[blink and you'll miss it. but cloud's back is turned to the pods, and yet despite that he can see how the light illuminates differently on the floor, how shadows grow and disappear as they cover the glow from within.]
Stolen from... Mother.
[another of those painful glitches happen, just for a moment. he's been getting them a lot—the more sephiroth speaks, unravels things from his mind that make no sense but pick away at a truth. he still doesn't understand who mother is, but just like that time when he walked the halls of hojo's lab, it's not quite something he's under control of.]
[cloud finds himself sinking at the question, of monsters existing on this floor.]
[and before he can do anything he's pushed through the floor and standing on flat surface again, seemingly upside down, like he's walking on the ceiling. his sword is back on his back and there are glass-cells around him, aerith sitting in one of them—and multiples of her, behind her, a kaleidoscope of color. the world rights itself slowly, turning, and cloud's walking like a dizzy man, stumbling over chairs and tables, grabbing onto machines—until he's back solidly upright, the drums of hojo's lab dark and menacing; curtains and surgical tables hidden, as if abandoned.]
[the echo of hojo's laughter can be heard across the walls.]
—he's a madman. Everyone knows that.
[does he know that everyone knows that? or is he simply assuming a truth? it's easy to follow a thread.]
no subject
Stolen from... Mother.
[another of those painful glitches happen, just for a moment. he's been getting them a lot—the more sephiroth speaks, unravels things from his mind that make no sense but pick away at a truth. he still doesn't understand who mother is, but just like that time when he walked the halls of hojo's lab, it's not quite something he's under control of.]
[cloud finds himself sinking at the question, of monsters existing on this floor.]
[and before he can do anything he's pushed through the floor and standing on flat surface again, seemingly upside down, like he's walking on the ceiling. his sword is back on his back and there are glass-cells around him, aerith sitting in one of them—and multiples of her, behind her, a kaleidoscope of color. the world rights itself slowly, turning, and cloud's walking like a dizzy man, stumbling over chairs and tables, grabbing onto machines—until he's back solidly upright, the drums of hojo's lab dark and menacing; curtains and surgical tables hidden, as if abandoned.]
[the echo of hojo's laughter can be heard across the walls.]
—he's a madman. Everyone knows that.
[does he know that everyone knows that? or is he simply assuming a truth? it's easy to follow a thread.]