#so long as they don't cause problems

[farsight-the-char]

Thinking about Chaos Gue'vesa again, who view the Tau Empire as a more sustainable tool to chip away at the Imperium then Abaddon's forces.

They never use the names of the Chaos Gods openly, keeping their rituals private as possible, and eliminating their more "orthadox" counterparts that try to "take over".

...

Alternative names for the gods I thought of, that these Gue'vesa use:

The Watch Hound for Khorne, described as a vigilante dog who rewards loyalty and strength.

The Jewelled Serpent, who rewards pursuits of artistry and other passions.

The Mother of the Garden, goddess of natural cycles and family.

The Flame Raven, a many eyed bird, trickster and educator.

...

I also imagine many minor deities find followers within Tau space, Xenos ones included.

And of course, many finding the Greater Good Gestalt an interesting prospect, a new potential piece/player in The Great Game.

[lazylittledragon]

what do you mean youre technically a detransitioner cause of terf bullshit?

it's a v long story but i detransitioned for a couple of years when i was 16/17, for multiple reasons but mostly because i fell into the blaire white/kalvin garrah chamber of "you have to be This way to be trans otherwise you're not real".

i was already Deeply insecure about myself and my 'passing' and i was led to believe that i couldn't want to wear makeup or skirts, and i couldn't choose not to have bottom surgery, and i couldn't do anything but bind for 12+ hours a day to the point that my ribcage is still misshapen. basically i thought that if i wasn't suffering enough doing 'feminine' things, i couldn't really be trans, so i should just go back to being a girl and suck it up.

the terf bullshit is because i'd seen a lot of terfs/detransitioners talking about the 'dangers' of testosterone and how it would turn me into a horrible ugly evil monster and how there was nothing worse than wanting to be a man. which combined with 'you need to fully medically transition to be valid at all' creates some very dangerous and upsetting feelings to cope with.

it also came from trying really hard to put myself in a little box before i realised that my sexuality/gender are very fluid and it's FINE for me not to have a label and just do whatever i want. when i was 19 or so i went back to using they/them (and eventually he/him) and changed my name again because even though i like doing 'feminine' things, i don't want to be seen as a woman.

tldr: i was conditioned by transphobic/terf rhetorics to think that i was being trans the 'wrong' way so i couldn't be trans at all, so i believed i must actually be a girl if i still wanted to do 'feminine' things. nowadays i am a transmasc who does feminine things because i don't give two shits about what any transmed prick thinks of me anymore.

[margindoodles2407]

hello my friends

so uh.

please pray for me cause i just came down with. like. some demon flu or something. it hit me out of absolutely nowhere. like i left the house feeling slightly nauseous and i chalked it up to my normal everyday morning nausea but. it was. not that

i threw up twice in the span of like an hour earlier today and came home around 1:30 pm and then spent like four hours drifting in and out of consciousness. i'm not nauseous anymore but my limbs are so weak i can't walk. which is a problem cause i do need to eat dinner y'know? and even though the kitchen is literally right down the stairs from my bedroom i just. i'm not sure if i can make it down and back up again without collapsing

also i *need* to drink fluids and knowing me that's going to be a battle so please also pray that i will remember to consistently do that. especially in the middle of the night.

thank you :)

[regina-del-cielo]

Maybe it's a 'study finds water is wet' type of thought, but

considering it's an action movie whose overall plot is "immortal warriors Fuck Shit Up™️", I think it's significant that in The Old Guard the thing that makes Copley pull red strings through his Murder Conspiracy Board and say "[Merrick] doesn't care what [Andy]'s done with [her immortality]" is the people they save, not the ones they kill

Most of the Conspiracy Board is him circling random newspaper headlines and faces on old photographs to (more or less realistically) follow the immortals' treck through the world and big historical events. Which is, in-canon, not much different than putting portraits from different centuries next to a picture of Keanu Reeves and saying "they look the same, clearly Reeves is an immortal!"

But then there are the connections. A little girl holding Joe's hand in WW1 becoming the youngest (and first) woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize for Medicine (suck it, Kozak). Or the grandchild of a family that Andy saved from [something] helping people escape from the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia.

They are warriors. They have fought and been in the midst of countless wars, major or minor, throughout history. They must have killed as many people as they saved... and yet.

It's not them taking out a random warlord or dictator or rabidly hateful politician that has tangible repercussions in history. It's the children and families they get out of war zones, save from accidents, protect from natural disasters. People to whom they give a second chance at life, and grow to change the world (or even just their own world), like a mysterious stranger once changed theirs just by holding out a hand or patching a wound.

I don't know I just think it's particularly neat

[arthurtaylorlester]

controversial i know but yes, malevolent is a queer story.

no, jarthur are not /r gay.

yes, malevolent is unintentionally queer.

no, this does not take away from the queerness actual queer people have found in it.

[sysig]

Pretty clothes for you! ✨ (Patreon)

[fourcornersofcreation]

If I see one more post shitting on Percy for being "your average white gym bro frat boy" while praising annabeth for being the "kindest, most empathetic and selfless person ever" I will actually lose it

[pseudophan]

my aunt's being a cunt so now my mum's sobbing in the living room everything is so awesome all of the time

[howlingday]

Yang: C'mon, Jaune! Scream and shout! LET IT OUT!

Jaune:

AAAAAAAAARGH!

Yang: (Falls backwards) God damn! What the fuck is wrong with you, dude?! Like, seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you?!

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

i can just imagine childe beating the abyss’ will down with a stick whenever it tried to make him take on a new form like it’s a particularly bad dog

genuinely unsure how to answer this ask because on the one hand yes, that's kinda funny and it would indeed be something like that had the abyss essentially come back to him time and time again like 'new form? 😳' and childe would've slapped it away like 'no!!!' like some sort of shitty spam email that lands on your regular inbox without fail, BUT

uh

the abyss only wanted him to take on one form. in cyanide that form was the foul legacy, and to be frank childe did take it. he just refused to remain with that form. and also like- for it to have reached the 'haha the abyss is like an insistent dog' status, it would've had to have been-

not agonizing. like i get the joke but the process of rejecting the abyss' insistence on taking the FL form was not only a one-time process, but also like- nearly cost him his life. so uh.

yeah

[silusvesuius]

n*loth not being able to bag anyone over the (human term) age of 25-30 at most is the only logical and real conclusion to me because it can be just explained away as him wanting to prove and control everything and anyone (Cus he's a man!) but being stuck in that demographic because his unbearable and vile personality is a force that nobody can look past once they've outgrown the possible fear and idolization period of anyone but also n*loth in particular.

[jessicas-pi]

hear me out on this ok. ROTS AU where Anakin still turns to the dark side but that's Palpatine's problem.

So, Palpatine decides last minute that ehhhh maybe dooku could come in handy later and he doesn't encourage Anakin to kill him, and Dooku gets arrested and imprisoned in the Jedi Temple awaiting trial. (Also he didn't get his hands cut off because of uhh plot reasons?)

Fast forward.

Palpatine is encouraging Anakin towards the Dark side, tells him about Plagueis the Wise, etc. etc. But see, the thing is, Anakin is at the end of his tether, probably hasn't slept more than three hours over the past week, and has no remaining impulse control or inhibitions, and upon hearing that the Dark Side can save people from death, his first thought is, "wait a sec, we've got a Sith Lord in-house at the moment!" and he sprints out of the space opera and books it back to the temple.

Now, Dooku has been calmly waiting in Temple custody, confident that Darth Sidious will arrange his escape. But THEN Anakin barges into the cell like OMG THE CHANCELLOR TOLD ME THE SITH KNOW HOW TO KEEP PEOPLE FROM DYING AND I'M HAVING DREAMS ABOUT SOMEONE DYING AND I NEED YOUR HELP TO SAVE THEM

At which point, Dooku realizes Palpatine's plan. He's going to tempt Skywalker to the Dark side and REPLACE DOOKU. this is totally uncool.

So he's like "...who are you dreaming about, exactly?"

Anakin freezes. He can't admit it's Padme because their relationship is top-secret and he can't admit how important she is to him so he tries to think of a good fib and goes "uhhhh OBI-WAN! Obi-Wan, it's Obi-Wan, I'm dreaming about Obi-Wan dying-" and he just throws himself into the drama because now he IS imagining obi-wan dying because Obi-Wan is fighting grievous at the moment and he MIGHT ACTUALLY DIE and that's in addition to Padme dying and he's totally spiraling at this point- "pleasepleaseplease you gotta help me he's like the only father i've ever known I don't know what i'll do without obi-wan I have to save him YOU GOTTA TELL ME WHAT TO DO I'LL DO ANYTHING--"

Dooku begins to smile.

(Would stealing Skywalker out from under his Master's nose be petty? Oh, yeah.)

(But it would also be very, very satisfying.)

---

Obi-Wan calls in to a council meeting to report his defeat of Grievous, but before he can say so, Mace announces that Dooku has escaped and the Sith Master has been killed.

Silence falls between the eleven councilmembers (eleven, not twelve, because their newest one is conspicuously absent. Obi-Wan wonders just what Anakin's up to now. Honestly, that boy will be the death of him.)

Obi-Wan clears his throat.

"...indeed," he says, trying to handle the shocking news with composure. "Well... at least we're down to one Sith, now."

Another awkward pause.

"Yeah, about that--" Mace begins.

[rudnitskaia]

yay a week until my 29th bday ✨🔥😎🔥✨

[chimerafeathers]

there's an essay jumbled up in my brain about dunmeshi's beginning and how clever and deceptive it is as a sleight-of-hand trick that distracts the audience from the depth and scope of the worldbuilding and foreshadowing that's being set up the entire time by dangling zany characters and wacky dishes and biology fun facts in front of us, and how that serves to catch invested viewers off guard when those elements come to the forefront, but also how it works against it with other viewers wanting "more" and not seeing it because the plot bait isn't laid out up front

how people getting frustrated with the characters "not taking things seriously" is mirrored and refuted in the confrontation between Laios and Shuro. how the characters' attitudes aren't just a result of shallow low-stakes "comedy rules" where nothing matters, but are an extension of their personalities (Laios's nonstandard expression of emotions being offputting even to people he knows) and the world and social environment (adventurers being desensitized to death and injury because resurrection magic is commonplace). the way the party refers to "saving Falin" instead of "retrieving Falin's corpse," indicating that they still see her with full personhood, and how that phrasing leads to some readers/viewers believing that Falin is alive in the dragon's stomach, conscious of being slowly digested while the party carelessly fucks around "wasting time." how the weird tonal dissonance makes sense in-universe and yet is deliberately challenged more and more the deeper the party goes

all the character building and pieces of lore slowly weaving together the shape of the larger world, laying the groundwork for the major themes that will surface later. so much is right there in the "low-stakes" early episodes if you know what you're looking for (or pass the perception checks).

it can be so satisfying to see new viewers/readers pick up on the clues even in the earliest "simple" episodes, or notice new things and make connections yourself....and it can also be frustrating to see people dismiss oddities and dissonance as shallow or bad writing because they don't expect a "cooking anime" to have depth like that. why try to question and understand and peel back the layers when you don't expect there to be any layers?

why can't laios take things seriously for once?

[volivolition]

any updates about your fics?? :0

(pls don’t feel pressured to respond to this if you’re busy!!)

!! hello anon :3!! <333

ive been writing a specific part for Unstoppable Force, where volition and harry talking to each other. and oh holy shit this fucking conversation is like!!! YEAH it's in character and i know what to write, but it hurts so fucking bad to actually write it, help me hgkjg

while the volition and electrochemistry thing is the main plot, on the side there's also kim who just transferred precincts, and harry who has a crush on him. and the kim/harry parallels to volition/echem... "i'm putting up a front of reserved responsibility and i have to repress any emotion that could compromise my commitment to my duties." immovable object and "i feel like the worst kind of mess and i want to get better but i don't know if i deserve to be helped or loved because im a mess." unstoppable force :']

but VOLITION IS STILL A SKILL, SO HE'S ADVISING HARRY WITH THIS PERSPECTIVE. so when harry says "kim shouldn't like me, huh?" then volition (who is projecting himself and echem onto kim and harry's relationship) swallows and says, "you're right. kim shouldn't like you, and if he does, he feels like he's making a mistake. he probably wants - more than anything in the world - to stop feeling that way, and for you to stop feeling that way about him."

and harry (who is taking this literally because he doesn't know what's happening between voli and echem) sadly agrees "yeah. liking me will probably get in the way of his work. he shouldn't want to love me, that just... wouldn't make sense for him. im only making him worse."

BOYS. ITS A FEEDBACK LOOP. ITS AN ECHO CHAMBER. YOU'RE ONLY FUELING EACH OTHER'S ISSUES. STOP STOP STOP HGJKG

[victorluvsalice]

Valicer In The Dark -- The Advocates

Hey everyone! Time to do a little worldbuilding in the Valicer In The Dark universe today, by talking about everyone's favorite cult -- the Advocates! :D While I plan for organizations and cults centered around all of the major coasters in Alton Towers to show up in some form or another in this verse (in particular, the Beornen of Wickerman will occasionally show up to cause trouble for our beloved Three Pillars), the Advocates are the ones I developed the most. Because, you know, one of the main characters belongs to this cult. XD Felt important to know what their deal was and how they operated! As such, I did a playbook write-up for them and a quick summary of their history, which I would like to share with you now:

-->Playbook Type: Cult – acolytes of the god Mar-Mal

-->Name: The Advocates

-->Reputation: Tier III (decently large and renowned cult), Strong Hold (they have a solid grip on what's theirs in terms of turf and whatnot), seen as Bizarre

-->Lair: The main cult sanctum is in Silkshore – a large building painted black and yellow, full of maze-like corridors, with private quarters (including bedrooms, kitchenettes, and bathrooms) for those who chose to live there; large communal areas with various ways for cult members to entertain themselves (ranging from music rooms to reading rooms to games rooms to – let's say "chill-out" rooms ;) ); a small radiant garden around the back and a couple of mushroom farms in the basement; various labs and workshops for experimenting with ways to spread joy; and a decent-sized main library and museum for holy texts and artifacts. The chapel to Mar-Mal sits in the center, dominated by a strange twisted and looped metal structure meant to represent the god – there is a seat in the middle of it for new Advocates undergoing their “marmalisation” ritual. Most things are painted yellow, black, white, or purple, though other colors are allowed (in fact, a lot of the stairs in the place are rainbow-colored), and many areas are marked with the distinctive swirly-eyed-and-piano-keyed smile that serves as the cult’s “logo.”

-->Deity: Mar-Mal – The Unending Smile, The Joy That Supersedes All Else! Radiant and Alluring, usually manifesting as a strange, spidery mass of twisting machinery and hypnotic lights and spirals, Mar-Mal is a being of pure happiness, and wishes to draw all of the Shattered Isles into their loving embrace, eliminating all bad feelings and bringing everyone together in perfect, blissful harmony. The main problem is, it’s still not sure why its acolytes insist things like “hunger” and “thirst” aren’t “bad feelings…”

-->Sacred Sites & Cult Practices: The Advocates’ preferred operation is Consecration – anointing more and more of Duskwall (places and people) for their deity. Naturally, the bulk of their operations are in Silkshore (given it's the "party district," so to speak), but they have other holdings across the city – an interesting mix of vice dens (Smiler isn't the only one peddling drugs – the cult is kind of known for its chemist Leeches experimenting with new concoctions to increase happiness), brothels (staffed by the most sex-positive members), theaters (they put on all sorts of shows, and have a lot of people who just travel around to other parts of the city performing for anyone who will have them – Smiler's uncle Felix is one of these), restaurants (where half the time the food is given away for free), and bunk houses (where people are encouraged to do whatever makes them happiest and told about the wonders of Mar-Mal and becoming an Advocate). They also own a dedicated shop in Nightmarket where they sell various happiness-increasing items from stationery to clothes to kitchenware to stuffed animals (this is where Matt and Carol work). Cult practices include orgies of pleasure among the congregation (this CAN be the standard sex orgy among the adults, but most of the time just means a big old party with dancing and music and food), “marmalising” new members, and blessing their various sacred sites with special artwork (generally the cult’s logo) and artifacts.

-->Special Abilities:

Chosen – Each member adds +1 to their rating for Attune, Study, or Sway! As Smiler was part of the cult before joining the Three Pillars, this is probably where they got their spare Attune dot! (Which means I could probably ditch the “it cost them two stress boxes” trade-off...but part of me wonders if it would be more interesting to have all of the Advocates have that problem with being able to take less stress...)

Zealotry – Everyone involved in The Advocates believes utterly in its message and will do anything they can to spread the will of Mar-Mal, no matter how potentially dangerous or strange! Mechanically, this means the cult's "cohorts" (NPC groups that can act on their behalf) get +1d when acting against “enemies of the faith”

Conviction – All members have the Worship vice – though, given this is Mar-Mal, it works like they all have the Pleasure vice – and when they indulge this vice by subsuming themselves and/or others in happiness, Mar-Mal takes notice and makes sure their stress is cleared without issue. Additionally, the god will happily assist its worshipers with a single action after such proof of devotion! (...this has to be somehow linked to Mar-Mal being able to safely take over Smiler's body when they have their stress-out and get the Vessel trauma – I'm just not 100% sure how yet.)

-->Upgrades:

Training: Resolve – they’re better at training any and all skills related to Attune, Command, Consort, and Sway thanks to the influence of Mar-Mal, who wants them to spread joy as far and wide as possible

Cohort: Gang – The Adepts of the cult, eager to embrace happiness and Smile Always! They are Scale 3 and Quality 3 (say 24 NPCs to fill out the cult), have the edges Loyal and Tenacious (they are devoted to Mar-Mal and will stop at nothing to spread their word and their happiness), and the flaws Unreliable and Wild (a lot of them find pleasure in drugs and alcohol, which can affect their availability, and some just don’t know when to keep their mouths shut)

Quarters – Their lair in Silkshore is intended as living quarters as well as a place of worship, and much of the cult lives within its walls

Workshop – Multiple, in fact – various chemical labs and tinkering workshops, plus a decent-sized library on happiness and whatever passes for psychology in Duskwall

Training: Prowess – Due to having been a faction in Duskwall for a while, all members know the value of knowing how to Finesse things, how to Prowl, how to survive a Skirmish, and how to Wreck things as necessary (I admit, I chose this one simply because my excuse for the Three Pillars having this same upgrade when they start their official career was the Advocates giving them assistance in this regard – I'm picturing it as them having a gym to practice fighting and prowling and giving the trio some spare equipment)

Ritual Sanctum In Lair – An additional arcane “workshop” next to the main chapel, where rituals to summon Mar-Mal’s essence and interpret its will are done

-->Claims: These are extra items, upgrades, and places that the cult has claimed during their time in Duskwall (this didn't come up for the Three Pillars because I hadn't decided what I wanted them to get at the time I did THEIR crew playbook write-up – the greenhouse would probably count as a "claim" though). So far, I have –

Main Lair & Two General Turf (to represent their general "hold" in the city)

Offertory (which gives them +2 coin for all occult operations – though rather than this being tribute from frightened locals, it’s generally donations from people who have actually had their lives improved by the Advocates)

Sanctuary (not the Sanctuary, that's Dr. Kelman's place and he's not part of the Advocates – instead, this represents the bunkhouses where they put people up who are down on their luck. As they're generally run by the most charismatic of the cultists, they get +1 to Command and Sway people as a result – they tempt a lot of people into joining their cause in these shelters!)

Vice Den (as stated previously, they've got multiple of these, with coin generated from people who pay for drugs, alcohol, games, and company)

Sacred Nexus (any spot where the glow orb grows is a place where Mar-Mal's essence is felt more strongly, so the physickers of the Advocates generally take patients to those gardens to help them recover faster – Mar-Mal is only too happy to offer a healing touch to those Advocates who are hurt! Mechanically, this means +1d to all healing rolls)

Ancient Altar (in addition to the big main altar in the center of the lair, the Advocates have also set up a smaller altar in the spot where their founder found the original glow orbs. The show of devotion mechanically gets them +1d engagement to occult plans)

-->Favorite Contact: Cuthbert Beckett, a Tycherosi (from the far-off land of Tycheros, where all the inhabitants have a bit of demon blood – his tells are his iconic red eyes with crescent-shaped pupils and hairy arms and hands with claws) occultist and historian who studies the history of the Shattered Isles and the various religions and cults that have sprung up across it, and will happily do them favors in exchange for information. As it happens, Beckett is in fact a secret vampire (one of the few who actually managed to repossess his own body after his early death back home), who leaves a small crescent mark on his victims after he feeds – the Advocates found him out, but rather than telling the Spirit Wardens, they welcomed him and let him feed on their members. This has earned them a certain degree of trust and respect from someone who is normally the most snarky person you will ever meet.

-->Faction Relationships:

On good terms with the Three Pillars, of course, as one of their own is part of that gang – I'm thinking +1 at least to start

-2 with the Beornen – neither side is yet ready to go to WAR, but Robert Wickerman and his cult hate the Advocates, and the feeling is mutual

-->Notes & History:

The head of the cult is one Dr. Gerstlauer, who in fact used to work with one Dr. Kelman on the problem of "social compliance." They hit upon the idea that happy people will be less prone to disobeying the law...and then promptly had a rift with Dr. Kelman over his rather bizarre ideas on how to make people happy (“showing them decaying animals?!? Seriously, Kellard?”)

After splitting with Kelman and going his own way, Dr. Gerstlauer stumbled across a curious fruit growing near the lightning barrier on the edge of the Spark Grounds (an open field where many circuses set up and feats of acrobatic prowess are displayed on the edge of Silkshore) – glowing yellow orbs dangling from black stems that twisted into spirals. Curiosity took him and he tried one of the fruit – and was promptly utterly subsumed in joy and contacted by the god Mar-Mal, asking him to help spread its influence over the city. Gerstlauer immediately agreed, found some people to try the fruit and teach about the god, and the cult was born!

Originally the cult was called the Ministry of Joy, with the “top brass” being the Ministers – however, one politely-worded letter from the Lord Governor saying “hey, people think you’re an actual government agency, knock it off” later, they rebranded as the “Advocates.” They still call the building the Ministry of Joy, though they often shorten it to just MOJ. Leaders are now called Smile Ministers, or SMs for short.

Spiders are holy creatures to the cult because the standard manifestation of Mar-Mal kind of looks like one (very kind of; the main body has five radial legs, and is surrounded by a mass of twisted, curling mechanical tentacles – though it’s hard to look at it too long as it makes your vision fuzz up)

A new inductee to the cult must undergo the process of “marmalisation” to become a full member (usually after they’ve been part of the cult for about half a year). Originally, this simply involved having the inductee sit within the representation of Mar-Mal that serves as the cult’s altar and having them drink glow orb juice to open their mind to the god’s influence. The process has been refined over the years, however, and now a typical “marmalisation” involves sitting within the altar, receiving an injection of Smiler’s Joy Serum, then being tickled by mechanical brushes while a flashing light disrupts the inductee’s thoughts, before a spiral array is put before them to guide them into a deep trance to help them feel Mar-Mal’s influence even more. This not only allows inductees to feel the god's will more potently, it also has a shorter recovery time (as drinking glow orb juice straight tends to completely knock people out for a while). Smiler's working on a new addition to the whole thing, Giggler Gas, which they hope also to turn into another drug to sell. A common side effect of the process is Advocates gaining permanently upturned lips (Smiler) or smiles that stretch farther across their face than should actually be possible (Matt, Carol to a lesser extent).

Despite being a very young cult (they got their start during Smiler's lifetime, to the point where Dr. Gerstlauer recognizes them when Matt and Carol first bring them in), they've grown in power and influence pretty quickly – mostly because, well, they preach a message of happiness to all who come to them, and that is in short supply in Duskwall if you ain't rich! Opinions on them from non-members range from "a little weird, but they're trying to make people happy" to "those idiots who claim to worship pure happiness" to "one of the manifestations of all that is wrong in Duskwall today" (that last one is Bob and his Beornen).

As for Smiler's personal history with the cult – as previously stated in other posts, after growing up in Dr. Kelman's Sanctuary horror-show, they ran away at age 12 with whatever money they could scrape up to sustain them. They ended up in Silkshore, where they managed to keep themselves going for a while, sleeping in alleyways and buying food from street vendors...but when the money ran out, they were utterly lost as to what they could do. Fortunately, that's when Matt and Carol Alton stumbled across them, and – upon learning they had no home – invited them to come back to the MOJ. There they were warmly accepted by the other members, including Matt's brother Felix, who – upon learning that the poor kid's name was Marmaduke – told them that they could choose whatever name they liked that best represented themselves, like he had as Felix E. Lated. The kid, already feeling happier and more at home than they ever had at the Sanctuary, chose the name Smiler, and asked to stay at the MOJ. This request was cheerfully granted, and Smiler was "officially" adopted by Matt and Carol at 13 (not that they filled out any paperwork or anything, but that's when Smiler started calling them "Dad" and "Mum") and made a proper member of the cult at 15. The very next year, they successfully invented Joy Serum, and a delighted Mar-Mal bestowed upon them a blessing, re-marmalising them in a dream and turning their formerly-green eyes a bright glowing yellow. Smiler's thus seen as the "golden child" of the cult (especially since Mar-Mal managed to bless them without turning off their ability to feel hunger and thirst and whatnot), and even when they technically leave to go live with Victor and Alice as the Three Pillars, they maintain close ties with the Advocates, who are only too happy to lend a hand to their new friends. (And THEN Smiler proves able to host Mar-Mal's essence, which really gets the attention of the other cult members...)