Part 42: Episode XXXVI: Welcome to My Shop
Good Night
Nothing like retiring for the day at 3:30 in the afternoon.
New Music: Travel Company
Welcome to the first Rin’s Travel Agency. We’ll be running into more than a few of these joints. Usually in the ass end of nowhere during long traveling stretches
“This might be the last time we can rest like this.”At least Lulu has no qualms with getting a room for the night at an Al Bhed shop despite believing in Yevon. Wakka is outside pouting and presumable spends the night sleeping in a ditch since he’ll still be outside pouting the next morning. Yes, Wakka is so racist he’d rather sleep in a ditch than in a bed owned by an Al Bhed.
“I’ve heard that the proprietor, Mr. Rin, is an Al Bhed. But I was very relieved to find that he keeps nothing sacrilegious.”Shelinda strikes me as the type that immediately inspected every inch of this shop as soon as she entered just hoping to find something to offend her beliefs so she could act indignant and have an invitation to drone on to the shop clerk teenager about the ways of Yevon. I mean don’t get me wrong, she’ll still do that anyway. We should probably point her in Wakka’s direction.
“Mr. Rin’s shops are all over Spira. They are quite convenient when you’re on the road.”Maechen and Shelinda seem to be traveling together for this stretch of the game. I’m sure their conversations are something along the lines of…
“Yevon. Yevon, Yevon, Yevon. Yevon… Yevon. Yevon.” “History. History. History. History, history, history… History-history. Hi…story.” “Yevon history?” “Yevon history. Yevon history. Yevon history.” “Yevon history!”
Also in this shop is another Al Bhed Compilation Sphere in case the player missed the one during Tidus’ first five minutes in Spira. So that’s nice.
Rin’s shops also feature… well a shop. They offer weapons/armor sales as well as basic items like every other shop. There is nothing particularly special sold in this one. The Shimmering Blade for Auron offers a 3% Strength boost and the Magical Mog the same for Lulu and both are fairly cheap. But eh, pass.
Anyhow. That’s it for the shop. Let’s head outside…
Ocean Ambience
Tidus sees Yuna peacefully enjoying the sunset and decides she could definitely use a yammering idiot added to the equation…
"Pretty..."
"Sure is." "I wish I could live in a place like this. Peaceful... Living with a smile on my face every day."
"But then a new Sin will be born anyway." "Well then, you can just beat it again." "I… wish I could." "Hey, you can! Trust me! You are the best summoner out there!” ”I mean you kicked that lady with the satellite dishes screwed on her head’s ass before. That makes you 1-0 against all the summoners I’ve seen so far.” “What about Maester Seymour’s abilities?” “…Well… Uhh…”
“Yuna, why does Sin always come back?" "Sin is… our punishment for our vanity. And it will not go away until we've atoned." "How do we do that?” “Mmm…” “What did we do that was so bad in the first place? Ah… Was it using lots of machina or something? Oh... Wait, was that such a bad thing, really?" ”I mean was it because people were lazy driving cars and stuff or is it some crappy environmental thing like machina were causing pollution and ‘because you didn’t go green, a doom whale will take the earth’s revenge’. I hope it’s not that. That is ALWAYS lame. Like I remember this one story I heard about these douchebag dwarves and faeries where…”"It's funny... Ever since I was young, I never questioned it. But now that you ask me if it is that bad or not... I don't know. There are so many things I don't know."
”I’m not sure if uncertain introspection and being dumped into the future not knowing anything are quite the same…” “…They’re close!”
*in the tone of a 1940’s Chinaman caricature* “Ahh… Such thinking is veeeery unbecoming of a summoner.” “Sound like Mika?”
*laugh* "That's not very nice, you know! ”If it were nice it wouldn’t be funny. Here. I can do Wakka too…” “Oh mahn. Dem Al Bhed is some bad mojo, yah? Lez go blitz instead, brudha.” “A little overboard on the accent.” “Alright… Ah! I know. Here’s my Kimahri.” *stands silent with arms crossed and glares in a different direction for 30 seconds* *laughs* “That one is dead on.”
*glares with arms crossed from across the road* *frowns*
If I cared more I’d make a running Tidus stretching tally. It’s got to be well into the double digits at this point. I’m just waiting for to suddenly start hollering in the middle of a cutscene from pulling a muscle.
“During a game, you have to think of blitz and nothing else, you know?" "Okay." <How did we veer back into the topic of sports…?> “Hmm… Oh!”
“And you can't be thinking about where you're going on that date…” ”Or… ‘was the redhead chick you hooked up with’s name Lana or Leena?’” “…Did that happen often?” “All the time. It was ridicu—ERGH! Aaaanyway.” “…The minute you do, that's when you lose! You see, uh, Yuna, what I mean is, you shouldn't worry, you know? After we beat Sin, that's when you can worry about the future." "I guess." *nods*
*punches the air like a spaz* "The Final Summoning.”
“With it, we can call the Final Aeon. That's the goal of the pilgrimage. The Fayth of the Final Summoning lies waiting in the far north, to greet summoners that complete their pilgrimage. At the world's edge...in Zanarkand." "In Zanarkand?!" “…”
"She means the ruins of a city destroyed a thousand years ago."
Auron has no fucks to give about your privacy.
"That's what I've heard." ”…Seeing as I have traveled there once already, I think I have some authority on knowing this.” "You'll see it for yourself soon enough. Yuna, come back inside." <Way to be a buzz kill, Auron.>Auron walks back toward the inn…
"Yeah, I'll go. I'll go to Zanarkand to see it with my own eyes."
”In retrospective, I probably should have paid more attention to geography back in school. WAS Zanarkand way up north…? I thought we were way down south…? Man that class was dull…”Good Night
At least the sun is setting for this second attempt at sleep. I’m pretty sure Auron decided to rest here earlier solely to fuck with Wakka.
Travel Company
Shelinda and Maechen have moved on by the next morning and are replaced by a fairly uninteresting couple of new NPCs. One of them can be potentially recruited for blitzball. But meh to that. Let’s head outside…
…Or not. Tidus immediately shuffles back inside as soon as he attempts to leave.
"Sorry."
"Ah, forgive me, sir. I meant to say 'pardon me,' but it came out in Al Bhed." "Oh, you're an Al Bhed?" "I am Rin, the owner of this establishment. Hela du saad oui. It means, 'nice to meet you.'" "Well helly doo sad wee to you, too." *walks over to a bookshelf* "If you are interested... Al Bhed primers can be found all over Spira. Finding them and learning our language might be fun. Here, let me give you one in commemoration of our meeting. Although you might want to be careful where you speak our language." 
So we receive our eighth Al Bhed primer. Today’s lesson is [R = H]. There actually is a special reward from Rin himself for finding and learning from all the Al Bhed primers. Indeed, it is the only time the game actually acknowledges that Tidus learned and understands the language. But that is far, far in the future.
"Yeah, I hear Al Bhed aren't liked much. Heh… Oh,sorry!" *sigh* "Ed ec y crysa." [It is a shame.]
"Someone, help! The chocobos!"Underground Activities
"Thank you for your help. Please, use this." *receives Mega-Potion x 2* “Huh…?”Tidus runs outside…
There isn’t actually any sort of corral for chocobos are otherwise. But the mini-map has its big red arrow pointing north. So we may as well heed the call.
Several chocobo flee in terror from the opposite direction. Perhaps that corral was out back or something…? It is a mystery. As is the source of the feathery mounts’ terror. But the latter head scratcher…
…gets solved rather quickly. Welp… that’s one way to start the morning…
Episode 36 Highlight Reel
Rin Travel Agency Concept Art
Sunset Ruins Concept Art
Rin Official Art