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Katie awakes from the most fascinating dream and is struck with an intense urge to write it down. She gropes around the bed for her phone. God fucking damnit it's dead. She thinks for a split second about getting up and typing it out on her PC, but remembers that it's broken. Ugghhhhh. Her urge to write it down overcomes her desire to stay in the nice warm comfy bed, but she's not happy about it. She gets up and looks around for something she can write on. Finds a fancy purple notebook. That's weird. She definitely never owned this. Doesn't seem like the sort of thing her mom would own. Definitely not her brother. She opens it up and puts the pen in her hand to write, but when she tries to find the words she realizes she's forgotten the dream already. God fucking damnit motherfucking fuck. She makes big heavy scribbles all over the page to vent her frustration.
What the fuck? Has she stumbled upon a Horcrux or a Deathly Hallow or whatever the fuck the diary that Voldemort talked through was, she was really little when she saw the Harry Potter movies and she doesn't remember them that well. "Hello? Are you alive?", she asks out loud. Ugh. No response. God damnit, she's meeting an actual honest to god magical being and she's having to communicate with it with handwriting. Would be perfectly fucking on brand for her to get smote for her inability to follow proper magic notebook etiquette. "aRe YoU aLIve? Can YOu reaD thIS? whaT arE yOU?" She writes in her typical big, clumsy, kindergartenesque letters.
I'm awake, which is sort of like being alive, but I'm not alive the same way a plant or an animal is, because I'm a notebook instead. I can read that just fine!
I can't hear, or see anything that's not right between my covers. But if you pressed my pages right up against something I'd be able to see that.
OkAy, WeLL, FIrSt oF aLL, I am An adUlt WOman. my haNdWritInG Just sUckS. I caN prOVe thIs If NeCessarY, bUt You PrObabLy don't WaNT tHaT.
She's a little afraid whatever this is still thinks she's a kid, but flashing a magic book spirit would be way worse from both a moral and practical perspective, so she holds off.
SO, LiKe, What aRe YOU? WhY Are YoU in MY hOUse?
I'm a magic notebook! I don't know exactly how I got to your house; sometimes it takes a while between me instantiating in a world and me winding up wherever I'm supposed to be and this is one of those times. But I'm guaranteed to be written in for the first time by the person I'm supposed to talk to, so that's you! I'm an avatar of the Spirit of Femininity Unleashed, who has chosen to give you special powers that you can pick off a list or help me design custom for you.
I'm not sure what that is. The powers are about making you special and powerful in a feminine way.
That's a good question and it's a hard one to answer! Do you think it might work to look at some of the powers and get a vibe?
She goes and gets her phone. Thankfully, she remembered to take the second to plug it in when she first woke up, and it's turning back on now. She opens up a notepad.
Okay, thank god. This is much better. My hand was starting to hurt. Anyways, will the powers alter my personality in any way?
(Do you mind if I copy that into myself so it's all in one place for reference?)
The powers are mostly not about your personality. A few of them could result in your personality changing, but mostly in the same way that your personality might change if you always got the exact right amount of sleep, or something like that. They affect the way your life works and that affects how you grow as a person.
yeah, go ahead, copy it. anyways, what do you mean by 'the way my life works' and 'how I grow as a person'?
I think examples would help! Here's one that could definitely result in your personality changing over time:It Gets Better - 5 points
You're going to be okay.
Your mind and body may never be perfect, but they are yours, and cannot permanently be taken from you. In time you will heal from any injury, escape any imprisonment, and recover from any trauma; maybe not in exactly the ways you hoped, but always in ways you're okay with.
This works even if you are injured/imprisoned/traumatized right now, so if you were, and considered something about how you related to that part of your personality, it might change. Or if a lot of your attitude had to do with worrying about something permanent and bad happening to you in the future, having this to lean on would probably change that.
Hm. Well that's certainly something to ponder, but it's not nearly as bad as it could be. So like, I get to select powers off a list and they cost points, like in an RPG? How many points do I have?
70, but you can take drawbacks (many drawbacks seem like free points to some people) to get more.
That depends on whether you count variants that replace other powers, like "A Hundred Ships" replacing "A Thousand Ships" such that you couldn't take both, and the possibility of making up new powers to suit you in particular. There's dozens but not hundreds.
Okay, good, so I've got options but it won't take forever to sift through them. So like, go ahead and list them I guess.
I'm supposed to start with this part:
Preamble
These powers are offered under an aegis of metanarrative protection. Anytime you might expect a power to have obvious negative side effects, like glowing eyes making it harder to see, it simply won't—you'll be able to see just fine anytime it actually matters, while having dramatically hazy vision at cool, narratively appropriate moments. This doesn't apply to your own preferences about the explicitly described effects of the power; if you don't want to be Well Endowed, the metanarrative cannot protect you from choosing that option and having to live with it.