#the Marmaliser is the big spidery thing in the middle of The Smiler coaster

[victorluvsalice]

-->And then it was down to the barn for the grand awakening of Smiler’s Servo! Because, obviously, I had to get that done for the party. I managed to get everyone in there and looking in the right direction for one good picture, but by the time Smiler actually ACTIVATED the Servo, Alice had managed to slip my leash and gone outside to shower in the rain. *sigh* Why isn't the creation of a Servo something Sims are compelled to watch? I think it's a pretty big deal! *shakehead* Anyway, Smiler pulled the big lever, and after a bright flash, the Servo came to life, stumbling off its creation station –

Already terrified of the NEW thunderstorm revving up outside. *sigh* Oh, and without any eyes on its faceplate for some reason (possibly the “Scared” emotion doesn’t show correctly? Or my game was just glitching out a little, which is entirely possible...) Somewhat concerned, I made a note to have Alice change the weather to clear skies once she was done showering, then started working on customizing the Servo (vaguely noticing Victor running off into the rain to clean up some puddles as I did). I gave him (as I'd initialized him as male) the name Marm L. Iser (geddit? :p), then checked the traits he'd had been initialized with. For some reason, his starting aspiration was the one from Home Chef Hustle about mastering small appliances (I had Alice switch to that recently off one of the Wellness ones, and thanks to her running off to shower in the rain again I’d clicked on her right before Marm woke up, so maybe that had something to do with it?), so he had the Essence of Flavor trait from starting with one of the Culinary aspirations –

And his other three traits were Lazy, Loyal, and Loner. XD Oh cripes, what a combination! Especially since I made this thing to try and help out with the chores and the store… To my annoyance, though, Marm had also spawned with a dislike of Funny Sims (how?? Your creator is SMILER), so I decided to try and change that in CAS –

Only to discover I couldn’t. Because the game WILL NOT LET YOU. Probably because you’re not supposed to be able to change a Servo’s traits in CAS, and the likes/dislikes thing is linked to that. *huffs* Well, that sucks! And makes me a little nervous about how I'm going to customize any Wheatley servo I may make/download for any future Tiny Town challenge saves...

-->Anyway – with no way to change Marm’s likes and dislikes on my own (I tried seeing if having him reprogram his own traits would do the trick, but that’s literally just traits, not likes/dislikes), I settled for making him gold so he’d be the right color for a Smiler-related Servo, then breathed a sigh of relief as his mood changed to happy and his eyes finally properly appeared on his faceplate. Hooray! I set about having him and Smiler get to know each other while Alice got on changing the weather before the party and Victor started running back to the barn to join the conversation at my direction –

ONLY TO GET STRUCK BY LIGHTNING. O.O Not fatally, the first time’s always free in The Sims 4, but that was a frankly terrifying moment! D: The poor guy ended up heavily scorched and dazed –

And immediately went “I deserve a cupcake after that” and headed to the greenhouse mini-fridge to get one. XD Which I happily let him do, because he DID deserve a cupcake after that. Damn. Only do that if you’re gonna give him the cool lighting powers, game!

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Meet Smiler Alton (Modern Human AU)

Okay, the roller coaster OC has somehow become, at least for now, a permanent resident of my brain (and at least one Sims save file). I mentioned back when I first introduced Smiler Always to the Chill Save that I actually had three distinct Smiler variants for different universes, so let’s actually talk about those variants, shall we? Let’s start with the one that’s the most fleshed out -- a humanized Smiler OC for a modern day AU with Victor and Alice:

-->Full name is Smiler Jason Alton -- obviously the last name is from Alton Towers, but the middle name is completely random. I just wanted the “J” middle initial. It felt right somehow.

-->Birthday is May 31st (the day The Smiler coaster FINALLY opened after numerous delays), though the year obviously will vary depending on the exact year of the AU.

-->Height is 5′10″ -- I like this as it puts them exactly halfway between Alice (5′5″ in my head) and Victor (6′3″).

-->Nonbinary, as previously stated for the Sims version -- they were assigned male at birth, but switched to “they/them” pronouns as a preteen as they came to feel that they didn’t really fit in that box.

-->Panromantic pansexual -- no gender preferences or anything here, they just know who they like, and they like a lot of people. XD

-->Their appearance basically corresponds with the “regular form” of my Sim Smiler Always, with the obvious caveat that, for them, the bright yellow eyes are contacts. Their real eye color is a pale blue.

-->First name on their birth certificate? Marmaduke. I don’t know the in-universe reason yet, but out-of-universe, I was trying to come up with a name that invoked the Marmaliser/marmalisation process key to the ride’s theming (the Marmaliser is in fact the big spidery thing the ride loops through), and “Marmaduke” was the first thing that popped into my head. I was like “seriously, brain? -- let’s keep it, gives them a good reason to always go by Smiler.” Which, incidentally, they started going by at a VERY young age, like five. Because they are NOT a comic strip Great Dane, thank you very much.

-->They’re adopted! Their birth mother gave them up in the hospital, stating she was not ready to be a mom, and Smiler was happily quickly matched with a waiting couple, Matthew and Carol Alton. AKA, the couple from the Smiler Shop TV video, only a little less creepy. XD (Look, it’s one of my favorite Smiler-related videos, and the shocking height difference between them always amazes and amuses me, let me have my fun.)

-->Matthew and Carol were part of the Advocates cult when they were younger, but ended up leaving and blowing the whistle on the whole organization when they discovered that their leader, Dr. Kelman, was performing illegal brain surgery on some members and just -- shoving his failures in the basement of his house. They still strongly believe in the message of the Advocates, though, which is that happiness for everyone should be maximized whenever possible. They’ve imparted this belief to their child -- it’s a good part of the reason why they ended up choosing the name “Smiler.”

-->As a result of this upbringing, Smiler has developed an interest in psychology, and is majoring in it in college -- they don’t know if they’re gonna go all the way to psychologist/psychiatrist, but they want to know how people tick so they can do SOMETHING to help make them happier. They also developed an interest in various mind-manipulation techniques, including hypnosis. . .

-->and they’re REALLY fuckin’ good at it. Like, they seem to have a natural knack. Smiler happily hones their craft on friends as a teen, then -- once of legal age, probably twenty or so -- makes some files and posts them on a website for people who might be feeling down and wouldn’t mind some hypnosis to cheer them up. Well, hypnosis with a “medical experiment” theme -- the idea is that the files follow the “marmalisation” process from the coaster’s theming (getting a dose of joy serum (Inoculator), being tickled (Tickler), being disorientated by a bright flashing light (Flasher), getting dosed with giggler gas (Giggler), and finally a focus back on the hypnosis part (Hypnotizer)). There’s a few variations, including one that goes in the order the elements are presented on the actual ride (Flasher, Tickler, Giggler, Inoculator, Hypnotizer), and a few that leave out elements someone might be uncomfortable with (like a non-Flasher version for people who either dislike flashing lights, or can’t watch them without harm). All of them are clearly labeled, say what’s in them, and don’t have any weird post-hypnotics, because being open and honest is important for happiness too! And yes, the logo for the site is the Smiler logo. XD

-->As for how they meet Victor and Alice in this kind of verse. . .well, Victor ends up stumbling across Smiler’s site during his web browsing one day. He’s intrigued by the descriptions of the files, but too shy to use them -- until one extremely stressful day makes him go “they’re promising to make you happy” and gets him to try one. He ends up really liking the experience, and starts going back to the site regularly to help with his stress and anxiety, leaving a few nice comments on the videos.

-->And then, while at college, he meets Alice (I haven’t decided how yet, possibly they just bump into each other one day) and they end up hitting it off and starting a relationship after a few months. Victor, feeling vaguely guilty about enjoying the files, tells Alice about the site and his regular visits -- Alice is a bit confused, but assures him she isn’t about to stop him doing something he enjoys -- especially if it helps with his stress levels, because ye gods man.

-->Victor and Alice’s backstories, btw:

Victor: Victoria and Emily are both alive in this verse; what would have been the events of Corpse Bride take place in their senior year of high school; his parents pushed him into dating Victoria but fortunately he liked her, he met Emily who got the wrong idea about how serious they were and accused him of cheating after spotting him with Victoria; things got resolved after they all had to team up to stop Emily’s bastard ex Barkis victimizing Victoria; they all agree to just be friends afterward; eventually Victoria and Emily get together instead after Emily realizes she’s only biromantic and not interested in men sexually; they are all still friends but Victor does have some lingering worries about relationships after all this

Alice: Shares her name with the historical Alice and adopted the Wonderland books as her own as a kid; still lost her family to a house fire set by Bumby, who was able to cover his tracks (possibly with some bribes to the police); still spent ten years catatonic in Rutledge, though at least it wasn’t QUITE as horrible a place because it wasn’t a Victorian asylum (still underfunded and containing people like Pris Witless and the Monroe twins, though); ended up in Bumby’s halfway home and discovered his actual business; still pushed him in front of a train and managed not to get caught because he’d disabled the security cameras on the platform for his own shady business deals; now living with her old Nanny while she works to get her life properly back together, including catching up on high school and maybe getting an associate’s degree

-->Anyway, Alice and Smiler end up in a class together at college, where she immediately suspects they’re the person from Victor’s favorite site by their name -- but it’s not until Victor bumps into Smiler while coming to greet her afterward, only to freeze when Smiler replies to his apology with it’s all fine, that she knows. She encourages Victor to tell Smiler in person how their site has helped him -- Victor’s shy about it at first, but eventually does so, and Smiler’s thrilled.

-->The three end up becoming friends after this, and after a while Smiler offers to hypnotize Victor in person. Victor, embarrassed, is forced to admit that sometimes he gets kind of turned on by the files, but Smiler assures him that that’s fine, we’re all friends, we get it, and Alice says that, again, his kinks are his kinks even if she doesn’t always get them. So he agrees, and they have a hypnosis session. . .

-->Cue for Smiler the awkward realization that they’re developing romantic feelings for Victor, and Alice the awkward realization that her asexuality has an exception and it’s apparently Victor in trance.

-->Fortunately, the three immediately realize they need to talk to each other, and they regroup over pizza the next day. Alice, who has noticed how close Smiler and Victor have been getting, promptly tells the pair that she has no problem with them being in a threesome, even if she personally has no romantic feelings for Smiler. (”No offense.” “None taken! I’m not for everyone.”) And after it comes out that they really all have compatible kinks centering around Victor being hypnotized. . .

-->Cue happy threesome having happy threesome times! They eventually get a house together and it’s all good.

-->Bonus idea I don’t know if I’m gonna use -- my initial thought for a pet for Smiler was a tarantula named Marmalade, for the Marmalizer structure. I personally don’t like spiders, but it felt right. Might actually bring the frog from Sims 4 into it too, if I can think of a name.