@ solace; character info
IC INFORMATION
NAME: Rikku
SERIES: Final Fantasy X/X-2
CANON POINT: Prior to any events occurring at Yadonoki Tower.
HISTORY:
For a seventeen year old girl Rikku’s had an odd assortment of occupations in her life: treasure hunter, thief, mechanic, guardian, and alchemist. In her later years, it’s been a very busy life-she’s been involved with saving the world not once, but twice. No matter what her job is, however, her most pervasive role seems to be that of the supportive friend.
Very little is known about Rikku’s informative years. We know her father was the leader of the Al Bhed and built home after some unnamed but terrible Yevon-lead force destroyed their previous home and left them wandering like nomads. As an Al Bhed herself, Rikku comes from a legacy of people maligned, hated, and even hunted for their persistence in using machina. We know also that sometime during her youth, her mother was killed by a rampaging machine, although the circumstances are again vague. And at some point after her mother’s death in her youth, Rikku’s brother attempted to save her from a fiend but his lightning spell misfired and hit Rikku. Rikku suffered severe astrophobia that would take years and a week-long stint in the Thunderplains to cure. A number of years are left entirely unaccounted for, and only the sort of nomadic, egalitarian lifestyle of the Al Bhed hinted at in the games can give guidance to the kind of lifes Rikku lead prior the events of FFX.
Although Rikku has a brief role in the very beginning of FFX-rescuing and employing a very lost and confused Tidus-she doesn’t really become important until later in the game. When Yuna’s summoning party reaches the moonflow Rikku and another Al Bhed attempt to kidnap her. As it turns out, though, Rikku and Yuna are cousins, and Rikku joins the group as Yuna’s Guardian on her Pilgrimage to Zanarkand. Her cheer and optimism in addition to her skills as a thief and mechanic and connections made her an invaluable member of the team. Of course, not everything was rainbows and kittens; Wakka’s prejudice resulted in a rather large tiff when he discovered she was an Al Bhed (and therefore heretic) and her own family disapproved of her methods and threatened her as a result. However, more pragmatic than her father or brother, Rikku understood that the goal was more important than the means by which a person achieved them.
After avoiding another kidnapping attempt, killing a Maester (whoops), and getting chased out of Macalania Temple only to wind up on Sin’s back (double whoops), the party ended up transported to the Sanubian Desert. Yuna was conspicuously missing, but Rikku believed she was taken to the Al Bhed safe-haven, Home, presumably to protect her from completing her Pilgrimage. Rikku swears everyone to secrecy about the location of their secret base, but her efforts are too little too late. Upon arriving, they discover the place burning, in shambles, and infested with fiends. In a state of emotional crisis, Rikku finally reveals what no one has bothered to tell Tidus yet. Yuna will inevitably die should she complete her Pilgrimage. Thus it is revealed that the Al Bheds, far from kidnapping, fiendish marauders, were attempting to protect the Summoners (albeit against their will).
Refusing to tacitly accept Yuna’s death at the end of her pilgrimage as an inevitable and acceptable lost, Rikku attempted to come up with some other plan to save Yuna with Tidus’s aid. However, the party arrives at Zanarkand without any real plan to prevent Yuna’s death, and Rikku becomes emotionally distraught. Thankfully, Yuna changed her mind and decided to search for another way to defeat Sin. Rikku and her family lent their full strength, resources, and good will again in the final push towards defeating Sin. Despite prophesies of doom and failure from a multitude of people, the group succeeded, although not without loss.
After the Eternal Calm set in, Rikku went her own way for a while. Little is known of the time she spent by herself. She chose to better herself by overcoming her astraphobia by spending a week on the Thunder Plains. She also had a huge falling-out with her father, Cid, leader of the Al Bhed, who turned the holy ruins of Zanarkand into a tourist attraction. Eventually she joined Brother’s band of sphere hunters, The Gullwings, cashing in on the newest craze to hit Spira-sphere hunting. It was through these efforts and Kimahri’s help that a sphere depicting a boy looking spookily like Tidus surfaced. Being a good friend and cousin (and perhaps a little nosy, too) Rikku decided to take the sphere to Yuna and encouraged her to leave her retired life in Besaid to search Tidus out with them.
Yuna joined too, and Rikku resumed her role as steadfast friend and emotional support for Yuna. Together with Paine and the rest of the Gullwings, they struggled to find clues leading to Tidus, unraveled the mystery behind Shuyin and Lenne, and put a stop to Vegnagun’s use to destroy Spira. Of course there were numerous hijinks and missions along the way, including excavating machina, an attempt to catch a chocobo for her friend Calli on the Mi’ihen Highroad, and a potential framing for malfunctioning machine (which, if the clues are arranged in a specific order, will point to her and result in her being assigned to clean-up to make up for it).
After the group’s disbandment, Rikku resumed scavenging for sunken machina and ancient ruins along the ocean floor. When the group met up again to explore Yadonoki Tower, it was revealed that Rikku felt left out and abandoned by the group’s dissolution. After an extensive heart-to-heart, the three girls decided to keep in touch despite the different directions life was taking them.
PERSONALITY:
Rikku knows that when people look at her, much of the time what they think is “simple, air-headed blonde.” When it suits her, Rikku can use this image and a charming, innocent smile for her purposes, but it's usually followed by a devastating sucker punch. While perhaps not the brightest person, and prone to her own moments of dim-wittedness, Rikku is far from dumb. She's good with her hands, with machines, and enjoys learning and is intensely (perhaps dangerously, for her health) curious.
She also seems constantly, excessively cheerful. While she is in fact a cheerful, optimistic person, Rikku often wears this attitude as a facade to disguise less pleasant emotions. Her motto is “when in doubt, fake it until you make it!” It takes a lot to make her express real sorrow or ire. Showing those emotions to another person would be a mark of a deep level of trust and intimacy in a relationship-or else extreme pressure pushing her to a breaking point. Even when she’s at her angriest, Rikku never curses-perhaps it’s a sign of her restraint or a mark of lingering childishness, but you’re unlikely to ever hear anything worse than “poopie,” “jerk-face,” or “son of a moogle” pass her lips.
Rikku is fairly forgiving and doesn't hold grudges (often)--negative emotions blow through quickly and usually without lasting effect. However, she can be childish and doesn’t tolerate loneliness or being ignored well. She isn't above causing a fuss, shedding some crocodile tears, pouting, or calling people childish names. In fact, despite her age, Rikku still sports a lot of childish habits-giving people strange nicknames, pouting, teasing, making up her own words, using childish language instead of outright cursing... the list could go on.
Rikku is loyal to the people she cares about, particularly Yuna, and would do just about anything to protect a family member or friend. If someone challenges her beliefs, Rikku is quick to stick up for herself. Although Rikku doesn't necessarily like confrontation (well, at least, she doesn't necessarily like to hurt people) and doesn't go around picking fights (she swears!), she is cheeky, rebellious, feisty, and has a habit of speaking before she thinks about what she’s saying. Being in trouble is something of a natural state for her despite generally good intentions.
When Rikku actually does get serious, she's a force to be reckoned with. Headstrong and willful, she's hard to dissuade and clever enough to wiggle her way about. It's probably a good thing that she's not too serious about much. Rikku enjoys being intentionally silly: she likes to laugh, and she doesn't mind being the butt of someone else's joke (too much) if she can laugh at it too. Having a good time--living life to the fullest and as exciting as possible--are important to her. She enjoys music, dancing, and singing, even if she's not particularly good at any of them but her most frequent hobbies tend to be stealing, adventuring, blowing things up, and getting into squabbles. Oh, and there was that saving the world thing.
WEAPONS/ABILITIES/ETC: Rikku has in the past fought with a claw-like weapon attacked to gloves on her arms, though as of FFX-2 she favors a pair of curving knives. However, her dresspheres allow her to change “classes,” allowing her abilities to vary and specialize. She has alchemic and mechanical experience from her upbringing. Rikku’s a competent thief and treasure hunter to boot. While I do believe her strength and speed may be atypical compared to the average human being, she’s far from super-human. I do not know whether or not it would come up in gameplay or not, but Rikku is versed not only in the common language of Spira, but Al Bhed “speech” is really just a substitution cipher of English. I know that all characters come in speaking only English, so I doubt it would be an issue there, but I don’t know if it could possibly used for the journaling. (Even if it is allowed, I intend to avoid it as much as possible; I think it’s more of an annoyance to other players than anything else.)