Claire looked off as if disinterested, but to her chagrin even she knew it was a very thin veneer indeed. Her mind was quick to jump into overdrive at the information- information she hadn't expected the man to actually be able to give her. While at first it didn't seem to help her much towards trying to pinpoint exactly what it was that made them so different, after a moment the exact oddity in his guessed-at explanation was quick to stand out.
By the time Claire's mother had died, Serah was just about already old enough to take care of herself, several years past the point where Claire had secured a place in PSICOM's training program. While not everyone stayed with PSICOM, of course, even if she assumed something was flat-out wrong in Lightning's head... the account still seemed off in Claire's eyes.
That said, she'd already noticed that when Lightning had been at Balamb Garden that she and Serah seemed somehow even closer than what she'd experienced with her own sister... and not just because of the gaping rift that had been cast between them back in Claire's world, when it had turned out they'd both been marked by fal'Cie on opposing sides. Before that, too.
Realization flickered to life inside of her. Their parents' deaths... was that why?
Lightning clearly hadn't been commissioned; everyone who knew her always referred to her as a sergeant... and suddenly, Claire couldn't help but think of that last picture ever taken of her mother, before she became too gravely ill for photos to be 'allowed'- it also happened to be the first one featuring her oldest daughter with officer's wings pinned to the front of her dress uniform, near the end of the graduation ceremony for cadets coming out of the Academy.
Claire's head ducked slightly, frown tugging harder at the corners of her lips.
"I see," she said, as neutrally as she was capable of. However, the question lingered: if she'd been left without her parents at a much younger age, would things have turned out so radically divergent? Changed to the point where the Brand on her chest took on the appearance of what she'd been trained all her life to believe was the mark of evil?
no subject
Claire looked off as if disinterested, but to her chagrin even she knew it was a very thin veneer indeed. Her mind was quick to jump into overdrive at the information- information she hadn't expected the man to actually be able to give her. While at first it didn't seem to help her much towards trying to pinpoint exactly what it was that made them so different, after a moment the exact oddity in his guessed-at explanation was quick to stand out.
By the time Claire's mother had died, Serah was just about already old enough to take care of herself, several years past the point where Claire had secured a place in PSICOM's training program. While not everyone stayed with PSICOM, of course, even if she assumed something was flat-out wrong in Lightning's head... the account still seemed off in Claire's eyes.
That said, she'd already noticed that when Lightning had been at Balamb Garden that she and Serah seemed somehow even closer than what she'd experienced with her own sister... and not just because of the gaping rift that had been cast between them back in Claire's world, when it had turned out they'd both been marked by fal'Cie on opposing sides. Before that, too.
Realization flickered to life inside of her. Their parents' deaths... was that why?
Lightning clearly hadn't been commissioned; everyone who knew her always referred to her as a sergeant... and suddenly, Claire couldn't help but think of that last picture ever taken of her mother, before she became too gravely ill for photos to be 'allowed'- it also happened to be the first one featuring her oldest daughter with officer's wings pinned to the front of her dress uniform, near the end of the graduation ceremony for cadets coming out of the Academy.
Claire's head ducked slightly, frown tugging harder at the corners of her lips.
"I see," she said, as neutrally as she was capable of. However, the question lingered: if she'd been left without her parents at a much younger age, would things have turned out so radically divergent? Changed to the point where the Brand on her chest took on the appearance of what she'd been trained all her life to believe was the mark of evil?