"Oh wow, that's cool, what a neat thing to be able to do. It also sounds like a very cool sort of person to be."

It is!!!

Berries: still there. Back to work! Looking at them feels almost soothing, like learning about new varietals.

Some of the powers are definitely great, she'll pick those.

Just a little longer. Everyone gets so tired sometimes that they can't carry on and would be letting down their friends in the fighting-line if they weren't quite so nice or understanding about it. Well no more.

Immunity system. Appropriate druid powers, yes please!

Battle angel/demon/maiden. Feather doesn't have any stupid misconceptions that would ever make her not want to survive and win a fight she's in. Maybe people in Nirvana don't need these powers, or little children who haven't had to fight for their lives yet.

Omniglot. Doesn't that mean 'all-eating', from omni + glottis, like in the word 'glutton'? If she takes this power she'll find out!

Anything You Can Do. Become Wiser quicker! Learn everything Old Oak can teach her in a human lifetime! Finally figure out Old Hoot's hardest riddles!!!

Indelible. Nobody likes magical fear effects.

It Gets Better. Maybe there are people out there who'd choose It Can Get Worse as an expression of their ultimate feminine self but Feather definitely isn't one of them.

The squirrel makes small noises of agreement. "I'm glad some of the powers make you excited."

Others are also tempting, but a bit problematic:

Pocket dimension. Pull arbitrary objects out of her pocket! No more hunting blameless people she can't even eat because their body provides a vital spell reagent! Except it apparently requires her to become unable to ever get dirty or wet or - a real part of the world and not an illusion painted on top - she's really conflicted about this one.

Personal hygiene. Always be clean? Not very natural, but being clean is a natural state, so... fine, she doesn't need to dream of going to the toilet while regretting her choices.

Like roses - alright, no, that's overdoing it a bit? She can get smells the normal way, by becoming a creature that smells like that. Skip that one.

Angelic tones. She doesn't want an unnatural vocal range! But she does want a beautiful voice, just - a realistically beautiful one. 'Supernaturally' beautiful doesn't mean un-natural, right, it's only as beautiful as a nymph? She'll take it.

Hollow Leg, Inner Strength. Uh, sure? They sound like constant enhancement spells, if not as powerful as the real Bull's. (Feather does not have a reference for 'construction equipment' other than a mage casting stone shape, but she can already become as strong as a ram and doesn't scrape her knuckles when punching something, and she hasn't even practised punching!)

Lightfoot. Hello, Feather's subconscious mind? Have you been asleep for the last two years? She already knows how to cross a field of snow without leaving a claw print, and soar through the air instead of falling! Standing on a slender branch without bending it will be a nice trick for when she learns to become a giant owl, though. She takes it.

Closed Book. Yes, unless it blocks telepathy, in which case absolutely no way. She'll ask about that.

Iron Will. It's technically a kind of putting herself outside of Nature, just like never getting dirty, but also she doesn't want to be traumatized! This might be better if it was a bit more selective, but it's definitely net good already.

"You said you could design custom powers. Can I get the magical component pouch but without the part where I can't get dirty anymore? I don't think being unable to get dirty or dishevelled is very aesthetic, it's like pretending you're not really there. And can I have Closed Book but allowing telepathy, like Iron Will does?"

"Dressing Room doesn't mean you can't get dirty it only applies to what you're wearing. Also when a power says dramatic it kinda means at any moment when you'd strongly want the power to work another way.

"Angelic Tones won't make your voice sound a way you wouldn't want it to. It just means you have more options.

"Inner Strength is pretty strong. It also means you mostly don't get physically tired regardless of what you're doing.

"If you specifically don't want Dressing Room to keep your outfits intact and looking good I can remove that part. Like I said before though it isn't as absolute as it sounds.

"Iron Will's bit about allowing specific exemptions also applies to Closed Book if you take it. If you want the exemptions without Iron Will though I can do that though."

"...I want my clothes to be able to get dirty too, not just me. When I'm wearing clothes. Or my pouch to be wet, or whatever. I don't want to go around having to - strongly want to be dirty, I just want to be normal. So yes, please remove that. And then I can just - not use Dressing Room."

The not getting tired is nice but she already has Lesser Restorations to spare. Still, a useful minor power.

"And I do want to take Iron Will, but if I run out of points and don't then I'll want the exception to Closed Book."

Name: Dressing Room - Cost: 3 ☐
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: Closed Book - Cost: 1 ☐
You're immune to any supernatural, pharmaceutical, or other effect that would let people directly read your thoughts or feelings. (You can choose to allow specific effects like communicative telepathy on a case-by-case basis.)

"I changed the two powers like you asked. I removed the entire outfit protection effect from Dressing Room. If you wanted some of it I can change it again."

"That's great, thanks!"

And finally, there's a grab bag of things Feather doesn't particularly want but seem good, so she'll take them instead of overthinking it as long as she doesn't run out of points.

What's in a name. She doesn't know any true name magic but she has heard of the concept; it's a fae thing, right?

Gloryseeker. Skydiving is more of a falcon thing? And she'd rather heal herself than get dramatic scars. Still, it can't hurt.

Soulbound. She doesn't really have tools she relies on like that? It would be nice, probably, but it's very expensive and she'll only take it if she has points left.

Personal space. Isn't winning in fights enough? If someone 'touches' her and she doesn't want them to she can... fight them about it? Why are unwanted hugs and rape in the same category? Whatever, this one probably isn't that important.

Well endowed: the right figure is definitely 'well-rounded'! It doesn't bounce so much as it hops, and it's covered in feathers. She imagines an hourglass owl, and laughs. Well, she can become any figure she wants already (*), but being elegant and graceful is always good!

And all that was just the berries - she still has all the flowers to go through! (If she picks a flower-power does she have to literally pick it? She doesn't want to pick all the pretty flowers!)

How many points was all that, anyway? Counting them is going to be such a chore. Why is she dreaming about laboriously adding up berries like in math class.

...actually, wait a minute. This is her dream. Who says she has to do anything? Feather waves a hand, and vines arrange themselves into neat numbers.

Great: 24. Problematic Merely Good: 7. Grab-bag: 6.

(*) Within the range of natural variation. Novel human(oid) figures not included. Yet.

"Personal space operates on your understanding of intimate touch. If hugs aren't intimate for you then it won't stop people from hugging you and if for example touching another part of you is intimate then that would be covered."

"Alright." On to flower power!

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.

In other words, they're not mind control, they just happen anyway, don't worry your pretty little head about it.

Frankly, that doesn't sound like someone worried about using mind control. It sounds more like something someone would say who wanted to bypass mind-control protections, so they made up a new name for what they were doing that was totally not mind control, honest!

Feather's not some kind of radical who thinks excessive Charisma is really the same as enchantment, but. BUT. People are fascinated by you? They cannot be bored of you? They always see how right you are about philosophy (i.e. what is Good and Evil)? They are always friendly, regardless of anything you do, maybe even if you hurt them?

Evil people would probably take these, and maaaaaybe some Chaotic ones who were sufficiently thoughtless about it, but Feather is going to stay far far away from any flower that even smells funny. Mind control is something you use on enemies, not friends, and she's already getting powers that let her beat any enemies in a straight fight.

And so, some flowers she can dismiss in short order:

Mysterious Allure, Captive Audience. Mind control bad.

Blackout Binge. She is not a Caydenite and does not think 'responsible' is swearword.

Disney Princess. What kind of person thinks it's fine to mind-control animals but only if they're Small? Who even wants a universal mind-control effect that can't be turned off, even if you're trying to hunt and eat the cute little animal in question? Even normal Evil people like alraunes don't do that!

Where The Heart Is, Cotton Candy, Musical Number. All of these are various amounts of cool, but they require mind control, so: hard pass. (She wonders if they work through the mind control, making everyone sing and have a 'happy', mind-controlled ending?)

Generosity, Helpfulness, Cuddle Buddies, Flattery, Quality Time. If you can't make the kinds of friends you want, that is sad and tragic and does not entitle you to mind control your friends into being 'better'. Honestly!

...alright, she's being unfair. All alignments are equally valid, it only makes sense for a fifth of the powers to be blatantly Evil ones. The squirrel already told her the powers weren't personalized for her. She'll just move on, and not get all worked up and indignant about it.

An awful lot of the flowers seems inclined to Evil, though. Just look at these:

Agree to Agree. You can always convince your 'friends' that something is Good or Evil because you say so! 

Inspirational. People who hurt you always come to realize they were wrong. Because you are a selfish bastard moral paragon of perfect virtue, and it is definitionally impossible for hurting you to ever be justified, and so it is vital that in addition to being guaranteed to lose the actual fight where they try to hurt you, they will really, really regret it.

Before Your Eyes. Alright, that's a more normal kind of Evil mind control, but she'll still pass.

Sorry About That. Truly loving you means being extremely forgiving. (Imagine being the kind of person who anticipates needing this.)

Tragic Backstory. You become literally irreedemable. Which is apparently a good desirable thing, if some people are willing to pay eight points and have a tragic past to get it. Ugh.

...some people just don't understand what Good is, do they?

Famous. People who you never met (and probably never will) develop presumably unrequited crushes on you! Poor people? No, lucky you, apparently! Ick.

Whew. That's finally over and she can start picking over the non-Evil flowers.

"If mind control isn't something you want there are Leaves that prevent any of your powers from working by directly changing people's minds."

Two leaves break off from their normal place and float in front of her.

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.

Oh right, there are also the leaves, she hasn't looked at those yet.

"If I take both of those, then... I'll still be mind-controlling people, but only in ways they don't mind? And if someone objects to mind control on principle, they won't be controlled at all? I don't like that either, to be honest, especially almost all of these are constant effects and not something I can choose when to use. Maybe somewhere out there someone wants to - become more comfortable with cuddles - but it sounds pretty niche."

"There may be other reasons I haven't thought of not to do it. I don't like putting so much weight on - the way the powers work outside my control, the 'metanarrative' thing - there could be a philosophical argument or someone's personal preference I'm not accounting for."

"But - I think my most fundamental objection is - mind control is what you use on enemies. Not friends. It's silly to have complicated arguments about consensual, beneficial mind control, when you can instead just not do any of it. We have a lot of complicated arguments in my ethics classes," because it's so much fun, honestly, "but the first lesson is that you shouldn't do that in real life." And it wouldn't really be fun even in a dream.

"And I'm sure there's better ways to get what we want - or, what I want - some of the other flower powers look really good, actually! I'm just going to pass on this bunch, instead of trying to fine-tune it." She nods decisively.

"The powers you're talking about aren't just changing people's minds they also manipulate coincidence so you find yourself in certain situations more or less often and so things happen in the right ways to make their outcomes more likely. It's fine if that isn't the sort of power you want but I do want to make sure you understand how the powers actually work."

"So if I took Nullified, all these things would still happen a lot of the time, but by - coincidence? I don't really understand how... well, no, I suppose I do, if you think lots of things can happen, they're just very unlikely. It's more likely that - people won't expect me to ever grow or change because I'm traumatized - than that I will literally never losing a fight. I just - "

Feather tries to figure out why she seems to be so invested in arguing against it. Why is it even a matter of arguing? As if there's an objectively right choice to be made, and not simply - what she wants?

"I'd feel like I'm making excuses," she decides. "That if I take any of these, I have to defend my choice, because it's a useful power or because I don't understand something or it's fine actually if we modify it a bit. I don't want powers that I have to make excuses for, even if they're just to myself. You said the powers were for - being my best self. So I don't want these ones. I want to make real friends, not to have a power for it."

"That makes sense. And yes these powers are to help you live your best life."

Here's another bunch of flowers!

Best(est) Friend. She has one of those already!!!

Ascended Being. Does she want Greystripe to give her cleric spells? Uh... maybe? Since cleric spells are generally useful, and stuff?

Would Greystripe want to be a god, though? It's certainly not a decision she's going to make without talking to him. 

Anyway, it sounds like it would only apply to a new companion created by taking the previous powers, and she is not going to, what, call someone she never even met yet her new best friend? Ugh, no.

Transformer. Huh. Can she - use this to make a... tool... which is also a demigod granting her spells... that is not a person - if it's possible for a god not to be a person - or at least not one who tries to be her friend and replace Greystripe? Worth asking about.

"Ms Squirrel? Can you tell me more about how Transformer works? Do I get to choose? I don't really have a tool or weapon that I'm already very attached to." She has her staff, because every druid has a staff or club as a kind of badge of office, but she doesn't actually use it that much. Maybe she can make it into a super-spellstaff.

"Yes, you get to choose with Transformer. If you choose to have it just have a tool or vehicle form it still has all the other parts of the Best Friend perk and if you choose Bestest friend it gets all the parts of that too. For a tool or vehicle that would mean it would have special abilities a normal one wouldn't have and you could choose what those are."

"But would it have to be a person, and not just a - magical tool?" That is indeed the text's plain reading, but she is holding out hope.

"It would yes."

Sigh. "Obviously I'm not going to create a new person magically bound to be my friend and to love me unconditionally. I can't even commit to being their friend since I haven't met them yet!" 

More discarded flowers.

Backchannel: 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

On the one hand, this sounds wonderful. Understanding other people is core to druidism. Having them also understand you is - possibly beyond the power of all but the greatest archdruids.

On the other hand, having it 'just work' sounds... cheap? Instead of years of hard work, studying at the feet of the masters, proving herself worthy -

Feather is aware that this is very silly. Understanding is the goal, the rest is just the price that she pays. If everyone could truly understand each other, the world would be enormously better. Sharing the end result of understanding is not at all the same as sharing the secret teachings the druids used to gain it.

But at the same time, it feels wrong somehow. Not against Good, or druidism, but against her own sense of aesthetics. 

It's silly to want important things to be hard to get. But she likes being rewarded for her hard work and talent. She likes having a sense of pride and accomplishment, and she can't have it if everything just happens by magic.

She doesn't feel that way about pulling arbitrary things out of her pocket, or never losing fights. Fighting people and finding spell components are unpleasant but necessary tasks. Maybe if she was a craftsman she'd hate Pocket Dimension. But she's a druid, and so what she thinks she might hate is - being useful to the world, to her community, only because she a convenient unique magic power, and not because of any personal talent or commitment or hard work.

(Could she even keep leveling as a druid if learning to understand other people isn't hard work anymore?)

Feather tries to explain all this to the Squirrel.

"I'm not sure what I want changed about the power, exactly. But - I do want it to be possible to understand others. I don't mind being better at it. But it shouldn't 'just work', it should be - more difficult, or require more work, or a lot of time, or be able to fail, I shouldn't get to just - snap my fingers and understand anyone." Because if I do that, what am I even for?

"...maybe I'm worried too much and the power already does that. I could interpret the text to mean it already does that, it says 'really try' and so on. But - this is really important to me" apparently! "so I wanted to be very sure."

"In this case you're right the power does just work. I'll have to think about how to change it. If you do have more specific ideas let me know otherwise I'll just try to use my best judgement based on what you've already said."

Everything she can think of sounds like 'my power makes doing this twice as easy and fast as it was yesterday' and this still feels like fundamentally the wrong kind of thing.

Maybe - "what if it helps me explain myself to other people, like it already does, and then I can sort of explain to them how to explain themselves to me?"