Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

Yep, can of worms.

New chapter. Sorry for the brevity.

CHAPTER SIX:
Cat Chaos

But Cloak was not the only feline affected. RAF had more feline RAFians: Bladeh. FuBar. Xeno (feline enough to count). Cornson. Kitsi. More. They all would have responded to the call, even Xeno (who resisted it, but just not to the same degree as Cloak -- his avian features sufficient to allow him to do so, as he hadn't prepared any tech for this).

But then all their Marks glowed brightly, as did Cloak's when he obstinately refused to obey the summoning song. In doing so, he managed to somehow strengthen the Mark, help steel the other feline RAFians resolve, and assist them in throwing off the haunting not-voice. Cloak's stubbornness (which he inherited from his mother's side of the family) had saved them from being mindless drones.

But not all felines were RAFians. Every cat in the city fell into Bast's thrall as she hovered upon the precipice of the threshold to the city, which she viewed with great distaste. The buildings were too cramped together, too impossibly tall, and made from unfamiliar materials. She found the electronics as horrid magicks, as devices designed to suck the soul, all five parts, and the life ever-so-slowly out of a person. This whole modern scene was revolting to her.

How could have humans lost their way so much in the passing five thousand years? Well, it still wasn't too late to be rectified, she thought, as she welcomed her first "children" to arrive. They were housecats of all breeds and colors. Some possessed collars with nametags or jingly bells, while others were lacking both or had both. But her sphere of power wasn't limited to just housecats. Tigers, ocelots, lions, lynxes, jaguars, leopards, cheetahs -- all manner of felines tried to attend but where trapped in zoos or personal menageries. They all yearned to join the "cat-mother", Bast.

She was soon even joined by a Kzintosh*, a Kat*, a Sholun*, a Cat Person*, an Aslan*, an Appoplexian, a Felis Sapien*, a Cathar, an Eschiff*, a Felinus*, a Revonnahgander, a Caitian*, and a Centran* -- all sentient feline aliens. These took her by surprise, she hadn't known that she had what she termed "star-children", though some of them hadn't a real good excuse as to why they were on the planet to begin with.

But she knew, or sensed that there were some of her "children" who resisted her call. She could not, she would not have this. This was disrespectful. Very disrespectful, indeed.


* Yes, I Wikipedia'd these.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER SEVEN:
Perverse Disobedience

Such naughty children!!

It must be these modern-day humans, she surmised. They must have done something that enabled these delinquent "children" of hers to defy her summoning. She was aware of those children of hers that were unable to respond to her summons because of prisons of glass and brick, their absence from this Gathering would be forgivable. But the misconduct of those in that forum -- this could not be tolerated. She was was the matron, the mother of all feline creature! She was their Alpha, she was their boss. Her authority was unquestionable and absolute!

When she issued her Catcall, it called for mandatory attendance to all felines capable to the Gathering. There were no exceptions -- except those imprisoned behind the glass to be gawked at by humans.

The humans -- they shall be dealt with when the Gathering can finally commence. And it cannot, not until all her children are present. Those locked up . . . well, she'd deal with that contingency at a later point. The problem now was from the truants in that forum. She could not fathom how they could even resist her Catcall, no feline can. It was all-encompassing and inescapable. Defiance of her Catcall should be an impossibility, and yet, here it was, bold as brass.

This brazen defiance, this impudent derogation, this impertinent disparagement, this insolent impugnment of the Gathering . . . it will not stand. She would try the Catcall again. And this time she will pour every bit of power she has into it. She will not.allow these delinquent's audacious flippancy, their brazen sacrilege, to disrupt the Gathering any further.

When she performed the Catcall, she did not speak, but yet it wasn't telepathic or thought-speak. It was something different entirely, and really difficult to describe in any great detail without becoming confusing and incoherent.

I'm calling for the loyal cats wherever they may be.
I'm calling for the proud cats to come and follow me.
I'm calling for the gentle cats to come and keep us company.
And it would be a treat if you would follow me.
There's a job to be done.
I'm going to need everyone,
Because I can't do it alone.
I'm gonna need the swift and the small,
I'm gonna need the strong and the tall.
Because I've a power that no one can deny!"

Bast was feeling smug with herself after that Catcall. Surely, those naughty, naughty children will now forget about their truancy, and come home to momma for the Gathering. She would eagerly await their arrival, and, while expecting apologies, she planned to wave them away. She needn't excuses, but her children to return home to her, to the Catmother.


Song Source: https://youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=N4mCtuhI1TY

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER EIGHT:
Unsatisfied and Hidden

This time, Cloak didn't pour his power into the Mark as he did before, though he stubbornly remained recalcitrant towards the Catcall, intransigent towards its summons. As a result, the Mark didn't stop Xeno, FuBar, Bladeh, Kern, Cornson, and all other feline RAFians made an almost somniferous migration towards Bast and her Garden, toward her Gathering, where she would explain her plans for the humans. Humans who, in her view, had gotten overzealous and greedy in her absence. She even clawed up an expensive blue car (belonging to Donald Couch) that had gotten her way and annoyed her. She was an Egyptian goddess, and had powers far stringer than her "children".

Xeno alone seemed to be dimly aware of what was going on, as he wasn't fully feline, but sufficiently enough to be swayed by Bast's authority. He seemed to be vaguely muttering to himself why he was going where he was headed and why did he have to be there so badly. And why the Mark wasn't blocking this.

However, these mutterings did alert another RAFian -- Rocklobster. He found this feline exodus from the forum rather odd thing, as he witnessed it first hand. He also noticed that there was one feline who was not following this exodus. The ever pertinacious Cloak, whose intractable nature was well-known.

But Rocky was confused. Shouldn't the Mark have actively blocked such a thing? It didn't make sense. As he understood it, as he glanced down at his own Mark on his hand, the Mark was supposed to prevent and block mind control. Why wasn't it doing so here? When it has succeeded so many times before?

No matter, no matter. He would find out what was up. He would use his hologram to disguise himself and follow them. Only Cloak has managed to see through his holograms without technological assistance, due to that "true sight" abilities Realm Walkers seem to have. He wondered where Cloak was, but he figured that he would discover that in all due time.

It wasn't easy making it to Bast's Garden. He had initially disguised himself as a ginger-colored tabby cat, but as he approached he quickly hid in the trees in the forest, eventually disguising himself as a rowan tree. From here, he watched the goings-on.

"Where is the last one?" Bast said, her voice reminiscent of that of Patti LuPone. "Where is the last truant?"

Truant? Rocky thought, nonplussed a bit. What is goin' on around here?

"We cannot get started with the grand ailurorization without all of my children present!" Bast demanded, sounding rather dictatorial.

She means Cloak, Rocky realized. That's good. He'll never come. But the others? There's nothing I can do. I can't save them. That stupid pacifism protocol programming. I need to do something.

[theyoungphoenix]

i wouldn't really think it's mind control... would it qualify as that?? it seems more like...offering a starving and dying man food, maybe. very, very hard to resist, but not really "controlling" them, so to speak. or i could be completely off and wrong and going off on a tangent. *shrugs*

[Cloak]

No, you're right. It's more like powerful persuasion and seduction, in a way.

[theyoungphoenix]

that's kinda what i felt it would be, because it doesn't really sound like mind control, especially if realm walkers can't be mind controlled, but we know they can be manipulated.

[Cloak]

Indeed.

New chapter.

CHAPTER NINE:
Cats Rule!

"Forget it," Bast snapped. "I've grown too impatient."

And here I thought cats were patient, Rocky found himself thinking.

"Let his delinquency be on his head," Bast said, with a bite of irritation. "The hour wanes, and I'd like to get the global ailurorization underway."

What was ailurorization? Rocky inquired silently. And why do I not like the sound of it?

"The humans of this era," Bast said, beginning a speciesist spiel to match that of a Knight, "they are so incredibly disappointing. I've seen enough of it. They roil in greed, taking what is not theirs, destroying or simply spoiling that which they cannot have. And always looking for the easiest ways out. It is abominable what they do."

She paused.

"I've seen many abuses that they have for my children," she spoke, in a dignified, yet pained tone. "Five thousand years ago, my children were respected. Revered, even. They rid the land of pestilence that were rats and the virulent diseases they spread. But now?"

She looked off and bowed her head, and closed her eyes.

"I've seen the abuses inflicted upon my children," she said, "some were beaten, some were abandoned, some were lit on fire by cruel human adolescents, one was thrown off a bridge, some were skinned alive so that their pelts could become a rug or some rich tooth-mender could have a trophy."

She paused as she gathered her thoughts.

"But, we shall see how abusive they remain," she continued, "once the ailurorization magicks take hold. Well, see how these filthy apes fair when they become my children as well!"

There was no exclamations or protests at this pronouncement, so Bast just smiled motherly at the lot of them. Her children. Her army. They would take back this world from the humans. She would make the humans fundamentally extinct, with men-cats taking their place.

Rocky was now even more confused. Wait. Wait a minute here. THAT'S her grand plan? Turning all the humans into cat people? That sounds like a scheme out of a Saturday morning cartoon!

Bast seemed to notice a newcomer.

"Oh," she said. "Your tardiness has been notable, child."

Oh, no, Rocky thought. Not him. Not him.

"You heard the plan," she said, assuming she had control over him, "now sit, and I will tell you how we intend to implement it."

"No," the newcomer said.

[theyoungphoenix]

yes. good. rebel. overthrow her

[Cloak]

Hmmmm . . .

New chapter.

CHAPTER TEN:
How Dare You Defy Me!

"What?" Bast said. He tone alone was dangerous.

"No." the newcomer said, unimpressed and unintimidated.

"You will do as I say!"

"I will not," was the newcomer's cold reply.

"I am the Catmother here, child!" Bast snarled. "Which means that I'm the boss."

"I," Cloak said, coldly, "will not be controlled!"

Unnoticed by everyone, barring Cloak, Rocky relaxed just a bit. It would have been extremely bad news if Bast managed to manipulate Cloak, if she had managed to persuade him.

"I am your Matron!"

"I have no matron!"

"I am the Catmother!"

"But you couldn't hold a candle to the intimidation and manipulation my actual mother used," Cloak said, his voice icy and dismissive.

"Do not attempt defy me," Bast warned. It came across very much as a threat.

"I'm not attempting to defy you, Crazy Cat Lady," Cloak growled, to match the threat. "I am defying you."

"You don't know who you're dealing with," Bast hissed back.

"Do you?" Cloak countered easily. Cloak began to emit an aura that alternated and oscillated gold and scarlet.

"You would attack your mother?!" Bast said, with distaste.

"You're not my mother," Cloak said, haunching down, preparing to pounce in to attack. "My mother is a bear."

"You need to be desperately taught a lesson, kitten," she said. She had somehow extruded some daggers from somewhere and was prepared to fight Cloak. She was going to make him behave, make him bow his head and fall in line. No one has ever been so pigheaded before to not only ignore the Catcall, but not be influenced by it.

"And I'm not a kitten," he fired back.

"Take adequate notes," Bast snarled as she leaped into attack Cloak, with her "children" giving them a wide birth.

"You're the one about to get schooled," Cloak snarled, as the two eyed each other wearily.

[theyoungphoenix]

oh snap. this'll be interesting

[Cloak]

Yes, I suppose . . .

New chapter.

CHAPTER ELEVEN:
Cat Fight!

And so it began.

Cloak could have probably just owned her if he used the elements, but he might harm one of these innocent bystanders that Bast had beguiled to show up here. A risk he preferred not to take. A risk he preferred to not resort to.

Bast charged him, slicing on her blades into the ground with enough force to make it crack.  But Cloak dodged to the left easily, and dodge rolled to the right when she attempted to make a slash with the other dagger. Yet, Cloak lost none of his defiance.

The she made repeated stabs, as if she were brandishing two cattle prods instead of daggers. Cloak dodged every strike, able to predict them by the placement of her feet, through Earthsight. Then Cloak tried a front kick with his right leg, ducked a blow from Bast, delivered a roundhouse kick that didn't connect, then used the momentum of her next blow to send her tumbling head over heel.

She landed on her feet, catlike, and slashed with both daggers in an overhead slice, which Cloak slid onto his back and seemingly melted into the earth, before appearing behind Bast, and kicking her so she fell and received a face full of dirt.

She got up, angry, and still brandishing her daggers. Cloak held out his hand, and ferrokinetically pulled them from her grasp and shattered them. Then they charged each other, claws extended.

Rocky, meanwhile, was thinking this whole fight was pointless. Cloak could have really ended it already, if he really wanted to. If he was really ruthless enough . . . but Rocky had a feeling that, somehow, Cloak was prolonging the battle for some reason unknown to the Chee.

Cloak gave Bast a left hook, which she blocked. Then a right hook, which she blocked as well, but allowed Cloak an opening to giver another right hook, directly to the face.
Cloak tried for another right hook, but Bast caught him by the elbow. Then she used his own momentum to fling him and slamming him to the ground so that he skipped a bit like stones across water. Then she charged him again.

Rocky couldn't help but sigh resignedly. Even if he could help fight, he was held back by his programming. In any case, Rocky believed, Cloak was just showboating now. He wished that he would stop playing with her and finish her off in a serious, final manner.

Cloak managed to impede her charge, and then punch her upwards, into a juniper tree. She quickly leaped down in a pounce, to which Cloak had somersaulted away. Then they eyed each other a few more tense moments, before charging each other once more.

Cloak gave a right. Blocked. Cloak gave a left. Blocked. Took a right himself. Delivered a jump kick which was only partially blocked, and followed immediately with another midair kick, which barely connected. Then he punched the sides of her head, right at the temples, simultaneously. Dodged a charge by jumping to the right. Jumped over another charge.

He caught her in another charge, and flung her hard to the ground. He used her own momentum to add power to blow. She was down. She was beaten. She was defeated.

"You may have won this battle, you insolent blasphemer," Bast said, looking rather beaten up,  "However, this was but one battle. There will be more. Your execratory profanations will not be forgotten."

"Oh, shut up with that religious garbage," Cloak said, not in the mood for theocratic admonishments of sacrilege, not in the mood to be browbeaten for tenets that he didn't practice or follow.

"The ailurorization will happen, prodigal son," Bast said.

"Again, I am not your son," Cloak said. "One crazy mother was enough, thank you very much. I don't need two."

Suddenly, Bast and her feline horde vanished. She had moved her Garden elsewhere. Cloak was getting annoyed.

[theyoungphoenix]

gdi bast. why do you have to be a crazy cat lady

[Cloak]

Gdi? "God damn it"?

New chapter.

CHAPTER TWELVE:
Work to Do and Time to Stew

Not a trace was left of her. Cloak found that he didn't mind much, as he really didn't like Bast all that much. But she had taken the feline RAFians that she manipulated with her. It wasn't their choice to go there with her, she had just manipulated and seduced them into doing so.

Cloak looked at his Mark. The Mark was supposed to block all manner of Dweller mind control, all manner of possession, and all manner of seduction. So, clearly, this "Catcall", as she put it, of hers was an incredibly dangerous thing. Despite never admitting it when pressed, even Cloak was swayed by it. If he wasn't so incredibly willful . . . he didn't want to imagine the ramifications in that scenario.

He was a Realm Walker, such things shouldn't have worked against him. But, then again, Bast was a goddess, and Realm Walkers were more or less on the same level as gods and goddesses -- though Cloak would take being called as such as a major insult. He did not think himself a god amongst Dwellers, one reason for his contention with some other Walkers back in the Nexus and one reason for his ostracization from those same Walkers. It didn't matter though -- as those types of Walkers would never be his friend.

The task at hand was to stop Bast. She clearly was going to go through her insane plan of metamorphizing every human on Earth into a humanoid feline, like her. Cloak saw through all the grandeur talk, and saw what she was really after. It was really basic and uninspired, in the Elements Master's opinion.

She didn't want liberation or anything of the like. She just wanted the entire world under her thumb. She was just another tinhorn dictator with aspirations of world conquest and abject domination. Just another pretentious person with power, making a grab for more power.

It was true. Power was a drug. Indulge in too much and you become addicted to it. You thirst for more and more and more, and yet, are never sated. It soon consumes your whole being until you are nothing but a power-hungry monster, devoid of compassion and love, a shell of your former self. And you always will end up alone and friendless.

With a pang of pity and sadness, Cloak reflect that this perfectly described his mother, Ursa. She was an addict to power, as she constantly demonstrated when she exercised her power over him. And Bast was very much the same. Perhaps she was this way five thousand years ago, perhaps not. The fact of the matter was that she was like this now, and she was a threat.

"Rocky," Cloak said, without turning around. Earthsight easily penetrated his holograms. "We have some work to do. Let's regroup with the others at the forum."

***

The sheer audacity.

That's the thing that got Bast the most. The audacity, the gall, of that truant delinquent. Not only did he defy her after she had been so understanding towards him, so patient with him. And how does she get repaid?

He fights her. He fights her because he was incapable of seeing a bigger picture. The grand design she had laid out before all her children. And, despite how much he disputed it, he was her son! All cats, all felines, were her children. He was no different, no matter how he denied it, no matter how decried it. He was hers, so he should have just got over it so she could complete the ailurorization spell.

Now she had to wait.

Wait, because she had exhausted all her energy and strength battling with her insubordinate son. And the ailurorization magicks took a good deal of power and strength to pull off effectively.

But it was inevitable to come. These humans had their day in the sun, but they allowed themselves to become slovenly and overdependent on these so-called "modern convenience". They had lost their way. They had become weak. What Bast was planning to would eliminate that weakness. Sure, the human race would go extinct, but a new race would emerge from the ashes, and not a single life would be lost. Why was the intricate beauty of this plan so hard for him to see?

Human, admittingly, would be forever gone. But a new, stronger, and overall better race would be born. Why was this such a bad thing? She didn't understand how anyone could not comprehend this. The lost of the human race would be an acceptable loss! Why was she met with such resistance from him?

No matter, no matter. In the end, his pigheadedness won't even matter. The ailurorization will happen. It will. Whether he likes it or not!!

[theyoungphoenix]

yes, that's what that means

[Cloak]

Ah.

New chapter.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
Garden Gone

"Are you effin' serious?" GH said, disbelievingly.

"Nah, I'm Sirius," Cloak shot back, testily. "Of course I'm serious, Logan."

"Don't call me that," GH said, at once.

"Then don't sass me," Cloak retorted.

"But that's my schtick!" GH said, unable to conceal his mischievous grin. This just annoyed the Realm Walker. Cloak was in one of his moods.

"The point is," Cloak growled, "is that Bast made off with her Garden. Bladeh, Cornson, Xeno, and all the other feline RAFians were with her."

"They defected?" Saffa asked.

"No." Cloak said. "Bast used something she calls her Catcall. It's an insidious form of manipulation that doesn't quite qualify as mind control, and, as such, isn't blocked by the Mark. Neither Goom, Richard, or I ever foresaw anything like this coming to pass."

Cloak leaned forward, resting his hands upon a wooden table.

"It's horrible," Cloak said. "It gets inside you head and tries to convince you you want what it's telling you to want. It's subtle and invasive. If you don't have a strong stubborn streak, or don't happen to be a Realm Walker, resistance is nigh in impossible."

"Why didn't it work on the rest of us, though?" that snot-nosed, arrogant RAFian said. Cloak was really in no mood to put up with his backwards ethics and trollish behaviors.

 "I would have thought it obvious," Cloak said, in a very Snape-like manner. "The Catcall only affects cats."

The snot-nosed RAFian didn't have the common courtesy to look mollified or embarrassed. He just looked even more smug and haughty. Cloak sighed -- he didn't have time nor energy to deal with intellectually-deficient moron.

"Her garden could literally be anywhere, and she could use that transmogrification spell at any time." Cloak said, getting back on topic. "Then the human race will be no more, just creatures that Bast has dominion over. We have to first find it, than prevent Bast from casting that spell."

"But where could it possibly be?" Abby asked.

"Yeah, I don't think that she'd be advertising it," Underseen noted, "and we can't follow any cats to her since, according to a new report, all cats in the city are gone. Even strays."

Silence fell, as the obnoxious RAFian made retorts that did not bear repeating. When an idea occurred to Cloak.

"I have an idea." Cloak said.