her mom died when she was little and she never knew her dad and all the adults in her community sucked so she basically had to start fending for herself at a young age, with no one to rely on
she got really into learning about blastia (magic technology that runs on magic rocks) and basically spent her youth treating the magic rock machines like her friends and family
there's a novel that fleshes out her early years (though like all vesperia supplemental material, it's like... semi-canon? dubiously maybe canon or not? probably not? you, the viewer, decide!)
in which rita gets some guidance from adults in aspio, but surprise! they're all shitty and she ends up getting betrayed by a mentor figure she trusted
the novel also gives a tragic backstory to her silly habit of writing her full name on everything (canon is just like "here's another silly weird thing rita does lol")
so rita's canon experience is basically, a bunch of idiots break into her house, her interest gets piqued by some magic bullshit, and she joins them on their journey and accidentally discovers friendship along the way
but she also learns that her beloved magic rocks cause global warming and the world is going to die. which is a big deal to her, because those magic rocks are her family
so she has to throw away everything she's worked for her whole life, and build something new instead. and like, actually learn to live with other people.
rita's confidence levels are funny because she has a lot of faith in herself! she's confident in her knowledge and her skills. she's relied on herself her whole life and knows she can handle anything.
even with estelle, who is perfect and wonderful, who keeps saying she wants to keep being friends with rita, she's like "you'll forget all about me when you go back to the castle."
so she was about ready to explode and started gathering information on the jail and working on making explosives and ended up joining a group of like-minded idiots who wanted to break a girl out of jail
and then the jailbreak gang became a thing and started hanging out and acting extra friendly and she still... kept some distance but would still. show up to hang out. because this is a really easy way to get tasks done and get info and whatever!
i like looking back on it because on w6 in their cyoa, rita did get the opportunity to save herself and leave datz and jolyne to fend for themselves. there was a vent that only she could fit through. she could hit da bricks.
anyway, since chiemi hit the Betray button, rita stopped wearing her friendship bracelet and would instead keep it in her pocket for like, half of the game
she probably would have voted for reigen if not for the fact that they had a cute interaction the day before. where datz suggested that reigen do some spirit channeling and rita chimed in to encourage it just because she knows he's full of shit and she wants to bully
she didn't outright admit to voting for hands but she saw him doing his stepford smiling bullshit and goes off on him and says if he's mad or upset or whatever, he should just show it!!
and then he actually opened up to her a little and by the end of it he's inexplicably telling her that he believes in her and she's like ???? and their cr kind of started turboing
shortly after reigen's like, reaching out to her about how he put her in a difficult position with her teammate, with hans getting scaped, and rita's like no we're good and it's fine??? her relationship with adlet is going great actually??? (inexplicably so, but maybe it's just because he's an idiot?)
anyway then she realized she had adlet's power and he immediately pulls her aside and confesses that he's been lying about his power and it actually works on all fruit
she had a cute interaction with nimona that week since nimona was talking about using a wonderball to try being someone else for a bit, to cope with losing her shapeshifting, and the idea of turning into rita was floated and she's like lol why would you waste it like that
and then got confronted with nimona spelling out how she actually sees rita positively and that was just something rita has never been able to do. picture someone else seeing her that way. so even though she did feel it'd be weird to be copied, she ended up acknowledging that maybe it would be okay because
after she got un-ghosted she ended up keeping some of her cyoa injuries (burns, mostly) so i'm sorry everyone who tried to comfort her by touching her, she winced/shoved you away because she was in literal pain
will told her that he wished she'd be kinder to herself and she's like, what the fuck. and then had to actually consider that her misanthropy was actually based in a sort of self-loathing.
her relationship with temenos is kind of funny because like... early in the game he kinda reached out to her and they agreed to work together on solving things and it was kind of like
but then whenever she actually needed something he ended up being someone she'd actively call on because she was less worried about what he'd think of her
rita was like. on fire and burning to death. and ryuki attempted to throw his jacket on her and try to save her and called for hanako to help and hanako's just like
"you'll forget all about me when you go back to the castle."
had a cute interaction the day before. where datz suggested that reigen do some spirit channeling and rita chimed in to encourage it just because she knows he's full of shit and she wants to bully
mods: it gets unsealed
me:
me: ok so she has a bomb
something rita has never been able to do. picture someone else seeing her that way. so even though she did feel it'd be weird to be copied, she ended up acknowledging that maybe it would be okay because
act 1: you and everyone you love die horribly
confessed his love to her!
good