Balamb Garden
-Squall wakes up in his dormitory bed. I’m surprised by the setting. I really expected this to be Rinoa in Laguna’s (or maybe Julia’s or Ward’s or Kiros’s) head.
-He doesn’t know what happened to Rinoa. She must still be unconscious.
-Yup. She is.
-Quistis orders Squall to Edea’s house. God, this is weird. So she just went back to the orphanage after briefly being a warmongering tyrant of Galbadia? Will explore the Garden a bit for changes then head out.
-AHA! FUCKING JACKPOT. Finally, checking B1 pays off. Some Shumi Tribe villagers are down here.
-That glowing red shell where NORG was is now cracked open and no longer glowing.
-Interesting! Shumi Tribe change physically according to the corruption of their hearts. NORG became more monstrous physically the more he was corrupted. I wonder if we’ll see NORG down the line in a rejuvenated form, like baby!Greed or sapling!Groot.
-Played some Triple Triad with the travelers. The Random and Direct, especially with Plus/Same, is such a stressful rule set.
-Progress! That SeeD in the library who’d been working up the courage to ask out a Library Committee member talked to one of her friends. The girl herself is out.
-Chris. I’m getting obliterated by this damned Plus rule. I seem to be in a good position, and the opponent keeps having the perfect card to reverse the whole thing through pluses and combos. 0-5 against this guy in the library who has okay-ish cards.
-IT HAPPENED AGAIN!!!!
I WAS UP 7-1 AND HIS LAST FUCKING CARD FLIPPED THE ENTIRE BOARD
-Finally won a game, but I’m so on tilt at this point that I’m giving up. Just not a fun ruleset. Feels uncontrollable, way more random than anything prior. Like I could be playing pretty well and just get destroyed because some crappy card happens to combo all the things.
-Played some cards with Zell. He said he got cards from a CC group member from D Prison. Maybe that’s where I’ll find the King and others.
---
Chocobo Forest
-Took off. Instead of stopping by the orphanage immediately, I check out the Chocobo Forest.
-It’s listed as “expert.” Huh.
-ChocoSonar is for location, ChocoZiner for action. I have to find (b1, b2) the chicobos, the chicks, and eventually the mother chocobo will get worried and emerge.
-It’s a pretty fun mini-game. Caught the big chocobo, and the kid in the forest (“Chocoboy” lol) gives me a baby chocobo. A GF???
ARE YOU KIDDING ME
Whenever you want to tug my heartstrings, just hearken back to FFV. Good general rule.
-Now some awesome music kicks in and they start talking about Chocobo World. I saw that as a button on the main FFVIII select screen but had no idea it was related to something like this. I thought that was just a fancy name for the Square Enix store or something.
-hahahaha the music has background vocals, “ooh-ooooh!” Probably my favorite chocobo riding music so far.
-I was wrong. Boko isn’t a GF. Just a little chocobo buddy who follows me around when I ride the big chocobo.
-There’s one GF missing in my menu. Curious what I missed. I didn’t try stealing much until I got Mug, so maybe that’s the problem.
-Speaking of GFs, Alexander has a few interesting abilities. Revive, Med Data (doubles effect of medicine), and High Mag-RF jump out to me.
-Alexander’s effect is brilliant. He’s this robot knight tank thing that fires holy light from shoulder missile turrets.
Not throwing away his shot.
In the eye of the hurricane.
#sorrynotsorry #blamearctichare
-Time to meet our matron.
---
Orphanage
-Cid is here. Squall is pissed at him for abdicating during the fight, but I can’t blame him.
-She’s on the beach. Sorceress Edea is here on the beach with Cid and talking to us. This is so strange.
-She says “At any moment, I might…” So it WAS some sort of on-again/off-again possession.
-lolololol I’M PLAYING TRIPLE TRIAD WITH SORCERESS EDEA HFDJKLSFHLDS
-This is pretty much the only time this session that I like the “Direct” rules. I get obliterated, but still won the Edea rare card.
SORCERESS EDEA: “I’ve been possessed this whole time. I was at the mercy of Sorceress Ultimecia.”
AHA! Perhaps this is the Zemus behind Edea’s Golbez.
Or perhaps Zemus + Chaos/Garland from FF1 then. Interesting that not only do we travel to the past to see Laguna, but we also ARE the past for someone else. Ultimecia is after Ellone.
(Btw, lol at the name “Ultimecia.” From the Exdeath School of Final Boss Names.)
Somehow, Edea surrendered herself as a way to protect Ellone. Ellone is Ultimecia’s prime target for her time stuff.
-Some Triple Triad against Cid. I went into these Random/Direct games with a goal: not to win, but to wait for my chance and win a rare card even in a loss. It works. Got Seifer. THE TABLES HAVE TURNED!!! HOW DOES YOUR PYRRHIC VICTORY FEEL NOW, HEADMASTER BUGGERSNUFF???
[Later edit: was going to edit out that last sentence for making no sense at all, but it pretty well illustrates the combo of rage, uncertainty, and frustration I felt from some of the losses this session.]
-Edea mentions Adel, the former ruler of Galbadia who was missing. Edea didn’t get Adel’s powers at 5.
-…oh shit. She thinks that Ultimecia relinquished control over Edea’s body to seek out Adel’s body to possess.
-Edea can’t help with Rinoa, doesn’t know what’s going on.
-The screen fades to black. While conversation turns to Ultimecia and why she wants Ellone’s powers, Squall’s thoughts are with Rinoa and the evolution of their relationship.
-Ellone’s power can be corrupted into “time compression,” making past, present, and future collide. Again, this reminds me closely of Exdeath’s world compression, compressing the various worlds into one another.
Quick note: I wouldn’t be at ALL surprised to learn that Ultimecia isn’t just some random future sorceress, but the future version of someone I already know. Like, a future and corrupted version of Ellone or something.
Aboard the Good Ship B-Garden
- We have a new heading: find the white SeeD ship carrying Ellone.
-Xu tells Squall she doesn’t think others will forgive Edea as easily as Squall. Well… fuck them? Edea was possessed. It wasn’t her fault. Unless she turns out to literally be Ultimecia, she had no choice.
-Squall visits Rinoa in the infirmary. She’s unconscious. Hope she wakes up soon.
Oh good, the unconscious lady who must be saved by the broody hero lest… sorry, trailed off there because I fell asleep just writing that sentence fragment due to pre-emptive boredom if they go down this road. Wake up soon, Rinoa. Plz. [Later edit: this is more anger at the trope and even the hint of it in FF8 than anger at FF8. I actually have quite a bit of faith that they won't go down this road.]
-OHOOOO!!!!!! YES!!!! WHAT IS THIS NOW
HELL
TO
THE
YES
---
Next time: back to the past.
