Lindblum
-Cid inspects the rebuilding of Lindblum with Minister Artania. Already working on the next airship.
-Baku’s here. Checks in on how Zidane’s doing, who is recuperating here in Lindblum. Makes sense. I don’t know how much Alexandria is left.
-Zidane wakes up in the castle, unsure how he got there. Unsure what happened with Dagger and Eiko.
-Got an Egoist’s Armband, which gives the wonderful Level Up ability.
-Blank comes in. Zidane immediately asks about Dagger, who he hears is in the Telescope Tower, and runs off.
-Mogki is the save moogle here, the guy from Fossil Roo. Gives us a letter for Moodon, the inn moogle in Lindblum.
-Cid wants to see Zidane.
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Something Washed Ashore
-And that something is Quina.
-lolol the guards that find Quina think they’re dead, then flee in terror when they see what they must think is zombie!Quina rise up behind their captain.
-awww!! They’re hungry :(
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Lindblum – Zidane
-An aviator who I first thought was Erin but is not (the sailor thing seems to just be the uniform of a Lindblum aviator) says that though they now can fly without Mist, they don’t have a working airship. I wonder how close I am to getting the third coffee that’ll give me the airship.
The thing is, the coffee has been pretty well hidden. It’s possible I missed the third, though I’ll bet it’s just on one of the two remaining continents. I can’t imagine that’s the only way to get an airship given how tricky the coffee was to find. Perhaps it’s a bonus airship or something.
-I know I’m supposed to go find Cid now. First checked the harbor by the Serpent Gate – no Quina. Rewarded for exploring with a Chimera Armlet.
-Holy crow! Just got around to checking out some of my new equipment, and the Rebirth Ring gives Auto-Life. That’s an incredible ability. In past games, it was especially useful for enemies with nasty deathrattles, like Gigantuar or the guy at the top of the Kefka Cultists’ Tower.
-Moonte the moogle is still at the Dragon Gate. The gate itself is closed.
-Found Dagger at the telescope tower.
ZIDANE: “Dagger… is something wrong?” DUDE. ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH DAGGER’S STORY OF LATE?
-She’s being really quiet. Zidane’s trying at least to understand I suppose.
-He wants to cheer her up, take her out for a day on the town. I mean… again. Look. I get that you’re trying to help. But her town, the place she was so determined to protect as best she could, got obliterated like four seconds into her reign as queen. Queen Brahne died. I don’t think the answer is anything remotely as simple as “cheering her up.”
-But I appreciate that you’re trying. I mean that sincerely.
-He apologizes for bothering, leaves. Dagger appreciates the effort too.
I love these two. :) It’s absolutely one of the sweeter and more genuine relationships I’ve seen in the series.
-In terms of one-line characters, the lift operator of Lindblum may be my favorite.
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Conference Room
-The gang is gathered in the conference room. They greet Zidane, then tell him to hustle off to see Cid. ALL RIGHT, GAME, I GET IT. I apologize, FFIX; the fastest way to get me to not do something in an FF game is to tell me that it’s the next thing I should do.
-Found Cid. Time to start the meeting.
-Hee!! His throne drops to the conference room below. The engineer king.
-Eiko runs off to fetch Princess Dagger before Zidane can stop her.
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Self-Reproach
-This sounds like a Dagger ATE if ever I heard one.
-She’s broken up by the city’s destruction. Thinking about how many died, how many homes were destroyed, how many people are now homeless and destitute.
-Dagger, it’s not your fault! You did the right thing in summoning Alexander. If you hadn’t, Bahamut would’ve done this anyway. It was Kuja’s fault alone. His and Garland’s.
DAGGER: “(…I shouldn’t have assumed the throne.)” She just keeps pounding away at herself, thinking of all the mistakes she made which weren’t actually mistakes imo.
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Conference Room
-Steiner doesn’t know what happened to Beatrix. Phew. That signals to me at least that she’s alive.
-Lest we forget, Lindblum is in a pretty bad place too. It survived thanks to Cid’s surrender, better than Burmecia, Cleyra, or Alexandria, but Atomos still took a big bite out of that apple.
-No answer for Kuja still. He’s just so powerful.
-Cid saw him flying on the Hilda Garde 1. I wonder if Hilda wound up with Kuja.
-!!!What? Cid saw black mages aboard the ship too, and not automatons. They were “talking normally.” Vivi starts to freak out.
-Perhaps “freak out” isn’t the most accurate term. That implies panic. This is more rage than panic. I like that consistent breadth of characterization we get with Vivi. Sure, he’s a kid, and sure he’s adorable and I want to hug and reassure him, but he also is the one more prone to raw rage and anger than pretty much every other character.
-Another ATE, and this sounds like a Vivi one.
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Deep Anger
-NOPE!!! It’s Kuja. On his sweet-ass airship.
-Kuja really believes he’s immortal.
KUJA: “Besides, he’s too late. The wheels are already set in motion.”
I feel like I’m 2-3 pieces away from understanding this puzzle. What is Kuja’s mission, and how does it subvert Garland’s?
-Black mages follow Kuja.
-And Zorn and Thorn are with him. Because of course they are. I wonder if their attempts to serve Princess Dagger were genuine and they’re here as a backup option, or if they were sent by Kuja as spies to infiltrate Dagger’s inner circle.
-It looks like the ship is in a desert somewhere. Or could just be a beach.
-Kuja’s collecting eidolons. He’s got another in his sights, and he’s DEFINITELY pissed that he couldn’t collect Alexander. How is he going to collect more eidolons though if Garland turned against him? It seemed like Garland was able to hijack Invincible, and I thought that Invincible was Kuja’s eidolon-nabber.
-One of the black mages with Kuja is “No. 234.” I got scared for a second, thinking this was one of the mages from the village, but no. The one I was thinking of was no. 239.
-Whatever Kuja’s next step is, the preparations are done.
-And Zidane is involved.
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Conference Room
-Zidane puts together that Hilda used magic to turn Cid into an oglop. Then she left. Now Kuja has her airship. Unless she was a mage beforehand, I’d have to imagine that this means she got the transformative magic from Kuja somehow, perhaps even in exchange for the airship.
-We don’t have any clue where Kuja is, and even if we did, we don’t have an airship to chase him down in.
AHA! Maybe that’s the next step. Maybe we have to find a way to break the curse on Cid so that he gets his human-strength brain back and can make us an airship.
-Doctor Tot arrives.
-Eiko returns. Says that Dagger lost her voice and can’t speak. Really? I just assumed she was feeling depressed, but maybe it’s something physical.
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Guest Room
-Everyone heads to the guest room to check on Dagger.
-She certainly seems to have lost her voice. Psychological damage, an effect of trauma.
-Which doesn’t make it any less real. This is a much, much more interesting development than something merely physical. The game doesn’t just assume that someone who’s been through what Dagger’s been through can simply brush it off. These things have lasting and devastating impacts. This particular blend of grief, guilt, and “self-reproach” to use the game’s terminology are no joke.
-lol Zidane. He asks Eiko to hold down the fort for a bit while he goes to beat the crap out of Kuja. Dude. He’s not, like, in the bathroom down the hall.
-Steiner feels so guilty right now. Of course he does. He shouldn’t, and this is 0% his fault, but he feels it anyway.
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Royal Chambers
-Tot says that the only way to cure Cid is to find the one who cast the spell. Hilda.
-Oh, wait! Tot once read something about metamorphosis that might work.
-hahaha or not
40% chance of a curse, 60% chance it just turns him into a frog or something.
-Worth a shot I guess. We have to find Unusual Potion, Beautiful Potion, and Strange Potion, mixed in a 5:2:3 ratio. Potions that were popular in older times, but no longer.
-Zidane says that Cinna has Unusual Potion. …why? Whatever lol. To find Cinna we go.
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Next time: off to find potions.
