Part 30: World of Ruin

We open with a nice sunset.



A pleasant island in the middle of the ocean.



A beach.



A... really shitty house.



And a couple of rather familiar pixels of medium yellow sticking out at the top of a bed. Another set of familiar yellow pixels comes walking in and starts fiddling with something over by the stove. Such an idyllic scene!



Cid repeats himself.



Cid repeats himself.

You're finally awake!

How... how long have I been sleeping?

One year, as of today. I was starting to think you might be out for good.

A whole year... You've been taking care of me all this time?


We're on a tiny, deserted island. After the world was torn apart, I awoke to find us here.

No explanation as to how the fuck they ended up at the same place. I suspect it's nothing better than plot-directed coincidence.

After the world was torn apart...? So, that wasn't just a dream...
What about everyone else? ...Where's Indy?

Don't know.

Don't care!

No, wait, I do care. If I don't know where he is, I can't avoid him.

I don't know.
For all I know, this island could be the only part of the world that's still above water.
Ever since that day, the world's been sliding deeper and deeper into ruin.
Plants wither, and animals waste away. The other people who were here with us all gave up hope...
One after the next, they flung themselves from the northern cliffs in despair...

Death and destruction.

In a SNES RPG.

Yeah, this bit... wasn't exactly like this in the original translation.



For no apparent reason, this tale about suicide and hopelessness gets Meryl down.

So... everyone could already be...

Meryl.. Try not to take it so hard. We can still live out our lives together in peace!

"I mean, it's not as if there's anything to do on this rock except fishing, but at least we'll never be bored!"

"BRB, northern cliffs."



Yes... I suppose you're right, Cid...
Or should I say... Granddad? Is it all right if I call you that?

Granddad, eh! Heh-heh... You're going to make an old man blush!
All of a sudden I have a granddaughter!

this scene

*hack*... *cough*...

Hee-hee! Granddad...

I think part of Meryl's brain wasted away during those twelve months of coma.

Ha-ha-ha... *hack*! *cough*!

You must be hungry, Granddad...

I... actually haven't had anything to eat since i fell ill three days ago.

What would you like?

Well, unless I ask for fish, I won't get anything! That's all there is here.

"What about random encounters?"

"Don't go there. I'm not that desperate."

_"...yet."

I'll go catch some.

So the two of them switch places and Cid takes over the bed. I don't think that's sanitary if it's had someone sleeping in it for a whole year, but maybe Cid's rubber coat will protect him.

But first things first...



...we're going to need all the help we can get.

She's also getting a Ribbon because it would be somewhat embarrassing to end up dying to a lucky petrification attack or something.



The beach is south of Cid's old shack and you can just walk up to the fish and grab them. Some of them are fast, some are slow, and the faster the fish moves, the tastier it is.

Naturally, this is a humongous pain in the arse.



Thank you... *munch*... *chomp*... *chew*...
No matter what happens to me... you mustn't lose hope! *cough... *wheeze*...

The goal is to get Cid's health up, and it steadily deteriorates as time passes. Depending on how tasty the fish that you feed him are, it improves by different values, or even decreases if you feed him a slow, yucky fish.



What kind of fish you'll find depends on the random number generator, and it is sometimes a harsh mistress...

Wh-what's the matter? Granddad...
Cid...


Granddad, answer me! Tell me you're just joking!

yeah that would just have been hilarious wouldn't it



so anyway Meryl runs off to kill herself.

"Don't even joke about this. Given the quality of the fish around here, it's either that or eat Cid."


One after the next, they flung themselves from the northern cliffs in despair...


There's nothing left for me in this world.





_{what does mood breaking mean}



Meryl's corpse washes up on the nearby beach.



Except she's so useless she can't even die properly!

I've already given up hope...

But then:


Hey, little bird... Where'd you come from?
Is the person who wrapped your wound still alive? Please, tell me...!

Nooooo. Please no. I was actually happy here for a while.



All the bird wanted was a decent meal, but it found a crazy lady instead. Fuck this shit, it thought, and ran for the hills.



So yeah, General not-a-love-starved-twit has decided that a creepy fuck who stores dead chicks in his basement is her sole reason for living and she's going to hunt him down and make his life hell by surgically attaching herself to him or something.

Which would be no less than Indy deserves, but I kind of hate what they did with Meryl in the second half of the game.


The road to your freedom awaits...
Love, Granddad

Where did this come from, anyway? Surely she confirmed that Cid was dead before she ran off like an emotional teenage gir... oh, never mind.



Hey, how convenient!

Like just about everything that has happened lately.



At least she's dressed for this. What with the swimsuit.



That's some nice, scenic, uh... scenery!



Meryl floats along...



...and finally reaches land.

Not the smoothest of landings, but like they say, if you can walk away from it, it's good enough.



The world looks... different these days. And it's inhabited by strange creatures that want to eat us.



Most of them can be completely neutered by Vanish, or just Phantom if Meryl hasn't learned that yet (she has). It's practically free XP. Except we don't want any of it right now, so Meryl spends a lot of time running away from things.



While doing so, she find a curious... thing... standing in the middle of the continent. Strange! But it doesn't seem like we can get in... so Meryl will have to keep looking.



Meryl hesitates for a bit, but she has a good feeling about the right path.



Score!



This is Mobliz... or what's left of it, at any rate. We're welcomed by a pair of noisy dogs...



It's just a chick in a swimsuit and cape, stop overreacting.



Seriously, that's just rude.



But suddenly...



Familiar face!



...wait, what? Come on, it has been one year. One!

Anyway, Aeris nods and Meryl finally gets to come inside.

I'm so glad to see you're safe! I wanted to see you again!

"Aeris, come with us! There's no saving this world unless we defeat Kefka once and for all..." <- more generic dialogue! I suppose Meryl is using the royal "we" these days, or maybe she picked up an invisible friend.

Either way.

I know... But...

Aeris runs off, because the death of a major character and an attempted suicide wasn't enough angst for one update!



Meryl takes the opportunity to interrogate the kids, and this is rather disgusting because...



...well, see for yourself.



Since when does Aeris have people skills?



Actually, I'm pretty sure I can.

Protagonist license.



The rest of the kids...



...do their best...



...to seem as depressing as possible, which might work better if they had some sense of individuality and weren't all clones of each other.



So anyway, let's go bothe Aeris some more.

The very day the world collapsed, Kefka turned his Light of Judgment on this village.

His what in the what now?

The adults... these kids' parents... They all died trying to protect their children...

She's just assuming we know all this. Lady, Meryl was comatose for a year, how about some infodumping here?

I can't believe I actually just asked for that.



Don't worry, this will be brief.



They fall in, kids freak, the end.


They needed me...

...they're only saying that because they don't know how flaky you are.



Then this dipshit runs in. And then he runs out again before Meryl can behead him.


Please, forgive him. It's just... if we lose Aeris, we lose the only thing that's holding this village together.

I can't believe NPCs haven't died out as a species by now.

I don't know why these kids need me...
And it's not like there's anything forcing me to protect them. It's the strangest feeling...
But once that feeling took root inside of me, I lost the strength to keep on fighting.

I feel like I'm on the verge of understanding something important.
It's hard to describe... But the harder I look for the answer, the more I lose my strength to fight.

So Aeris has gone totally mental, or rather, gone even more mental because she wasn't exactly stable to begin with. There's no reasoning with her, so screw this shit, we're leaving. Disappointed.

But after we do, the screen pans up and one of the clone kids runs in...



Humabawhat?



Aeris apparently thinks this is very important because she runs outside and starts doing air humps.

Humbaba... the ancient monster released from the depths of the earth by the cataclysm...
...I have to protect the village!



...that went well!



Fortunately, this is one of those battles you're supposed to lose, so it's not game over.



Good thing, too, because Humbaba likes to use 1000 Needles, an attack that deals more damage than Meryl's current maximum! Man, I'd be pissed if I had to fight this guy for real with just a love-starved twit.



...wait, what?