POP 21: Judgment

"'I want to be the one who stopped the world from ending.' -James Studebaker"

Judgment is the twenty-first episode of Eidolon POP and the forty-third episode of Eidolon Playtest Season 1. It covers Quentin's Class as they travel from The Estate to Reno, and from there to Las Vegas to rescue Ron Moreau's body.

Summary
Quentin Brooks is in the Parlor of Death, alone. Lady Luck appears after he calls out, but declines to let him out. Her plans involving Quentin and his class all went poorly, so she's now working with a Team B who'll be here shortly. He's free to go into either the Dark Room or Light Room, but Quentin chooses to wait instead. He can't interact with the exit door at all.

The rest of Quentin's class are leaving the Paperwork Department, Ursula-Ursa Bexar is carrying his dead body. She walks over to the Parlor of Death, but the door is locked. Sloane Parker breaks the door open with Start A Riot, but inside instead is a random man named Menard. Sloane tells him he's dead and shuts the door on him. They conclude its likely a random person each time they open the door, so James Studebaker uses Time After Time to hone in on the quintessential pattern of Quentin's Eidolon, Speakerboxxx. He tries the door again and Quentin is inside.

James admits to Quentin that he didn't end up destroying his pink slip, because there's another James who would be erased if he did. Ursula-Ursa hugs Quentin, attempting to avert his gaze from his corpse. The class decides to hide Quentin's body in the instance of the Parlor of Death he just left. They discuss their next moves to find Ron Moreau's body, and James notes that Teoth hasn't been acknowledging Lady Luck whenever she appears, so maybe their relationship is more fraught than Lady Luck says.

The class reaches the Gambling Parlor, but The Gambler refuses to let them in without a password. They no longer work for Lady Luck. Instead, Ursula-Ursa opens a portal where the door is. Everyone walks through and finds themselves in Reno, Nevada. Quentin rents an SUV from a rental car location and they begin the seven hour drive to Las Vegas.

Ursula-Ursa is driving, with Alexis Lorentzen in shotgun. Ursula takes this opportunity to talk with her about her sometimes-reckless use of Vivid Memories Turn to Fantasies. Alexis acknowledges this risk, but counters that she can easily revert her photos. Recklessly killing someone, however, is much harder to undo. Ursula-Ursa says she only plans to kill three more people: Henry Dracula, Michael-Valentine, and Raphael-Hubert. Alexis puts some music on that she downloaded onto Sloane's phone.

Some time later, Quentin is driving and Ursula-Ursa is napping in the back. He talks with Alexis about whether he's been a bad influence, which Alexis confirms and says she's realized that he's just like them but a decade older. He asks Alexis if she's still worried about losing her memories. She's more concerned about the imminent end of the world. She has no reason to doubt Gabriel-Bede, but thinks they'll still exist in a different form. Alexis references Burgess Aethelwulf Joseph's work on the Age of the Mind, leading to a discussion on whether Quentin's body is still human and whether Alexis' photocopies have souls. Alexis believes they're just as alive, and she is effectively killing that version when she undoes the copy.

In the back seats, Ursula-Ursa asks how James is doing. He's not great, he couldn't justify regaining his existence at the cost of the new James. James doesn't know where to go from here. He told Ursa in past that he just wanted to be himself, but he doesn't know who that is anymore. He confesses that he snuck into one of the ancient history rooms in The Estate, but Gabriel-Bede talked him down and told him he'd get back more than he lost. Ursula-Ursa suggests that the end of the world may spawn a new one where things are better for James. But James doesn't want to take things from others just to benefit himself. He mentions he has a plan to make Gabriel-Bede's prediction of the end of the world wrong, but isn't going to say what it is as he knows they won't like it.

Ursula-Ursa asks Sloane if she meant to hurt Ursa and take advantage of her. Sloane admits she did, she wasn't in a good place and saw Ursa's desperation as a license to do what she wanted. While she tried to do better, it doesn't change that harm. It scared Sloane to see Ursa transform from an anxious person wanting friendship into an impulsive fighter that killed Angela without a second thought. While Ursula-Ursa regrets that, she admits she may not have done differently depending on how it escalated. Sloane asks to pull over at the next gas station.

Quentin's class grab some snacks from a gas station and continue driving. As they reach Las Vegas around 3pm, the music cuts out and a radio broadcaster announces that President Henry Dracula is dead. Everyone in the car celebrates, drivers of other cars weep. It seems likely that Dracula is now stuck in the Parlor of Death, as Lady Luck would be unwilling to let him out.

As they drive around Las Vegas, James uses Time After Time to attempt to locate Ron's body. He manages to locate it - its at the top of the Luxor Casino. Ursula-Ursa suggests it'll be easy to break into, compared to the supernatural obstacles in The Estate. Everyone walks in through the front door, ignoring an attendant that greets them. Ursula-Ursa hacks an elevator to ignore their lack of room keys and takes them to the highest floor it can reach. They reach the top floor of the hotel portion. Ron's body is still higher. It is thirteen hours till the end of the world.

James overhears from one of the rooms a news broadcaster announce that President Dracula is still alive. Another attendant approaches Ursula-Ursa and reports it on his walky-talky when she ignores him. With security likely on its way, Sloane uses Start A Riot to burst through the ceiling. On the floor above them, a security guard pulls a gun and Ursula-Ursa shoots them in the leg. At the sound of gunshot, a handful of footsteps rush towards their location. Sloane attempts to ward them off with a wall of flame and breaks through the ceiling again.

As Sloane attempts to fly into the hole, the security guards run into view. One guard shouts "The World at Large!" and the ceiling becomes impossibly far. The security guards pull their guns and shoot at Quentin's class. Quentin jams some of their guns with Speakerboxxx, Ursula-Ursa shoots back, but both get injured. As James notices that Sloane seems to be hovering in the air, the floor drops away beneath them. Another guard shouts "Float On!" to keep the guards afloat. Sloane tires, Quentin fails to catch anyone, and they all fall and crash into the ground, knocked unconscious.

Appearances
● Alexis Lorentzen // Vivid Memories Turn to Fantasies

● Erin Tanner // Float On

● James Studebaker // Time After Time

● Lady Luck // Poker Face

● Quentin Brooks // Speakerboxxx

● Sloane Parker // Start A Riot

● The Gambler

● Unnamed Neckbreaker // The World at Large (First Appearance)

● Ursula-Ursa Bexar // Pack Light