#archie things

STORMS ARE BREWING

When last we checked in, Cylion was faced with the difficult task of fixing Favion's mess.

Damage Control - Step one? To get Nymira out of her room, of course! Cylion crafts a daymare he knows will send her running to him, and boy does it.

Damage Control II - Step two, naturally, is to take the arm away. Cylion and Somnia tag team this one.

Irritating - Unfortunately for Cylion, Favion's not too pleased with how he chose to fix this little hiccup. Sheesh, can't this guy do anything right? His dad sure doesn't think so! Cylion's pretty peeved about it.

UH-OH SPAGHETTI-OS!

Squabble - Hey, remember that note Nymira left herself? The one written in her own blood? Don't worry about it, you don't need to. She does! And she did! So when Cylion tries to convince her that Marrie was never at the church at all? Yikes. Then Nymira threatens to tell their father, and Cylion snaps, taking Little Friend hostage to keep her from getting Favion involved.

Getaway - AND NOW PERSEP IS HERE? No, false alarm. Cylion's just visiting him in dreamland. They hang out and chat! It'd be kind of nice if they weren't, y'know, Persep and Cylion.

Connections - AHH FUCK NEVERMIND NOW HE'S HERE FOR REAL! Nymira slips away from home to ask Ailzea for help. Her entire world is crumbling a little, she needs some support. Unfortunately, she doesn't get that. Instead she gets kidnapped!

Devils and Deals - Persep wants to use Nymira's powers. Cylion wants her back home. They compromise. Persep can have her for four days. Nymira's none the wiser.

Candy and Crocuses - Nymira's abilities aren't as malleable as Persep had hoped. He's having trouble getting exactly what he wants from her. So sad for him.

NOW WE'RE COOKIN' WITH GAS

Desperate Measures - Nymira tries to pull Cylion into her dreams, then stumbles into Persep's instead. But Cylion's there! Yippee! And he's... talking about how they agreed on four days. Un-yippee. Nymira's world shatters. She does the only thing she can think to and enlists Persep's help, determined to learn everything he knows about the church and herself.

Rescue - Cylion to the rescue! Nymira pretends she's unaware that he's been in league with Persep. It's like chess out here!

Here There Be Witches - Let's hop on back to the House of Restoration real quick. Weaver's here! She helps animate Marrie's new arm. We also learn some more about Favion. Seems Nymira's not the only one with powers that can help treat his affliction. Archie donates blood btw.

And that's all she wrote.

We are she.

Except that's not really all she/we/me wrote because there's a drabble finished and waiting to post, actually. Archie's relevant again, yayyy! But this seemed like a good thing to do first.

FIRST: THE MAJOR PLAYERS

The Church of The Divine Dreamer - A non-clown religion built upon the worship of dreams. According to its devotees, dreams take place in the divine world, which we are linked to through subconscious thought. They believe that the act of dreaming is in itself holy.

Nymira - A spacey blackblooded mutant who is, purportedly, a fledgling god. With a host of abilities related to dreaming, she is seen as a bridge between worlds and the personification of divinity. She can conjure objects from her dreams into the waking world, and though she is less practiced in it, she also possesses the ability to traverse the dreams of others and pull them into her own.

Cylion Lefera - The current head of the church and eldest child of its founder, Cylion serves as Nymira's prophet, mouthpiece, and even guardian at times. He claims to possess no abilities of his own, but trusting anything he says could prove to be a mistake...

Somnia Poppet - The middle child between Nymira and Cylion, Somnia proselytizes for the church and acts as its head of security. He's a weaselly little thing, but he's powerful in his own right. Though perhaps there's a caveat?

Favion Lefera - The church's founder, Nymira's first (and imperfect) prophet, and the father of the trio above. There is something wrong with Favion... But we'll get into that later. For now, what you really need to know is that Nymira loves him dearly, and she even uses her powers to create a tonic that can help with his condition.

Little Friend - Nymira's dearest buddy and closest confidant (a position he happened to steal from Cylion). LF is a doll, created in Nymira's dreams and brought to life through the generous aid of the Restorer-- It seems the Roatus clan might just be wrapped up in this too!

THE BACKGROUND

So now we know who's on the board... But perhaps we could understand these players a bit better.

First, just a quick peek into the dynamics at play within the COTDD. These are less crucial to the actual events of the plot, but say a lot about the characters themselves. Have some drabbles about:

Nymira and Cylion Favion's lovely treatment of Nymira One of Cylion's core memories With the supplemental reading out of the way, let's jump back in time, shall we? Because it turns out Favion and Ailzea have some history...

Childhood Woes - In this drabble from the Restorer's youth, we learn several important things about Favion. The first is that, once upon a time, he was a under the thumb of Ailzea's abusive ancestor. The second is that he loves torturing Ailzea's dolls. Third, he has always been fixated on getting a true reaction out of his "friend." And fourth? Favion has died at Ailzea's hand.

That last point is especially vital, because unlike most people Ailzea revives, Favion possesses the innate ability to dampen the powers of other trolls. He came back... But not quite right.

And he really hates the Restorer.

Good thing he doesn't know about his daughter's greatest treasure, huh? Cylion knows, though.

And Cylion loathes that thing.

It doesn't help that Little Friend knows about some of the secrets Cylion is keeping from Nymira... Like the fact that he has the power to manipulate dreams, and many of the messages she receives to guide her hand come straight from him.

Table Talk - We learn that little tidbit here. Somnia thinks it's hilarious. It also helps explain a little semi-canon something that happened earlier. See, Nymira sometimes struggles to tell whether or not she's dreaming. So when the same person who helps someone differentiate the two is also able to dictate what they dream?

Well. Sounds like a recipe for dictating that someone's very reality.

That fact might be why Nymira's had so little practice with her second ability. She can't exactly go visiting dreams while she's having custom-made ones pumped into her head, now can she? Still, the dream-hopping she does manage to do is very important to her, as we learn in Hallways, a drabble about Nymira's routine and thoughts inside her own domain.

That drabble ends in a rather unique way, though. One of the visitors she comes upon speaks her name, cementing her certainty that these are real people and real dreams that she is poking into, not just figments of her subconscious mind.

Cylion wants her to believe that's not the case. As much as she trusts her brother, it's frustrating to feel that he's not listening to her.

Hello, seeds of unrest. Shall we uproot the status quo?

UPROOT WE SHALL

Have you ever met Marrie? She's Ailzea's daughter, a life-sized marionette with an adorable smile and a heart of gold. She's also friends with Nymira! Little Friend needs to visit the House of Restoration regularly to stay in working order, and Marrie delights in the task of ferrying him between the churches. Especially because it allows her to speak with Nymira, even if Cylion sometimes tries to keep that time short.

Quick Visit - This time Cylion's busy, though. And that's about to cause him quite the headache. You see, Marrie's bought Nymira a journal... And some pens...

Thing is, Cylion goes to great lengths to keep writing utensils out of his sister's hands. After all, when he benefits so much from being able to decide for her what's real and what isn't, what could he possibly stand to gain from allowing her to leave notes about? No, that won't do at all.

Missing? - No worries. It doesn't take long for Cylion to notice the pens, though he doesn't know where they've come from. In fact, he assumes Nymira must have conjured them herself. Easy fix, then, right? He probably thinks so! Until, of course, he discovers that someone else can corroborate their existence... Time to think fast.

Too bad for him, it seems Cylion has forgotten something about his sister–– she's trusting. Not stupid. And even the most naive troll can notice a lie if it's sloppy enough.

Especially one who combs through details with such idle frequency that they've formed an absent tick of counting how many fingers they have.

Nymira is uneasy.

And then Marrie meets her dad.

SHIT HITS THE FAN

Pretty Doll - Remember that thing we learned about Favion? The one where he really, really likes breaking Ailzea's creations? Marrie is one of those. You can see where this is going.

Or... Where it would be going, at least.

Interception - Because Cylion and Somnia aren't the only brothers hanging around this arc, and Archie Roatus will be damned if he lets someone hurt his sister and get away with it. Welcome to the narrative, Archie! You're gonna have a great time, don't even worry about it.

Archie gets Marrie out with minimal damage, just a single arm left behind. That's minimal, she's made of wood. She's fine. It's fine.

Reminder - Except it isn't. Because Nymira's here to witness the aftermath, and she is not happy. Especially after overhearing that Cylion intended to hide Marrie's arm before she could see it. In a fit of near hysteria and with her pens bled dry by her brother, she takes drastic measures to ensure she won't forget what she's learned. Black blood must look remarkably like ink, don't you think?

White Bear - And she's not the only one keeping this incident in their thoughts. Archie's back, and he's having trouble moving on from what Favion has done to his family. He promised Ailzea not to act on those feelings, but, well... Ever heard of the white bear experiment? Archie accidentally activates his powers and teleports to Favion. Whoopsie!

In the resulting interaction, he realizes that Favion's abilities mitigate his own, and he buys time to get out by mouthing off and generally being a little shit.

And there we go! That's all we've got, at least for now... Let's see what we dream up next.