Book of the Dyed

"Hey Ruby, remember senior homecoming?" Lillian said, passing the blunt to her roommate.

"Yeah, you got wasted and kissed Penny." The blue-haired woman responded with a laugh.

Lillian blushes. "Sh-shut up! Before that! We talked about starting a cult."

"Your little alt religion? Why? We never put any more thought into it since. And besides, usually cults have some kinda land or compound to separate themselves from society. We have a third-story apartment and a Subaru that's pushing twenty."

Lillian holds up a fresh notebook she had grabbed from her bedroom. "Fine, I guess your right, but why not do some brainstorming, get some stuff written down. I think it'll be fun! We've got an hour to kill until Katie gets home anyway."

She grabs a marker and scribbles on the cover. 'Book of the Dyed' Ruby raises an eyebrow at the pun, before settling back into her chair.

Switching to a pencil and continuing into the first page, Lillian dictates "Pastel, The Dyeing Goddess, has revealed Herself to Lillian Grayson, that she may act as Her Prophet and lead Her children. Children of Pastel are any that have forsaken their natural hair color for another."

"I think we should have a secret code phrase, something to recognize members." Ruby says, no longer bothering to feign interest, "Do we want something kinda inconspicuous, or something really cheesey? Probably could do both, a relatively mundane call with a unique response that only a cultist would know."

"Good idea! Here, 'Followers of Pastel can recognize each other with the following code phrase:' Now we just have to think of a code." Lillian wrote, tapping the pencil against her knee. "How about 'do you have a hair tie?' it's a typical enough ask."

Ruby took another hit of the blunt. "Too common. We don't want normies to stumble into the code phrase. Make it something you would ask a friend, but not a stranger. How about 'Did you find your remote?' that doesn't raise too many questions, but is something that could be said to start a conversation with a friend."

"Yeah, and the response is..." Lillian starts to giggle, picking up on the set-up, "'No, it's still buzzing though!'"

Both girls laugh as Lillian writes in the secret code.

"Okay, now that we have the intro stuff out of the way, let's get some tenets on the books!"