Memoirs of a RAFian

[redtailedsaffa]

The books are getting seemingly darker as they come. I love it.

[Cloak]

Eh, not really dark, but character-driven, perhaps. And, perhaps, the brief book synopses make them sound darker than they actually are. Eh.

Anyway, I'm planning through "When All Are One", nearly done with it. Then onto "The Sword Smiths", where a fate of a RAFian will change. . . . Er, I guess.

CHAPTER SIX:
Strive For Realism!

"How do I look?" "Zack Putterman" said. "He" now looked like a real boy -- less like Zack Putterman, but more like a young Dylan Sprouse -- except for the unnatural luster to his face, which could easily be overlooked by the unobservant. And, in this day and age of everyone having their eyes glued to some sort of electronic doohickey, many tend to be unobservant of the world around them at a given point.

"More realistic," "Trish Putterman" said.

"But I still think it would be easier, and cheaper, to --" "Boyfriend Bruce" said, before being interrupted again.

"Make them more realistic," "Zack" said, absently. "Yes, I know. But these will do for our purposes at the moment."

It was true. From a distance, they could be could be mistaken for an actual human, as the hair had none of the "plasticy" appearance that the Putterman models had, the clothing was far more acurate and realistic. Only the truly observant could tell the difference. And those who could Earthsoght or Metalsight, abilities unknown to the collective Eidolon Consciousness.

"Alpha Lar-prime," "Boyfriend Bruce" addressed "Zack" by its title (not name -- it is unknown if the individual eidolons that make up the Consciousness possessed names of their own or even had entertained the concept, like gargoyles). "Alpha Lar-prime, I believe there is a far easier --"

"Yes, we will apply these changes to all of the prototypes." the Alpha Lar-prime said.

"Sir --"

"So, let's get to work now. We should make more, too, to further our plans. We won't have to subsist on the meager attention of ill-cared for children much longer."

"There's an easier way, sir!"

"That's nice, Omega Lar-lx." Alpha Lar-prime said, infuriatingly patronizing. "Now, come, we have work to do."

Omega Lar-lx, again a title, one of low rank, did not argue but acquiesced, albeit ruefully and resentfully. He fully, and with reason, believed that this was a waste of time and energy. There were easier ways to get the buffet that each eidolon of the Consciousness desired, but they had a fool for a leader.

"The production phase is nearly complete," Alpha Lar-prime said, "soon the replacement phase shall begin."

[redtailedsaffa]

Eh, not really dark, but character-driven, perhaps. And, perhaps, the brief book synopses make them sound darker than they actually are. Eh.

That's even better.

[Cloak]

Well, we'll see when time comes to write them.

Okay. Another chapter.

CHAPTER SEVEN:
Alright, Out With It

Cloak had caught up with and cornered the two Time Lords. He had told them, "Out with it."

"With what?" Aila asked.

"You know precisely what." the Realm Walker scolded. Then he realized how parentally he was doing it, and he backed off a little. The whole Youth Incident had him acting far more parentally than usual. At least this time he caught himself. He recomposed himself, and stopped speaking to the two as if they were naughty, mischievous children. Something they appreciated. "You heard Gaz and Shen just as much as I did."

"Yes?"

"Aquilai, don't make me say it again." Cloak said, dangerously creeping back into that parental tone, before forcing himself to stop it. Cloak resigned himself that it would take some time to kick the habit. "Please don't make me say it again."

"Alright, the factory . . . the plastics . . . " Aquilai said, in an irritatingly vague way. "We thought you'd check the species index first."

"You know very well its down," Cloak said, unable to keep the authoritative parental tone from his voice.

"It reeks of the influence of Autons," Aila said. "And their Nestene Consciousness master."

"Mistress," Aquilai corrected.

"Whatever."

Cloak thought about this. He wasn't expertly versed in these species, but he was aware of them. But something was wrong with this.

"If the Nastene --" Cloak began.

"'Nestene'," Aila corrected.

"'Nestene', then." Cloak said, doing the Realm Walker equivalent of rolling their eyes. Which was rolling their eyes -- somethings are universal. "If the Nestene Consciousness is on Earth, directing Autons . . . then whey -- er, why, are they standing around allowing people to gawk at them? Don't the Autons come with built-in weaponry?"

"And stand around like costumed characters at a theme park, I know." Aquilai added. "That's why we weren't entirely sure it was them."

"It's just a rumor," Aila said, dismissively. But she sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than the boys. "Doesn't mean that the Consciousness is involved."

"It sounds more like a quantum lichen, to be honest." Cloak said.

"A what?"

"Never mind that for now," Cloak said. "Gather everyone. This warrants an investigation."

"Over a rumor?"

"A rumor always has some basis in truth, even if is distorted." Cloak said.

"You cjose a heck of a time to be a philosopher." Aquilai sighed.

[redtailedsaffa]

Such great dialogues.

[Cloak]

And new book ideas!

• Book CCCXXVII: "A Green-Screen Scheme" -- A rather shady company comes to RAF to offer a three-picture deal, with video game rights.
• Book CCCXXVIII: "A Very Gross Problem" -- Yarin's ship has an infestation of dianogas.

There, and I'm pretty sure these aren't rehashes.

[Gaz]

Still keeping up with this! Lovin it.

[Cloak]

I'll try to post another chapter soonish. I just accidentally stabbed myself with a pencil. As in stabbed hard enough to draw blood. It just a flesh wound, however, the pain comes not from the injury but the sheer irritation and annoyance of it.

CHAPTER EIGHT:
TMZ Fodder

"Kristen Dunst has a bad hair day!"

"Patrick Stewart's sweat-stained t-shirt!"

"Exclusive pics of Elmo's flabby behind!"

Cloak couldn't believe these were the stories TMZ were gonna feature. Really? Why the Veil were the RAFians even watching such utter bilge? Now they were showing footage of them asking the dumbest, most moronic questions while Adam West tried to eat. His face clearly showed that he thought this was a little creepy.

"Alec Baldwin's big meltdown!"

"Lindsey Lohan's big car chase all over this town!"

There were more, but those were the ones that Cloak could stomach. Especially when they got to the stuff the Bieber brat was up to. He knew he had enough. He never understood these obsessive interest in celebrities that humans had. What's more, he couldn't fathom how they seemed to revel in their downfalls. What is the point of building someone up to stardom, then seek nothing more than tear them down?

Another thing that Cloak couldn't understand is why someone would even want such a life, want to seek out such a life. The concept of fame was not too foreign to him, as some Realm Walkers desired such notoriety some times. But Cloak never sought fame, never sought the limelight. He was blissfully content in his anonymity, though he was quite famous in the Nexus for being the only . . . the first Realm Walker to make a Realm his primary residence instead of the Nexus.

They were ending a segment about some child actor -- well, former child actor -- attempting to set the record straight about why he was working as a host at a restaurant and that he's not broke. Then they turned to some RAFian-based pics and videos.

"Oh, wonderful. Didn't we get a restraining order against them?" Saffa asked.

"Expired," Kelly replied heavily.

"Oh, wonderful," Abby said.

"This location is more protected than the previous one." Cloak said. Then he noticed that a few of the pics showing the celebs on the show had their skin a little too shiny. Cloak had originally dismissed it as a lens flare or something, but something tugged at his gut . . .

"Aila. Aquilai. Tell everyone your suspicions of an Auton invasion."

[redtailedsaffa]

If only Bieber would get taken over by an Auton. Nothing would make me happier. Well, other than the fact he'd want to kill everyone.

[Cloak]

If only Bieber would get taken over by an Auton.

How'd you be able to tell? The guy is already very much like an Auton already, isn't he?

CHAPTER NINE:
The Q and A

And so they did.

"But," Aila insisted, "their actions are a lot more . . . subtle . . . than the averge Auton and Nestene Consciousness."

"Ah, but who said that the Nestene Consciousness is the only one to control Autons?" Cloak posited thoughtfully.

"But . . . but what else can it be?" Saffa asked.

"The behavior -- the fact that these things seem to like attention -- well, it puts me in mind of a quantum lichen, but that's not possible, as there would be a beast-like ego creature."

Cloak could tell that he had lost the others' attention. Rotiart going so far to obnoxiously snore loudly. Saffa jabbed him with a sharpened No. 2 pencil.

"Hey!" he protested, and Saffa was unapologetic.

Cloak, however, was so deep in thought he very barely noticed. Maybe it wasn't like quantum lichen in anything other than motive, but what was the motive? They wanted attention, clearly. Why else replace celebrities -- and Cloak was quite sure this was what was happening, as it would explain the sudden lecherous, daredevil jump in character. Well . . . maybe not in the Bieber brat's case, though -- how would you tell?

"What if they are feeding off this attention?" Gaz said, pensively. "No, I mean it quite literally. What if they are literally feeding off the attention?"

"It's a distinct possibility. . . ." Aquilai admitted slowly.

"Not only is it a possibility, Time Walker," Cloak said, "but it is probable. Why else replace celebrities? Why else try so ardently to get in that venomous limelight?"

"They seek out fame," Shenmue added. "It must be like a buffet to them, a buffet of the utmost opulence."

"Wait, if what you guys are suggesting is true," Blue said, hesitant to commit to the theory, "about just replacing celebrities, does that mean they're still alive? The deception cannot go on forever. It'd eventually be discovered when one gets sloppy."

"What makes you think they'd even get sloppy?" AniDragon asked.

"One," he said, eyeing Rotiart, "always gets sloppy. Always."

"Hey, why did you look at me when you said --" Rotiart began to protest angrily.

"The point is, we may have to stage a rescue mission." Blue continued, cutting across Rotiart, who did not look to be willing to let the subject die.

"Assuming there ARE people to rescue." Parker said.

"Thank you, Mr. Hallmark Card." Faerie said.

[Cloak]

New chapter, perhaps?
 

CHAPTER TEN:
A Conscienceless Consciousness

The Eidolon Consciousness had captured more celebrities, once their plastic replacement shells were completed and inhabited by the eidolons. More and more . . . there were at least twenty celebs that had been replaced beforehand. They were Lucas Cruikshank, Ross Lynch, Alec Baldwin, Lindsey Lohan, Patrick Stewart, Justin Bieber, Kristen Dunst, Betty White, Dylan Sprouse, Mary Kate Olsen, Cole Sprouse, Ashley Olsen . . . among others.
 
The Eidolon Consciousness was wrecking their careers for the sheer scandal. Scandals beget attention, and they resorted to the scandals when the fame was just no longer enough to sustain them. Did they care of the the lives they so recklessly and ruthlessly shatter with scandal? No, of course not. These humans were nothing but pigs, but cows. Their lives were nothing but a delightful diversion, a video game made reality.

The celebrities knew this, and that is why they wept and mourned so openly. They'll just be given their lives back when they have nothing. No one will know of their kidnapping, that their actions were by someone who just looks like them, not them.

Well . . . all but one of the celebs (although including Lucas Cruikshank in that term is really stretching it) were mourning their shattered lives and corroded or lost careers. The Bieber brat was demanding to be released -- and actually expecting acquiescence. This allowed the eidolons that made up the Consciousness much amuzement as they laughed at the boy who believes himself to be a god.

"I still cannot believe these humans chose these worthless beings for their gods," one eidolon was saying. It inhabited the Lucas Cruikshank duplicate.

"It is certainly a wonder as to why they haven't been conquered before now, the feckless beings." the Lucas Cruikshank eidolon's companion, the one who wore the Justin Bieber duplicate, said.

They weren't nearby the holding pen, but could hear the rantings of "the Bieb" from a fair distance away.

"How can you act that way?" "Lucas" said. Then added, as if his contempt for the human species wasn't evident enough as is, though he appreciated the biology. "To keep the illusion with these idiotic bipeds?"

"I still think they picked the wrong eidolon for this job. I can't really act THAT out of control. It's been hard." "The Bieb" said. "I could not believe how much of a brat that human is."

"So," "Lucas" said after a while, "did you hear what the Omega Lar-lx's theory was?"

"What theory?"

"How we take more direct measure to --"

Sirens blared as a red light infiltrated every corner of the place.

"What now?" "Lucas" said, as if it was another false alarm.

"Probably another fly," "Biebs" said, "I've said that alarm is TOO sensitive to movement."

[redtailedsaffa]

Yes! Trash the Bieb!

[Cloak]

Oh, non-Bieblivers (or however you spell that stupid term) of the world unite! Just be glad he's not in your country, Saffa, I wished they'd deport him -- let him be Canada's problem!

Anyway, I'll try to rest up enough to post a chapter (and the new book ideas) later on. Just so exhausted. Graduation week and whatnot, gotta work Saturday because of it.

• Book CCCXXIX: "Rogues Gallery -- Assemble!" -- The RAFians' rogues gallery assembles a coalition.
• Book CCCXXX: "The Night Walkers" -- The town begins shopping in their sleep.

After trying for like ten minutes to get this Gateburst thing to give a stupid CURSOR . . .

CHAPTER ELEVEN:
The V.C.C.D.

"I must express my uncertainty that these devices might even work," Yarin said.

"You built them." Parker said, apparently checking a readout or something. Per usual, he told Tyr to shut up.

"It's true," the Nyac said. "But it hasn't been thoroughly tested! We don't know if it would be a permanent solution or a temporary one."

"Oh, like your microwave?" Saffa said.

"FOOD YIELD INCREASER!!" Yarin said shrilly.

"Quiet down, you two. Just because they look like humans doesn't mean their senses aren't more acute." Cloak said, voice low. "Saffa, stop antagonizing Yarin."

"If I'm not gonna have any fun, I'm going home," she replied sardonically. But Cloak knew she was joking. He addressed Yarin's concerns. "Yarin, I know it isn't ideal, but it is the only way we have right now of stopping these eidolons from taking over the planet . . . as cliched as I know that sounds."

Parker, Abby, Saffa, Gaz, and Cloak held taser-like devices (Yarin held two, Nyacs being a tetramand species . . . er, not to be confused with the species named Tetramands), each device with opaque blue bag attached, making them seem like little more than vacuums.

"These vaccum compartment containment devices," Cloak began.

"Or V.C.C.D.s," Parker interjected.

"Whatever," Cloak said indifferently, before continuing. "These V.C.C.D.s may be the only thing that we can use to contain them."

"Uh, can't these ghost things, these eidol-whosits, just phase through the bag?" Abby asked.

Yarin's voice revealed how offensive -- and hurtful -- he found the question. "Abby, don't think that that was the first thing I considered? The bags were woven from a supertangible, nonplastic polymer. Once they are inside, they cannot get out."

"But once we capture them," Gaz asked, "then what do we do with them?"

"Good question." Parker acknowledged.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Cloak said, repressively.

[Cloak]

Another chapter, methinks. Lest the previous one falls to "modified-post-syndrome".
 

CHAPTER TWELVE:
The Attack

 
Cloak approached the factory, which was below a crest of a hill. Crest of a cliff, really. And it was on this hilly cliff that Cloak made his approach, having stowed his V.C.C.D. in his cloak. Saffa and Abby had morphed Buglizards -- something not very entertaining to watch, especially when their faces morph into a Buglizard's. They aren't the prettiest creatures in the Realm -- and Lepidopterrans probably agree -- but that'd be mostly because Buglizards eat them.
 
Anyway, the two held their V.C.C.D.s in their tails. Cloak had forgotten that Buglizards have prehensile tails. The other RAFians were as they normally are, Parker in his Standard Armor. Cloak was crouched, on the balls of his feet, ears pulled back, only the very tip of his tail moving at all.
 
Time was nearly there. . . .
 
It was time. Cloak looked at the two Buglizard-morphed RAFians and they knew it too, immediately. They crawled and stalked towards the factory, the prevailing winds assisting them by blowing the obscuring clouds that both Abby and Saffa's Buglizard bodies produced into the factory, obscuring the RAFians from visual confirmation. Or so they believed.
 
Eidolon's don't require bodies to see, but just to feed on their attention, their fame, their scandal. Cloak suspected this, as did Parker.
 
Saffa and Cloak swiftly took out the two guards -- except they weren't guards.
 
"Good work!" Parker said. "You killed the replicas of Bieber and that Fred kid."
 
Saffa and Cloak replied simoutaneously.
 
"He was a replica?"
<He was a replica?>
 
"Oh, cute." Parker said, with narrowed eyes. "But leave the Simpsons references behind, okay? We're gonna get into it."

***

Saffa and Abby had morphed back to human -- and, along with Cloak, discovered a serious liability, as Yarin, Parker and Gaz had found the human incarceration. (They had to knock Bieber out to get him to cooperate -- and shut up). Then they proceeded to free them.

"Um, guys, I'm full up!" Abby said, refering to her V.C.C.D.

"Me too!" Saffa added.

"The maximum compacity is six?" Cloak said, who could clearly see the eidolons as easily as he saw the Dementors. The memory of that made him shutter. "REALLY, Yarin?!"

"Hey! You try to build a device to contain an ectoplasmic consciousness that can fade out of most material containment devices!" Yarin shot back.

"Huh?" Abby asked.

"Never mind." Cloak said. "Gaz, Yarin, get the captives out of here and go back to RAF. Parker, change into your thickest, strongest armor. Abby -- Saffa -- go Crabdozer."

"But why?" Gaz asked.

"No time for questions!" Cloak said. "Do it now!"

[redtailedsaffa]

Loving the comic relief here.