B-Garden
-Got a new card on the walk over from Balamb, fighting the odd Glacial Eye monster.
-The team makes it back, tired from the walk. Selphie and Zell go their own way until they hear the test results.
Sore from a long walk.
-In the main lobby area, Xu, Quistis, and Cid discuss the test. They didn’t know the Galbadians were after the Communications Tower. What are they up to?
-Weirder and weirder. The Galbadians are withdrawing on the condition that the tower remain up and running.
-Xu’s dialogue reminds me that we’re not noble knights saving the poor defenseless nation of Dollet.
We’re mercenaries.
-Aw. Quistis is proud of her “best student,” Squall.
-I get the chance to tell Cid how Squall felt. Gonna go with “scared to death.” Maybe not exactly true, but I like the idea of Squall owning up to how he’s not like Seifer.
-In a frustrating quirk of the UI, I can’t actually reach the save point. Every time I get close, I get sucked into the zoomed-in area of the lobby with the faculty. Grrrr.
-Triple Triad time! Going to set a stop-loss at five. If I lose five games, I’ll call it. My main goal is to play more incrementally this time, saving my best cards for last.
-Hey, neat! I got an Ifrit card from beating him in the Fire Cavern. The card has phenomenal stats.
-VICTORY!
First time out. I get a SAM08G card.
-Found Seifer in the halls. Of course, he’s worried about the missed glory from withdrawing from the Tower. (Though he’s not 100% wrong… we could’ve taken it and saved Dollet a fair bit of pain!)
-Quistis comes alone. Seifer tries to defend himself in the smarmiest way possible, following it up with, “A mediocre instructor like you will never understand.” YOU’RE FUCKING DEAD TO ME.
-XU BRINGS THE THUNDER HAHAHAH
DROPS THE MIC AND WALKS AWAY. Seifer takes this news harshly and is left a shaking mess. GOOD.
-Cid wanders over, says something to Quistis that we can’t hear. She walks away.
-Cid’s pretty reasonable. Disappointed in Seifer, but also empathetic. He wants us to follow orders AND think for ourselves. A tough set of responsibilities.
-Cid leaves. Again, I understand why Seifer made the choice he did as captain, and it was not a terrible one, I still feel joy at seeing his stunned silence in the wake of this.
-A faculty member emphasizes how literally SeeD takes its assignments.
Even if it helped Dollet, Seifer going above and beyond may have gone against the Garden’s philosophy and business model.
-Starting to feel very FFIV-ish the more I hear about SeeD. There, we started out working for the militaristic kingdom of Baron. SeeD may be more neutral than actively sinister, but still…
-Tried exploring more of this place, but an announcement called me away to hear the SeeD test results upstairs. (Sadly, nobody is out in the halls now to play cards with. Just got the one game in.)
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Test Results
-Everyone is upstairs. Fujin is her usual talkative self. (“…RAGE.”) Oh shit, wait what? Raijin says Fujin will blame Squall if Seifer doesn’t get to be a SeeD. Take your RAGE out on Seifer, not Squall!
-A faculty member approaches. ZELL GOT IN!
YES HAHAHAHA!!! I’m ridiculously happy about this. So did Selphie, Squall, and one other person I don’t recognize yet.
-Cid passes out the rank reports to each of the four new members, along with some words/advice. Tells Selphie he’s looking forward to the Garden Festival. Tells the as-yet-unnamed guy to “do [his] best even if he doesn’t stand out.” (Backhand Compliment Central!) Tells Zell to control his emotions, and just says to Squall that he’s happy to have a gunblade specialist.
Everyone leaves.
-LOLOL – Selphie and Zell are so happy that they’re high-stepping and dancing in the hallways, barely able to contain themselves.
-Jeeeez. The unnamed guy is a bit scary. “After 17 years of suffering, I’m finally free.” “I’ll be in charge of this Garden someday!”
-New SeeD members have to give a speech to class.
-The new SeeDs walk back into the main hallway. Seifer and the others are waiting.
-Uh oh. Seifer’s starting with a slow clap.
This could get ugly.
-Huh. Never mind. The clap speeds up and everyone (including Fujin and Raijin) joins in. It seems sincere?
I wonder if this will signal a turn for Seifer, where he gets some much needed humility and learns a lesson.
-This is fascinating. We actually get a SeeD report card which starts Squall out at Rank 3.
He’ll get paid, and his pay could go up – or DOWN – based on his actions.
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Apartment
-Selphie visits Squall. She’s so excited to be wearing her new SeeD uniform!
-Squall dons his own uniform. Looking snazzy for the celebration.
-Get used to Selphie screenshots. She’s wonderful.
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Next time: PAAH-TAY!
