trans_9 | Meat n' Greet

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Meat n' Greet

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers. After the revelation that their worlds are gone, many of them are even more eager to see people they knew from home.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicoms and comm rings. New crew-mates might see a tall man in green armor and snake girl among their number. There are also several authoritative-looking figures ready to introduce themselves.

There's a lot to tell the new people. It's going to be a lot to take in.

[ooc: Only new characters and Command Staff can start new threads for introductions, to limit the number of threads. Everyone else, just tag in and have your guys greet the newbies.]

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"Dead? No... no Shotarou, you're here, alive, and now awake on Stacy." Philip's expression fell. "You're from before we reunited, aren't you?"

He sighed. "This is going to take a lot of explaining."

A momentary turn to the blonde girl - who was this girl in relation to Philip, anyway? "But--"

Then Philip says 'reuniting', and Shoutarou turns back to him. "I... It's been close to a year since we stopped the Gaia Impact. I was on my way to buy cat food for Mick..."

Hoshi heard briefly about the Gaia Impact from when Philip and her sorted through the remains of the Sonozaki mansion, but anything other than that, she was left completely in the dark.

For now, though, she decided to silence her thoughts for now. "Would it be better to discuss it here or somewhere privately?"

"Oh so you're from about six hours before I returned," replied Philip thoughtfully. "That makes sense."

"We could take the lifts down to continue," said Philip, getting off Shotarou. "I remote-drove a second RideVendor here."

"Six hours..." Wait, if he's from before Philip's pull point, but just showed up now...then how does that work? Better to ~~blame Decade~~ not think about it.

Shoutarou stumbles up, gathering his hat as he looks at Philip again. "So...all this is real? I'm here, you're here--you're not dead anymore?"

Well, Shoutarou, if you wanted her to worry about Philip more than she was right now? You just did it.

She lost whatever thought she had in her mind, looking rather startled and at a loss for words.

Better not to think about it ~~or blame either Decade or Ankh and Momo~~ and Philip lead him towards the lifts. "It's been a long time for me," replied Philip. "There's been some things going on I'll have to explain."

"Ah, right, okay..."

Shoutarou follows - still rather disoriented from everything that's gone on and been dropped on him. He doesn't mean to cause worry, but as far as he's known, Philip's been dead for a year. It's kind of tricky to just change a way of thinking, even when the evidence is right in front of your face.

"What about Akiko? Terui? Jinno and Makki? Are any of them here?" Or by chance the Chief?

Once the shock wore off, Hoshi followed after Philip and Shoutarou, not at all minding that she was being somewhat ignored. After all, she knew of how important Shoutarou was to Philip.

For now, she decides to be quiet, letting them catch up with one another while keeping her usual smile on her face.

"As far as anyone we know from Fuuto, you and I are the only ones right now," said Philip. "As for Kamen Riders, we have two more on the ship, one from another world parallel to Ryuki's story, and one from 2003 as well, Ren Akiyama. I'm living with him, and two others at the Atori."

"But, the agency is here with us," added Philip, tossing Shotarou a helmet. "As with all of our gear and a few surprises."

There was a slight pause as he added, "And the Sonozaki mansion in its ruined state."

The news was...rather disheartening. On one hand, Shoutarou has his partner back. But in getting him back, he loses all the others he cared about?

The universe is a cruel, cruel place.

He nods at the mention of the other Riders,

"The agency's here? They took us -and- the building?" That's...strange, to say the least.

"I found a building from home here, too," Hoshi finally spoke up, deciding to not stay at the sidelines anymore. She wanted to show that she was friendly and trustworthy enough. "It's a beystadium, which is pretty much an arena of sorts."

She got on the HardBoiler herself, having driven it to the Observation Deck when they were told that the pod caverns would open up, starting to put the helmet on.

"...And, there's the Great Wall of China, too." Yup, definitely strange.

"The possibility of those who we care about being down in the pods is fairly good," added Philip, to point out that losing hope would be slightly negated. "People from all times and points were pulled here and placed into pods, so there is a good chance we'll have to just wait and see."

"We'll head to the agency, it's just a short drive from here," said Philip, getting onto a RideVendor and tossing Shotarou the keys to his own. "There's quite a lot to explain."

Shoutarou nods at Philip, then looks over at Hoshi. That's one thing that's gonna have to be explained - why was this girl here, and why was she riding his bike?

That can wait, though. He catches the keys, donning the helmet on the bike and seating up, ready to follow Philip.

Once the helmet was securely on, Hoshi began to rev up the bike and once that was done, she decided to start driving off towards the agency.

On her end, she did feel like she had a lot of explaining to do, which she didn't mind all too much, anyway.

Arriving shortly afterwards, Philip lead them inside. It was almost wall to wall books, all purchased from the previous arrival at XaXing. "Sorry about the books, Shotarou. I ran out of room in the Atori."

"Ah... don't worry about it," he says, almost absently. It's not surpring, really. Was probably just a matter of time before Philip moved on to books with actual words in them.

Shoutarou walked over to his desk, running his hand over the top of it. It's...actually here - his desk, his typewriter - the hats on the door to the hangar...

"Well, I'd say you have plenty to keep you busy," Hoshi said to Philip as she went to sit down on the couch.

Right. There was no harm in getting straight to the point of why she was here, why she was driving a motorcycle, and the rest of it, right? "So, um... Shoutarou, wasn't it? Did you want to get started on stuff at all, or just take a moment to get comfy?"

Considering the Gaia Library didn't cover aliens, it was probably a given that he picked up all of these books.

"I think we should skip right to the explaining," said Philip. He knew Shotarou seemed a little frazzled, and being from before their reunion would undoubtedly not allow him to take the next part of the news well.

Giving Hoshi a look to hang back a little, he stepped forward. "Shotarou I'm sharing the Double powers with Hoshi for a while, because circumstances required her assistance. I hope you understand that I wasn't trying to replace you at all."

Among the books, there was even that copy of The Long Goodbye he read so often. He takes it off the shelf, and is looking it over when Hoshi and Philip start talking.

"I'm fine," is the answer Hoshi gets, but Philip's words make him drop the book, and cut a sharp look at Philip.

"You WHAT?!"

Hoshi gave a nod towards Philip and she observed Shoutarou to see what his reaction was, which was... not a good one, admittedly.

She decided to try to make this work as best as it could and spoke up, "Considering the circumstances we're faced against, I thought it'd be a good idea overall, since without Seraphiel, my holy beast, to protect me, I'm pretty much a sitting duck in a multi-universal war. I also knew it wouldn't be a permanent thing, either, until you woke up, Shoutarou."

"I figured you'd act like that, Shotarou. Considering we're partners and breaking up anything is hard for you to do. But be reasonable, that's the only reason why I let this go through, because I wanted to protect her." said Philip, trying to placate Shotarou.

Shoutarou draws a ragged breath, then lets it out. Hearing this seems to have let the weight of everything hit all at once. Put enough pressure on something, and it'll break...

"Circumstances, circumstances - what about my circumstances?! I've been trying to pass myself off as doing well for a year! And now--now I'm here! Now, I'm here, and Fuuto is gone." Shoutarou paces as he says this, periodically glancing at the others, though mostly Philip. "I didn't want anyone in Fuuto to cry, but not like this!"

Then he steps up to Philip, though he points at Hoshi. "And I get here, and there's some high school girl riding my bike, working with my partner, and taking my place as half of Double?!"

Oh, Hoshi hated hearing others yell, no matter what it was. It caused her to get upset and worried about the overall well being of someone. While she was a little bit flustered at what Philip said (it was nice and she'd have to thank him once things simmered down), she steeled her emotions so that she'd appear calm and focused at the task at hand.

She stepped up to Shoutarou and Philip, not really knowing what to say other than-- "Listen, I'm sorry. I never meant to take your place, Shoutarou. I... I also wanted to protect Philip because he's helped me out with a lot of things since I woke up," she said evenly, her hands tightening into fists slightly. Yeah, the uncertainty, amongst other things, was showing on the surface since she tended to wear her heart on her sleeve most of the time.

"I'm sorry. I really am." And, for the first time in a while, she decided to let a frown show, which was rather uncharacteristic of her to begin with.

"Shotarou, there's a difference between being replaced and aiding someone!" exclaimed Philip hotly. "She was in trouble, and while Fuuto is gone, I had a duty as a Kamen Rider to protect the smiles of everyone here. Getting mad isn't going to solve anything!"

This was going to go downhill pretty fast, his hand clenching around his blank book.

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