POP 12: Strength

"'Is it really true that you've lost EVERYTHING?' 'Everything I would consider important.' -The Narrator & James Studebaker"

Strength is the twelfth episode of Eidolon POP and the twenty-fifth episode of Eidolon Playtest Season 1. It covers Quentin's Class as they fight the Shade-hunter Raphael-Hubert and sommelier Jegudiel-Vincent, opening up passage to the basement of The Estate.

Summary
Wine Cellar, The Estate

All of Quentin's Class were sampling Jegudiel-Vincent's wine when Raphael-Hubert burst through the door. He and his wolf are staring straight at Ursa. Quentin's Class tells him to go away, but he won't leave without her. Ursa explains that he hunts Shades like her for The Estate.

Eidolon Battle
Raphael-Hubert's wolf charges at Ursa and tackles her to the ground, transforming into a net to hold her down. Quentin Brooks, Alexis Lorentzen, Sloane Parker, and James Studebaker are struggling to overcome the compulsion to drink more of Jegudiel-Vincent's wine. Jegudiel-Vincent is fretting in a corner.

Quentin had only smelled the wine, and so is able to break out of the spell by stabbing himself in the leg. Raphael-Hubert begins dragging Ursa away, and Quentin sends Speakerboxxx to stop him. Sloane shouts to James that they're here to support him, but he needs to get his head in the game and help Ursa. James rallies himself and in a drunken impulse takes off his shirt. Ursa blushes. He lets out a weak roar and rushes at Raphael-Hubert, instead knocking into Quentin who knocks into the hunter and accidentally pushes him over.

Alexis has been standing around, sipping the wine. She casually walks over to Raphael-Hubert on the ground and shoves a photograph of Jegudiel-Vincent in his mouth and steps back as it transforms. Quentin webs the hunter's mouth shut. Eye goo spurts from spots on his head as sharp edges of polaroid paper explode out into an origami Jegudiel-Vincent. Just as Sloane is about to use Start A Riot to free Ursa from the net, it transforms back to the wolf. The wolf runs back and messily pulls the polaroid Jegudiel-Vincent out of Raphael-Hubert's head, which quickly heals.

Raphael-Hubert asks Jegudiel-Vincent to call Joanna. Jegudiel-Vincent grabs a phone from the wall, but is interrupted by Start A Riot suplexing him as Ursa suplexes Start A Riot for more air time. Jegudiel-Vincent is thrown, and the phone is ripped from the wall.

Raphael-Hubert throws an eye he was holding in his hand onto the ground. It expands to cover the entire floor before disappearing. Everyone's Eidolons are gone. The murky oil texture of the air disappears. The wine compulsion vanishes. Jegudiel-Vincent transforms into an analogue clock labeled that it's "wine o'clock". Ursa turns into a literal bear, and Raphael-Hubert shoots at her with a revolver as she runs for the door.

Quentin panics and is about to text Caroline Rose, when instead he impulsively texts "HELP" to another contact labeled '?????'. On the wall next to him, black mold grows and sprouts through the cracks. It does not respond to Quentin's request for help, but it grows in his direction. Ursa is at the exit door with the hunter shooting at her and the wolf biting at her. She starts crying.

James runs at Raphael-Hubert with his bat and knocks him to the ground. The wolf pulls away from Ursa and runs at James, but Ursa catches up to it and pins it down. Alexis stumbles around drunk, tripping over Raphael-Hubert and puking in his face. Ursa picks up the hunter with her mouth, but he clenches his fist and retracts the eye from the floor to wrap it around Ursa. Everything returns to how it was previously, but Ursa is still a bear. The wolf turns into a spear and pins Ursa to the wall.

Quentin jams a knife in Raphael-Hubert's eye but gets headbutted away. Start A Riot flies over, axe aflame, and cuts Raphael-Hubert clean in half. The eye drips off Ursa who returns to her Shade form. She shrinks off the spear and Quentin bandages her up with Speakerboxxx. Alexis is laying on the ground, still very drunk.

Raphael-Hubert's upper body sits up. He shouts at Jegudiel-Vincent to do his job. Jegudiel-Vincent twists the clock hands on his face to midnight, and all the corks on the wine barrels pop off and start flooding the room with wine. Quentin steals Raphael-Hubert's revolver and shoots Jegudiel-Vincent in the head, killing him. Start A Riot and Ursa smash through the door downstairs and the wine drains from the room. Soaked in wine and mostly drunk, Quentin's Class start to head downstairs.

As they head downstairs, Raphael-Hubert's voice echoes behind them warning that he will continue to hunt Ursa and per her in a zoo. James and Sloane head back to kill him, and Alexis to watch. When they return, James hits the hunter in the head with a baseball bat, but this does not seem to injure him. Start A Riot engulfs him in flame, which clearly hurts him a lot, but does not injure him further. Raphael-Hubert taunts them before dissolving into eyegoo. James puts his wine-soaked shirt back on, and Alexis salvages the photo of Jegudiel-Vincent.

Basement, The Estate

At the base of the stairs is a sign that reads "This floor: 1800-1900. Next floor: 1700-1800." Ursa asks Quentin if she should just leave, thinking she's a nuisance to the others and doesn't know what to do. Quentin points out that she wouldn't have been ok if Sloane had left them when she disappeared in POP #10. Quentin argues that he is very selfish, so if he was willing to defend Ursa like that then she must be important to them. They both agree to head back upstairs and rest.

Wine Cellar, The Estate

The mold on the wall bursts into a shadowy goo. Sloane recognizes this as a similar being to the Shade in a bowler hat they met in POP #6. A mouth opens and it gurgles. At this point, Quentin walks up and they each extend a hand for an elaborate handshake. The Shade can't quite keep up with the motions and Quentin's face drops. Quentin awkwardly tries to make conversation, but only receives gurgling sounds. He senses profound pain and sorrow from it.

The Shade feels familiar to Ursa, but she can't quite place it. She can understand its gurgles, they're only half-formed words and mutterings. Its clear this Shade is not entirely there, and can't really understand them. While Quentin claims they were an important friend to him, he can't quite remember their name.

Appearances
● Alexis Lorentzen // Vivid Memories Turn to Fantasies

● James Studebaker // Time After Time

● Jegudiel-Vincent // Tik Tok

● Quentin Brooks // Speakerboxxx

● Raphael-Hubert // Hungry Like The Wolf

● Sloane Parker // Start A Riot

● Unnamed Shade from Quentin's Past (First Appearance)

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

Trivia
● After the ending theme, there is an outtake where Luke Varner makes multiple attempts at Raphael-Hubert declaring he's hungry like the wolf.