Part 34: A Scene Worthy of Florence Foster Jenkins
Entry 32: A Scene Worthy of Florence Foster JenkinsHere's what you've all been waiting for:

Norende. The town's been progressing steadily and the item shop's finally ready for its final upgrade. The final prize there is something a bit special, which will be shown off much later.
In the meantime, let's talk about turtles.

More accurately, this fellow. It foolishly decided to block the party's path to Yulyana. Like all fantasy tortoises/turtles, it has crazy high physical defense.

Its major weakness is water/ice, so no problem. Take a mage or two, use Blizzard...

And get the spell thrown back in your face. The boss almost constantly keeps up Reflection Angle, its own version of the Reflect spell. As in other Final Fantasy games, with reflect, any magic cast on the user will be redirected elsewhere/to the caster.

The solution is Sword Magic. A sword magic infused attack counts as physical rather than magical. Blizzara sword magic makes Tiz the champion this battle.

Tortoise friend also has a heavy-hitting multi-target attack, keeping subpar merchant healer Ringabel busy.

This is a quick filler fight, without so much as a cutscene afterwards.

There may be a translation error here. Though called Land Turtle in the data entry, the cutscene kicking off the battle is called Terratoise.

Not sure why a giant tortoise was carrying this. Or is it a section of the tortoise's shell the party carved off? Or... whatever, it makes sense gameplay-wise.

Here's what Agnès stole. Must've gotten stuck in the tortoise's side by some unlucky traveler. Come to think, how does the sage go through here every time he visits Florem? Tough little guy...

Last map for Mount Fragmentium.


The cave exit is a short walk west of the Needleworks. Let's go say hello.




The party explains their situation, every ridiculous detail.



When even Sage Yulyana is baffled by your commitment to sexy clothes, you might have an issue.


Edea takes a look around.





Considering Ringabel's enthusiasm, it's going to be a very, very good thing Edea and Tiz are here to moderate the situation.
A short while later, we rejoin the group, though Edea and Agnès aren't visible:


Ringabel takes the dress from the sage and hands it off to Agnès and Edea, who are out of sight in the dressing room above where the sage is standing.

There's a pause with a noise of clothing shuffling around.






The sage goes to his workshop room and brings something back out.

Uh
He shows it off to Ringabel.

Edea exits the dressing room and comes to look.

Tiz wanders forward to look.




How did we end up in this situation, again?








So welcome to the most dissonant scene in the game. There's cheery fun music playing, Ringabel and the Sage are feverishly over the top, but Agnès sounds like she's on the brink of crying.







Going by her voice, Agnès has clearly started crying. Game's still playing cheery fun music. Someone being pressured into sex-related stuff they're not comfortable with! Ha ha...









They've become a single horny hivemind.







We skip forward in time to evening.

















With the matter settled, the party rests for the night at the Needleworks.

They set out for the festival the next morning. As the party makes their way through Mount Fragmentium, our perspective shifts to what's going on in Florem...

















Looks like some of our Eternian friends have come to add their own brand of flair to the festival. Forget winning -- will the party survive?
Next: Agnès's charisma score is put to the test.
Title reference: Florence Foster Jenkins - "Adele's Laughing Song" Die Fledermaus
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Event Viewer
Main Scenario:
Yulyana Once More
The Legendary Bravo Bikini
A Dream Dashed
You, As You Are
The Witch's Machinations
D's Journal: Ringabel posted:
pg.7: I can't believe it! The sage and I were on the verge of convincing her, but our plan was ruined by that spoilsport from Norende! To think we could have seen Agnès's sensuous form wrapped in the bravo bikini at the Sacred Flower Festival... You and that naive smile of yours don't know what you're missing!
D's Journal: Agnès Oblige posted:
pg.8: The Sacred Flower Festival was about to begin, when the bravo bikini plan the sage and I concocted was ruined by that stick-in-the-mud Tiz. "Show them you, as you are" he says... "Why don't you wear the vestal garb?" he says... Though his words brought a smile to Agnès's face that cast her in a beautiful light, the outcome was most frustrating!
D's Journal: Sage Yulyana posted:
pg.3: Agnès decided to take part in the Sacred Flower Festival. While researching the best apparel to wear, we heard word of a perverted old merchant, which we soon realized referred to Sage Yulyana. The sage had a costume that would assure her victory, but Tiz poured cold water on the idea, much to the chagrin of the sage and me.