He thinks about it for a long time. It's hard to tell if the hard twist in his stomach is longing or fear.

I don't think I want a god in my life right now. Sorry.

Don't be! I want you to pick the options that are best for you.

He's just not going to tell his sister. He doesn't have to do that. When he comes down from this high there's going to be an entire religious crisis waiting, he can feel the edges of it bleeding through the cracks of the box he's shoved it into, and maybe if the circumstances were different she'd be really great for that but right now he's calling into question the nature and character of Athena and the god of stuck drawers as well as Christ and at the moment Ariel's taken the opposing side on that.

Will I still be able to

he writes, and then erases it. If she's meant to run into random gods on her journey she will do that and she's not sure she actually wants to.

The next option is Transformer. This one lets her be best friends with a car or a gun or something instead of an animal. It's pretty anticlimactic.

0 for Best Friend, 1 for Bestest Friend, 4 for Ascended Friend, 3 for Transformer.

The next few items also cluster together. She can make her friends get her presents, help her with things, hug her, compliment her, and hang out with her. Or, no, wait, it could also mean something else.

Do these cause your friends to do these things?

Only when constraints make it necessary. Usually they send friends your way who would naturally do these things.

You know, that is probably a necessary prerequisite! Given circumstances. 

Do they make it more likely that you'll have friends?

In a sense. The people you meet are more likely to be people you want to be friends with, at least insofar as the option you pick reflects that.

There are other options which improve your ability to make friends, too, and a lot that will get people to like you. A lot of stuff goes into friendship!

Got it.

He needs to keep an eye out for those but he's not going to write that down. He's trying to hold on to what little dignity he has.

Does she want any of this? She's going to be rich. Assistance with things would be nice but it doesn't really grip her. All of these feel like a 3 except maybe Quality Time, which is still silly but nice enough that he sits there wanting it for a little bit.

And then he moves on before he has to acknowledge the moment.

"Do you think Agree to Agree would work on Internet arguments?"

"Which one was that?"

"You can always convince your friends to see your point of view about things like politics and philosophy."

"I think only if you're friends with them, right? Also, no offense, but what if your own politics are stupid?"

"I -- it doesn't say you'll never change your mind about anything. I think it's just about not having dumb fights about it."

"I think this is obviously a fantastic power which you will never misuse but I do want to point out that yesterday you were a born again Christian, so it is possible you will once again be horribly wrong about something in the future. And when you do I reserve the right to not be convinced about it."

"You don't know what I do and don't believe," he says. "And -- and wouldn't you want to know? If you knew something, and nobody else believed it, and something horrible was going to happen to them because they didn't understand--"

"Sorry, is this about Internet fights or is it about saving lost souls from Hell? Because you absolutely shouldn't magically convert everyone to a religion just because it's the one that scares you the most."

"Look, it's--"

Can you convince someone of your arguments even if you're wrong?

Yes. 

"This is about Internet fights."

"Well then your brain doesn't fully develop until you're 25 so I think our politics are probably still stupid."

"Is that true?"

"I said politics, not science. I can read Wikipedia just as well as an adult."

"...Backchannel's better anyway. Why are there sometimes a bunch of options that do basically the same thing but from different angles?"

"Backchannel?"

"Lets you understand where people are coming from deep down and explain things to them so they'll also understand where you're coming from deep down."

"Hm, yeah, that is way better. Go for it."