Right now as I sit in the kitchen across from Raid, i get a sudden feeling that I am not alone… There is another soul in front of me, someone with whom to converse with. What joy this brings me, alas my solitude has come to an end, a much deserved end indeed. But now, what is there to talk about? I’ve been alone for so long that the only person I can talk to, heck the only person that can put up with my nonsense is me. Well there isn’t much else to do than just try to talk to him, what else can i possibly loose.

“Hey, Raid. What are you up to?”

“Reading politics stuff.” – resumes usual “finger” position.

I walk over to him with an ice cream cone on hand. Its the ice cream that has the strawberry syrup shell thing, you know the thin red layer of strawberry on vanilla ice cream. I stop slightly behind his left shoulder, ice cream hovering above him.

“You and your politics. I seriously don’t understand what you find interesting on those articles.” – Fel keeps licking and enjoying his ice cream. Suddenly, Fel goes for one more lick at the ice cream, a piece of ice cream falls on Raid’s shoulder. Raid abruptly stops on his track, slowly proceeding to turn to look at what had just fallen on his shoulder. He sees the lump of ice cream, the reason why he felt a chill to begin with.

“Oh, damn…! My bad dude.” – Fel laughs jokingly. He gets a bounty from the counter and proceeds to clean Raid’s shoulder. Just as Fel is about to lift his hand off Raid’s shoulder, Raid himself reaches for Fel’s wrist successfully grabbing hold of it. He slowly turns his gaze up to look at Fel.

“You got ice cream…”

“My bad dude! Hahaha, I didn’t mean to dirty your shirt.” – Fel suddenly interrupts Raid.

“…without telling me.” – Raid scoops the last drop of ice cream off his shoulder with his finger, he places his finger in his mouth and licks it clean.

“I don’t care about my shirt, I wanted some ice cream.” – Raid keeps licking his finger in hopes of being able to taste the ice cream just a bit more.

“My bad dude…” – Fel keeps licking his ice cream some more. “…This ice cream is like, the best I’ve had in a long time.”

Raid staring at Fel, hoping to make eye contact so that he was able to make his move. “Come on Fel, look at me. You know you want to look.” - Raid was thinking to himself squinting his eyes. Fel didn’t seem to notice anything and kept licking and enjoying the ice cream as if he was the only man in this world.

Fel was in his own world now, he was standing in the middle of a dark room with a soft spot light on him. He was holding his ice cream and looking around. The room slowly started to show a majestic arrangement of stars, now he was floating in space. The taste is so awesome, so intense and satisfying time seems to stop. Fel was going into an orgasmic trip, full of flavor and ecstasy, he was drifting into a deep state when…

“Yo, you wanna give me some of that?”

“Huh?” – Fel was abruptly brought down to earth. – “Aw, you suck. I was going massively up and you had to interrupt me…Thanks.”

“Oh yeah?! You wanted to go up without me?”

“What you wanted to deprive myself just because YOU thought it was a good idea to devour your juice in like one gulp?”

“Hahaha, come on yo. Its Cloud IX rules, you gotta obey them. Have HONOR amongst your fellow Cloud IXers.”

Fel glares at Raid. – “Fucking bastard. You can’t use that card on me! You actually think I would leave you down here by your self and me go on my own to greatness?…” – Staring at Raid with slightly squinted eyes.

“Aw Fel, thanks. I knew you would gimme some.” – Raid extend his hand to get some ice cream.

“…You’re absolutely right, sucks to be you!” – Laughter take over Fel’s vocal cords. – “Just kidding man, here, you can have it. I’m done.”

Fel licks the drops off his one hand and extends the other towards Raid, offering him some ice cream.

“YEAH?! Aw thanks Fel.” – Fel pats Raid on the back once and lick off the remaining ice cream on his finger. – “It’s Cloud IX, I had to.”

-Fin-

Today we ventured into one of our driving Cloud IX experience, we drove up Star Blvd. Star Blvd. is an awesome and comfortable experience, it provides you all  with what one would need to create an enjoyable experience. We can get there from my house and Raid’s house, easily accessible and fun to drive.

The boulevard is, to the common folk, nothing more than a long road, however, if you so happen to drive though it and have a nicely rolled L then the road takes on a whole new character. It starts off very subtle with lights along the road about 4 feet apart from one another, making it very bright at night. Even though at times congested with other drivers, everything seems to hold a level of controlled madness. You have cars passing you by or suddenly stopping. You experience a multitude of exciting emotions in a very rapid time. As we progress through the road ahead, it suddenly takes on an abrupt change of light. From very bright to very dark, all in the span of about a 15seconds (depending on your speed), everything takes on a new life. The road creeps on to you; lighting is very low, with a hue of blue covering all of it.

We like to listen to Incubus while we drive; Incubus is really all we really hear during Cloud IX. Very seldom we listen to one or more artist during the night, but never replacing Incubus. At start and finish, Incubus plays with other artists sprinkled around in between. We keep it going for a while still never getting any brighter. Slowly, an open space creeps in, it’s an empty parking lot no cars no building next to it. We make a U turn there and head back to Cloud IX, don’t worry, I’ll explain in a bit.

Sector Cloud 17 was brought to our attention when I received a message from some random person in the iPhone Application [...thing.], “Distant Shores”. I had sent a message in a bottle and saying something like, “Hey, how are you? I’m in Cloud IX.” A few days passed and I received the reply that said something like this, “I’m in Sector Cloud 17…”

We went on for a few more days and I didn’t think much of it, until we went for our first drive. Sector d 17 was created and assigned a personality. An empty parking lot because the parking for people who went into a different school of Cloud IX Though called, Sector Cloud 17.
In Sector Cloud 17, people like to be in dark forest areas embracing their version of Cloud IX. Remember Cloud IX is a state of mind and thus can materialize anywhere or everywhere. Where ever you feel more comfortable in, that’s where Cloud IX will be for you. For us, it’s always a place with fluffy things like pillows and somewhere comfortable to either lay or sit. The lights are usually dim and the temperature always warm. Not hot like summer, but rather a warm afternoon by the shore with a nice breeze blowing by.

Sector Cloud 17 seems to be a more obscure place. Everything seems to dark and very little light ever goes through. Sector Cloud 17 houses creatures of the true night; they feel at home in the darkness and embrace the colder temperatures of the world. Though this is all very different from the feel of Cloud IX (where we dwell), we still consider the populous of Sector Cloud 17 members of Cloud IX (the state of mind)

(EDIT – I had to do some editing, the original article was written while I was in Cloud IX. Now it’s better and with less mistakes. Fel)