Dyllan snapped back into a consciousness he had no memory of leaving. He was inside Andie’s comic shop, which, in turn, was inside Cedric’s mindscape. Okay, good, that was good. Cedric’s mindscape was where he needed to be. But why the comic shop? A sizable mess around him, and a hole in the ceiling above him implied he had made a crash landing, like the one he’d had after being ejected from his own Nightmare.

The tension in Dyllan’s mind eased, but didn’t go away. A few parallels between his own successful awakening and Cedric’s current awakening was not enough to guarantee anything. Plus, the last thing Dyllan remembered was the conflict between Cedric’s ego and shadow escalating dramatically. Dyllan needed to find Cedric immediately. Hopefully to congratulate him, but he was prepared to provide emergency aid in he had to.

Dyllan forced himself upright and made his way toward the front door of the comic shop - only for an Intercontinental Ballistic Andie to slam into him and send both of them crashing back into the shop. Dyllan was starting to notice a trend of attempts to breach into the unknown being met with painful collisions. He was not a fan.

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“Oh! Dyllan! I’ve been looking for you!” Andie was shedding a fair bit of Will to Live, and was laying upside-down in the rubble of a broken shelf. In spite of this, her mood seemed quite optimistic. “Sorry about the entrance, turns out I’m not super great at not fighting Nightmares. Hopefully my battle with Mr. Deep Dark didn’t make your conversation with Cedric harder.”

“It’s fine.” Dyllan forced himself upright, again. “Where’s Cedric? Is he okay?”

“I’m right here.” Cedric’s voice came from above, followed by Cedric himself jumping down through the hole in the ceiling.

“Okay, but…” The tension in Dyllan’s mind eased a little more. “…are you okay?”

“Haven’t been for years, no.” Cedric smiled softly. “But I’m optimistic that this might change soon.”