(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.

Mysterious Allure 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.

Captive Audience............ 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.

Blackout Binge: 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.

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.

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.

Disney Princess: ...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.

Best Friend: same deal.

Bestest Friend: 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.

Generosity, Helpfulness, Cuddle Buddies, Flattery, Quality Time: no? 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.

Agree to Agree: 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: Love Interest.

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?

One of the Drawback options makes you likely to meet other people chosen by the Spirit! It almost never happens by itself.

When two people chosen by the Spirit meet, the ways their powers apply to each other are mostly dictated by the combination of their narrative preferences. If there's any way they can live a story together that's part of both of their best lives, they do that. Otherwise, things get complicated, but the biggest question governing power interactions is still 'what kind of story does this person want to live?'.

that makes sense. I'll probably not pick the drawback, though, I think I want to be the protagonist of my story

And not have another Mary Sue mind controlling everyone around her ahahahahah.

Reasonable!

Anyway where was he ah yes Love Interest which may soon be modified to be less mind controlling so next is Love Triangle...

Name: Love Triangle - Cost: 2 ☐
(Requires Love Interest)
People you fall for will be open to dating you even if they already have another serious relationship, or other circumstances that would ordinarily interfere, like a demanding career or a vow of chastity. This may cause drama, but it'll blow over quickly and there won't be any serious problems.

...

........

Uh huh. Sure. "Drama". He's onto you. So that's a no from him.

Next, Love Dodecahedron...

Name: Love Dodecahedron - Cost: 5 ☐
(Requires Love Triangle)
When you fall for someone who is already seriously dating or even married, your romantic rival will be open to allowing their partner to date you, and may even want to date you themselves.

...solves the drama? Apparently? By? Everyone being poly? Okay that is really tempting and he's sure there's a metanarrative thing that'll be happening here such that he'll only happen to run into people to potentially fall for who are already up for being poly. Really tempting. Except...

...he rereads "Love Triangle"...

..."Love Dodecahedron" solves specifically the romantic drama. He's onto you, again, with your

or other circumstances that would ordinarily interfere, like a demanding career or a vow of chastity

So yeah he does not want people to quit their jobs or break their vows of chastity or whatever for him. That's a hard pass.

Next:

Name: Time Enough For Love - Cost: 5 ☐
No matter how many people you want to date or be close friends with, you will somehow find the time to hang out with all of them and express your love and care. This power can only be used for relationship activities and not for anything else you might want to use the ability to be in two places at once for.

WOW he nearly dug a hole into the page there uh.

sorry about nearly digging a hole into your page there. i got excited.

That's okay, I understand! A lot of people really like that one.

yeah no kidding

Next is...

Name: I Can Fix Them - Cost: 5 ☐
Regardless of how morally despicable someone is, your love can and will reform them into a genuinely good, kind, upstanding person who regrets their evil deeds.

This CYOA is really doing its level best to throw all of his moral intuitions at weird places to see where they fall, huh. Goddamnit.

Okay, so, thinking through this one... He still has a strong aversion to mind control, and he's sure that he could ask the notebook for a non-mind control version of this power, but...

That'd make him only ever run into villains who were already, from the start, seducible into being nice people. Right? And so all of the villains who are in fact irredeemable will continue to not be redeemed. So maybe it is worthwhile taking this with fully unadulterated mind control so he can deal with the worst villains around?

...is he seriously considering using his dick as a weapon to make villains less villainous. Well, "love" not "dick", it'd be more of a sweet thing of romancing the villain and making them realise the error of their ways...

Man. Man he really, uh. He really. Should. Not. Do this. He just shouldn't. He has tried it before, and it was even with people who weren't morally despicable, it was just regular people whom he thought he could fix with sufficient applications of loving them and it didn't work and it didn't work in disastrous ways and, and this power guarantees that it'd work actually this time so if he just did it then it'd be fine and.

And.

THIS IS SUCH A BAD IDEA WHY IS HIS PEN HOVERING OVER THAT LITTLE BOX AUGHHHHHH

HE'LL THINK ABOUT IT LATER.

NEXT.

Name: True Love's Kiss - Cost: 1 ☐
By kissing your true love, you can break any curse, heal any injury, and cure any illness. The same works in reverse.

That's very innocuous and strictly positive and an immediate yes.

Next is...

Name: Planned Parenthood - Cost: 1 ☐
You can only have children if you actively and specifically want to. Your partners will understand this and not worry too much about it.

can I get Planned Parenthood without the part where people are automatically okay with it? i don't particularly want anything to replace that with, i'm fine having this be a plot point or a source of conflict or something i have to work through and actually now that i say all of this i confess i'm not entirely sure whether that'd have changed anything about the cost even if it wasn't already just a 1? is having conflict about this the kind of thing that the Spirit disprefers and would thus cost more power or, how exactly does that work?

If you take the Incomplete drawback later on, I can bend it to erase the mind-affecting parts of Planned Parenthood. It might help me with the Agree to Agree problem, too! And the modified Love Interest!

oh excellent I'll watch for it then

Next...

Name: Two Become One - Cost: 1 ☐
(Requires Planned Parenthood)
When you have sex, it is always special and wonderful and beautiful. No one ever elbows anyone in the face or makes undignified noises.

...pass. Sex is messy and that's part of it and it, it's, it feels a bit like it defeats the point to always have it be ~special and wonderful and beautiful~. It... detracts from the humanity of it. He thinks.

Name: Bop It - Cost: 1 ☐
(Requires Two Become One)
The mysteries of another's body are an open book to you, and you always know exactly how to move and touch in order to please someone in bed.

Bop It on the other hand is a lot more tempting if it weren't for the requirement. Not... he thinks it's not tempting enough that he'd take it, especially because he does sort of pride himself in his ability to figure out how to make someone melt on his fingers the hard way.