POP 10: The Hermit

"'Am I dangerous?' -'Ursula' Ursa 'Bear'"

The Hermit is the tenth episode of Eidolon POP and the twenty-first episode of Eidolon Playtest Season 1. It covers Quentin's Class as they deal with the fallout of Start A Riot seemingly destroying the world.

Summary
One moment, Alexis Lorentzen and Ursa handed Sloane Parker the document about the Heart of Glass. The next moment, Sloane was gone and the paper floating towards the floor. Neither Ursa nor Alexis can remember most of the events from the last episode, but they recall echoes of their feelings from that time. Ursa tries to call Sloane, but only reaches her voicemail. The sudden jump leaves Ursa suspicious about the word TEOTH.

Quentin Brooks and James Studebaker are in Quentin's living room, experiencing a similar jump in time. One moment Caroline Rose was upstairs, the next she's downstairs with the rest of them and just as confused. Caroline is the first to notice that the clocks seemed to have jumped from 9a.m. to 10a.m. Quentin notices a missed call from Sloane during the lost hour of time. James calls Ursa, and both groups catch each other up on what they think happened. The word TEOTH is familiar to Quentin, but all he remembers is that it's bad and he encountered it before.

In The Estate, Sloane steps outside the Parlor of Death onto a second floor balcony overlooking the foyer. Joanna immediately notices her, and Sloane apologizes for being awful to her. Joanna accepts and apologizes in turn for being harsh - the blame belongs to Ursa, not her. Sloane immediately notes this is more racism, and goes to leave. Joanna stops her by saying that if she leaves from the front door, she'll lose all her memories of the lost hour.

Sloane follows Joanna down the hallway to an open doorway. On the floor are charred and splintered remains of a door, and beyond the threshold is inky blackness. This room reflects Sloane's perspective of this morning, and she's somehow erased it all. Joanna explains that when a cleaner cleans a room and changes history, they normally retain the memory of the previous history. Unless, that is, they burn up a previous keepsake of that old reality in that room and then leave via the front door. Sloane burned up everything of that old reality, including several things precious to her. If she leaves from the front door, the rule will apply to her and she will no longer remember it. Before Joanna explains other means of exiting The Estate, she first wants to tell Sloane something.

Back in reality, Ursa is worried that this is her fault and starts dissociating. Alexis puts on pants, reassures her, and directs both of them outside. They meet Quentin and James downstairs and get in Quentin's car. Alexis catches them up on the events of the morning, and mentions Joanna tried to call Sloane the night before. Ursa concludes Joanna took Sloane, and they need to go to The Undertow to get her.

Joanna tells Sloane that Ursa is a Shade, a not-person centered around a powerful negative emotion. Ursa's is loneliness, forming toxic relationships and enabling people's worse impulses. Until a few days ago, Sloane was quiet and reserved. Since then, she's become reckless and impulsive. Ursa was the one to encourage her to 'clean' her dormroom in The Estate. Joanna does not hold Sloane responsible for her actions, and is willing to discuss re-employment. Sloane mentions she has another employer, but Joanna doesn't pick up on the implication. Joanna is willing to keep the offer open.

Joanna explains that to keep her memories, Sloane needs to exit via the burned doorway she entered. Sloane immediately dives through the doorway, falling deep into an abyss towards a pinprick of light.

Ursa, Alexis, Quentin, and James are all sitting around a picnic table, holding hands. Sloane falls from the sky and lands next to them on the ground. Sloane and Ursa hug. Sloane asks everyone what they remember, and summarizes the events of the lost hour of time and what happened to her afterwards. She then takes responsibility, both for that events and her negative behavior to everyone in past. From what Sloane has said, James notes that the mess in the Paperwork Department means it is unlikely his and Ursa's pink slips will be found for some time. Ursa happy-cries over Sloane not buying into Joanna's racist comments.

Everyone agrees that the next priority is restoring James and Ursa to existence. As they discuss plans, Lady Luck texts them all in a group chat that it is time to return to The Estate. She can summon them all, but they need to get unluckier. Do something risky and fail. Sloane makes a bad roll on Granblue Fantasy on her phone. Alexis attempts to do the same, but sees Sloane had no more pulls available. Ursa tries to enter her credit card details into Sloane's phone to buy more pulls, but an error charges her for the purchase without processing it. Quentin shuffles a tarot deck and pulls The Tower. James flips his poker chip and calls it wrong. As each of these unlucky events happen, the person disappears.

Everyone appears in a dimly lit room. They meet a man with no pupils and a vegas card-dealer outfit who welcomes them in. The room is like most rooms in The Estate, but the furniture is all game tables and roulette wheels. Lady Luck is sitting at a blackjack table. She explains that this is her base of operations, a side-room in the first basement of The Estate. Lady Luck discusses compensation for their employment. Rather than letting them run around off-the-clock, completing a job for her will grant them the right to sit at the table with her. At the table, they'll play a game of chance and gamble for free time.

Appearances

 * Alexis Lorentzen // Vivid Memories Turn to Fantasies
 * Caroline Rose // Roses
 * James Studebaker // Time After Time
 * Joanna
 * Lady Luck // Poker Face
 * Quentin Brooks // Speakerboxxx
 * Sloane Parker // Start A Riot
 * The Gambler (First Appearance)
 * "Ursula" Ursa "Bear" // Revolution Lover

Trivia

 * James Studebaker establishes in a throw-away comment that the movie Click is one of the most popular movies of all time.
 * Crystal Zaslavchik adds that it was the first movie to make a billion dollars, but since her character Alexis was not in the scene, it is unclear if this is canon.