Fisherman’s Horizon – Mayor’s House
-I was right about the bowl! The status screen identifies it as “Sun Panel.”
-…this is his house? It looks more like a cross between a maintenance facility and a greenhouse than a home.
-Getting kind of a hippy vibe as I walk upstairs and see the mayor and the woman who may be his wife.
-Mayor Dobe doesn’t like us.
A frosty reception.
Can’t blame him.
-The hippy vibe is not accidental. We’re part of a military organization, and both he and Flo (the woman near him) are pacifists.
-Thankfully, cards are not based on force. Triple Triad with the mayor time! He has a unique playstyle in that he plays slowly. I see him flipping through cards, considering each one. Every other Triple Triad game has basically had the opponent play immediately each turn. Interesting.
-Drew Ultima from a nearby draw point.
-Been playing Triple Triad with the Dobe and Flo for a while. I love the “One” trade rule much more than “Direct.” It lets me risk good cards and have only a small downside if I lose – loss of a good card. When it’s a challenging opponent, it makes the games really fun.
The highs: won Quezacotl!!
The lows: FUFUFDHSFDUKLSFHDUILSFHDILS LOST QUISTIS FUCKKKK
Lololol. “Achievement unlocked: Loser.” Thanks, game. Way to rub it in.
-hold the phone. Hold it. Hold it hold it. I kept playing, and now Flo (who won my Quistis) played that Quistis card. I assumed Quistis would be lost forever, but she goes into that person’s card pool. That’s pretty awesome!
*30 minutes of Triple Triad later*
-Must… pull… myself… away…
---
Fisherman’s Horizon
-Left the mayor’s house to go confer with Cid back at the Garden to see whether he’ll allow FH repair crews into the Garden to help get it moving.
-?!?! Martine is outside the Mayor’s house.
What’s he doing here? …oh, right. He was the head of the Galbadia Garden and the Sorceress is back in town. *bonks self*
-Martine is here to start over. FH is a good place for it.
-HDU MARTINE
HE MUST BURN.
-Seriously. As a former Magic player in middle/high school, and as a general gamer, and as someone with basic respect for human life, this is the unforgivable sin. Abuse of power to the max. How dare he take his students’ cards!
Our school’s 7th grade teacher did something like this. He ran the Magic club after school, and was infamous for making horrifically imbalanced trades with his students where he swindled them out of good cards for piles of terrible common cards.
Now it’s personal, Martine.
-“Achievement unlocked: Professional Player.” Not sure what this is – will check Steam after this session. [Later edit: it means I won 100 games of Triple Triad.]
-I don’t remember if Tiamat has been in other games, but I remember her as the Fiend of Air from FF1. Blast from the past. Got Ultima Weapon card too, which is from a much less distant past.
*20 minutes later*
-COME ON COLDRUN BACK TO THE STORY THERE’S A SORCERESS TO STOP
-Quistis seems really bothered by the interaction with the mayor. Like it challenges her basic life choices.
-As we run up the sun panel, someone calls out that Galbadian soldiers arrived. Shit. (Well, it’s not like the Garden was an inconspicuous target.)
---
Galbadia Attacks!
-The mayor and Flo are super pissed at us for drawing the soldiers here (probably fair).
The mayor heads off to try to reason with the soldiers, which doesn’t seem like a winning strategy.
-The townspeople are freaking out about the soldiers and war machines they see.
-At the train station, the mayor is talking with a Galbadian soldier.
Ellone? I thought that Ellone already left with the Galbadians. Maybe there are multiple factions in play within Galbadia. These guys are definitely Edea’s soldiers. Perhaps the ones who collected Edea are not.
-The Galbadian don’t believe that the mayor never heard of him, and want to raze the city anyway.
-hee! The party is eavesdropping, and has the choice to intervene or let the conversation keep going even after the Galbadian threatens to kill the mayor. My inclination is to intervene, but let’s let it play out a bit longer. No violence, remember?
Alas, Rinoa and Quistis rightly yell at Squall to get his ass moving, so we move.
-Took out some soldiers, then a boss fight against the Iron Clad.
-It dies super quickly to a few hits of Squall’s Darkside and Rinoa’s Shiva.
---
The Happy Aftermath
-Yay! Zell, Selphie, and Irvine crawl up.
Joyous reaction to learning that the Garden is right next door.
They must’ve hitched a ride or something. The reunion is accompanied by a pretty little piano interlude. No stories exchanged right now. Everyone except Rinoa and Squall heads back to the Garden.
-The mayor is despondent.
-Rinoa noticed that Squall was actually happy to see the trio from the silo. A gradual shift in personality.
-Three dialog choices in response. Responsible, happy, or surly. You know what? Fuck it. Let’s go with happy, where Squall admits he was genuinely glad to see them.
Hahaha – Rinoa is honestly happy to see this, and then makes Squall blush super hard. XD
SQUALL: “(The heck? Is she toying with me?)”
Rinoa runs off to join the others at the Garden.
-Talking with the Mayor some more. He appreciates that Squall saved his life without thanking him. I thought this might annoy me, but I admire the Mayor for sticking to his principles.
And yet, it bothers Squall. Some more dialogue choices: I could have Squall say “forget it,” or have him actually ask the mayor to understand. I go with the latter. Stoic Squall is not as interesting to me as open and connecting Squall.
Glad I chose that option. He gives a pretty wonderful speech about how fighting sucks, and how he wishes he didn’t have to and that discussion was always the way, but that circumstances and reality makes fighting necessary.
Even better? He does this without tearing down the mayor. Says that the world needs both types of people, those like Squall and those like the mayor.
-A dude in the street says he has 256 cats in his house. My man.
-HOLY CRAP! Talk about a blast from the past. Met a guy in the streets here who left Balamb and wandered the world. It sounds familiar, and some dialogue options put the last piece in place. This is the cafeteria lady’s son!
Awwww! Squall tells him that the Garden is in town (literally) and he runs off to visit her.
A glass-half-full kind of fisherman.
-Playing a game of Triple Triad against the repair shopkeeper, and there’s new music. It’s the same basic rhythm, but more of a bass-beat.
-Talked to the “Will NORG evolve?” guy again, and it got me thinking: when NORG “died” he left a purple aura/bubble thing. Maybe he didn’t really die and is just in a cocoon or something until he turns into his next form.
-Whoa. Wtf is going on. Talked to the Dennis the Menace kid again, he cast his fishing line wildly, and now there’s fight music and the shopkeeper can’t breathe.
The line got tangled around his throat. Squall runs over and removes it. We get victory music. XD XD
-The shopkeeper is PISSED. Rightfully so.
-hahahah. This has even more chapters to the story. I talked to the fisher kid again, and the music got super intense. He starts to run to pre-emptively dodge the wild fishing cast, but… no need!
The cast is good this time. I’m so proud of the kid. You'll make a fisherman yet.
---
Next time: back to the floating Garden.
