Atariya

An Atariya is someone with a supernatural lucky streak, blessed by fate in some way.

Overview

While this phenomenon is not limited to Japan, where the word originates, it seems to be more concentrated there, though anywhere humans have built shines or altars to ideas like “general” good luck may produce its share of Atariya.

In short, an Atariya is one lucky rabbit. Most of them live their entire lives never realizing just how lucky they are, as most people go through life without ever facing real threats of violence. (And those who do seldom fall in for the idea of luck to begin with.)

To begin with, all Atariya start the same way. She tosses a coin in a fountain, he pays a priest for a tiny blessing, or she washes her hands just right before entering a shrine. Or maybe he had red hair while walking past just the right ancient shrine. The right shoes, the right time, the right place, and that’s all it took to get the blessing that changed everything. Plenty of Atariya couldn’t tell you when luck turned that way, or why, even if they do know they’re luckier than the average person.

It’s not in their heads. It’s not just random luck. In fact, each Atariya is literally blessed by fate: Luck as a concept, or a spiritual resonance, or a minor god, depending on whom and when you ask about it. It may never show up as anything but weird coincidence, or it may manifest as an obvious otherworldly entity looking after and even communicating with the Atariya. This is more likely to happen in places where old traditions are still upheld even if only out of habit and superstition. Occultists and scholars aware of this phenomenon debate as to whether or not the lucky “spirits” that assist the Atariya are really gods, or just manifestations of the Atariya’s internal psychic potential.

At its most basic expression, the Atariya’s luck is a weird series of circumstances that result in her not getting hurt, and something else or someone else getting the hurt instead. Luck, good or bad, will find an out. Luck, like energy, can’t be created or destroyed, only transferred. It’s just that she’s a strong vector for it, and it flows toward and away from her at a much faster rate than normal people. Her life, as result, runs like a roller coaster, with highs higher and lows lower. Eventually, an Atariya stops distinguishing between good and bad luck, and learns to ride the wave. Or, tries to keep mundane, as far away from luck and fortune as possible, to try to maintain some semblance of normalcy. This effort rarely lasts for long. Most normal people — boring, dull people — are boring and dull because that’s just how they are. Every once and a while, though, the most tragically mundane are living this way on purpose, to keep the flow of luck from sweeping over them and carrying them off who knows where.

It’s not the downswing of bad luck that is the ruination of many Atariya. Rather, it’s the good luck that screws them in the end. For someone who can step out in front of a bus without dying — maybe it was an accident the first time, but when it turns out to be a really profitable accident, why not try it again on purpose? If you can fall out of a building, hit every awning on the way down, and thus only get slight abrasions, there’s really no reason to be careful on rooftops anymore, is there? Luck carries the Atariya, and so many of them either grow lazy about basic safety and survival, or else they actively flaunt safety and security leaning heavily on their good luck to carry them through.

Of course, because they are blessed, their luck rarely fails them. Thinking you won’t die because luck is on your side does a real number on your survival instincts. Worse still, once an Atariya has had a taste for the brushes with death, the exhilaration of beating the odds, it’s very hard to go back to normal life. Winning a small payout with a scratch-off lottery ticket turns into going all-in with a $10,000 pot at a poker tournament she wandered into by chance pretty fast. And because the odds just favor her, she’s got no good real- world consequences to discourage her behavior.

Which is where the real problem comes in for the Atariya who chase the edge of fortune. People love a winner. People suspect, grow jealous of, and eventually hate, a winner who never loses. Many thrill-seeking Atariya end up alone, chasing the edge alone because anyone who might have been along for the ride has died already or can’t keep up. All of their winnings mean nothing in the end, because they’re too devoted to the thrill to keep track of silly things like bank accounts and taxes. Easy come, easy go. Friends, family, money — an Atariya can always find more, so long as her luck holds out. And why wouldn’t it? It’s never failed her yet.

Known Atariya

• Rio Matsumura

References

• CofD: Chronicles of Darkness: Hurt Locker, p. 78-81