Amare

You have huskies? Oh, wow, you must get *covered* in fur. Yeah, things have been really hectic here for a while. I actually have been wondering about the irony of a guy named Shiv getting shanked twice. I bet it's probably the devs thinking it was funny. Those are definitely some great points. If/when we get introduced to more dreamers, I eagerly await contrasting their power sets. Maybe it's personality-based... That's true, the player definitely can't get into those rooms. Or maybe there's more underground rooms, but they're hidden? Yeah, the Undercity seems too risky... It could be that there was an emotional component to it? When Nova got confronted by Aurora, she was genuinely afraid for her life and her past misdeeds were thrown in her face. It could have been enough of a shock to break her out of Darkrai's hold/hypnosis/dream/whatever. Or maybe it was prolonged exposure to the Grid? The shock of being forgiven by Aurora? As for whether they can be *re*controlled, right now I just don't think we have enough data to tell. If they can, then maybe Darkrai let Nova go on the assumption that she'd immediately join the heroes, on the logic that eventually, it could just re-hypnotise her later and then it'd have a mole and intel on the heroes' plans. Quackling, if you will. *finger guns* Honestly, the only theory I have is that the mayo is either a joke item or will be used in the future. I like to think that Darkrai can eat dreams, so it can taste food that way. In contrast, Tristan's memes are all the rage in the Dreamscape. Meanwhile, Ava and Emily make memes about Connor being terrible, Aderyn doesn't know what a meme is and Reeve is too elegant to waste his time. (Garret makes memes about him.) Oh, good. (Lassoing Darkrai has historically been a real pain for me. Damn teleporting bastard.) They keep trying to catch him to study him, but he vanishes the moment they're not looking.

...yeah, so, stuff kinda got a bit crazy over the past few weeks. Sorry. My bad. I mean, there's always the old conspiracy boards with red strings tied between him. Nova and Aurora have names ending in A: *what does it mean???* That's true, getting Nova's side beyond 'Darkrai made me do it' would definitely be good. I suppose the question is, is there any actual difference between Shiv and Aurora's powers, or do they just have the same powerset? Because if they do, then who Nova targeted would be down to personality/availability, wouldn't it? Oooh, Aurora's research. Good question. The Mansion of Sad Lonely Children seems pretty beyond repair in the present day, but maybe the Dreamscape could have some? You know, that's actually a great question. I can't remember if it was established as to *what* made Nova break free- did Darkrai drop her because it got the twins instead? Was it the thing with the twins in Cellia? Something to do with the player meeting Darkrai? Or has Nova been lying to us and Darkrai's still got her? He is the terror that quacks in the night. The chef that will serve the entirety of Ayrith up to Darkrai. He is... Quackington. *dun dun dun!* (Although, seriously, what's with the mayo? Did we ever speculate about that?) Darkrai and Shiv's reviews regularly go viral. And Darkrai takes its history expertise and uses it to criticise all parts of movies and shows set in the past. "That outfit's all wrong." "No, that building looks like it's from the seventeenth century, not sixteenth." "That slang wasn't in common use for decades." Shiv just throws popcorn at roughly where Darkrai's mouth would be and tells him to relax. Ahahaha, yeah, Emily totally spams the chat with memes, whether she found them or made them. Garret adds in memes about Aaron being old. Tristan works *really hard* on his memes and never gets any replies. I hope your Darkrai lassoing went well! Man, Shiv and Waldenhall as friends/associates is a scary thought. Those are two guys who could do some serious damage if they teamed up to achieve a common goal. And maybe they did know Tristan... Hahaha, no, Shiv and Waldenhall are working together to decipher the mystery of Jarred. They have got absolutely nowhere.

I mean, at least we haven't reached 'make a spreadsheet' levels, though there's nothing stopping us from coming up with the craziest ending theories we can think of. Maybe it was about Aurora instead? Nova was spending all that time at the Mansion of Sad Lonely Children trying to assess which twin would be a better target, and figured if she stole Aurora's powers, Aurora might be vindictive enough to go after her, but Nova could always teleport away? Or you could be right, maybe she didn't want to hurt Shiv. Or maybe Darkrai did have some kind of scheme in mind. Following from that, if Nova had been able to steal all of Aurora's powers, would they have been gone permanently, do you think? Would they have still regenerated? Hell, if she'd taken Aurora's, would she have then gone for Shiv, to depower both twins? To me, the most likely answer would be that Darkrai wanted one fully powered Nova who was under his control and two depowered twins not under his control, but then Aurora woke up and he's been trying to frantically juggle things ever since. He wound up with one fully powered twin and one mildly powered twin under control and depowered Nova breaking free, so I guess he's doing pretty well if that is what was happening. Yeah, it's kinda weird that for how much Quackington has been built up, we've never talked to him, even though we were on the same ship and we bailed out his bar. That Psyduck owes us big time. (Or he's secretly the bad guy behind Darkrai.) Naturally, Garret tries to drive everything he can, just to spite people. See, Aurora and Darkrai are brilliant, but what about Shiv and Darkrai? For some reason I'm imagining them as the world's most vicious movie critics. Definitely both, and I bet Gym Leaders post memes incognito to mess with the other Leaders. (There's probably thousands about Garret and his hat.) For Darkrai you need a save file from BDSP on the same Switch. (If you have one from Sword or Shield, you can get Shaymin.) Otherwise, happy lassoing. That's definitely true. I wonder, does Shiv know Waldenhall somehow?

Thank you, I appreciate it. It's been a very long month and change. Episode 7's going to be awesome. Looking back on how far we missed the mark with all our ideas... maybe not so much, but it might also wind up being hilarious. All of those seem like good choices. I guess we'll have to wait and see, but I do think we should expect a split. In hindsight, I wonder why Nova went for Aurora and not Shiv? Was Aurora's room closer? Did she think Aurora would be easier to take from? Could she just not take Shiv's powers? Shiv trusted her more, so theoretically, he seems like a better target... Did she want/need Shiv's powers intact for some reason? Yeah, that's Waldenhall's punishment: imprisoned and subjected to Reeve's lectures about how awful he is, how little style he has and why he's an inferior scientist. Oh dear Lord, Jarred in your dreams... I can only imagine. A Quackington sim would be hilarious. Especially if all he says is 'Psyduck'. Executive decision: Garret is not allowed to pilot anything, be it a boat, a train, a car or a bicycle. They are the heroes and terrors of historians worldwide. I really want to see Shiv as the Stig now. He got banned from Alola, Kanto and Johto for his Slowpoke-terrifying, lmao. I hope we get to see in-universe Elite Four memes. Actually, in-universe memes about the Gym Leaders are probably equally hilarious. IDK if you played Legends Arceus, but when you try to catch Darkrai there, like 95% of the time he vanishes if you throw a ball at him, so I'm just imagining everyone throwing lassos and Darkrai vanishes every time. That's a good point, actually. As far as we know, the twins didn't have much to do with Waldenhall, but since he was part of Crescent and everyone haired off to Fairbale after him, Shiv/Darkrai might have got curious...

I am so sorry for how long this took. It's been really hectic around here, and there was a death in my family recently, so a lot of things got sidelined and I'm trying to get back on top of things. It's been a lot. I mean, with these devs, never say never, lmao. And since we recently got confirmation that they're keeping on even without Doctor Caz at the helm, I think we're in for a fun ride no matter what happens. See, it's entirely possible that we've already had the major split- either with the 'side with Nova or Shiv' decision or the 'save Scarlett/let Scarlett die' decision. I know the repercussions from both haven't been enormously significant so far (aside from the obvious, in the latter's case), but they might come back to haunt us soon. Or things might get rewritten here and there to make them more significant. Yeah, I think the insinuation was that Aurora's regaining what Nova took from her? Or maybe Nova just has to keep shanking a twin for power every so often. Canon will probably clarify that for us eventually. We'll add 'desecrating historical sites' to Waldenhall's rap sheet. I'm sure Reeve would be horrified if he knew. I hope your brain didn't get Jarredsploded. The prospect is terrifying. Or Garret decided to take a short cut and it turns out the short cut didn't exist and whoops, we've crashed into Arcanius. Half of it is Darkrai saying things along the line of 'I'm an eternal being, I was actually alive at that time, don't question me' and Aurora saying 'You're a stagnant, unchanging being, let someone whose brain can actually withstand the idea of a new concept do the commenting'. The terrifying bits are when they actually agree. Shiv's going to turn into The Stig at this rate. Some say he only ever eats mangos, and he developed the ability to teleport by frightening baby Slowpoke. But all we know is... he's called Shiv. (In all seriousness, yes, I'm sure canon will tell us in time.) Atlas has his Fire Pokemon on hand to keep him from melting. Azura has a mon for using Icy Wind on her, though it often melts and she winds up getting rained on. Damien just stays inside with the air-con on, like a normal person. Grave-bothering, assistant dimensional researcher, unofficial member of the local law and order, attempted Darkrai-wrangler, and person who has to deal with the Gym Leaders when they're all arguing. Yeah, Perfection, Nova or Darkrai would be my guess. Maybe Cresselia, if we're right about her being significant.

Sorry for the delay, it's been a very hectic week. I agree, there's definitely a lot of potential re: story splits. I do think the story will likely have multiple endings, but probably only four or five, like Rejuv- even if there's potential for like twenty endings, I doubt the devs would go with that. Honestly, Aurora's lucky that Nova's powers are waning/failing, or I wouldn't put it past Nova to use her powers to screw with Aurora's head just for the sake of it. I think the 'crime' part is pretty implicit with Lilith, LMAO. They love our tears. They taste like candy. Arson, desecration of historical objects/a historical site and offending historians worldwide. The bastard. I don't think my brain can handle the Jarred, but let me know how it goes for you. That's how E7 starts: the protagonist, Garret and Emily managed to get lost because Garret screwed up somehow. We immediately have to prevent them from strangling each other. I feel like the drafts would either be full of snarky notes where they're criticising each other's writing, or just full of arguments about the most minor details. And by God, if the devs don't tell us we'll make it up ourselves. I bet that one Elite Four who likes Fire-types (Damien?) likes to walk around outside in full regalia just to show how tough/immune he is, while Azura calls him a freak. *reluctantly adds 'grave-botherer' to my resume* There's always the possibility that Shiv's trying to get as much information possible while feeding the Foxes/Crescent/God knows who else disinformation. He seems like that kind of sneaky.

Hmmm. Speaking of outcomes, I wonder, do you by any chance happen to recall any mention of how many endings Desolation might have? I know Rejuvenation will have four, and Reborn had the postgame split. Since (IIRC) Deso will only have ten episodes, maybe the devs might have mentioned it? It's true that people can survive a lot of stabbing, especially if Aurora didn't manage to hit anything vital. (Or for all we know, Nova had a mon using Heal Pulse on her somewhere.) But I actually really like your idea that Darkrai was somehow responsible. Not sure if it could actually heal Nova, but maybe it used some kind of illusion power on Aurora so she thought she stabbed/killed Nova, but didn't actually do it? I agree that Darkrai would get a bit miffed if one of its pawns shanked another, so it would have a vested interest in making sure that didn't happen. Those are fantastic ideas, but I'll add another one- maybe it's with Lilith, to get her on our side. If we prove we know enough about Perfection, it might convince her that we can be trusted/we're an ally that's worth sticking with. Somewhere, the devs are plotting which character to make us love before giving them a depressing fate (or making a new character entirely). They want us to suffer. True, the priests are absolutely a good potential source of information. And Waldenhall definitely needs to lay off on the arson of priceless historical sites, once was bad enough. (I would punch him myself for that, if I could.) Oh, God. Speaking of Jarred, today I discovered that not only did some mad lad make a dating sim of him ( , the same mad lad made a mod of Deso where everything is Jarred ( Maps are awesome. Everyone loves maps. I'd totally be down for a detailed Ayrith map. (Someone call Talon, lmao.) Darkrai winds up as Aurora's research assistant. They co-author numerous papers on the history of Ayrith. They make a surprisingly good, but utterly terrifying combination. Somewhere, Shiv is laughing at us for thinking we could understand him and his origins. I forgot about the League being on a volcano, actually. I thought it was a mountain? I'm going to have to comb over every tombstone in the game, aren't I... True... Aurora does seem like the most likely option there... or maybe Shiv's just playing the Foxes too?

We salute you for your service. You are doing a great and valiant job. (I also love extra dialogue, I just feel this compulsion to make sure that the characters get as good a deal as possible.) Hmmm. I wonder, maybe Nova really is immortal... she and the twins are already Special, so maybe they're not entirely human? (Maybe this is when the X-Men all turn up, lmao.) Yeah, it does seem that the first insight was about the Dreamscape/Darkrai and the second is about Perfection. As to what the latter might be for... well, my best bet is another check, but as for what, I don't know. Maybe we'll have to prove a falsehood or show that we know more about Perfection than what someone else says? More brainwashing is certainly possible, given who we're dealing with... It would be pretty hilarious, though. Everyone just sits there looking awkwardly at each other, and then Ava finally says "I think we have a problem." The fandom's probably going to riot if Hardy gets a bad ending, especially after what happened to Tristan, lmao. I don't think the journal's author was outright lying, but I'm betting that they were embellishing or deliberately downplaying things. I imagine we'll eventually get some more accurate sources, whether it's from Lilith, Waldenhall, the priests or somewhere else, so that should be interesting. It's just going to be non-stop complaining from all of them afterwards, lol. God, I want there to be a reference to Majora at least once, kid or no kid. It'd just be funny. On that note, we haven't been shown a really extensive map of Ayrith yet, have we? Like, I know we've seen one that shows the major islands, but not the minor ones, right? So we don't know just how many islands there could be? I doubt that the player would accept Darkrai on their team, but I could see Shiv or Aurora doing so in order to lord it over Darkrai. A fabricated memory would be really interesting, especially since I could see multiple candidates: parents who wanted to get rid of them, parents who wanted to keep them safe, someone who knew what they could do and wanted to put them somewhere where they couldn't do too much damage... or maybe one of them brainwashed the other two and then themselves for some reason. It's possible, is all I'm saying. To me, 'Hydreilius' sounds like 'hydraulics', so... IDK, maybe waterworks? I mean, at least it gives him something to think about other than 'my life was a lie and this place sucks'? Now there's an idea... those tombstones really are food for thought. Hmmm... calling it 'Twin Negotiation' implies to me that both twins were involved, but I do see how that could work...

I always feel too bad to actually do things like that- I felt like a massive douche letting Scarlett die just so I could see what the dialogue was like immediately after her death, and then going back and saving her. So... Nova makes a recovery? Here I thought Aurora straight up killed her... Yeah, it did surprise me that we were getting not just new insight, but also additions to the old one. I'm not really sure why we'd get new insight into a check we already did at this point, unless... IDK, Darkrai quizzes us again? We get brainwashed? Next episode, Scarlett starts a Society For People Who Tried To Sacrifice Themselves. It gets bigger and bigger as the episodes roll on. They have the most awkward meetings in history. (In all seriousness, I do agree about Scarlett.) On the one hand, it could be a tragic commentary about how sometimes, people who do bad things only did them because they didn't have a choice- they needed to help someone who wasn't getting help through the normal means, and at root, they're just like you and me. ...or the devs just wanted to kick us in the emotions a few times. *shrug* Yeah, that's a good point. Admittedly, there's a pretty high chance that whoever wrote the journal wasn't exactly a reliable narrator- they could have been embellishing, making stuff up, or leaving out stuff to make themselves look better. But assuming they *were* telling the truth, I think things are going to get very bad soon. (I will say, if the next part of the game has the player's journey suddenly derailed by a plague of horribly mutated and incredibly strong people and Pokemon, which they accidentally caused, it's going to be an incredibly novel experience.) Maybe we just need to lock Garret in a room with Rosetta and Aaron to watch over him. It's not like they're doing much at this point... The player is... Eden! And Majira! And Majira's secret kid, Majora (and their mask)! And Lilith's long-lost sister! And Amelia and Ava's secret cousin! And Kuiki, who went back in time to save himself! All at the same time! The protagonist's real secret weapon is the Big Sad Puppy Dog Eyes. Nobody can say no. Given the existence of Ruby, Bronze and Bountilia Islands, there's probably a surplus of tiny little islands that Legendaries could be hiding in. (Or, the Dreamscape, of course.) I don't know that we will obtain Darkrai... given that it's the big bad of the game, it seems more likely that we'll kill, banish or imprison it somewhere. We might get *a* Darkrai, but I don't think it'll be *the* Darkrai. As for your points: 1. Excellent point. I wonder, did Aurora or Shiv accidentally kill or banish their parents, like that one kid in the Twilight Zone? 2. Ooh, now there's a thought. Arcanius really does sound like it'll be full of plot. 3. Maybe... IDK, the Dreamscape Fragments are called that because they were literally dreamed up? They're not actually real, hence why they didn't work when collected? 4. See, I'm guessing that Darkrai was looking for dreamers the whole time, so once one developed/manifested/whatever, he'd yoink them into his clutches as soon as he could. 5. I don't recall that one, remind me? 6. That really would be good. Nice idea.

Well, shit, I knew I forgot to do something. Sorry. Happy new year to everyone reading this. I agree, I feel like V7 is when they're really going to start hitting us with the consequences. (Speaking of consequences, I can't remember if I already asked or not, but do you have any idea what happens in V6 if you don't save Nova? I don't think anyone posted videos or anything like that.) It does feel like the Visinite Current thing is going to turn into a Big Thing, so if anyone's going to make a sacrifice, stupid or otherwise, that sounds like a likely place for it. We'll probably have to find another key item or something... or maybe touching the Perfection serum will have something to do with it? It lets us sense something we can use to talk someone down? Yeah, honestly, looking at the heroes, if you asked 'Which of these people would not sacrifice themselves', I feel like the only real answer would be the MC because if the MC dies, we don't have a game. (Well, at the very least, one can assume that they wouldn't stay dead.) But yeah, it does feel like morale will be gone if anyone sacrifices themself. Hell, even if someone only gets badly hurt and not dead, it'd be a blow to morale. I'm also hoping that Hardy and Zoroark don't die, mainly because I can see how this would be an incredibly tragic end to his story and he really doesn't deserve that. Oh, shit, I never thought of that- the player/Waldenhall being patient zero. For all we know, even if they're not, the player having had contact with the Perfection serum might have a similar effect. The only person it's had an effect on so far is Garret, so we should probably keep an eye on him in case weird stuff starts happening. Given how much they've been hinting at the player's past, I'm guessing some Big Revelations are incoming. True, we'll have to politely ask about it, I'm sure they'll share. /s I could definitely buy the other Swords of Justice being protectors of something, and I could also buy them turning up in future Ranger quests. Problem is that the beasts and birds seem like they'd be found in similar places- like, Raikou could absolutely show up in Visinite Current, but it seems like an equally good place to find Zapdos, you know? We call in the protagonist of Rejuvenation so we can borrow their Snag Machine. Everyone watches in amazed horror as Darkrai goes down to a single Poke Ball. No, no, it turns out that Serenity *was* Arceus all along. It's the equivalent of those fairy tales where someone gets given a secret test of character by a disguised fairy. Otherwise, the Regis turning up in the caves would be cool. I could see a Marshadow hiding in the Dreamscape too, seems like a good place for the little munchkin.

Honestly, I will be very surprised if the devs don't try to torture us with Tristan at some point in the future. I mean, that's what fan favourites are for, right? I feel like we'd be most likely to see significant consequences for Scarlett in the next episode and onwards, because that's when we need all hands on deck, y'know? Without Scarlett, not only is the team down a member, but Connor doesn't have the stabilising influence, which means he's probably going to do something stupid. I agree that Lilith does definitely seem like the most obvious candidate because she's in the worst situation, but outside of the Darkrai Gang... hmmm. I can see Garret making a dumb/heroic sacrifice to save Eden, or Reeve making a dumb/heroic sacrifice to stop Waldenhall and redeem himself along the way. Or possibly Emily dying to destroy morale? Not sure. Otherwise, my other bet would be Hardy, either to redeem himself or because he's realised that his situation is so pointless that there's no point in continuing. That's actually a really, really good point: I can see Waldenhall, Amelia or someone else who knew about Perfection and had less scruples than Reeve intentionally distributing artificial Perfection or spreading word of how to attain it in order to get more test subjects, or to wreak havoc over Ayrith, or just to slow the protagonists down. It'd be like Pokerus: everyone would want it to make their Pokemon stronger, even if it wasn't proven to be safe. And if the potential effects of humans reaching Perfection were known, I bet a lot of people would take it in a flash. I suppose, since Lilith never attained Perfection with her Umbreon, there's no reason why it wouldn't stay Perfected if she died before it. If she had, then yeah, it might lose Perfection, but that's a whole other scenario... Oooh, protagonist-specific text, now there's an idea... Rejuvenation's been doing some great protagonist characterisation in the later episodes, I'd be hyped for some like it in Desolation. I'm not sure where else we might find legendaries in Desolation- at least, where we've seen so far. Any ideas? We'll have to add it to the very long personalised list of reasons to kick Darkrai's ass. It's getting really long at this point...

Yeah, it's definitely a game that invites speculation, there's just so much to talk about. Honestly, given how popular Tristan is, I'd be surprised if that's the last we see of him, even if he does only get brought back as a nightmare. AFAIK, the fandom's basically adopted him as Desolation's resident poor little meow meow so I think we'll likely see *something* of him again. Future deaths is actually a really, really interesting topic to speculate on. So far (compared to Reborn and Rejuvenation at least) Desolation's actually been pretty conservative with the amount of characters that have been killed off, and it gives you the chance to save a couple. (Which actually leads to a really interesting question: I wonder if in future episodes, there'll be some situation or reveal that makes it so that letting Scarlett or Nova die might actually have been a good choice?) But if you look at it, the common factor is that they've all been working for Darkrai, either directly or indirectly, so it looks like the most likely victims are Nova, Lilith, Shiv, or the inevitable character who's been working for Darkrai the whole time and we never knew. Now that we mention it, getting to Darkroot finally is going to be really interesting for the sole reason that it's basically the closest thing the MC has to a hometown. Hopefully we'll find out more about the MC there, even if it's just 'how's the shrimp allergy going' or 'Is your least favourite colour still grey'. Actually, Darkrai pulling a 'do not adjust your TV set' to announce its takeover of the world would kind of be hilarious. (Especially if it turns out that it's just because Aurora always wanted to be a TV personality.) It would be kind of hilarious if the MC just wound up changing history by sheer accident. They fell on a time travel device, politely asked some angry-looking people to calm down and whoops, they just ended a war. Oh, we're definitely in for tough battles no matter what, but hopefully we'll get through them. And I'll be rooting for your success too. That's the next episode: everyone goes to Teila Resort to undergo rest, relaxation, spa treatments, and group therapy. They return to Ayrith with the whole group having received a total glow up. Dragon would be really cool too! And maybe we'll find Palkia and/or Dialga in the Grid sometime in the future. That's actually a really good question, and I don't know. (I would have happily adopted any of Tristan's mons, but the game had to kick us in the collective dick...)

(Look at us, we've hit three pages, lmao) Oh, shit, that gauntlet is a fantastic idea. I mean, AFAIK there's nothing we can do to save Tristan, but I wouldn't be surprised if there winds up being more people we can save/let die at later points. Yeah, I could buy Booker turning up later on the other islands. (Although it would be very interesting if it turned out that Booker and Tristan were the same entity or something. IDK how that would work, it would just be cool.) That would also be hilarious. Team Anti-Assist exist to get kicked around. There is so much potential for awkward conversations in Desolation, it's hilarious. It's almost like the world is set up to only let the MC go to certain places... nah. Queer Eye For The Darkrai, coming to Cellia! Ryder is like a one-man slapstick show. He's a menace to society, it's hilarious. Yep, that's the one thing Booker and Aurora can agree on. Next episode has them teaming up to hunt Waldenhall down for crimes against books. Hmmm... well, we've already had time travel once in this game. Maybe the MC will accidentally turn out to be the trainer who ended the war? Sounds like they'd make a great distraction, though. (Well, 'great' in the sense of 'enormous'.) Yeah, if we face a gauntlet like that, I'm probably going to give up, there's only so much I can handle. Perfection Umbreon/Mega Mightyena were bad enough. Next episode: Connor gets therapy. The Grid field might give Psychic types a boost? Otherwise, I don't really know. Given the technology aspect, maybe Steel as well? Booker or Nova do sound like the most likely ideas, but there's just no way to tell. :(

I'm not sure if the player could bring Tristan back... or at least, bring him back *properly*. Aurora and/or Shiv might have the power, but I don't know if they knew him well enough to get 100% Tristan and not, like 75% Tristan. The player has the memories, but not the power. Might need all three? (I definitely think we can expect to see Darkrai haunting us with Tristan and anyone else we lose in the future, though.) Does Booker have an Ayrith equivalent? Have we met him/heard about him? Did Darkrai make him up? I genuinely can't remember. Haha, instead of the Foxes it's Team Anti-Assist. No making life better for formerly-brainwashed villagers allowed! See, all of those are great ideas, but there's also room for the world's most awkward conversation about brothers. "My big bro's such a dork, he takes everything so seriously and he got mad at me for being late and he kept trying to date Rosetta even though she turned him down all the time." "...my brother ignored me for most of my life, and then after I left home and got into trouble, he threw me in here as a punishment. And then once I looked old enough that nobody would believe me if I said we were related, he let me out... but then he came back and threw me in here again." "...uh." Signs, tiny ponds that anyone older than three could step over, Psyducks with headaches, chairs, the world's thinnest trees... The Docks falling under Rosetta's purview does make sense, I guess. But the rest of Cellia certainly deserves to get spruced up. I'm just imagining Cedric falling into a state of despair at the fact that he probably got picked right out of school to go on this mission, he's been preparing for ages, this mission could make or break everything not just for him, but for Ayrith... and he wound up having to work with Ryder. (In another room, Ryder trips on his perfectly-tied shoelaces and knocks himself silly on a bench.) Honestly, I'd murder Waldenhall for torching the labs if I had a chance. That was *pure history* he burned. I barely remember anything about the wars in Ayrith, but it's possible that they could have been fighting over Perfection, or using Perfection. I mean, knowing what the PULSE mons did to Reborn, I bet a Perfected mon could do a hell of a lot of damage if it wanted. Oh, Lord, I hope that's not what we get. Some of the battles are already bad enough. Probably with a whole lot of fighting, honestly. I agree, Connor is probably never going to stop being a jerk, but everyone might be able to file a couple of the rough edges off him. Maybe. A Grid field... well, very purple. And starry. Not sure what the effects would be, though. Maybe the promise was to Booker or something?

Well, now that you mention it, Tristan returning isn't actually out of the cards. After all, if Darkrai made him up in the first place, there's no reason why Darkrai can't bring him back. (Knowing Darkrai, Tristan will only get brought back to torment/torture/taunt the player.) Whether he'll get a fabulous new outfit in the process is entirely up to the devs. Oh God yes, Booker is that guy who leaves bitchy comments on everything the twins post and makes really sarcastic memes, while everyone else is like 'Hey, man, they're saving us, lay off them'. And I bet there's a whole bunch of people wondering why a guy as normal as Jarred refuses to wear clothes. Or we just help out like the Goldenwood renovations in Rejuvenation, where it was just 'catch mons to give to the person in charge, then fight off some elite Team Xen guys'. If he did get tossed into the Grid again, then there's a non-zero chance that next episode, we wind up dealing with Kuiki holding Eden hostage... or trying to... or Eden becomes his sidekick. Or maybe we just have to battle Kuiki to get to Eden. Yeah, I absolutely expect there to be a lot of comments about Kuiki from the villagers, next ep. Ledges, small fences, doors that aren't locked but that we can't open, tiny gaps that we should be able to jump over but can't, train tracks... God, yes. It seems kinda weird that the Docks, an industrial area with no Gym Leader, look better than two of the actual districts with resident Gym Leaders. Yep, the best reason to anticipate episode 7: name reveals! Oh, God, Ryder. Yeah, Ryder/Cedric is prime sitcom material. Next ep, the player, Ryder and Cedric wind up in an impromptu buddy-cop thing in their investigations. By the end of it, Cedric is wondering if it's legal to murder someone for incompetence. That is an excellent point and I will do my best not to push myself. (Also, I see what you did there re not rushing perfection. *rimshot*) Yeah, if anyone wants to give fan art of Perfection Legendaries a shot, I am right behind them. It would be kind of hilarious if Aurora decided to become an amateur historian and kept questioning Darkrai and the entity on things that happened hundreds of years ago. Then she finds out that Waldenhall burned down a building full of journals, books and other items from hundreds of years ago, many of which had survived intact (or mostly intact) and decides that she has to murder him because it's the only reasonable response. (And yes, more Aurora/Shiv sibling moments would be wonderful.) Perfected works fine, thank you :) And it would definitely be intriguing if Darkrai was somehow the ancestor or cause of the known Perfected Pokemon. That's a very intriguing thought... ...oh God, even if it can only bolster mons of the same type, can you imagine a battle against Perfection Darkrai and boosted Mega Mightyena? Actually, it begins with Reukra and co coming in all 'Hey, did somebody say Perfection, that's kind of our thing...?' The *least* the MC deserves at this point is all the cocktails they want. Even if it ends with the MC passed out in a corner and losing relationship points because they threw up on Ava's shoes. I agree that Scarlett probably won't be enough by herself. The best friends that Connor has are basically Scarlett, the MC and Ava... maybe all of them together (plus Emily, if she stops bullying him for five minutes) can do it? The lake guardians could be a possibility. Otherwise, the only other vaguely-associated mon I can think of would be Hoopa, but there's been no sign of Hoopa in the game yet. I don't believe it was, so it might come up later.

Dark blue could work. Maybe green? He'd look nice in green, I think. Next episode, we're introduced to the Dreamscape's internet, where Shiv makes memes about how much it sucks to have cool reality warping powers when everyone else is stuck in permanent mediocrity, jk, it's awesome, and Aurora makes videos about why her campaign to take over the whole Dreamscape should succeed. Everyone else is posting memes about how boring the whole place is and there's nothing to do except have existential crises and worry about the imminent collapse of civilisation. In all seriousness, since we're going to be (well, I say we, I doubt the player is doing that much of the actual work) renovating the village, if Keegan/Kuiki does come up again, it'll likely be there. Like, it occurs to me that we're *assuming* that Kuiki's dead, but for all we know, the tombstone with his name on it was just Shiv being dramatic about how the brother he knew is dead, and Kuiki got shipped off somewhere (or maybe Shiv locked him somewhere in the Dreamscape). Not to mention, none of the villagers have a clue what happened to him, only that he vanished. For all they know, he could come back at any moment. So they may well have a lot to say about him. Being the protagonist sucks sometimes. They're subject to the most random hindrances. That's going to be my head canon too. Maybe in the good ending she teams up with Aaron to make Cellia North over entirely. I do hope we get an actual name for the Grand Rogue. And yeah, I think Desolation needs more sitcom moments. There's a lot of potential there. Those guys are going to have the weirdest conversations when they're looking at the village. "So is there a reason why all your houses have huge cracks in the floor that nobody bothered fixing?" "Yeah, the guy who was mind-controlling us didn't want us to have nice things." "OK, and why were you using fire as your light source in a cave with little ventilation?" "I think the oxygen deprivation helped him control us." "What about the town hall with a giant pit in the middle?" "Oh, our leader liked to kill everyone he couldn't mind control or didn't want to keep around by having them fight a Donphan unarmed." "What the actual fuck." I appreciate your faith in me. I'll do my best, though it might take a while. Hmmm, Perfection Lugia... now there's a thought. Actually, now that you mention it, I'm surprised there hasn't been a ton of speculative fan art about what various Perfection legendaries would look like. (Admittedly, it's easy for me to say that, since I can't draw.) See, the two of them teaming up and not liking it could also be hilarious, because then we could get scenes of Aurora and Shiv standing around awkwardly while Darkrai and the entity throw petulant jabs at each other about stuff that happened hundreds of years ago. After a while, Aurora leans over to Shiv and says 'Wow, and I thought overhearing Keegan yelling at you for ignoring him all the time was bad', and Shiv tells her to shut up. Maybe it's not that Perfection has an inherent link to Darkrai. Maybe it's that *the Fragment* has a link to Darkrai. Darkrai used to be Perfect (there has to be a better term for having achieved Perfection, this is clunky) and it isn't now. So maybe the Fragment is part of Darkrai, or used to be part of Darkrai? Maybe Waldenhall finds the Fragment and then he gets mutated into a half-human half-Darkrai abomination and then it turns out we were in Insurgence all along- Oooh, there is so much potential there... even if Umbreon can only buff other Psychic/Dark types, that'd be worth it. (Bring on the Malamar!) Or maybe, would a Perfection Pokemon buff other Perfection Pokemon? It's like that Rejuvenation (I can't remember if it was Reborn or Rejuvenation, one of them) where early in the game, you get offered a free trip to Hoenn and if you take it, you just get a game over screen telling you that the player spent the rest of their life relaxing while everyone else suffered. Here, the MC just nopes out to the new resort and gets a free tan and cocktails for defeating Kuiki. Actually, the question of how much Scarlett can do for him right now is a really good one, given that IIRC, at the end of E6 she's worried about him and he doesn't seem to be listening to her or anyone. And in the timeline where Scarlett dies, it could honestly go either way- maybe he decides to become a better person for her, maybe he doubles down on the douchery because of his pain and anger.

Sorry for the wait, I completely lost track of the days. Next up is Darkrai and its pawns giving people makeovers. They teach Tristan how to wear colours that aren't brown. Reeve is the guest consultant. For all we know, Darkrai dreamed up the manor for its kids. Comes with free electricity, hot water and a library, but no internet or they'd just get distracted. God forbid Shiv find his purpose making memes on Rotomblr, or Aurora begin her life's work of making videos where she tears down scientific theories on MewTube. (I'd say something about Keegan, but nobody cares about Keegan, let's be real.) Ah, yes, the plight of our hero. We can take down terrorist gangs, overcome Darkrai's brainwashing, help hundreds of people all over Ayrith and teleport around the Dreamscape, but we can't get around some potted plants. It's such a tragedy. Yeah, those are all good ideas. Could be anything, but the construction material is a worthy thought. (Maybe Aurora's into construction and architecture on the side?) I really hope if we do get the team-up, that the devs make it like a sitcom road trip. It just seems like prime comedy material, especially if Sera comes along as well and she and the Grand Rogue spend the whole time bitching at each other about things from the old days. "You never apologised for drinking my coffee!" "Yeah, well, you never paid me back for lunch that one time!" I mean, now that you mention it, 'not intended for gladiatorial combat against a Donphan' is both accurate and extremely hilarious as a criterion. I can just imagine the poor villagers having to specify that to the baffled construction workers. Well, it's not chapter 4 that's the problem, it's the second interlude after it. As it turns out, awkward conversations that neither participant wants to have are not my forte. See, now I'm thinking about other Perfection Legendaries. I guess we're lucky that Teams Aqua and Magma didn't have access to Perfection- Origin Groudon and Kyogre were bad enough, I can only imagine what Perfection Groudon and Kyogre could do. That's a really good point, actually. I think a lot of us assumed that the mirror entity is Darkrai's trainer, but that doesn't mean they'll be best friends even if that is the case. Maybe the mirror entity will think Darkrai's a failure, or Darkrai will throw a tantrum and be like 'I don't need you, I can do it by myself' and storm off. Yeah, there's just so many possibilities for what the Fragment could be. I guess I assumed the game's icon was meant to be the thing around Darkrai's neck? But it also looks kind of like a crown. Maybe the Fragment looks like a crown? (The Fragment being part of a Perfection Pokemon's body would also be cool. I wonder if being around Lilith's Umbreon can make Pokemon stronger?) If it's a duel of illusions I can see the MC just walking away and going 'Nope.' That's how the plot ends, everyone realises that they were all Foxes and don't have anything to fight about, and then it's just a lot of awkward apologies. And hopefully he has Scarlett on hand to help de-douche him a bit. (God, he needs it.)

The phrase 'Queer Eye For The Darkrai' jumped into my head and I'm even more convinced that I'm going to Hell. Yeah, there's a ton of options. Short of them being actual dreams brought to life or something, I think it's safe to say that there's some weird shit going on with them. (Dumb theory: they're the dream-children of Darkrai and Cresselia.) And the house is another question- why is there just a random empty manor on a mountain, conveniently empty for three parentless kids to live in? Even better, the other person who warned us about Elliot- Jarred. We have to team up with the Grand Rogue, who's a dick, and Jarred, who's Jarred, to somehow find the orb. (And then Jarred will probably try to backstab us so he can get Lugia back.) Keneph Beach (and the Caves) could really use a spruce up, that's for sure. Especially the Caves, given that all the homes were really primitive and the floors were cracked. (And they really needed some light sources.) Thanks, I'm glad you like it :) Hopefully as long as we don't go full Inception, we should be fine. (Emphasis on should.) I guess the problem is that we really don't have any idea what Perfection Darkrai is capable of. Lilith's Perfection Umbreon is certainly tough, but any Perfection Legendary would be a nightmare, and Darkrai... I guess it could do anything with nightmares, huh... It's like a giant jigsaw puzzle. We're throwing pieces into the spaces we don't have, and once E7 comes out, we'll know where more of the pieces go, even if we got some of the earlier ones in the wrong places. Actually, you might have a point about Garret. He didn't know anything about Perfection and AFAIK doesn't have any special powers, but the entity said something to Waldenhall about 'the fate of all your kind'. If it was talking about humanity, I can see the entity targeting people around the player to mess with them, and Garret was one of the first on the scene... That is a really, really good question. Maybe they moved regions to stay hidden, or they lost their Perfection, or they're actually the priests at the Kanzen Temple. It seems likely that the writer is the entity. Maybe the entity is the Fragment itself, come to life? Or the writer merged with the Fragment to become the entity? Honestly, the Fragment thing always seemed kinda off to me because AFAIK, Perfection isn't meant to be something tangible, so how can there be a fragment of it? Was it meant to be, like, a preserved part of a Perfection Pokemon's body or something? I mean, if they're both Perfected, then probably Darkrai by way of being a legendary. If Darkrai isn't, then probably Zoroark. Everyone's a Fox! Rosetta's a Fox, Connor's a Fox, we're both Foxes... Redcliff does have its own arena, so it seems like a good place for a Leader. It's got the Lab, too, and I can see the powers that be (well, they don't exist in Ayrith, but still) wanting a Leader there to handle the Keneph Village situation, at least until the player got there.

So basically, Darkrai just needs some decorating classes and the entire plot of Desolation could be avoided. I vaguely remember something about fifteen years in there, but I don't recall if that's fifteen years since Majira went missing, or since Elliot joined, or what. If we're assuming the twins are somewhere around their thirties (well, I am at least), they could definitely have been causing trouble for Majira. And God knows a couple of superpowered teenagers with no real leash is the definition of a nightmare. (pun not intended) That being said, the twins turning out to be immortal does seem like a plausible idea- I've been wondering about them for a while. Their diaries said it's always been them and Keegan, but how did they take care of themselves as kids with no adults? Were they abandoned as teenagers, are they amnesiacs, what gives? That's a good point, I can see Majira wanting his successor to be able to play nicely with others. (Speaking of playing nicely with others, am I the only one who suspects that the next instalment of the Elliot sidequest will involve us teaming up with the Grand Rogue?) E7's new plot: Darkrai takes decorating classes and teams up with Emily to renovate Blackview. (Also, from what we've been shown, I think it'll be a bit of both- we get side quests helping to build the resort, but I imagine the whole thing won't be finished until a certain point in the story.) Yeah, those definitely seem like the most likely locations to me as well. Hope you enjoy it :) It seems likely to me that it tries to influence people through dreams- after all, Darkrai couldn't get back into Ayrith until the end of E5, so it's not like it could just appear in front of people and mind-whammy them. Getting them through their dreams seems like the most logical way for it to happen, especially if it did it really slowly and subtly, so they didn't even realise it at first. Honestly, given that Darkrai has Shiv and Aurora, hopefully it can't actually soup their powers up, or the protagonists are going to be in a world of trouble. It would genuinely be hilarious if the entity was just like 'Yeah, I like silver more than gold, it's not that big a deal'. True, but if she was obsessing over her parents' deaths, she might have disregarded it. And yeah, this is just speculation, unless the devs walk in and hand us a bunch of answers on a platter, which somehow I don't think is going to happen any time soon. :( Yeah, Lilith does seem like an obvious target, even if all the entity does is profoundly mock her for not attaining Perfection with Umbreon. You've lost me with Garret, though- why him? I went back and rewatched that bit. This is purely conjecture, but I have a theory that the writer wasn't one of the original settlers, they came in slightly later- either in the second wave or maybe a child of one of the settlers. I came up with a timeline, that's probably wrong in places, but it goes kind of like this: 1. The original settlers come to Arcanius and make some kind of settlement/base camp. 2. They fall out, fight each other and some if not all of them attain Perfection. 3. They wind up resolving things (at least, some of them do) and go back to settling Arcanius. 4. The writer and a group of others discover the Perfection Fragment somewhere. The writer attains true Perfection; the others attain some kind of subpar/artificial Perfection. 5. There's some kind of big argument amongst everyone, presumably over what to do with the Fragment. The writer, who advocated studying it/reproducing its effects, is banished, and the others who attained Perfection come with them. 6. The group flees to the area that would become Fairbale Town with the Fragment and make their haven. 7. Despite all their attempts, everyone dies except the writer and their Pokemon. The bit I haven't got figured out is that apparently the writer had already tried this once, and it ended with everyone except them dying of artificial Perfection. To me, the bit about Arcanius' purity sounds like a reference to settling/industrialisation- the writer was angry that the other settlers were felling trees, clearing ground and so on to build on the land and farm. (Of course, it could be something else entirely.) Or it could just be that the writer thought that nobody should live on Arcanius full stop, even if they didn't clear any land to do it. That would make a hilarious amount of sense- how do you defeat an illusion? With a better illusion! And who can do the best illusions? Perfection Zoroark! *jazz hands* Yeah, E7 has the writers troll us by having Delica turn out to be a Fox or something. But you're right, if Delica isn't the last Leader, we don't know who is, and it feels weird for Arcanius to only have one Leader. Oh God yeah, we're excelling at our jobs, heh.

I wouldn't be surprised if Darkrai missed Ayrith. The Dreamscape is pretty drab compared to it, and even if Darkrai did create the Dreamscape to have its own place to play God, I bet it'd get pretty boring after a while. If the Dreamscape was meant to be a refuge, maybe it's stopped serving that purpose once everyone seeking Darkrai died or forgot about it. I guess it really depends on how much Majira might have known about the twins or anyone else. The timeline's pretty vague on how old Majira was, how long ago he vanished, and so on, so it's possible that he just might never have heard about them. Yeah, I can buy there being a puzzle, or maybe some kind of gauntlet battle. After all, even the MC hasn't found all the keys themselves- I remember Sera finding one. So maybe it's a test in case someone got the keys without really doing any searching themselves. Crime does seem like the obvious answer, especially since the Rangers lost their base. But I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that there was something else to it. Maybe all Majira needed was to get Adrienn over to renovate Blackview. I fully expect there to be more Pieces on Arcanius in the future, given how big the island is... maybe there's another Piece on Cellia and nobody's managed to figure out how to find it yet? Part 3 just went up today :) I wonder, can Darkrai influence people through their dreams? I'm probably not phrasing this properly, but like... instead of just straight up brainwashing them, can it slowly, subtly change their minds and the way they think, using dreams as a way to get into their heads? This is probably wrong, but since Darkrai is such a powerful dream manipulator, is it possible that being controlled by Darkrai can enhance the abilities someone already has? That being controlled souped up the twins' powers, maybe kept the ones Nova stole from Aurora going? ...yeah, I'm probably wrong. I recall the mirror entity referring to Perfection as something like 'a crown of brilliant, blinding silver'. Not sure why it would be silver and not gold, but if Perfection has something to do with Cresselia, I guess it could be like moonlight? And since the statues hold lanterns, maybe it'll be a puzzle about following the lights or something? That actually makes perfect (pun not intended) sense. I wonder, when Lilith wrote after Umbreon achieved Perfection that it had become moody, was this really a change in personality, or was it just the first time she'd realised it? Although, I guess it could also be that their bond wasn't that strong because Lilith was prioritising her quest for answers/revenge re: her parents' deaths, which Umbreon may not have prioritised? (I guess it depends on when/where Lilith got Umbreon and how well it knew her parents.) Yeah, I'm also inclined to say that the mirror entity is the former resident of the Settler's Ruins. And yeah, Reeve said that whoever the entity is, their Pokemon must not have ascended with them, which is why they're still stuck partially on this plane. I guess there's no reason why, if the mirror entity isn't Darkrai's trainer, they couldn't have known Darkrai and its trainer regardless. Maybe Darkrai's trainer was another settler? The entity certainly wanted to keep Perfection all to itself. I guess Lilith wouldn't be a problem because only her Umbreon achieved Perfection. Reeve never got there and doesn't seem to want Perfection for himself, but Waldenhall sure does, so it makes sense that the entity would target him over either of the other two (or Garret, just because he went into the Ruins). The MC, on the other hand, gets special status by way of being the MC. So I could buy that maybe the entity went after the settler for trying to take what it saw as theirs. I would actually not be at all surprised if Darkrai, the entity, the twins or both started screwing with the MC by making them hallucinate, see and hear the wrong things. It'd really throw everything out of whack if the MC can't trust their own senses. And it's not like Nova can help, since she's lost her power. (God, it'd be screwed up if the heroic way to deal with the evil!twins is to have Nova steal their powers again.) I think my brain did screw with me on that one. It also occurred to me that we just assumed that Delica is a Gym Leader even though all we know about her is that she has something to do with imports from Astraciel. Might have jumped the gun a bit. I feel like part of our job as fans is to overthink everything, LMAO. ;)

That's actually a really good question. I can't imagine that creating the Dreamscape would have been at all easy, so I doubt that Darkrai did it on a whim. My best guess on a whim is that it was created either as a playground (i.e. where Darkrai could do whatever it wanted whenever it wanted) or as a refuge, somewhere it could go where nobody else could. I feel like there's definitely more to it, though. Maybe Darkrai made the Dreamscape because it could, only to wind up imprisoned there. Oh, that's a great point. Maybe it's both? Maybe the threats of old are Darkrai and its trainer, and Majira set the whole Rest thing up as a puzzle, so only the person best equipped to defeat Darkrai could release Cresselia, not some dipshit with no clue? Just... eyes. So many eyes. Like a Spiritomb made of eyes. I'm willing to bet that A, there's a lot more underground in Cellia than we've seen, and B, there might be more Pieces on Arcanius in the future. I agree that it does seem like we're running out of colours, but as long as we don't wind up with a Taupe Piece and a Puce Piece, we should be good. Thank you, I'm very glad you enjoyed it. Part Four is nearly done, and once that's done I'll post Three. That's all very possible. I wonder, how much influence *can* a dreamer have? Like, the most the player can do is teleport, but if Aurora could turn a shrub into a Turtwig, is it possible that she and Shiv could make up whole towns? New people? New areas? I went and checked on Patreon, the alt art shows a bit more so it's clear that the wings are of the angel statues. As for the rest... I'm not sure. The gold looks like decoration to me, but the cracks... with the ones in the alt art, I'm inclined to say that it's meant to be symbolic. Possibly a loss of faith, whether it's in some kind of deity or in somebody Reeve trusted (aka Waldenhall)? Otherwise, the gold could be something like kintsugi? I mean, I figured Reeve just dyed the whole city purple 'cause it's his favourite colour. As for the rest, I feel like there's two options here: one, the statues are part of some big puzzle where we have to run around and tag certain statues in an order to open something. Or, two, the statues are used by the Council to spy on people somehow. (Or Reeve is just really religious, who knew?) Initially, I thought the Grid experiments were just for better mobility, like how Aaron talked about with the portal in the North base. But you're right, I think you're on to something with the 'reach Perfection' idea. It's possible that maybe some old documents got mistranslated or misunderstood, and they thought it was a place you could reach, not a whole other plane. But yeah, the mirror entity really does seem like a fallen angel. (Wild guess: it's future!Waldenhall, stuck in a time loop.) The more I think about it, the more I wonder about it- Lilith's Umbreon ascended, but (as far as we know), she didn't, so how could the entity ascend while its Pokemon didn't? I know the current theory is that the mirror entity is Darkrai's trainer, but it was stated that the entity's Pokemon didn't ascend, whereas we know that Darkrai *did* ascend once. So is the mirror entity what's left of the person who wrote all those journals in the ruins? Did they screw around with Perfection and *really* screw it up? Hell, for all we know, the mirror entity is Majira and his Pokemon is in the Rest. I would actually buy Jarred being an alien, LMAO. As for the other question, I'm still holding out for a post-game ending where the MC of Reborn walks in, walks up to Shiv and punches him in the face without saying a word. Everyone else is like 'WTF' but Shiv recognises them and says "Yeah, I deserved that", whereupon the MC nods and walks out, and someone asks why the hell the Champion of Reborn just punched Shiv in the face. Yeah, it definitely seems like they know each other. If the entity can do more of its weird tricks, we could be in for a really fun time. I tried looking, but I didn't find anything despite distinctly remembering Reeve talking about her. Either I didn't look hard enough or my mind's playing tricks on me. I can see Lilith doing a 'travel all over the region to get stronger' journey. And yeah, Delica might know something. It's entirely possible that it's just a cool symbol and we're way overthinking it, but honestly, overthinking it's part of the fun. I love speculating about this stuff.

Replies ^21: OK, so that makes me wonder: when did Darkrai make the Dreamscape? Did he make it back when he'd still had his Perfection form? Is the increased number of dreamers in Ayrith a response to the Dreamscape's existence? Yeah, Cresselia could well be trapped in her own Dreamscape, or something. Or maybe she's in the depths of the Grid. (Maybe Eden's going to ride out of the Grid on Cresselia's back, they attain Perfection and kick Darkrai/Waldenhall's asses?) I can see Dark/Ghost Perfection Darkrai, but maybe it'll become a total abomination and wind up as Dark/Dragon or Dark/Fire or something, who knows. And it'll have like sixty eyes and five wings or something. Maybe the Pieces will lead us to Cresselia? I definitely think there's more to the East Sewers than we think (which, given that they canonically contained a Crescent hideout, is saying something). And the North Sewers led to that cave system, so maybe there's more caves beneath Cellia. I think we might be on to something here... They're on AO3, you can see what I've got so far here. I've been thinking about posting it in the art thread, but I'm not sure if fic is eligible, and also the first few chapters get really dark and later chapters get really smutty. (And dark.) I hope you enjoy it! Yeah, Sera and Aderyn would be good. And Dan/Lucas would be adorable in a 'these two dumbasses should hook up' way. Like, I guess you could say Odis is the counterpart to Addenfall, but it's not really much of a counterpart... Hmm. Maybe we'll get something like that bit in Reborn where the PC gets swallowed by a black hole, winds up in the void and sees weird shit going on. (Technically we kind of already did before the big Darkrai fight, so maybe we'll get a longer reprise?) It's also a pretty interesting thing to have scattered all over a city. Statues, fine, but why so many angel statues? Did Reeve put them in specifically, or did someone in the Council put them in? Otherwise, I'm not sure. Maybe the entity in the mirror is like a fallen angel or something, who knows? It turns out the whole game was a giant crossover with Insurgence and nobody in Ayrith is human. Surprise! *jazz hands* I feel like there's some real potential there. Darkrai may do dreams and not illusions as such, but he's been able to fuck with the player before, with the whole Tristan thing. For all we know, he could start trying to drive the player insane- Ava nearly died in the lava, and depending on the player's actions Scarlett could have died in Blackview, so Darkrai could throw apparitions of dead Ava and dead Scarlett at us- or he could just start sending the player awful nightmares. Oh God no, not another Darkness Field Perfection Umbreon battle, please... I can't remember where Reeve talks about Delica, so I can't recall what exactly he said about her. I might try again at another time. But for all we know, she's another fashionista scientist, lmao. IIRC, Garret said that Lilith's from Cellia, but it's possible that she was born somewhere else and moved to Cellia as a child, or that she deliberately left Cellia to train. That is a good find. And it makes a lot of sense, too. (And yeah, it's one of the reasons why I love this game so much, there's always so much more to discover and talk about.)

Replies 19^: Now I can't remember, was it explicitly stated that Darkrai created the Dreamscape, or is that just what we all assumed? And yeah, why are there so many dreamers in Ayrith? I feel like there's two answers to that question that suggest themselves: 1, catch the mon, stick it in a box and leave it there. 2, the mon basically hibernates somewhere safe, but not with a telling name like 'Fullmoon Island', somewhere like a cave in a mountain range that's normally impassable. (Or, now that I think about it, the mon hides somewhere like the Dreamscape. Maybe Cresselia made her own version, with Pokemon blackjack and hookers?) I'll take a guess that Perfection Cresselia is strong against Dark somehow. We don't know if Perfection Darkrai will be another type, but it would make sense for Perfection Cresselia to be Fairy. I imagine the schools in Cellia South aren't exactly renowned for academical excellence, sadly. I think the Dreamscape would be classed as a lucid dream, but whether it's a nightmare or not really depends on how the dreamer sees it. As for finding Cresselia in Cellia, that's a very interesting idea. Maybe there's a gateway in the East Sewers or something? Or maybe she's in the sky above Cellia. Honestly, it feels like a miracle that I've got as far as I have. I've got three chapters published and the next one is almost as long as all of them put together. I could also see Ava/Scarlett, and for some reason Aderyn/Sera just jumped into my head. Ava/Reeve could be really interesting, it feels like those two have some history. Now I'm starting to wonder if we'll find places in Ayrith that resemble/approximate areas in the Dreamscape, like the cave and the lake. I feel like there must be some kind of equivalent in the real world. It does feel like there's a lot more to darkness than we think. I wouldn't be surprised if we wind up encountering cults that worship darkness and light as sacred to Darkrai and Cresselia. As for the title art, that's a really good point. The Waldenhall/Reeve thing is obvious, but the triangles really are very reminiscent of the Darkness Field, and as for the wings... they look kind of like the ones of the statues that are all over Cellia East, but I don't know if that's what they're meant to represent. Some sort of angel reference? I actually like that theory a lot. After all, IIRC we never learned where the Settlers originated from, and with the Grid being a thing, who's to say that they didn't come from another dimension or something? Oh daaaaaamn, I never even thought of that. But given how big a decision it was, I'd be lying if I said I'm not wondering if future episodes will have dead!Scarlett show up. Double oh daaaaamn, I didn't think of that either. I guess I assumed that Reeve and Delica had mutual fashion interests, but maybe she does study Perfection. In that case, could she have some kind of link to Lilith? Is Delica Lilith's secret identity? Somewhere in Ayrith, there's a trainer who beat the Leaders, got through the Elite Four and got swept by Shiv's Aipom. They never showed their face in public again.

Yeah, that's what I meant, I phrased it wrong.

Short version: the people in the league didn't exist in real life. The whole thing was made up by Ame, who role-played as the various leaders and eventually brought in friends to help because it became huge. If you get into the secret room in Reborn and ask Cass to talk to Ame, she fills you in a bit more. There's also this post here: https://amethystblack.tumblr.com/post/688556649350414336/big-fat-spoilers-ahead-for-the-dev-room-at-the-end