ctrlsaltdel

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

My Eidolon, Auld Lang Syne, is a real, physical New Year's Ball, and through it, I can push my mastery of good cheer beyond physical limits, allowing me to wish you all a happy new year!

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

@ctrlsaltdel Out of curiosity, and to double check, would the eidolon abilities be working now?

@Guardian Angel Haruki

yep, feel free to let them rip whenever you're ready

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

man, i wish a problem customer would have waved a big wad of cash at me when I worked foodservice

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

I thought about that, but I figured you'd have at least a few minutes while the staff figured out what to do about that.

"Is that a crow?"
"I think it's a raven, actually."
"How can you tell?"
"I unno."
"Well, can you get it out of here?"
"No dude, it's your turn, I dealt with the lady who put her bearded dragon on the table last week"

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

Sorry if it feels like I'm pushing things too quickly--I like the direction things were going but I also wanted to get past that first bit with Santana, and I wasn't sure when we were going to have another off-ramp from that scene.

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

As the party trades introductions (and verbal jabs), Santana checks his wrist; an obnoxiously large gold watch sits there, though you couldn't say whether he was wearing it a minute before. "Well, I'm glad we're all friends, but now that you've all accepted my deal we're in a bit of a crunch. Time works different in the world of dreams, except when it doesn't. I'll let you finish this conversation and decide your next move in a more familiar location. Remember: be clever. Be quick. Cause as much trouble as you can." He gives them a wide smile, and his mouthful of gold teeth made it literally dazzling.

"If you need me, you have my card."

Santana snaps his fingers, and you are struck with what feels like an electrical shock from the card you are holding in your hand (or beak). It's not painful, but is is deeply uncomfortable, and you find yourself unable to release the card. The fractal pattern on the surface closest to you starts to resolve; the colors and shapes that have been moving at random now shift with purpose, revealing a picture painted in Baroque style.

Luka, in the middle of your card is what looks like the offspring of a unicycle and a penny farthing. Its single enormous wheel has eight spokes, and the four cardinal directions are marked with the Hermetic symbols of the four elements. The wheel is circumscribed on a circular map of the world, painted in green and gold. The four corners of the card are marked with different drink glasses--a glass of fine wine, a martini glass with garnish, a mimosa, and a lowball of whiskey. Sitting astride the great unicycle of the world is your likeness, hands outstretched down towards the Earth. Across the top of the card is written: X - The Wheel of Fortune.

Emily, your card is divided in half. On the left side, it depicts the front of a modern public library, in black and white. On the right, it bears the image of an old Greek temple, but the colors are all wrong; instead of stark white against green and blue, the image is a patchwork of colorful, saturated tones. Straddling the divide is you. Your likeness holds an open leather-bound book in front of her chest with one hand, its pages facing out, and her other holds an old-style fountain pen to the sky, placed directly in the middle of the card so it looks like she has drawn the divide between the two sides. On the right side, she is clad in your normal going-to-class clothing; on the left, she wears billowing Greek-style robes. Across the top of the card is written: II - The High Priestess.

Ashley, your card also depicts a library, but the inside rather than the outside. Specifically, it is the library you spent most of your time in growing up. In the background, stacks of books merge with the circulation desk merge with the computer lab merge with seasonal displays in an alien geometry. In the foreground, your likeness sits at a large wooden table. She is dressed in the rough brown robes of an asthetic monk, and the table is piled with dusty tomes. A scroll occupies the center of the table, and spills over the far side down past the bottom of the card. Leaned against a stack of books to one side is a ceremonial staff; as your depiction looks down at the scroll, finger tracing the lines and face locked in concentration, the carved sculpture of an eye that sits atop the staff looks up to the heavens. Across the top of the card is written: V - The Hierophant.

The Crow, your card, appropriately enough, has a metallic sheen to it. The border is decorated with the various objects you have appropriated over the years; a parade of coins, tie clips, credit cards, bottlecaps, and so on in alternating shades of copper, silver, and gold. The background is the New York City skyline. The tops of the buildings glitter in rainbow colors which vanish as you go down, eventually becoming solid black. Imposed on top of them is an iron-grey cocoon which has split open at the top; your likeness emerges from the top of it, your wings akimbo. You are flying upwards in the scene, forming a silouette against the dazzling buildings, except where your white feathers are etched in pearl. Across the top of the card is written: XIII - Death.

The sensation leaves as swiftly as it came, and when you regain your senses, you are all once again sitting in a booth in Mario's. This time, however, you are all sitting in the same booth. Each of you has a cup of coffee in front of you, and a small plate of creamer sits in the middle of the table. A small scrap of paper is tucked under the plate; upon closer examination, it's a bar tab slip, and scrawled on it: "A little pick me up, on the house ;)"

The hour is early, and the restaurant is almost empty, but the smell of cooking grease and strong coffee hang heavy in the air as the staff prepare for the coming breakfast rush. A waitress behind the counter watches the few patrons for empty coffee cups, while they in turn tend to their meals with various levels of lethargy. In short, the scene is all too familiar. Danger is around the corner--literally, in all likelihood--but you have a few precious minutes to talk among yourselves before you have to act. Your only advantages are a feeling of pressure--of potential--that you can now sense hovering in the back of your mind, and the fact that now, you know what's coming.

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

ultimately it's going to be up to y'all, but at this early point i feel like the first phantom fight is probably going to be luka or the crow, and i'm already looking forward to some snark from whoever doesn't have their eidolon turn on them.

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

Luka, Ashley, and The Crow--as you pick up the cards in front of you, that sensation of sympathy you felt coming from them intensifies. In your mind, it feels like the the thrumming of some great string under tension. Power--energy--change--held fast but straining against its bonds. Like a bridge cable, supporting the weight of a hundred speeding cars--or, it might be better to say, a dog straining its leash when it sees its owner.

Santana considers the two holdouts for a second with unreadable yellow eyes, then shrugs. "Why you? Well, it had to be someone. And today? You're someone." He chuckles at his own remark, then his expression turns serious. "I'm jokin' with you, but that's the truth. How I brought you here, offered you a second chance at life... Well, that might have given you some more grandiose ideas of what I can do than are borne out by the facts. The truth is that, at the moment, I'm at my nadir. Even if I weren't, there are rules that beings like myself have to follow. Proprieties to be observed." He meets Ashley's eyes. "You talk like I could have picked anyone I wanted but, at the end of the day, I couldn't have picked anyone else, any more than I could make you take my offer now.

"Still, I get where you all are comin' from. And I have no intention of throwin' you to the wolves unarmed." He reaches out, grabbing Emily's card and setting it standing upright on a corner, then flicks it, sending it spinning on that tiny point. Emily, you feel an uncomfortable fluttering sensation in your chest as the coruscating colors flicker back and forth. At first, you think you see an image in the shifting patterns--a woman, holding something aloft--but it's hard to focus on it, and you lose it after only a brief moment. After a few seconds, the card slows to a stop, and falls gently down to rest where it started.

"This place--not just my domain, but everything around it--is at the intersection of reality and imagination. Between mind and matter. It's real 'cause your minds make it real. Not 'you' you, everyone. The collective unconscious of humanity is a force like gravity, and it holds together both my world and yours." He places a lime and a cocktail cherry on the bar a couple of inches away from each other. "Just like the Earth and the moon, the force of humanity's shared emotions keeps this world and yours linked." He starts moving the cherry in an elliptical orbit around the lime. "Chugga chugga, choo choo, it keeps looping around. But the effect ain't just one way--just like the moon affects the tides, the world of dreams pulls on the collective unconscious." He spins the lime, and it begins to rotate in time, keeping one end pointed toward the cherry's orbit.

"For the most part, that's all for the good. Everything in balance, et cetera et cetera. But sometimes, people break free of the spin. For some, all it takes is bein' made aware of the cycle. Other people need... more of a push. Either way, when that happens, some of that energy they contributed to the cycle is redirected. It becomes a representation of their soul, and provides some protection against the pull of the dream world. Not just that, but it lets its master exert some of that gravity I mentioned to make changes in both worlds.

"The people you'd be goin' up against already have this power. Different people have given it different names over the years, but they call it 'Eidolon'." Santana folds his arms and nods at the cards. "If you accept my deal, that's the power you'll have too." He shrugs. "Will what you gain be enough to do what I'm askin'? Well... I'd say that's up to you. I won't lie to you--your opponents will be more numerous and better trained than you. You're gonna have to be quick and clever if you want to survive, much less succeed. I guess my question is: what do you really have to lose?"

Paranormal: The Awakening

bummer, but heard

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

stopping the plot for a few hours so santana and the party can give this bird a crash course in comparative religion