Summary: Where I find myself unable to remotely begin to even. The backstory short-circuited me.
Balamb Garden
-The cafeteria worker’s son is back here… and kinda hating it lol. He wants to leave again to be back on his journey.
-The Quad is WAY different since we’re not afloat anymore. No stage either.
-Commander Squall has quite the rep.
-I still check the B1 level pretty frequently. I just feeeel that the glowing shell thing where NORG was will become something at some point given all the evolution clues.
-No luck finding the other CC group members yet. Maybe later. (No luck finding Cid either for a rematch.)
-Selphie wants to go to Trabia. Fine by me.
-…maybe fine? I have no earthly idea where I’m going. But I head to the continent due north of Balamb, and found it. Nice.
---
Trabia Garden
-This place is in ruins. The missiles landed in a direct hit. Selphie goes in to explore.
-Squall and Rinoa follow behind her while the rest of the part waits at the outskirs.
-Survivors! One of Selphie’s friends is still alive and happy to see her.
-A Trabia faculty member mourns in his own way.
The ruleset is pretty awesome – it pulls cards randomly and I have to play with those.
RANDOM SURVIVOR: “That… Tonberry King! Take this! GF summoning! blahZzzz…” Uhhhh
-FUCK THIS PLACE. I lost both my Quistis and Pandemona cards to this GODDAMNED FUCKING RANDOM CARDSETS AND PLUS RULESFH DJSKLFH DJKLSFHDJKLSFHDJLSF [Later edit: lol at myself for getting so salty so QUICK! I still like the random ruleset. ]
…whew. Managed to win them both back when I learned to take advantage of the Plus system. But I’m playing very cautiously.
-The whole place is pretty dang sad.
Students trying to start some semblance of recovery and retain their identities as students.
-Quistis believes that the Sorceress wants to journey back to the past for some reason. It worked for Chaos in FF1 I suppose.
Zell asks a great question: what was the sorceress doing before all this? Living a normal life? I had assumed she was in jail.
RINOA: “You know, ever since I met you all, I’ve been doing some thinking… I can’t stop thinking about it… I can’t come up with an answer, either.” ???
-Selphie rejoins us with a new sense of determination and desire for vengeance. Rinoa wants to find another way.
Ah, I see what Rinoa’s getting it.
She wants to do this without bloodshed. Everyone else is bumfuzzled, especially since Rinoa led a resistance cell. But she says she feels connected to all of us – EXCEPT when fighting. Everyone else is literally a professional, and she feels left behind.
RINOA: “Once I catch up, I wonder… is everyone safe? Will they welcome me with open arms? Is everyone okay? Will we all make it back together?”
Her ties make her worry that she’ll lose someone dear to her.
---
Memories
-Irvine backstory!
-When Irvine was 4, he was in an orphanage.
WAIT HE KNEW SELPHIE AS A KID WTFF????
AND QUISTIS WWIAT HJKWHAT THE FUCK
And zell ok what the helling fucking fuck is going on now what is happening
-Now Squall is in ghost-form in this stone orphanage memory and I’m controlling him.
-He finds his kid self.
He’s Ellone’s brother.
-NOOO SQUALLL!!! He sees his kid self outside, crying about where his sister went and why she left him alone.
His response: “(What a shameful sight.)”
Balamb Garden
-The cafeteria worker’s son is back here… and kinda hating it lol. He wants to leave again to be back on his journey.
-The Quad is WAY different since we’re not afloat anymore. No stage either.
-Commander Squall has quite the rep.
-I still check the B1 level pretty frequently. I just feeeel that the glowing shell thing where NORG was will become something at some point given all the evolution clues.
-No luck finding the other CC group members yet. Maybe later. (No luck finding Cid either for a rematch.)
-Selphie wants to go to Trabia. Fine by me.
-…maybe fine? I have no earthly idea where I’m going. But I head to the continent due north of Balamb, and found it. Nice.
---
Trabia Garden
-This place is in ruins. The missiles landed in a direct hit. Selphie goes in to explore.
-Squall and Rinoa follow behind her while the rest of the part waits at the outskirs.
-Survivors! One of Selphie’s friends is still alive and happy to see her.
-A Trabia faculty member mourns in his own way.
The ruleset is pretty awesome – it pulls cards randomly and I have to play with those.
RANDOM SURVIVOR: “That… Tonberry King! Take this! GF summoning! blahZzzz…” Uhhhh
-FUCK THIS PLACE. I lost both my Quistis and Pandemona cards to this GODDAMNED FUCKING RANDOM CARDSETS AND PLUS RULESFH DJSKLFH DJKLSFHDJKLSFHDJLSF [Later edit: lol at myself for getting so salty so QUICK! I still like the random ruleset. ]
…whew. Managed to win them both back when I learned to take advantage of the Plus system. But I’m playing very cautiously.
-The whole place is pretty dang sad.
Students trying to start some semblance of recovery and retain their identities as students.
-Quistis believes that the Sorceress wants to journey back to the past for some reason. It worked for Chaos in FF1 I suppose.
Zell asks a great question: what was the sorceress doing before all this? Living a normal life? I had assumed she was in jail.
RINOA: “You know, ever since I met you all, I’ve been doing some thinking… I can’t stop thinking about it… I can’t come up with an answer, either.” ???
-Selphie rejoins us with a new sense of determination and desire for vengeance. Rinoa wants to find another way.
Ah, I see what Rinoa’s getting it.
She wants to do this without bloodshed. Everyone else is bumfuzzled, especially since Rinoa led a resistance cell. But she says she feels connected to all of us – EXCEPT when fighting. Everyone else is literally a professional, and she feels left behind.
RINOA: “Once I catch up, I wonder… is everyone safe? Will they welcome me with open arms? Is everyone okay? Will we all make it back together?”
Her ties make her worry that she’ll lose someone dear to her.
---
Memories
-Irvine backstory!
-When Irvine was 4, he was in an orphanage.
WAIT HE KNEW SELPHIE AS A KID WTFF????
AND QUISTIS WWIAT HJKWHAT THE FUCK
And zell ok what the helling fucking fuck is going on now what is happening
-Now Squall is in ghost-form in this stone orphanage memory and I’m controlling him.
-He finds his kid self.
He’s Ellone’s brother.
-NOOO SQUALLL!!! He sees his kid self outside, crying about where his sister went and why she left him alone.
His response: “(What a shameful sight.)”
-Happy memories of all the kids setting off fireworks on the beach.
-Everyone is just recovering this memory. If Zell was at the orphanage, the Dinchts must’ve adopted him.
-Kid!Zell got picked on more than a little bit. Also calls out for some older kid named “Matwyn” in kid speak. I don’t think I know someone whose name could get mangled into “Matwyn.”
-Oh. It’s Seifer. He was an asshole even then.
This is beyond heartbreaking. And strangely happy, that they already had this bond? But also heartbreaking? I’M A MESS GOD
-Everyone was there except Rinoa.
KID!SQUALL: “I’ll be okay without you, Sis.”
GHOST!ADULT!SQUALL: “(And I wasn’t okay at all.)”
HFDJKSFHDJKLSFHDLSFHDKLS
SQUALL: “I don’t think I was adopted because of the way I am.”
ARRGRHJk
-They point out how weird it is, that none of them remember their childhoods. Like, almost at all. Some kind of shenanigans afoot.
-Things were bad for Quistis after she was adopted, and she left for the Garden at 10.
-Quistis remembers how early at the Garden, she used to try to be a big sister to Squall, to take Ellone’s place. Which makes her hitting on him so hard more than a bit… yeah, you know what? Not going there.
Actually, SHE goes there. She openly says that she misinterpreted those big-sisterly feelings as love.
-They can’t remember where the orphanage was.
-Irvine believes that using the GFs puts them into the users’ brains in the place where childhood memories are stored. That’s kind of a huge stretch.
-Or not. Everyone’s childhood memories started to fade from the moment they used GFs. Memories for power.
-When Selphie was 12, she went on an adventure outdoors, killed a monster, found and junctioned a GF. She can’t remember its name. I’ll bet this is a clue I have to remember for later.
-ZELLLLLL
He doesn’t even want his childhood memories back. He’d rather have the power the GFs grant to protect his adoptive parents whom he loves.
Quistis brings up a newly discovered memory and I can’t.
-im legitimately breaking out in gooseflesh right now and my eyes are tearing up with the possibilities here. I don’t want to press the action button that’ll progress the story. I’m freaking out right now. [Later edit: this happens to me a fair bit, and I don’t know if it’s common or weird, but I tear up when I get overwhelmed with potential awesomeness. It’s not crying – though I’ve definitely cried before thanks to FF! – but something a bit different. Leaking maybe.]
-This is the sorceress, right? The orphanage matron? The “normal life” she led? This group of orphans somehow winding up in Gardens run by Edea’s husband, cid? I’m about to fucking see the Sorceress as the orphanage matron.
Fhjfdhsklfdhslkfhdlalkjnvdjkanv nquiovnhoqN
-AAAAAAAAAAHHH
-JUST AS THEY MADE THE CONNECTION AND REMEMBERED THAT THE MATRON IS THE SORCERESS THIS VOICE CAME ON SINGING SOMETHING LIKE “VIITOS… LUSET…” AND I CAN’T I CAN’T
---
Trabia Garden
-Irvine ties this all back to Rinoa’s concern by saying that understands her hesitation. He gives a pretty great speech about how the idea of life having limitless possibilities is bullshit, that in reality they’ve been led towards this path, and how proud he is to be on this path.
IRVINE: “I want to hold true to the path that HAD to be taken. I know our opponent is Matron, whom we all love very much. We might lose something very important on account of the GF.
“But I don’t mind. It’s not like I drifted here on the tides of fate. I’m here because I chose to be here. And more importantly, we all grew up together. But due to various circumstances, we were all separated.
“As a kid, you couldn’t really go out on your own. There were no other paths to take. All I did was just cry.”
They have a goal now.
The best part of this whole glorious segment for me is how Matron wasn’t some tyrant. They suppressed memories of her, but when those memories are now uncovered, they’re good ones. They have warm feelings towards the Matron, warm memories. They loved her. And now they have to fight her.
-I didn’t know that I could love Selphie any more than I already do, but then it starts snowing and she starts jumping up and down: “A gift from the faeries!” She loves winter. Bless.
-Everyone agrees. The next stop is to find Edea’s house. Look for clues.
Squall is a bit unsure why this matters, but I totally disagree with him. Especially given how focused the Sorceress seems to be on the past.
-Rinoa’s with us. Not “rah rah kill kill,” but with us nonetheless.
---
Next time: the search for the orphanage.
