Apocyan

Blacknovelist 🐢
....also y'all like these thoughts made me remember something and
heck now I feel like need to go get a shadow primal to see this into fruition —
there was a story I read (played?) thru once with like
ink that stole people's memories and essences
and i want that for LORE
like iirc the story went along the vein of some kind of uhhhhhhh
pen store
but the one who ran the shop was filling them with an ink that caused anything that was written to take memories with it
so like
shadow primal w them inky eyes
an ink that can steal essence... or give something back
even if it isn't yours

[......]

(also includes dragons Viviane and Paradox)

Blacknovelist 🐢
OH YES also
before class I had a thought slash idea
about uhhh
lore
for
Viviane
look at me, constructing backstory. yeehaw, me
anyway i've decided i think i want her to be some weird entity thing in the same flavor vein as Apocyan, who's my ink-personality stealer who... im also still working on
anyway I don't have anything greater than vibes but I can't stop thinking about
a) what if Apocyan is the mystery ex like I toyed with before w/ Viviane before she met Paradox?
if Viviane's whatever Apocyan is that means I uh... have to figure out what they are. and what that means
other than just "magical" and "possibly not entirely dragon"

[...]

also idk if i'd keep it but yo what if in-lore Viviane used to have more magic and power and Apocyan stole it from her? :thinking:

Blacknovelist 🐢
or blocked her from it somehow
if her inks can already rewrite people and memories
who's to say about other things?
Like Viviane's nature would make her resistant to Apocyan
and vice versa, whatever it is Viviane is
but that doesn't make it impossible for them to affect each other -- just very, very difficult
either way i don't think either of them recognized that they were awful for each other until after they broke up lmao
........okay okay okay i think im
i think i'm cooking things up
kind of
conceptually
y'all im boutta start spitballing but somebody stop me if it stops making sense or ur tired of it
soooOOooo I'm kind of fiddling with the thought that
mayyyybe whatever Viviane (and/or Apocyan) is/are have the sort of magic or power that scales/is affected by
how many others are touched by their magic

Blacknovelist 🐢 (ping me) — Yesterday at 9:15 PM
with every person Apocyan spreads her ink to, her influence grows
tho i don't think she knows

[...]

Blacknovelist 🐢
Viviane knows though
Viviane is... old. comparatively. and also not a dragon, again, tho her magic brand matches Apocyan
yeah i think Apocyan's hardcore channeling something she doesn't know about
Their association may well have started as a sort of business venture
Viv was attracted by this fledgling force spreading its magic so....... how do you say. Not quite carelessly, but still without refinement

[...]

Blacknovelist 🐢
right viviane apocyan where was
something something
I think Apocyan's touched by some aspect of the spirits, tho not Viviane per se
she doesn't know it, but it's why her magic, her ink, it's why it is the way it is
and like all spirits, the more people touched by their influence, the greater their power grows
Viviane's been playing among the mortals
and here, now, is the first thing she's seen in several AGES who's as close to a fellow as she can freaking GET
[...]
So Viviane's like "oh honey between you and me we can do so much"
And that's how Apocyan's ink ventures start to grow

Blacknovelist 🐢
It was innocent enough at first. who doesn't want to tweak and poke at a little piece of themselves every so often? Certainly not an aboveboard one, because it's a dangerous thing to have in the open... but you make do. Viviane's skill in interacting with others -- despite how much she tends to look down on mortal life and creatures -- meant that she could bring word out and entice folks to buying supplies far more effectively than Apocyan ever could
and from there, all Apocyan would need to do is sell the right inks to the right folks
the right pen nibs and ink materials
she'll know where the ink is, what's being written, what it's like
and through it, all she needs is proximity to steal it and its essence from whoever made it
and that essence can get put back out into the world again elsewhere
bottle up a little bit of bravery -- slap that ink on skin and scale and it and the memories associated with it are yours, now
whoever lost them will never get them back
anyway blah blah stuff in-between and uh
I think at some point that Viviane and Apocyan start influencing each other a little bit
starts as an experiment and tests so they know what each other's capabilities are like

Blacknovelist 🐢
and goes from there
Like the way their abilities would affect each other is different. from anyone else. Apocyan's inks lack potency on Viviane [for example], and by nature of the fact that Viviane knows what they DO she's wary
on the flipside, Viviane looks down on and dislikes most lifeforms in general
but Apocyan is the closest she gets to an equal
Viviane's coming down to this level
while Apocyan's lifting herself up
it's this weird teeter-totter

Blacknovelist 🐢
uhhhhh
idk specifics from there
but I know Apocyan goes too far
and Viv takes a long time to recognize it
The lapses in thought
drifts in attention
how she comes closer and closer to the miserable existences she despises

Apocyan doesn't see it as doing wrong
she thinks she's helping
rewriting over Viviane and who she is to make her... simpler. easier. better by any standard

Apocyan has been hoarding memories and inks
collecting
amassing
they have to return to the world eventually -- that's the way and all are beholden to it. [they have power and energy and that energy needs to return even if they don't go to who they originally belonged to.]

It takes time for Viviane to realize [what her partner is doing to her], and she's been growing in power too, right alongside Apocyan
that confrontation doesn't go. great.

Viviane loses a lot to get away from Apocyan
because they're on even power levels but there's the addition of Apocyan has been influencing and manipulating her for years
not even Apocyan has the power to strip a spirit entirely, not even a fallen one like Viv
but she still manages to tear away at some of Viviane