Gil (Final Fantasy)

Lyrics

December eighteenth, nineteen eighty-seven.A blue screen. White text.And then, the first chime.A little bag of pixels.A number next to a G.The work was simple.Find a gelatinous blob in the woods outside Cornelia.Hit it with a pixelated sword.Watch it dissolve.And the number goes up.Two Gil. Four Gil.Hours of this.Walking in circles in the same patch of forest.A generation learned the labor theory of valuefrom a monster made of jelly.The grind, they called it.The first job.And oh, the weight of that Gil.Heavier than any coin in your real-world pocket.It bought the red potion in the glass vial.It paid the innkeeper for a full night's rest.It was the buffer between you and the fade to black.The first currency that truly mattered,because it was the only one you earned yourself.You walk into the item shop.The music changes. It's safe in here.A man behind a counter who only says one of four things.You scroll down the list.Potion. 50 Gil.Antidote. 75 Gil.Tent. 400 Gil.You do the math in your head.How many slimes is a tent?You buy the potion. The number goes down.The bag feels lighter, but you feel safer.Ready to go back into the woods.And oh, the weight of that Gil.Heavier than any coin in your real-world pocket.It bought the red potion in the glass vial.It paid the innkeeper for a full night's rest.It was the buffer between you and the fade to black.The first currency that truly mattered,because it was the only one you earned yourself.Until the dragon in the cave.The unexpected critical hit.The whole party falls.The screen goes dark.GAME OVER.And when you wake up at the last save point,half of it is gone.Just vanished into the code.A tax on failure.A silent, cold lesson in risk management,taught by Hironobu Sakaguchi.It's still there, you know.In a hundred different worlds, on a dozen different platforms.Still dropping from slimes.Still buying potions.Still vanishing when you die.The most stable currency in any universe.Gil.