Cloud's Thoughts

Halloween Haul: DAMN YOU ALL!!!

Wed, 02 Nov 2005 20:22:34 GMT

My LiveJournal Trick-or-Treat Haul
notaclonereally goes trick-or-treating, dressed up as naked.
all4science gives you 13 orange strawberry-flavoured wafers.
hisphoneismine gives you 4 brown cinnamon-flavoured jawbreakers.
mtgreno tricks you! You get a clothespin.
qbsephiroth tricks you! You lose 7 pieces of candy!
shelenack gives you 6 yellow cola-flavoured pieces of taffy.
snapeinmidgar tricks you! You get a wet rag.
snapettes tricks you! You lose 13 pieces of candy!
sneakywute tricks you! You get a scratched CD.
toughestclone gives you 15 light blue apple-flavoured gummy worms.
vingetsfuzzy gives you 12 red-orange vanilla-flavoured gummy worms.
notaclonereally ends up with 30 pieces of candy, a clothespin, a wet rag, and a scratched CD.
Go trick-or-treating! Username:
Another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern.

HALLOWEEN.

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 22:37:15 GMT

For Real:

(1) Halloween Party.
(2) Band tryouts. ALL OF YOU ARE TRYING OUT. I WILL PLY YOU WITH LIQUOR IF I MUST!
(3) A breaking-in-the-new-poles-Reno-and-I-put-in-the-basement party.

...

(4) Seph dances.
(5) Really.

Already half drunk,
Cloud

A Cloud and his Guitar

Tue, 25 Oct 2005 14:12:29 GMT

THE GOOD NEWS: I GOT A GIG!!
I'm going to be playing my acoustic at a little coffeeshop down the street from Mama Santa's. It's called The Midgar Grind and I guess they finally listened to my demo. It'll just be me and a mic, so I'm a little embarrassed, but I need to buck up sometime, right? It'd be awesome if you guys could come listen to me. (And Zack, it'd be EVEN MORE AWESOME if you could get me a gig at Mama Santa's. I DO play acoustic stuff.)

Tseng really has me hooked on that electronica band he listens to, Mirror-whatever. And Seph has ALL THE ACOUSTIC BOOTLEGS OF MAKO SULPHIDE. Vincent is going to bring over some Nightwish because he says that's good, too. I'm starting to think that living in this house might totally help my musical tastes -- I've been into all the old classic rock stuff for so long. It's about time for me to broaden my horizons. I mean, Nobuo Uematsu is great, with those guitar licks, but I do need to diversify.

I was jamming the other day, and I actually think I've figured out the main riff to "Fighting For A Chance". It's really hard, but I think I finally have it. I'd love to find some other musicians, it's be totally sweet to start up a band, just to jam on the weekends. Maybe I should start asking around school?

Loving the tunes,
Cloud

((*grin* One of my characters HAD to be musically inclined, as I spend so much of my own damned time practicing ^^))
((...plus, the school band is another FANTASTIC cliche that we can totally ruin. Who's up for it?))

The Reports: Vol I

Tue, 11 Oct 2005 13:22:12 GMT

OK guys, Seph, Yuffie and I were up really late last night paging through these reports. (I appreciate everyone else's offers to help. I just don't want people finding things out about themselves that they wish they had never known.)

These people are ... messed up.
A lot of this is wrong and really disturbing. I understand if you guys are bothered about it or about knowing these things about yourself. I don't suggest you read what we found out unless ... you really want to know.

I just think -- it's important that we find out, so that they can't manipulate us any more.

A lot of the experiments appear to have "triggers", so we'll have to figure out how to overcome these and make ourselves less sensitive (and hopefully, eventually, immune) to them.

This is really, really hard to write. Forgive me if I've inserted my own thoughts in places. I'm a little disturbed and trying to make up for it with jokes that don't seem to be funny anymore.

Also, I'm sorry for referring to people as "projects" or "specimens". Really. But you all know by now how bad my English sucks, so I'm just taking words from their documents.

- Cloud

(1) First of all, there is a difference between the genetically enhanced 'specimens' (I hate using the term, forgive me, but my English sucks) and the genetically engineered 'specimens'. The word 'enhanced' in the reports refers to children who were born normal but then experimented on. 'Engineered' refers to test-tube babies who were experiments from the start. There seem to be a lot of notes in here on "stability" testing; however, I'm still working through their math, so I have no idea what that means yet.

(2) The bulk of the experiments consisted of physical and mental stimulants and genetic grafting with some strange chemicals I don't know very well. (Aeris, maybe you and Professor Snape could look at them? IN SECRET. If he can still be trusted.) As far as I can tell most of the work was actually done at the school or at the Hojos' house; however, we will all need to check our own houses for equipment to make sure it all gets destroyed.

The early work was done with actual DNA grafting and some very advanced protein manipulation. After the main protein assemblers were in place, further enhancement work could be done with a simple injection. The grafted proteins in muscle and bone (physicals) or brain tissue (mentals) were made to assemble the individual injection proteins into specific chemicals which then worked to stimulate and enhance the material to which it was attached. Basically, the important part of this is that these protein assemblers are always going to be there. So we all have to be careful about what we do, who we tell, even simple things like what we eat or what drugs we take (both the legal and the Gast kind).

You know, because we all needed another reminder that we were scarred for life.

As for more specifics on the chemicals:

(3) Shera, you were their poster child for the mental genetic grafting. The work they did with your parents went so well that they felt no real need for a backup or duplicate - you were vastly better than the controls. They were nurturing me as the back-up, but gave up early, which might explain why I'm good at math but shite in everything else.
However ... (I'm so sorry) Because of the grafting your mind is very delicate. I'm sure you've figured this out with the pills, but ... it's very, very fragile. This is why I need you to be careful. Because of what they did your mind is as sensitive to "hurt" as any normal muscle or bone would be. My guess is, you never had to strain yourself in school, so you've never had to push yourself to the limit. You may want to start practicing "stretching" yourself to find your limitations before it becomes a liability.
Also, don't EVER go vegetarian. You're much more sensitive to your blood's iron and oxygen-carrying capacity, and you need a pretty high protein intake. In fact, eat as much red meat as you can. I'm also pretty sure you won't (and can't) gain weight.

(4) Yes, I was their backup - the "spare". No, I don't want to give you any more details right now. It's stuff about residual stored time-lapse proteins and I don't want to think about it.

(5) Vincent's grafting was of a completely different nature and there are not very many notes in his file, so we will have to look elsewhere. Perhaps Lucrecia's journals, since she seemed to handle that project much on her own.

(6) The physical grafting provided a lot more variability and so they seem to have focused on that aspect. Sephiroth was their stand-out pupil but they also went in different directions to compare to the control. Sephiroth is an "enhanced" child -- meaning he started out as a normal child -- but his treatments started in the womb, so he took to them better than even the "engineered" children. He was also "nurtured" in a different way (I do not mean nurture in the usual, good sense. I mean his protein feed was quite different than the standard, big-muscle feed. It's disturbing that they refer to a "protein feed" as "nurturing". THE GODS WEPT) and I believe there are more details on that in the notes from Jenova's house, which we haven't gotten to yet. There are also notes on mental grafting as well although the focus was on his unique protein feed.
Also, Seph, you need to keep your blood sugar up, as your muscle enhancements have resulted in a condition almost resembling mutated diabetes. (It's a good thing you're a better cook than either myself or Vincent.)

(6a) Most of the football team at school are examples of abandoned experiments, physical graftings that were aborted before total completion. We haven't yet found the reason why they were abandoned.

(7) Loz, Kadaj and Yazoo are all "engineered" children, grown in what was simply referred to as "pods". I can't read any of the notes on them as they are all in Cetran. Not coded, just regular Cetran.

(8) Tseng was a side-project using a new protein enhancer which grafted to nerves and bone instead of the actual muscle. This means that his reflexes have been enhanced, making him as agile and flexible as he is. There was insisting from an outside source (the funder, who I can only assume is Rufus) to make Tseng's enhancements more "subtle", which - I assume - is why none of us noticed them until recently.
Reno ... I'm pretty sure this is what happened to you as well. The difference is between whether the grafting started as a child or as a teenager. I believe they had to hit you with an assembly accelerator. We're still working through the notes though.
However, you BOTH need to keep up your calcium intake. If your bones start to weaken, the grafted materials will sort of take over, and although I'm not sure what that means, I'm sure it's bad.

(9) Seph has found a whole ton of notes on "emotional triggers", which is why I keep stressing that everybody here keeps their cool on. This isn't just to avoid giving me a headache. This is serious stuff.

(10) ...this is making me ill. I have to go throw up.

((Guys, I was in a total science-nerd mood and instead of posting it at MHS I gave it to Cloud. If I did something to your character you're not cool with, just change it. I was too busy getting my geek on as I sit next to my periodic table at work waiting for them to fix my monomer feed.))

Leaderology.

Mon, 10 Oct 2005 13:07:45 GMT

So, whoever volunteered me to be the leader of this little outfit (THIS MEANS YOU, VINCENT FUCKING VALENTINE!!!) probably made a big mistake.

I mean, I'm trying, guys, but this is HARD. I'm still gathering information, but I know that we all need to move soon. Tseng, thanks muchos for those files -- at least we'll know what Rufus was intending us all for. (That is, once I read them. I'm only ten pages in. Not a fast reader.)

Also, it doesn't help that you all quarrel like a bunch of first-graders.

---

In other news, I'm trying to think of an appropriate Halloween costume. Does anyone have any ideas?

- Cloud

Apology.

Thu, 06 Oct 2005 16:05:50 GMT

...I'm back.

Yes. Really. And I'm sorry.

I apologize for all the angry journal entries, the angry comments, but most of all I apologize for ... letting her get to me.

I wasn't strong enough to stop her.

Yes, I know: they're all crazy, and between the lunches and the needles and the mind-control and PROFESSOR SNAPE'S POTIONS (TRAITOR) and the fact that they had infiltrated my very own house and MY VERY OWN MOTHER, you may even say that there was nothing I could do.

But I could have fought more, and I didn't. I wasn't strong enough.

That will be different now.

I AM strong now. I've learned how to be strong. I've learned how to fight, and - more importantly - I've learned what to fight for. And what to fight against. And you all - you all who saved me, who came after me: I fight for YOU now. I will protect you. They have made me strong, and I will turn that strength against them.

So...

Aeris and Tifa, thank you for coming after me. I couldn't hurt you, even with the drugs in my brain. Aeris, you and I have been friends for so long. And Tifa ... I never told you, but remember when we were children and played together? I had a crush on you. Somehow you knew I wouldn't hurt you - you both trusted me. Thank you, both of you, for coming after me.

Tseng and Elena, I am sorry that I hurt you. I don't remember it very well. The drugs were bad that day. I only hope I didn't do permanent damage.

Yuffie ... I'm so sorry. I didn't know what I was doing. I'm bad at saying this in person, but ... I still want to be with you, y'know?

All of you: If we work together, we can stop this. Now.

- Cloud

((i have no idea whether these LJs line up AT ALL to the timeline, so just play along with me. i was sick of wangsty!Cloud.))

...

Wed, 05 Oct 2005 16:39:37 GMT

... STAY OUT OF THE SCHOOL. ARE YOU ALL EMBICILES??? I DO NOT WANT TO HURT YOU, BUT I WILL.

- Cloud

((tee. i totally made Cloud multiple icons so that you can tell whether you are addressing original!Cloud, crazy!Cloud, or kickarse!Cloud))

Tue, 04 Oct 2005 16:17:42 GMT

...where am I?

Friday 15 :: Update

Mon, 03 Oct 2005 12:29:53 GMT

THIS IS A WARNING.

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO GET INTO AREAS IN THE SCHOOL THAT YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED IN.

WE KNOW WHAT YOU ARE UP TO.

BEWARE.

I have no problems with any of you, but if you interfere, you will get hurt.

- Cloud

Workout Journal Update, 08

Thu, 29 Sep 2005 12:26:46 GMT

Cloud's Workout Journal: Friday, 08

I have left school grounds and so these numbers may not be entirely correct as I have lost my stopwatch.

Distance Run: 5 mi @ 7:00/mi (40 min with warmup)
Sprint Run: 3 mi @ 5:00/mi (20 min with warmup)

After-dinner Run: 5 mi @ 10:00/mi

Free weights: 60 min
Crunches and pullups: 30 min
Kickboxing: 60 min

Swordfighting with Sephiroth: none
(I have left school.)

It is only a matter of time now before you will all see how strong I have become. YOU WILL ALL SEE.

-Cloud

Wed, 28 Sep 2005 11:59:18 GMT

Cloud's Workout Journal: Wednesday, 06

Distance Run: 5 mi @ 8:00/mi (40 min)
Sprint Run: 2 mi @ 5:00/mi (15 min including warmup)

After-dinner Run: 3 mi @ 10:00/mi

Free weights: 45 min
Crunches and pullups: 30 min
Kickboxing: 60 min

Swordfighting with Sephiroth: 60 min
Rating: 8.5 / 10 (Today is the first day I think I WON. However, still need to be STRONGER.)

WHY ARE YOU ALL SO WORRIED ABOUT ME? LEAVE ME ALONE. YOU NEVER CARED BEFORE. NOW YOU JUST WANT TO STOP ME FROM BECOMING STRONG. NICE TRY.

-Cloud

((p.s. somebody, how do I make the cute little link to another LJ?))

Workout Journal, 06

Tue, 27 Sep 2005 16:19:59 GMT

Cloud's Workout Journal: Wednesday, 06

Distance Run: 5 mi @ 10:00/mi (50 min)
Sprint Run: 2 mi @ 6:00/mi (15 min including warmup)
(did not throw up)
After-dinner Run: 2 mi @ 10:00/mi

Free weights: 30 min
Crunches and pullups: 30 min
Kickboxing: 60 min

Swordfighting with Sephiroth: 60 min
Rating: 7 / 10 (I got a couple really good hits in)

...I ended up skipping some of my classes today, I think. At least, that's the only way these numbers add up. I just can't sit still any more. It's like there's ... energy ... in me ... and I have to work it out! It's OK though -- it's only going to MAKE ME STRONGER!

-Cloud

Tuesday 05: Cloud's Workout Journal

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 12:59:05 GMT

((Note: These entries will follow drakon's rockin' timeline.))

Cloud's Workout Journal: Tuesday, 05

Distance Run: 3 mi @ 10:00/mi (30 min)
Sprint Run: 2 mi @ 7:00/mi (15 min including warmup)
(did not throw up)
After-dinner Run: 1 mi @ 10:00/mi

Free weights: 30 min
Crunches and pullups: 30 min

Swordfighting with Sephiroth: 60 min
Rating: 5 / 10 (I am getting better, but he is stronger)

Workout details: By the time I got home from working out, I was feeling a little dizzy, and I think I ~~passed out~~ fell asleep on the couch. However, whatever mom made for dinner had me feeling great, and I got in another mile before bedtime.
I should have worked harder on my Chemistry paper, but it'll get at least an 85%, so I'm not too worried. I need to focus on working out more. I HAVE TO BE STRONGER!

-Cloud

--------

Thu, 22 Sep 2005 11:53:05 GMT

I...

I don't feel well

I came home from school and Mum had made this stew. She never makes stew. It looked a lot like the stuff I get at lunch so I didn't want to eat it but she just kind of laughed and said something about it making me big and strong. She said she'd made something special for me because I made QB. I didn't want to hurt her feelings so I ate it. And ...

why do i keep losing my train of thought?

So then I felt really good for a while. She was right. I went for a run and I felt awesome. But then when I got back I ...

I don't remember. I should probably just delete that sentence, but ...

so tired

This school is messed up.

Wed, 21 Sep 2005 03:02:51 GMT

The nurse is totally stalking me.

I don't get it. At all.

She showed up at practice today and tried to corner me in the locker room. Thank goodness everyone got all distracted by those FASCINATING pictures of Seph that the Snapettes had decorated our lockers with for the next big game (*gags*). I managed to get away. But ...she's just weird, y'know?

Also, Mr Barret yelled at me today for not doing my homework. WE DIDN'T HAVE HOMEWORK, YOU BLACK ANGRY NUTJOB.

...Sorry. I really need to be nicer. I don't know what's come over me. I think I need to stop eating cafeteria food...

School

Sun, 18 Sep 2005 19:33:27 GMT

So something weird is going on at school. I heard something about Seph getting in a fight and hitting the nurse.

Plus, nobody seems to want to talk to me anymore. Except Yuffie, but I have this theory that she just hangs out with me because of my flashy cell phone. It's not my fault Ma doesn't have any other kids to spoil!

Oh well.

All the cool kids are doing it

Sat, 17 Sep 2005 04:27:51 GMT

...so I got one too.

I don't know what Sephiroth is talking about either. My English paper wasn't THAT bad. OK, so I'm no writing genius, but he didn't have to make me feel like a retard.

For real.

And my math grade is still higher than his.