Scene #8571: Decade Will Destroy This World

Owner	Pose
Timespace Riders	Decade will destroy this world. He came, not in a dream or vision, but through a shimmering screen of ethereal silver light, like peering into the surface of a vast and all-encompassing sea of mercury. Narutaki, as he called himself, was apparelled in the garb of an unassuming human man, the picture of banality in khaki slacks, penny loafers, a white button-up, a beige trenchcoat and a matching bucket hat. Were it not for his ominous prophetic intoning, and his means of appearing before Mia, she might easily have taken him for exactly that--another face in the sea of humanity that seems to wash across the Multiverse. Decade will destroy this world. That was the warning he'd given. The screen of light behind him had shifted, to a thing for scrying; a foretelling of a future of ruin and devastation. A town which might once have been charming in its quaintness is instead a landscape of wreckage and fire. Husks of smashed and overturned cars line sidewalks interrupted by fallen chunks of storefronts and spiderwebbed cracks. Smoke rises up from these, and from smoldering ruins of median trees and cratered attractions, to a blood red sky. A single figure rises above it all, watching from on high, suspended in the air. Bathed in magenta light, his silhouette is obscured, like the nightmares Earth-bound humans have of malevolent visitors from other planes. Decade... will destroy this world! The light of a flickering neon sign, hanging from a bent post, once advertised the 'Double R Cafe.' The light shines upwards, into the red sky, catches the lenses of a helmet. Emerald green. The figure's helmet turns to look directly at the observer, and the vision fades. "I implore you--destroy Decade. Find him in Twin Peaks, in 2015, and destroy the demon!" Whatever kind of being he was, Narutaki left little room for explanation, having vanished into his wall of silver light. If Mia elected to follow, she'd find herself there. Otherwise--it's easy enough to find, through the Warpgate network the next nearest major point of interest, Seattle. Regardless, the first sight she'll see on the way in, standing vigil over a lonely backcountry road-- WELCOME to TWIN PEAKS Population 51,201 Flanked by proud, tall Douglas firs, the road leads straight through the heart of a very much still-intact alpine town, past a grand old hotel overlooking a magnificent misty waterfall, and into the last (or perhaps the only truly extant) slice of genuine small-town American warmth. Just a few minutes past the quaint gas station and auto repair 'Big Ed's Gas Farm' is the diner from the vision. Intact. Not burning. And presently host to one Sougo Tokiwa, and his retainer, Woz.
Dysnomia	Dysnomia didn't know who Decade was. She didn't know what Twin Peaks was. But she knew a prophecy when she saw it, and THIS was a doozy. She reached out, to protest, as Narutaki turned to depart, her hand reaching out to pull him back and DEMAND an explanation... ...But as she passed through, she found herself somewhere else entirely. Mia found herself standing in a field of flowers, strange songs sounding from the trees around her, the pull of gravity binding her feet to the ground. It wasn't hard to identify the small town that had caused so much distress for the elites of the multiverse. But nevertheless, Mia couldn't help but wonder if she'd really been sent to the right one. Her eyes ducked down, shyly, at the gentle, beatific atmsophere of this little Earth town. Her feet slipped forward, little crunches of grass under her feet as she walked through the town, feeling ever so out of place. An alien, staring on humanity without comprehension. It wasn't too far from the truth. The diner was exactly where it was supposed to be, but it took a solid twenty minutes of staring before Mia finally approached, standing awkwardly in the doorway for a moment, framed by gentle sunlight. The familiar faces of Sougo and Woz gave her something to focus on. To anchor herself. She approached them, her wandering steps changing fast to stomps, until she standing by their table, her hands planted on it. "Just what is this?!" She demanded, as though the pair had and were deliberately keeping all of the answers from her.
Timespace Riders	Sougo looks to his right, a crumb of cherry pie stuck to the corner of his mouth. "Oh, hi, Mia!" He doesn't seem to know what she means by 'what is this.' "It's Norma's cherry pie," he says. "Really, really good!" "I'm glad you like it," says a blonde woman working the counter. Norma, presumably. She wears a mint-colored diner uniform, with a light grey button-up sweater pulled over. Old enough to be Sougo's mom or his aunt, with shoulder length hair and brown eyes that speak volumes with every look she gives. She returns her attention to fussing with the register. Woz dabs daintily at his mouth with a napkin. "Twin Peaks, Washington," spoken as if that explains everything.
Dysnomia	She was utterly poleaxed, not by what they said but by their indifferent, cheerful demeanor. She made herself scowl, to feel something other than confusion. "I don't mean the PIE." Dysnomia breathed, leaning harder against the table. "Don't act smart." She gave Woz a glare. "I know what town this is, but I don't know why it's important!" "Why am I here, and who in the stars is Decade?!" Dysnomia demanded.
Timespace Riders	Woz smiles insufferably at Mia. Thankfully, Sougo is here to provide actually helpful information, once he realizes what she's asking about. "There are a lot of reasons why it's important," he says. "Historically and..." His fork pauses in his slice of pie, and he adopts a thoughtful expression, searching for a word. "I don't know. 'Spiritually?'" He rolls his shoulders in a shrug. "'Decade' is Kadoya Tsukasa. The 'passing-through Kamen Rider.' He works part-time here as a dishwasher, but he's not here today." He frowns. "Narutaki came to you, I'm guessing?"
Dysnomia	"A dishwasher." Mia said. Flatly. She snorted a little plume of plasma. "Nothing makes sense." She glared at the two of them, as though it were their fault. "You talk like he does this a lot. Delivering prophecies of doom about people who work in a diner." She frowned. "But yes. He did." "He's one of his enemies, I imagine?" Mia said, grimly. It wasn't difficult to imagine someone trying to use her to punish their foes. "And you're his friend, oh demon king?"
Timespace Riders	Sougo sighs. "I don't know what Narutaki's deal is. Just that he really hates Decade, and he's always trying to get people to kill him," he admits, cutting off another little piece of pie with his fork. Between bites, "I guess 'friend' isn't far off. Tsukasa's helped me out a few times. And... I have some sympathy for a guy that gets hounded relentlessly for something he -might- do."
Dysnomia	Dysnomia stared at Sougo for a moment. She huffed, pulling back and crossing her arms. "If he wants someone to fight his enemies, he can find them somewhere else." She decides. "I'm nobody's pawn." She held out her hand, and a chair pulled into it, in position for her to lower into a seat, making herself an uninvited guest at Sougo's table. "That doesn't tell me why you're here." She crossed her arms. "You're familiar. You know this place. You weren't pulled in by Narutaki to kill his nemesis. Did you cross the multiverse for cherry pie?"
Timespace Riders	"No," answers Sougo, with an impish little smile. "But I sure would, now that I've tried it." His fork clinks on his cleaned plate. "Regulus," he says, pointing upwards. "'The Star of Kings.' Do you know it?" he asks, his index slowly falling as he waits for an answer. "I've started to have dreams about it. It was shining brightly over Twin Peaks." He reaches into his pocket and procures one of those futuristic pocketwatches he's always using to transform. This one bears the red and white-striped visage of a Rider, whose lenses resemble the headlights of a car. An LCD chronometerat the bottom of the face reads AU25. "I have to gather these to become king," he says, showing the Ridewatch to her, "And there was someone here who... had one. There's at least one more that we're looking for."
Dysnomia	"Heard of it." She responded, leaning forward. "The brightest star in the sky, from Earth. You can see it even through all this light pollution that clouds your eyes, I think." "You think it's a portent?" She tapped a finger on the table. "...No. You KNOW it's a portent, don't you?" A knot curled up in her chest, tight, that she tried to bury. "Most kings prefer crowns, you know."
Timespace Riders	Sougo nods. "Mm," he agrees. "I do know, yeah. These are... the path to the crown," he says, turning the Ridewatch over to peer at it, before putting it back into his pocket. "And they're... kind of more important, in a way," he says. "If I try to rush it, if I try to grab the crown, then I won't be able or ready to hold it. You know?"
Dysnomia	"No, I don't." She said, matter-of-factly. "What does being 'ready' mean? Is it too much for you?" "How can these things..." She glanced at the ridewatch. "Make you more ready?"
Timespace Riders	"A Ridewatch is more than the crystallized power of the Rider displayed on its face," says Woz. "More than a tool or weapon. Rather, they are temporal footprints; the mark that Rider has left on the dimension of time. To use one is to take an aspect of that Rider into one's self. And like all Rider devices, they require a specific emotional state to activate." Sougo nods. "The Zi-O II Ridewatch I've been using lately--the one that's two halves put together. That one... wouldn't activate, until I accepted that good intentions don't..." He searches for a word. "They don't make me unable to do harm. That... the capacity for help and harm -both- exist, inside of me." "So," he says, "Actually bothering to gather these, and learn from... history, means that I'll have grown enough to be a good king. It's true, what you said, that 'most kings' would just go for the crown. Maybe even right away." He smiles, softly. "If I wanted to be 'most kings,' I wouldn't be in the Concord."
Dysnomia	"You think being able to emotionally resonate with all the Ridewatches will make you a better King." It was not a question. She leaned her elbows on the table, her eyes piercing. "Too often." Dysnomia said, slowly. "People think, 'I am sorry. I do not want to hurt anyone. I won't hurt anyone.' And they think that because they mean every word as best they think that they are telling the truth." "But there's another version of them too. A version who's staring down someone stronger. A version who's hurt makes them forget. People forget, when they make promises. That it's not THIS version of themselves that will be tested. It will be them at their lowest. At their darkest." She paused. A shadow passed over her face. "If you accept the calamity you are, maybe your words do mean a little more after all."
Timespace Riders	Sougo Tokiwa looks Mia in the eye, unwavering. The fear of that shadow--of the 'calamity'--is not long passed, but passed it has. "I do," he says, unflinchingly. "'Past and present. Darkness and light. I accept it all.'" Woz smiles, ever so slightly, as he finishes his own slice of pie. "Most people live their lives like they're just tossed about by the waves." He takes the straw in his glass of soda and twirls it, stirring the cola and setting ice cubes in motion. "They have oars that go untouched and rudders that go without adjustment. And whether they strike land, or capsize, or drown, or wash ashore, they mistake just... sitting there, for steering the boat." Sougo sighs. "Because they 'survived.' So it had to be their hard work, and not just dumb chance, right? Even when you have 'prophecy,' that can be a hard habit to break. But it's so important that you break it."
Dysnomia	She lets that sit in silence, for a while. Mia's expression did not change. "We'll see what becomes of you, Demon King of Time." She said, finally "At the very least, you know more about prophecy than most. " "Prophecy is like seeing, in a world where everyone else is blind. It helps you navigate. Gives you directions on where to 'row.' But if you don't, you'll never get there. You need to make the choice."
Timespace Riders	"...I wish I could take credit for that rowing thing, but it was someone else's observation. I just... kinda ran with it. Right now," says Sougo, "The prophecies I see happen in my dreams. Without me really... doing anything. It won't always be that way, but, for the moment, if I wanna to look, instead of just 'see,' then I have to ask Woz." Perhaps, then, that'd be the reason the retainer always carries that mysterious book. "Anyway... I might have come here for the visions, but I'm sticking around for the people." He smiles warmly, as he looks out the window. Twin Peaks seems... larger than it ought to be, somehow. Like it grew explosively at one point in the past, but most of the people from that period left. "I've never been to a town as welcoming as this one. Even so... walking through it, it's like there's a shadow hanging over it. An old wound, that never completely healed. I want to help with that, as much as I want to find the Ridewatch here."
Dysnomia	Dysnomia's eyes finally turn, first to the book, then up to Woz, considering. "Interesting," she said, then, to Woz; "You'll have to tell me all about that." "But that's not what I meant." She said, looking to Sougo. "You've seen a glimpse of a future, and you've chosen to chase it, and how." She followed the demon king's gaze out into the little town. It...Reassured her, somewhat, to hear that Twin Peaks had a dark side. It made it feel less inexplicable, to her. Easier to understand. "A shadow, you say." She drummed her fingers on the table. "You make it sound so enticing."
Timespace Riders	Woz smiles coyly at Dysnomia. She's seen that expression before--it comes to him as naturally as breathing. "What we commonly imagine, when we think of time," he says, "Is an illusion. Extant only because the mind retains memories of previous states of the world. It is impossible to ponder what transpires on Mars 'now,'" continues the retainer, with a gesture towards the diner's window, "Because 'now' there and 'now' here are mutually exclusive. However," he pauses, reaching back down and procuring the book. Woz sets it on the table. Its cover is blue, with a clasp that resembles the metal band of a wristwatch. The title eludes being read, and illustrations of those little futuristic watches dot the surface like whorls in a tree's rings. "Illusions need not be useless. A cave drawing may seem an illusion, to the unenlightened. But to a visionary, it may be a pictograph. Indeed, few would consider 'language' an illusion." Sougo smiles. "Twin Peaks is kind of... inviting," he says. "Even now, when a lot of people have left, it feels like the bonds between them have stayed strong. I think that's what that shadow is. That... a long time ago, someone very close to a lot of people here was taken from them."
Dysnomia	"Even minds are an illusion," the ghost of something like a smile played at the edge of her lips. "Synapses firing through brain matter, in a pattern that deludes itself into imagining a Self. But, an illusion has power. Maybe more power than 'reality.'" She regarded the cryptic rider. "In fact." She leaned forward, propping elbows on the table. "Something MUST be a delusion, before it can ever be made real." She studied the book, wondering if the title was hidden from her, or if it was lost in the eddies of time, adrift. "How did you learn to read it?" She took it as a matter of fact that a book of time couldn't easily allow one to to parse it. Her attention shifted to Sougo, as he spoke. "I can tell." She looked out the window. "This place is empty, isn't it. Like a fontier station before the first waves of colonists, but too lived in. Too much history." A beat. "What person could they have lost, that would chase away a whole town?"
Timespace Riders	"Indeed," says Woz. "To focus on what 'is not,' that it might become 'what is...' this is one of the oldest methods of reaching for one's desires. This book is not dissimilar." How did he learn to read it? "Past, present and future exist at once, simultaneously. But, of course," he qualifies, tapping a finger to his temple, "In most cases, one branch of the fourth dimension does not interact with another. But there are those who can influence it. And as with everything, there are those who would see one outcome as preferential to another. This book was penned, and I, taught to read it, on the order of one such individual, that he might more accurately guide events towards his preferred branch." "There's another me, out there," Sougo explains more succinctly. "His royal guard is also kind of a cult. Woz is from that world." The retainer purses his lips, but his expression can't stay sour for long with Sougo squeezing his hand. "But he decided that he liked me better. Didn't you?" "...Indeed." Norma comes back out with a bill for Sougo and Woz, laying it on the table. "It wasn't just one person," says Norma to Dysnomia. "In a place like this, there's a little 'end of the world' every few years or so. Laura hurt," she says, looking wistfully out the window. "But, life goes on. People get older. For everybody that stayed, for every Bobby, or Audrey, there's two, three James Hurleys." "I wouldn't say Twin Peaks is 'empty.' But it's not wrong to say that things here are a lot slower than when I was a little girl. ...Sorry--couldn't help overhearing," he says, with an apologetic smile for Mia. To Sougo and Woz: "You two take your time, don't be in a hurry." She turns her attention to Mia, more fully. "Can I get you anything, honey?"
Dysnomia	It wasn't hard to draw the line between another timeline, a royal guard and the Demon King of Time. Her gaze fell on Sougo, considering. She wondered what kind of futures were laid out before him. Perhaps he would always end in the same place, so long as he chased his delusion of kingship...? "You threw away your old life for him," she said to Woz, observing, not asking. "You don't seem indecsive. You know what you want. Your own time. Your own world, and what you fought for before...What did you see that was worth so much?" Her attention was so focused on the two, that she'd nearly forgotten that Norma was there altogether. Shock smoothed over, as she turned to assess her, she had no context for and alluded-to tragedies. "The town isn't as lucky as it seems, I guess." Her eyes wandered to the menu, absently scanning it over. "Maybe it's not 'empty,' but you can feel the space where people should be, can't you. Like a hole." She turned the page. "How burned are you comfortable cooking?"
Timespace Riders	Norma smiles wistfully at Mia. "I do. But," she says, "Even if the holes don't get smaller, the rest of you gets bigger. It's harder to fall into one, when there are other places to be." The menu has (even if Mia doesn't recognize them as such) the trappings of any respectable roadside diner. The breakfast items include eggs, pancakes, waffles, oatmeal, steak, and a few combo platters (one named for the establishment, the 'Double R.') There are also burgers, a couple of lunchmeat sandwich options, and fries, onion rings, a salad or a soup of the day available as sides. "Burnt?" Norma asks with her brows raised, as if making sure she heard Mia right. "Well," she says, "I guess as burnt as you're comfortable eating, honey." "Maybe a well-done steak?" Sougo suggests to Mia. The utterance draws a distasteful roll of the eyes from Woz. The retainer does at least answer Mia's question. "I came to believe not only that Sougo could be king, but that he would be a great king. Better than the one I served. Moreover..." he pauses. "I fell in love with him." "You called me Sougo," gushes the Demon King affectionately, much to the flusterment of Woz. "Haha! You don't have to fidget like that. I'm not getting on to you for it."
Dysnomia	"It's harder to fall into one, when there are other places to be." "Is it?" Mia asked, her voice dull. She wondered how close this Norma had been, to any of the things that happened. To what went wrong. To dreams that died stillborn. "I guess, start at 'well done' and go a little bit further." She didn't know exactly what 'well done' meant, but she had a guess, as far as her tastes compared. A worm of something crawled through Dysnomia's belly, watching the pair being so affectionate with each other. "Oh, get a room." She grumbled, turning her eyes once more out the window. "You're insufferable."
Timespace Riders	Neither Sougo nor Woz seem to mind being called insufferable. In the case of Woz, he might even take it as a compliment. "I think so," Norma says. "Audrey Horne, that runs the Rowan Tree Salon in town... I think she probably would, too. I'd have thought... of all the people that would've stayed, I never imagined she'd be one of them." Norma can't know what Mia's thinking--she doesn't seem to have any special powers of observation but the ones you get by living a long and eventful life. But, in the moment where she isn't taking Mia's order, there is a sense, for the second time today, that she has seen more than most people do, or perhaps ought to. Maybe it's the price of living in Twin Peaks. She smiles at Mia and heads into the back to get started on her order. "Hey, Norma, wait up," says Sougo. "I think Woz and I are ready to pay. Also--" He adds, standing up as Norma circles 'round the counter to ring them up at the register--"You can put Mia's steak and eggs on our bill." He fishes a Concord card from his pocket, smiling wide and bright.