Church in the Slums
-Zack starts to leave, before Aerith offers to take him wherever he’s going.
ZACK: “You just want to spend more time with me, huh?” He says this kind of half-jokingly. Aerith’s response is perfect and makes me love her so much:
She has the same wonderful boldness and confidence she had in VII.
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Sector 5
-They walk out of the church together, shortly attacked by some Hedgehog Pies (the super easy monsters of this game). Zack dispatches them. It sort of impresses Aerith, but she plays it cool.
-Zack is pretty ignorant of this city. Seems surprised the people live in the slums just like anywhere else.
-Angeal’s “Keepers of Honor” fan club is dissolving.
-Oh wow, talk about some foreshadowing. Aerith discusses how she is actually used to the enclosed space under the dome, and would be hesitant to leave it.
Zack promises that one day, he’ll take her out to see the real sky.
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Sector 5 - Market
-They reach a main market (Wall Market? I hope not. Please, please, PLEASE let’s not get an appearance from Don Corneo), and Zack immediately gets pick-pocketed by a kid. He’s all “RABBLE RABBLE STEALING IS WRONG BRING HIM TO JUSTICE,” but Aerith knows the kid and wants to find out the full story.
Based on this set-up, there’s no way that the kid just stole for the heck of it. Probably stole to buy bread or something.
-Got a timely letter from Director Lazard warning about children in the slums forming gangs, and SOLDIER needing to address this “distortion.”
The tone of the letter really creeps me out, partly because it seems to similar to politicians who solely want to address problems in poorer areas with heavy police presence. I may be reading too much into it, but there it is.
I’m beyond curious to see how this plays out for Aerith, Zack, and Zack’s relationship with Shinra.
-So Aerith went off to look for the kid and Zack does the same, talking to citizens in the market. It’s weird that a lot of them hawk their wares, but Zack can’t use any as a store.
-A little girl offers to find the kid for Zack. She runs off. He stands there waiting, and it seems pretty clear that she went off to warn him.
Zack is not the savviest something in the somewhere.
-A different person saw him running by the Accessory Shop.
This whole segment feels a bit like Zozo from FFVI. It’s fun, but I’m not delighted with the “lol poor people are liars” message that comes across.
-LOLOL – he gets to the accessory shop, we see the kid run behind Zack to the right, and the shop owner says “Yeah, he went left.”
An addendum to the Zozo thing. In Zozo, all the people were liars just because it was their nature. Here, it is different – they lie to protect one of their own from a Shinra SOLDIER who most probably hate. Much better.
-A boy by the gates says he has info on who stole Zack’s wallet, but will only trade it for a potion. I want to do it, but I think Zack might be fed up at this point. Going to try saying “no” to the trade.
-He asks another guy for help who promptly finds the boy and helps him escape. Zack… dude…
-Aerith found him, but he’s too fast.
-FINALLY! They cornered him.
Caught.
I was right – he stole to buy medicine. Zack offers to buy it, but apparently doesn’t have enough. The kid’s wallet was taken by a monster, so we have to get it back.
-The monsters are in the park outside the market. Zack pops outside, runs across some worm monsters. He knows what he has to do.
Ew.
LOL ZACK
“’Now to deal with this brat. Get ready for the longest lecture of your life!’ …is what I’d like to say, but you can go. You’re in a hurry, right?”
-Turns out Zack’s not wealthy. (We’ll just ignore the tens of thousands of gil I’ve racked up so far as a non-canon gameplay mechanic.) He offers to go into business with Aerith.
This is kind of adorable.
AND OFFERS TO BUILD A WAGON TO CART THE FLOWERS AROUND!
This must be where the wagon and plans I’ve been gradually collecting come into play. Neat.
-An email from Kunsel suggests Hollander has ties to Banora.
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Next time: date with Aerith and Zack!
