[ The implications are not lost on Cloud, and there's something that feels vaguely like unease coil in the pit of his stomach. Everything he says rings true — hell, he had his own experience with this sort of thing just the other day. At least the vanishing objects part. ]

[ Before he can even speak up about it, Claude can see the change slowly come over Cloud. He hunches forward a bit, as if bundling himself up smaller. He pulls the cider closer, his eyes floating toward a spot on the countertop. ]

You're saying the people reporting these objects missing... they just vanished into thin air, Claude?

Cause... I can tell you— an object vanishing from your hand? Happened to me. Thought I was crazy, but it was like nothing I've ever seen in this town.

[ Claude, himself, was an outsider, similar to Cloud— both of their professions offered them a measure of distance from others, when needed. It allowed a different kind of perspective. ]

And I can tell you for a fact I was dry when it happened. Though... maybe I shouldn't've been.