#felt like something Alice and Smiler might do!

[victorluvsalice]

Valicer OT3 Week, Day Three: Childhood Friends

Day Three of @ot3-week's OT3 Week, and we're up to a cute prompt -- "Childhood friends!" So naturally I couldn't resist writing the trio hanging out together as kids. :) This is supposed to be a Victorian!AU, though I suspect it might feel a little bit more modern than that...the important thing is, there's a grand old party happening in the halls of Christchurch at Oxford, and Smiler and Alice have already found each other and decided to sequester themselves away from all these boring adults in their own private table fort. But tummies have started growling, and so Smiler is venturing out to get snacks...

--

“I’m gonna get more snacks!”

“All right – make sure to grab some of Mama’s Welsh rarebit!” Alice said, arranging the cards into neat piles. “Then when you come back we can start building our castle.”

“Definitely,” Smiler said, shooting her a grin. They grabbed the edge of the tablecloth and lifted it – then, seeing no adults had eyes on them, scrambled out from under the banquet table that they and Alice had claimed as their personal hidey-hole. And I thought this party was going to be boring, they thought, scurrying toward the table where the Welsh rarebit sat, along with a few other cheese-based dishes the various attendees were nibbling on. Adults never want to have any fun when they get together – it’s just talk talk talk about boring stuff. Especially Father, going on about “social compliance” and all that...it’s a good thing that Alice is here! I can’t wait to hear another story about Wonderland – it sounds amazing! And I bet that, without the adults interrupting us, we can build a castle using all of the –

“Now, I don’t want you embarrassing me at this party, Victor, do you understand?”

Smiler stopped, turning toward the entrance. Standing there, having their coats taken by the coat-taking-man, was a hunched-over skinny man with a large mustache, leaning on a cane; a very plump woman in the fanciest dress Smiler had ever seen, fanning herself like it was the middle of summer; and a little boy, about Smiler’s age, wearing a suit with shorts and staring at his feet while the woman – presumably his mother – went on and on about how the Liddells were Very Important People and how they had to make a Good First Impression and how Victor was to Stay Quiet and Look Respectable, like the boys in magazines. The boy – Victor – was nodding along to his mother’s litany, trying to stand up straight and do as asked, but the look on his face...

“Now, Marmaduke, I understand that you’re a little – confused, at this age. But the simple fact of the matter is that you can’t just decide that you’re not a boy. It’s simply not done. Where would society be if people just started declaring themselves not one thing or the other? You have to learn how to be socially compliant. True happiness comes from obeying your elders – and you want to be happy, don’t you?”

Smiler frowned as the woman turned away from Victor, leaving him to tug at his tie as she swanned off to chat about boring things with the other adults. It seemed like, with a mother like that, Victor was about to have about as bad a time at this party as they’d feared they would have. And that was a really bad time indeed.

Well, good thing I’m here, then, Smiler thought to themselves, then marched up to Victor, putting on their best smile and sticking out their hand. “Hullo! I’m Smiler!”

Victor nearly started right out of his skin – maybe they should have been a little bit quieter. He stared at them a moment, glancing from their face to their hand and back, then hesitantly took it. “Uh – I’m – I’m – V-Victor,” he stammered, clearly out of his depth. Maybe people didn’t talk to him much? That would be sad if so. “Your name is – Smiler?”

“Well, it’s what I call myself,” Smiler told him, pumping his arm. “My real name’s awful. But Victor’s a nice name! Do you want to play with us?”

“Us?” Victor repeated, blinking.

“Me and Alice!” Smiler pointed at their table, where Alice was peeping out, clearly wondering why snacks were taking so long. They waved to her and pointed to Victor – she glanced over, then nodded and waved back. “She’s really nice, and she tells great stories,” Smiler informed Victor, grinning. “And she’s got cards – we’re gonna try and build a castle! Do you like castles?”

“Uh – yes?” Victor said, as if he wasn’t sure of his own opinions. “I’ve n-never made a card one b-before, though.” He dropped his gaze, playing with his tie again. “I’m k-kind of clumsy.”

“That’s all right – we can show you how to do it!” Smiler promised, taking his hand so he didn’t accidentally strangle himself. “Come on – we’ll get snacks, then we can go and play!”

“I – um...” Victor’s gaze went to his mother, chatting with some other adult Smiler didn’t know and didn’t care about. “I dunno...”

“Aw, come on,” Smiler wheedled, tugging his arm. “It’ll be fun! Don’t you wanna have fun? Be happy? Like, real happy, not grown-up happy?”

“Happy...” Victor looked at his mother a moment more, then over at Alice, patiently waiting for them to decide what they were doing. Then his mouth formed a determined line, and he nodded at Smiler. “Yes. Let’s go make castles.”

Smiler beamed. One happiness problem – solved! Take that, Father. “Great! But, first, we gotta get some of that rarebit – and I think there’s some cake too...”

#ot3week #valicer #prompt #fanfic #victorian AU #kidfic #victor van dort #alice liddell #smiler alton #okay I had a lot of fun writing this one #the trio as kids are so cute :) #though again I actually wrote this from Victor's POV to start #with him wondering why he was even at this party #and then getting startled by Smiler when they kind of just appeared beside him #but that ended up not working the way I wanted it to #and I didn't like that (since Victor didn't know any better) I had to refer to Smiler by the wrong pronouns #so I swapped to little Smiler on a rewrite and suddenly everything clicked :) #part of me thinks this could be the opening to a Valicer take on the 'Somebody I Used To Know' idea #where Victor got yanked into the events of AMA #would encourage me to finish up those posts I have on Smiler's Otherland already! #oh and Smiler and Alice hanging out under one of the tables is inspired by something I used to do as a kid #my parents sold books at bookshows and I'd amuse myself with books and such under one of the selling tables #felt like something Alice and Smiler might do! #queued

[victorluvsalice]

-->But yes, with everything at home settled -- produce picked, animals tended, bees calmed, gnomes moved -- it was off to the store for this lot! I had Victor start in immediately with the magic, using Repairio on one of the flower arrangements in the front window to see what it did to the plants -- it DID increase their quality, but it did NOT do anything about their level of freshness that I could see (that is, it made the whole thing a better bunch of flowers, but it did not do anything about how wilted it was). Good to know, I suppose! I also had him catch the stink bugs that had started congregating outside the front windows -- can't have THOSE annoying customers! And you never know when you might need them for herbalism...

-->Anyway -- with that sorted, let's go over everyone's store jobs:

Smiler got banished to the dock to fish for a good chunk of the day (even when it started snowing -- it was only a little bit and not for long!), to help add some fish to the fish freezer I'd added earlier. They caught a cichlid, an angelfish, a couple of tunas, a tilapia, and a perch, which is not a bad haul! And I figured out which option on the fish freezer lets you mass-store fish – though I actually can't recall the exact label at this point in time. ^^; Something like "fresh ingredients!" Also lets you mass-transfer meat and eggs, which is nice. :)

Alice, naturally, got put on canning duty -- specifically, oversize conserve duty! I had her use up a bunch of the oversized produce in her inventory making jars of mushroom, aubergine, lettuce, pumpkin, and watermelon conserve to put on the shelves next to the canned green beans, canned green peas, and bottles of dried sage. It felt like the most appropriate place for them! Don't worry, though, she got a few breaks -- mostly because the werewolf instincts demanded she go outside for a bit and let out a Somber Howl to keep the Fury low. Gotta keep that inner beast satisfied!

And Victor was just all over the place, doing every job the other two couldn't -- making more boxes and bottles of dried sage to fill in that area; making more loaves of banana bread to fill out the bakery section; brewing up some more perfume in Inspiring scents for that endcap; and of course hitting everything he could with Copypasto to fill in gaps on the shelves. Seriously, that spell is the most useful thing on the PLANET -- it is so OP and I never want that to change. XD Copy every freaking jar of preserves you can, Victor! I just wish you could copy the mod-added stuff too!

#sims 4 #the lazy save #victor van dort #alice liddell #smiler always #yeah I was kind of hoping Repairio would reset the freshness level of a flower arrangement as well as its quality #but no dice #ah well just gotta replace the arrangements when they wilt #at least there's no loss of cash as we only make the arrangements that we have all the flowers for! #but yes everybody doing what they're best at most of the day #Smiler getting all the good fish for the fish freezer #Alice doing all the canning #and Victor running around making everything that we needed more of #or just straight up copying it from what was already on the shelf XD #I don't think I could have gotten this far with the store without Copypasto #seriously that spell is a total winner and I'm very pleased Victor has it #now it only it worked on Simsonian Library's stuff! #meeeh #can't have everything! #as we established it doesn't work on chatterbots either so #*shrug* #queued

[victorluvsalice]

So! Start of a new Sim Year, with the first Sunday of Spring, and it’s Day One with our new Chill Save family -- one Smiler Always! I explained their deal last week, but in short -- this is a Sim-ification of The Smiler roller coaster from Alton Park, which I got mildly obsessed with at the end of last year, and now I kind of ship Victor and Alice with ‘em. Because my brain, people.

Of course, in order to ship them with Victor and Alice, I have to get them established in my Chill Save, and that’s what we’re doing now! Let me bring you up to speed on Smiler’s deal:

1. They’re a vampire -- my first straight from CAS, I believe! I felt that this was a good fit because vampires get various brain-bending and emotion-bending powers, and given that The Smiler’s themeing is brainwashing people to be happy and obedient all the time. . .they’re not quite to that point yet, but they’re working on it!

2. They started with the Friend of the World aspiration (because of course they want to be friends with everybody), which gave them the Gregarious trait. I also made them Erratic (The Smiler’s screens tend to be a bit purposefully glitchy, and characterizing them as something of a gremlin seems popular on tumblr), Cheerful (because of COURSE -- Smile Always!), and a Music Lover (the 2013 Fireworks Show at Alton Towers really seems to suggest The Smiler likes pop remixes). Wonderful Whims added on the Innocent and Jester personality archetypes, meaning they’re very positive, silly, and fun, but can come off as too naive or not taking anything seriously. Again, really good traits for a roller coaster whose goal in life is to make everyone happy forever!

3. For preferences, they Like Yellow, Purple, Pop Music, Strange Tunes, Robotics, Dancing, Media Production, and Fitness (which was their first like that popped up in-game, thanks to feeling energized from some Dark Mediation). They Dislike Gray and Lullabies Radio. I couldn’t think of an activity they’d for-sure dislike, so I’m leaving that up to the game.

4. They have fairly wide attractiveness preferences, but I set them so they should at least find Victor and Alice attractive (like having black hair and stick-thin among their likes). These may need to be tweaked later, to increase romance chances!

5. This isn’t official (yet), but Smiler’s non-binary -- masculine frame as that’s how I originally pictured them, but they/them pronouns. (Hey, apparently the roller coaster is the color of the non-binary flag, sooo. . .)

6. And they’re currently living in one of the Britechester starter homes, as my initial plan for them is to build up their vampire power and attend Foxbury Institute to study a Psychology degree, and actually do some other stuff with organizations and the like (I’m thinking the Spirit Squad if nothing else!).

So yeah, that’s their deal -- non-binary overly-cheerful vampire with loud fashion and decor sense. As you might guess from their outfits and the way they’ve decorated their house. XD Most of this is from EA, but Smiler’s dark form, as seen in the seventh picture onward, is wearing a yellow take on Beetlejuice’s outfit from the @the-crypt-o-club‘s “Creepy Creations” Simblrween 2020 fan stuff pack, while the spiral eyes are a special face paint from Cryptiam’s Surreal Eyes Pack on Nexus Mods! Both felt RIGHT, you know? :p

ANYWAY! On to Smiler’s first day of existence, which was reasonably exciting. After getting the house to their liking, taking “Cast Hallucination” and “Occult Student” for their staring vampire powers, and braving the sun to catch some butterflies, Smiler got themselves a nice colorful umbrella and set out to make friends! Because for some reason the Welcome Wagon never showed up, thanks game! Their first attempt at friendship was with passing jogger Lillie Benitez, but things didn’t go very well -- mainly because she’s a Gloomy Sim who hates Fitness and isn’t a Music Lover, meaning she did not vibe with Smiler’s attempts at conversation. So instead they decided to use her for power practice and had her hallucinate a different friend to talk to while they watched a movie. Yay?

#sims 4 #the lazy save #smiler always #the smiler #whew that took a while to get through didn't it? #Smiler is a complicated Sim #well not really but it takes a lot of words to say 'nonbinary vampire obsessed with cheerfulness' XD #and yes Smiler is much more of an extrovert #so I figure that will be a good way to make me try out new things #probably gonna have them do the party-focused aspiration too #note: the spiral eyes ARE from 2019 #you may need to update them with Sims 4 Studio as I did to make sure they work correctly #granted I don't think they're supposed to look quite like THAT #but I kind of like the look of Smiler's yellow iris's shining through #it's neat #and yes Cast Hallucination specifically says it makes a Sim feel like they're talking to a friend #on-brand for Smiler #and a good way to start leveling up! #queued

[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.

#the smiler #smiler alton #(gonna use that tag for smilers NOT in the Sims save) #human smiler AU #valicer #yes it has a ship name! #pretty easy to put together following the 'valice' model too #anyway enjoy all the facts about my human Smiler #and their Victor and Alice #yeah my intention was always Smiler and Alice are good friends but not lovers #but they do do kinky things to Victor together XD #they're friends with benefits and Victor is 'benefits' #also bonus bonus fact: Smiler really likes wobbly jelly desserts #like jell-o and the like #because of the jelly lore XD #look up CablesTwisted on YouTube if you're wondering what I'm on about #queued