#like kieran and carmine can't be in two places at once like this!!!!

[ranger-kellyn]

why. am i just. allowed to go onto the indigo disk dlc portion..........

[protokirby]

Forgot I said I was going to talk about a dream I had some days ago.

But I have a second dream to talk about too. First one is short so they can both go in the same post.

So. Dream I had a few days ago. Everything was the same as real life except I was rich and lived in a place that was sometimes used as a cosplayer convention. AND I had access to the pokemon world. It was secret though.

I was hanging out with Kieran in my room. There was a cosplayer convention going on outside and I wandered outside my room with Kieran. He can hide in plain sight with a whole dang cosplayer convention going on.

There were two Kieran cosplayers. Both grown adults. One was taller than Carmine. One was shorter than Kieran. Both of the cosplayers had messed up hair and strange inaccuracies in different places.

I can't recall the real Kieran having anything weird about him, but both the cosplayers for some reason started teasing him, telling him his costume was bad (oh the irony).

I roared at the cosplayers and brought Kieran somewhere else. and I hugged him. I can't remember if I've been friends with Kieran in a dream before so no clue if this was a friendship built over time from dream continuation, but we were at "allowed to hug" level so. Maybe? Unless he just trusted me immediately from this dream. I don't remember anything else about this dream except that there were vending machines in my room filled with japanese snacks.

Now for the latest dream.

This dream was some kind of strange kind I don't think I had before. Usually, I know when I'm dreaming but just completely lack the control to do anything with that knowledge. In this dream, I completely lacked the knowledge I was dreaming but could control reality. So the opposite of how I usually dream. Huh. My level of whimsy was about the same as it often is though. But something about it seemed more whimsical than usual in a . more deranged sort of way(?)

Also it played out like fanfiction again. With one of the craziest plots I've ever seen.

Every dragon type pokemon trainer clan apparently had a shared castle where they all met up? I don't know if there are a bunch of dragon clans in canon but apparently Drayden was leader of one of them in the dream.

At some point, the castle seemed to become covered in flames. This was to keep me away from it, as I later would find out. They were only an illusion made by an evil dream wizard aware of my intense pyrophobia. All the dragon people had to run out because they were in a meeting but I happened to be there too and grabbed something from the castle that I was close to. It looked like some kind of silly purple hat that was similar to a bonnet and also there was some kind of short poncho type of thing(?) with dragon symbols on it. Drayden and Drayton saw me with the stuff and Drayden thanked me for getting it out of the castle because those are ancient items sacred to all the dragon clans at once. I said somethin like "Wuh? I just took them 'cuz I thought they were pretty." Drayton laughed at that (Yippee I'm funny to the blorbo :D ). Drayden looked unamused (lol). I just handed the stuff to Drayden because I wasn't about to steal anything.

After that I unlocked flight mode (grew really cool monster wings) and got at as far away from the castle as possible. I don't think either of the now very surprised Drays were expecting to see someone grow wings out of nowhere because as I was flying up I looked back for a moment and saw Drayton give some half-attempted jawdrop and I saw Drayden's eyes widen.

Thinking about it now... I don't think any of the imaginary friends aside from Crispin and the au Hop (Reaper) and. probably Ryuki. have seen moments where I have any of the reality control powers (so Drayton, used to seeing me be an idiot, would naturally be surprised. I wonder if Drayton turned to Drayden after I was away and said "That flying girl is my friend ya know" because I think he would do that.) Even then they're rare for me to have and I don't think I've ever used them that casually except for one time I transformed into Drayton but with kitty ears. But I also transform into Drayton at some point in this dream and now I vaguely recall having the same "Can't tell I'm dreaming but I have superpowers" thing in that older one too. I wonder if there's a connection.

I don't remember anything that happened in between, though I think I may have seen Lance, but at some point I discovered that the castle was not a pyrophobia trigger but a very scary illusion. So I made the illusion disappear and found that a whole lot of people were magically trapped in there by the evil wizard. Amarys was the leader of a group of people who found each other in there and were working together trying to find an escape. Their base was near the front door of the castle but it was magically sealed. No opening.

Crispin was somewhere in this castle with someone who was cursed to transform into a shaymin for some reason. But also, the situation took a toll on Crispin's mental state and he was focused only on his own survival. Also Crispin had a really cool sword. I appeared in front of him and with the most joyous whimsy, I say "That's a really cool sword, Crispin!" then he stabs me. He stabs me. Confusing, but I'm teleported away to some kind of "respawn here" spot that works exclusively for me. But I saw something before my vision teleported with me.

The person who was turned into a shaymin says something to Crispin like "when we became friends, you were the nicest person I ever met. What happened to you?" This snapped Crispin back to reality and he got all emo and wanted to make things right by going to the group of people trying to work together and escape.

Then I realized I could see where I was again and I think some deranged statement like "I gotta get back there I'm missing the dramaaaa!" and I start naruto running back to the castle and just open the doors that were just locked by magic before. Wanted to see the drama that badly I guess XD What in the chaos-

So anyhoo, everyone there was surprised to see the locked doors suddenly open. They're all free now. Crispin was sitting at a table and I go sit next to him and just as joyously and whimsically as I was before, I say "Hi Crispin!" as if he didn't just kill me. Crispin has now learned a second time that I straight up do not get mad at people outside of my immediate family. Nothing even registered as a wrong act to me. I smile and hug him, to which he seems relieved about as if he thought I'd be mad at him. He knows I can respawn in dreams or simply wake up so idk why he got so upset at himself over it. He might should be more concerned about people who can't respawn- such as himself.

Oh by the way, there was someone else at the table who looked like a human version of this thing

He was eating doritos and I said "I think if you put those between slices of bread it would make a really good sandwich"

Anyhoo now that the doors were open, everyone could escape if they wanted to but Amarys wanted to make sure nobody else was still trapped anywhere in the castle. I said "why not use a dialga?" and Amarys said "that's too expensive". Apparently there was some mean dude with a dialga who would charge like a bazillion dollars just to let people see it.

But then I said "Well I have three dialgas. Want me to get them?"

Then Amarys looked extremely shocked. I don't know if it's because of the possibility of someone showing up who has three dialgas or that as I said that I was in the process of transforming into Drayton while leaning further on the table all Drayton-like.

I woke up before I could get any answer at all

[crystalelemental]

Well that was quick. DLC epilogue defeated.

"Crystal, are you going to complain again?" Yeah dude! Have you not caught on to this pattern yet?

Look, the first wave DLC, I admit my initial negative response was more due to pre-emptive anticipatory backlash. Once it was clear people were (FOR THE MOST PART) gonna be normal about Kieran and Carmine, it was fine. Wave two, I'll admit, I'm anti-Doubles, and feel like the whole set was a lot of new characters and nonsense stalling out the main event that got very little time to actually exist. It's not that it's strictly bad, it's that I think it's just obnoxiously in the way of what I wanted out of it.

Surprise surprise, the epilogue feels very similar to wave 2, but without the payoff at all.

Look, as a cute little story, it's fine. I'm glad we got a bit more friend dynamic out of the Paldea trio. I like how they did the dynamic with Kieran, even if they didn't give him back his initial design that was less stupid. I think the generally goofy approach to what's going on. There's just one problem.

My favorite spends the entire fucking time possessed. Of all the dynamics I was itching for, they remove the character I wanted to see in this dynamic the most from the equation entirely. So yes, I'm coming away from this steaming.

It also just kinda gives me...Delta Episode vibes. Less lore heavy, but you know, just running back and forth from place to place to get snippets and a battle and moving on. It mercifully doesn't go on as long, but I feel like this whole epilogue didn't do a whole lot as a story, and has no real bearing on anything. Like yeah, the friend dynamics and bringing together Kitakami and Paldea was the real focus, and I'm glad we got that. But when that's all you have, it's all the worse that half of the Kitakami group just gets omitted the entire time for a pretty meaningless event. As the capoff to this game, it's...strange. I can't say I expected anything major for it, but I guess I expected...I dunno, something? It just feels so wildly disconnected and borderline pointless. Can't really say this was worth the two week wait, if I'm being honest.