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Sunleth Waterscape – 300 AF
-So we stopped new flan from pouring in. Hopefully the next gate will help us deal with the big flan.
-Found a wild artefact via moogle toss while riding that beast’s back.
-Y’know what? Let’s check this out now. I head back to Bresha Ruins 005 AF to use the wild artefact on the gate.
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Bresha Ruins – 300 AF
-A swarm of random monsters invaded Bresha in 20 AF, probably because of a paradox. 300 years later they’re still dealing with this shit.
Mog: “The more we help, the more the government will pay us for our troubles, kupo!” Weird to think you’d go to the future and want money, but I guess the currency system didn’t change much here.
-Beautiful night snow. It coats our characters outside.
-A researcher has me go find recording equipment to learn about these monsters.
-Another dude, Thurston, wants explosives to destroy all the ruins. Wants me to talk to the Commander, a mercenary. (I’ve met the guy.)
-The chocobos here are red, rambunctious chocobos. They continue to eat my gysahl greens as I ride. Fuuuuck that.
-The mercenary commander reasonably warns against blowing up the ruins; it’d harm Cocoon.
-But the more interesting part the commander’s report shows the ruins were subject to explosions in the past, due to past attacks on the Academy. Old Sanctum forces maybe?
-A previously closed platform is now available. There’s a gate here. Need another wild artefact.
-I pull in a dude named Lex from a paradox. He’s worried about his missing friend.
LEX: “He’s a slightly odd fellow, a natural born jokester.” There was some dick in the sewers mocking us, so maybe that’s him.
-Yeah, the jerk’s the friend. He’s surprised to hear about Lex…
-oh god. If I can keep up with him, he’ll tell me everything he knows. A race.
NO, IT’S WORSE THAN A RACE. I HAVE TO WIN A BAD JOKE COMPETITION FOR HIM TO EXPLAIN WHAT’S GOING ON
“Need an ark? I Noah guy.”
“The book of magic was useless. They didn’t run a spell check!”
Jokes of that caliber. Why is he pun-ishing me?
-He eventually has mercy and ends this. His friend died three years ago. Spooky. (…Well, not really spooky. It’s a paradox thing. But still kinda spooky.)
-Lex already knows he doesn’t belong. He takes this well. Gives me a wild artefact in return.
-Fragment lore: Someone documenting their trip to the old city of Palumpolum. It’s still active, untouched by the catastrophe.
-OH RIGHT! Someone from way back in Bresha Ruins 005 wanted a Silver Petal for his niece. I can find that here in this snowy area.
-There’s a tattered stuffed carbuncle at the grave.
-In the ruins, there’s a device of some sort here. Is this one of those projection things?
-I still can’t use the secret government-only device, so I have two possible paths. First is to use the wild artefact on the gate here, but the other is to turn in this Silver Petal back to old Bresha.
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Bresha Ruins – 005 AF
-I bring the Silver Petal back to Jed, for his niece. But… she died. This game is not a chirpy, cheery thing.
-The uncle just lays the petal on the memorial grave in her memory.
-I wonder if that stuffed doll on the grave in 300 AF has something to do with her. The timing is off, but anything’s possible with paradoxes.
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Bresha Ruins – 300 AF
-No luck. The tattered, stuffed animal must be something else.
-Onto this next gate. I pop in my Wild Artefact and off we go!
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Yaschas Massif – 110 AF
-A paradox hit here years ago. Academy staff disappeared, and strange floating red orbs appeared in their place.
-Mog knows these spheres as Rubies of Grief. Manifestations of the remorse and sadness of those who disappeared into the paradox.
-We approach a sphere, and our heads get bombarded with the voice of the vanished, Marie. She left behind a sister named Millie, and I have to pass on her regrets.
[Later edit, non-rhetorical question: This part confused me. So did Millie get sucked into a paradox and then Marie separately got sucked into whatever this red sphere turns out to be? That’s my best understanding of it, but idk.]
-The woman herself disappeared into the Void. All we can do is help them find peace.
-Found a service manual here. I’m sure it goes with a Fragment Mission, but I don’t have one for it yet. It’s to operate and maintain searchlights. I’ll try bringing this back to the dark area.
A random tough enemy I encountered here.
-Base dialogue mentions that the ancient Seeress was protected by a warrior blessed by the goddess. I get the sense that was Caius. But there was also a woman who betrayed her – someone different probably.
-Found a person outside town, shaded in red. Needed Mog to bring him out of that state and even now he can’t remember his name.
-Another person in red… this is Millie. She got sucked into the paradox when arguing with her sister. She feels terrible that Marie blames herself for Millie’s disappearance.
MILLIE: “I was swallowed up by the paradox. I was attacked by the monster. I… I ust don’t belong in this world anymore.”
WHEW. This is a bleak section. And so much of what we’re doing isn’t exactly saving people so much as carrying out acts of mercy, last wishes, giving comfort.
That fits with XIII. After all, wasn’t that much of what Cie’th Stone missions were about?
-Found a Terrorists’ Mark: “A creepy symbol of Cocoon drawn in blood.” It’s probably nothing! No worries.
-There’s a technical engineer out in the wild. He’s clearly the person I’ll eventually need to give the searchlight manual to, but I guess I don’t have that quest yet.
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Next time: Continuing to explore the stories of the vanished in Yaschas Massif 110 AF.
