heyyyyyy so what exactly is the distinction being drawn here between metanarratively making people drawn to me and mind controling people to be drawn to me

The metanarrative has a lot more freedom in how to act than a mind control power! A mind control power can only change people's minds in the moment, but the metanarrative can decide before you ever meet them that they will be the sort of people who are naturally drawn to you, or arrange events so that they're coincidentally drawn to you because of things like lighting and timing and how well your voice carries.

oh that makes a lot of sense and is reassuring

is there a way to ensure that these effects are only of that kind and not, for example, metanarratively causing neutrinos from the sun to knock someone's neurons in a specific direction or anything like that?

I'm not sure! If you have strong preferences about that sort of thing, the power should try to follow them, but it might be hard for it to do that because the things it does might not be things you've thought of enough to have opinions about them. And if it can't make the right things happen without doing something you would have dispreferred, it will make the right things happen anyway. If you have your heart set on some powers like that, but you want them to only work in ways that you're okay with, I could try to alter them in that direction but it might bump up the cost like it did with A Thousand Ships.

I'm probably okay with cost bumping, some of the powers i've picked so far i'm a lot less dead-set on than others and can manage point conservation plus I assume if you are sufficiently similar to a certain genre of fiction you pattern-match to from my world there will eventually be options that give me points rather than cost them

He stares at this sentence and teachers talking about run-on sentences show up in his head admonishing him for them so he adds some extra punctuation:

I'm probably okay with cost bumping, some of the powers i've picked so far i'm a lot less dead-set on than others and can manage point conservation. plus I assume, if you are sufficiently similar to a certain genre of fiction you pattern-match to from my world, there will eventually be options that give me points rather than cost them

There, that's clearer. And then next line:

I can try to better articulate my objections if that would help

Yes, there's a Drawbacks section at the end! And I would love to hear more about your objections so I can help you find the powers that are right for you! ♡

He doesn't want to write out his thoughts while he works through them because they'll probably be pretty unformed so he just keeps them in his head. After some thinking he's confident he's got it down and he starts writing, slowly and thoughtfully.

in theory there are circumstances that could make roughly anyone do roughly anything, but those circumstances can range in plausibility and let's-call-it "forcedness". at one end of this scale you have things like being tired or hungry, having had a fight with someone, having received great news and being in a good mood; at the other end, you have things like having your brain and memories and senses literally edited or your limbs and emotions literally controlled. somewhere closer to the middle you have things like someone going out of their way to upset someone else in expectation that that'll make them more snappish later in some important meeting or something.

then even within a given circumstance there are things one is more or less likely to do. I am in a certain sense more likely to shoot up the school if I slept badly but it's still not at all likely and would require a wildly implausible set of thoughts and feelings going through my head to actually cause that, but on the other hand me having less patience with Nate's antics and biting his head off (metaphorically) for a mostly-innocuous comment is well within my typical behaviour.

so perhaps a way of conceptualising some of that from within the framework of narratives that the Spirit seems drawn to is the concept of something being in character or out of character: it would be IC for me to snap at Nate when sleep deprived and OOC for me to shoot up the school in that situation. and stretching the definition a bit, it would be OOC for the setting of mundane Earth to have neutrinos randomly causing people to act in strange ways but it would be IC for it to have some loud construction work happening near someone's house in a way that makes them sleep badly.

the kinds of things I'm not okay with are the kinds of things that are OOC. people holding the Idiot Ball, people being into me despite their existing preferences and not in a way that's related to how they've always had some latent leanings in that direction, people finding me inherently mysteriously alluring at all times even if in most situations they wouldn't have—flattering lighting and so on makes sense as a sometimes thing but if literally every single time someone sees me I'm in flattering enough lighting that they'd find me alluring while in every other kind of lighting they wouldn't then I'd call foul play

and I understand that within the genre the Spirit seems to want to move me to a lot of similarly implausible things kind of happen to the protagonist and I'm mostly fine with that. but while I could see Nate turning out to have some latent homosexuality that was in him all along—dude's repressed as all hell—it really would not make sense for Gabe to be—he's actually tried being with a guy once to see and he's empirically determined he's not into guys, plus given his whole personality and disposition I would separately be really freaked out if he turned out to be into me despite it all.

does this make sense?

Yes, I think I see what you're saying! (Though Mysterious Allure isn't meant to necessarily be romantic in nature; it only governs literal interest, people paying you more attention than they otherwise might. The romantic options are listed later.)

(sure, i haven't actually read the romantic ones but i was just talking about them due to expectations about the genre. i would have been very surprised if there weren't any options later on about people being super into me romantically or sexually despite past leanings, it's just a part of this genre)

He adds the parentheses after writing the whole sentence because it's in response to the notebook's own parentheses and he doesn't want to confuse the main topic they're conversing about.

anyway, so I don't have a great cutoff for what's definitely okay and what's definitely not okay. i have those thoughts about likelihood of actions and what makes i guess a good story versus a bad story and while i do want to be the kind of character the Spirit seems to want me to be i still want my stories to be cool and good stories with that kind of character, you know? and would in general kind of freak out if things like the Gabes of the world turning out to be into me happened very frequently (though I'd buy them happening every now and then for strictly IC ways reasons that reflect who those people were all along and don't modify who they are or the way they act to achieve those effects, the world is vast and the genre is strong and it would be kind of hot)

He really wishes he could be typing rather than writing by hand. He assumes the notebook must have some magic to make sure that it can always understand the scrawl that he calls handwriting but it's a miracle it's taken him this long to outright make a mistake.

That's very reasonable of you! I think I can definitely alter the mind-affecting options you take to make sure they fit your narrative sensibilities that way. Just tell me which ones you want to change and I'll work it out and update the costs and descriptions accordingly!

i know i've said this before but: best notebook

alright time to actually read those options in more depth

(Once more the tiny hearts.)

The tiny hearts are adorable.

Name: Mysterious Allure - Cost: 5 ☐
There's just something about you. People are drawn to you, fascinated by you. You tend to be the most interesting person in the room unless something really unusual is going on.

...this one is... he can see some of the appeal but he thinks not enough of it to pay 5 points for it (or the updated probably-higher cost involved in making it more palatable).

Name: Captive Audience - Cost: 3 ☐
As long as you have genuine interest in what you're talking about, no one will ever get bored of listening to you talk about it.

............oh God he's tempted. He is so tempted. He thinks he's gonna pass because, like, he wants to actually be that interesting but. God he's tempted.

Name: Blackout Binge - Cost: 2 ☐
(Requires Immunity System)
Heavy use of recreational intoxicants puts you in a carefree, uninhibited state in which it will be universally agreed afterward that you were not responsible for your actions.

No. Not even a little bit. He's not sure how that could be achieved without mind control but, like, he's not even old enough to drink yet (which doesn't mean he hasn't but those were not his proudest moments) and he definitely doesn't want to be excused for shit he does while drugged out.

Name: Disney Princess - Cost: 2 ☐
Animals are always friendly to you, especially the small cute ones. You can effectively tame any animal by feeding it and speaking gently to it.

...maybe? He's not sure why he'd want an animal companion, he knows it's a thing in the genre but he's not, like, a fan of animals, and he has mild not-exactly-trauma about them after he and his siblings got a dog when he was like nine and then they proceeded to neglect it for years until they got rid of it and that was a terrible time for everyone involved the dog most of all. And sure these animals would solve one of the main problems that caused the situation, that of communication, but still: no, not really.

Name: Best Friend - Cost: 3 ☐
You have an animal companion, like a horse or a cat or a raven. They have a cool name and maybe a few nifty cosmetic quirks, like glowing purple eyes. Their loyalty is infinite and they often hold the key to solving whatever situation you're up against. You can understand them perfectly even though they can't speak, and they always know exactly what you mean even if all you do is glance at them meaningfully.

Same deal.

Name: Bestest Friend - Cost: 5 ☐
(Requires Best Friend)
Your animal companion is a fully magical creature, like a dragon or unicorn. They have magnificent supernatural powers ready to be used at your command. They can speak every language you can, but can still communicate with you on a deeper level of mutual love and understanding.

Okay now he's starting to get tempted. Having a dragon companion sounds super cool. He's confused about how he'd get a unicorn, he's not a virgin and would definitely not want to stay one very long if he were, but maybe this is a unicorn from some other form of media where they don't only hang around virgins. Or maybe he's such a Mary Sue that unicorns like him even though he's not a virgin. That'd actually be super Mary Sueish of him and makes him feel tempted by the suite just for that but in the end he thinks he'll pass.

Name: Generosity - Cost: 3 ☐
Your friends love to get you presents. They'll try to pick out things you'll like, but their success depends on how well they know you.

Name: Helpfulness - Cost: 4 ☐
Your friends love to do you favours. They'll volunteer eagerly whenever you need help with small tasks.

Name: Cuddle Buddies - Cost: 2 ☐
Your friends love to hug and cuddle you. Even someone who ordinarily isn't into that sort of thing will make an exception for you.

Name: Flattery - Cost: 1 ☐
Your friends love to compliment you and tell you all about how much they like you and why.

Name: Quality Time - Cost: 2 ☐
Your friends love to hang out with you and spend time together, even if you're not doing anything interesting or important.

No, to any of these? Maybe he just already has very good friends but he's not particularly feeling the lack of any of these and if he can already get them without superpowers he's not gonna waste points on them. Quality Time in particular just sounds like having friends, like that's part of what friends are for is spending uninteresting unimportant Quality Time together.

Name: Agree to Agree - Cost: 4 ☐
You can always convince your friends to see your point of view about things like politics and philosophy. They might have a few quibbles here and there, but they'll see how right you are once you explain where you're coming from in enough detail.

Oh hell to the no.

...wait, actually...

is there a possible version of Agree to Agree that would work only if I am actually right? I guess maybe this breaks some things because I'll know that if I'm failing to convince people then it's because I'm wrong and that in itself should convince me but on the other hand skipping out on disagreement that comes from miscommunication or misunderstanding or hidden assumptions sounds great

Oh, that's a very good question... I'll have to think about that one. It might be tricky and might not do exactly what you want, but I think I can probably come up with something! You can keep asking me questions while I think about it.

awesome, alright

Next:

Name: Love Interest - Cost: 1 ☐
(Requires A Thousand Ships and Mysterious Allure)
Anyone you fall for will inevitably like you back. They may not necessarily act on their feelings, but the potential will be there.

Uh.

This. Sure is an element of the genre, isn't it. He can't say he's zero tempted, especially if this could be arranged in non-mind control ways. He's... gonna have to ask the notebook about it. Because. Because.

...

Because.

(He's a romantic, okay, sue him, he's had his crushes rejected one too many times and would sooner do without if that's on offer.)

so for Love interest, what kinds of metanarrative mechanisms are available here? i'm not sure how I would cause these effects without mind control and mind control-alikes

If I made an altered version of Love Interest that only operated in ways you were okay with, I think it would do things like having you only meet people you were likely to be into if they were also likely to be into you, and showing you in your best light to people you were into, and giving people you were into character development that led them toward being into you. The ordinary version does things like that too but also does other things, like changing people's minds directly, or giving them out-of-character epiphanies.

Jesus Christ he's so glad he had that very long diatribe there about free will and mind control because yikes.

...god, there totally are other people in other universes that were offered these powers and who 100% took the mind control options, aren't there. He's creeped out.

I would really appreciate such a version

a separate and mostly unrelated question, i assume there are other people out there in the multiverse who also have the power of the Spirit, right? am I at all likely to meet them? what happens if I do and our powers enter into conflict?