Scene #8553: The Ethics of Force

Owner	Pose
Go Shijima	1:14 PM we need to talk. like actually talk. meet me at the botanical garden. (v/ Seen) 1:15 PM you better not be transformed when you get here (v/ Seen) The Desert Botanical Garden is decently populated at this time of day. It's a showcase of the diverse flora that populates Arizona, artfully arranged and occasionally rotated out depending on the season. Go is waiting a little ways in, under an open-sky canopy which encloses a walkway flanked on either side by all manner of hardy cacti. Tall and thin, short, circular and broad, stubby and cylindrical. Planters with artfully arranged rocks make a statement which much of suburban America could direly do with hearing: beauty doesn't need gallons of sprinkled water and starved-out biomes. Go, in particular, stands in a plain white v-neck tee, hands in the pockets of jeans ripped at the knees. The shade of a spindly-branched tree offers some protection from the midday heat. The rest is afforded by his bottle of water, resting on the rust-red guardrail behind him.
Chase	Chase gets the message on his phone, and after staring at the text for several minutes, loudly snaps his flip phone shut. A talk? He supposes one is required, yes. Especially after all that's happened. Now, what kind of talk are they going to have? He's not sure. He doesn't have to either, as Go's the one initiating. That's how conversations work. Chase shows up, the same as ever, at the botanical garden, wearing his usual purple jacket and jeans. Unsurprisingly, he doesn't offer a greeting, instead opting to remain eerily silent as he just stares and waits.
Go Shijima	"Hey," says Go, dumbly. He isn't really sure how to respond to Chase's staring. The last time they tried something like this, it ended with him in tears and Chase reliving a traumatic experience on his way out the door. That, and their fair respective shares of bruises and cuts. He shifts awkwardly in place, then clears his throat. "Okay," he says, a magic word to clear the air and banish the awkwardness (it isn't and it doesn't). "So, we both want the same thing right now, don't we? To stop Banno. To get his grimy hands... out of Kiriko's brain. To put Roidmudes out of reach of the people like... the person I was. Like Tomari and Krim. Right?" He pauses, waiting for acknowledgment from Chase, with his charateristic stern 'actually serious' frown that rarely appears when his guard is up. There are no flips here, no posturing, no putting himself 'above' the situation with an affectation of being carefree. "We've been working together in this time for a little while. We've saved a few cores. More than a few. But..." He removes one hand from his pocket, reaches for his bottled water and fiddles with it uncomfortably, rolling it around in his hand as his brown eyes tilt down to the floor. "Banno made it so that they could only evolve by fixating on negative emotions. But... Heart doesn't need to do that, does he?" He forces himself to look, if a little self-consciously, at Chase. "...you don't seem to, either. Or if you do, you're the strongest unevolved one I've ever met." "How do we... work around that? How can we help Roidmudes evolve, and be safer, without them fixating on negative emotions?"
Chase	"Correct. However. Are you able to fight your father?" Chase's staring doesn't stop even as he asks the question. One that isn't really asked out of concern for Go, but concern for whether he's able to do what needs to be done. He doesn't really expect any human to have the drive needed to put an end to their own parent so easily, even if the parent is someone as far removed from being human as Banno. His staring stops immediately following the second question, however, as the grim reaper stares at the ground. Evolution. It's something that all Roidmudes strive for. Except himself. He's never had the destructive or eccentric urges that his brethren had, nor has he really thought about why that is. If anything, his true desire would be considered regressive by most of his kind, to the point where he's never talked about it. It's as Go has said, or rather, joked about. He's unevolved. The closest analogue he has to an evolved state is Mashin Chaser, a gift given to him by Heart, Brain, and Medic to do his duties... Is he defective? It feels as if there's something wrong with him the more he thinks about it. Heart said his number was special when he asked about it, but something isn't adding up. The more he tries to think about it and dig up memories, the louder the buzzing in his head grows, causing him to cup his head in pain until he ultimately gives up on it and gazes back up at Go. "I... do not know. "
Go Shijima	Go squeezes the bottle, without realizing, until the creak of plastic alerts him. "Yeah, I am. I've... been ready to, ever since Xion and Krim told me about who he really was. What he did. After meeting him... I'm sure of it. I'd do more than just 'fight' him. The world is better off without him." "Anyway... I--" he pauses, watching as Chase is clearly struggling through something. It's... the same way as he was the last time they 'spoke.' "Chase, are you okay?" he asks, frowning. "You look like something was hurting you, just now. Just like... the last time we met. Before the Temptations. When's the last time you had... I don't know, a checkup? Maybe Brain or Medic should take a look at you," he concludes, with a shrug, before taking a drink from his water bottle. "Anyway," he says, trying to play off his clear concern behind a veil of mission-focus, "I don't know, either. I have an idea, though. Neither of us is good with machines like Banno or Krim. But we could still... help the Roidmudes, even so. I asked Professor Harley to make a belt that doesn't destroy cores, so that we can reset them together, without me having to hold back." "We may not be able to undo what Banno did directly, but when we meet one that's fixated on something twisted... we can reset them, then keep them with us, in a Viral Core--and we can do what neither Banno or Krim ever thought to do: teach them."
Chase	A check-up with Brain and Medic? He's had several, but they don't work. All it does is frustrate them, really. The more he questions who he is or deviates too much from his purpose, the more it hurts. It's just how it is. "I'm fine." It's not a lie; any signs of the pain he was experiencing before is completely gone as he's back to his annoyingly stoic self. He is however, intentionally brushing it under the proverbial rug. "I think that is a good plan for now. However, we should speak to Heart and Volt about this. If there is any Roidmude with an idea with how to tackle this problem, it'd be them." Truthfully, Volt's probably the more useful one here, given that he's the smartest of the Roidmude. That said, he can't completely rule out that Heart might have an idea either, not only because he trusts him, but because while he might be the most intelligent, he's definitely very wise when it comes to the emotional end of things... Probably out of necessity, given that he has to wrangle Brain and Medic.
Go Shijima	I'm fine. Go doesn't believe that. It's written plainly on his face, for Chase to see. But he's also said it more than enough. "Okay," he says, in response more to Chase's idea than to his assertion that he is Fine. "See if you can get a hold of him to meet with us. In the meantime, I think I have a line on some Viral Cores." says Go, taking another sip, "They managed to find me after I detransformed." "They were... curious, about why a Kamen Rider would save them. I told them what I wanted to do, and they said they had a line on a Viral Core or two. It'd mean stealing from a guy named Tornado. Do you know him?"