... it doesn't?

Not that that should surprise her; Emily is well aware that she's unusual. With the arrival of the notebook, she had started to think that perhaps she was only unusual in the way that many protagonists are unusual, but maybe she's still weird even among people to whom the Spirit sends a notebook.

A lot of people don't think in terms of stories to quite that extent, or in quite that way, even people who like the kinds of stories they can bring to their life with the Spirit's power.

Ah.

Anyway, that probably means that she should take Selective Memory and The Veil. She puts a checkbox next to each, and writes a reminder to write herself a letter. Painted Veil seems excessive, so she skips that one. Secret Identity seems ...

Well, it seems like something that she could be okay with, but it doesn't particularly appeal to her the way Selective Memory or Helpline do, and she can already see the notebook advising her not to take drawbacks she doesn't want, which is fair.

Grimm's Fairy Tales sends her flipping back through the notebook looking for the entry for Cotton Candy. Which, itself, is somewhat thought provoking.

On the one hand, giving people happy endings is probably a good thing. On the other hand, having them just happen seems ...

Is this one ...

Does this stop some stories from happening, or is it more like nudging the odds?

It's more like nudging the odds, if I understand what you mean. The way I'd put it might be that... sometimes people get hurt in ways that don't serve any story particularly, just because they're people living imperfect lives, and Cotton Candy pushes things closer to a world where people only get hurt when there's a story they want to be part of that needs them to. But it only makes things more like that from where they started; it doesn't make things completely like that.

Emily chews her lip in thought.

I definitely see the appeal, but I don't know ...

I feel like I would like this one better if it were something I was doing, instead of being something that just happens around me, you know?

Although maybe that's being selfish — the people who don't get hurt might not care why it isn't happening.

Do you mean you'd like something more like Ever Onward from later on, or do you mean something different from that?

Emily flips through the list. There really are so many things here ...

Oh! Yeah, that does feel better.

It seems kind of like there's a big tangle of related and prerequisited powers here, though, and she's so close to actually having read through an entire section. So she just makes a little star by Ever Onward to come back to, and then retraces her steps to Grimm's Fairy Tales.

She's already got Dramatic Damsel — it's what made her want to look through the drawbacks in the first place — but the next one ...

Why do so many of these make her feel complicated feelings?

Actually, she's been at this for a while; she decides to have a snack break.

Two granola bars and a cup of juice later, she's back. Well, actually, she's about two inches to the left, because her sunbeam from the window moved. She shifts the notebook, her pen, her cup, and her largely forgotten breakfast plate all two inches to the left, so that they remain in the same relative positions.

This one

She draws an arrow to Love is a Battlefield.

seems like a bad idea? But also if my defensive powers are already able to fail because of Dramatic Damsel, then does that make this redundant?

What kind of stories 

Is this one kind of for redeeming people with the power of love? Like, if I were a villain, and the Spirit were granting me power anyway, this would let a kind-hearted and chivalrous knight who caught my eye defeat me —

Actually, that scenario is too embarrassing to be put into words. Besides, she doesn't need to be a cold-hearted princess whose affection must be won with acts of valor in order to meet chivalrous knights, probably. Chivalrous knights are the kind of people you meet on quests regardless.

Anyway, is it for that kind of thing? Or am I misinterpreting it?

It can be for that kind of thing, but I think it was meant for a different kind of thing than that.

That's an unusually unhelpful notebook answer.

Well, what kind of thing was it meant for?

I think it was meant for the sort of person who wants their romance to involve danger from the love interest, for personal reasons.

Huh.

Emily doesn't really understand what kind of person would ... want that. But then again, she doesn't understand a lot of things about people, so perhaps it's best to just chalk that up as another inscrutable mystery of the human condition.

Okay. Well, I don't think I want that — I think the important stories would already be covered by Dramatic Damsel — so that rules out the next few.

The Wrong Crowd just seems like a straightforward upgrade — it would suck to have to wait around for Dramatic Damsel storylines to start — but it has more prerequisites, so she's sent once more flipping back up to earlier sections in search of "Popular".

Does she want to be popular?

"The kinds of people who you'd like to have as fans tend to hear about you and be impressed."

So presumably if she wouldn't want someone to be her fan, they wouldn't hear about her, so that's not too much of a drawback. And overall, taking Popular and The Wrong Crowd both would only put her out a single point, which seems like a fair price to wait around less.

Popular says it's about 'fans', but does it also make it easier to have friends? I think I'd quite like to have friends, but I'm not sure I'd want to be at the center of attention without making friends.

Popular can make it easier to have friends, yes. How helpful it is with that depends on how easily you make friends with people who approach you with a 'fan' kind of attitude, but there are a lot of different possible attitudes like that and you'll tend to get the kinds that suit you best, so usually it helps at least a little.