It's another boring day in Monroe. The Pirates have a day off of work, so they've decided to catch a bus to city center to do a bit of shopping. Sable gets off at the local big-box bookstore and starts looking through the available notebooks, because she wants to start writing down their longer-term plans and goals, especially about their transition once they get out of this miserable excuse for a city.
Wild guess, did six-tier person use S-F?
They have not seen many tierlists, it's not the first thing they think of for ratings, but they have definitely ever seen a tierlist.
I think so! I don't have direct memories of the other people I've met when I'm in a world like this, for privacy reasons.
Reasonable! Privacy is important!
After some deliberation, she goes through and remarks everything S-F. The destination options get C, A, and S in order. Thousand Ships gets B, Hundred gets A. What's In A Name and Undressing Room get Cs. Angelic Tones, Like Roses, Just A Little Longer, Breathe Easy, Warmhearted, and Soundtrack get Bs. Emerald Orbs through Pocket Dimension, Personal Hygiene, Well Endowed, and Hollow Leg get Ss.
And then on they go downward.
Situational but a specific headmate really likes it is enough reason to upgrade.
Down it goes as a B.
Lightfoot gets an A.
We all like being graceful an awful lot. I think we'd rather earn our combat skill the hard way unless we expect to be getting in a lot of fights, though.
The Battle series gets Cs, as does Gloryseeker.
Dayjobs are fucking lame, but money has diminishing returns, and actual achievement is nice.
Hailey marks Making Ends Meet down as an A, Motherlode as a C, Four-Star Daydream as a D, and Five-Star Daydream as a C.
Neo takes over to mark Omniglot as an A.
We can learn languages manually, we're even good at it, but this is a huge advantage.
And then they reach Anything You Can Do and it's relatives.
Whoa. These four are ridiculously powerful.
They all get As, except Snowglobe, which gets an S.
Yes, I think a lot of people like to be able to pick up the magic and other special powers they encounter!
I'm not surprised!
Soulbound gets a B, then she pauses.
How's the touch-prevention implemented? And is it possible to prevent the bumping in crowds?
Implementation is sort of a complicated question, because these powers don't have to choose a specific way to make things happen; they can just make them happen directly.
Do you want me to try to come up with a power based on Personal Space that prevents incidental bumps as well as deliberate personal contact?
Gotcha. And... hm. It's very tempting, but I don't know if we're gonna wind up buying it. It would be a lot of comfort for me personally, but make little difference to the other four.
Okay point, but also I can get most of what I want here by just stealing some teleportation magic.
I guess what I'm saying is don't go out of your way but I would appreciate it?
We'll probably end up buying it if there's room in the budget. Only Hailey would ever use it, but physical contact she's not ready for is a little bit miserable for her, and we hate that for her.
I'll think about it. I like coming up with custom powers! It really isn't any trouble.
...Thanks.
On down they go. Closed Book gets a C, Indelible gets an A, Iron Will gets a B, It Gets Better gets an S and a quick note of
Holy shit.
Great Equalizer gets a C and a note that it's "too heavy-handed outside of special circumstances", while Star-Straightened gets an A.
The first three perks under Power of Friendship get Fs.
Ick. I'd like to earn people's attention, thank you very much. I can understand why some people would want this, but we really don't.
Disney Princess, Puppies Everywhere, and Pocket Monsters all get Cs.
They're very situational, and the latter two can't really help unless one's going all-in on pets.
Where The Heart Is gets a B though. And then Cotton Candy gets an S.
Fuck. This is a moral imperative. The ability to make people's lives better just by existing nearby is something I cannot pass up. Ever.
Under the commentary on Mysterious Allure et al, the notebook writes,
Yes, different people can approach these powers very differently.
And under the comment on Cotton Candy,
It's very kind of you to want to help people like that! I wouldn't want you to take a power like this just because you feel like you're obliged to, though. There's a difference between powers that are genuinely a part of living your best life as your best self, and powers that you take on as a burden because you don't feel capable of doing otherwise.
I... Yes, I have a problem with taking on burdens just because I feel obligated to help people, but this one is perfect because all it does is make things better as a continuous passive effect. I don't even have to do anything. It just works. Part of living my best life is making people have happier and more fulfilling lives, and this power basically means we can get that for free. Just spend a few points.
I think I understand. And you certainly sound excited about it. It sounds like you're right that this power really suits you! ♡
Yeah! ♡
The Best Friend chain of perks gets Cs until Sable suddenly pauses at Transformer.
Okay, this is going to need some consideration, because while we don't want to Make A Whole New Person, Maya here is very much about being the intersection of Ship and Girl: walk around and be snugglable like a humanoid girl, but able to turn into a spaceship or surface ship or airship or car or motorcycle or power armor, and ideally also be able to appear aboard shipform in girlform. Is that something we can manage with some variation on Transformer? Because that would make Maya extremely happy and fulfilled, and I am all about my headmates getting to be happy and fulfilled. (I'm just generally about everyone getting that, but especially my headmates. ♡)
Hmm... I could definitely imagine someone in your position being able to externalize one of yourselves into a Bestest Friend, maybe with a custom power. I'll think about it, but I don't want to start suggesting externalization powers until you've been through the list so you know what the existing options are.