A bone-chilling test! Literally.

[coldhardfisting.livejournal.com]

It had only taken Snow a few minutes after waking up to realize that he still had his powers. As strange and unfathomable as it was (for crying out loud, he saw that it was gone), there his l'Cie brand was, easily noticeable on his left forearm and, from what Snow could recall, in the same form it was in right before he had lost it. But then again, he couldn't be quite sure, he wasn't very keen on studying the mark very closely when he did have it - he just knew that it had been pretty well along. A round, eye-shaped pattern inside of a rectangular brand, arrowed edges branching off in all directions. But it was no longer the deep black color that it had been, it was glazed over in a dull grey. And though it made him uneasy to see the brand there again, he was relieved that it was at least frozen. No ever-present countdown to turning into a monster.

He had felt the rush of icy powers when he tried to use them down in the pod chambers, even though they had been promptly cut off by one of Stacy's tentacles. So Snow'd be able to fend for himself (and protect Serah. Which was ten times more important than fending for himself, really), since despite what he'd read and what he'd heard so far, he was skeptical of many things. He had dealt with enough to easily trust some voice in his head that later reprimanded him and ordered him to follow the rules when he had no idea what was happening. He never did like rules, and he especially didn't like the idea of some giant talking creature trying to play puppeteer with people and simply expect them to go along with it. He'd had enough of that. So having his powers back was a point up in feeling even a little more safe.

But as he stood in the city, in an area large enough to both test this out and for any passersby to easily spot him, he had one more thing he wanted to try. "Let's see if you two are still here, too." Snow spoke, seemingly to nobody in particular. He raised his arm, a small, ice-blue orb forming around and rising from his brand. "Shiva!" he called, and a glyph-like pattern materialized in mid-air in front of him. From it rose two figures, completely contrasted from the other. One dark, one light - the summoned sisters looked more like robots of some sort, adorned with chains and huge, bulky pieces of metal. The large wheels clearly visible on their bodies gave the (very obvious) impression that the two could combine into a vehicle of some sort. They landed gracefully in front of Snow, who just smiled widely at the them.

"Hey! Long time no see!" he greeted with a wave. "I can't believe you two wound up sticking around, too! At least getting around'll be a little easier, now."

Comments

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

Phillip had to give off a short laugh at that. "I don't think anyone would for that matter. There's a certain level of unease within the crew about listening to anyone claiming them to be a "higher power" for good reason."

Nodding, Phillip smiled at Snow. "If you need aid, I am always available at the Atori Tea House. I'm afraid our rooms are currently full at the moment, but we do also have room at my own place just a half a block away known as the Narumi Detective Agency. It's spartan, but enough room for a few beds."

[coldhardfisting.livejournal.com]

"Atori Tea House? Narumi Detective Agency..." Snow reached into one of the pockets of his coat, pulling out his omnicomm. "Not sure where those are ... don't these things have maps and directions on them?"

He stopped mid-fiddle, glancing over the device to Phillip. "Uh. Not that I'm taking you up on that. Wouldn't want to just intrude, you know? And my fiancee is here with me, so if there's not enough room for two I'm not really big on not having her closeby. Light'd kill me if something happened to her."

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

"Yes they do actually, but I see. That's not a big deal. There's a lot of couples on board, so finding a place to stay would be easier to do once we can get a few of the habitable city buildings cleaned up," explained Phillip.

"The crew quarters work just as well, but they're organic, like most of the ship. At least with the city you have regular buildings."

[coldhardfisting.livejournal.com]

"Well, send me the directions anyway. I'll drop by sometime," he said with a smile. "I did get a chance to try out those beds in the crew quarters. Pretty weird."

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

"Sounds good." Phillip tapped a few commands on his own Omnicom and uploaded it to Snow's before pocketing it again. "They are. I find them fascinating but I don't think I could sleep on them. It's why I moved into the Atori with Ren."

[coldhardfisting.livejournal.com]

"They definitely need some getting used to."

Snow snapped his omnicomm closed as well, moving on to the next thing that jumped into his mind. "A tea house and a detective agency, huh? So what is it you do here, exactly?"

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

"Officially Ren and I don't have titles or jobs right now," said Phillip, although he didn't seem bothered by that. "I usually take time, going through the abandoned buildings looking for books in my spare time, but we do some things together here and there about driving and a little combat here and there."

[coldhardfisting.livejournal.com]

"Combat?" The word stood out -- Snow didn't even really know how safe they were on this ship. If it could fit a city inside of it, did that mean things could easily enter and attack it? "What, do these Ohm things visit us on a regular basis or something?"

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

"If it were so simple, we could whittle down their numbers. No, the combat I speak of is problems that crop up on the ship from time to time. A while ago one of our crew members had a personal issue that spread to the crew in terms of a big rampaging fight. Just recently, a Class A Super Criminal was unleashed and several of our crew members fought to get him off the ship. Sadly I was only the part of the first."

"What I do speak of in terms of combat though is mostly some mild to intense training in hand to hand and weapons." added Phillip. "I don't actually teach much outside of riding, and what not."

[coldhardfisting.livejournal.com]

"Class A Super Criminals? Didn't this Stacy thing tell us we were chosen for this job? Doesn't seem like a bright idea to wake up people like that, if you ask me," Snow mused. And saying that word outloud ... chosen. Like like a l'Cie.

"Riding?"

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

"I think the Dialgig needs to screen rescue processes better," deadpanned Phillip. "I'm going to go look at where he emerged from later, and see if I can't figure out why he was released."

"Motorcycles," he clarified, although he was definitely thinking of a different type of motorcycle enthusiast as Tsukasa liked to call him. "Ren and I are of a certain special variety of riders."

[coldhardfisting.livejournal.com]

Maybe for amusement, he thought. If Stacy was a sentient being, then she could certainly get bored, couldn't she? Bored enough to stir something up and release somebody that bad to cause problems and drama. "Maybe Stacy's got a bad sense of humor."

"Ah!" Snow exclaimed, looking back to Stiria and Nix. "Sort of like these girls, then. What, are you in some kind of special bike gang?"

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

"Could very well be it," replied Phillip with a wise nod.

"Ah. Well, maybe it's better if I show you then. It's something from my world."

Getting a little room, he held up a green stick as he placed a buckle around his waist. A belt wrapped itself around his middle and he clicked the green item which proclaimed

"Don't blink now." added Phillip as he swung his arm around. "Henshin!"

Slotting it into the belt, he threw the upright stick into it and raised his hand to his face as wind picked up.

[coldhardfisting.livejournal.com]

Welp.

This was going to be flashy. Snow knew that enough given Shiva's entire transformation sequence. He took a step back, narrowing his eyes slightly and bringing an arm up when he left the wind hit his face.

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

Wind spiralled around Phillip as fragments in green flew towards him, covering him from head to toe in a green outfit with a W shape marking on his front, large red eyes on the front of his face as the transformation music played from the belt.

"Kamen Rider Cyclone," said Phillip as the henshin finished, nodding at Snow. "Those who bear this power are granted the name Kamen Rider. It's part and parcel of why we call ourselves Riders."

Sorry. Reposting to fix a couple of errors. XD;

[coldhardfisting.livejournal.com]

Snow's first thought? That he sort of looked like a mantis or some kind of big green bug with that outfit. His surprise watching the transformation sort of trumped that thought, so it stayed unspoken (probably for the better).

Instead, he asked a question. "Power? What kind of power?" Phillip had mentioned riding and motorcycles ... so Snow wondered if there was something more to it than simply doing so while in a superhero outfit.

np!

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

Which technically was what the Riders were supposed to be themed off of at any rate. "The power to protect, defend. Kamen Riders are the heroes of the people, so I pass on what I can in skill and technique to others, including riding motorcycles and helping others train."

[coldhardfisting.livejournal.com]

"Sounds like me!" he said proudly. Only Snow wasn't really keen on the idea of wearing something like that to do the job. His coat and his gloves were enough, if they weren't something that passed for some kind of iconic hero look. Kamen Rider Snow? Look out, world, for that is a frightening thought. "Not a bad set of skills to have."

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

Phillip nodded, returning the memory to its upright form and pulling it out, letting the armor flake away in a gust of wind. "Heroes have to stick together, and Riders, even Riders in spirit as well."

"Speaking of riding, do you have a vehicle from your world that you can use to get around on? The city has a train that was recently put in, but there is also a few RideVendors left. They're motorcycles."

[coldhardfisting.livejournal.com]

"These girls've got that covered for me," he responded. Stiria and Nix nodded slowly behind him, giving an air of proud usefulness as they did so.

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

"How very interesting," said Phillip, noting that yes, they did seem to have parts and armor on them that would, if one used their imagination, change to a motorcycle. "What are their names, and what do you call them on a whole? Surely they cannot be the only ones."

[coldhardfisting.livejournal.com]

"These two are pretty exclusive, actually." He replied. "They come to only a few people who have this." He waved his left arm at Phillip, a faded brand seemingly engraved on the forearm. "And so far the ones I've seen are all different."

Him and Shiva. Lightning and Odin, Sazh and Brynhildr... Now that Snow thought about how wonderfully they all seemed to work together with their individual Eidolons... "Different because they're meant just for who they come to, I think. They're called Eidolons."

He waved the two over. "This is Nix," he added, jerking a thumb to the lighter of the two that took a couple of steps toward them. One dark patch rested over Nix's eye, while the darker of the sisters possessed a light one. "And this one is Stiria."

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

The brand looked interesting, and with any luck Phillip would be able to find out what it was. But for it to bestow such power to summon beings to him spoke of incredible lengths.

"Eidolons. In the tongues of our world... it means a phantom. Alternatively, it also means a representation of an ideal." Phillip smiled as he bowed politely to Nix and Stiria who he was certain was watching him intently. "It is a pleasure to meet you both."

[coldhardfisting.livejournal.com]

Stiria nodded in response, while Nix gave a small wave in greeting.

"An ideal, huh." Oh boy, trying to think out similarities between meanings of things in different worlds. This wasn't Snow's strongest trait. He shrugged, after thinking for a minute and deciding to just explain it instead, in hopes that if there was some sort of coincidental (or hey, even not so coincidental, you never knew) similarity.

"I'm not sure if an ideal is what they're here for. But they come to l'Cie when they're not in the best of places. Lost, confused, ready to give up. General l'Cie feelings. And they test them, make'em decide if they're really ready to give up or not. Pass the test, and they lend you their powers. And since they make you decide, you're overcoming that hopeless feeling that called them there in the first place. So you know where to go and what to do after that."

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

"An interesting method indeed," agreed Phillip as he shifted his book to his other hand in thought. "In that case as you said, the Eidolon that is called would be most suited for that person."

Phillip smiled at the comparison. "Comrades, even friends then. Maybe some deeper meaning upon further thought. And they say that when you've hit bottom, the only direction you can go is up."