Scene #8220: White & Black 2023

Owner	Pose
Xion	'Zi-O,' the message began, sent via SMS to Sougo's phone. Specifically, to a groupchat that neither Woz nor Sougo started, in their phone. Added to a direct message, despite their friends and discovery settings. Techwitchery, certainly, but it's done. The groupchat is, inauspiciously, titled 'Coordinating Zi-O and Woz Losing To Me At The Underpass'. The text continues. 'You've been haunting Twin Peaks, but you won't find the Rider powers you're looking for there. So, why do you keep going back? You can tell me at the underpass.' At mid-afternoon (and thus perfect for filming) time, the Underpass area is scuffed and bearing a thin pool of water at the lowest trough. Fenced on one side and with a trickle of traffic travelling over it, the area is lonely, scattered with old detritus and partially smashed wooden crates dumped here. A set of lights hang over the area, but the closest have had shoes thrown over them, and their metal trunks bear carbon scoring from blasters. A well-trod spot for working out 'problems'. Xion, open-coated in her normal black on black, sits on the unbroken corner of a box, perched with her right leg and letting her left dangle swayingly down. Behind her, the tail of her coat rests over a shattered skeleton of rotting wood. Her eyes look at nothing, expression blank. She waits, because she called out both of them. Far away from that place.
Timespace Riders	Woz leaves the message on read. Sougo replies: 'Okay.' The two of them show up at the underpass, Woz dressed in his usual outfit, wearing his usual smug smile. Sougo wears a navy peacoat for the cold, and a loose-fitting yellow button-up, matched with rolled khaki jeans and colorful hi-tops. Sougo's expression is a small, hopeful smile. "Hi, Xion," he says. "I know you want to fight, and I'll make sure that you have one. But before we get tied up in it, I wanted to give you your answer." Woz rolls his eyes and heaves a sigh. "You, and Lilian, and Tamamo--you've all formed friendships with the people in that town. You've changed their lives for the better. Enough that they remember you, 25 years later. If you want to know why I've stayed, even after finding Drive's power, it's because I believe those bonds should count for something. I don't think it's right for someone to step on those feelings and memories, to throw danger and hurt and chaos into people's lives, just to 'come out on top.' That's why I want to help you get Agent Cooper back." Woz speaks up, next. "You have your answer," he says, nose turned up, keeping his distance from Xion while half-circling around her perch. "If you wish to test my Demon King's resolve, and my dedication to him... not only do I invite you to transform, I relish the opportunity to make you regret the title of that foolish message.~"
Xion	'Hi, Xion.' The Nobody looks up, chin first, then out of the corner of her eye, face in side profile as she sits. A breeze picks up, tumbling down in the sluice sides of the underpass and pouring through behind Zi-O. January chill, a tattered flyer for entertainment long past, and Tokiwa Sougo's words wash past Xion on her perch. The side of Xion's mouth turns, curling into a little smile, and she swings her dangling leg out a bit to scoot forward, eyes on the pair. "We tried our best. But not everyone made it. Do you really want to get involved? You can stop, and not have to accept the things that come next. Or, you could keep going. Is that what kingliness is?" "I once met a man who was born with a blade close at hand, but safely stowed for when he needed it. He was a family man, a carpenter, and a knight. He had the bearing of a man that implied a crown even though he would never put one on his head. He was incredible." "In a different time and place, he would be a 'king', too. Instead, he fought monsters in the dark, because the time had passed for kings." Leaning forward, a wristlet of black dangles a simple key of dark iron, with a ring-ended handle that the keychain loops around, drops past her lap and knee, and thunks against the wood of her perch. Flicking up the chain-held item into her palm, she closes her hand around Lilian's copy and bows her head. Behind her back, revealed with her slouch is a flutter of white and odd blacks. Colors that seem wrong in some axial way. "I'm not here to test your resolve, Zi-O. And I'm not here to test your dedication, Woz. I have to do something else." Sliding off of the box and dropping to booted feet, that odd smile keeps on her face. "And, honestly, giving a king anything for free seems backwards, doesn't it?" In Xion's hand, a black and yellow swing-open phone appears when drawn from behind her back, presented with a flick. Behind her, a photonegative copy of herself - white of hair, photo-black skin, and white of clothing, bearing a second phone - steps out besides her, lining up. The alternate Xion does her movements in an eerie silence, an unpresent echo - but enough to hold out a phone and dial. Xion dials 9-1-3 into her swing phone, each with a 'blonk' entry. STANDING BY. Closing the top and springing forward into camera cut the Kaixa transformation takes her with a COMPLETE. The copy dials 5-5-5 into her flip phone, and presents the phone up high. This, too, has a report, but far smoother. Standin' By declares the phone. A voice, male, on the younger side, and as determined as a cornered wolf, calls out: 'Henshin!' to an arm-down over waist and folding-down of an implied belt and a Com-plete!. In a shocking twist, Xion-Kaixa goes right for Woz, armored in black and flaring yellow of her fast transformation as she lays into him with a series of punches and a spinning kick, pointedly spending some frames adjusting her suit's collar. Kamen Rider Faiz stands, squaring down Tokiwa Sougo... and waits. Pantomiming adjusting a glove, Faiz waves off the last bit of adjustment and takes a combat stance across the untransformed Sougo. Xion doesn't care and kind of just wants to punch Woz, but the King's vizier is a slippery one.
Timespace Riders	What is 'kingliness?' This draws a thoughtful frown from Sougo, eyes cast down in reflection. It's her next assertion--that kings shouldn't get anything for free--which finally prompts his answer. "I don't want to be the kind of person that backs out when things are difficult. Who only puts in effort when he's sure he can win, and only shows up with his hand outstretched. That kind of person makes a terrible king," says Sougo, reaching for his bulky Timespace Driver. Woz has his turn to be thoughtful, for just a moment, pondering Sougo's answer before reaching for his own silver-and-green Driver. "Henshin!" "Henshin." RIDER TIME! After a spin of his Driver, large pink gears envelop Sougo completely before fading to reveal-- o/` Ka-meeen Rider! o/` ZI-O. . . Amazing! Time! Future! Meanwhile, a laser printer spools up behind Woz, flash-printing gleaming armor over his smug smile as a jaunty electronic jingle plays. KAMEN RIDER WOZ? WOZ?! Woz checks Xion's fists with open-palmed deflections, his posture and body language defiantly, almost theatrically relaxed despite his footwork vying for better position. Her kick sees a snappy wrist-block thrown up just a hair too late, blunting the momentum of her attack but still corralling him with the excess force. He counterattacks with two consecutive knees aimed at her center of mass to buy himself some space, striding forward with that same theatrical flair to shift the exchange from defensive to offensive. Two punches, one-two, aimed at her solar plexus, followed by a sudden leg sweep. Zi-O lifts his index finger, giving his own signature gesture back to Faiz. "I've got a good feeling about this," he exclaims, before charging in to open up with a right cross, left hook, right uppercut string.
Xion	XION & WOZ: Kaixa has always been the heavier of the three Smart Brain systems, raw power and directed force. While the copy isn't backed by the technology of the original, Xion herself makes up that gap, and the summoned armor is a layer over that. Specifically, a heavy layer of black thick with power so she can swing them at dumb, smug boys. Praxis, in a phone. Chin raising with X-mased face reflecting the last flickers of transformative hardlight, Xion swings fist into blocking palm and follows through with a planting of her foot, pushing through the soft style of Woz's bullshit and adjusting midmotion to an elbow the agile futurist ducks. His counterattack, rising double knee, bounces the heavier Kaixa armor up with chest impacts and dull thuds. Two steps back and Woz follows with two of his own, and two swung fists, both connecting. Again, dull whuds, and empty effects. Kaixa plants her feet and dives her whole front forward into a counter-headbutt, completing the aggressive ground-launch by rolling into a bicycle kick and a drawing of the X-themed rider weapon to fire a close range pair of shots into Woz's chest. "You haven't even earned the title of jester yet, Woz. Will you? Ever? What's kingliness for you? Is it everything Zi-O is?!" FAIZ & ZI-O The red eyed slotted-circle of Faiz glow, the lines bright with power. Stepping forward, shoulders high and swaying, Faiz approaches the Demon King. "Having faced sorrow," Mari Sonoda. "-will you be kind?" Keitaro Kikuchi. "Will battle, constant battle, fill what's in you that's empty?" Takumi Inui. "Will you bear those sins?" Kaido Naoya. "As King?" Kiba Yuuji. "Will you remember?" Itsuro Takuma. Faiz does not wait long at all for Zi-O to decide to attack, charging down the transforming watch-Rider while drawing flip-phone and arranging it into Phone Blaster (in bink-bink-bink Burst Mode! reported) configuration to shoot Highly Pyrotechnic beams at-and-around Zi-O. Continuing to fire beamy blaster in melee as the twelve shot energy charge is expended at opportune close moments, Faiz pivots their whole momentum into a side kick that continues into a stepping-down advance!
Timespace Riders	"I am his chronicler, his retainer, his confidant." Woz's smug, imperious stance is unbowed by Kaixa's headbutt, the rider gracefully stepping back and twirling aside, to keep his eyes upon her. "You say you will not test my devotion, yet you impudently do exactly that with the notion that I must 'earn' my place beside him." When the Blaygun is raised against him, he makes a shout of effort, lifting his armored forearm and rolling to blunt the impact of the blows. "As if my actions have not already done so in abundance." They haven't--his displays of obeisance notwithstanding, their budding affection for one another aside, Woz still feels as though he knows better than his king. His actions still betray the thought that the act of becoming king is more important than the kind of king one becomes. "Majesty may only be defined by the king himself," Woz says, eluding her question as stubbornly as he'd dulled the force of her blaster. He procures one of his own Ridewatches, slots it into the Beyondriver. The gold, circuit-inlaid breastplate of the Kikai armor snaps into place overtop his suit, as jets of industrial steam vent from the ports on the faceplate and shoulders. Matching strength with strength, Woz rises to his feet as four thin, powerful golden articulator arms sprout from his back. Each of them piston-pummels Kaixa in rapid fashion as he slowly strides towards her, arms out, palms up, exulting in his strength. "I'll choose to be kind, no matter how much fighting and deception that takes!" Zi-O grapples with Faiz, taking spark-flying trades with the blaster in order to throw the other rider bodily, through the decaying box Xion had been sitting on earlier. "I'll bear those sins, as king, and remember what it cost me, always!" The pink-and-silver rider holds in his hand the story of a doctor, who lost something precious in the pursuit of something great. He mashes the stop, slots it in, heralded by a belt-callout of ARMOR TIME! "It isn't battle that fills the emptiness inside me... it's people! I'll fight, yes! To be king, to make a kingdom where people can make bonds with each other, love and be happy! A kinder, warmer world, where happiness is easier to find and harder to take away!" Level UP! Brave! A knightly suit of armor appears in Zi-O's path, crossed swords of fire and ice held up to block the rest of Faiz's shots. Zi-O charges forward, the armor breaking apart and flying into place overtop his own, a knightly helmet plume split into two and forming the hands of a clock. Wrist-mounted swords at the ready, Zi-O makes an aggressive chasedown, mixing in snap kicks, knees and elbows with burning, freezing flurries of swipes and thrusts.
Xion	KAIXA & WOZ: "You don't have to earn your place. He's not a king, yet. He could be. Right now -- He's just Kamen Rider." Being deflected so expertly doesn't win Woz any points with Xion, but it does lessen greatly how much of a beating he receives. Pushing aside the assault, Xion is forced to... Talk more. At least Woz gives her material. "Majesty is determined by people, and history. You're getting cause and effect mixed up . . . but that's usual, for someone who reads a book that tells you the answer." A curl of wit behind the X-covered mask. "Unfortunately - You don't get graded on how good you think you are. Unfortunately - you don't get graded on how good you are." Futuring Kikai's strength matches the heavier Kaixa armor, and Xion's best efforts to crack the vizier's defense are deflected and reversed with sparking spectacularness, pistoning blows hammering the armor down. First, front forward, then, back sailing-- FAIZ & ZI-O "Deception. . ." Is Faiz's first reply, without a distinct voice. A groan, a word that was ill-liked. "Is that what kind of Kamen Rider you are?" Takumi Inui. "Deception? What kind of King you'll be?" Pushed back by the expanding Armor Time, Faiz lifts a closed fist to block the expanding pieces of over-armor that forces him back. Even with his questions, Zi-O has power to resist an old kind of Rider System, borne by a copy of a copy. But it still has a few things to say -- after a beatdown. The BraveArmor'ed Zi-O smashes the copy Faiz, chasing and harassing the braced rider back, back, back across the underpass' gate. Past the discarded coat of the real Xion, and back near to the rear of the fighting area, where Woz and Kaixa-Xion are fighting. Back to back, Kaixa and Faiz don't trade a look... But in the movie cut, they do. Kaixa flicks open the phone at her waist. Faiz clicks closed the phone in their hand from blaster mode back to phone, and-- EXCEED CHARGE -- Exceed Charge! Kaixa and Faiz kick out waves of colored energy, and leap into diving kicks, surrounded by cones of light. Faiz, and not Kaixa, has the line: "Majesty that you define, and deceptions you accept? Is that the limit of you?! Kamen Rider Zi-O?!"
Timespace Riders	"The actions of the king set forth ripples which define eras. His decrees, policy, manner and bearing influence his subjects' perceptions of him. Thus is majesty truly his to determine, for better or worse." "Either one is correct, or one is wrong," Woz retorts with a flick of his wrist, as his mechanical articulators draw in to protect his center of mass from reprisal. "The power to be correct more often than not is indeed mine to exploit," he adds, with an infuriating, animated point towards Kaixa. When he realizes what both riders intend to do, the retainer's robotic arms shift and clank against the ground, while he maintains that insufferably smug posture. "And yours to bemoan." The arms rapidly scuttle across the dirty concrete, carrying him safely away from Kaixa's half of the back-to-back finisher by crawling up a dingy support beam and along the underside of the overpass, before dropping down with a grunt of effort. Zi-O makes roughly the same maneuver in sync with his retainer, turning and running up a weather-beaten concrete support before springing off in a nimble backflip. The ice sword is plunged into the underside of the road above, retracted into the bracer at his wrist once the finisher passes. "It's only the beginning," Zi-O calls back, full of determination as his boots hit the ground. He makes a tandem attack with Woz, the two of them advancing to force their opponents back-to-back again; Woz with corraling, probing strikes of his articulators, Zi-O with freezing and burning crescents. But it isn't just fighting with his weapons or his limbs. The plumes on the knight helmet wind backwards like someone rewinding the hands of a clock. "You spent so much of your life fighting for survival, that you had to learn how to be kind again, didn't you?" Holding up the ice-sword and retracting the flaming one, Zi-O keeps his guard up and takes opportunistic jabs with his free hand, mixing in knee strikes. "And even though it hurt to learn, you learned that being kind isn't the same as being 'nice!'" On the opposite side, Woz calls his spear, the curved tip reminiscent of a wrench. Hands spaced generously across the haft, he harasses Kaixa with both the weapon's oppressive reach, and punishing strikes from his articulators. "You learned that from watching Keitarou, and all the times he ever tricked you and the first Kaixa into thinking something was your idea, just to keep you from hurting yourselves and each other!" Zi-O and Woz fight in syncronicity, each one making a powerful blow--Woz with the butt of his spear, Zi-O with a jumping back kick--to force the other riders back into fighting back-to-back. "You learned it from Mari, who scolded you and Kaido into treating yourselves better. And you saw first hand what happens when someone can't practice the difficult part of being kind, watching Kiba slip away from you. Watching the world ask prices of him that he wasn't prepared to pay for his kindness! And when the last of it slipped through his fingers, he swore himself to an evil king out of hurt and loneliness! FAIZ! I know now what the price of kindness is--and I pay it gladly!" FINISH TIME! BEYOND THE TIME! QUESTING TIME BREAK! KIKAI EXPLOSION! Zi-O crosses both swords and forms the iconic X-slash, adding another two slashes to turn it into a full-on star of fire and ice. Woz's articulators, meanwhile, move with industrial fury to fling a deluge of golden, explosive wrenches, battering both riders until the slow-moving star of elemental force can crash into the both of them.
Xion	There's really only one way this goes - two finishers get deflected, and then their countering pair, surging with mainboy energy, connect with Kaixa and Faiz. Both disappear into the unfocused distance of the actual underpass, where the pavement gives way to gravel and rocks and a shallow lake near the bridge. Both sail over the gravel into the lake, sending up booming explosive plumes after their sparking and pummeled armors collapse into the water's surface. Over-air, clouds of detonating pyrotechnic energy pop before it gets a little dark just at how violent the closing wash is. The patter of water sounds loudly in the smoke and drifting mist, and the backblast ruffles an abandoned black coat on a mostly-broken box. Silence won't fall here for minutes more, with the fizz and settling of the water, but there's not an obvious continuance.
Timespace Riders	The would-be king and his retainer remove their respective Ridewatches. Woz turns his nose up and wanders off into the shadows, as is his way--but Sougo heads down to the lake. "Thank you for telling Woz what you did," says the aspiring king, unbuttoning his coat and taking a seat on the bank, knees drawn up, arms wrapped around them. "I know he can be difficult." An extreme understatement. "I worry about him, sometimes, and how much he values the 'correct answer.' I feel like... he's so concerned with 'the one true timeline' that he doesn't see what's right in front of him." Sougo sighs, and looks up at the sky. "It's only recently that I feel like he's looking at me, and not some other Sougo. So... again, thank you." Somewhere, Woz looks up from his book and frowns thoughtfully, a rare glimmer of introspection written in his eyes.
Xion	She's not in the water, but water can't hold Xion. She's a little too conveniently disappeared into it to really stay there. While Sougo talks to the lake, he can hear the sussuration of soft cloth at his rear. Behind him, Xion slides on her coat with her back to Sougo, with Woz 'gone' offscreen. "Honestly I don't like him. He's more concerned with being right than earnestly engaging with the situations in front of him. I think he'd be stronger if he'd just be honest, but I don't know if he can be. I don't know if it's in him, to be that kind of Kamen Rider. Can the Futuring Rider ever really live in the present, Zi-O?" She uses his 'Rider' name, again. As she usually does. "Can he love you now, and not the you that's in his head you'll be soon?" Stepping besides Sougo, sore and annoyed and banged up, Xion finishes pulling on her coat and gloves besides the Maybe-Demon Not Yet-King of Definitely Time. "You're welcome, I guess. That he's a little closer. He'll probably be insufferable for a while, but it's not easy fighting both of you." Xion complains, rubbing the back of her neck. Her free hand slides into her coat pocket, to draw out a Ridewatch - labeled 2003 - with a silver face and a black body with red symbols on the front. "I think you're supposed to have this one." She offers, with her hand holding the Faiz Ridewatch. "It was in my coat pocket when I got it back from the cleaners, and I didn't ask. It's one of yours, isn't it? So... I guess you're supposed to have it. I don't think They-" The Faizes. "-disliked your answer. Just that part... about deception." There's another item in her pocket, her right handed one. She draws it, hand sliding off her neck to pull it out. It isn't a normal Ridewatch, but a stranger Miride Watch, with some kind of interlock (or dual part), still clearly one of Woz's. This one, with a closed face, is clearly a tron-line yellow armored shoulders with an X'ed face - and the date 2021. "I think because I hated what he said, I'll keep my hands on this one, since I get a say too. And you can tell him that." Sliding the item back into her pocket, she starts to walk off. "The people of Twin Peaks are pretty busy, but there's always time to help out someone, still. There were a few Kamen Riders there. I'm proud to say I was their friend. Maybe your friend Woz can earn some of their power too."
Timespace Riders	Sougo knows Xion to be adept at simply Being where she wishes--so there's no surprise evident in his expression when she comes from behind. Only his usual, warm smile, as he looks over his shoulder. >Can the futuring rider ever really live in the present, Zi-O? Can he love you now, and not the you that's in his head? Sougo's eyes cast downwards, his arms pulling his legs closer to him. This is a question he's asked himself. "He can, I think," says Sougo after a weighty pause. He turns his head back around, staring out at the water. "He's... a bit like Kusaka. The kind of person that needs to think something is his idea, and needs to be shown, not told, that there are other ways to live." Sougo releases his hold on his legs, lets them slide forward, arms splayed out behind him to prop him up. "I fell in love with him because... mm. He came out of nowhere, and was the first person to really support me and believe in what I wanted to do. I'm smart enough to know that it's for the wrong reasons," he adds softly. "But I also know him well enough by now to know that... he only fixates on being 'right' because he's afraid of uncertainty. Of situations where he doesn't have all the answers." Sougo looks back over and smiles warmly. "If 'someone' could show him that surprises and uncertainty aren't always bad things--that everything doesn't fall apart just because things don't go according to plan, then he'd be less afraid of engaging with things honestly. I believe in him." 'Someone' is, of course, Sougo. >I think you're supposed to have this one. Sougo blinks curiously, having forgotten all about Xion's earlier remark. "Eh?" He extends his hand, taking the Faiz Ridewatch and peering thoughtfully down at it. >I don't think they disliked your answer. Just that part about deception. "Mm... I wouldn't expect them to. Deceit isn't pleasant to think about," he admits with a frown. "I can't be the same kind of rider as Faiz. But I think I can be one they'd be proud of, all the same. Delta--Keitarou--could be pretty deceitful, when he wanted to be. But he was more than just that, and he never used it to hurt anyone, only to prevent harm." >I think because I hated what he said, I'll keep my hands on this one, since I get a say too. And you can tell him that. Sougo laughs, standing up to watch Xion go. "I will," he says, with a small, amused little grin. "Even if he's only doing what he thinks is right, he tends to have that effect on people. Hold onto it--and when you feel like he's grown, you can give it to him then, if you want. I'll see you in Twin Peaks, Xion."