confidentialmisanthropy

I went back to Akihabara the other day night looking for nothing really in particular. And that's precisely what I got.

There's a recreation center across from the floating pier we're at right now. Everyone calls it the "FleetRec". It's really called FLEET RECREATION CENTER. You have to type it like that... trust me on this one. Anyway, if you're ever on the Yokosuka Naval Base, never ever under any circumstances tell a Japansese cabbie to take you to the "FleetRec".

You'll end up at pier 6. Or worse. You could end up in some dark alley and get jumped by the Yakuza.

Say "FLEET RECREATION CENTER". Enunciate.

Anyway. The old man gave us a day off after we pulled in. He's all high on life or something right now 'cause we knocked out some "training" (more on this later) thing called MCA. Mid-Cycle Asessment. Basically... these guys from DESRON and ATG came out and made sure we know how to do our jobs...

...at the halfway point between the other times that they do it. It's like a progress report. It's an extra chance to fuck you or someone else's career. On one hand, it can be a pretty standard thing, something you usually don't get your panties in a wad about. But fail, and feel the wrath of your ISIC. There's a word for things like this. It escapes me right now but it's somewhere in the range of redundant and asinine.

Anyways we passed. And we got a day off. I spent most of it at the FleetRec. Then Magma, an Akihabara-virgin, showed up. Magma's an E3. In Seventh Fleet, you cannot fucking breathe as an E3. Which meant my little jaunt had to be cut short a few hours basically... But, I took him with me.

The Yokosuka-Chuo Station is the one I always use. It reminds me so much of JSRF. Just walking around near there makes me wanna grind shit, and I don't skate. On the way there I picked up Mawaru: Made in Wario from a little game shop the size of a closet. They had a PocketStation in there. Remember those?

I showed Magma how the fares work and we waited for the train. We talked about FF7 mostly. I've found ways to cross-reference it with like every game in the series now. It's sad. We talked about FF11 a bit too. His character's a Red Mage from San d'Oria. I told him a bit about my FF11 days:

"I chose Bastok 'cause it's a mining town. Dude. Barret fucking Wallace is from a mining town. All the Final Fantasy badasses come from mining towns..."

Magma's one of those NES --> SNES --> PS guys. He never owned an N64... and he imports dating sims and plays console RPG's almost exclusively. Despite all this, he is one of the few people I've met that can understand a quote like that. He knows the difference between linearity and focus in an RPG. He knows Chrono Trigger was waaay ahead of it's time. And he knows that Squaresoft games aren't books of the Bible, like they'd have us believe. He doesn't however, know how doomed the FF franchise just might be.

So.

On the 55 mile trip from Yokosuka to Shinegawa, I explained to him just how doomed it is. And how we can all blame Aki Ross for all of it.

Nobuo leaving.
Liscence abuse.
And, hell, the Enix merger.

All of it.

Then I shut up because I realized I was polluting him with my bullshit. Ignorance really is bliss when it comes to Final Fantasy. And here I am drowning it with politics. For shame.

We talked about the villians too. When he asked who my favorite was, I didn't say Sephiroth. Even though he is. But it was just too cliche, so I said:

"Golbez man. The guy's got horns on his helmet... And a black cape. It doesn't get anymore villian than that. He's one of those guys that if he was a comic book character his speech bubble would be different from everyone else's. All black with white letters... And people don't write homo-erotic fanfics about him, 'cause if they did they'd be in a world of shit."

Those earbuds I got in Singapore got f'd up in a freak accident so I got some more. You have not heard One-Winged Angel 'til you've hear it through these things. Seriously. I found some Hi MDs there for like ¥600. So yeah. Nothing in particular.

Next time I'll take pictures. I swear.