Final Fantasy X Part #79 - Episode LXX: Ride My Skies

Part 79: Episode LXX: Ride My Skies

Welcome to the Fahrenheit. I'm pretty sure they never actually mention the airship's name at any point in the game outside of maybe a menu prompt or tutorial tip. Regardless, we now have some down time and the game wants us to once more chat with everyone available until something happens to move along the plot.

Cid seems to have asserted his role as leading this leg of the journey. So let's see what's crackin' with him first.

"I'm lookin' into it, okay?”

*sigh*

“Don't worry. I'm using a sphere oscillo-finder. If she's out there, we'll get her."

"A sphere oscillo-finder...?"

"It's an ancient machina. I don't know how it works either, so don't ask me, okay?"

”Just typed in 'O-I-H-Y' and some lights flashed and some beepers beeped and eh... It'll be fine. And before you ask YES I typed in 'Y-U-N-A' too and a red blinky gizmo started spinnin' too, so there. We'll manage.”

“And you still use it?”

“Ahaa! I don't even rightly know how this rig flies, either!”

”I'm still surprised the thing didn't just explode as soon as we took off. Why'd you think I already had all those flyin' machina bombs loaded into the thing? Heh.”

Wakka suddenly comes down with the Soiled Trousers status effect. It's like Slow but all actions that require you to move are also disabled and other members of the active party get poisoned.

“Ain't it a rush, kiddos?”

“H-How can you say something like that?”
“A couple bottles of the ol' elixirs down the hatch earlier, if you get my meaning.”
“!?”
“What? Yeah, I'd been drinking. It's fine, okay? Sorry I didn't know a buncha Guado jackasses were going to barge their bark covered asses into my home this afternoon. Gotta problem with it and you can catch a ride on the next airship crossing the ocean.”
“...”

Just winging this whole thing, eh? Fuck it! Cid is alright.

”Hey, whatcha doing? You're pretty good at that huh?”

[Flying is really not my forte!]

“Yeah, I never really drove anything much. I mean I used to live on a boat but you don't really drive those... Oh! Well I did get to ride a chocobo the one time a while back. That was pretty wild. Ever try that out, guy?”

[Keep flying! Keep flying!]

”You seem busy. I'll let you get back to it.”

Lulu and Wakka are hanging out on the bridge but neither of them have anything particularly interesting to say. Lulu just says “we probably ought to get off this airship and find Yuna” and Wakka is still having his hick mind blown by a flying machine existing. Rikku, however, does have an interesting detail to divulge.

That's right. We've actually been here before. Kinda...

The Fahrenheit is actually that wreck we helped salvage with Rikku and the Al Bhed waaaaaaaaaaaay back in the opening hours of the game. The Al Bhed really did a bang up job of restoring this thing for having been sitting on the ocean floor for 1,000 years.

Auron is hanging out in the hallway just outside the main bridge. He knows the score. There cannot be a newly acquired airship without a boss battle or landing somewhere where there will be a boss battle. Such is the way of things.

Beyond the bridge is a curving hallway where Kimahri, Isaaru, and his two Guardian brothers... whose names escape me because they've each had three lines... are hanging out. Gotta gab with all of 'em too.

“Kimahri will use machina, if machina can find Yuna.”

Of the three main Yevon following members of the party, Wakka is losing his shit about riding on an airship. Lulu has no emotions beyond being mildly annoyed. And Kimahri doesn't give a shit about riding a flying machine, as long as we find Yuna. Kimahri don't care. You could give him a gun and he'd probably start lighting up fools like it's no big deal. Kimahri will go full thug life and drive-by some Guado bustas if need be! Kimahri don't give a fuck!

However, no matter how much they beg, we cannot quit our pilgrimage."

"Even though you'll die?"

"I've known since I was a child. My will is set. If I do not do it, someone else must, you understand."

”Not really. Nope.”

"I'm amazed this thing can fly, truly! It must be sacrilege to think so highly of a machina. I feel uneasy just riding it!"

"Sure it's not motion sickness?"

"Motion sickness? What infirmity is that?"

”Well... it's like... this sickness from err... moving... Kinda like sea sickness but on a vehicle... Like cars. Used to always get kinda queasy in cars.”
“What is this 'vehicle' you speak of? And a 'car'?”
“...Nevermind.”

"As soon as we land, we continue the pilgrimage!”

“If only there was some way of doing it without anyone dying."

*fist pump* "Let's think of one!"

"Easier said than done. If we had all the time in the world, yeah, we'd think of something. And while we were thinking, Sin would kill us all. Spira doesn't have that time."

”Hasn't this Sin thing been going for like 1,000 years already...? Sin is bad news but I don't think it's going to kill everyone anytime soon and I think someone coulda squeezed in a few hours to think of another way.”
“Alright. When you put it that way... Let's brainstorm then.”
“Right!”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“...Umm.”
“Drop a big boulder on Sin? With the airship?”
“...That's a start! We'll have to workshop this later.”

"The Al Bhed caught up to us in Besaid. They grabbed Pacce, so we had to do what they said. We needed a break, anyway. Pacce was pretty tired.”

”Not sure if I should be more worried by the fact the Al Bhed were taking children hostages or that you used it as an excuse for a vacation.”
“Meh. Like your summoner's pilgrimage has gone smoothly.”
“...That's fair.”

“He should never have come on the pilgrimage, little kid like that. Still, he does pretty good for his size. He's gonna be something someday."

”...”

"Hey, you know where this ship's headed?"

”Machina... sacrilegious and all that... But if we didn't have to walk all the way back from Besaid Temple to our next destination... All I'm saying is I'm sure Yevon could look the other way this once...”

Whatshisface the idiot child they brought along so they could get into the pilgrimage car pool lane is too tuckered out from that single line earlier to talk any further. Anyway, there is an exit to the north and south of the hallway.

To the north is a hold with the Al Bhed Psyches blitzball team who have managed to escape Home's destruction. They're vaguely sorry about the whole kidnapping Yuna and trying to blackmail a blitzball victory out of us at the tournament thing. Apparently Al Bhed just default to kidnapping when it comes to adversity. It's weird.

Heading south from the Kimahri/Isaaru hallway will lead us to another, upward slanted hallway with the Al Bhed merchant franchise proprietor Rin hanging out. Haven't seen that guy since the Thunder Plains when Rikku was having her really stupid anime freakout about lightning.

“It appears you, too, have escaped harm."

"You were on the ship, too?"

”Well... I am on the ship now. Thanks to the evacuation of Home and this being the only means of escape...”

"I came to Home to pick up some goods and found myself here. Quite the escape. Thankfully, my goods were spared. Please let me know if you need any of my wares."

Yes, thank goodness he evacuated all of his goods in the nick of time. All those Al Bhed that got gibbed shoving crates of wares into the airship before it departed? Meh. Just the cost of business. Rin's shop doesn't have anything of note. It's just an excuse to have a store on the airship while we're stuck in a 100% linear portion of the game.

"All proceeds will go to help restore Home."

“...”

“Ah, how is your progress with our language?”

“None too shabby! Check this out!”

[Nece to meet oou.]

“Just repeating what I've said is not talking, now.”

[Well excuse me, grandpa!]
[Hmm. Better...]

“But your pronunciation's quite passable. You've been studying, I see.”

There goes one of about two voiced scenes that Tidus learning Al Bhed changes slightly. At least Rin is cool about all proceeds from his sales going to the rebuilding of Home. You can bet that scumbag O'aka is setting up a bunch of tents in the woods to rent out to Al Bhed refugees for 1,000 gil a night as we speak.

The next hallway up is copy and pasted from the one Kimahri was hanging out. Only with a confused Al Bhed child not understanding his home was blown away in nuclear fire. Boom! Like fireworks! Haha!

Heading out the door on the left side of the copy-paste hall leads to... yet another hall. Here, Dona has decided is a good place to have a little sit-down. Maybe there's a warm ventilation duct in this corridor. Who knows.

“If it's not an emergency, would you mind leaving?"

“Okay.”

Tidus begins walking away, but Dona stops him...

So this choice will change a single scene where Dona will show up later in the game. Didn't realize this was a thing when I recorded this part of the game so whoops! An executive decision was made cuz hell if I'm replaying three hours of gameplay to change it. Also, we're not going to be a hypocrite with Dona going from “What Yuna is gonna die from the pilgrimage?! Fuck that!” to “lol whateva you r not on party” to another summoner.

“Sure! Sounds good to me.”

"Unusual. Most people would never forgive a summoner who quit."

"Why's that?"

"Behind my back, they would say I was abandoning my duty."

"So, who cares? Why not do your own thing and let them say what they want!"

”Do it now and it'll get buried in the papers by the story about the Seymour buying the farm.”
“...Maester Seymour is dead?! When? How?!”
“Urgh! Uhh... The details are sketchy. Hehe... Uhh... Don't worry about it. Just worry about yourself! Yeah...!”

"Easy for you to say. But...you do have a point. Maybe Barthello and I should go someplace far away."

“...”

"Thanks for the company. I feel so much better now."

We helped. Maybe...? Anyway, beyond Dona's hall is another storeroom full of Al Bhed Psyches. It seems literally the only people to make it out of Home alive was Cid, Brother, Rin our party, the blitzball team, the two summoners and the two guardians, and literally a couple kids. Sucks to be you if you're not friends of government, sportsball players, or wealthy merchants. Hopefully nuclear hellfire turning you to ash counts as a Sending.

Back into the copy-paste hallway and heading south leads to an observation deck with a handful of Al Bhed with nothing much to say beyond “Famb... Dryd cred fyc vilgat.” Time to return to the bridge and see if we've tripped any plot advancing flags...

Tidus returns to the bridge...

Uh-oh... Al Bhed Dad and Pilgrimage Party Dad are fighting.

"Of course! If she continues this fool pilgrimage, she will die! Sure as if you killed her yourself. No hare-brained law or teaching can send my little niece to her death! When I save her, I'll make her give up being a summoner quicker than a desert melts ice!"

"Even against her will?"

”Yes, even against her will. She's 17. She doesn't have a goddamn clue what she's doing besides a buncha church garbage shoved down her throat telling her what to think. Hell with that!”

"Better than a dog's death! And I'll take down anyone who don't agree!"

“You are the captain.”

Auron concedes he has been out Daded in this discussion and wanders back to the hallway.

Everyone has something new to say after the discussion as to whether we're going to rescue Yuna only to stick her back on a death march. Auron is mildly annoyed but ultimately doesn't really care what Cid's stance is here. Rikku has little input because it's her dad. Lulu only knows how to roll pragmatic and says Yuna is too thick to ever get convinced to stop. Wakka has an issue to bring up, however...

"He called Yuna his, uh, niece, right? I mean, so that makes her Al Bhed, right?”

”Well, Cid's sister was Yuna's mom and Rikku is her cousin. Soooooo...”

*slumps in defeat* “Don't say it! Yuna's Yuna, right?"

Poor Wakka's racist hick world view is just getting trampled on this week. Anyway, to progress we now need to chat with Brother at the helm of the airship. So let's see what he has to say...

[Where!?]

[I will show you!]

As it turns out the roof of the bridge's dome doubles as a hologram display. Just roll with it...

Oh hey, it's Yuna. And she's changed outfits and hair style. I thought that was illegal until a sequel in video games at this time. I mean, you look pretty and all but what's the occasion...?

...Also why is Seymour, Fantasy Pope, and storm troopers with guns there?

…

...Wait, what?! didn't we kill Seymour?! Why is he still alive and dressed up more like a fantasy pope than the actual Fantasy Pope?! And why is Yuna dressed up like a magic princess in a mid-80s low budget fantasy film? Are they having a wedding? Is Yuna so incompetent she bumbled her way back into a wedding scenario with what I can only assume to be a ghost and/or zombie Seymour Guado?!

And why are they holding a wedding in a sky fortress filled with gunmen? What?!

“Gramps, let's move!”

Oh, they're holding the wedding in the Sky Vatican. I hear it's lovely this time of year. Clean air, nice breeze, freshly oiled church sanctioned rifles. Good stuff.

“Bevelle's defenses are top-notch.”

“What's the matter, gramps? You scared? Yuna's there, so we go and get her!”

Music: Underground Activites

Pictured: A smart lad whose lead on an armed assault of the Fantasy Vatican I would surely follow.

Luckily for Tidus, Cid's policy for most things seems to be “Eh. Fuck it!” So of course a frontal assault on the seat of Yevon for a hostile wedding crashing is exactly what we'll do.