Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

Good. 'Kay, gonna rest up a bit, than try to post another chapter. I may have to split one in two, or just make the next one rather long, but we'll see.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
They're Fired

Parker deftly switched to his Gaea Armor, as Saffa and Abby completed their morphs to Crabdozer.

"Care to tell us -- WAAAH! YOU'RE ON FIRE!" Parker said.

It was true. Cloak had ignited himself. You'd think that the eidolons that were harbored so snuggly within their plastic replicas would be smart enough to either stay put or flee. But no. Like gnomes in a de-gnoming, they come right out to investigate.

<Cloak, I have some reservations about this --> Abby said.

Cloak allowed the fire to build up, with a roaring grunt as if he was going Super Saiyin. Abby thought it was a response to her comment, though.

<Comment withdrawn.> she said, rather meeker than she had intended.

Cloak's eyes, which had been shut, flew open as scarlet gold suns. The fire continued to grow in size and intensity. Cloak was using all his willpower to hold it in check. He had to time this perfectly.

"What is this intrusion?" said a voice. Sounded like a Sprouse twin. Cloak didn't care -- he knew it was little more than a plastic puppet. "What are those aliens doing here? Who lit that fire?"

He made a mistake of pointing. Now he had no right index finger. The plastic just melted straight off his replica's hand. Now the eidolons seemed to realize what was going on.

"Evacuate! Abandon the building!" the imposter screamed. But already his face was beginning to drip and bead and bubble. Parker, Saffa, and Abby immediately realized why Cloak wanted them here. He was immobilized generating this heat, but they weren't. They were to block off the escape routes. Crabdozers fed on Pyronites, so a little heat wouldn't bother them. While Parker's Gaea Armor insulated him from most, if not all, of the heat.

"Get out of the way! We're gonna die!" said the replicas.

<What do you take us for?> Saffa snorted. She knew very well these replica bodies were nothing more than costumes for these eidolons. They could take them off whenever they wished. But still it was like watching Venber struggle to exist at room temperature. Saffa repeated, <What do you take us for? Idiots?>

". . . Yes?" what used to be replica of Lindsey Lohan -- now more of a runny, third-grade slacker sculpture version of a human -- said. Saffa used her rhinocerid horn to toss the melting, malformed mess closer to Cloak and she melted into liquid plastic and burnt remnants of cloth and faux hair. Her eidolon was fine, but unhappy. They seemed confined to the factory for some reason.

With a roar, Cloak unleashed an incinderary explosion that reduced all the replicas to molten plastic, leaving the eidolons of the Eidolon Consciousness rather perturbed and a little miffed. The four pulled out, with Saffa and Abby demorphing outside the still-standing factory. All its windows were blown out though.

The four returned to RAF, with Parker complaining about the soot on his armor in a benign, jocular way.

[Cloak]

Ah. The ol' "modify-post syndrome". Doesn't help when I forget do my sig like in Chapter Five I think it was.
 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
Omega Lar-lx's Experiment

 
What do we do now? an eidolon asked the Alpha Lar-prime.

The Alpha Lar-prime snarled, What d'ya mean, "What do we do now"?

The plan!

The conquest!

How will we feed now?!

This plastic is useless!

Isn't it obvious?! the eidolon yelled. We are trapped in here. We have no more means for leaving this place.

You're sentencing us to death!

There is no other way! the Alpha Lar-prime said.

You are wrong. the Omega Lar-lx said. There may be a way still.

No, Omega Lar-lx, there is no other way. You need to accept it. the Alpha Lar-prime said.

The Omega Lar-lx said nothing but looked around. It has been a few days since Cloak ruined their plastic supplies and his friends set free their captives. (The RAFian were freed from any litigation by the testimonies of all the captured celebrities . . . well, except Justin Bieber, the epitome of the self-centered, egotistical, no-talent brat who should be more thankful for what he has.) The other eidolons in the Consciousness were getting restless, hungry.

The Omega Lar-lx was sure they needn't have bothered with the replifas or the plastic at all. He suspected a more direct route would be easier. He saw a couple of teenagers -- three total, two males with short-cropped hair with one being thicker built than the other and a short, slight, plain-looking girl with long hair.

No other way, Alpha Lar-prime? We shall see. the Omega Lar-lx said, contemptuously.

It drifted toward the thinner of the two human males. He had his back to the eidolon, and it was inviting. The eidolon got closer . . . closer . . . closer . . . close enough until it simply "bled" into the teenager's body. There was no gasp, no convulsions, no outward sign tha the corporeal takeover was complete and total. The other two humans did not seem to notice the golden tint this teenager's eyes took. But the other eidolons knew.

Two others wasted no time in taking the other two's bodies. But there were still more eidolons in the consciousness. And the Alpha Lar-prime? Oh, it didn't get to keep that designation. It became the new Omega Lar-lx, with the intrepid former Omega Lar-lx taking its place as the new Alpha Lar-prime.

[redtailedsaffa]

Probably not modify-post - I read the previous chapter, and then I fell asleep.

[Cloak]

Oookay, Saffa.

Anyway, please take note that some song adaptations will be repeated in the series.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
Just One of Those Days

"Got to uni late 'cause my alarm was busted.
Rotiar teased me and Abby offered condolescences,
'Cause it's one of those days, it's just one of those days.

I lost one of my socks in the drier.
I can't find my wallet, and my hair is on fire.
Just one of those days, it's just one of those days.

I just wrapped my morph around a tree.
A big swarm of locusts is following me.
There's not even anything good on TV.
It's just one of those days, it's just one of those days.

Left all my RAFize Songs CDs out in the sun.
Got a Coke bottle stuck on the end of my tongue.
It's just one of those days, gonna be one of those days.

The zombies tied me up and covered me with ants.
And I spilled toxic waste on my brand new pants.
Just one of those days, ever have one of those days.

The bank called me up and told me I'm overdrawn.
Some Knight freaks are burnin' crosses out on my front lawn,
And I can't believe it, all the Cheetos are gone.
It's just, just one of those, one of those days.
Just one of those, one of those days.

The CIA have got a tap on my phone.
Those darn Banned spies won't leave me alone.
Shouldn't have got up this morning, should've known.
It's just one of those days, it's just one of those days.

A 747 crashed onto my pen,
And there's nothin' but tater-tots for dinner again.
It's just one of those days.
Never mind, it's just one of those days.

Big steamroller just ran over my prom,
And I cut myself shaving and they're dropping the bomb.
It's just one of those days.
That's all, it's just one of those days.

Then late at night, just before I go to bed,
The world blows up and now everybody's dead.
You just can't deny it, it's just like I said:
Just, just one of those, one of those days.
Just one of those, one of those days.

It's just one of those days (just one of those, one of those days).
It's just one of those days (just one of those, one of those days).
It's just one of those days (just one of those, one of those days).
It's just one of those days (just one of those, one of those days).
It's just one of those days (just one of those, one of those days).
It's just one of those days (just one of those, one of those days).
It's just one of those days (just one of those, one of those days).
It's just one of those days."

<You're exaggerating, Saffa.> Noelle said. She had a pair of reading glasses on her main eyes. No one knew why she had them, she didn't need them.

Meanwhile, Cloak paced his thread. He fretted about the Consciousness. They had to still be around. The defeat was too easy, too clean -- well, aside from the melted plastics. But something tugged and tore at his gut, as if he had neglected something. Something important.

But what?

What was he missing?

[redtailedsaffa]

Ah, well, I've gotten stuck in the lift, bombed a test and it's only 8:20 am. One of those days.

[Cloak]

Sorry about the lack of chapters over the weekend, what with the kids in the college graduating (and all of Facilities required to be there, including housekeepers) and my Internet being down, it was unavoidable.
 

CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
Musings and Mechanics

 
Cloak found himself watching the news, not TMZ or the mindless propaganda that Fox News makes up. He wasn't pleased with what he saw. He saw not only celebrity scandal but stupid stunts that are filmed amateurly. Normally, Cloak wouldn't have thought anything about it.
 
But that would have been before the encounter with the Eidolon Consciousness. He also saw the black masses, like countless vaporous Shadow Heartless. He was surprised -- but, as always, his emotions don't always reach his face. He thought that they were bound to the plastics plant, which is why they required the mannequins to leave . . .
 
Wait, no, that wasn't right. They modeled the mannequins after people. People with notoriety, people who everyone more or less knew. Celebrities. Why? They feed off attention, fame and scandal like humans feed off of potato chips or French fries. They desire it, they drink it up . . . that much was certain.
 
But how could they make their replicas without the plastic? He made it rather useless to them . . . he also realized, with a painful stab of guilt, that this very action may have left the building unable to bind them there, allowing them full incorporeal freedom. . . .
 
No time to dwell on that now. How were they causing . . .
 
Then his feline eyes caught something on the screen, something that the humans at the scene seemed to miss. One of the black mass of vaporized Shadow Heartless -- the eidolons from the Consciousness in their natural form, invisible to the humans, detaching from the larger black mass, with two golden circles upon it.  Rudimentary-looking eyes.
 
This eidolon mass engulfed and "bled" into a human with long hair -- Cloak could not distinguish the face as the figure was too far from the camera for a decent resolution. But the implication was clear. They did not use replicas anymore, they just take the person's body over directly.
 
This was not a thrilling revelation.
 
Cloak immediately left his thread to consult an idea with the RAFian magic expert, Broken. (Faerie had gone to some faerie function that attendance was mandatory).
 

***

"I don't know why you're still fiddling around with those things, Yarin." Goom said benignly, as he read over a sheet of paper that he held inexplicably, wearing a pair of pince-nez glasses that he neither needed nor could really wear (yet inexplicably did). "That adventure was already taken care of."

Yarin was reworking the V.C.C.D.s, finetuning the prototypes, discovering that a substance called "Smoof" locally enabled the bags unparalleled elasticity. He also considered asking Broken to put an Undetectable Expansion Charm on the bags . . . but he was a man of science, and thus, distrusted magic as it was something that he could not replicate over and over.

"You never know when we might need some of these devices again."

"Because they were SO useful last time," Aquilai teased. Yarin gave him a sour look.

"We might need them again." Yarin said stubbornly.

Goom looked over his pince-nez, "Like your microwave?"

"Food. Yield. INCREASER!" Yarin said, angrily.

Of course, Yarin didn't know how right he was about the V.C.C.D.s.

[Cloak]

Huh. Must be a slow day here on RAF.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
A Plan In Motion

"Yes, it is a powerful spell," Broken was saying thoughtfully. "Able to be cast by a non-magic-user like yourself, though you are versed in energy manipulation -- and make no mistake, most forms and styles of magic are based in energy, with Rowling magic being the most kinetic I can think of off the top of my head."

"We're getting off-topic," Cloak said smartly.

"Yes. Yes, I'm aware." Broken said heavily. "What you're asking is a monumental effort, with no guarantees of success."

"Nothing's ever guaranteed," Cloak said, simply. "But lives are being ruined because of these eidolons and their thirst for fame and scandal. Will Expellicorpus work, Broken?"

"I . .  suppose so," Broken said, hesitant about setting anything in stone, "but there are so many other factors to consider. The volume of these eidolons -- it may be possible to get them all in one blast, but that may take a lot power, power which that even you do not possess. Even so, you could not prevent them from simply possessing another or even repossessing the same body. Expellicorpus does not block or lock the bodies from possession or repossession. Believe me, or else I'd have cast it already wordlessly on every townsperson I came across."

"But Mummudrai Evile didn't repossess Phoenix all those months ago." Cloak pointed out.

"We were lucky then." Broken said, knowing that point was coming up. "Sheer luck and nothing else. Or Mr. E could have simply be an inexperienced possessing entity. These eidolons are clearly well-versed. If we are to do this thing properly, we'll need some sort of containment device."

"Yarin's working on his vacuum devices," Cloak said, deciding V.C.C.D.s was a rather haphazard name. "They're supertangible, and he's outfitting them with something called 'Smoof'."

"Ah, good. Smoof can hold the trickiest and most malious of genies and jinn, outside of a bottle or a lamp." Broken said. "But there is a couple more problems we failed to address. How are we gonna identify whose taken and whose free?"

"Their eyes," Cloak said, remembering the mannequins. "If they are possessed, their eyes will be colored gold."

"Okay, but here's the kicker," Broken said, wondering if Cloak saw every eventuality, "how are we going to get them all in one place? Not to mention keeping them there."

"Oh, Aquilai, Goom and Yarin had been working on a portable version of Code Avalon shielding. It's still the size of a small refrigerator, like the one in a college dorm, but it will do in a pinch. There's a supertangible setting on Code Avalon after the whole dementor business."

"Dementors aren't intangible."

"Yeah, they got off onto a tangent after a while." Cloak said, with a nod. "As for how to get them into one spot . . . well, you give them something they cannot resist."

"What do you . . ."

"C'mon, let's tell Yarin this. Then we have to go meet another RAFian."

[redtailedsaffa]

Yeah, my internet had died. But this is some helluva planning.

[Cloak]

So was mine for a bit. Anyway, planning my way through Book CCCVII ("Paddyquack Paddywhacksen") and I'm nearly done.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
Just Don't Look

"Are sure about this, Cloak?" Broken said. "The Plan B seems more --"

"That's the point of it being Plan B," Cloak said.

They were on a stage, and -- despite his ardent desire not to be in the spotlight -- Cloak stood centerstage, enduring the hellish spotlight. At his own volition no less.

"Cloak, I'm telling you, it isn't going to be so simple."

"It's all a part of the overall plan," Cloak said. He tapped the microphone in front of him, which caused some feedback that got the crowd's attention. And Cloak, ignoring his own mortification -- sacrifices had to be made from time to time, after all -- he sang:

"To stop these scandals, one-two-three.
Here's a fresh new way that's trouble-free_
It's got the CloakedFigure guarantee --
Guarantee void in Tallahassee.
Just don't look.
Just don't look.
Just don't look.
Just don't look.
Just don't look.
Just don't look."

"Why is it void in Tallahassee?" Saffa asked.

"He just needed something to rhyme with 'guarantee', I'd bet." Parker said, with a noncommittal shrug.

But the song wasn't working . . . the eidolons were still feasting upon the attention lavished on them. Granted they did not restrict themselves to being corporeally static and sedentary, but exchanged bodies as a person would alter their wardrobe.

"I told you it was a pointless exercise," Broken said.

"Was it?" Cloak asked rhetorically, knowing full well something that Broken had yet to notice.

"Right," said Yarin, "they've taken notice."

"And what good will that do?" Underseen asked.

"Oh, you'll see in due time." Cloak said. Then he turned to a hidden RAFian, and said, "Get ready."

[Cloak]

Okay, one more chapter before sleep, methinks.

CHAPTER NINETEEN:
It All Comes Together

"Now?"

"Yes, now, Rocklobster." Cloak said, knowing that such a deception wasn't against the Chee's programing. No one said pacifists cannot be tricky -- especially when the deception won't directly harm anyone. Yet, Cloak wondered . . . wondered if Rocklobster had considered just what they would do with the eidolons after they were captured. "Start up the hologram we discussed earlier."

He closed his eyes, and lifted his arms as if he were channeling a spirit or something when he vanished, replaced by images of adorable babies and toddlers, being all giggly and giddy. They were impossibly cute -- literally. They were impossibly cute biologically, but the impossibilities were so minute and unnoticeable, that you'd only be aware of them if you deliberately looked for them. Very quickly (as the stage was quickly dismantled by speedster Cerulean and his Kinecceran friends), everyone seemed to gravitate towards the unbridled adoration for the faux children.

The eidolons tried to combat this, but no matter which body they stole they could not steal the attention away from the ambling, tottering gaits of these projections. Cloak was hard-pressed not to fall into the same trap as everyone else. The only way to make even more irresistible was to add in kittens or puppies or both to create the ultimate saccharine scene.

If the plan worked, Expellicorpus would not even be necessary. Cloak only joped he deduced the eidolon's motivations correctly -- the entire plan hinged on that fact.

As he watched, he saw the eidolons abandon their current hosts, seeing jow enthralled the crowd was at this sight -- never even bithering to ask where these children's nonexistent parents were. This was a bait the eidolons just couldn't pass up. It would be like a Taxxon unable to eat fresh meat, a pennypincher passing by dropped money, a criminal passing up an easy score. But that was the entire purpose of this -- when you bait a trap, you insure the bait be something that would entice the prey. And in this case, it was like baiting a trap with a favored bone of a dog.

The first eidolon struck, but vanished. It did not, could not, possess mere projections. And Parker was hidden within the projection field, sucking up any eidolon (as he could use technology to ascertain their location) into the eidolon vacuum. More and more went, not even realizing none were possessing the children, but only winding up in the bag.

And after six days without attention, without feeding, they'll shrivel up into nothingness and darkness. They'll die, and it would be Cloak that would bear the responsibility. He alone will bear that burden.

Within moments, Parker had all the eidolons -- Cloak double-checking -- inside the bwg. Rocklobster could end the charade on his part. But there was a question that remained.

What now?

[redtailedsaffa]

The cuter they look, the more I am convinced that the kid is the spawn of the devil.

[Cloak]

Hey, that's only true for Shenecron! . . . And, to a lesser degree, Demos. Anyway, let's finish this book up, shall we?

CHAPTER TWENTY:
The Hobson's Choice

They were back at RAF, with the eidolon-filled bag safely secured. Saffa had decided to guard it, without paying attention to its contents (she knew that they feed off attention, after all), simply to protect it from the curious younger RAFian's and Alic's son, Jack. Abby and Underseen accompliced her.

"Get away!" Saffa said, enforcing a wide birth around the bag. She made shooing gestures to Rotiart (who was regularly devoid of simple common sense). "I mean it, Rotiart."

"Awww, why can't we see the bag?"

"Because I said so!"

"Who put you in charge?" he said, somewhat mulishly.

"I did," said a voice behind him. Cloak came upto where they were standing, his namesake cloak swishing in a testy way. His tail tip following suit.

"You're not the boss!" Rotiart complained childishly.

Cloak pointed out, "Neither are you."

"Nor do you have the good sense you were born with!" Saffa added.

Rotiart glared at her, stating the obvious, "I hate you."

"I'm not too fond of you myself." Saffa countered effortlessly.

"With such a jerky deposition, Rotiart," Cloak said, smoothly indifferent, "it's wonder that anyone likes you. But you can change -- don't follow Itellsya's example."

"I'm not that stupid." Rotiart said, wrinkling his nose in disgust.

Saffa opened her mouth to replied, thought better of it -- the insult was just plain too easy -- and so, addressed Cloak. (But Rotiart did not miss this, and shot Saffa a haughty look of pure, undistilled venom and arrogance.

"We have decided the fate of these eidolons," Cloak said, uncomfortable with pronouncement once he realized how he worded it. "Yarin will take them aboard his ship, and throw them into a black hole."

"Will that work?" Saffa asked.

"It's a six-day trip. It had better work." he replied.

Several days later, it went off without a hitch. Of course, the eidolons had died before they even reached the black hole. As was the plan.

Cloak's plan.

It was a Hobson's choice -- a choice that is no choice. Cloak felt guilt in his part of it . . . he wondered if he had any right to do it. He tried rationalizing it away -- but that is always a temporary fix at best.

[redtailedsaffa]

I'm getting into trouble soon, aren't I.

PDF later today. Got class and a lab final.

[theyoungphoenix]

Hmmm... Remember to email me that if you would. I like to have it saved to my phone so that I can go back and re-read if I wanted to.

Interesting book. And I've noticed that us four (Saffa, Underseen, you, and I) always pair up. Haha.

[Cloak]

Yes, yes, you, Saffa, and Underseen are the "Memoirs" versions of Yao,Ling, and Chien Po.

Let's start the new book, shall we?
 

BOOK LXI:
The Arachnoids
CHAPTER ONE:
Do You Wanna Build A Sandman?

Cloak was alone in his thread, pondering his actions a few weeks ago, what with the eidolon fiasco and all. All the tabloids decided to sensationalize it, breaking all forms of credulity, but that's what they exist to do. Tabloids are nothing short of the slush pile for journalists, and, if you wish to believe the ludicrous stories within, well, that's your problem.

But, anyway, Cloak sat upon his bed with his legs crossed -- heel touching hip -- with his tail draped, almost forgotten, over the edge of the twin-sized bed in its wrought iron four-poster frame. His hands were fists, pressed against each other, while he sat up straight. His eyes closed, not making a sound, not moving, not even seeming to --

KNOCK, KNOCK.

Cloak's face soured a little at the interruption.

"Uncle?"

Uncharacteristicall y, Cloak said nothing. He was feeling rather moody. But Shadow had always been a tenacious child.

"Do you want to build a sandman?
Come on, let's go and play!
I never see you anymore.
Come out the door.
It's like you've gone away!
We used to be best buddies,
And now we're not.
I wish you would tell me why."

Of course, she also was prone exaggeration sometimes, as all Realm Walkers her age are prone to -- normal Realm Walkers, that is, ones who recieve love and support from their parents. Cloak was not such a Walker -- his parents were no equals, his mother always treated his father (then Cloak himself) as inferior. Cloak had wondered whether his father had any say in the relationship at all. Whether the fact that he existed was nothing more or less that his mother wanted another child -- another daughter, because clearly he was a disappointment to the narcissist for the crime of being male.

Meanwhile, Shadow was singing:

"Do you want to build a sandman?
It doesn't have to be a sandman."

"Not right now, Shadow." Cloak said, not even opening the door. Part of him knew he was wallowing in his darkness. Part of him didn't care.

"Okay, bye . . ."

A few days later, and Cloak was still stewing. But he was sensing something. This was never good.

KNOCK, KNOCK.

"Do you want to build a sandman?
Or imitate Pokemon calls?
I think some company is overdue!
I've started talking to the pictures on the walls!
It gets a little lonely
All these empty threads,
Just watching the hours tick by . . ."

Most of the other RAFians, if not all, were all at some sort of symposium or convention or something. Cloak stayed right where he was. He had a sinking feeling when sensed yet another great evil arising.

A fewdays later, others returned, and a day or two after that, Shadow knocked again. "Uncle,

Please, I know you're in there.
RAFians are asking where you've been.
They say, "have courage" and I'm trying to.
I'm right out here for you.
Please, just let me in.
We have each other,
You and me
What are you gonna do?
Do you want to build a sandman?"

Cloak's thread door creaked open. . . .