terrible siren filled with despair and need, summoning her to aide the pathetic thing. Ritsuko winced hard and covered an ear with her free hand, but it did nothing to dull the overwhelming screaming. Her grip grew ever tighter on her weapon, throttling it so strongly she feared that her fingers would break. The loud wails of a forlorn child washed over her, smothering her in distress and heartbreak and pity. She felt tossed about in that sea of emotion, dragged around by her heart strings forming a noose around her throat.

"Sshut up! Sshut up, sshut up! Go away!" Ritz screamed in return, clutching her throbbing ears. The egg's cries railed against her like a maelstrom threatening to shatter her upon the rocks of her soul. Tears began to run down her face along with the rain at the pain her sweet child was enduring. Hesitantly she took a step forward to comfort him until her past caught up with her. Ritsuko froze in place as she was struck with sudden remembrance.

A sharp crack. A sickening sweet aroma. It was blood. She was covered in it. It drenched her clothes... It caked her hair... Her clothes. A hospital gown. That's what they made her wear, it made things easier. But now it was ruined. The garments stuck to her skin with an awful, sweet stench. The blood wasn't hers, not most of it. They were inside. They let her out so she could fight them like they taught her to do. She played. Everyone was screaming, make the screaming stop! Please! She saw them die. That crack... h-he... he was ripped in half... n-now there's blood all over... No! No, no STOP!!!

Ritsuko was no longer crying, her chest heaving not in sobs but hyperventilated gasps. Her eyes were blanked over, the light in them faded with a unique sort of horror. The loner held her guitar in her hands, Aoide humming louder with a soft electric squeal. She didn't even remember getting it out of its case, yet there it lay on the ground. Her thumb and forefinger were already poised to run down the strings but she remained still. Her face was completely pale in the flashing red glow, her skin cool to the touch like a corpse from a mix of rain and panic. Her brain ached, as if she'd torn it open. Ritz was tired, she wanted to turn everything off, to stop processing all this information. Her palm shot to her forehead, trying to gain a grip on herself and to stop the dizziness. She thought she'd collapse at any moment! But then a stronger thought prevailed over her anxiety and terror:

I'm in danger. Just like before. I need to defend myself.

With a moment to contemplate she was able to shove off the waves of outside emotion, Aiode's strings beginning to vibrate as she too pushed back against the harmful emotions. Hatred and fury began to collide with pity and despair.
"Y-you..." the delinquent stammered, gaining a small handle on her own emotional state, "You wanna fuckin' ssong, huh?! Try me." Ritz's fingers would glide down to her guitar strings, twitchy digits threatening to pluck chords as she slurred her warning. Hate would bring her through. Spite would save her. Everything and everyone wanted her to lose, even this... thing! But she wouldn't give them the satisfaction. If she was going down, it was swinging.

Hmm... Unrestrained fury can be such a powerful motivational tool. Love may make a life worthwhile... but hatred always ends many more. Nations crumble, hundreds of MILLIONS of people cry out in such delicious agony, hmm hmm! My sweet, enraged child... you are aware of what must be done...

Share your pain. Make it understand! DEMONSTRATE the raw agony in the sea of your soul, ah ha ha!

Ritsuko could hear the blood pounding in her ears as the creature broke free of its tiny prison. She was trembling with... what? Terror? Rage? Anticipation? Perhaps all three. The growl of her guitar had rescued her from her emotional torment as it always did. Aoide had seen her through, had given her the power to endure and resist through the bleakness of despair and hopelessness. Her notes had given her a gift: anger. Rage. Fury. The will to fight, the resolve to toss away the shackles that Life had thrown upon her. She was strong in this loathing, this contempt that shoved back when reality knocked her down. The music was her shield, the noise? Her sword! Ritz wouldn't be torn asunder by grief or pity! She would stand tall as the disappointment and resentment poured over her face like driving rain! She refused to bow to the world! It would dance to her tune!

The weight pressing into her mind turned to focus, her indignation bringing zen. This feeling, this maddening rage... so familiar. It was all flooding back to her. It was the feeling of contempt that had brought her strength five years ago. Like this demon before her, Ritsuko stared Death in the face and had dared it to take her. She had everything taken away already, there was nothing left... nothing left but now. It was all she had left. Yesterday was gone, tomorrow didn't exist. Ritz would not let today be stolen from her, too! She'd be damned if she let anyone or anything take that away from her! This power... this immeasurable, quiet energy... It pulsed with stubborn emotion. It shook with the force of an earthquake! It was knowledge... prescience... Ritz understood now. She always suspected, but now her heart was set. Gone were the days of past regrets, now was what she'd been waiting for! An opportunity, so divine! A chance to take her fate by the collar and scream in its face, to rock the foundations these monstrosities walked by and sang to!

She would instruct them in the ways of her pain. And it would destroy them.

"Heh... Ha ha... Ah ha ha ha! Aaaah ha ha ha haaaaaa!" the delinquent cackled with shuddering gasps. Her tense fingers drove themselves over the strings and her soul drew alight. She could feel the whispers of her kami flooding her ears, filling them with secrets and messages as she gleefully strummed with insane gusto. Desperate yowls and squeals permeated the air with her soft rage, clawing at the opposing demon, threatening to drag it to the beyond. An ominous wind engulfed the young woman as she melted away in a deep, pitch black ink. The air filled with her tortured emotions. Spite, fear, rage, a sick sense of satisfaction, an unsettling resolve pierced the silence in waves of agonizing music. And on the other side emerged the monster the world had turned her into. Her protection. Her mask.

Ritsuko continues to slide her calloused fingers over sinister strings, allowing the emotion to build up within herself. Her frustration at the world filled her spirit, the inky smoke rising off of her in ghastly streams as it overflowed into her body.

Combat Stats:

Combat Actions:

Feeling energized, high off the music, Ritsuko was in tune with her surroundings. She felt the attack coming in the Demon's mannerisms and gasping yowls. A quick sidestep brought her around the jet of flame that erupted from the creature, and she bore down on it like a rabid hound. With her guitar firmly planted over her shoulder, ready to swing, a grin developing under her mask, she blitzed the abomination with a swift downward strike.

Combat Info:

Even with her blurred vision Ritz was able to land a savage strike on the creature in the egg, sending it spiraling across the ground helplessly. Pressing her advantage, the antisocial musician didn't stop moving as she ran down her opponent giggling like a maniac. Taking a stutter step, Ritsuko swung her guitar like a golf club at the prone abomination.

Combat Info: