POP 20: The Sun



 "'We've broken literally every possible rule we could have on our way here. What's stopping us from breaking more?' -Sloane Parker"

The Sun is the twentieth episode of Eidolon POP and the forty-first episode of Eidolon Playtest Season 1. It covers Quentin's Class as they burn down the Paperwork Department and restore Ursula-Ursa Bexar to existence.

Summary
Most of Quentin's Class are chasing after Ursula-Ursa Bexar as she hunts down the portal to The Estate she left open. Sloane Parker gives the group a pep talk about not ending the world, but Alexis Lorentzen is unconvinced. Ursula-Ursa reaches the field the portal is in and finds drunken students hanging out nearby. She pulls out a gun from Pack Light and fires it into the air, scaring them off.

Quentin's Class goes through the portal and enters the Heart of Glass chamber at the bottom of The Estate. Ursula closes the portal behind her and everyone starts the journey up to the Paperwork Department. Alexis proposes summoning a duplicate of a younger Henry Dracula as a back-up Master. Ursula-Ursa opposes, to which Alexis reveals she already put a hold on Sloane's phone to transform if Teoth gets loose. Quentin Brooks badly sings a song and turns it into makeshift armor for himself.

Gabriel-Bede is waiting for them at the top of the basement, right in front of the door to the Wine Cellar. He tells Ursula-Ursa it is time for her to kill him. Before she does, James Studebaker asks him who exactly ends the world. He says all nine of them: Quentin Brooks, James Studebaker, Ursula-Ursa Bexar, Alexis Lorentzen, Sloane Parker, Chili, Harvey Godlove, Virginia Valentine, and Christopher Masters. Alexis and Ursula recognize Harvey's name from a pinball podcast they were once paid to be on.

After Gabriel-Bede tells Ursula-Ursa that he will force the issue if she does not willingly kill him, she shoots him in the head. Ursula-Ursa and Quentin walk ahead. James investigates Gabriel-Bede's corpse and finds a large camera lens that, when he looks inside, shows him an overwhelming flood of information of the entire timeline. James blinks, and its gone. He stores it inside Time After Time. Sloane mentions she was raised mega-catholic, and feels compelled to say the Lord's Prayer for Gabriel-Bede's death.

Ursula-Ursa and Quentin enter the Wine Cellar, and spot the shadowy remains of Cactus Jack still gurgling there. Quentin tries to heal him by getting himself and Ursula-Ursa to sing Bittersweet Symphony and turn it into healing web. It successfully heals Cactus Jack, but he remains in his incoherent blob state. The rest catch up to them and they carry on to the Paperwork Department. As they reach outside, Alexis calls a union meeting and they start strategizing. James is on the lookout for Metatron-Homobonus, Ursula-Ursa is to shoot him if he shows up, and Sloane is on "burn it all down" duty.

Alexis opens the door and is flooded with file cabinets and paperwork. The inside is absolutely packed to the brim with a mountain of paper. Ursula-Ursa teleports into the middle of the room and leaves a bomb. She tries to teleport back, but ends up elsewhere in the mountain. By this point, Sloane has started burning things down from the doorway. Ursula-Ursa can hear the sounds of Metatron-Homobonus sobbing somewhere far above her. Alexis realizes Ursula-Ursa is still in there, so Sloane burns a massive tunnel diagonally up to the top of the mountain and flies everyone there on Start A Riot. Speakerboxxx fortifies the tunnel with webbing.

Eidolon Battle
Metatron-Homobonus hears the sound of the massive fireball that created the tunnel and flies down to investigate. Ursula-Ursa Bexar teleports up behind Metatron-Homobonus, but misses her shots with the Angel-Killing Gun. As she falls, Metatron-Homobonus looks at her. Alexis Lorentzen summons a giant marshmellow from Quentin Brook's phone to break her fall, but once Ursula-Ursa lands she starts compulsively working.

Quentin shoots the gun he stole from TO-DO up behind Metatron-Homobonus, and uses Speakerboxxx to turn the gunshot sound into web, slinging him behind the bullet. Metatron-Homobonus catches him in mid-air, recognizing him as one of the culprits who put the Paperwork Department in this state. Metatron-Homobonus forms a flaming sword from the paper around him and goes to stab Quentin. James Studebaker flies Time After Time out from the tunnel to intercept Metatron-Homobonus, but once it enters his gaze both it and James start compulsively working. Quentin manages to jam up Metatron-Homobonus' eyes with web, but not prevent him from impaling Quentin with the sword. Quentin dies.

Ursula-Ursa is able to break out of the effects of 9 To 5 and empties the Angel-Killing Gun at Metatron-Homobonus' head, knocking off his rotating eyes and ending the compulsion effect permanently. At this development, Sloane Parker sends Start A Riot rushing out from the tunnel and decapitates Metatron-Homobonus. A mechanical arm from the ceiling attempts to intercept her, but Ursula-Ursa suppresses it with a tommy gun. The arm unfolds into several guns and shoots at Ursula-Ursa, who uses a greatshield to defend herself.

Alexis reverts the giant marshmellow into Quentin's phone and turns it into a giant anvil that she drops on the mechanical arm, disabling it. Metatron-Homobonus is defeated. James immediately uses Time After Time to find his and Ursula-Ursa's pink slips. They're deep in the mountain of paperwork. He calls out to Ursula-Ursa to grab her most precious thing, but she's distracted carrying Quentin's body.

As Sloane goes to start another fire, Metatron-Homobonus pleads with her to not destroy the entire written records of all humanity. Sloane doesn't care, so instead he asks her to show mercy for James Studebaker. Not the one currently in the Paperwork Department. That James was never born, but his parents still had a son and still named him James. He's had a similar life and is biologically James' brother, Quentin saw him in his class earlier. If James burns his pink slip, he is condemning this other James to be erased from existence like he almost was.

James decides not to burn his pink slip, but is still happy for Sloane to burn the rest of the Paperwork Department down. Ursula-Ursa burning her pink slip would have no negative consequences, so she grabs a full version of the photo Quentin burned in POP #8 and tosses it into the room. Alexis grabs Quentin's phone, Ursula-Ursa picks up his body, and everyone turns to leave. Sloane sets the room ablaze and they can hear Metatron-Homobonus crying in despair until he too is burned up.

Some time later, after everyone has left, the Paperwork Department is empty. All the paperwork has been destroyed, and all that remains is a few filing cabinets, remnants of a mechanical arm, a freight train, and James' pink slip.

Appearances
● Alexis Lorentzen // Vivid Memories Turn to Fantasies

● Cactus Jack

● Gabriel-Bede // I've Had The Time Of My Life

● James Studebaker // Time After Time

● Meghan H

● Metatron-Homobonus // 9 To 5 (Last Appearance)

● Quentin Brooks // Speakerboxxx

● Sloane Parker // Start A Riot

● Ursula-Ursa Bexar // Pack Light

Trivia
● The mid-show ad read is done by in-character as Metatron-Homobonus, berating Luke Varner for his lack of work ethic.

● In healing Cactus Jack by singing, Ursula-Ursa Bexar finally took the bonus for "changing the world through song" that Quentin Brooks granted the party in (TO-DO)

● The freight train that is one of the few things remaining in the Paperwork Department was left there by Alexis Lorentzen the last time Quentin's Class was there. It was transformed from her phone.