2001 The Children of Bottle/Prologue: Smile Junkie

Synopsis
In 1711, aboard the Advena Avis, several of the alchemists who had become immortal the previous night are devoured by Szilard Quates in his pursuit of knowledge and power. As Szilard makes his way through the ship, Sylvie Lumiere attempts to hide from him while she searches for Gretto Avaro by descending deeper into the hull, but he's already there. He puts his hand on her head in an attempt to devour her, but nothing happens; Szilard comes to the conclusion that Sylvie had not drank the Grand Panacea the previous night.

As Sylvie prepares for Szilard to kill her, his arm is severed, cutting off his connection to her. The man who had severed Szilard's arm, Nile, comments on the fact that immortals can still feel pain. In response to Szilard's rage, Nile expresses an intent to kill him, but Szilard manages to slip past him and retreat up the stairs Sylvie had come from. Instead of following Szilard, Nile decides to make sure Sylvie is unharmed.

Before Sylvie can respond to his inquiry, another voice pipes up asking after both of them. Without waiting for an answer, the speaker goes on to request that both of them smile. Nile identifies the speaker as Elmer C. Albatross, reprimanding him for his careless attitude, but Elmer doubles down and insists that smiling will help. When Nile tells Elmer to hide, Elmer refuses, stating his intentions to talk Szilard down.

Nile objects immediately, reasoning that even if they did talk Szilard down, Maiza might try to kill Szilard himself; Elmer combats this by proposing that he'll talk Maiza down as well and reinforcing his intention to talk Szilard down. Sylvie, having found her voice, butts in that Szilard couldn't possibly be talked down, as he was clearly enjoying himself too much. Upon hearing this, Elmer is satisfied knowing that Szilard is capable of smiling, and tells Sylvie to smile one last time as he heads up the stairs towards the top of the ship.

After he leaves, Sylvie asks Nile what he meant when he spoke about Maiza's feelings. When Nile doesn't answer, Sylvie correctly assumes that Szilard has already devoured Gretto.

On the deck of the ship, Elmer attempts to get Szilard's attention by doing a flip on the ship's prow, only to fall into the ocean. As he sinks, the demon the alchemists had summoned the previous night speaks to him. Elmer wonders what the demon is still doing here, to which he says that he noticed something interesting on his way out, and inquires about whether Elmer really believed he could talk Szilard down from his killing spree.

Elmer responds that he thought it might be possible because Szilard smiled, and clarifies that no matter what caused that smile, being capable of smiling means there must be a little humanity left in Szilard, which means talking it out isn't off the table. The demon replies that it would have been very close to impossible, but Elmer says that he thought eating Szilard immediately wouldn't be the happiest outcome for everyone involved. When the demon asks about the feelings of the people who had already been devoured, Elmer rejects their say in the matter by pointing out that dead people can't smile anymore anyway.

The demon responds that Elmer is more interesting than he'd thought, and decides to offer him a wish. Elmer thinks for a short while, then decides on his wish and relays it to the demon.

An unknown amount of time later, Elmer comes to on the deck of the ship surrounded by the surviving alchemists. He asks after Szilard, and is told that Szilard threw himself from the ship to escape the rest of them. He briefly tries to sit up, but lays back down again, looking at the relieved smiles on the alchemists around him and beginning to fall back to sleep. Just before he loses consciousness, he hears Sylvie crying, and deliriously tells her to smile.

Almost 300 years later, in December of 1998, Elmer walks through a thick conifer forest in search of a certain village. Though he contemplates turning back, he ultimately decides to head deeper into the unnaturally thick woods.

From someone else's perspective, Elmer arrives at the entrance to the village he'd been looking for. He greets the person at the entrance, making an expression they don't recognize. Without waiting for an answer, he then begins to talk at length about the weather, then asks if the village happens to have an inn. The person at the entrance is vaguely familiar with the concept of an inn, and shakes their head to indicate that the village doesn't have one. Disappointed, Elmer asks if there are any other places to stay, but goes off on a tangent before he can recieve a reply and ends up introducing himself by name to the person he's speaking to.

Elmer then identifies the person as a child, and once again asks if there's anywhere vacant he can stay. They respond that they'll take him to that place, calling him 'Master Elmer', to which Elmer objects that they don't need to be formal with him. He goes on to comment about the unusual people in the village, wondering if the reason they ran into their houses when he arrived was to prepare for Christmas. The child doesn't know what Christmas is, so they ask Elmer, to which he expresses shock, and begins to explain Christmas, promising to teach the child about it later. He says they'll smile, pinching their cheeks, and the child identifies the expression he's been wearing this whole time as a smile. As Elmer promises to celebrate Christmas with them in two days, they begin to remember a feeling that they can't identify between hope and anticipation.

Two days later, the child watches as the villagers use all sorts of weapons and objects to beat Elmer to a bloody pulp. The village headman, Dez Nibiru berates them for associating with Elmer and forcing them to come out where the "monster" might get to them as he beats their face in with a club. As they're beaten to death, they look at a paper ornament under Dez's foot, musing that it looks pretty.

After finishing the job, Dez turns to the child, who had been standing there and watching themself get beaten to death. They pick up their own dead body as well as the paper ornament, carrying both outside. As they contemplate how long it had been since they wished for anything, they see the villagers drive a farming hoe into Elmer's back, producing a large spray of blood, which nauseates them.

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * Sylvie Lumiere
 * Szilard Quates
 * Nile
 * Elmer C. Albatross
 * Ronny Schiatto (unnamed)
 * Fil (unnamed)
 * Dez Nibiru