I don't know if I'd be smiling... that would make me some kind of sociopath, don't you think? [ Claude says, scratching at his cheek. He wasn't, in those memories anyway. He remembers being overcome with a feeling of all-encompassing terror -- and determination, of the likes he's never felt in his waking life. He's only ever gone with the breeze in this life, bowing to his father's whims for most of it, and then doing whatever seemed convenient afterwards without any ambitions of his own.

As for the questions Cloud is raising... he lets out a frustrated sigh. It's nothing he hasn't been ruminating on himself, but to no avail. No matter how many textbooks he's read, how many tales he's thrown himself into, he's never heard of something quite like this. He has no context to make sense of it in, no speculations that feel like anything beyond shots in the dark. ]

It's almost as though someone - or something - is leaving them around for us to find. Like it's sending a message to us. Maybe those religious nuts are right and it's the end of the world, [ Claude jokes, realizing that his words fall flat. ] Do you think this is happening all over, or just in Aldrip? This has always been such a sleepy little town. You'd think this sort of thing would be happening more in one of those metropolitan cities.