Let's Play: Final Fantasy VIII - Part Twenty Seven

 Part Twenty Six

 Masterpost

 Day Twelve: It's NORG The Way It's Supposed To Be

 So, it's time for that tour that Nina wants and, of course, Zog gives it in the most cursory and perfunctory manner possible.

 Nina asks if he could make it a little more fun and more like a real tour, rather politely I thought, and of course this is Zog's response to that.

She just told you, you illiterate slut.

 I decide to tackle this tour by going anti-clockwise, and that means that the cafeteria is first.

 There's a long line there while Zog gets into talking about the hot dogs and how they go really quickly. I imagine that if I hadn't doomed Zell to a fiery death, he'd have been in this cutscene.

 I miss Selphie and Co.

 Anyway, after that comes the infirmary, where Dr Kadowaki asks Zog if Nina is his girlfriend.

 Lady, you've known this guy for years. He wasn't dating Quistis, he's not dating Nina. He wouldn't want to date himself, let alone anyone else.

 Muc to my surprise, I was given the option to say that Nina was his girlfriend. I know my policy is usually to force Zog to act like a decent human being, but I didn't think he'd be nice about saying no and I was genuinely interested to see what would happen if I made him say yes.

 I should have known better, he was a git about the whole thing.

I hate you.

On the way around to the other side of the main room, Zog and Nina were intercepted by one of the Hokage Raiden NORG dudes.

 ... Why haven't these guys been locked up?

 They were instrumental in a coup and I'm really expected to believe that the coup just ended without these guys being taken out of the picture? They just... stopped trying to kill Cid and take over the Garden?

 I know they're stuck floating on the ocean, but would this fight really just end because of that?

 I'm not sure it would, in fact I think it'd get even more bloody and desperate since, y'know they're drifting on the sea with no control over their direction and rapidly diminishing resources.

But apparently not, I guess the potential of starvation just makes people quiet and contemplative instead of irrational and panicky. What a fool I am.

 The NORG dude explains where the Master's room is and I head down there.

 Just as an aside, nearly every environment in this game is gorgeous. Unless it's meant to be horrid, it's absolutely beautiful.

 I just adore the buildings and environments in the game.

 Just look at this:

 This is a basement level, it has no need to be this beautiful.

 I would knit Yusuke Naora so many pairs of socks you would not believe it.

 I'd even try to knit gloves for him. Gloves!

 While down here, Zog and Nina hear Cid shouting and Irvine joins them. He claims that he wasn't following them, but I'm pretty sure he spotted them and followed them down here out of sheer boredom. I don't much get the feeling that he's been hitting on the girl students.

 Cid enters frame while yelling obscenities at someone off screen.

 He's so angry that he wishes he could time travel so he could tell himself not to deal with the person he's so angry at and to not have built the Garden in the first place!

 This also contains obscenities.

 Kind of wondering why Seifer's insults at Zell weren't swearier if they were going to have a middle aged man throw around the word 'bitch' this much later.

 Bitch as part of 'son of a bitch' mind you, which is more than mildly annoying. Bringing people's mothers into the conversation is uncalled for.

That's no excuse. A male dog is a cur, just call him that.

 Zog tries to give his report to Cid, but he's rebuffed and told he can give it to Cid in his office later. I'm actually stating to feel sorry for Zog, this is the second time this has happened.

 Luckily for him though, one of the Hokage guys comes over and escorts them to Master NORG, who is prepared to listen to Zog's report.

 He also lives in this:

 Which is gorgeous, but not a good sign.

 What's also not a good sign is that NORG is a lumpy non-human thing who isn't very pretty to look at.

Then why don't you sound shocked?! If I didn't know
 any better, I'd assume you were a psychopath or something.

 Zog gives the report to NORG. I won't repeat it, you know what happened.

 This is NORG's response:

Oh god, it's not an acronym.

 It turns out that the prediction I made in Part Sixteen was partially correct, at least where Galbadia Garden is concerned.

 According to NORG and his assistant Hokage, the head of Galbadia Garden (Martine) told NORG about the alliance between Deling and the Sorceress and NORG decided it was best to take the Sorceress out. He gave the order to Martine to assassinate her, but since Zog and Co. showed up at that point, he assigned them to the task so that NORG would take the blame and be attacked.

 It wasn't about distracting the Sorceress like I thought, it was more about Martine getting rid of his boss.

 NORG is fully aware that an assassination attempt would anger the Sorceress, but thinks that the sole reason that she targeted Balamb Garden was the attempt. Which he's wrong about, if that was it, attacking Trabia would be pointless.

 As he's under this misapprehension, he believes that the Sorceress can be placated and wishes to hand Zog and Co. over.

 Still neutral now, Zog?

 Speaking of, he wants to know why they aren't fighting the Sorceress. NORG basically seems not to care about her, he's basically the bastard love child of Jabba the Hutt and a Ferengi who happens to have put his money into child soldiers.

 So he's a money grubbing dick, but on the other hand, he does seem to understand that Balamb Garden is forfeit if things go wrong. So he has a little bit of my respect.

 Just a smidgen.

 His concern is entirely down to his financial backing of the Garden, which is something Zog doesn't like.

 He says that this isn't just NORG's Garden and NORG demands to know whose it is then.

-Eastenders theme plays here-

 Remember, Caraway idly mentioned the Sorceress' name before and it seemed oddly familiar to Zog, but here...

I don't get you.

This is a big bombshell, I'd expect Zog to be a bit more surprised by it, but he never seems surprised by anything.

 'The President we kidnapped is actually a zombie body guard? You don't see that every day.'

 'The leader of the Forest Owls is the daughter of a high ranking military general in the army of the occupying country? I never would have guessed.'

 'The financial backer of the school is non human and wants to take over the school? That's an unexpected development.'

 'The Sorceress that's trying to take over the world is married to my Headteacher? Huh, you don't say.'

 I jest, of course.

 All that dialogue would require him to talk about emotion in a way that wasn't overwrought and stereotypically 'teenager-ish'.

 NORG is very possessive, and actually seems quite childish. So he shouts that Cid and Edea are trying to take his Garden away from him and retreats into his pod for a fight.

 Which we'll cover next time in Part Twenty Eight, so be sure to come back on Tuesday.