POP 6: The Hierophant

"'I am deathly terrified of not being in control.' -TO-DO"

The Hierophant is the sixth episode of Eidolon POP and the thirteenth episode of Eidolon Playtest Season 1. It covers Quentin's Class as they infiltrate The Estate, get thrown in the dungeons, and make a deal with Lady Luck.

Summary
Stapleton has arrived in the physical world and demands to know where Ronnui is. A phone rings from his limousine. Before he can answer it, Quentin Brooks hugs him and tries to convince Stapleton that they're on a top secret mission for Ronnui and were never fired in the first place. James Studebaker and Alexis Lorentzen sneak into the back of the limousine. Quentin sneakily cuts the phone line with Speakerboxxx.

Unsure about what to do, Stapleton says he will drive Quentin to Joanna, so she can sort things out. As he drives off, James outlines their plan in the backseats. He believes rooms represent a moment in time and space, playing on a fixed loop that he can probably detect if he was there during that moment. 'Cleaning' a room alters the result of that moment. He argues Joanna was likely human once and has her own rooms, and this all combined means they should be able to find the room that represents the moment Joanna fired them and clean it.

Ursa is driving a bus in The Undertow towards The Estate. On board are Sloane Parker and a Shade in a bowler hat talking with her about the movie Speed. The Shade directs Ursa to stop near a mound as that is where his business meeting is being held. He gets off the bus, spreads his arms, falls into the mound, and fades out of existence.

As Ursa drives onwards, she outlines her plan. The plan she wants to avoid: Burning everything down. Plan A: Modifying their records to un-fire them. Plan B: Take the elevator to the bottom of The Estate, and start cleaning rooms out of the hope that one of them is Ronnui's or Joanna's. Sloane prefers the burning everything down plan. She convinces Ursa by arguing that if they cause a big enough mess, it'll distract everyone from whatever the rest of Quentin's Class are doing. Ursa agrees as long as Sloane promises to swap plans if it doesn't work.

Stapleton pulls up to The Estate. At this point he's noticed the presence of James and Alexis in the backseats. Stapleton locks the doors and heads inside to find Joanna. James immediately smashes a window with his baseball bat, which gets broken in the process. As James, Alexis, and Quentin climb out of the limousine, Ursa and Sloane drive up in the bus. Everyone climbs into the bus and drives around back to the Employee's Entrance. Sloane kicks the door in with Start A Riot and they enter into the locker room where they got their cleaner uniforms in POP #3.

James attempts to detect rooms relating to Joanna firing them using Time After Time. All rooms he senses involving Joanna are deep, deep below them. Sloane and Ursa starting using their Eidolons to dig through the floor. As Joanna and Stapleton burst through the door to demand to know what's going on, the floor collapses beneath Quentin's Class and they fall into a bathroom connected to the Servants' Quarters.

Eidolon Battle
Sloane Parker and Ursa start digging through the floor of the Servants' Quarters. James Studebaker spies an elevator call button, and as he heads over a loud train whistle can be heard before a freight train bursts into the room from the bathroom. Alexis Lorentzen manages to take a photo of the train before getting hit. Quentin Brooks slows it down by singing "B.O.B" by Outkast and turning that into web. James dives and hits the call button. Start A Riot suplexes the train, smashing it through the ceiling. The movie projector from POP #4 falls through and starts playing the orientation video.

Stapleton stands in the wreckage of the bathroom. Ursa rushes to punch him in the face, and he unhinges his jaw and launches a semi-truck from his mouth at her. Start A Riot throws fire towards Stapleton, but he vomits up a fire truck which douses her with water. The elevator arrives, and Quentin's Class all scramble inside. James guesses which button to press incorrectly, and the elevator rushes off in the wrong direction and dumps them in a dungeon cell.

The elevator closes its doors and leaves everyone behind. There's a cot in the back of the cell, a toilet, and a sink. No door. Everyone's Eidolons have disappeared, and they get a migraine all over their body if they try. Sloane and Ursa starting blaming James and Alexis and vice versa. Quentin attempts to mediate, but everyone tells him to fuck off. He can tell he's been imprisoned here before.

Joanna whirs down the hallway and taunts that they will sit here until their paperwork is processed and they are fully erased. They all try to blame Joanna for setting them up to fail, but Joanna resists this narrative, saying the choices were all theirs. The phone Quentin picked up exists solely for calling a limousine from The Estate, and if he was hearing it ringing then he may have been trying to place a call without realizing due to stress or crisis. Quentin attempts to distract her and throw a knife in her. It stabs into her torso but has no further effect and shortly fades from existence. Joanna leaves them to wait out the rest of their existence.

Alexis spends some time experimenting with her pink slip. She, Sloane, and Quentin still all have theirs. Lady Luck appears on the ceiling offering a deal to let them out. Sloane immediately tries to flirt with her. They make several bad offers in exchange for freedom, which Lady Luck deflects before declaring the price is to work for her. If she frees them, they will help her destroy The Estate. Alexis hesitates but everyone else immediately agrees. Alexis would rather fade from existence than ruin the world further. Sloane convinces her by saying she'll be out there ruining things anyway, but Alexis could be a moderating factor.

Appearances
● Alexis Lorentzen // Vivid Memories Turn to Fantasies

● James Studebaker // Time After Time

● Joanna

● Lady Luck

● Quentin Brooks // Speakerboxxx

● Sloane Parker (Original) // Start A Riot

● Stapleton // Life Is A Highway

● "Ursula" Ursa "Bear" // Revolution Lover