permalinks errors

hey guys,
i’m trying to get the permalinks up and running but having some errors; hoping you can solve them.
first off, my wp installation is in a sub-directory of my main site, so it looks like this: “/dialogue/”, dont know if that matters or not.
my current rules are pretty simple:
“/archives/%postname%/”
i copy and paste the mod_rewrite rules into my .htaccess page, load up the browser, and i get taken to this page:
“/dialogue/archives/fake-title/”
if i manually remove the “/dialogue” from the location, it works fine, everything is gravy.
if i simply enter “/%postname%/” as the permalink i have to add the word “/archives” to the location to get it to work.
why is that, and hos do i get it to work normally?
i remember for about three minutes i had it working, but my OCD took over, and i had to fiddle with it more – and broke it, and can’t remember how to get it working.