Yvonne sits in the secret base, idly petting Teemo and reading a book from the library. Those two have had a special bond since the raid on Neverrest. They both still do what they need to do, but when their leisure time overlaps, they’re together.

I think it’s kinda cute, and it makes sense. Teemo and her have very complementary skillsets, and he even tried to save her life. It’s not surprising they get along well. Yvonne very specifically didn’t want to go join in the ceremony with the ratkin, and I’m not really surprised about that, either. She definitely has her own religion to follow, and I doubt Aranya will get her to convert.

Which I think is why she’s sighing and putting her book aside to look at me and at Teemo. “What do you think of all this, Teemo?” He just squeaks and noses her hand, wanting more pets. Pets are clearly more important than potential drama about a cult.

She chuckles and gives him a bit more of what he wants. “You don’t care, hmm? What about you?” she asks my core, like I can actually answer her, and she huffs out a small laugh at herself.

“Still no Voice, of course. Well, Aranya always says to read your will in the scions.” She smiles at Teemo who wants his belly rubbed, and she can’t help but indulge. She looks over to Queen in the alchemy lab, ants swarming over everything and not seeming much different. She looks over to Thing, obscured by the book he’s perusing in the nook that is the secret enchanting lab. I need to get that more dug out soon, but I still have plenty of time before the public enchanting workshop will see any actual use.

“Do you not care what they’re doing, perhaps?” she asks herself, thinking out loud. She’s monologued to me before, I think just to have the comfort of having some thinking being know her thoughts. She doesn’t really do it in front of Aranya, though. I guess she doesn’t want someone interrupting her musings.

She smiles after a few moments and shakes her head. “No… I doubt anyone could have no opinion at all about being worshiped. I doubt you like it, though…” she says, her thoughts continuing to chew on the situation. “You never seemed to have any inkling that you’d want it… so why not stop them?”

Teemo squeaks and looks her in the eyes, before giving a little ratty shrug, and she works on interpreting that. “Uncertainty? Hmm… why not stop them…” she asks herself, actually considering the question, instead of leaving it rhetorical. She sighs as she seems to come to an answer.

“I suppose why isn’t the question, but how. If you tried to punish them, they’d just think they upset you,” she says, trying to wrap her head around the idea of being a reluctant object of adoration. She chuckles and takes a light-hearted tone of admonishment. “You really should have expected something like this when you gave them true intelligence, you know.”

Yeah… I probably should have. I’ve never been much of a planner, though. I’m just pretty good at improvising. I have my goals and work towards them, and deal with problems that pop up, and try to head off ones I can think of. And then improvise to deal with what I didn’t think of.

“I wonder who you’ll make your Voice?” asks Yvonne, looking into the depths of my core even as she continues to idly pet Teemo’s belly. “I wonder what they’ll actually have to say?”

Yeah… me too. I’ve finally figured out how to get a voice, but as for who… well, I’m about as sure of who will get it as Yvonne is, which is to say I don’t know. I’ll need to figure it out soon, though. If the dwellers keep this rate of mana going for me, I’ll be able to afford the upgrade for one of my scions soon. And if I’m going to be the center of a cult, I need to get some actual dogma set down sooner rather than later.

What should I actually tell them, though? Getting to the Pearly Gates wasn’t exactly a surprise to me, I am a Christian. But it’s not like I can quote the whole bible for them to write down. I can get the core points, but book and verse will always elude me.

But I don’t think I was sent here to do that. Sure, I’m pretty sure an angel could easily descend and drop a bible in my metaphorical lap, but that didn’t even happen to Moses. He got ten sentences. Sure, he got to talk with Him a lot, but only those were written in stone.

And I don’t even remember all of those! I’m pretty sure the “No Idolotry” one is going to complicate matters the next time I die, but I don’t know what to do about that. That’s part of why I’m saving everything for a Voice. Even if I don’t know what I’ll even say!

“Be excellent to each other” might have worked for Bill and Ted, but it’s not exactly informative. Alright… calm down and think. Goals. Improvise. My goal in this: don’t screw up and accidentally a cult like how most people think of a cult. So how?

Keep it simple, for starters. People will always try to complicate things, sneak in edge cases to try to ease their consciences. Ten commandments in stone, thousands of pages. Sure, it’s history and all important to understanding the whys of a lot, but the ten are the explicit, stated things.

And even those can be condensed. I might not remember all of the commandments, but I remember the greatest commandment: To love. Love thy neighbor, thy parents, thy God, and all the other commandments will follow.

Seems like a good place to start, to me. Love truly, and evil will have a hard time getting a foothold.