Jump 292: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

Jump #292: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
>Queen of Cups: A tranquil poet who reflects the nature of the observer.
>Location: Ivalice
>Race: Moogle
Kupo?
>Identity: Chemist (-50)
>Drawbacks: Marche To The Sea (+600)
The prices we pay to help our companions.
>Counter (Free, Moogle)
Hit back before the end of the enemy's turn? Yeah, that's very useful if I can hit hard enough.
>Critical: Quicken (Free, Moogly)
Quicken means screw the turn order, I go immediately if I get seriously wounded. Yeah, keeping it.
>Geomancy (1400, Moogle)
Increase enemy vulnerability to elements? I imagine, considering it's Final Fantasy, it shifts things a step; if they absorb, it just nulls it, if they null it, it's resisted; if they resist it, they take normal damage; if they take normal damage, they are now vulnerable and take extra damage. Game mechanics make sense.
>Unlootable (900; +8 companion purchases)
Like hell am I going to let any cheap ass abilities destroy any equipment or weapons I carry. Same with my companions.
>Pharist (800)
Break the law, send someone else to jail. You know what? I suddenly feel like teaming up with Marche and getting red flagged...
>Ribbon Bearer (300; +8 companion purchases)
Immunity to ALL Final Fantasy status effects? Does this include instant death effects that aren't through damage? And blanket immunity to ANYTHING ELSE that isn't beneficial? HELL YES. Companions too!
>Panacea (Free, Chemist)
A hundred gil to make more. I'll be getting on that immediately. How much is that in euros, though?
>Hero Medal (200)
Well isn't this handy, Judges won't boot me from the field and I'll know the laws in effect.
>Dream Team (0)
Companions!

So, the first thing the nine of us did. we formed a team. There were certainly enough of us to do so.

The second thing we did was to start grabbing as many missions as we can. XP like a river is nice but we needed more than just whatever came our way.

After that... well, the thing to do was obvious. Form connections with other clans. Bring the others in, even just to talk to them - Doned and Ritz. Explain that, hey, they're in a parallel world, but everything's here is real, just running on a different set of physics. Though the Grimore made some things odd, because there wasn't technically a ruling family before Mewt opened the gate. Reality is more... mutable, but no less real, in the end.

And through the magic of cheating like a motherfucker, I managed to grab Ezel and turn him in before he could end up in the story, because it's a small price to pay.

Eventually, we came across Marche after he destroyed the first crystal, and I laid it out on the line for him to that it was completely unambiguous: Mewt accidentally cast a spell that summoned those closest to him to Ivalice. His friends and his father. That's IT. Everything else in this world belongs in this world, because it doesn't exist. Destroying this world would kill everyone in it, save for them because they are protected by the spell.

>"He said that is the crystal was a thread... that if the thread dissolved, a new world would appear."
"That is correct, kupo. You've been cast adrift into a new world."
>"But if this world is still here... if I destroy them all, will I be able to go back home?"
"No... if anything, you could create a world that is a pale imitation of your home. You've been cast adrift, kupo. There's no thread connecting you to your home."
>"How do YOU know? This could be my only chance. I have to find the other crystals!"
"Kupopo, are you not listening? What of your friends? As I said, they're here - your brother can walk. You and Ritz have got adventures at your fingertips that you'd never see in the real world. Mewt's happy with his family, with a mother that never died."
>"Mewt's trying to pretend nothing bad ever happens! It's escapism! Can't you see? It's not healthy!"
The sound of a slap resounded across the empty field, Marche caught unsurprised by the fury of the barehanded strike by a seemingly simple moogle.
"You selfish child. You're not thinking of them."
>"I have to go back! I have to destroy the crystals!"
"You aren't listening to anything but your delusions. If this weren't real, would your cheek be stinging right now?"
>"This place isn't real, it's a game! It's just a dream- an escape from the real world!"
"What makes THIS world any less real than another? Just because you could not imagine it could exist? What do YOU know of the universe?"
>"It's just an illusion!"
"Your brother is not in constant pain, confined to a wheelchair, not dying of nerve degeneration... he was cured by a simple panacea! Now he can walk- he can RUN AND JUMP! If you choose to go back, there is no miracle cure!"
>"But you can't avoid problems forever..."
"If you listen to nothing else I say, listen to me now, Marche Radiuju. Your brother has Alpers' disease. You know this, don't you?"
>"How do you..."
"If you go back, you are damning him to about four years of constant pain and misery. His last eighteen months of life will be spent in a bed because he'll be paralyzed from the waist down and growing weaker. The injections the doctors give him for the pain were wearing his bones away and that's why he had to sit in that wheelchair. He is going to go blind, and he's not going to be all there because it affects his brain, too! Dementia at age twelve! He's going to die of a heart attack before he becomes a teenager, and the last time you see your brother look at you, his skin is going to be discolored and the whites of his sightless eyes are going to be as yellow as a god damned egg yolk!"
>"How do you know all of this?!"
"If you destroy this world you are murdering millions of living, breathing people. If you destroy this world, you may as well be putting a gun to your brother's head and pulling the trigger."
>"You're... no moogle. You're some kind of monster..."
I exhaled a sigh, and shook my head. "I was a man before I started travelling between worlds. Coming here? Yeah, I became a moogle for the duration of my visit, not the first time. That doesn't matter. What matters is... if you go back, you're going to have to watch your brother die. You're going to have to watch Mewt be ignored by his drunken father. You're going to watch your friend Ritz..." I paused, and swallowed. "I should not tell you this, but she was abused at home, Marche. You keep going and destroy this world... if by some miracle you DO get back to the real world and drag them with you kicking and screaming..."
>"S-shut up!"
"I have a lot of talents. One of them? I can see possible futures. Mewt's dad might stop drinking and actually decide to be there for him, that's okay. Doned's gonna die at age twelve. Ritz is going to latch onto you and run away a few times until she gets beaten for running, and then she's going to cut her wrists, Marche."
>"You're lying!"
"I don't have a reason to lie. I'm sorry. I know you don't want to hear this, but I swear to you, you are better in this world than the other. There aren't cars in this world. You won't go out drinking with your buddies from high school, get the call that Ritz is in the hospital, then get on your moped and try to get there only to fall off, skid into the opposite lane, and get run over. You'll both die in the emergency room, in beds next to each other, without any idea. It's romantic, in a twisted way. In a way that I figure you'd appreciate."
>"You monster! I'll kill you!"
"Nothing hurts like the truth, eh? On your head be it."

Yeah. I struck him down there. And after the next crystal. And then I started getting proactive, but no matter what I did, the damn kid just would not die. Or age, as it turns out. Everyone aged normally, except for the kids and Cid. Whoops.

The best results I found were from finding ways to get him to break laws and end up in jail for days.

Oh, and the last three crystals were given actual protection by me, in the form of final-boss-level magitech constructs to stop them before they triggered the actual fight, and he STILL managed to get two out of three before I just outright started cheating and placing contingent spells to warp away anyone who approached the last one before they could trigger the boss fight.