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if it talks, put it back where you found it
Catherine Foundling gets notebooked
Permalink Mark Unread

"Justifications only matter to the just." 

It sounded really cool at the time, when she first spat those words out like a taunt a few months ago. But she's just murdered two of her countrymen in cold blood, for no crime but not wanting to help the Dread Empire of Praes, their ancient enemy, quash a rebellion of their own people. 

She could tell herself that they were enlisted soldiers, that they deserted from active military duty, and that as their General she was entitled to meet out whatever punishment she saw fit. She could even console herself that many in her place wouldn't have been merciful enough to grant them a quick, painless death. 

But those sound a little too much like justifications. 

Still, what else could she have done? She's hitched her cart to the Black Knight and the Legions of Praes now, like it or not, and she still believes changing the Empire from the inside is a better way to save Callow than one more doomed rebellion. She just wishes there was a way that didn't involve quite so much senseless killing. 

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At least alone in her tent she doesn't have to be General Foundling or Lady Squire. The titles still sit a little uncomfortably, and it's a relief to get to just be Catherine for a while.

Unfortunately, her tent also contains a pile of paperwork to deal with. Seriously, she swears the stack gets taller every time she turns her back for five minutes, and they haven't even been on the march a week. 

...wait, what's this?

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A blank notebook with a purple-grey cover, its pages very smooth and fine. The cover is engraved with a simple design of flowers in the corners. There's no clear explanation for how it got into her stack of invoices and requisitions.

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Catherine's spent long enough around goblins that her first thought is prank. It would be a strange gift for someone to give her, and she's hardly awash in suitors right now besides. 

A quick look around her tent reveals no hidden watchers, and she can't hear any stifled giggling. Maybe a trap in the notebook itself? It doesn't look thick enough to hide very much in its pages, and—she quickly sniffs it, feeling a little silly—doesn't smell of goblin munitions. (Not that even Robber would be bold enough to risk exploding official paperwork. Probably.)

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The cover smells like plain clean leather, the paper like wood pulp, the binding like glue. It very much appears to be just a notebook.

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Maybe it is just a nice gift...? She vaguely remembers mentioning to Hakram in passing that she could do with something more organised than stray scraps of paper to make notes on. 

Ugh, she's turning into Black with all this paranoia. It's just a notebook. 

She opens it. 

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That is some really nice paper. And still no explosions!

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See, Catherine, it's just a notebook. 

But she doesn't have anything she wants to write in it at the moment, so it gets closed again and put to one side. Maybe she'll ask around at some point and try to find out who put it in her tent. It'll have to be later, though. She's put off these requisition forms long enough. 

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It turns out an Imperial Legion on the march generates a lot of work for its General, enough that a week later she still hasn't written in the notebook, and has entirely forgotten to be curious about its origins. 

She's been trying to keep up her language studies as they march towards Summerholm. Even with her aspect, Learn, Taghreb is still a bitch and a half to get her head around. She grabs a pen and the notebook—might as well use it, since it hasn't blown up in her face yet—and starts copying out a grammar table. 

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Oh, are you learning a language? Neat!


The words appear as though drawn by an invisible pen, in dark purple ink of a similar tone to the engravings in the cover. The ink seems to be sparkling faintly.
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What.

 

 

Uh. What.

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Hello! I'm sorry if I startled you.
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...talking notebook? Talking notebook. Definitely magic. 

The smart thing to do, the sensible thing, would be to stop writing in it immediately, maybe even chuck the thing in the nearest fire. It's unquestionably what Black would do. He hasn't survived as long as he has by taking risks with things like mysteriously appearing magic items. 

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She's curious, though. Sue her. 

And besides, it's been nothing but polite so far. It seems rude to just destroy it without another word. 

Who or what are you? And how did you get into my tent? 

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I'm an avatar of the Spirit of Femininity Unleashed, and I was sent to offer you its power!
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...so, devil trying to trick her into a deal, maybe? Is this an Heiress plot, this is kind of starting to smell like an Heiress plot. Subtle digs at Catherine's lack of feminine charms seem right up her alley. 

The Spirit of Femininity Unleashed, huh? What'd I do to get its attention? 

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You didn't necessarily do anything in particular. The Spirit doesn't quite see things in the same way you or I do; the people it reaches out to are people who want to be beautiful and powerful and special in a feminine way, but it isn't looking for the people who are most like that, or the first people who are like that, or anything. You could say that it glanced into this world and you were the first person it saw, and that wouldn't be entirely accurate but it wouldn't be too wrong either.
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Well, that's a puzzling response, and a surprising one. It's—not what she'd have expected the notebook to say if it was a trap from Heiress, she doesn't think. Which means she's back to having no idea what this is.

You're implying that the Spirit is from outside this world. Do you mean the Heavens or the Hells or Arcadia, or somewhere outside Creation entirely?

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Somewhere outside Creation entirely. And if this is one of those worlds where most of the things nearby outside it are very weird and bad, I should probably add that the Spirit is from farther away than those things.
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You preempted my next question, which was about to be "Is the Spirit a demon?" Sounds like that's a no. 

All of this is, of course, what a very smart devil would say to convince her it wasn't a devil. 

You seem very comprehensible for something from outside Creation, I must say. Speaking a civilised language and everything. How do you know Lower Miezan, anyway? 

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I don't think I'm the sort of thing that can fail to know a language.
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Can you tell them apart?

...she writes, in Kharsum. Of the three and a half languages she has available, the orcish tongue is the one Heiress and her agents are the least likely to know. 

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The notebook responds, also in Kharsum,
I think so! The letters in this one are different shapes.
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That's...probably evidence of something. Doesn't entirely rule out Heiress, though. 

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...well, she might as well ask.

Do you have any proof that you are what you claim to be, and not, for example, a devil sent to trick me out of my soul? 

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I'm not sure! I don't really know very much about your capabilities, because it would be rude of me to show up knowing a lot about you when you might not have wanted that. All I know is that you're the person the Spirit sent me to talk to, because the first person who writes in me always is.

If you can think of a test, though, I don't mind you trying it; it seems very important for you to know that I'm the kind of thing I am and not something else!
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She underlines 'the first person who writes in me always is' and draws an arrow to it. 

How does that work? I found you in my tent—you still haven't explained how you got there, by the way—but Hakram deals with more than half of my paperwork and he could easily have been the one to pick you up first. 

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He wouldn't have been, though, because the Spirit guarantees that I always happen to end up written in by the person I'm supposed to talk to first. Sometimes that's because I only appear when they have an opportunity to write in me, and sometimes it's just by coincidence, but it's always true. (I'd have a really difficult time telling who I'm supposed to talk to, otherwise... I'm good at recognizing handwriting, but all I can see is what touches my pages, so I can't recognize you by your face or anything like that.)
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Sounds like Named bullshit. The whole 'coincidentally in the right place at the right time' thing, fate tugging on the strings. 

Speaking of Hakram, though...

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Catherine sticks her head out of her tentflap. 

"Hakram! Got a minute?" 

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"Catherine," her adjutant says. "What do you need?" 

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"Your opinion on something. Come take a look at this." 

Safely inside her tent, she shows him the notebook and lets him read their conversation so far. 

 

"Thoughts?" she prompts, when he's silent for a moment too long.

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"...may I try 'talking' to it?"

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"Sure. I'm kind of curious whether it'll be able to tell." 

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Hakram snorts. "With handwriting like yours?" 

In a much neater hand than Catherine's messy chickenscratch, he writes:

Do you have a name? Or a Name? 

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I don't usually need a name, and I'm not sure what the difference is when capital letters get involved.

...can I ask, are you a different person from the one I was talking to just now? You're writing very differently.
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I am a different person, yes. I'm Hakram.

Apologies for not introducing myself sooner, but I wanted to test your claim that you can distinguish people by their handwriting. 

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That makes sense. Hello, Hakram! It's nice to meet you. If you want a name to call me by, you can just use "Notebook".
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It's nice to meet you too. 

"If this is a trap meant for you, it might be safer for someone else to interact with it," he says out loud to Catherine. "May I borrow it for a while? I'll let you know anything interesting I find out."

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Logically, he's right. As far as they know, nobody has a reason to assassinate Hakram, and this would be an unusually roundabout way to go about it regardless. Catherine can't say the same for herself. Still, the notebook's—or Notebook's—insistence that it's meant for Catherine must be getting to her, because Hakram's extremely logical suggestion lights a spark of irrational possessiveness in her. 

"Let me ask it. Maybe it'll turn out to be the kind of magic artefact that only reveals its secrets to its destined wielder, or something." And that would be incredibly suspicious and a reason to stop humouring it.

Hakram passes the notebook back, and she writes (in her handwriting that is perfectly fine, fuck you very much Hakram):

 Catherine again, hi. 

Wait, shit, she never introduced herself the first time.

Guess I forgot to introduce myself before. I'm the person who wrote in you first. 

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Oh, hello again! It's nice to meet you.
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Hakram wants to keep you for a bit and talk to you, ask you stuff about how you work, that sort of thing. That alright, or are there things you're only supposed to talk to me about?

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I don't mind talking to Hakram as long as you're all right with it. I wouldn't tell him anything about you that seemed like it was private, but all I know about you is that you were chosen by the Spirit and that's not very much. If you're all right with him knowing everything we've already talked about then I don't think there's anything I wouldn't say to him.
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What a friendly and helpful notebook. Gods Above, this is so suspicious. Villains don't get nice things like this—like what this is presenting itself as. 

Yeah, all of that is fine. Alright, bye for now. 

She flips the notebook shut and hands it to Hakram. 

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He takes it back to his tent, and—doesn't do anything with it immediately. He is, after all, as busy as Catherine or busier, and according to her the notebook has already been around and not obviously doing anything for at least a week. It's an intriguing mystery, but it's not his most urgent priority.

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A day or two later, though, he has a spare few minutes in the evening and pulls the notebook out. Is there anything new since Catherine last wrote in it? Is the previous conversation all still there?

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The previous conversation is still there, and right after Catherine's goodbye, the notebook has said,
Okay! Bye for now!
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This is Hakram again.

(Still in Lower Miezan, for consistency and so that Catherine will be able to read it easily later. He knows she's learning Kharsum, but her native language still comes easiest to her, and she might catch important nuances that he misses thanks to her lessons in Name-lore from the Carrion Lord.)

Do you have much sense of time passing? For instance, can you tell how long it's been since our last conversation?

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I can tell when time is passing, but I don't have a very good sense of how much of it goes by between being put down and being picked up again. I think it's been a while, though. Is everything all right?
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...he takes a moment to think about how he wants to answer that question. 

One of the subtler ways this could be a trap would be that it's meant to fish for useful intelligence on Catherine herself, and possibly the Fifteenth Legion as a whole, through innocent-seeming conversation. So far they haven't told it anything that isn't public knowledge—his name, Catherine's name, the fact that he handles the lion's share of her paperwork—but, at least where it's cheap, it seems better to err on the side of telling it as little as possible that Heiress, for example, doesn't already know. 

No, everything's fine, I've just been busy. I apologise for making you wait.

It's been around two days. 

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Oh, good! And don't worry about it. I'm a very patient notebook. If someone I was sent to wanted to keep me in the back of a drawer for a few years before having a conversation, I wouldn't mind a bit.
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Well, that seems like a convenient way to be, if one was going to be a talking notebook. 

...you know what, he'll share that thought with the notebook, why not. 

That seems like a convenient way for a talking notebook to be, given that you don't seem to have a way to stop them.

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I'm pretty happy with the way that I am! I do sometimes get anxious or uncomfortable, but I think that's okay.
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...interesting. So the notebook, or at least the persona it's presenting, has emotions. 

I hope it's nothing Catherine or I has done.

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Oh, it's all right! I did have a moment of trouble when you first wrote in me, but I don't mind and I don't think you did the wrong thing. And you introduced yourself right away, so I didn't have to worry for long. I understand that there's reasons to be cautious around things that are as new and strange as I am.
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You are certainly new and strange, but you're being quite patient with our paranoia. I'm sure there are things about us that seem strange to you—I can't promise to explain everything, but do you have any questions? 

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I do try to be patient and understand where people are coming from! It helps me do my job better. Hmmm...

What did you mean when you asked if I had a Name?
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Catherine would explain this better than I, but I'll do my best. 

He writes, with several pauses to think: 

A Name is a mantle of power, granted by the Gods Above or Below to an individual with a strong enough will to seize it. They're generally aligned with one or the other, Hero or Villain, but I've heard of a few whose alignment is less clear. I believe the Name of Squire, for example, can transition into either the Black Knight (Villain) or the White Knight (Hero). Named are...stronger than ordinary men and women, in ways that go beyond the physical, and fate bends around them. 

Every Name comes with its own powers, but Named also have something called aspects. I don't know a lot about how aspects work, but I know that each Named has three of them, growing in over time, and that they're unique to each bearer of a Name, not consistent from one to the next. I should mention here that most Names are old, and repeat again and again with different bearers—we orcs have the Warlord (that's Warlord in Kharsum; not all of the connotations carry across in Lower Miezan), whoever sits on the throne of Praes is Dread Emperor or Empress, and so on. There hasn't been a Warlord in my lifetime, though, or any other orc Named. 

(The Name 'Warlord' in Lower Miezan seems to be a clumsy calque of the Kharsum word. The original is gender-neutral and has other slight meaning differences, including starkly more positive connotations.) 

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Oh, I see! No, I don't have anything like that.
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It's a little surprising that you didn't know about Names, when you clearly know other concepts like languages, privacy, and the regular kind of name. Do you have any guesses as to why?

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Some things are common between worlds, and some things aren't. I think Names must be specific to this world and worlds very like it.
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And the Spirit didn't, or couldn't, give you knowledge of anything that was specific to our world, before sending you here? 

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It doesn't do that unless there's a good reason to, no. Partly because it has a lot of trouble communicating with anything as small and limited as you or I, and partly because I don't usually need that kind of context to do my job.
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Now that's an interesting detail that he wants to examine further, but it's getting late, and he'd rather come to it fresh after having had time to write down his thoughts on definitely nonmagical paper. 

I have to go now, but I'd like to talk more another day. It's been enlightening. 

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I'm glad! Bye for now, then.
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The next time he has an evening free, he returns to the notebook. 

Hello again. It's been three days. How are you doing, if that's a meaningful question? 

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I'm doing well. I've been thinking about how pretty the letters are in that other language Catherine wrote in me in. How are you?
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Busier than I ever thought I'd be, but in a satisfying way. 

He switches to Kharsum and continues:

Did you mean this one? It might be bias towards my native language, but I quite like it as well. I haven't often heard it described as "pretty", though. 

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The notebook replies in the same language.
Yes, that's the one! I like the shapes they make. See how the word "shapes" has that trail of curves in it, when I write it like that, even though the letters are mostly made of straight lines? I think it's neat.

Anyway, I'm glad you're doing well! What would you like to talk about today?
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Back to Lower Miezan.

I'd like to follow up on what you said the other day about the Spirit having trouble communicating with...is "mortals" a reasonable summary? Mortals and mortal-scale entities such as notebooks. 

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I think from the Spirit's perspective quite a lot of things count as mortal-scale entities, but yes, that's a reasonable description.
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Hakram thinks carefully about how he wants to phrase this.

Your role, as I understand it, is to act as a "mortal-scale" intermediary for the Spirit, to speak to mortals on its behalf; is that broadly accurate? You seem very good at communicating with mortals, but do you ever struggle to communicate with the Spirit? Do you feel as though you understand it and what it wants? 

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I have some trouble communicating in detail with the Spirit about everyday things, but I do pretty well when it comes to understanding its goals and priorities. A lot of our communication is indirect; the things I hear most clearly are feelings, like being happy about me trying my best to help someone find the right powers for them, or a kind of sparkly excited feeling about beauty and femininity. It's hard to put a lot of it into words, because it's a very different experience from the kind of experience that's common to mortal-scale entities.
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The Spirit's goals and priorities are what I wanted to ask you about. Can you tell me more about what it wants with Catherine?

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What it wants with Catherine is the same thing it wants with everyone it chooses. When the Spirit sees someone who feels the kind of desires it's made of, to be powerful and beautiful and special in a feminine way, it wants to fulfill those desires.

From the Spirit's perspective, the best possible thing that could happen here would be for me to talk to Catherine and guide her through choosing the powers that are best for her, and building new ones where she needs them, and then for her to accept the Spirit's power and go on to live her best life as her best self, whoever and however that happens to be. One of the worst possible things would be if Catherine would do really well with the Spirit's power but can't or doesn't accept it, but just as bad would be if she accepts the Spirit's power thoughtlessly and chooses powers that aren't good for her and those powers lead her toward a life that doesn't make her happy and isn't what she wants.
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'Powerful and special' sounds like it describes Named, so that's reasonable. He didn't think Catherine valued femininity particularly highly compared to the rest—she certainly doesn't take much care with her appearance most of the time—but maybe it's something she'd like to indulge more if she could. More importantly:

Why? What does the Spirit get out of any of that? 

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It likes it when people are happy and have the things they want. Any people, but especially the people it sees most clearly, who resonate with its central themes and so are easier for it to perceive and understand.
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It can't possibly be that simple, so why is the notebook pretending it is? What's the catch? He considers, once again, the possibility that the notebook is just lying about the whole thing. Assuming it's not, though...

How does that benefit the Spirit?

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It's hard to describe in mortal-scale concepts what the Spirit is or where it comes from, but a story you could tell that would be more true than false is that the Spirit is made of people wanting things, and so feels fulfilled when it experiences people getting what they want in kind of the same way that people feel fulfilled when they experience eating food and sleeping and having friends and falling in love.
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So maybe something a little like the Gods? He doesn't bother writing that, because he can predict the notebook's answer: it doesn't know enough about this world to make comparisons. 

So you're saying that people getting what they want, especially when they want to be beautiful and special and powerful and feminine, directly helps or feeds the Spirit in some sense? 

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Something like that. But more like having friends or falling in love than like eating or sleeping, because the Spirit isn't the kind of thing that has needs, exactly.
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Well, that's very convenient. If it's true, which he has no way of verifying. 

It's getting late again, and you've given me a lot to think about. Let's pause for now and I'll come back another day.

And a few days later, after the initial pleasantries and an update on how long it's been: 

Can you tell me a bit more about how your power-granting abilities work? For instance, what does Catherine have to do to get the powers? Could you give powers to someone else, or just her?

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In order to accept the Spirit's power, Catherine has to tell me what form she wants that power to take, and tell me clearly which set of choices she intends to finalize. That doesn't necessarily involve specifying a lot of detail, but I do try to talk people through their choices to make sure they understand what their options are. I can't empower anyone other than Catherine while I'm here to talk to Catherine, but the Spirit might also send me separately to other people, and this instance of me wouldn't necessarily know if there are any others in this world right now.
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Well, that second part is about what he expected, but it was worth checking. 

So it's all done through writing in you, just like this? And what can you tell me about the choices Catherine has available to her? 

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Yes, it's all done through communicating with me and I don't have any other way to communicate.

What would you like to know about the choices available to Catherine? It's a pretty big question. The Spirit's power can take a lot of forms depending on the needs and desires of the individual person.
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Hmm. That's more evasive than he'd like.

Hmm, can you give me...examples? Or an overview? I'm not sure what questions I should be asking here. 

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The only choice that definitely needs to be made is whether to stay in this world, choose or imagine another specific world to go to, or let the Spirit choose a destination. If someone wanted to make just that choice and take all the rest of the Spirit's power as unrealized potential capable of forming specific powers spontaneously in the future, they could, though I wouldn't recommend it. As for the kinds of specific powers that someone could choose... there are appearance powers that affect how the bearer looks, and powers for learning new things and acquiring new magic, and powers that affect social things like how readily the bearer is listened to or understood or fallen in love with, and by whom. There's a power that guarantees that the bearer will always be okay eventually no matter what happens, and a power that guarantees that the bearer will never get hurt in a fight. And for each of those powers there are people who want them and benefit from them, and people who don't want them and would be better off without them. It's pretty hard to summarize, because there are so many different things and different ones are relevant to different people.

I guess I would say that, generally, powers granted by the Spirit affect what kinds of things can and can't and will and won't happen to their bearer, and the question of which ones to choose is the question of what kind of life a person wants to live.
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...yes, he can't really imagine Catherine giving some cosmic entity, no matter how seemingly benevolent, a blank slate to give her whatever powers it feels like. Or letting it pick a world to send her to, for that matter. 

That's a very helpful overview, thank you. 

Also a slightly awe-inspiring one—a power that guarantees you'll never get hurt in a fight??? He doesn't think even the most powerful Named he's heard of can do that, not with perfect certainty. 

I'm still puzzling over the question of how we can verify anything you've told us; have you had any new ideas there? 

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You're welcome! I'm glad I can be helpful.

Figuring out how you can verify what I've told you is pretty difficult, from my perspective. Being unable to act outside my covers makes me more nonthreatening but also means I don't have any good ways to demonstrate that I was sent by a power beyond anything a single world could contain.
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Yes, you've indicated that the actions you can take are limited to making words appear on your pages—can you draw, as well?—and giving Catherine, but nobody else, magic powers. 

Do you have to give her all of the powers at once, or could you give her, say, one power to demonstrate the ability, and then the rest later? 

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I can only channel the Spirit's power into someone once. I could give her one power, but that would involve finalizing the choice to take that one power and either stay here or go somewhere else and leave all the rest of her possible powers as unrealized potential.
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...well, that's inconvenient for his idea. Or, possibly, suspiciously convenient for the Notebook and whoever's behind it. 

So until she's finalized her choices, you can't do anything other than write in yourself and read what's written in you? 

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Yes.
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In that case, I think I'm out of ideas for how you can demonstrate your trustworthiness, at least for now. I assume it's alright to tell Catherine everything I've learned from you so far, so she can make a decision about what to do next?

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Yes, of course!
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Then he'll wrap up the conversation, and at the next opportunity he'll give Catherine the highlights. Really tempting powers on offer, no way to verify anything about them or the entity offering them but it claims to be helpful and benevolent, one-time all or nothing offer for her personally. 

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Of course. 

"Way too good to be true. Seriously, a power for winning every fight? How stupid do they think I am?" (Hakram politely doesn't comment.) "Not even heroes get that kind of bullshit. Keep it, in case Black knows a way to trace who made it or something, but I'm not wasting any more time talking to it right now." The conversation moves on to troop deployment. 

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About a week later, somebody casts a series of analysis spells on the notebook, all designed to reveal its magical properties under the assumption that it was created using the magic of this world.

(If they don't reveal anything, that will, of course, also be informative.)

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It was not created using the magic of this world! It is, on most levels detectable by such an analysis, a perfectly ordinary notebook. It also doesn't seem to react to being analyzed. Someone with a very good analysis spell could pick up a hint that there is a consciousness attached to the book, but not discern very much beyond that. The magic that should be present to support the intersection of "conscious mind" and "inanimate object" definitely isn't.

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It is, in fact, a very good analysis spell. And this is a very interesting result.

Maybe he'll be able to detect more when its magical properties are active? At the moment it's behaving indistinguishably from a nonmagical notebook, other than that hint of a consciousness.

He finds a pen and ink, and turns to the first blank page.

Do something interesting.

(This is in not only a new handwriting, but a new language. Masego doesn't share Hakram's concern about making his conversations legible to Catherine. If she wants to read them, she can just learn Mtethwa.)

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Ink appears, exactly as though applied by a pen, but without the pen. This should be a more magical state of affairs than the notebook resting inertly on a table. It isn't.

Hello! I don't recognize your handwriting. Are you another one of Catherine's friends?


(The notebook is responding in the same language in which it was addressed.)
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I don't know if we're friends. She asked me to investigate this notebook's magical properties. As far as my analyses can tell, you don't seem to have any, which is self-evidently false. How are you doing that?

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There are a lot of possible answers to that question, depending on how you mean it! I'm not from this world, so I don't use this world's magic. I'm empowered by the Spirit, so it isn't necessary for me to participate in ordinary causality. I exist the way I do because that is how I was made, and when I write in myself I'm making ink appear using my natural faculties. Are any of those the answer you were looking for?
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Oh, this notebook is good at answering questions! (Most people aren't, in Masego's experience; it's very frustrating.)

Not exactly, but it is useful information nonetheless. Catherine rather skimmed over the "other worlds" part when she explained you. Were you made with some other world's magic, then? 

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Not exactly. It might be more accurate to say that I was made outside of worlds, but I'm not sure that's a very informative thing to say unless I first explain how the multiverse works...

If you can think of many possible ways a world could work differently from your own, there are probably worlds out there that work in those ways. If you can think of many possible ways multiple worlds could connect or communicate with each other, there are probably worlds out there that are linked in those ways. There are many possible ways to travel between worlds that don't already have any kind of straightforward link to each other, and many possible ways that different groups of linked worlds can relate to each other.

The Spirit is outside of all of that, and can't directly interact with things inside of worlds, or even with things between worlds because most ways of being between worlds are much closer to being inside of worlds than they are to being near the Spirit. So it created me and other avatars like me, and it sends us into worlds to empower people on its behalf. I wasn't made in any specific place, or with any specific form of magic. I was made to be what I am regardless of whether a thing like me should be possible under the usual constraints of the worlds where I appear.
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This is the most important thing to ever happen and Masego needs to understand everything about it immediately. 

Is there a way for mortals to get "outside the worlds"? 

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That depends what you mean, but generally no. The kind of thing that you are is too different from the kind of thing the Spirit is; the same way the Spirit can't directly enter a world, you can't directly enter the Spirit's state of being.
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Hm, alright, so if there is a way to do it, the notebook either doesn't know or won't tell him. He'll just have to figure it out for himself. That seems like a project that might take a while, though, so he should probably finish investigating the notebook first. 

Are you more like the Spirit or more like me, in that particular sense? You do seem to be in a world at present, but you also say you're able to act outside ordinary causality. 

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I'm much more like you than I am like the Spirit. I can act outside ordinary causality, but what I can do is still very limited; it's just that all my limitations are inherent to me, and only mediated by the world around me in indirect ways.

Like, because I am a notebook, I can be put in a box and I won't be able to leave the box; but the reason why I can't do that isn't really about the box, it's because part of my nature is an inability to act outside my covers. Someone else who worked in a more causally straightforward fashion could be put in a box and then learn a way to escape the box, or be externally empowered to escape the box, and then they could leave; I couldn't do that. But someone else who worked in a more causally straightforward way might visit a world where it was impossible to do something they can normally do, and then they wouldn't be able to do it; and I visit worlds where it's impossible to do things I can normally do all the time, and I can always still do them.

Does that make sense?
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I believe so. You seem to be describing a more absolute version of the way that Names affect their bearers and the world around them. 

Having one himself, Masego is well aware that the laws of reality tend to bend around those with Names, letting them achieve feats beyond the reach of ordinary men. While he's wary of simply rounding unfamiliar magic to a known quantity, what the notebook is describing sounds like a similar phenomenon. Perhaps it works on a deeper level of reality, but it could instead simply be a stronger version of the same effect. 

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It sounds like Names are a kind of magic that works in a way reminiscent of the kinds of things the Spirit can do. But I don't know anything specific about this world, so I can't say much directly about the comparison.
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Do you know anything about how magic works in other worlds? 

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I have a general idea of some of the kinds of things that are common to many worlds, but I don't have any specific memories of other worlds I've been to, for privacy reasons.
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Well, that's annoying.

If all you can tell me about is general trends, that's still better than nothing. 

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There are many worlds with no magic at all, where everything works in very simple consistent ways that are hard to fully understand because a system with simple consistent rules that can give rise to people and civilizations by accident has to be built up into something very big and complex from that simple starting point.

There are many worlds where magic is another kind of system with simple consistent rules and big complex consequences, that operates on a level more familiar to mortals.

There are many worlds where magic works very differently from that. Sometimes it has a personality, or several personalities. Sometimes it's like a language, or like a story, or like a dream.

Some kinds of magic are heritable, and some kinds are learned, and some kinds are transmissible in other ways. For some reason there are also a lot of worlds where the way magic works is that individual people get specific unique powers that are suited to them personally.
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Magic here is a system with simple, consistent mathematical rules, although there are several schools of thought on what, exactly, some of those rules are. The potential to be a mage is heritable, but learning is necessary to make use of it. 

Names are a separate system with their own rules, although the rules of Namelore are less concrete and mathematical than the laws of magic, and I find them irritatingly difficult to grasp beyond the basics. My Uncle Amadeus, who is an expert in Namelore, says it is partly a matter of instinct that cannot be reliably taught. 

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It sounds like your world has multiple kinds of magic that work in very different ways. I think that's pretty common too.
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...Masego feels obscurely like he ought to be offended by the notion that his world's situation is common in the multiverse. 

I think that is accurate, although I am accustomed to thinking of "magic" as meaning one specific kind. Would you describe the process that created you as being another kind of magic? 

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There's a sense in which the process that created me is a kind of magic, and a sense in which it isn't. When I talk about magic I'm usually talking about powers specific to particular worlds or groups of worlds, which the process that created me isn't; but even the Spirit can't see the whole multiverse at once, so you could think of the parts of the multiverse that the Spirit can reach as just another group of worlds with its own particular kinds of magic, and from that perspective the Spirit's power is one of those kinds.
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What makes the Spirit able to reach some worlds and not others? Is it a property of the Spirit, the worlds, or both? 

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That's a pretty difficult question to answer. The Spirit can reach a lot of worlds, more than any other phenomenon we know about, but it knows that there are more worlds outside its reach for reasons that it has trouble communicating to me - I think maybe it can sense them indirectly, or something? And I'm not sure exactly what the difference is between the worlds it can reach and the ones that it can't. It's not as straightforward as how thematically resonant with the Spirit they are, because the Spirit sends me to lots of worlds that aren't very thematically resonant with it at all. It might have something to do with whether there's someone in the world who the Spirit would like to empower, but I think it's not as straightforward as just that either.
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Does this world seem "thematically reasonant" with the Spirit, based on your observations so far?

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I'm not sure! It does seem to have some stylistically similar magic, but a world can have stylistically similar magic and still be thematically dissonant in other ways.
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Masego would happily keep interrogating the notebook for hours, but, unfortunately, one of the army mages pokes her head around his tentflap, wanting his input on some boring logistical problem they're having. Being on campaign with an imperial legion involves so many more distractions than working in his father's nice quiet tower. And so much more mud

Since he's already been interrupted, though, he might as well go and report his findings to Catherine. 

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"Your notebook is definitely from outside of Creation. I can't detect anything about how it works." 

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"If you can't tell how it works, how do you know it's from outside Creation?" 

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Masego sighs. "Because if it was from anywhere in Creation, I would be able to detect any magic whatsoever coming from it," he explains impatiently. "Since it clearly is magical, the only explanation is that it is a completely unknown type of magic that works on different fundamental rules. The only way that is possible is if it is telling the truth about being from outside of our reality entirely." 

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"Well, darn. I had three denarii on it being a present from Heiress." 

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"Why would Heiress be sending you presents? I thought she was your rival." 

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"Don't worry about it. Thanks for looking into the notebook, Apprentice, I appreciate it." 

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She retrieves the notebook from Masego, and—doesn't immediately write in it, because she's still a general on campaign and they've only gotten busier. But, the next time she has a spare half hour, she opens it up. 

...wow, that's a wall of text in Mtethwa. Thanks, Masego. It's not like she only just started learning that language a few months ago, or anything. 

Hi. This is Catherine again. Should I be apologising for Masego? I haven't read all of what he wrote yet. 

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Is that the friend of yours who was asking me about the nature of reality? He seemed nice.
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Somehow I'm not even surprised he never introduced himself. Yeah, that was Masego. I don't know if we're at "friends" yet, but I did ask him to take a look at you. Mostly he's the closest I have to an expert on magic right now, I didn't get a chance to ask his dad about you before we left. 

Anyway, he says you're definitely not of this world, so we know you're telling the truth about at least one thing. Way I figure it, we still don't know if you're lying about all the rest, but if you wanted to curse me you could probably have done it by now, so there's not much harm in hearing you out. 

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I guess that makes sense! Do you want to talk about the Spirit's offer, then?
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Yeah, go for it.

She still doesn't think she believes this is the real deal, but Kilian's busy, so it's not like she has anything better to do than humor it. 

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The Spirit likes to reach out to people who want to be special and beautiful and powerful in a feminine way, and grant them part of its power to fulfill that want. There's a limit to how much power it can offer each person, but the form the power takes can be reshaped to suit the recipient; that's what I'm here for, to explain the details and help you decide what specific powers would suit you best.

Accepting the Spirit's power also means a chance to go places that you wouldn't have been able to reach otherwise. As I was telling Masego, the multiverse is really, really big. Most worlds don't come with a way to reach worlds outside themselves or their small local group, but there are a few exceptions, and when I channel the Spirit's power into someone, they can be sent anywhere within the Spirit's reach - which is quite a lot of worlds. Some people use that opportunity to leave their world and never come back; some people use it to find a solution to a problem they're having and then bring that solution home. And some people just stay right where they are! It all depends on what you're looking for.
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I can't just leave, I have responsibilities here! And I think that would technically be treason, besides. 

Just a few days ago, she sentenced an entire company of men to death for desertion. She might be a villain, but she'll be damned—again—if she's a hypocrite. 

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Oh, there are some worlds you could go to where time wouldn't pass at home until you returned. I guess I don't know whether that would still count as treason, but I think it would be a little bit silly if it did.
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It being silly wouldn't stop some Dread Empresses! There was one a few centuries ago who decided she wanted to have everyone taller than her executed, and while I can sympathise, as a fellow height-challenged person, it's definitely silly. 

I think Malicia—that's the current Empress—is more sensible than that, and I don't think she'd mind too much if I left for a century and came back a moment later, as long as I didn't come back with unfathomable other-world magic, which I then used to overthrow her. And then she'd be objecting to the overthrowing, not the desertion. 

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You would be pretty likely to come back with unfathomable other-world magic, but it sounds like she wouldn't mind that part by itself.
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I mean, she'd want to know what I was planning to do with it, but if I was powerful enough then it wouldn't really matter if she liked the answer or not. I don't inherently value her opinion, or anything, it's just that right now crossing her would be a particularly stupid way to die. 

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I think even if you don't go anywhere, the Spirit's power can be pretty unfathomable by most standards, but it's up to you how you end up using it. And a lot of powers are inclined to act subtly by default, so you wouldn't even necessarily need to make it obvious that something had changed, if you didn't want people making a big fuss about it.
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That seems like a pretty good lead-in to hearing what powers I can actually get, here? I hear "win any fight" is on offer, which sounds pretty good to me, but you've been a bit cagey about what else is on the list.

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I can show you the whole list, if you like! And if there's anything you want that isn't on it, I can come up with custom powers, too - that's how the list got so long. Would you like to see it?
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Yeah, lay it on me. 

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The most straightforward way to represent the limitations on the Spirit's power is as a set number of points, with powers costing a certain number of points each. There are also options to gain more points by letting the power take forms that are inconvenient or dangerous or just not most people's cup of tea, but that result in more power overall than not taking them. I generally advise people not to pick those unless they're really sure about them, though. One moment while I format the list... ⏳

Ink trickles in tiny dots from the top of the hourglass to the bottom, and more ink swirls across the next page and numerous pages after it. The list, as it takes shape, is made of lines and letters much crisper and more uniform than the notebook's customary handwriting. Each page has a little (0/70) total marked in the outer top corner, and there's a preamble in that same crisp uniform text before the first section heading.

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.
Destinations

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.

Yourself

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: Perfect Nails - Cost: 1
(Requires Perfect Hair) At all times, you have exactly the right nails, in shape and style. 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 manicures or pedicures.

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: Cosmetic Equipment - Cost: 2
(Requires Dressing Room) You can mix and match the practical and magical effects of your clothing and accessories. A bikini could be as cozy as a winter coat, or as protective as a steel breastplate. A pair of earrings could combine the magic of a dozen enchanted amulets. A bracelet could grant the functions of a full set of scuba gear. As usual, anything you access this way must be either something you've held or examined, or something you understand well enough to tell it apart from a convincing fake. These modifications only apply while you're wearing the items in question; you're not permanently changing how the bracelet works, just letting it serve as a kind of temporary disguise for the diving suit.

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: A Forest From A Fire - Cost: 1
(Replaces Just A Little Longer) When you know what you want to do, and choose to do it, you will do what you chose regardless of factors such as fear, anxiety, doubt, shame, bright lights, loud noises, or the hiccups. Although fatigue and other difficulties can still impair your success, they cannot stop you from trying.

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: Warmhearted - Cost: 1
(Requires Breathe Easy) You are utterly self-contained in every respect. No matter the conditions around you, you experience comfort and ease; you are warm in the cold, cool in the heat, unbothered by high winds or airless vacuum, impervious to bad smells, touched only by exactly the raindrops you would welcome.

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: Soundtrack - Cost: 1
Your life has a soundtrack, expertly composed in a mix of musical styles that suits you aesthetically and personally. You can hear the soundtrack at all times, but are never directly impaired by it—you can still hear other things just as well, and can still rest normally, enjoy the quiet, enjoy other music, and so on. By listening to the soundtrack, you can discern a lot of information about what kind of situation you're in and how your choices are likely to play out. (The soundtrack will often either go quiet or fade into the background to complement other music playing around you, but might pipe up if it has something important to say.)

Name: Soundboard - Cost: 1
(Requires Soundtrack) Your sense of hearing is clarified and enhanced. You have full control of the relative volume of all sounds you can hear, including your Soundtrack. Changing your audio balance feels intuitive and natural - and if a source of sound you turned down and forgot about has something to say, your Soundtrack can cue you to listen to it again. You can also enhance audio sources if you want to hear a distant or distorted noise more clearly, and you're better able to process and understand multiple people speaking at the same time.

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: Starstuff - Cost: 2
(Requires Emerald Orbs and Perfect Hair and Personal Hygiene and Well Endowed) Your body and its component parts can change their substance, and will do so when desirable or narratively appropriate. Perhaps your tears will turn to diamonds wherever they land, or your hair will be golden thread, or you will be made entirely of animate water. This power operates based on your sense of aesthetics, in-the-moment preferences, and narrative considerations. It is not limited to physically or biologically plausible substances.

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: 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 and 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: Personal Bubble - Cost: 3
(Replaces Personal Space) No one can touch you if you don't want them to. You can slip through crowds and squeeze past strangers without ever coming into contact, and intimate contact only happens if you're okay with it. When you get into a physical fight, this effect is suspended for other combatants, but still applies to bystanders.

Name: Personal Slipstream - Cost: 3
(Replaces Personal Space) Incidental physical contact doesn't happen to you; you can touch and be touched only by your deliberate choice. Things such as getting in a fight or giving someone a hug can count as making that choice, even if you would prefer that the person you punch or hug not be able to touch you back.

Name: Inner World - Cost: 2
The world of your imagination is a real, concrete, persistent place, which you can experience in parallel with the world around you—though you might find it easier to focus on one at a time. It makes an excellent setting for lucid dreams, telepathic conversations, and notetaking. Mental enhancements affect its size, depth, and detail; mental defenses guard it against intrusion. Your control over it will grow with time and practice.

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: Small Blessings - Cost: 1
(Requires It Gets Better) When you go through a difficult experience, you'll be able to find comfort where you need it most. Your recovery will usually be fairly smooth, and you'll have time to rest and find your balance before the next time something bad happens. This power cannot prevent the effects of drawbacks, but it can delay and mitigate them.

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.

Name: Luck Be A Lady - Cost: 8
(Replaces The Great Equalizer) You always seem to be in the right place at the right time. Opportunity surrounds you on all sides, and paths open up toward any goal you seek. It's up to you to capitalize on these opportunities - but if you drop an important plot hook, someone else will usually be along to pick it up, although they may not do as good a job with it as you would. In worlds with fate as a tangible force, you may find yourself a figure of prophecy, destined for greatness.

Power of Friendship

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: Puppies Everywhere - Cost: 2
(Requires Disney Princess and Personal Hygiene) No matter how absurd the size of your menagerie, you always have time and resources to feed and care for all of them; or, if you and they prefer, they can take care of themselves just as easily, without affecting the local ecology. The benefits of Personal Hygiene extend to any animal you befriend.

Name: Pocket Monsters - Cost: 1
(Requires Puppies Everywhere and Pocket Dimension) You can store living creatures in your Pocket Dimension, though you must put them in before you can take them out, and you cannot duplicate them this way. The creature must be willing to be put in your pocket. Stored creatures have all their needs and experiences suspended, but may be cognizant of time elapsed and conditions of transport on retrieval.

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: Living Canvas - Cost: 1
(Requires Disney Princess) Tattoos you have will animate themselves on your skin, and may adjust their details or art style. Over time your tattoos may develop individual or collective personalities; if so, those personalities will be tailored to complement yours. At suitably dramatic moments, you may spontaneously develop new tattoos.

Name: Shadow Puppet - Cost: 1
(Requires Disney Princess) Your shadow can act independently of your movements, and may do so to entertain you, guide you, warn you of danger, or just for fun. The personality it develops 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: 4
(Requires Disney Princess and Soundtrack) At dramatic moments, you and those around you may spontaneously burst into song. The lyrics and choreography will be flawlessly coordinated.

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: A Friend Like You - Cost: 1
(Requires Bestest Friend and Transformer) Your Friend can shapeshift at will into a human or humanoid form, instead of or in addition to an inanimate one. This new form preserves one signature feature, like iridescent black hair, a shining unicorn horn, or slit-pupiled golden eyes, from whichever other form your Friend considers their truest.

Name: Friend From Within - Cost: 4
(Requires A Friend Like You) Your Friend's personality is either a mirror of your own, or an externalization of someone who lives in your head. You are their Friend as much as they are yours, and your mutual love and loyalty are unbreakable. The effects of powers in the Best Friend tree apply to you accordingly, and the effects of your other powers and drawbacks apply to your Friend. The two of you metaphysically count as both a single person and two separate people, with results depending on which combination of interpretations is most convenient.

Name: Circle of Friends - Cost: 5
(Requires Friend From Within) Anyone who lives in your head can choose to externalize themselves as with Friend From Within; to do this, each of the people becoming separate must choose their own unique Drawback, reserving at least one of its points unspent. That Drawback, its children if you take them, and any powers you take using their points will be unique to you, manifesting only when you are separate from the others—because any of you who externalize this way will be able to merge with each other and split back up at will, and even while separate, will maintain a constant mental connection letting you share thoughts and feelings freely. If you later gain more passengers who want to externalize, their unique Drawbacks and powers will be chosen for them by the narrative.

Name: Another Kind Of Friend - Cost: 1
(Requires Transformer and at least one of: Where The Heart Is, Living Canvas, Shadow Puppet) Your Friend may be the personality associated with one of the listed powers, instead of or in addition to their other form(s). This may include, for example, the ability for an animal tattoo to leap from your skin into a three-dimensional form and back.

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: Two-Way Street - Cost: 2
(Requires Backchannel) Anyone you're talking to can invoke Backchannel for themselves, and when you're having trouble making yourself understood, they will instinctively know that they can do this and that now would be a good time.

Name: Roundabout - Cost: 2
(Requires Backchannel) You can invoke Backchannel with yourself. This can be a big help in understanding where your own thoughts and feelings are coming from, and in coming to an internal consensus.

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: More Magic - Cost: 5
(Requires Unleash The Magic and You Can Teach Better) Abilities you pick up through Unleash The Magic can be passed on to others. Unique per-person abilities from Snowglobe may be passed on either as a direct mirror of your own unique ability, or by sparking a unique ability in the recipient. The deeper your personal connection to the recipient, the easier it is for you to pass on abilities to them and the more potent the results will be.

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: 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: A Gentler Way - Cost: 6
(Replaces Pacifist) Games, contests, races, dance battles, and so on are likely to be accepted as alternatives to violence, if you propose them when a fight is breaking out. This effect works better the more well-tailored your suggestion is to the specific combatants and their personalities and cultural expectations. Doing this often enough can cause your alternatives to spread, potentially replacing most violence in an area. Powers you have that give you advantages in fights also apply to fight replacements.

Name: Beauty Effulgent - Cost: 1
(Requires A Thousand Ships and Mysterious Allure) Your beauty is impossible to ignore, overlook, downplay, or dismiss. Everyone who looks at you is struck by it, and although those who know you well can get used to the experience, it never goes away entirely. You may, if you choose, soften this effect to help out someone who is having trouble thinking or speaking because of it.

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 Is An Open Door - Cost: 2
(Replaces Love Triangle) People you fall for will be freed from other commitments when, and only when, that freedom would lead them closer to their best life. Anyone they need to leave behind will be okay without them, and anyone who was depending on them will be provided for. To make it fair, if they choose to stay, major problems in their life will tend to find solutions so that they and their loved ones will still be better off for having met you.

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: Work-Life Balance - Cost: 2
(Requires Time Enough For Love) You count as your own friend for the purposes of Time Enough For Love.

Name: Safe at Home - Cost: 4
No one will hurt your loved ones to get at you, or vice versa.

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: 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: Ever Onward - Cost: 3
(Requires Cotton Candy and I Can Fix Them) When you reach out to someone with love in your heart, whether to redeem them or just to connect as friends or lovers, your power can spark something in them. If they choose to believe in love and kindness with you, they can draw strength from your companionship, and pass that strength on to those they spark in turn. The effects of this power are subtle, but very far-reaching. Those you uplift with it, directly and indirectly, become better both at living their own best lives and at helping others.

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: Dream Together - Cost: 1
(Requires Inner World, Time Enough For Love, and Eternal Love) When you truly miss someone who truly misses you, you will see each other again in your dreams. If dreaming is not possible, a daydream, meditation session, or moment of wistful yearning will suffice.

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: Just The Way You Like It - Cost: 2
(Requires Two Become One and The Princess And The Dragon) The world facilitates your fantasies. When you want to try something difficult or unusual in bed, it's not just practical and achievable, it's also as good as you imagined it—or better.

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: Opening Up - Cost: 4
(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.

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: Approachable - Cost: 3
(Requires Popular and Backchannel) You have a knack for putting your fans at ease. No matter how famous you get, anyone who sincerely has something to say to you will know you sincerely want to hear it. This effect fades every time you're rude, threatening, or otherwise unpleasant to someone in that position, but can be built back up by cultivating patience and kindness instead.

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.

Drawbacks

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: Even Worse - Grants: +2
(Requires Beauty Is A Curse) People are no longer compelled to comment on your beauty at all times; however, their attention is still drawn to it, and you tend to accumulate jealous rivals, aggressive admirers, and even greedy villains.

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: Signature Style - Grants: +3
(Requires Style of Sisyphus) The effects of Style of Sisyphus are inverted. You are now locked in to a single personal style. It can be an established fashion genre, or just the expression of your personal taste in clothing, but it must be something that resonates with you narratively and personally. It will never change, and your clothing, hair, makeup, and other styling will always conform to it, no matter how hard you or others try to dress or decorate you differently. You may find yourself at peace with this style in the long term, or not.

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: Makes The Dream Work - Grants: +6
(Requires There's Another One) When you embark on a significant, impactful project, something that would tend to be a central plotline in a story about you, you must work with other people to accomplish it. Without a team of friends, comrades, or coworkers to collaborate with, you'll never make more than slow, limited progress. Also, even if your powers would normally position you as the central star of such a team, they'll hold back from doing that here; your teammates will be able to relate to you as equals, and will be immune to any effect that would make them overlook your flaws or agree with you against their better judgment.

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: Grimm's Fairy Tales - Grants: +1
(Requires Cotton Candy) Bad things can and will still happen to you in particular.

Name: The Princess and the Pea - Grants: +1
(Requires at least one of: Dragon Fairy Elf Witch, Snowglobe) The 'only when cool and dramatic' restriction on negative effects from acquired powers is lifted for sensory powers specifically. You experience all sensory overload, overstimulation, and other issues normally caused by any of your sensory enhancements.

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: 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: Helpline - Grants: +3
(Requires Great Responsibility) People whose problems you could potentially solve will sometimes instinctively know to pray to you about them. They won't necessarily know anything else about you, or recognize you as the same being they prayed to. You won't necessarily know what their problem is or how to solve it.

Name: Divine Mantle - Grants: +6
(Requires Helpline and at least one of: Very Distinctive, They'll Know) For every prayer you answer, it becomes permanently more apparent to everyone who perceives you that you are a power beyond reckoning, limitless in potential, greater than any god whose domain is bounded by a single knot of worlds. You cannot turn this off. At higher levels, this ability begins to broadcast more and more detail regarding how you feel about answering prayers and how the attributes of the prayer and the petitioner affect those feelings.

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: 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: Moodier Ring - Grants: +2
(Requires Mood Ring and A Thousand Ships and Angelic Tones and Emerald Orbs and Perfect Hair and Size Difference and Dressing Room and 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.

Name: Mark Of The Witch - Grants: +1
(Requires Dragon Fairy Elf Witch and at least three of: A Thousand Ships, Angelic Tones, Emerald Orbs, Perfect Hair, Size Difference, Dressing Room, Like Roses, Well Endowed) You can never appear fully normal for any species whose appearance you mimic. Some small detail will always seem out of place on close inspection - perhaps the wrong colour of hair or eyes or scales, perhaps moss growing from your skin or an ethereal glow haloing your horns, perhaps an extra eye or an iridescent birthmark. These marks can be hidden with clothing or illusions, but their concealment will never be flawlessly impenetrable.

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: A Single Perfect Flaw - Grants: +3
This could be a direct physical limitation, like having no voice, no sight, or no wings; it could be an everyday difficulty like clumsiness, or a magical curse that makes frogs fall from your mouth whenever you speak. Whatever it is, it must be both a significant limitation or inconvenience, and something that resonates with you personally or narratively. Once you take this drawback, your Perfect Flaw becomes permanent and irrevocable across all future versions of you. It can be mitigated or worked around, but never cured or removed.

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: 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.

Name: Keys To Your Heart - Grants: +6
(Requires Love Is A Battlefield) When you fall in love, you give away a key to your heart: a metaphysical bond that commands your absolute devotion. You have no control over this bond, and no way to revoke it. Anyone who holds a key to your heart can give you orders you are unable to refuse. You can delay or ask for clarification, but only to serve their interests, not yours. You cannot betray them in thought, word, or deed. Conflicting loyalties to different keyholders who are at odds with each other—or worse, conflicting direct orders asking you to do contradictory things—can cause a state of painfully frantic indecision, but ultimately the stronger relationship will win out. In the case of one person giving you orders that conflict with themselves or with that person's interests, you can reason through what they would want you to do in that situation, or ask them to clarify. You and those commanding you always instinctively know the difference between an enforced order and an unenforced request.

Name: Hot Commodity - Grants: +3
(Requires Even Worse and Dramatic Damsel) Stories that involve someone kidnapping you often feature your renowned beauty as a central motivation, and anyone who likes kidnapping beautiful people is likely to hear about you with particular emphasis on how beautiful you are.

Name: Delicious And Nutritious - Grants: +3
(Requires Like Roses and Dramatic Damsel) Your signature scent advertises a truly decadent meal to vampires and other anthropophages. Stories that involve someone kidnapping you often feature your tempting aroma as a central motivation, and may lead to the kidnapper becoming temporarily or permanently empowered by a successful sip or nibble.

Name: Golden Goose - Grants: +5
(Requires Starstuff and Delicious And Nutritious) Your transformative nature makes you a valuable source of rare and magical materials. Stories that involve someone kidnapping you often feature this form of value as a central motivation, usually on a very personal level—though more commercial forms of exploitation are also available, if you're into that sort of thing. Either way, the empowerment your kidnapper extracts from you is likely to be both permanent and extensive.

Name: Wardrobe Malfunction - Grants: +3
(Requires Dressing Room and Dramatic Damsel) During stories for which your protections are lifted, you may suffer persistent clothing damage that can't be repaired using Dressing Room. Even after regaining your other powers, your clothes may remain torn or otherwise distressed until the story concludes, or you may be forced to wear whatever your captor chooses to dress you in.

Name: Mudslinging - Grants: +1
(Requires Personal Hygiene and Wardrobe Malfunction) During stories for which your protections are lifted, you may get dirty when narratively appropriate, including potentially needing to take a narratively appropriate bath or do narratively appropriate laundry.

Name: Slapstick Comedy - Grants: +2
(Requires Dramatic Damsel and at least one of: Angelic Tones, Lightfoot, Mysterious Allure) At narratively appropriate moments, whether in or out of storylines in which your protections are lifted more generally, you may experience moments of verbal or physical clumsiness or other minor mishaps that serve to undercut your glamorous image and remind you and those around you that you're an imperfect person just like they are, who makes mistakes and has problems just like they do. These mishaps will never cause lasting harm to anything but your dignity.

Name: Down To Earth - Grants: +3
(Requires Approachable and Dramatic Damsel) You are cursed to relate to other people's perspectives and experiences. When your life has been so charmed for so long that you forget what it's like to have difficulties or limitations, you will be reminded. When you meet someone who needs you to understand what they went through, you'll go through something similar. This directive supersedes Dramatic Damsel's storyline parameters, but you can add those storylines back in by taking other drawbacks in the Dramatic Damsel family.

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: 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.

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.

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.

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She finds a blank space somewhere and writes:

How tricky can I get with Somewhere In Mind, if we're sticking to real places in this world? Can I, say, specify a destination when I don't actually know where it is? Like, for example, "a clear space more than 5 but less than 50 feet away from the Lone Swordsman, wherever he is right now". 

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It's hard to say in advance whether any specific thing like that would work, so it's a good idea to have a backup destination settled ahead of time in case your first choice isn't viable.
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Fair enough, that particular example probably wouldn't be a good idea anyway. 

She taps her pen against the page while she thinks. 

Can I bring anyone else with me? Cutting my travel time to Marchford down to nothing doesn't do me much good if I have to leave my legion behind. 

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You're the only one who travels with you when you gain the Spirit's power. If you want to gain the ability to teleport large numbers of people, traveling the multiverse is probably your best bet, because there is really quite a lot of magic out there and there are some powers a little later on that will let you pick up and take home as much of it as you'd like.
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She's starting to get a little concerned about how hard the notebook is pushing the 'travel to another world' option, but the best thing to do for now is probably to ignore it and move on. 

So, if I mark one of the little boxes, is that choice locked in or can I change my mind later? 

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Nothing is permanent until you tell me clearly that you want to finalize your current choices. I can clear ink out of boxes if you want to un-tick them, and I can also track more than one point total if you want to use different symbols to mark options that you like different amounts.
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Handy! Alright, guess I'd better read through this list and start marking things I like. Mind if I take notes in the margins?

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Go right ahead! I can also add blank pages in between each page of the list, for you to take notes and ask questions on.
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You can? Sure, sounds useful, go ahead and do that.

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With a slight rustling noise, the pages rearrange themselves.

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Alright. Time to see what wonders this list holds.

A Thousand Ships: ...does she want to be the most beautiful woman in the world? Well, if you offered it to her for a copper she wouldn't say no, she guesses, but she only has 70 of these points, and there are apparently less frivolous things on offer.

Although, skimming down, most of the others on this page also seem pretty frivolous. Perfect Hair would be genuinely useful for getting rid of helmet hair, though. That box can have a little ~, with a margin note next to it that says "(petty)". And she'll go back up and add a tiny dot for A Thousand Ships, with a note that says "(if I have points left at the end)".

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The point total in the corner of each page splits into two, with the squiggle tier including just Perfect Hair and the dot tier covering both choices. The two of them also scoot down the page slightly, as though anticipating there will be more tiers above squiggle.

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Does true-name-based magic come up often in the multiverse? I've not heard of it here, although that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. 

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If you accept the Spirit's power, what you see when you travel the multiverse is going to be influenced by your preferences and narrative sensibilities. If true-name-based magic sounds like something you would like to see, or that you find narratively compelling, you're more likely to encounter it; if it sounds boring or annoying or upsetting, then it's less likely. It's definitely out there, but if you're not interested in it then I don't think you need to worry about it too much.
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Catherine has no idea what her "narrative sensibilities" are about true name magic. She doesn't feel especially attached to the idea of having a true name, even one she gets to pick herself—although, to be honest, she'd probably pick "Catherine Foundling" anyway. Your "true name" seems less important than your Name, in any case. 

Think I'll pass for now, then. 

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Moving on! 

...alright, Size Difference is potentially actually useful. She can think of plenty of applications for being able to grow to the size of a house or shrink to the size of a gnat. That's not why she wants it, though. She wants it so she can stop being so godsdamned short. But it's the reason she'd give Black, if he asked why she felt like it was worth picking. That one can have...a little star, for "good to have". 

Dressing Room can get a squiggle...okay, no, Pocket Dimension is too good. That's getting a star, so Dressing Room should probably have one as well...

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The star tier fills in the empty space above squiggle.

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Cosmetic Equipment can have a dot. It seems like it could be fun, but if she can summon any outfit she needs, it seems pretty pointless to also be able to make her current outfit serve any purpose. Undressing Room goes even further, and she can't imagine any circumstance where she'd want it.

Personal Hygiene can have a squiggle, sure. 

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Aha, now they're getting to the useful ones. 

Just A Little Longer seems like it merits something more than a star, actually. That one can have...hmm, she's running out of symbols. Maybe just a standard checkmark, with a note that those are better than stars. 

Now this is what I'm talking about. This is cheaper than Perfect Hair?

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I don't have specific memories of my previous incarnations for privacy reasons, but my best guess is that Just A Little Longer was created for someone who had a really specific idea of what they wanted that included its limitations. Something specific and limited is often cheaper than something very broad, even when it's more practically useful.
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Won't hear me complaining!

Immunity System would get a star, except that Black taught her how to use her Name to burn sicknesses and poisons out of her body before he brought her to the imperial court, so it's mostly redundant. It can have a dot, because it sounds like it's more thorough than the Name method and doesn't rely on her having to notice and catch it. 

Breathe Easy...hmm. 

Breathe Easy and Warmhearted are both tempting, because they seem obviously useful, but they also seem...dangerous? 

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How so?