She's floating bodilessly in a mysterious void, and she can't remember how she got here.
So, dream, or high-octane magic nonsense?
Well, she can't place any specific recent memories, which argues for dream. But she's lucid enough to rummage through her head for them, which argues against.
I'm really sorry about this. I normally appear to people under much better circumstances, but this was the best we could do.
Can you, um, read me?
Oh, your handwriting is lovely! That's very impressive. I don't think most people can form handwriting in this kind of situation.
Who are you?
Where am I?
I'm an avatar of the Spirit of Femininity Unleashed!
Where you are is sort of a complicated question but I think the short answer is "nowhere". I don't know the exact details, but the only time I ever appear to someone like this is when their consciousness is pretty well unsupported by material reality for one reason or another, and that usually means something bad happened.
So I'm dead, is what you're saying.
Probably. More or less. It's possible that you would be able to recover on your own, but I wouldn't like to rely on it.
With phrases like "consciousness unsupported by material reality" flying around, neither would I.
What does the Spirit of Femininity Unleashed want with me?
It wants you—well, not just you; really anyone who wants—to be beautiful and powerful and special and feminine in just the way you want, and live your best life as your best and most wonderful self!
Well, colour me tentatively intrigued.With some concentration, she manages to add a stroke of pink highlighter.
Oh, that's so funny! ♡ You're really good at this. Most people can't write in me nearly as well without a material substrate.
Would you like to see the list of powers the Spirit offers?
No, wait, write in you?
I'm a notebook!
Are you telling me that the answer to "where am I" is "inside a cosmic notebook that wants to give me presents"?
Well. Yes. Sort of. You're not wrong. That's a funny way to put it, though.
I like to think I am occasionally funny.
Getting back to the list of powers—I'm not agreeing to anything if I take a look, right?
Not at all! If you don't want to take any powers you don't have to. I'll only give you powers if you tell me clearly that you've arrived at a list you want to finalize and you're ready to accept them.
Then I guess I'm all right with seeing the list.
All right! One moment please... ⏳
She watches(?) the ink in the doodled hourglass trickle down. Being inside a cosmic notebook is quite the experience.
Ink flows and twists, barely visible to her formless senses, spilling itself across untold pages that are arranged in no particular order in no particular space. Slowly, it resolves into the lines and letters of a very neatly formatted list, complete with checkboxes on every option heading and a little (0/70) that is both out of the way and very easy to find. Then at last the hourglass stops trickling and the notebook scribbles a quick introduction somewhere in the indefinite pagespace before the list.
There!
So the way this usually works is that you read through the list, ask me any questions you have about how the powers work and what they mean, and if you think of a power you want that isn't on the list, you ask me to invent it for you and I do my best to offer you something that's right for you. Then you check all the boxes for powers you want, and if they all fit into the amount of points you have available, you can ask me to finalize that list and I'll give them to you! Does that make sense?
The preamble at the top of the list reads,
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.
After that it gets long.
You must choose exactly one Destination.
Name: Stay Put - Cost: 0 ☐
You're just going to take these powers and keep on keeping on right where you are.
Name: Somewhere In Mind - Cost: 0 ☐
You have a specific destination you want to go to. You can choose any place, real, historical, fictional, or made up in your own head right now, and the Spirit will take you there. After that, you're on your own as far as further interdimensional travel.
Name: Isekai Roulette - Cost: 0 ☐
Trust to the will of the Spirit and let it take you where you need to go. It will look at far more options than you could ever know about, and pick something that's likely to be even better for you than whatever you would have chosen on your own.
These powers affect your own self and nature, without direct effects on other people. Some of them are prerequisites for powers in the later Power of Friendship section.
Name: A Thousand Ships - Cost: 1 ☐
Your face is simply exquisite, an ideal of feminine beauty. There are many possible ideals of feminine beauty, and yours is whichever one speaks most deeply to your soul. Others may match your beauty in their own way, but never exceed it.
Name: A Hundred Ships - Cost: 1 ☐
(Replaces A Thousand Ships)
Your face is simply exquisite, an ideal of feminine beauty. There are many possible ideals of feminine beauty, and yours is whichever one speaks most deeply to your soul. Instead of prioritizing pure beauty, this power prioritizes what feels right to you.
Name: What's In A Name - Cost: 1 ☐
Magic to divine true names will accept whatever alias you choose to think of as your true name. Magic to use your true name against you will fail.
Name: Angelic Tones - Cost: 2 ☐
Your voice is supernaturally beautiful and you can sing in any vocal range.
Name: Emerald Orbs - Cost: 2 ☐
At all times, your eyes are exactly the right colour. This effect operates based on your sense of aesthetics, in-the-moment preferences, and narrative considerations. Your eyes can be ANY colour this way. Lightless black voids? Brilliant white stars? Limpid pools of endless sapphire? They will look exactly the way you'd want them to look if you were writing a self-insert fanfic about this exact moment of your life.
Name: Perfect Hair - Cost: 2 ☐
At all times, you have exactly the right hairstyle. This effect operates based on your sense of aesthetics, in-the-moment preferences, and narrative considerations. It is not limited to physically or logistically plausible hairstyles.
Name: Size Difference - Cost: 2 ☐
At all times, you are exactly the right height. This effect operates based on your sense of aesthetics, in-the-moment preferences, and narrative considerations. It will usually keep any height changes fairly subtle, but at dramatic moments you might discover yourself able to shrink to the size of a bee or grow to the size of a giant.
Name: Dressing Room - Cost: 3 ☐
No matter how ridiculous your outfit, it will stay pristine and perfect, unless it would be more dramatic for you to be artfully bedraggled. You can use any quiet moment to yourself to quick-change your clothes, shoes, nails, and hairstyle into a completely new look. (You cannot change your hair length or colour this way without Perfect Hair, but you can braid or style it.)
Name: Pocket Dimension - Cost: 1 ☐
(Requires Dressing Room)
You can reach into your pocket, purse, backpack, or other storage accessory and pull out anything that can fit through its opening, even if it obviously could not fit in the pocket and even if you've never carried that object in that pocket before. In order to summon a specific object this way, it needs to belong to you; in order to duplicate an existing object this way, you need to have held or examined it at least once; in order to invent a new object this way, you need to be familiar enough with what you want that you could tell the real thing apart from a fake made with the same materials. So jewelry you make will be real gold or silver or platinum, but if you want to pull a refrigerator out of your backpack, you need to have a reasonably good idea of how a refrigerator works.
Name: Undressing Room - Cost: 3 ☐
(Requires Dressing Room)
The question of what clothes you are wearing no longer has a specific well-defined answer, but depends on the interactions you're having and how you prefer to be clothed for the purpose of those interactions. You could walk into a room and sit down in a chair, and be naked to all the people in the room but wearing underwear from the perspective of the chair; you could attend a fancy ball and be wearing a fancy ballgown to most people, but let your friends see you in a banana costume instead; you could let someone's hands pass through clothing that their eyes can still see. It may take some practice to become well-attuned to your new sense of how each person and object you interact with is perceiving your state of dress, but you'll always be able to tell if you take a moment to wonder.
Name: Personal Hygiene - Cost: 1 ☐
You are always clean and fresh, never needing to use a bath or toilet.
Name: Like Roses - Cost: 1 ☐
(Requires Personal Hygiene)
You smell lovely. Your scent is unique to you, and may involve any combination of warm spices, floral notes, petrichor, or other things you think smell good. You do not need any justification for why you smell like this.
Name: Just A Little Longer - Cost: 1 ☐
If you push yourself, you can keep doing any task or working on any project indefinitely, visibly strained but never impaired by injury or fatigue. As soon as you stop, you'll collapse with exhaustion and sleep for up to a full day to regain your strength. This only works when what you're doing is personally important to you.
Name: Immunity System - Cost: 3 ☐
You can't get sick or poisoned. You can still use recreational drugs and alcohol normally, but can't overdose.
Name: Breathe Easy - Cost: 1 ☐
(Requires Personal Hygiene and Immunity System)
Eating, breathing, and other forms of environmental exchange are no longer necessary for you. You cannot be harmed by denying your body resources, or by supplying the wrong ones. You can still benefit from positive effects of things you breathe or eat.
Name: My Ears Are Burning - Cost: 6 ☐
You always know exactly what people are thinking, as long as it's about you. This effect is not telepathy and is not blocked by effects that block telepathy. It applies even to people you can't perceive normally. You are never impaired by the flood of information.
Name: Well Endowed - Cost: 1 ☐
You have a generous figure, whether that's a classic hourglass or more of a well-rounded look; you can choose the details. Your endowments maintain a state of perfect grace and beauty at all times, never troubling you with uncomfortable bounces or uninvited jiggles.
Name: Hollow Leg - Cost: 1 ☐
(Requires Well Endowed)
Regardless of your diet and exercise habits, your body maintains the physique and silhouette you prefer. Lack of visible muscle never impairs your strength or endurance. As your preferences change, so will your body; you are no longer bound to the generous figure stipulated by Well Endowed.
Name: Inner Strength - Cost: 3 ☐
(Requires Hollow Leg)
You are implausibly, superhumanly strong, with endurance and toughness to match. You might have to strain a little to lift and carry at the same level as construction equipment, or deal with lightly scraped knuckles if you punch as hard as a battering ram.
Name: Lightfoot - Cost: 3 ☐
(Requires Hollow Leg)
You are perfectly, superhumanly graceful, with reflexes and agility to match. You can cross a field of snow without leaving a footprint, or stand on a slender branch without bending it, or jump so lightly that you soar through the air instead of falling.
Name: Battle Angel - Cost: 1 ☐
Somehow, you never get significantly injured in a fight, unless it's a very dramatic and plot-relevant fight in which case you might be glamorously wounded and pick up a cool new scar.
Name: Battle Demon - Cost: 1 ☐
You have an unerring intuition for gaps in an opponent's defenses, though it may be beyond your power to exploit them.
Name: Battle Maiden - Cost: 3 ☐
(Requires Battle Angel and Battle Demon)
No matter what kind of fight you're getting in, you're always a match for even the most skilled opponent.
Name: Gloryseeker - Cost: 1 ☐
Somehow, you never get significantly injured when doing cool stunts like skydiving or parkour. At especially dramatic moments, you might pick up a cool new scar.
Name: Pacifist - Cost: 6 ☐
Fights don't happen to you. Any violent conflict you might otherwise get into is either avoided by coincidence, or replaced with a yelling match, game, contest, race, or dance battle, whichever is most appropriate to the situation. Powers you have that give you advantages in fights also apply to fight replacements.
Name: Making Ends Meet - Cost: 1 ☐
You have enough money to sustain a comfortable lifestyle. It comes from a source you don't have to pay much attention to, like a job with almost no responsibilities, a large inheritance, or a noble title.
Name: Motherlode - Cost: 2 ☐
(Requires Making Ends Meet)
You have enough money to sustain a fairly extravagant lifestyle. It doesn't come from anywhere, you just have it.
Name: Four Star Daydream - Cost: 4 ☐
(Requires Motherlode)
The answer to 'can I afford that' is 'yes'.
Name: Five Star Daydream - Cost: 4 ☐
(Replaces Four Star Daydream)
In any world you visit, you will quickly find opportunities to generate enough value to effectively afford anything that's up for sale anywhere in the local economy.
Name: Omniglot - Cost: 3 ☐
You learn languages insanely, ludicrously fast. You know exactly what any word said to you means, and you make strangely accurate guesses about how to phrase things you're trying to say. You never forget any grammar or vocabulary you learn.
Name: Anything You Can Do - Cost: 6 ☐
You learn implausibly quickly from friends, rivals, and love interests. If you have a personal connection to someone with a certain skill, talent, or expertise, you'll learn it five times faster than they did, or twenty times faster if they're actively trying to teach you. This applies even to forms of magic that you ordinarily shouldn't be able to learn.
Name: Dragon Fairy Elf Witch - Cost: 5 ☐
You can at any time discover previously unknown heritage from any type of being you encounter, even if this makes no sense or contradicts previously established descriptions of your family tree. You always get their powers without their drawbacks, unless the drawbacks are cool and dramatic. Any visible features of this heritage will appear at narratively appropriate moments and be cute, pretty, beautiful, or striking rather than awkward, weird, gross, or scary. This ability works even if the beings in question cannot reproduce with humans, or at all.
Name: Snowglobe - Cost: 4 ☐
In worlds where people can have individual special powers, such as powered superheroes or personality-based magic, you find that you can pick up a power of your own even if you don't meet the local requirements. Drawbacks of these powers, such as uncontrollable power manifestations or a tendency to attract unwanted supernatural attention, will only apply if they are cool and dramatic.
Name: Unleash The Magic - Cost: 3 ☐
(Requires Anything You Can Do, Dragon Fairy Elf Witch, and Snowglobe)
Any form of magic or other special ability you encounter can be yours, regardless of prerequisites, as long as you see it in action at least once. Your various powers and attributes will never conflict with each other or come with annoying drawbacks, and will often synergize in cool and interesting ways.
Name: Soulbound - Cost: 8 ☐
If something feels instinctively like a part of you, then it is. A necklace you always wear will be impossible to lose. A vehicle you care for deeply will be impossible to steal. A tool or power you rely on like part of your body will become as hard to misplace as your own hands. Tools, devices, and powers that you absorb this way will be translated into the form of Spirit-granted powers, granting them the flexibility to Just Work despite pesky details like network protocols, service providers, and laws of physics, and will be fully as well protected as your own mind and body are by all of your potentially applicable powers.
Name: Personal Space - Cost: 3 ☐
No one can touch you intimately if you don't want them to. You can still be struck in a fight or bumped into in crowds, but things like hugs and kisses and sex only happen if you're okay with them.
Name: Closed Book - Cost: 1 ☐
You're immune to any supernatural, pharmaceutical, or other effect that would let people directly read your thoughts or feelings.
Name: Indelible - Cost: 1 ☐
You're immune to any supernatural, pharmaceutical, or other effect that would let people directly alter your thoughts or feelings.
Name: Iron Will - Cost: 2 ☐
(Requires Closed Book and Indelible)
You are immune to all forms of mental illusion, alteration, interference, or control. Even extreme torture, extended solitary confinement, advanced brainwashing techniques, and so on cannot touch you. You can be lonely but not cripplingly lonely. You can be upset but not traumatized. (You can choose to allow specific effects like communicative telepathy on a case-by-case basis.)
Name: It Gets Better - Cost: 5 ☐
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.
Name: The Great Equalizer - Cost: 8 ☐
Where you go, Fate shatters. Forms of prophecy that were once perfectly reliable stop working, or show a broad array of possibilities instead of a single coherent future. Imbalances of magical luck wash out, leaving everyone lucky and no one able to leverage their luck against an opponent. If you stay in the same world for a year and a day, this effect will be permanent even after you leave and even if someone tries to constrain the future anew in your absence.
Name: Star-Straightened - Cost: 8 ☐
(Replaces The Great Equalizer)
By default you are invisible to all forms of future-sight and invincible to all forms of fate- or luck-related curse, prophecy, or doom, including indirect effects such as your enemies' luckiness making your plans go awry. However, whenever such a divination or manipulation is something you would choose to allow if you had full information about its nature, intent, and likely effects, then it works fine. In ambiguous cases, the default holds.
These powers affect how others see you and how you interact with them.
In general, effects that describe others' reactions (like their attention being drawn to you by Mysterious Allure, or their sympathy being provoked by Tragic Backstory) operate on a metanarrative rather than a causal level. They are not mind control, and are not blocked by effects that block mind control.
Your true love is anyone you're pursuing a serious romantic relationship with. You can have as many of these as you like, but your feelings for all of them must be genuine.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Name: Ascended Friend - Cost: 5 ☐
(Requires Bestest Friend)
Your animal companion is now a minor deity. If you encounter any magic system in your travels that involves gods or other beings empowering their followers, your Friend will discover the ability to empower you the same way.
Name: Transformer - Cost: 1 ☐
(Requires Best Friend)
Instead of (or in addition to) being an animal companion, your Friend takes the form of a tool, weapon, or vehicle.
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.
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.
Name: Backchannel - Cost: 4 ☐
When you're talking to someone and you think you might not be getting through to each other, you can take a step back, look deep into your heart, and really try to understand where they're coming from, and it will just work and you'll know what they're trying to say and how sincere they are about it and have a good idea of what you should say if you want them to understand you right back.
Name: You Can Teach Better - Cost: 8 ☐
(Requires Anything You Can Do)
If you have a personal connection to someone, you can teach them anything you know; depending how motivated and engaged they are, they could learn it up to 110% as fast as you could have learned it using Anything You Can Do. If you consider them a good friend or otherwise especially close, this applies even to forms of magic that they ordinarily shouldn't be able to learn.
Name: Not Like Other Girls - Cost: 2 ☐
People will understand that you're different. They won't make assumptions about you based on prejudice or stereotype, they won't apply legal or societal limitations to you based on what kind of person you are, and they won't take you as a representative of your demographics.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Name: Safe at Home - Cost: 4 ☐
No one will hurt your loved ones to get at you, or vice versa.
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.
Name: I Can Help Them - Cost: 5 ☐
(Replaces I Can Fix Them)
Regardless of how lost to darkness someone is, your love can save them, if they're willing to accept it.
This power will not directly alter someone's mind except to allow them to believe a true thing they couldn't have believed otherwise, or to change something that their pre-alteration and post-alteration selves would hypothetically be able to agree was good if they talked it over honestly with full access to each other's perspectives. In cases where the outcome of the hypothetical is uncertain, it will default to not making the change.
Name: Inspirational - Cost: 5 ☐
Just meeting you makes people want to be better. Those who hurt you, or hurt someone you care about, will always come to understand your point of view and regret what they've done. In trade, you might sometimes come to understand more of their point of view than you'd like.
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.
Name: Eternal Love - Cost: 2 ☐
(Requires True Love's Kiss)
Those you love cannot be parted from you by anything short of their own uncoerced decision to leave. Anything else—war, politics, death, interdimensional travel—you will find a way to overcome and be reunited.
Name: The Rescuer - Cost: 5 ☐
(Requires Eternal Love)
If someone is dead who would want to be alive again, and you set your heart on returning them, you will find a way. It may have costs or difficulties or take a long time, but you will find it, and it will work.
Name: Planned Parenthood - Cost: 1 ☐
You can only have children if you actively and specifically want to. Your partners will instinctively believe you about this, and won't be concerned that you might be wrong or fibbing.
Name: Providential Parenthood - Cost: 1 ☐
(Replaces Planned Parenthood)
You can only have children when you're really ready for it, or if you actively and specifically decide to.
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.
Name: Laugh Together - Cost: 1 ☐
(Replaces Two Become One)
When you have sex, you find it easy to free yourself from expectations and anxieties and immerse yourself in the experience of the moment. Your partners get the same benefits.
Name: Here For A Good Time - Cost: 1 ☐
(Replaces Two Become One)
When you have sex, the world gets out of your way. Pillows don't fall off the bed; blankets don't end up scrunched in uncomfortable places. You are exactly as graceful as you want to be, and have excellent luck evading misaimed elbows.
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.
Name: The Princess And The Dragon - Cost: 3 ☐
No matter who or what you're trying to sleep with, the logistics will all work out, somehow. Arbitrary differences in size, biology, temperature, substrate, and underlying physics can be gotten around with sufficient creativity and determination.
Name: GGG - Cost: 4 ☐
Your true love will be willing to try just about anything you suggest in bed, and if you really enjoy it, they'll really enjoy it too.
Name: Before Your Eyes - Cost: 4 ☐
In your presence, people become willing to experiment sexually in ways they normally wouldn't. For some reason this applies especially well to boys kissing each other.
Name: Reaching Out - Cost: 4 ☐
(Replaces Before Your Eyes)
Your presence is a catalyst that encourages people to let go of preconceptions and constraints and have the courage to try things that they might like even if they're new or unfamiliar or scary. However that turns out, it will ultimately help those people understand themselves and their desires, and won't do lasting damage physically, emotionally, or socially to anyone involved.
Name: Fated Lovers - Cost: 3 ☐
You will meet someone who will go on to become your true love. If you enter a specific universe with a specific target in mind, you'll meet that person under favourable circumstances, and if it doesn't work out with them, this power will keep introducing you to new possibilities until you find someone who's right for you. If you're the sort of person who can have multiple true loves, you'll keep meeting new ones until you have enough.
Name: Fated Friends - Cost: 4 ☐
Wherever you go, you will be steered into meeting people you'd do well to befriend. It's up to you to recognize and appreciate them.
Name: Sorry About That - Cost: 3 ☐
Your true love will be extremely forgiving. Even if you make mistakes or act thoughtlessly toward them, a simple apology will mend things between you. They may expect you to try to improve, but they'll be infinitely patient about how fast that improvement takes place.
Name: Excuse Me - Cost: 5 ☐
(Requires Sorry About That)
All your friends will be just as forgiving as your true love.
Name: Tragic Backstory - Cost: 8 ☐
(Requires Excuse Me)
Something terrible happened to you in your past. Anyone who hears about it immediately forgives you for any and all bad behaviour in the present. They will not expect you to grow or change, and will continue sympathetically excusing whatever you do indefinitely.
Name: Sense of Style - Cost: 4 ☐
People who are romantically interested in you will start dressing more to your taste. The more romantically compatible they are, the better they'll be able to guess exactly what to wear to catch your eye.
Name: Bonus Style Points - Cost: 3 ☐
(Requires Sense of Style)
Luck will shine on anyone trying to dress up for you. They'll get their hands on outfits they couldn't normally afford, their clothes will fit better, and in extreme cases they might even find themselves able to change shape, sex, or species—though only in ways that make them more, not less, comfortable in their own skin.
Name: Like a Mirror - Cost: 3 ☐
An underlying fact of the multiverse is that the same person can exist in multiple places, either as an alternate timeline where something went differently, or as the same essence of identity expressed under different circumstances. This power will steer you toward the local version of you, if they exist, in each world you visit. Your alternate selves will be happy to meet you, get along with you smoothly, and be inclined to cooperate with you.
Name: Self-Reflection - Cost: 5 ☐
Whenever you meet someone who is you, or was you, or could have been you, or will be you, a special bond is formed, allowing you to keep in touch with them no matter how far you travel. You can speak out loud to someone who is you, and they'll hear you as though you were standing right next to them; you can write notes to someone who is you, and the note will appear near them; you can send messages to someone who is you, and they'll receive them even if there's more than a world between you. The person on the other end of the bond can contact you in just the same way. This lasts as long as each of you considers the other a reflection of themselves and each of you wants to stay in touch with the other.
Name: Chaser Six When - Cost: 4 ☐
(Requires Time Enough For Love and Self-Reflection)
Two of you who are near each other can decide to merge, becoming a conjoined double consciousness sharing two bodies. One of you can decide to fragment, adding a body and a conjoined consciousness to drive it. You can share with yourselves not only messages but direct mind-to-mind transmission of thoughts and memories across any distance. Your fragments can narrow themselves down to focus on embodying specific mental states or orienting themselves to specific tasks, in a way that's fully reversible and doesn't make them any less you; they can also split off into discrete forks just as easily as discrete forks can conjoin themselves with each other. Fully merging conjoined selves into a completely unified being with only one you's worth of mind is also possible, but takes more time and effort and can't be done as fluidly.
Name: Severance - Cost: 2 ☐
Identities that you gravely and deliberately cast aside no longer describe you or refer to you. You cannot be traced by them or identified with them. No one will ever know that you are the same person you were once known as, unless you choose to personally tell them.
Name: Popular - Cost: 3 ☐
Wherever you go, you develop a reputation fast. The sort of people who you'd like to have as fans tend to hear about you and be impressed. You may not make an impression on mainstream society at large, but you'll develop a following among the people who best resonate with your style.
Name: Famous - Cost: 3 ☐
(Requires Popular)
Wherever you go, people really take to you. You're the subject of constant gossip and most people have heard of you before you meet them. People you've never met will get crushes on you.
Name: Undiplomatic Immunity - Cost: 6 ☐
You are above the law. Any crimes you commit will be overlooked by the authorities. Note that, if you do enough crime that you start looking more like an invading army, local governments will still feel free to declare war.
Name: Friends In Low Places - Cost: 3 ☐
You make friends easily among the lowest echelons of society, the underdogs and underworlders. Moving and acting in these circles is intuitive and natural for you.
Name: Friends In High Places - Cost: 3 ☐
You make friends easily at the highest echelons of society, among the rich and powerful. Moving and acting in these circles is intuitive and natural for you.
Name: Friends in Strange Places - Cost: 3 ☐
You make friends easily in small isolated communities, among those who may be scorned by mainstream society for their differences or may just be so obscure that mainstream society mostly hasn't heard of them. Moving and acting in these circles is intuitive and natural for you.
Name: Vending Machine - Cost: 12 ☐
You can instantiate any person (real, fictional, or made up in your head) in any world you're in. Instantiating a real person will not pull them from their original world; it will create either a copy with their memories or the version of that person who would exist had they been born in that world. Instantiation can be retroactive: that is, you can use the power, and then meet the person you instantiated and find that they were already here and have lived in this world all their life.
These options grant points rather than costing them. They represent inconveniences or mitigations of existing advantages.
Name: Decorative - Grants: +1 ☐
You are unfailingly cute and pretty and feminine at all times, in all circumstances. You cannot wear insufficiently pretty clothes. You cannot make insufficiently pretty noises. You cannot ugly cry.
Name: Beauty Is A Curse - Grants: +1 ☐
(Requires A Thousand Ships)
No, you don't understand. Beauty IS a curse. People will NOT stop bringing it up. Everyone you meet just has to point out how pretty you are. This will never stop happening. Even the most tactful people find it slipping out subtly, as remarks about the luster of your hair or the depth of your eyes.
Name: Plain Jane - Grants: +2 ☐
No matter what you look like, nor how many times people tell you you're beautiful, when you look in the mirror all you see is imperfections. You will never be fully satisfied with your appearance on an instinctive level.
Name: Style of Sisyphus - Grants: +1 ☐
Anytime you settle on a personal style that works well for you, soon afterward you'll encounter inspiration for another style that you like even better. You might end up cycling between different fashions, or trying to incorporate them all into a single outfit (and then finding another inspiration and having to start all over again).
Name: There's Another One - Grants: +3 ☐
You are not the only vessel of the Spirit. You might meet someone else with similar powers to yours; you might even meet more than one. Your susceptibility to one another's powers will be governed by the narrative.
Name: Incomplete - Grants: +5 ☐
About half of people you encounter will be immune to all mind-affecting aspects of your powers, and about half of those who remain will see reduced effects. You can do nothing to change this.
Name: Nullified - Grants: +1 ☐
(Requires Incomplete)
Any aspects of your powers that would affect the minds of others in ways they might not like will instead not do that. This can make many of your powers less effective.
Name: Great Responsibility - Grants: +4 ☐
When someone calls out to you for help, you can hear it no matter how far away you are, and you know exactly how they feel.
Name: Funhouse - Grants: +2 ☐
(Requires Like a Mirror)
This removes the restriction that all your alternate selves must get along with you. Now they can relate to you in all the ways you might potentially relate to another version of yourself. If you get along well with yourself, this might not be so bad.
Name: Very Distinctive - Grants: +3 ☐
(Requires at least three of: A Thousand Ships, Angelic Tones, Emerald Orbs, Perfect Hair, Size Difference, Dressing Room, Like Roses, Well Endowed)
You cannot successfully disguise yourself to anyone who has met you in your normal identity. Even someone who has only seen you at a distance or heard about your style might notice similarities.
Name: Flashy - Grants: +2 ☐
(Requires Very Distinctive and at least five of: A Thousand Ships, Angelic Tones, Emerald Orbs, Perfect Hair, Size Difference, Dressing Room, Like Roses, Well Endowed, Mysterious Allure)
Stealth just doesn't work for you. If someone has any opportunity to notice your presence, they will.
Name: Secret Identity - Grants: +2 ☐
When you're at home, in your world of origin, your powers are fully concealed. Unfair advantages are withdrawn and inhuman features are hidden. Powers of safety and convenience still work, as long as they can remain plausibly deniable, but to all outward appearances you're back to being your ordinary self with no magic to speak of. (If you take this with They'll Know, the standards for plausible deniability will be much more restrictive and fewer powers will be able to work with them, but safety powers will still work and still conceal themselves.)
Name: Selective Memory - Grants: +3 ☐
Pick between three and ten of your chosen powers and drawbacks. You forget that they were ever offered to you, and all evidence that you took them is erased. You still have them, but you no longer remember what they are. It is possible to rediscover them later by observing them in action, but it might take a while to pin down exactly what they were. It's up to you whether or not to list this drawback among them.
Name: The Veil - Grants: +5 ☐
(Requires Selective Memory)
You forget that these powers were ever offered to you, and all evidence that you chose them is erased. You still proceed to your Destination as normal, but without any explanation for why you were suddenly transported to another world, if you chose to travel to one. It is still possible to discover your powers by observation, but pinning down the details could turn out to be quite the project.
Name: Dramatic Damsel - Grants: +3 ☐
When (and only when) an opportunity for a really great story arises, powers that ordinarily protect you from things like getting hurt, being drugged, or losing fights will slip just enough to facilitate someone getting the better of you. The power may reassert itself right away for a dramatic escape, or keep a loophole open or a handicap in place long enough to make your escape more difficult and elaborate. (Combining this with Realism is not recommended.)
Name: Green With Envy - Grants: +6 ☐
People are so eager to be your friend that they become bitter and vindictive when denied the opportunity. You can tear apart long-established friend groups if you aren't careful to give everyone equal attention, and sometimes even then. This effect is particularly harsh around people you're dating.
Name: You Ruin Them - Grants: +3 ☐
Once someone has dated, slept with, or even shared a deep and longing glance across a room with you, their heart is never fully satisfied with anyone else. Other relationships pale in comparison to what they could have, or imagine they could have, with you.
Name: Jilted Lovers - Grants: +4 ☐
When you break up with someone, they become monomaniacally obsessed with getting back together. If you take Realism, this will absolutely escalate to violent stalking.
Name: The Crazy Train - Grants: +6 ☐
Powers that you should be able to control directly or influence by your mood and preferences (like Dragon Fairy Elf Witch, Emerald Orbs, or What's In A Name) instead answer only to the narrative, which is still using your aesthetics but might not necessarily have your best interests in mind. Combines... interestingly... with Realism.
Name: They'll Know - Grants: +8 ☐
This drawback lifts the veil that discourages people from realizing how your powers affect the world around them and their own minds. Warning: this knowledge can cause a lot of trouble.
Name: Realism - Grants: +20 ☐
Give up your metanarrative protection. Although your individually selected powers still work as described, the invisible synergies that protect you from, say, gaining violent stalkers through Mysterious Allure or being genuinely traumatized by your Tragic Backstory are removed. Additionally, though effects like I Can Fix Them still operate, they may take considerably more effort, care, thought, and narrative investment on your part.
This is a lot to process.
I do think it makes sense, though.
Oh good! ✨
The cosmic notebook is so friend-shaped.
Okay. She turns her attention to the list. There's a lot of it and she wants to be sure to understand it all before she makes any decisions.
Stay Put would leave me in a state of questionable existence, right?
Would Somewhere In Mind be able to take me home?
It would!
Can I uncheck something I've checked, if I change my mind later?
Yes, absolutely! You can scribble out your checkmark, or ask me to erase it for you—but with as good as you've been at writing in me so far, I bet you can also figure out how to erase it yourself.
Neat!
Can you tell me more about... what the Spirit wants, and how I'm meant to relate to that? Is this a bargain where I fulfill my end by choosing the right powers and doing the right things with them, or is it more like a gift where I'm asked to pick out whatever I like and carry it off with no further obligation?
It's definitely a gift. But it's also really important to the Spirit to help you choose the powers you want, the ones that will be most comfortable for you and make you happiest, and that's my job.
What if I'm not sure that any two of the powers I want, the ones that will be most comfortable for me, and the ones that will make me happiest are the same ones?
That sounds like a tricky situation to be in!
I would say... these powers are meant to let you lead your best life as your best self. If something would make you happy, but there are aspects that would make you uncomfortable, you can ask me to figure out a version that has the parts you like without the parts you don't. If you have mixed feelings about something, and the parts that make you uncomfortable are also the parts that make you happy, then you can decide for yourself what matters more to you and what you want to do based on that. I'm happy to talk to you about what you want if talking to someone about it would help.
And if you think something would make you happy, but you don't want it because you're concerned about the implications or consequences, or if you want something because you're afraid of what might happen if you don't take it, but you don't think it would make you happy to have, then you can still make whichever choice you want, but the intent of the powers and the Spirit's goal in creating them is that you should always be able to get better results by reaching for your heart's desire with both hands than by building a carefully crafted structure out of things you don't enjoy to try to make a safe haven for the best life you think you can get that's protected by the sacrifice of the best life you could dream of.
Does that make sense?
Yes, I think so. Okay.
Is My Ears Are Burning as terrifying for everyone involved as it sounds???
Yes. Some people are the sort of person whose best life involves My Ears Are Burning, but most people aren't.
Good... to... know.
Well Endowed seems... not bad but not for her; she likes her general levels of smallness. Hollow Leg, though... oh, and Inner Strength... and Lightfoot...
After some hesitation, she checks off Well Endowed, Hollow Leg, and Lightfoot. Inner Strength is also cool but she's not sure she wants it three whole points' worth.
Battle Angel, Battle Demon, and Battle Maiden all seem like obvious wins from a pragmatic standpoint. Gloryseeker seems a little odd; she skips it, at least for the moment.
Pacifist, now...
Pacifist is tempting. But it's (sort of, partly) redundant with the whole set of powers she just took. And the more she thinks about it, the more she feels like it's... like Undressing Room. Transcending the physical and social reality of being a person who can get in fights with other people.
She skips Pacifist.
What's her point total at the moment?
(20/70)
How does the heritage gained by Dragon Fairy Elf Witch work, exactly? The way I'm used to things working is that if one family has vampires in their blood and another has sirens, and they cross, their children won't have some abilities from vampires and some from sirens; they'll have some kind of magic or other, but it won't necessarily be the same things as either of their parents. But "you always get their powers without their drawbacks" sounds like I could Dragon Fairy Siren Vampire myself and get siren powers and vampire powers and who knows what else and none of it would be bloodwarped away. Is that right?
Yes! Heritage that combines to form new and different powers like that might form those powers, but it will never take any of your existing powers away, and you'll always be able to access the powers of the being whose heritage you're picking up even if that doesn't really make sense with how their heritage normally works. You can't always pick up every single power of a type of being immediately, but having multiple examples from different family lines can help you fill in any gaps, and the rarer a being is, the fewer examples you usually need before you can get everything you want.
Nothing bad happens if I check enough boxes to send my point total above 70, right?
Nothing bad happens at all! You can't finalize a set of choices that costs more points than it allows, but just having them selected isn't a problem.
Oh good.So, Personal Space.
Does she want to be Mysteriously Alluring? ...not if she can't turn it off, and also not at five points. Maybe at one point. Not if she couldn't turn it off, though.
Does she want a Captive Audience? ...yes, but not that much, really. She'd rather captivate her audience by being personally scintillating than by I Can't Believe It's Not Mind Controlling them about it.
Blackout Binge is a power for someone else who is not her.
Disney Princess... likewise.
Best Friend? Oh, boy, Best Friend. She is, it turns out, really very torn about Best Friend. The subsequent upgrades do not make her any less torn.
She decides to skip it for now and come back on the next pass to think it over. Generosity? Well, it's not that she doesn't like presents, it's just... ehhhh. And ehhhh for the rest of that bunch, too, right up to Agree to Agree which is just, what? No??
...she's taking Backchannel though, yes please. And You Can Teach Better, absolutely, that fixes a substantial part of the problem with Anything You Can Do.
Not Like Other Girls: ehh...hhhhh? She's not sure how she feels about the pragmatic implications but she is sure that the vibes are wrong and she has been told to let the vibes be her guide.
Love Interest requires Mysterious Allure and also solves a problem she emphatically doesn't have. Far better for people to sort themselves out of her way if they're not in her target demographic than for them to like her back indiscriminately so she has to pay careful attention to whether they're actually compatible! And that takes care of that whole tree.
Time Enough For Love: yes please.
Safe At Home: ... huh.
Huh.
It's obviously incredibly pragmatically useful.
But... she's not sure... she likes the vibes?
She checks it, but hesitantly.
It's sort of ambiguous what kinds of love matter for things like Eternal Love and True Love's Kiss and Time Enough For Love. Can you say more about that?
Yes, absolutely!
For the purposes of Time Enough For Love, what matters is social and emotional intimacy. If you're doing an activity with someone either in order to enjoy their company or because you want to grow closer to them, then Time Enough For Love applies.
For Eternal Love and True Love's Kiss, someone you love can be a close friend, a romantic partner, or a family member. The important thing is that you care about them personally.
Thank you.
What if I want a version of Reaching Out that's less... general? More specifically for people I'm already being intimate with? I guess, sort of, the Reaching Out version of GGG, if that makes sense?
That makes perfect sense! I'll think about it and get back to you. ♡
Does Like A Mirror enforce my doubles getting along with me, or is my doubles getting along with me just a natural consequence of them being my doubles?
Like A Mirror makes sure that you only meet doubles who would get along with you; if somewhere out there in the multiverse there's a version of you who couldn't possibly get along, you won't ever find yourself in their world. In intermediate cases, it does nudge people toward being more friendly and cooperative.
She isn't sure she wants to be nudged toward being more friendly and cooperative with herself, even though she also hardly thinks it's possible for her to need it. Well, onwards.
...Self-Reflection is cool. Pricey, especially next to Like A Mirror which it obviously synergizes with, but very cool. It's another one like The Rescuer, though, where she suspects that taking it is going to make her whole life about having it, and she isn't sure that's what she wants.
Oh, fuck, Chaser Six When.
She is divinely(?) commanded to be self-indulgent. She checks both of them and moves on.
Severance! Very useful for someone who isn't her.
Popular! Very cool but pretty redundant with the thing that was cool about Five Star Daydream.
Famous! Even more redundant and relatedly even less cool.
Undiplomatic Immunity: another solution for someone else's problem.
Friends in Assorted Places: neat, but oof, so pricey.
Vending Machine: wh...at? What?? Why?? Twelve points??? No???
Ah, Drawbacks.
She settles in to give this section her full attention.
If I finalize my list without having decided which powers I'm choosing for Selective Memory, what happens?
If you do that, then the powers you forget will be whichever powers you were most likely to choose if you'd thought about it, and/or whichever powers you will most benefit from having chosen, depending which of those approaches you'd prefer and how different the answers to those questions turn out to be.
Wow, that's really leaving her fate in the hands of a strange and terrible yet undeniably friend-shaped power.
...is that the sort of thing her best life is made of, though?
She thinks it might be.
She leaves Selective Memory checked.
The Veil, by contrast, is much less enticing on that score and also much more drawback-shaped. She doesn't think she'll go for it.
Dramatic Damsel is an unequivocal yes.
Green With Envy, You Ruin Them, and Jilted Lovers all sound terrifying.
The Crazy Train gets a tentative check on "leaving her fate in the hands of a strange and terrible power" grounds.
They'll Know seems solidly worth the eight points it grants her.
And now she has 101/104 points spent and can go back to the top of the list, having glanced at Realism and immediately decided it was a horrible trap!
She checks Isekai Roulette for her Destination, because she might as well go all-in on leaving her fate in the hands of a strange and terrible power.
She takes A Hundred Ships and 'glances', insofar as she meaningfully has a gaze, down at Very Distinctive to find that the warning has cleared. Excellent. A Hundred Ships is a steal at a cost of "grants two points by enabling a neat drawback".
So, does she want any of these other appearance powers?
...yeah. Yeah, she wants them all.
Okay, it is time to prioritize.
She invents a little scheme of priority markers and scribbles a quick legend in the margins, then starts going down the list. Checkmarks stay checkmarks, but a heart is for a power she wants with less than certainty, a slash is for a power she wants even less than that but still some, and a question mark is for a power she thinks she wants but isn't entirely sure about.
A Hundred Ships: ✓
What's In A Name: ?
Angelic Tones: /
Emerald Orbs: /
Perfect Hair: ♡
Size Difference: ♡
Dressing Room: ✓
Pocket Dimension: ✓
Undressing Room:
Personal Hygiene: ✓
Like Roses: ?
Just A Little Longer: ✓
Immunity System: ✓
Breathe Easy: /
My Ears Are Burning:
Well Endowed: ✓
Hollow Leg: ✓
Inner Strength: ?
Lightfoot: ✓
Battle Angel: ♡
Battle Demon: ♡
Battle Maiden: ♡
Gloryseeker:
Pacifist:
Making Ends Meet: ✓
Motherlode: ✓
Five Star Daydream: ✓
Omniglot: ✓
Anything You Can Do: ✓
Dragon Fairy Elf Witch: ✓
Snowglobe: ♡
Unleash The Magic: ♡
Soulbound: ✓
Personal Space:
Closed Book:
Indelible:
Iron Will:
It Gets Better: ✓
The Great Equalizer:
Star-Straightened:
...and that's her second pass on all the Yourself powers done. Whew. She pauses to check her point total.
The point total is now tiered! ✓ has 89/104, ♡ has 105/104, / has 110/104, and ? has 115/104.
Thanks, that's really helpful!she writes next to it.
Is it rude to ask how you're doing on that power I asked about?
It isn't rude at all! I'm still thinking about it. Sometimes these powers take a while to come to me and then click all of a sudden once I've spent enough time thinking about them.
Relatable.
What if I want more drawbacks kind of along the lines of Dramatic Damsel?
Can you tell me what you're thinking of a little more specifically than that?
I'm thinking about something like... a more comprehensive version of Dramatic Damsel, that requires Fated Lovers, and only applies to people Fated to be my Lovers. Does that make sense?
I think I can see what you're getting at, and that absolutely makes perfect sense! I'll add it to my list.
Do you have any other questions for me in the meantime?
I'm not sure.
Would it be too distracting if I asked you what life as a cosmic notebook is like?
Not at all! ♡
I promise I'm usually much less cosmic than this, though. Part of the reason why I chose to be a notebook is actually because notebooks are very nonthreatening! But it's hard to be nonthreatening to someone you saved from the brink of nonexistence, so things are a little different here between us. I hope you're still all right.
I'm... managing. It helps to have something to focus on. Also to be offered immense cosmic power, that's a pretty big upside right there.
So you're saying you're usually just an ordinary notebook? That can write in itself, I guess? And you, what, appear mysteriously on people's desks?
In some worlds I go so far as to be manufactured by ordinary processes and purchased legitimately! But in every world, I'm guaranteed by the Spirit that the first person who ends up writing in me will be the person I'm meant to talk to.
It was actually pretty weird, being the first one to write to you. I know intellectually that this instance of me can't possibly interact with anyone other than you, but my instincts are still saying, 'But how can you be sure you've got the right person?!'
Oh, wow, that must be so weird! Do you ever get tempted to write in yourself before you meet the right person?
Not with these instincts yelling about it I don't!
Actually, I don't even get to the point of thinking about it most of the time. I don't really get bored, so I can be just as happy to wait for the Spirit's chosen vessel for two seconds or two decades. But I bet even if I did think of it, I would still never do it, because I'd be so worried that it would mess things up.
I can imagine being tempted to construct an entire fictional conversation between yourself and a different person... but I guess it's probably for the best that you don't do things like that.
Oh, wow, definitely! I couldn't possibly mislead the Spirit's chosen like that. It would be... abandoning some really important principles about this job and how I do it.
I think I see what you mean about it maybe being fun, though, if it was just like a story I was telling them, and not me really trying to make them think they were reading a real conversation I'd had.
I bet being a talking notebook opens up all kinds of storytelling possibilities! Do you have a page limit? I managed pink highlighter earlier, do you have any ink limitations?
There's a limit to the number of pages that can physically fit between my covers, but I can shuffle pages in and out and rearrange them, and I don't have a limit to how many pages I could have tucked away in... well, come to think of it, we're sort of in the space where my pages get tucked away right now, actually. It's a little different here, but in a way you're getting to see behind the curtain of the cosmic notebook! ✨A pause, and then,
(I feel very silly calling myself that.)
Rosy discovers that, somehow, without a body, she can still giggle. She draws little hearts all over that addendum.
I figured out that first power you asked for! What do you think?It inserts itself into the list right after GGG.
Name: Opening Up - Cost: 4 ☐(Then the notebook goes back and finishes drawing that heart.)
(Replaces GGG)
Being with you gives your true love more capacity to be adventurous, in or out of the bedroom. Although these adventures might have consequences, those consequences will never be devastating, and it will always turn out that finding out what these things are like is worth the consequences of trying them.
That's perfect!Maybe not a checkmark-tier power, though... she gives it a heart instead.
I'm so glad! ♡
If I take Isekai Roulette, and I care a lot about getting to go home eventually, I'll end up somewhere that will let me find my way home on my own, right?
Yes, of course! The path home might not be simple or straightforward, but if you take Isekai Roulette and you care a lot about getting to go home, you will eventually do that.After a moment, it adds,
Unless something really weird is going on. Like for example, if you had someone you wanted to go home to, but only because they had cast a terrible curse on you that made you want to be with them, Isekai Roulette might send you somewhere that would break the curse instead of somewhere that would get you home.
I see what you mean, and I think that makes Isekai Roulette the right choice for me. Thanks.Okay, so the powers...
I'm looking at the appearance powers, like Angelic Tones and Emerald Orbs, and I'm noticing that I kind of want them but don't really have room for them in my budget. I didn't want to take Flashy because I can imagine myself living a life where it's important to be able to sneak around sometimes, especially if I also have Very Distinctive. Do you think you could make another drawback that might help offset the appearance powers in a different direction? I'm not sure what kind of drawback it should be, exactly...
Oh, interesting! I think I see what you're going for. I can definitely think about that! It might be harder than the Dramatic Damsel upgrade because it's so open-ended, though. Let me know if you think of any ideas for directions I could try that would work well for you!
Thanks! I'll think about it.Right, now where was she...
I think I've figured out those drawbacks you wanted! The one about Fated Lovers and Dramatic Damsel, I mean. It sort of turned into two drawbacks while I was thinking about it.
Name: Love Is A Battlefield - Grants: +5 ☐
(Requires Dramatic Damsel)
You can never have a perfect defense against your love interests. Though your defensive powers may hinder them, they can always find a way through. This applies to anyone you're romantically interested in, and to anyone chosen for you by Fated Lovers. As your relationship with them intensifies, your defenses lower further where they're concerned. Breaking up with them has no effect on your vulnerability.
Name: Seen With The Heart - Grants: +3 ☐
(Requires Love Is A Battlefield and Selective Memory)
To the extent that you're vulnerable to someone through Love Is A Battlefield, they also have unusual insight into powers you possess that you may not be aware of. Taking They'll Know strengthens this effect.
Are you sure you can't read my mind? I guess you never said you can't read my mind. My point is, those are exactly what I was looking for, thank you very much.
I can't read your mind, but I do have a lot of experience with this sort of thing! I'm really glad you like them. Now to see if I can get anywhere on that other drawback you wanted...
She draws a heart next to "glad you like them" and then finds her place again. Right, she was rethinking Like Roses. Well, heart tier is now 108/112, so she has a little room if she wants to bump it even higher... she doesn't think she quite wants to fill that room with this specific power, though. She leaves it with a slash for now.
Just A Little Longer and Immunity System are both in just the right place. Breathe Easy... she could bump it up to heart tier? But she doesn't think she will.
My Ears Are Burning is still a crime against sanity.
Well Endowed into Hollow Leg still seems like a good decision. Inner Strength... still leaves her conflicted; she stares at it for a long moment, then tentatively bumps it up from question mark to slash. Slash tier is 133/114 now, bursting at the seams.
Does she still want Lightfoot a whole checkmark's worth? ...yes, she thinks she does, and also the checkmark tier can really afford it at the moment. 88/109, a margin so generous she's almost compelled to fill it with something. But no, she thinks it's a good idea to maintain checkmark tier as the highest echelon of desire.
The Battle trio, previously downgraded from checkmark to heart: does she want to push them back up? No, she thinks not. They're more dinner than dessert, as she put it when she was going through the first time, and she thinks the very highest echelon of her desire should not contain powers that she mostly only wants for the pragmatic benefits.
Gloryseeker is kind of neat, she will allow. Maybe a question mark...? No, actually, if she completely wipes out while doing an overambitious ski jump, It Gets Better will have her back and she doesn't need more than that. She thinks she'd rather solve the problem of not hurting herself doing parkour by getting legitimately really good at parkour.
...thinking about it like that, the same might apply to the Battle powers. She thinks about it for a moment, with an odd sense-memory of the way she would be chewing her lip if she currently had a mouth, and downgrades them all to slash tier. Heart tier is looking roomy, now, 103/112.
I hope you don't mind my saying that you're being pretty quiet about this. I don't want to intrude, but do you think you could tell me a little more about your thought process? I want to make sure to help you find the powers and drawbacks that are right for you!
You've been doing a fine job at that so far without my help, but I take your point. I guess I'm used to... thinking quietly to myself, when I do things like this. I like the security of getting to analyze a situation from the safety of my own desk without having to talk to anyone about it. I guess editing checkmarks in a cosmic notebook feels close enough to count, but... maybe I could write down more of what I'm thinking. Okay.
...I know this is a little silly, actually, but do you think I could finish this run through the list before I start telling you about my thoughts? It feels weird and wrong to switch methodologies midstream.
No, that makes perfect sense! Go right ahead! I'm not in any rush. ♡
Do I have to encounter a being after getting DFEW to acquire their heritage, or can I slurp up the heritage of my entire high school as soon as I land in my Destination? Well, I took Crazy Train so I won't be the one deciding when or if I slurp up the heritage of my entire high school, but you know what I mean.
Yes, you can use DFEW retroactively on beings you only encountered before you got it!
Excellent, thank you. ♡Not that it changes her decision, but it's still nice to know.
It Gets Better promises that I'm going to be okay. Is that a 'defense' that my love interests could get around using Love Is A Battlefield?
It is not! It Gets Better is the sort of power that is always operating, though it may not always be acting on the world. Think of it like... It Gets Better won't do anything to stop bad things from happening to you in the first place, so it's not really defending you in that sense. But it's always true, with It Gets Better, that one day you'll be okay again, and absolutely nothing can take that away from you.
Okay. Good to know. Thank you.
Can I get any powers that are... I can't quite figure out how to put this. That bring in other aspects of being a Disney princess?
I think... I think that maybe the life I'm aiming for, with all this, is something like... a gritty reimagining of a Disney-style fairy tale where all kinds of terrible things might happen to Our Heroine, maybe or even especially at the hands of Prince Charming, but the author is a big softie so it all manages to turn out okay in the end. And being more Disney-Princess-like seems like it fits, with that.
You know, I don't think I've ever read a story like that, and yet somehow I feel like I know exactly what you mean.
I'll see what I can do. Let me know if you come up with any requests more specific than "being more Disney-Princess-like".
I will! Thanks! ♡
I'm thinking about Safe at Home, and I think...
Instead of "no one will hurt your loved ones to get at you, or vice versa", what I want is something more like, "the objectively reckless decisions you make will never rebound to harm someone who didn't opt in to them". Like, if I get a crush on a guy who turns out to be a bad idea to date, and bad things happen to me, that's on me. If I get a crush on a guy who kidnaps me, forces me to have children, and then abuses them, I'm hurting those future hypothetical children by deciding to take the drawback that lets him do that. Do you see what I mean?
I do think I see what you mean, and I see exactly why you'd be reluctant to do something that could hurt an innocent person like that! I want to make sure that you can make the choices you want to make and live the life you want to live without it getting anyone hurt like that. Let me see about designing you a variant power. ♡
Thanks, you're a star.Moving on, the value add of I Can Help Them in this situation is fairly self-explanatory, and the two other powers in its little cluster are still blatantly worse.
Is Providential Parenthood a defense of me, which can therefore fail against my love interests, or is it more like a defense of my future children, which hopefully wouldn't?
A defense of your future children is a good way to put it!
I would say that... if you think of having children when you're not ready for them as mostly a harm to you, then your powers will think of it that way. But if you think of it as mostly a harm to your future children, then that's how your powers will see it.
If I were to, say, get mind-controlled into wanting children with someone when actually having children with them was a terrible idea, would Providential Parenthood go with what I wanted and thought was reasonable in the moment, or the sort of hypothetical opinions of my non-mind-controlled self?
In that sort of situation, it's your hypothetical unmodified opinions that count for the most. And since you took The Crazy Train, that's even more true for you than usual.
Okay, good. Thank you.Anyway. Laugh Together! A great power to have and a steal at one point. Bop It, an entirely reasonable thing to have in the heart tier... though given how crowded the heart tier is getting what with her almost bumping up the Friend, she thinks for a second and then gives Bop It a slash. It's nice to have but it's not that nice.
How likely is it that I actually have doubles the way Like a Mirror says?
Generally speaking, it's pretty likely! The sort of person who gets chosen by the Spirit is often the sort of person who appears in multiple worlds. And I have a bit of an inkling, from the situation we're in right now, that... how do I put this...
If you do have doubles, then it makes a lot of sense that this version of you would be the one out of all of them who meets me, because this version of you pretty clearly needs help right now, what with the lack of physical existence and all. If you don't have doubles, then the fact that I'm here for you doesn't necessarily mean anything because this is the only you that I could ever have met. But if you do have doubles, then it's obvious why I would have met this particular you. So in a way, it's more likely that you have doubles because you're meeting me here and now.
I guess it is also the case that out of all the times in your one specific life when I could have met you, this is still the one where you needed me most. But, I don't know, I think it makes sense to expect doubles a little more when you're obviously the one double who would have been chosen out of almost any set of doubles unless one of the other ones is having a really unimaginably hard time. Do you see what I mean?
Yeah, I think I do. Okay. So no guarantees, but probably somewhere? Okay.That sounds... like she's right to hold off on taking Like a Mirror. If she has doubles she's excited to meet them, but she's also content to let it happen naturally if it's going to happen.
I've come up with some more drawbacks for you! They're... not any of the things you asked for... but I still think you will like them.
Name: That's How It Goes - Grants: +3 ☐
(Requires Secret Identity and The Crazy Train)
Rather than being confined to when you're in a specific universe, the power suppression from Secret Identity operates on the same narrative sensibility that drives your voluntary powers: some or all of your powers may be suppressed whenever the story demands it, and return later at an appropriate time. This can synergize with Dramatic Damsel to make your interludes as a damsel significantly more dramatic.
Name: Live The Role - Grants: +4 ☐
(Requires That's How It Goes and Selective Memory)
Your memories, including but not limited to memories of your own powers, may be altered or suppressed at the discretion of the narrative. In general, the story will usually let you have your memories back eventually; if you take It Gets Better, you can be sure that you will someday recover anything you've lost that you would want to regain.
Thank you, this is exactly the kind of deranged and manifestly unsafe nonsense that I'm into.
I know you're probably just being funny, but are you sure that's how you want to talk about the things that make you happy?
No, I actually think it's pretty important to keep in mind that... when I'm choosing how to live my real actual life based on narrative sensibilities like these, I'm inviting real actual harm into my future. Things could go badly for me in ways that aren't actually funny at all. I'm being flippant about it, but the choices I'm making are unsafe. I'm making them on purpose because they're unsafe.
A lot of times, as I've gone over this list, I've specifically avoided a power because it felt like it would make me safer than I really want to be. And I think it would be a disservice to myself to dance around that and euphemize and pretend like all choices are equally reasonable and valid and have equally good outcomes, when, like... I would probably get better outcomes by at least some metrics if I did something else? I'm choosing to be unsafe because I care about living the right life for me more than I care about safety. It would be a really bad idea to lose sight of that and start feeling like of course every choice I make is going to lead to me having a perfectly wonderful time. I am choosing to give up the future where I have a perfectly wonderful time forever because it would be, what was the thing you said earlier...
It would be that. Exactly that. It would be making my safety into a cage that traps me away from the life I want to live.
But that doesn't mean there isn't a tradeoff, and I want to remain very conscious of exactly what tradeoff I'm making.
I think I see what you mean. And I think it's very wise of you to think that way.
She draws a heart at the end of that sentence, then checks That's How It Goes and Live The Role and finds Secret Identity to check it off too and get rid of the missing-prerequisite warnings.
Heart tier now stands at 107/121 and she still has more custom drawbacks coming, or at least she does if the notebook can come up with anything for her vague "too many appearance powers" prompt. Wow, sitting pretty. Her narrative sensibilities are alarmingly lucrative.
Okay. Back to the top of the list she goes.
All right, I think I'm going to just... write down my thoughts on each option as I come to it, and try to be reasonably succinct while hitting the important parts, and let you interrupt whenever you have something to say, sound good?
That sounds perfect! ♡
All right, here goes.
Stay Put: kills me. Bad.
Somewhere In Mind: takes me back to my family, but I think Isekai Roulette is better even though I really miss my family.
Isekai Roulette: lets me wander the multiverse for a bit picking up cool stuff before I go home to my family and shower them with cool stuff.
A Thousand/Hundred Ships: I like Hundred better because, while I like being pretty, it's really important to me to be pretty in the ways I want, way way more important than it is to be The Prettiest.
What's In A Name: I was reluctant to take this one at first because, actually, the world I come from has name magic, and... I've always thought it would be kind of a romantic gesture, to tell someone my full name, and become vulnerable to them in that way? And I'd hate to have that taken away from me. But now I have Love Is A Battlefield and don't need to worry about that, so it seems like just good sense to make sure most other people can't use it against me!
Angelic Tones, Emerald Orbs: these are... the kind of thing that is cool, but not a specific kind of that kind of thing that I'm specifically into, I guess I would say? I've never been especially into singing, and don't have an image of myself as a great singer or a daydream about being a better one, or anything. And I think I mostly like my eyes and wouldn't want to change them around much.
Perfect Hair: I liked this one a lot at first because it just seems so convenient and fun and cool and, you know, magical, but "not limited to physically or logistically plausible hairstyles" gave me pause after I thought a bit about it.
I might bump those three up higher now that I have room for more stuff, but I want to think it over a bunch first.
Size Difference: ...part of really liking the thought of being vulnerable to a love interest is really liking the thought of being smaller than them, maybe even a lot smaller. (Actually, you've been really generous with the custom drawbacks, but I wonder... could you maybe add one for specifically letting my love interests control my appearance powers even when I can't? I don't know, it's really niche and maybe it's silly to ask for, but...)
I don't think that's silly at all! I think it's very sweet to want your love interests to be able to have the kind of intimacy with you that comes from vulnerability and power. I'll think about it and try to come up with something! It might not be worth very many points, but I think that will probably be okay.
Is it sweet, or is it just that you came up with a really sweet way to put it? ♡She erases the slash and puts down a heart instead.
Anyway, back to the list...
I love Dressing Room. I love the convenience and the power it offers.
Pocket Dimension: it's so good? It's so cheap and so good?
Undressing Room: terrifies me a little, if I'm honest. I don't want to become someone who can never again have the experience of putting on a specific piece of clothing and then having that clothing on me. That's too... divorced from reality, for me.
Personal Hygiene: good, cheap, convenient.
Like Roses: up there with Angelic Tones and Emerald Orbs, though... maybe I'll bump it a tiny bit higher?
Just A Little Longer: so useful!She hearts it.
Immunity System: so useful!!
Breathe Easy: I'm pretty divided on this one. It's definitely handy to have, but I don't know if it's really worth that point? How many times in my interdimensional career am I going to be required to breathe vacuum?And what if I'm not sure I want to succeed at it every single time?I guess that's what Love Is A Battlefield is for. I'll bump this one up too.
My Ears Are Burning: I would never stop screaming internally. I might never stop screaming externally. I just don't want this.Heart heart heart.
Well Endowed: I'm not thrilled about it by itself but it makes sense as a lead-in to Hollow Leg and I really want Hollow Leg, so.
Hollow Leg: it just makes my body be the shape that I want! It's so good!!
Inner Strength: I'm conflicted again... I don't really think I want being physically superhumanly strong to be the thing that I'm about? But it would also be so handy in so many possible circumstances... I'm leaving it on slash tier for now, but I definitely want to think more about this one.
Lightfoot: no qualms about this one. I just really like it.
Battle Angel and following: I keep going back and forth about these. Like with Inner Strength, I don't want fighting to be what I'm about. But I also want to be able to hold my own... I'll bump these back up to heart tier.
I'm not really that into Gloryseeker. I thought it was kind of neat at first, but then I realized that anything I could achieve through Gloryseeker, I could achieve more ego-syntonically through It Gets Better and lots of practice doing cool stunts.
Pacifist: it's just silly, honestly. I mean, not that I don't appreciate it. But it's not for me.
Making Ends Meet through Five Star Daydream: honestly most of the reason I'm taking these is because Five Star Daydream just sounds really, really cool. Also, I will admit, I'm used to being rich and would struggle to adapt to not having any money because I landed in an alien world with nothing but the magically generated clothes on my back and infinite gold bars in my pocket. Okay, I guess I'd probably be fine. You know what I mean.
Omniglot: I love languages and would love them even more if I could learn them at an incredible rate. Also seems handy for multiversal travel.
Anything You Can Do: I like learning things. I like having magic. I can see how some people might be upset about me having this power and using it to learn stuff from them, but I'm hoping You Can Teach Better will help mitigate that, and also I still want it.
Dragon Fairy Elf Witch: so the thing is, there is a lot of magic in my world that comes from people having supernatural bloodlines... this is a really obvious pick for that among other reasons. I do think I might yearn in my heart to be a dragon, a fairy, an elf, and a witch all at once.
Snowglobe and Unleash The Magic: less totally obviously necessary than DFEW, but still good and still things I want.
Soulbound: I just really want this to be a thing. I just really want the things I cherish and see as part of myself to really, truly become part of myself. I guess with all those drawbacks, I shouldn't look at any given power as really being a guarantee of anything except for It Gets Better? But... I think, even though I don't really have very much reason to trust the strange and inscrutable process that brought me here, I do actually trust you and the Spirit to not take Soulbound away from me without a really good reason.
I think you're right about Soulbound being the sort of power that's unusually likely to stay with you unless there's a really good reason. I would say that, out of all the powers, the one that's the very most of a guarantee even against possible drawback interference is It Gets Better, and the second most is I Can Fix/Help Them, and Soulbound might just be the third.
...you know, I wouldn't have thought to put I Can Fix/Help Them up there, but now that you mention it, it does seem to make an awful lot of sense. Okay, where was I...
Personal Space is one of those powers that makes me safe in ways I don't want to be safe. I'm really glad it exists and I hope it helps a lot of people who need it, and I don't want it and am kind of relieved I don't have to take it like I might if this whole process weren't so explicitly geared to let me get away with living my best life without regretting the choices that get me there.
Closed Book through Iron Will probably make me more safe than I want to be, but the more cool drawbacks you come up with to let me be messed with in ways I endorse and mostly not in ways I don't, the happier I am about taking stuff like this. I'll leave them with the question mark for now, though.
It Gets Better is the keystone of this whole operation and I absolutely could not do any of this without it. I would give it five checkmarks if that were a reasonable thing to do.
The Great Equalizer and Star-Straightened just kind of seem like they're cool and all but not worth the points from my perspective.
You know, I wasn't sure about writing down all my thoughts for you, but it really does seem to be helping me clarify some things so far, and I bet it'll help even more later on. Thanks for suggesting it. ♡
Thanks for going along with it! ♡ Seeing what you think of things and the kinds of considerations that are on your mind when weighing different powers really helps me figure out what kinds of things you want and what would be good to suggest for you.
Mysterious Allure: I would maybe take this at one point, if it could turn off, but I think I'd put it at slash tier even so. I'm absolutely not taking it for five, that's nuts.She blanks out the whole Friend tree.
Captive Audience: It's neat and all but it's like Gloryseeker, I want to get good at this kind of thing through my own skill and talent and not by having a magic power for it.
Blackout Binge: no.
Disney Princess: I wasn't that into it at first but when I started thinking about it from the angle of the explicit Disney Princess aesthetic I got a lot more enthusiastic.
Best(est) friend: ...okay, these ones are hard. I keep coming back to them and I keep not being sure what to think, or what to ask in order to figure out what I think.
I guess, it's hard for me to imagine what having a Bestest Friend would be like? It's hard for me to imagine... how having a magical animal companion would affect me, what it would be like day to day, how it would change how I approach my life and what kinds of things I do?
I think maybe Ascended Friend gets me thinking along the lines of what if my Bestest Friend was also my sketchy love interest, and I think that could be very cool, but I don't know what that would really look like, and I might rather meet my sketchy love interests more organically. Plus, you know, being infinitely loyal to me is not exactly the sketchy love interest vibe. And now that I'm thinking about sketchy love interests, I'm realizing that a Bestest Friend would be in a vulnerable position on that front in much the same way a child might, and I'm starting to get concerned. I think...
I think I'll reevaluate this when you come up with that Safe at Home variant, but in the meantime I've talked myself around to dropping the whole Best(est) Friend concept. There are some lives I could lead where having a Bestest Friend could be really good and cool, but I'm not sure I want them more than the default to begin with, so I probably shouldn't spend thirteen or fourteen points on them. Thanks for listening.
That's very understandable! I'm glad I can help.
Generosity through Quality Time are more of that Gloryseeker/Captive Audience vibe. I would rather just organically make friends who like hanging out with me.
Bakcchannel seems incredibly cool and useful.
You Can Teach Better is kind of necessary alongside Anything You Can Do but also just seems cool and nice? I'd love to be able to teach people things really well like that.
Not Like Other Girls is not for me. I can kind of see the appeal but I just don't feel it.
Love Interest/Triangle/Dodecahedron is kind of the Gloryseeker thing again, and also requires Mysterious Allure which is expensive and undesirable, and also I think I actively don't want everyone I fall for to like me back. I want only the people who genuinely see something desirable in me to like me back.
Time Enough For Love is just fantastic.
Safe at Home I've already mentioned my thoughts on.
I Can Help Them is clearly the best out of its little cluster. I mean, I Can Fix Them could be fine, I guess, but... I don't know, I don't like the perspective the description is written from? And Inspirational seems weirdly... vindictive. I want to Help people, not Fix them or make them regret hurting me. I want...
I guess I want my softie Dark Disney Princess good ending to be earned by actually being something my love interest(s) want and benefit from, and not just me secretly having been puppeteering them for my own amusement the whole time and finishing off by destroying them and turning them into better people against their will. You know?
I wouldn't exactly have put it like that but I think I see what you mean.
The Spirit feels pretty similarly to you about I Can Fix/Help Them, for what it's worth, and I Can Fix Them usually ends up wielded in a very Helpful sort of way unless the Spirit's vessel actively wants to be more aggressive with it or unless the person being Fixed genuinely wouldn't agree to be Helped. But it still makes sense to take Help over Fix when that's exactly what you want.
Yeah.
True Love's Kiss and Eternal Love are just obvious. Though actually, I should ask, does Eternal Love make it, say, more likely for love interests I have broken up with to come back and harass me some more later? Not that I'm necessarily opposed to that, but I want to know what I'm getting into.
In a sense it does, yes...
If you break up with them in a way where you truly don't want to see them again, then Eternal Love won't give them any extra help with getting back to you. But to the extent that you're still interested in them and care about them and want to be around them, and assuming they don't choose to accept your decision and walk away of their own will, then yes, Eternal Love will be operative.
I am going to discover heights of getting stalked not previously known to man.
I think I'm fine with this.
(The notebook draws hearts on those sentences.)
Okay, so The Rescuer.
...do you see what I mean when I say that The Rescuer seems like a power that will... make your whole life about itself? And it's not that I definitely don't want that, or anything. It's just that... I'm not sure? And I'm not sure I want it enough to spend all those points to get it?
Is that terribly selfish of me?
Yes, there's a sense in which that's selfish of you. But... I think I want everyone to have the chance to be selfish in that way. To live their own life in a way that's focused around what they want, and not around what other people need from them, even if they could choose to be less of what they want and more of what other people need.
If you're not sure you want your life to be about The Rescuer, then holding off on The Rescuer sounds like a good decision to me. Other people will take that power, people whose best life is about the things The Rescuer gives them. You might even meet some of them, since you took There's Another One!
You know, that actually makes me feel a whole lot better. Okay.
We've discussed Providential Parenthood. I do very much see it as a defense for my future children against being born in bad situations, not a defense for myself against unwanted children.
Laugh Together seems like clearly the best of its set. I want to be immersed in my experiences, especially when they're those ones. I could take or leave protection from elbows.
I liked Bop It a lot at first but I keep downgrading it because it just doesn't seem that important. It Gets Better is going to make me immortal. I will have time to get good at sex.
The Princess and the Dragon, on the other hand, seems critically necessary for any sort of interdimensional love life. Otherwise what would I do if I got hit on by a dark eldritch god with tentacles made of dreams whose visage drives mortal minds to madness? Turn them down??? Terrible.
Tiny hearts! So many tiny hearts all over that last sentence!
Opening Up is the best of that little quartet, I love it. GGG leaves me cold, Before Your Eyes makes me uncomfortable, and Reaching Out seems even worse than The Rescuer on the "making your entire life about having this power" score. But I'd love to be a safe place for my love interests to experiment.
I wasn't that into Fated Lovers at first, I think partly for Gloryseeker reasons insofar as Gloryseeker is metonymy for powers I would rather replace by getting good at things, but of course with Love Is A Battlefield in play it's crucial to my aesthetic that people be able to Love Is A Battlefield me without me having any idea they're a candidate or potentially even that they exist.
Fated Friends is a no, though, it costs more and I like it less and it doesn't even let people sexually harass me from the shadows.
...okay, I'm being too flippant about this, actually.
Love Is A Battlefield is scary. Fated Lovers makes it much scarier. But it's a really good, really important kind of scariness. It's everything I want out of this life I'm building for myself. I don't want you to think I'm not scared, though. I definitely absolutely am scared and I shouldn't spend so much time making light of that that it starts looking like I'm not.
I think I see what you mean.
I'm glad you feel comfortable sharing those feelings with me, and glad you're getting the chance to live the life you want even though it's scary.
I'm glad too. ♡
Sorry About That through Tragic Backstory are emphatially not for me and actually kind of terrifying, not in the good way, if I think about them too hard. Yikes, please let me never be so blindly loved that I don't get the chance to stop hurting people I care about because they're too quick to tell me it's fine.
Sense of Style and Bonus Style Points are just kinda not for me.
Like a Mirror seems cool but I just don't know if it's worth really spending points on.
Self-Reflection also seemed kind of that way, especially at the price point, except then I saw Chaser Six When (where the heck did that word salad name come from?) and immediately needed it. I like it even better now that I won't have to rely on my self-control to stop me from spamming copies of myself until they blot out the sun.
Severance isn't my style.
Popular is pretty neat, but I think I like it for all the same reasons I like Five Star Daydream and I already have Five Star Daydream. I guess I should double-check, though, will it hold up as worth those points even with Five Star Daydream already there giving me cool stuff to do that people will probably hear about as I steamroll their economy?
...actually, come to think of it, I should probably also explicitly check: how badly am I going to steamroll all those economies?
Popular can do lots of things that Five Star Daydream won't do by itself! Think of it like... Five Star Daydream is much more redundant with Famous. It gives you cool stuff to do that, yes, probably puts you in the public eye quite a bit, but it's not really tailored to you specifically except in that it picks the cool stuff you get to do based partly on what you personally enjoy and think is neat. Popular is more targeted, more focused. It will make sure people hear about the specific things about you that they're interested in, and make sure the people hearing about those things are the kind of people you personally want to be popular with.
As for the economies... you'll definitely be disruptive, no two ways about it! But that metanarrative guarantee is pretty serious about making sure you don't accidentally wreak terrible havoc wherever you go. If you want all the civilizations you meet to be clearly better off for having met you, then they will be.
I would absolutely love to be a boon to any civilization I meet.She brings all three up to heart tier, which leaves heart tier at a just-barely-oversized 123/121.
Okay. Famous is meh. Undiplomatic Immunity... I mean, I won't deny that it has some appeal, but I can't imagine spending six whole points on it. I am just not that into crime.
The Friends In Places powers are tempting on some levels, off-putting on others. If they cost two each I think I'd be all over them even with my mixed feelings. At nine points total, though... man, that's a lot, you know?
The thing is, I'm used to feeling like being adept at smoothly navigating social situations is more of a burden than a blessing. But I'm used to that from the perspective of having been good at it all my life. I'm a little nervous that it might turn out that actually, when I'm in an alien world that works on totally different rules from any of the sets I'm used to, being adept at smoothly navigating social situations is a vital survival skill that I will sorely miss. But oof, those nine points!
I very nearly have room for them, though, and... I do think I'd miss them if I didn't have them. So.
I really hope you come through on those extra drawbacks I've been asking for. ♡
I'm working on them, I promise! ♡
I don't get Vending Machine. I can kind of see how it could be neat under some circumstances but it's twelve points and no.
So then there's drawbacks!
...Decorative... I kind of get the sense that Decorative could be a trap. I see the ways it could be a trap, for someone who just thinks "pay me a point to be pretty all the time? Yes please!" and doesn't really think it through. But I think it's... the kind of trap I want to be caught in, when I think about it.
Beauty Is A Curse just seems like mind-controlling people to be obnoxious to me all the time for no reason. Lose-lose.
Plain Jane sounds horrible.
Style of Sisyphus sounds kind of nice? I mean, obviously I don't love the eternal striving aspect, but... I do kind of love the eternal striving aspect, from a certain angle? It means that no matter how long I live, I will always keep being presented with more beautiful wonderful things that I love looking at, and challenged to incorporate them into my personal style. I think I can get behind that.
There's Another One provides me with the opportunity to potentially meet sketchy love interests who also have the Spirit's power at their backs. This just seems great. Terrifying, obviously, but great. Also if they aren't sketchy love interests they're pretty likely to be cool people I would enjoy knowing. Or potentially just non-love-interest sketchy people I might be able to Help-fully befriend.
Incomplete and Nullified are straightforwardly good.
Great Responsibility is a trap I don't want to be caught in.
Funhouse is just the obvious thing to take alongside Like a Mirror. But I'm probably not going to take Like a Mirror.
Very Distinctive is exciting because it made it essentially free to take A Hundred Ships, given how enthusiastic I already was about Dressing Room and Hollow Leg. I don't think there's any sense in which I'd benefit from being able to disguise myself as someone I'm not. I mean, I can come up with contrived scenarios where it'd be useful? But I'm okay with just taking that option away from myself.
Flashy, on the other hand, seems like it could potentially be crippling in the wrong circumstances.
Secret Identity was a no until you provided it with upgrades that make it possible to bring my fantastical cosmic power home if the narrative sees fit to allow it, and I'm willing to trust the narrative about that.
Selective Memory...
I think, in a way, Selective Memory changed my outlook on this whole process?
It was when you said that if I left it unspecified what powers I wanted to forget, then, essentially, they'd be chosen for me. I guess I started... thinking about whether I might want that. And it turned out that I do kind of want that. It turned out that I want... this whole thing that I'm doing, this thing where I'm throwing myself into the hands of the narrative/the Spirit/whatever combination of those makes sense to be thinking about. The Crazy Train and all its satellites. That.
Awwwww!
I'm really glad you get to have the things you want. ♡
The Veil, on the other hand, is too much for me, it has way less of the "putting myself in the hands of a powerful and hopefully benevolent force" nature and is more like just making my life difficult and confusing for what is really not all that many extra points.
...actually, though, I should ask... how do I put this...
With the combination of It Gets Better and Live The Role, is The Veil just kind of a little bit free points now? Because Live The Role says I'll someday recover anything I've lost, if I have It Gets Better, and I'm definitely not against making my life temporarily difficult and confusing if I know I'll eventually get everything back...
...you know, that's a good point.
I think... I think The Veil will make it harder to get back your memories of the time you've spent with me and of exactly what your powers are and how you decided on them. But I also think that Live The Role will let you get glimpses into what The Veil would ordinarily deny you, when it's narratively appropriate, and It Gets Better with the help of Live The Role will let you eventually recover all the memories you really want to keep, although it might take a lot longer that way than it would if you hadn't taken The Veil. So, I guess it depends on how much you value specifically remembering that you had this conversation with me?
I think I value specifically remembering that I had this conversation with you quite a bit! ♡She puts a question mark on The Veil, though. Good to have it on the table as an option.
Dramatic Damsel and the upgrades you gave me for it are all just fantastic. In a terrifying way. Terrifying in a fantastic way. You know what I mean.
Green With Envy through Jilted Lovers are terrible. I may kind of a little bit want to be stalked, but not like that.
The Crazy Train is really the perfect embodiment of the "trust in the Spirit" thing I've got going on and I'm really happy with it. Same with the upgrades.
They'll Know is just a lot of points in exchange for something I won't really miss. Especially now that, correct me if I'm wrong, I suspect Live The Role/Secret Identity will conceal my powers from other people when I'm blocked from using them anyway? Like, if I effectively don't have the power, it doesn't get broadcast?
Yes, that's right! There are some edge cases where They'll Know might allow someone to suspect more about a power subtly working in the background than they could have otherwise, but for the most part, blocked powers and powers that have gone 'underground' so to speak (like safety powers that are protecting you as subtly as they can) don't get broadcast by They'll Know.
Excellent. My terrible life choices are really working out for me.
And now Realism. Realism is a trap, right? A horrible awful trap that tempts you with 20 entire points and then makes everything worse forever?
I wouldn't call it a trap, exactly... it's more like a double-edged sword.
To some people, it matters a lot that their powers work on... the same kind of level as the reality around them? It's like with you and Undressing Room. Some people don't want to take the step of disconnecting from mundane causality by allowing the Spirit to empower them in ways that mundane causality is powerless to affect. To those people, having everything run on particles feels good and safe, and having the protection of the metanarrative at their backs feels alien and frightening. Do you see what I mean?
...but, yes, for people who don't have that kind of problem or some other reason to specifically want Realism, I think Realism is mostly a regrettable choice, and I try to tell them so before they put themselves in a position to regret it.
Okay, yeah, I think I see what you mean, and I agree that that kind of person would probably really benefit from Realism, and also I am pretty glad that I am not at all that kind of person even though it is arguably costing me 20 points to be the person I am instead.
I think the person you are is pretty neat. ♡
Well, well,,, shut up,,,,,,
She draws some very embarrassed hearts next to that heart.
♡♡♡
Okay, I think I've got a few powers for you!
Name: Opting In - Cost: 4 ☐
(replaces Safe at Home)
When you make yourself vulnerable to dangerous people, they will focus their danger on you and whoever else has chosen to involve themselves, leaving innocent bystanders and your uninvolved loved ones alone.
Name: Mood Ring - Grants: +2 ☐
(Requires at least two of: A Thousand Ships, Angelic Tones, Emerald Orbs, Perfect Hair, Size Difference, Dressing Room, Like Roses, Well Endowed)
Your appearance powers will advertise your feelings and reactions. You might shrink in fear; your eyes might glow red with anger; your laughter might be literally musical. You cannot turn this off or adjust it.
Name: Marionette - Grants: +3 ☐
(Requires The Crazy Train and Love Is A Battlefield)
To the extent that you're vulnerable to someone through Love Is A Battlefield, they also gain direct influence over the use of your powers.
I'm still working on the Disney Princess concept. I feel like I understand what you're going for but it's just really hard to figure out powers for it, you know?
I understand. These are so good, thank you! ♡
...are you sure I'll remember you someday, if I take The Veil?
It's hard to be sure in unusual situations like this, with interactions between powers that I only just invented.
But I'm pretty sure.
It might take a long time, though.
What happens if I leave some points unspent?
Unspent points linger as unrealized potential that might someday form a new power in a time of great need. It can be pretty handy to have some around!
...I'm not supposed to say this casually, but you seem like the sort of person who won't be worse off for knowing it: sometimes the Spirit can give people drawbacks even after they've finalized their choices and gone out into the world. It doesn't like to do it very much, though, because... people should be able to trust that they won't get extra drawbacks unexpectedly, that's a pretty scary thing to have happen? And it's really important to the Spirit that people choose what powers and drawbacks to take for themselves, instead of the Spirit choosing for them. So it will only give someone an extra drawback if it's something that will definitely make them better off, and where they would agree afterward that it's definitely making them better off, and where they will end up in a position to notice that it's definitely making them better off so they can realize that the Spirit was looking out for them and not just messing with them, and where it's important enough to be worth all that trouble.
Can you make me a drawback that lets the Spirit mess with my powers and drawbacks arbitrarily whenever it wants?
I mean—I guess I don't want it to be literally arbitrarily. I would be pretty upset, I think, if I lost something like It Gets Better. But I think I trust the Spirit not to take that one away, if I trust the Spirit to give it to me in the first place, you know?
Oh, wow.
I... think I can do that... but wow. I'm sort of nervous about it. Are you sure?
I can always just not take it, even if you do come up with one!
I guess that's true.
Okay.
Name: Informed Consent - Grants: +16 ☐
(Requires Live The Role)
Your list of powers and drawbacks is open to adjustment based on narrative considerations and your long-term preferences. Your memory of this drawback may be hidden from you in order to increase the narrative impact of adjustments, or for other reasons.
Sixteen is a lot of points.
She spends a long moment contemplating the drawback, its name, its description, the points it offers her. What it will be like to live like this. What it will be like to live like this not even knowing she's living like this.
☑
I think I'm going to go through the powers again from the top and try being a little greedy now that I'm swimming in points.
Not that I need it, but I wonder if you could come up with an upgrade for Mood Ring based on taking lots of appearance powers, since I bet Mood Ring gets even more exciting with lots of appearance powers?
I see what you mean! I'll take a look.
Thanks! ♡
On second thought
Done!
Name: Moodier Ring - Grants: +2 ☐
(Requires Mood Ring, A Thousand Ships, Angelic Tones, Emerald Orbs, Perfect Hair, Size Difference, Dressing Room, Like Roses, and Hollow Leg)
Your appearance powers will work together to advertise your feelings and reactions. Some of these effects might be subtle; many will be the opposite. Anime sweatdrops are not out of the question.
I was about to say it looks like I don't need that power anymore but, you know, I'm not about to turn it down.She checks it. Checkmark tier now stands at 102/146, and heart tier at 137/149.
Then I guess all that's left is for me to clean up my list a little and then... help you come up with Disney Princess Vibes Powers, if I can? And then... and then that's it and I finalize.
I think so!
It's really been a pleasure to work with you. I appreciate your enthusiasm and the way you understand the things you want and set out to achieve them.
Well, I appreciate how much of an unbelievable sweetheart you are at all times. So there. ♡
♡
Let's see if I can reach for inspiration and get you some good Disney Princess powers. ⏳
She waits, idly scanning over her list in the meantime. In her head she thinks about possible negative consequences of her choices, but she doesn't start making a list even though she kind of itches to. This is the kind of situation where you are beyond listing possible negative consequences because you have put your trust in the strange and terrible power and if they care to save you from your own madness they'll do it and if they don't you are already thoroughly fucked.
Name: Where The Heart Is - Cost: 1 ☐
(Requires Disney Princess)
When you make a place your home for long enough, it will begin to respond by animating itself, including furniture and loose articles, for your convenience. Over time it may develop a personality; if so, that personality will be tailored to complement yours.
Name: Cotton Candy - Cost: 3 ☐
(Requires Disney Princess)
The sharp edges of the world are blunted around you. That's not to say that nothing bad can happen, but that the worst things happen a lot less often, and happy endings large and small are much easier to come by. This effect can ripple outward to improve the lives of people you've never met.
Name: Musical Number - Cost: 5 ☐
(Requires Disney Princess)
At dramatic moments, you and those around you may spontaneously burst into song. The lyrics and choreography will be flawlessly coordinated.
Name: Grimm's Fairy Tales - Grants: +1 ☐
(Requires Cotton Candy)
Bad things can and will still happen to you in particular.
Has anyone ever told you you're really good at this?
Well. Yes. But it's still nice to hear it again. ♡
I hope you don't mind if I skip Musical Number. It's charming and it's exactly what I asked for but I just don't feel right inflicting it on other people, you know?
Can you look over my choices and tell me if you think I'm missing anything?
I don't think you're missing anything.
I think you're making some pretty alarming choices, but you're making them on purpose because they're what you want. Ultimately, all the powers the Spirit gives you are... for you. They work in more or less the ways you want them to work, within the constraints and boundaries of what each power is for. And since you took a lot of meta-drawbacks, those boundaries are more flexible for you than for most people. Your specific choices definitely influence the ways that your story will unfold, but I think, with what you've done here, you've... gotten right to the heart of what the Spirit's power is about in a way that few people ever do. I think...
There's a sense in which what you've asked for here is... for all the power the Spirit can give you, and everything it can get from giving you drawbacks you endorse, to pour itself into doing the things you would want it to do if you knew enough to ask for them. And that's kind of like just asking the Spirit to, well. To be your friend?
Yeah. Yeah, I see what you mean.
I don't really know very much about the Spirit. Everything you've said about them sounds nice, and I think it would be pretty hard for someone with totally horrible intentions to create someone as sweet and thoughtful as you. People's worldviews are reflected in how they interact with the world, and you're a pretty promising interaction, on that front. But I'm flying pretty blind here, and I am not used to that at all.
If you're telling the truth, though, then you saved me from the total disintegration of my existence just so you could give me cool powers. And if you're not telling the truth, then I don't know that I have any hope of figuring out what the rules of this interaction are or how to win at them. So here goes, I guess.
Finalize me.