Doc and the Weird Cloak

Summary: Stephen believed he had seen everything regarding the mystic arts, but watching his Cloak of Levitation reading the newspaper and listening to Wong's I-Pod proved him wrong. Or catching it 'showering' in the laundry room. Or watching a sappy soap opera. Or simply being insufferable.

The New York Sanctuary, where he now lived, wasn't half bad. Certainly not his style and it was a bit too rustic for his tastes, but a roof over his head none the less. And he had promised to guard the place so he shouldn't even be complaining, the place was actually kind of nice. He had gotten some near heart attacks with some weird stuff, a flying sword over there, the usual. Oh, and Wong's 'Single Ladies' dance in the sanctuary library when he went to return a book. A book that he decided to return later. There were things he could not un-see unfortunately. Weirder things than that could not appear, or so that's what Stephen believed.

"Strange?" Wong spoke to him as he entered the living room. He looked rather angry.

"Oh!" Stephen said as he looked up from a book. "Hello, Wong."

"I came here all the way from Nepal-"

"-Which is just one portal away in less than a minute."

"-to ask you…" He ignored Strange's comment. "Have you seen my I-Pod?"

Stephen closed the book and stood up. "No, Wong. I haven't. But why are you asking me? I'm not the prankster type of guy."

"Says the man who used portals to steal my books."

"That wasn't a prank." Stephen said as he tried to hold his laughter.

Wong glared at him. "I'm serious, Strange."

"Look, if you lost it, you can always buy another one."

"I cannot! I have all Beyonce's albums in there!"

Stephen smirked at the other man.

Wong sighed. "Look, if you find it, just call me." He opened a portal and went back to his library.

Stephen sighed and decided to look for the missing piece of technology before Wong came back accusing him for something else. He started in the bathroom, the kitchen, and then the guest room where Wong has stayed about a week ago, then the library and he was starting to run out of places to look. Maybe his grumpy friend hadn't left it here. There was one last place to look. So Stephen made his way upstairs into the attic. In front of his was the giant round window that overlooked the street. He looked around him and saw no I-Pod. But what he found was far more than he expected.

The Cloak of Levitation is a picky thing, the Ancient One had told him. But certainly, she did not warn him of the Cloak's behavior. Floating in a corner of the room was said Cloak. Using the tips of her ends, the held up the New York Times Paper like a real person would, but even that hadn't been what shocked Stephen the most. What shocked him was that the Cloak was using Wong's I-Pod like a normal person would. To top it all, if Cloak had hips, she would be moving them to the rhythm of the music, judging by how the moved.

Cloak suddenly stopped as she became aware of who was standing in the staircase. Cloak looked at him and stopped dancing. An awkward moment passed between the two. Finally, Stephen cleared his throat. "Can you give me that I-Pod? It's not yours." He felt weird speaking to Cloak like it was a real person.

And indeed, Cloak had decided to act like a real person by simply ignoring him and floating away towards another direction. Stephen stood there, unable to move from shock. He knew he had a lot of explaining to do.

OOO

He had honestly expected last time to be the only time he saw Cloak doing something weird. Proved wrong. Again.

When he figured there was no spell to wash dirty clothes, he grabbed a basket, put the clothes inside and headed to the laundry room. As he descended the stairs a particular lavender smell invaded the room. Carefully, he entered the room and what he saw must of have come from some freaky fantasy comedy movie, or a horror movie. Right in the middle of the room, a large bucket with water and laundry detergent, judging by the bubbles, stood. Inside it, Cloak washed herself with a brush while pouring some laundry detergent over herself. When she finally noticed him standing the doorway, she covered herself with each side of, well, herself.

"Um… hi. I was just going to-" But he was interrupted when Cloak threw the brush to his direction. "What is wrong with you!?" He said as he dodged an incoming bar of soap. "Fine! I get it! You want the room for yourself! I'll be a gentleman and leave! Geez… Like there's something to see." He said as he made his way back upstairs. But not before another bar of soap hit him on the back of his head. "Damn it, Cloak!"

OOO

After a long day, Stephen had decided to change into some more comfortable clothing, made a bowl of popcorn and sat down in front of the TV. It wasn't a last model TV like the one he used to own, but it worked properly, so he was just happy he could watch a movie after a long time.

Just as The Golden Compass (he had taken an interest in fantasy movies) started, he felt another presence enter the room. Not completely alive, but not completely dead either. Cloak floated into the room and sat down beside him. Stephen was a little weirded out at first, but seeing that Cloak just mindlessly sat there looking at the TV, he didn't pay much attention to her. Except when the channel suddenly changed and the popcorn bowl was taken from him. "Hey!" He yelled at her.

She had changed the channel to some crappy old soap opera. Cloak threw the remote beside her, took a popcorn and threw it on her neck area, but it fell back on the bowl. She didn't seem to mind. Apparently, she liked to pretend she could eat.

"Just what do you think you are!?" He pointed at her

Cloak slapped his finger away and covered his mouth so she could listen.

'…But, Bob! You can't leave me!'

'I'm sorry, Janet. But I believe this is for the better…'

'Don't leave…'

'I'll never leave if you remember me…'

Stephen growled. He took off Cloak's 'hand' and left the room, mumbling something about 'not being able to do stuff in his own house'.

When Cloak was sure the doctor had left, she threw the popcorn aside and changed the channel to the Latin-American boxing match.

OOO

Stephen had enough of the stupid cloak and decided it was time to demand a refund. He opened a portal and stormed inside it to Wong's library. Wong looked up from a book in surprise. "Strange? What are you doing here?"

"How do I exchange my chosen artifact?"

Wong stared. "What?"

"How do I exchange my chosen artifact? Are you deaf?"

Wong frowned and closed the book. "No, I am not deaf. And why is that you want to exchange the Cloak of Levitation for something else?"

Stephen sighed. "Where do I begin? She stole your I-Pod while reading the newspaper, I caught her 'showering' in the laundry room but she kicked me out by throwing soap bars at me, last night she changed the TV movie I was watching for some soap opera and stole my popcorn even though she can't actually eat and just this morning I woke up to some depressive Celine Dion music blasting all over the place and I found her in a fetus position beside the radio. All by myself, 1996 mind you. In other words, she's insufferable!"

"Like you…" Wong mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Suddenly, Wong started to laugh. It took two minutes for him to calm down and return to his former, grumpy self. "Listen, first of all, you can't exchange your artifact, because it chooses you. The Cloak chose you to be her master, you can't part from it."

"Until when?"

"Until the time of your death."

"Then shoot me now…" Stephen mumbled.

"And second, you figured it out yourself."

Stephen frowned. "And that is?"

"The Cloak is a she. You know how women are, you can't understand them. If they say no, it means yes. If they say nothing, something is definitely bothering them. If they are mad at you, they will end you. If you don't treat them like ladies, they will give you a fate worse than death. Be insufferable." Wong said.

Stephen stayed silent.

"And if I stand correct, I think she's mad because you don't treat her like a lady, but rather like a weapon or a simple object. She's also your artifact, if you want to fight well, you must be one with your artifact. If that's the case, then that's why the Cloak is being so insufferable with you. Or everyone else. Mostly you."

"And since when do you know so much about women, Wong?"

Wong glared. "Don't ask questions I will not answer. Now go."

Stephen nodded. "Fine. Thank you." He opened a portal back to his sanctuary and stepped inside it. Once he was back, he decided to look for Cloak. But she was nowhere around. Finally giving up, he went to the library, see if he had any luck. And sitting on a lonely chair overlooking the fireplace sat Cloak.

Stephen sighed. He couldn't believe he had been reduced to talk gently to a piece of ancient cloth. He walked towards her and stood beside the chair. "Hey…"

Cloak looked up at him and then angrily turned away.

The good doctor tried to keep his cool. "I'm sorry I haven't been treating you the way you deserve. And I apologize." He said. A few moments passed until Cloak finally looked up at him and hugged him. "Whoa, um… I guess that means apology accepted."

Cloak hugged him for a few more moments and let go before it became awkward.

"So, I take it that all this time, you just wanted to be treated like a person?"

The Cloak nodded in her own way.

"I see…" He couldn't believe what he was going to say next. "So, how about if we watch an action movie? Because I'm pretty sure I heard some kind of boxing match last night instead of a soap opera."

Cloak nodded, attached herself to his robes and flew away with him towards the living room to watch a movie. An apology was all she wanted.

But apparently, she wouldn't stop making weird things to confuse the doctor, as for the next day, Stephen found Cloak playing poker with Wong's staff and some other weapons he hadn't seen before.

The movie was amazing and I just loved Cloak, I think she deserves to be a character in the archive.

I don't PM anymore. Reviews are love.