This Story is based during the events of the podcast, Eidolon Playtest. Whereas it tries to act as canon as possible (Making a story separate from the events but based around them), it is strictly up to the makers of the phenomenal podcast to decide.

Eidolon PUNK also vaguely uses rules from the PbtA system of EIDOLON: Become Your Best Self. If you find inconsistencies between this story and the rules, please note that I have not read the rules. And even if I did, I would always choose the most dramatic events.

All Eidolon Descriptions will be written at the end of the Chapter. If one is unknown but shown, it's description will not be shown.

Last Time on Eidolon PUNK

I was really not feeling the High School Pride. It wasn't bad enough that all my classes were boring, or that the cliché school bully has it out for me, OR that I have a man (woman?) in black trying to recruit me. Something about having a part to play in the end of reality? Dude, all I want to do is sit in my bed and play some Zelda. Is that too much to ask for?

I woke up to... well, I actually couldn't tell you where I was, exactly. It looked like I was in a construction site for some sort of skyscraper, possibly an apartment building, which placed me downtown. However, it was nightfall, so it wasn't completely out of the question that they dragged me into a vehicle and dropped me off in Toronto, or possibly across the border to Detroit. I was laying on the ground rather eloquently. My idea of eloquent being my face smudged into the dirt and my lips making a pucker face.

Now, in real time? I wasn't calmly making those calculations. I was, in fact, panicking out of my mind, since I had literally been dragged out and probably going to get shot. I quickly realized that there was nothing holding me down and I clambered to my feet, looking both directions. Despite being asleep for at least 4 hours, I was wide awake, adrenaline pumping through me. Except it didn't quite feel like adrenaline. It felt like something else...

Realizing no one was around, I quickly patted myself down to see if anything was missing. That crazy lady probably took my wallet, or my phone, or something else. However, I found my phone, and soon remembered that I don't bring my wallet to school. Besides, the only thing in that wallet was, like, pocket change. Dimes and nickels, and maybe a twenty. I turned on my phone and as fast as I could, swiped around to see where I was. Going to Google Maps, I saw that-

"New York!?" I yelped, looking at the location. I quickly looked at how long it would take me to get back to Windsor via car, but I realized that I was somehow a 9 hour drive from home. I started to panic, but I used some home-made breathing exercises to try to calm myself down. Did they work? Well, maybe a little. But I've never been to New York. I don't know ANYTHING about this city. How am I supposed to get out of here?

"You're not very good at keeping calm, are you?" A deep voice said, causing me to jump into orbit. I spun around to where the voice was and saw a man step out from behind a metal beam, his arms crossed and his finger tapping his bicep. I cautiously took a step back every time he took a step forward, sensing... something coming out of him. Authority? Murderer-y vibes? The smell of toxic masculinity? Whatever it was, something inside me needed to get out of his proximity. And even if that something inside wasn't there - he was a creepy man in a full on suit. He could be hiding a Glock inside the jacket for all I knew.

Noticing my weak attempts to escape him, he raised his hands in the universal "I come in peace" gesture, which didn't make me exactly trust him more. But, he did stop progressing towards me, so I stopped moving backwards. I took a glance up and down him, to see if I could take him our, but he looked like the dude from Hitman. Heck, he even was bald. Next thing I knew he'd throw his briefcase at me and then BAM! That's a Isaac smudge on the floor.

As soon as I thought to myself Well, I can't take this guy. Something inside my started to bubble up in response to that. It didn't say anything, but I knew the gist of it - Nah, we can take him.

Mr. Hitman simply looked at me, waiting for my internal dialogue to stop. When I finally shook the thoughts away, he breathed a sigh of relief and stretched his hand out to shake. However, we were too far away to actually shake hands, and I wasn't taking any steps forward. Nor would I touch any part of him.

That last sentence came out a teensy bit wrong.

"Was worried for a second there, kid." He told me, withdrawing his hand after realizing how redundant it was. "Yer Eidolon wasn't showin' up. Thought it might'a went phantom, but ye seem to be fine. Yer name's Isaac, right?"

"Does everyone just know my name now?" I pondered, getting a chuckle out of the Scottish Hitman. Was Hitman Scottish in the game? I've never played Hitman.

"Nah, jus' us here in the Fallout. Ye've already met Beatrice, and I 'pose that Nathan's Eidolon gave you quite the hit, huh?" He gave a single laugh. "Ah, it's been a long time since Nathan came back. Oh, and ye can call me... Phoenix."

"Whoa, whoa. You're throwing out a whole bunch of terms at me that I don't understand. Eidolon? I don't think it's pronounced 'eye-dohl-on'. Pretty sure it's "eye-DOH-lin". And phantom? What's a phantom and why -" I recalled what he said right before he said phantom. "Wait... did you say that I have an Eidolon?"

"Well, I didn't have a say in that, but ye do now. Think 'bout it! I wonder what ye Eidolon can do. I can summon a Phoenix. 'Cause the Eidolon's called Phoenix." He clapped his hands and pulled out a small bottle, filled with ash and stopped with a cork. Popping the cork off, the ash swirled like a tornado and shot out of the bottle, slowly shaping into the form of a bird. The ash-bird spread it's wings and ignited into flames, and I had to block the light coming from it with my arm as to not permanently blind me. My eyes quickly adjusted to the light and I removed my raised arm, looking at the flaming bird in awe. I could feel the heat emanating off of it from this distance, which felt like wearing a blanket on a summer day. Warm and sweaty, but not necessarily hot.

I stared at the bird for a hot second, then looked down at my body. When I had patted myself down earlier, I hadn't found anything that was out of the ordinary. My only possessions were my clothes and my phone, my backpack probably lost somewhere within the nine hour trip from Windsor. Luckily, I had nothing in there worth anything.

I continued to investigate my belongings when I heard a new voice speak out "Phoenix. I believe you've entertained our guest enough. I'll take it from here."

This voice sent fight or flight instincts into my brain, it was so raspy. Phoenix bowed his head, and opened his glass bottle. The phoenix crumbled into ash and was vacuumed into the bottle, sealed with the cork, and put inside Phoenix's coat. He quickly exited the area to a place I couldn't see him, but where he went was the least of my problems, because Raspy Voice landed from somewhere above me, nearly knocking me off my feet.

His look was almost as terrifying as his voice. He wore a suit, like all the other weirdos I've met so far, except he added a trench coat to the mix. The lower half of his face was masked with a cowl, and the left half of his face was scarred. To top it all off, he wore a fedora. And, to make that worse, it was tilted so I couldn't see his eyes. That something inside me - which I started to assume as my Eidolon - told me that this dude was bad news, but I didn't need superpowers to tell that.

A fedora.

Sorry. Back on track.

I instantly raised my fists, not trusting anything this dude says. He raised an eyebrow and said "Jumping so quick to conclusions? I mean, fair, but I'm not your enemy. In fact, I might be your one ally in this place."

"Certainly don't look the part." I retorted, then silently chastising myself for having a cocky mouth. This dude could probably-

"Oh, you don't like the look? Personally, I think it brings out the real me, rather then you wearing that flannel shirt. Which, by the way, is your Eidolon." He announced casually, waving at my shirt.

I stared at him, with an are you serious? Look on my face. When his face only changed slightly to an annoyed eyebrow furrow, and when it did, I snorted so hard with laughter that I nearly choked on my spit. I dropped my bravado pose and started hoarsely coughing, trying my hardest not to fall over. The fedora man watched this with the same way a lot of people watch me - severely annoyed and angered.

When my little fit was over, he waved his hand. Where his land passed through the air, a golden light trailed. The light started to morph, eventually filling the space between us and spreading a pair of golden wings. Surprised, but not as surprised as I should have been, I took a couple of steps back and saw a massive, golden owl spread it's wings between us. Despite the horrifying aspect of it, I did have an urge to reach out and pet it. I'm pretty sure that wasn't the actual Eidolon's power, but hey. It looked pretty.

I looked down at my shirt, pulling at it and trying to discern what it did. Inside, I was genuinely panicking, but I was trying to keep out a brave face. That laugh earlier? That was more of an emotional breakdown. In the light of the big glowy owl, I saw that the fabric had taken on a darker tone, the darker red parts of the flannel taking on a black tone. When I messed with it, I could tell that Raspy Voice was right - there was something inside my button-up.

Raspy Voice gestured towards his massive bird. "This is Thanks for the Memories. It is what you might call a wildcard, as it continues to change shape. In fact, what it changes into is... quite important to our mission. My, mission."

"Hold up- you're the one that knocked me out!" I pointed at him, now very tensed up. He rolled his eyes and waved his hand, clearly annoyed of that subject.

"I did what was necessary, Isaac. Besides, I gave you superpowers. You should be more grateful." He said, trying to get back to whatever propaganda he was trying to get me into.

"Grateful-" I sputtered. "I don't even know where I am, or how to get back home! How should I-"

"Fold." Raspy Voice addressed to his bird. It started to fold (heh) into itself, forming into a more humanoid shape, then began to build a stained glass shell around it. I instinctively raised my fists again, even though I was practically a stick. The eidolon changed into a female shape, who's features were hard to discern as it was made fully of stained glass. She clenched her hand into air, and more stained glass started to form mid-air, melding into a floating spear.

Raspy tilted his head, clearly exhausted by our small exchange. "Isaac, I've been told that you are the key to making the World Tree work. I've also heard that you are the damnation of our little organization. I made sure that you wouldn't be instantly killed here. I don't want to be the one to do it."

I gulped. "I think I'm missing WAY more steps here then I originally thought. And, uh, I didn't ask to be here. I can just, y'know, leave the place, and we can forget about this-"

"Dead or not." Raspy reiterated, the spear quivering mid-air. I blinked twice, and I felt my eidolon tell me that don't worry about helping him. We can escape. Trust me.
And I was like, pretty sure you ARE me, so screw it. These dudes are crazy.

"Final answer?" He asked impatiently. I looked at his choice of outfit, remembered that everyone here wanted to kill me, and ran the other way.

Raspy growled behind me. I sensed something behind me, and I leaped into the air, twisting my body and narrowly dodging the spear that had sailed straight towards my back. I landed on my feet and saw the spear smash into the ground, shattering into a bunch of shards that promptly disappeared. I didn't have time to process what I had just did, and I kept running towards... a direction. I think I saw some street lights in a direction? I ran towards that, as I heard Raspy yell something along the lines of "Kill him!" Or something. I wasn't paying attention - I had just, probably, used my eidolon for the first time.

I felt the heat of Phoenix overhead, and I managed to stop my speed as the flaming bird slammed into the ground in front of me. The bird was about the size of a horse, so in short, it could probably smash me into a pulp. The user called out behind me, "I didn't want te do this, Isaac! Jus' work with us!"

"As much as I like reality, y'all are, uh, how to say this non-offensively..." I pondered that question for a while, then quickly rolled to the side as the bird slammed it's beak into the ground where I was standing. I came up kneeling, trying to figure out how to get past the massive bird. My attention was directed towards the metal archway, as a beam of steel was above him. My flannel shirt started flipping in the wind dramatically, and I mentally told it to stop. I took a couple steps backward, then took a running leap for the beam. I launched myself onto the bird and vaulted upwards quickly, grabbing the beam and swinging off it and behind the massive Eidolon. Looking behind me, I saw at least 4 more people had ran into the clearing, although I couldn't quite make out their figures.

One of people in the back raised their arms towards the sky, and I felt my Eidolon sense start to tingle violently. I thought to my Eidolon, how do we get out of this one?

In response, my arm shot upwards, like one would when asking a question in school. I stood there, confused for a couple of moments.

Eventually, I started to ask "What does this have to d-WHA-!". I felt something grab my arm and yank me off the ground, flinging sky-high.

Isaac Ford: "My Eidolon, Dance, Dance, is an real, physical button-up flannel shirt, and I'm so good with it that when I use it I can sense threats and respond to them with acrobatic prowess. (VIRTUOSO)

"Phoenix": "My Eidolon, The Phoenix, obliterates enemies by being a big flaming bird and burning them. (VANGUARD)

"Thnks fr th Mmrs" (WILDCARD)