What the hell, that's some dedicated theming. What is this, 'cottagecore'? Is it playing up the 'mysterious cursed object emporium' trope? She takes a photo of it with her phone.

She now has a picture of the right edge of the pet store and the left edge of the pizza place.

She tries again, presumably to the same result.

...She looks between the photo and the sight in front of her a few times. She people-watches for a bit, trying not to freak out too badly, seeing if they, like, glaze over the place, or spatially jump right past it, or what. Okay, sci-fi is more her thing than fantasy, but going by fantasy tropes... Maybe a masquerade. Maybe something's fucking with her and going to use her as a patsy or lock her into an unfair deal? Fey gardens bullshit, where even being polite traps you for a thousand years?

Maybe she's going crazy?

...Is there any glass to the place? A way to peek inside without going inside?

There's glass windows, but they're pretty frosted or smoky or something and she can't get much of a sense of what's in there from them. She could open the door and not walk in, though!

That's how they get you.

...But seriously, what is she going to do. Walk away? Back to ordinary life, worrying about money, about college, about Dad maybe randomly showing up again and trying to interfere, the freaking Taco Bell job and that ... colorful supervisor, Henderson?

What's the worst that could happen?

No, really, what's the worst that could happen?

...If she's kidnapped or killed or some other fey realms bullshit, her mom would be very sad. Also, she'd never go to college. As expensive as it is, and despite the idea that it's overpriced and underdelivers these days, the way everyone talks about it... The way her Mom talks about it, about wanting better for her...

...Ahhhh fuckit. The analysis paralysis strikes again! She's probably being way too paranoid. And if some fey bullshit is out to get her, she's doomed no matter what she does or doesn't do, not knowing The Rules.

No need to have an existential crisis in the middle of the street.

Peeeeeeeek carefully into the door?

A friendly looking young woman dressed up as a witch sits behind the counter. The shop is full of fun eclectic things, most prominently a column of glass full of giant butterflies in all colors; the walls are covered with highly detailed fantasy maps in a variety of styles; the shelves have crystals and herbs and decorative boxes and corked bottles of liquid, and a few dead giant butterflies preserved in plastic cubes, and arts'n'crafts type tools and blocks of wood and stone and wire, and clockwork sculptures - actual clocks? - ticking along nonstandard time systems, and rolled-up rugs, and surprisingly normal cat supplies but in hippie packaging that doesn't feature much plastic or glossy print.

"Good morning stranger!"

"Hey! I'm, uh, probably being paranoid but what's the word on the shop that my phone can't see? Sus! I mean, you saying 'no, really, it's fine, come in and sign this contract' would be... Some information..."

"No contracts here! Just my magic shop and my magic self in it. I don't bite. Come here, let me have a look at you!"

"Magic seems a lot more likely than it did this morning, but, no, see, that is a sus thing to say."

"From over here you look like probably you could be a witch your own self but I cannot check for certain sure till I touch your hand."

"I obviously can't walk away from maybe magic but can I ask you, without implying any debts given or owed, to come over to the door to do it? Or solemnly swear that you aren't up to no good?"

"I am a professional witch awakener! No cost to you as various factions like there to be neutral professional witch awakeners. The neutral part means occasionally I awaken someone who wants to do not-so-nice magic without even saying tut-tut but I myself am sweet as pie. I can come over to the door if you are insisting." She hops over the counter and makes for the entrance.

"I'm sure my paranoia will calm down in a bit if everything's peachy but, uh," she discards the first four ...Five ways of concluding that statement. "Yeah."

The proprietor pokes her in the back of the hand. "Yes indeedy you here are a potential witch! I do recommend having it done to pro standards, the other way is to have something traumatizing happen and for your soul to cast about for things to do that might help till it lands on being a witch and this involves very little explanations and thoughtfulness and synergistic choicemaking."

"Trigger event is a possibility, got it. I don't want one'a those!"

Deep breath.

"...Okay, sure, uh. Thanks for indulging me. I can come in and sit down? Do I get to... Choose spells?"

"Sure sure come in!" Nia gestures her into a rocking chair that doesn't match any of the other furniture at all. "You get to choose wild magic and ranked magic. The first is more like single spells, the second is like bundles of it that come all stacked on top of each other. You also get to pick a species and a class and you can endure awkward inconveniences for more magical power and you can pick a faction to be friendly with to start out."

Sure okay she will sit in the chair. Messenger bag sits in her lap. Phone in coat pocket. She fiddles with the clasp, anxiously. "These factions have some kind of neutrality treaty about awakening?"

"I would say detente before I would say treaty, but there are many important sorts of people and they all like witches to arrive on the scene informed and equipped and intelligently magicified, and do not like witches to arrive on the scene unduly prejudiced against whatever it is they are up to, so they all agree more or less that I am Switzerland and so long as I stay Switzerland I have diplomatic immunity sorts of niceties for me and mine."

"Seems better than trigger events. Okay... Uh, is there any time pressure to choose?"

"I can keep the shop entrance here for a few days, but not for always."

"Masquerade?"

"No, actually, I have to contract out the fanciness with the door; there is a schedule."

"Huh okay. On a meta level I... Do probably want at least one day to sleep on it after discussing things now? This is... Big. Magic. Feels like a mistake to leap in head first. As a matter of general principle. I spent weeks mulling over mundane colleges."

"Sure. Still here tomorrow. Nothing final till you say the word."

She rubs her eyes for a moment. 

"Sorry. Trying to wake up for this. Technically I have work but screw Taco Bell. So, what now?"

"Do you want a magic coffee, for waking up, I have some."

That's how they get-

No. Calm down. Paranoia probably won't help.

"If you're offering... Thanks."

"No problem! Chocolate vanilla or butter pecan?" she asks, hopping behind the counter again and materializing a broomstick to sit on to go up to one of the higher shelves.

"Choc- Woah! Broom!"

"Broom!" agrees Nia, grabbing a brown one and floating back down. "Here ya go."

Well, bottoms up!

"So. I heard 'species'..."

The potion is sweet and tastes like chocolate, though it's thinner than milk. "Species! I am an oread." Her hat flies into the air as she manifests bunny ears. "A hare oread in specific, if I were a tiger one or a mouse one or something then my hat would stay put when I do that. There are many species to be and with a professional awakening we can find who's hiding in the family tree and shake 'em out so you get one you like."

"Nice," she says about the ears. "So, uh-" She extends her hand again. "Just this?"

"Just this, and then -"

The shop is gone and they are in a dark void full of motes of light.

"Nothing is final till you say so, promise, and take a break any time."

(The potion works faster and better and smoother than coffee.)

Deep breaths. The reasoning holds. Magic is unknowable, pop culture might be helpful or dead wrong, and - Pascal's wager, if she's acting in good faith then everything is fine but being angsty about it might cost her, if she's out to screw Wendy over then being angsty about it probably won't help anyway, so be grateful.

"Huh."

...She tries to mentally poke the most obvious one?

The smallest cluster of motes is a set of three. The "blue" one is the first to receive her attention. "That is Academic. Book learning witches. In the library all day long. Highest long term power cap. Other choices are Sorceress, practice and elementalisms, best-rounded, and Warlock, errands for patron god, fastest growing."

"I'm intellectually in favor of libraries and long term optimization. Elementalism?"

"Fire water air earth living in harmony, but also nature and psionics and metal count also. Sorceresses have affinity for all of these. Everyone else, affinity for only some - depends on race and sometimes oddball things which ones - and can take only those affinitied ones, plus one bonus one. So like for instance if you were academicing it up and - aha, you can be an oread like me if you want, but a fox one! - then affinity for Earth gets you Earth, then pick one other, then no other elementalism. Unless you count turning into kaiju."

"Ooh, like Avatar! Water. Earth. Fire. Air!" She may be trying and failing to fully suppress some excited hand gestures.

"Yes! Only lightning is under air not fire, metal all by itself, etcetera."

"And what's this about a fox oread? I've seen a lot of that, like your ears. I wonder if the internet got the idea from actual magic..."

"Maybe. Though do not go telling on us to the internet! This Earth is importantly having people who don't believe in magic on it. If it stops, bad things happen. Last time bad things happened, dinosaurs all died here, and that time, this was not even the keystone Earth."

"Aha, so there is a masquerade! That sucks. Any notes on why?"

"Because there is more than dinosaurs here now to object, and other Earths besides, needing the keystone. You want the theory of why this not-believing-in-magic here is important to have, ask an academic. For practicing purposes, tell your spouse, favorite sister, mom, kids, best friend forever, but do not go nuts or people come after you before the big meteors do."

"I will make a note of that. It sounds like the kinda thing some very smart people are already looking at but what if. Actually- Hmm-"

Does this magic vision-quest or whatever have a notes feature or is she going to have to unclasp hands and get her phone out and text herself?

No notes feature.

"One sec."

She will, in fact, unclasp hands, make a note of this, and then reclasp.

"Okay. I don't trust my ADHD-ass brain to not completely lose that if I don't literally write it down. Where were we? Academic or Sorcerous?"

"Or Warlock, yes. Warlocks get loot, bribery from patrons who want you."

"Sounds kind of weird?"

"A bit! Very nice swag, some of it, if they want you lots, but perhaps not your bag."

"It'd have to be pretty dang nice. The rich and powerful get more rich and more powerful, so I'm already suspicious."

"Valid to skip them. So between Academic and Sorceress then?"

"In what way is academic strongest in the long term?"

"Everyone has power points! They really do come in points, it's funny that way. You have some to spend at this start, and you get more by taking on various troubles and tribulations that seem worth such things to you here today, and you have a number that is how many points you can fit in your you, ever, which can also go up with the tribulations. But Academics can also learn a couple schools of magic, all the way up as high as they can go - you are very strong, you can go all the way up, rank five magic for you - and not spend any points, only lots of time studying, the same time that it would take to study for the points but not going through the system of having points the same way."

"And the sorceress benefit is having more flexible Avatar-ing? I don't think I'm gonna choose right now, too much devil in the details."

"Does affect how costly things are also. So, I can tell you how expensive a thing is for if you have nothing to cheapen it, but then it might be cheaper when you have a thing, you see. But there is lots to see even if not choosing a class now. Want to look at specieses?"

"Sure. How common are - uh - kemimi girls in witchland?"

"I do not know the word kemimi?"

"Animal ears. It's an internet thing, that word. I forgot the other word, it started with an O?"

"Oread! Also mimi, no ke, is a different one, you can be that also. Or... luxal, pharon, hannya... wulong, surprising as you are ginger... dravir, daeva, nymph... my girlfriend is a nymph!... orc, gnome, neutral. Neutral is basically human but neutral is specific-like the witch kind of human."

"That's... Kind of a lot. But we're all descended from everybody, or something, in the fullness of time. Uh... These more rubber forehead alien or weird starfish alien? Oh, wait, more rubber forehead, since you're one. I do... Kind of like the idea of fox ears?"

"Pharons have animal heads, ears included gratis; mimis have pick-and-mix animal traits all the time; oreads can slide from all animal to all neutral-looking at will. Other options do not have fox ears naturalistically but you can hybridify yourself, or just do cosmetics with hexes if the ears are mainly drawing."

"Oh, no, I wanna be able to feel 'em and move 'em around. I guess I don't know what the state of the art on cosmetic hexes is like."

"Feelable! Moveable around! But not part of your True Form trademark symbol."

"So noted. Time to indulge the munchkin instincts instead! What's there to munchkin about? Uh. Means optimizing if you're not familiar."

"Mana charge! Different species charge all kindsa which ways, different speeds, different amounts of mana to hold. Mimis charge fastest of anybody, off being petted or patted or scritched or whatnot, but cannot hold much at once. And affinities, every species has different ones, make different magics cheaper, makes it possible to pick up more elementalisms while not a sorceress if you have affinity for them."

She makes a face.

"...Whole bunch of complicated feelings about mimis there. Maybe it sounds nice but also it sounds... Dependent?"

"Common reason to choose against, yes. Possible to go to mimi social associations and pat each other, quid pro quo, but still. Oh, also, different species, different ways of not being dead. Mimis have a pretty good one but also, yes, dependent, someone alive must make you a shrine and cry on it."

"Different ways of what no wait, no, that is now the most important criteria."

"Most species have ways to be back from the grave, but even if you go neutral and cannot do this your own self other magic can! Which features of this property to narrow down on, or shall I list all dozen?"

"How redundant can I get it? Are there people needing this done for them??? Like, recoverable but not recovered??"

"Most methods want some remains, and no one is systematizing the doing it to humans, so yes, even if every witch is so super responsible with her safety some recoverables are not recovered. Afterlives are real though."

"Okay, Jesus Christ, another thing for The List- Uh. Uh, is Jesus Christ walking around anywhere?"

"If he is the Watchers have hidden him very away and not told me. - Watchers is pan-Abrahamic witches faction."

"...This is sidetracking again. Uh, mana gathering method, and capacity? And immortality? Are those the relevant traits?"

"And affinities and what they look like."

"Right. Wulong... That's chinese dragons, right? Huh."

"Right. Not odd to meet one from Korea or Thailand, but you, ginger miss, must have one very far back."

"Who knows. Dad's a deadbeat... I can't really see myself as a dragon, though. I want to do a lot of magic, right, so the charge method seems most important? And the rez method. Can you just... Go down the list?"

"Method and storage. Getting mana out of your you into some other form is a hassle, so if you do not want to be generating it to always use right away, good to have plenty of space. Mimi have low storage, high speed - exact value varies witch by witch so these are low granularity, low medium high, but mimis are highest of the high - can pat their own heads for mana but it makes them sad. Oreads are double high, we get mana from being near our favorite people or critters. Luxals and neutrals are double medium - neutrals by sleep, luxals by being around 'spensive things, rocks and gold and such especially if they're worked fancy. Pharons, low speed high storage, charge off being famous - don't have to be popular, supervillain or cancelled on the interwebs works fine. Hannya have high storage medium speed, charge off getting drunk. Wulongs also high storage medium speed, being around art charges them, does not have to be pricey, do it by pirated ebooks and kids with crayons perhaps. Orcs high storage low speed, charge off having kids - fastest when pregnant, boy orcs get the raw deal. Gnomes medium storage high speed, they get mana by building contraptions. Dravir are also dragony; low storage medium speed, mana by wrecking shit, charge a lot faster if it's killing people. Daeva medium storage high speed, charge off other people's feelings - about them, one on one, or about something else, big groups at the football match. Nymphs like my girlfriend low storage high speed, get a charge of being desired like because they are so pretty so she can always tell when I have been thinking about her all day at work, or making people desire other things sales pitch style. This rule anything out or shall I do all the immortalities now?"

"...Rule out Hannya. Also probably Orc, and maybe Dravir. I'm not sure Nymph or Pharon is part of my best life but I'm not ruling it totally out? And more complicated feelings about the rich bitch charging method."

"Neutrals age, slower than human aging by twice but all the way to old. Must source other means to be not dead like being a lich or having friends with the arch-curatives on the shelf. Daeva do not age but do not have an in house rez supply for being chomped by monsters or dueled to death by baddies. Oreads, age like neutrals but take a cozy dirt nap to go backwards and land at twenty; if dead bury what's left in the ground, wait not longer than a month, but there must be stuff left. Nymph pops right up with true love's kiss or whatnot but if there is nothing to kiss nothing doing. Luxals don't age if they eat right, "right" means "metal" but it can be a thrift store fork; have gem hearts and metal bones, retrieve heart and dunk it in molten matchy metal and they grow back but it takes all day. Wulongs slow down to almost no aging at apparent eighteen, stop altogether by the look of forty, and if they bleed on an art they can pop out of it again after dying, and if they run out of bled on paintings somebody can make a real good portrait of them and bam. Dravir also slow at eighteen and if they die you can get an egg out of their body that will hatch them back out in a year but if that is wrecked too then kaput. Pharons eat this ambrosia stuff they make, it de-ages them, and it'll perk up a corpse or even an ash heap. Already mentioned the crying on a shrine for a mimi, and they do not age past eighteen if they are little or mid thirties tops if they are the big kind. Gnomes nothing special here. Also they are four inches tall, that is a thing, convenient in the right neighborhood but not everyplace."

"...Wow, Luxals are pretty freakin' metal, pardon the pun. I kind of like it? Hmm. Oread seems fairly reliable if you don't do risky stuff like wander around chemical factories playing with your fire elementalism..."

"I like being an oread! But I did not get all your choices and am not you, so I do not know what you will most want to be."

"Let's put Luxal and Oread as a shortlist for now and move on?"

"Sure! Luxals have metal and life affinity, oreads earth and beast. So a luxal gets cheaper alchemy, runes, portals, divination, and metallurgy; oread gets cheaper hexes, consortation, familiarity, turning into a frickin kaiju, and earthmoving. More overlap with the luxal discounts and academic ones, more overlap with the oread discounts and sorceress ones - whether you want matchy there or no depends on whether you go breadth or depth, because cutting a thing in half a second time saves fewer points than cutting a different thing in half the first time, but only if you want both things anyway."

"I think I need to know more about what these do? 'Arch curatives' make you young again, and basic alchemy is magic coffee? -I don't think kaijuness appeals but maybe I'm picturing it wrong?"

She starts feeling around for the kaiju node.

"Arch-curatives are rank five healing potions and can fix anything short of 'annihilated' if there is anything to sprinkle it on. My magic coffee is rank one, I make it out of melted ice cream and coffee beans. Potions are very versatile! Dyes, sleeping potions, fancy soap, painkillers, splash grenades - get you your fox ears even if you are a luxal if you go as high as rank four though by that level the ingredients get to be spendier and stranger. Metamorphosis is beast affinity only. Oread mimi or pharon you'd wind up a 'zooarch'. Great big twelve story fancified version of your animal. Rank five or bust, there is no smaller version. Wulong or dravir turn into corresponding dragons."

"Oh man, turning into some kind of final boss form as a fuckoff enormous fox sounds so badass. Potions also sound really cool."

"Both very cool yes! Most magic very cool to the right persons."

"...Is there much fighting to be done? Monsters? I'm kind of iffy about going for combat force when, like, that is the kind of thing that you die doing? Also, murder's bad."

"Nothing stops you from living in Poughkeepsie and encountering only as many monsters as now you may. Other places get more monstery. I live in a pretty monstery place my own self. You are lined up to be very powerful and might get powerful friends and sometimes enough powerfulness in one place makes a tiff terrific."

"Ugh... Alchemy sounds good, yes, I want to brew stuff and I want to be the tops at it, kaijuness is kind of a do or die thing, I'm not sure what to expect from the rest besides the Avatar stuff?"

"Shortest of versions: Hexes is transmutation. Runes, magic item making. Curses, what it sounds like. Witchery, hat robe wand broomstick pocketspace. Necromancy, ghostses and boneses. Consortation, summoning demons. Portals, doors 'n windows to places. Divination, know what's up. Aethernautics, magic astronomy and dimensional shenanigans. Familiarity, soup up your cat. In addition to air fire water earth, also metal, minds, plants'n'animals."

"Hexes and runes sound really neat. Demons and curses both sound like fucking around and then finding out. I... Do want a flying broom? Diviniation, eh. Portals, neat! Aethernautics I'm not sure I get?"

"Aethernautics is strange, and not very good at low ranks, but the big guns do things like lock down dimensional travel, and not age if they were going to, and burgle other people's demiplanes, and make li'l time loops, and gravityfuckery, and do a space warping thing that there are always petitions about to ban."

"Messing with gravity is fun. And being able to nope tele-fragging would be reassuring...? Hmm. I'm worried about - Spreading too thin. I don't even know how much juice I have to work with- You said I'm lucky and have a lot?"

"Yes! Most witches can get up to rank three. Some lower. I have max rank four. You can do five. And you can take complications to have more points for today and more points for your future maxed out self."

"Great power, great responsibility. Funnnn. How about this girlfriend you mentioned? What's the... Distribution, I guess?"

"Girlfriend is rank three. Boyfriend is rank five though."

"Oh, poly? Good for you. I haven't really... Thought about that stuff or done-" She blushes and waves her hands.

"Anyway. So there's other rank fives around, I'm not going to be The Only One Who Can Save The World, that's a relief. I mean, I'd do it, but it would suck to have to. I want to do the potions, and the magic item making, and the transfiguration. That all sounds really cool! I want to throw engineering at magic as much as I can- I was planning on electrical engineering school and all, if anything particularly aligns with that. But magic? Throwing around elements? I also want to help bring back people who're too far gone. You know, if they want to be brought back. Consortation implying demons implies Hell, which, uh... Is bad."

"Generally unpopular with the residents yes, though many people summon demons all the time and are happy with arrangements. There are factions that do more magitechy things and give it out to partisans, and possible you want to look at being a gnome again also - you can be two or three things, there is a magic for it, costs points though, cheaper for sorceresses."

"I don't really wanna be tiny?"

"Many species are tiny and have tiny neighborhoods to be in but this is valid. A hybrid of a gnome and a nontiny species need not be too tiny."

"Gnomes come with any other shininess?"

"Big expensive racial perk to duplicate other magics with mad engineering!"

"Ooh. Tempting. Hot damn, I'm up to three strong contenders I guess."

"It is very candy store," agrees Nia.

"I'm getting a little... Not tired, magic coffee, but mentally fatigued I guess? Mmh. Luxal and Oread have any special powers like that?"

"Luxals can grow their theme metal or gem from their body, in fun shapes to pull off and have 3D-printed jewelry, or to fling at monsters real hard bulletlike. How good this is depends how much you like your metal and gem. Still have to eat source minerals but you can eat a roll of pennies and bag of quartz, grow a platinum quartz ornament - if you are a platinum quartz luxal. Less cool if you are an aluminum and amethyst one. Oread one is about being better at swimming in the earth and sculpting it."

"Do we know my theme metal and gem or is it a gacha? Er, random."

"Looks liiiiiike... bronze and jasper."

"Hmm... Bronze ain't bad? I'm not sure what Jasper is. Though evidently I wouldn't be making my own shinies for mana charging, but I bet arch-curatives sell for a bucketload of shinies."

"They do! Currency is usually crystallized mana but you may exchange it for mana generation shinies."

"Okay, so luxal remains an option. Maybe luxal-oread. I'm... I know the gnomes thing with mad engineering is cool, but I'm not really feeling it, you know?"

"Of course. Follow your heart. Your optionally jasper heart."

"My heart wants to be Avatar Korra more than Agatha Heterodyne. Which means elementalism, not mad science."

"I shall pencil you in as sorcerying."

"I bet metallurgy goes with luxal like earthmoving does with oread?"

"Absolutely, so if you are either of those you get a double discount on the corresponding."

"Yeah, I want metal, earth, fire, water, air- Lightning I can pass on. Can I get all that? How many points am I spending here? ...Weird that it's points."

"Lightning comes with air. Depends how many ranks you want of each how expensive for the five - especially because to start out you want a little stack thing where you have more at rank one than two than three than four than five, though okay to overbalance later."

"What kinda scale are the ranks? I mean, I probably want to start slow and get a lot of practice in- I've read stories where the hero suddenly has powers and whoops there goes the fortress wall."

"You are unlikely to accidentally a fortress wall. You will most probably want at least one rank in every elementalism even the ones that are not shiny, because a sorceress gains a point for the first rank each. Also true of familiarity - no obligation to actually catually get the familiar." She puts the corresponding motes of light into the notional basket as she speaks. "Five ranks metallurgy costs a sorceress luxal seven points; five ranks of any of the Avataring is thirteen. Any elementalism makes you harder to hurt with whatever it is about - heat, zaps and air pressure and air nonpressure, drowning and cold and water pressure, critters and plants and diseases, trauma, weapons, rocks. By rank three, immune as long as it is not itself magic - a whole mountain could landslide onto me and I would pop up fine, I can jump off a building so long as it is nice safe concrete at the bottom, etcetera. Metallurgy lags a little in this way, small calibers bounce off you at rank three but a really big nonmagical round can still getcha. Magical sources also hurt less rank over rank, but no immunity cutoff. You want mostly straightforward ones, talking about how much each rank does for you is mostly going to be numbers-go-upping about how much how fast how ranged how etcetera - I can do entire lectures about each one but you are on the right track regarding being the Avatar gistwise."

"Yeah, okay, the defenses are nice. And are the free points. But I guess, what's a good example of the rank scale? Just to get a feel, you know? Is Sozin's Comet Ozai in the final battle the right image for rank five, burning a vast swathe of land to scorched earth, or too big?"

"Last saw the show whiles back. Rocketship fire thing Azula does is real and can hurt you, or, I mean, yours won't, but somebody else's can, comes in rank three. Mile of range by rank four. Five ranks, ten miles, firebolts then like being hit by a highway car which also is afire and can be programmed like drones to go corners or whatever, hot enough to melt steel beams etcetera, feedback-loopy little fireballs for bombardments - don't bombard any things on this Earth, plays merriest of hells with the Veil we are using to not all die."

"Mmmmmmhhhhhh....."

She takes a deep breath. "Okay, yeah, that's more control and about the same power as full-on Sozin's Comet. And kind of... Sinks in the fact that this seems to be real. Also I realized I never introduced myself, hi, Wendy."

"Nia! Though you would not be the first to refuse to give her name."

"Faerie bullshit, aye, but I figure if you were fucking me over there's not shit or shingle I could do about it, so..." Shrug. "May as well be nice."

"Witches are very scary indeedy. But I am your nice neutral awakener here to help. You want similar rundowns of more elements or is the gist gisting enough?"

"That's enough, I just wanted the rough scale. I'm assuming rank one is like- Throw a wee little fireball across this room, maybe make it  dance? -I promise not to set anything in here on fire. Magically or elsewise. But yeah."

"Rank one candles go on and off or do little dances, thirty meters, magic molotovs. Oh, also, sorceresses get theme colors, you can make all your elements be your color, they are oomphier this way."

"I shall consider what color speaks to my soul. Maybe something bronzey. I do like my hair."

"Oh, it is the color of your aura, not a selection. Looks like this -" Red-brown, maybe more like jasper than like bronze.

"Huh, fair 'nuff... I do think I want maximum power in alchemy and hexing and, uh, runes? Crafting type stuff!"

"Luxal sorceress has affinity in alchemy and runes but not at all in hexes - nine points each for five ranks of first two, fifteen for five ranks of hexes. Do you want to see the trials tribulations inconveniences and annoyances you can take for more points, to balance the budget?"

"...Say more about hexes being transmutation? Maybe not so much if it's so expensive. Also sure."

"Most hexing is about turning X into Y, or Y into X, while vanishing some supply of some Z that you have on hand. Higher rank hex, pricier Z, more options for X and Y. Often the X and Y sound very specific, like 'egg' and 'chocolate', but you can choose what kind, if you want an ostrich egg and you have a pile of continental breakfast, you go through a step having a pile of Special Dark. But also turn living creatures into other critters - rank 1 and it can't be bigger than a cat to start or twice that to finish, nor too small. Rank 3 is when you can turn grownup human-scale folks into toads, or just do plastic hexery - if you take a Witch Mark, third nipple, it appears randomly, but I can hex it wherever you would rather it be this way. Rank 3 is also when you can animate an object, Mickey Mouse style, broom sweeps by itself for you, perpetual motion machine, sponge that makes your dishes present themselves for washing and go dry themselves and put away. Rank 4 for making golems with or without sticking a soul in them for bonus complicatedness, also turning critters into knicknacks. Rank 5 for de-aging folks, duplicating loot though their magical features are not featured. Medium very pricey at this level but rank five metallurgy does let you turn metals to other ones so not so bad for you."

"Rank three seems like the sweet spot since I'm doing rank five of two other crafty-type magics? A third nipple is... Weird but seems mostly harmless. It'd stick through attempted cosmetic-ing?"

"Yes, anything giving you points sticks like nobody's business, but fortunately the witch mark is not picky about where it sticks. Three ranks six points."

"Magic is weird... Let's tentatively do three ranks. And start laying on other disadvantages but if I'm going to have to live with 'em for good..."

"Yes, but some are not so bad. This one is probably though, I have never seen it taken, locks down your maximum rank to zero and forbids all the expensive wild magic too - witches who wake up naturally and have it without a by your leave usually get by on cyborg nonsense and magic items. Also still possible to buy the turning into a kaiju one for some reason."

"Clearly not given my current whole build."

"Didn't think so. Are we a yes or a no on the third nipple?"

"Yes, fiiine, it sounds like lots of people do it anyway."

"Widely regarded as free points. Four for you, it is sorceress-aligned. Next, melt like the wicked witch of the west? Alternately iron or fire. Cuts right through the elementalism protections where they apply sorry to say."

"Seems like unnecessary vulnerability. I'm already tempted by astronautics five for anti-telefrag ability, no sense adding NEW weak spots."

"Aether-nautics. Next, animals hate you, no green thumb, two points. Doesn't affect familiars."

"Hmm. Maybe? 'Attack on sight' hate or 'even dogs will flee' hate?"

"Dogs bark, bugs sting, bears go for the throat."

"......Maybe if I really need more points later."

"Cannot do magic without props? Prop can just be your stave that comes free with rank zero witchery, though other things also work, but if you were not otherwise going to be into witchery, can be inconvenient, low ranks make it a little slow to re-arm after you drop it or something."

"...Maybe, a bit more maybe than the black thumb one."

"Twice as many points as black thumb one, gets you four. In the shopping cart?"

"If I need more points, revisit. How many points do I need to make up with my current set? Actually what even is my current set all told, hold on..."

She peers at various metaphorical bits.

"Right now basket says you are a luxal sorceress, one rank in all the sorceress things, three in hexes, with a witch mark; you have 36 left over if the witch mark is for spending allowance today, but the complications points can also go to long term power cap."

"Complications points can either take me from, say, 20 out of 100 today to 21 out of 100 today, or 20 out of 101? I'd rather the latter, if so. Where's the alchemy and runes?"

"Unclear how much you wanted, you did not say after I mentioned the price."

"Let's maybe go with two ranks of those and hexes? Do I also pick what my ultimate potential is in each now or can that be focused down later? I'm... Going to have plenty of fun fucking around with elementalism even at rank one, right, and rank one and two stuff is probably still employable, right?"

"You can spend ultimate potential any which where. And yes, practicing elementalism is fun. You are putting back rank three of hexes?"

"Yeah I can deal with starting in twos for everything. And I- Oh, wait, shifting and animating stuff is rank three hex. Okay, yeah, keep that. Blergh."

Two ranks each Alchemy and Runes go in the basket. "Next complication, if there is magic you never want to touch, get four points to not be able to. Can take three of if if you want. Has to be something you could do anyway, so, no restricting faction magic for factions you shan't have anything to do with anyhow."

"...What's the redeeming value of curses, necromancy, and demon summoning?"

"All popular selections for this complication! Curses are basically just another combat magic to most people, it is not much friendlier to set someone on fire than to give him a sickness or make him have an accident or give him the nature-hates-him feature or send him to go berserk for a bit. Big draw of the curse format is conditionality - curse a guy to trip over and fall if he says slurs or violates restraining order or something. Attaching other magic to curses lets other things be also conditional. Rank three gets you voodoo dolls. Rank five gets the curse of immortality, which is perhaps heaviest duty out of all forms of immortality, and soups up the voodoo dolls, though for big curses you need full moons at some point in your process.

"Necromancy has combat features mostly redundant for a sorceress - not much better to throw bones at somebody than metal slugs - but also a rank zero effect you would lock out if you restrict it to let witches see ghosts and spirit creatures. Buying ranks would get you talking to dead people as though on the phone at one, sprucing up feral ghosts so they can think straight and go to a nice safe afterlife at two, stick volunteer spirits to constructs so they can go around revenanting at three, by rank five you can be a lich with your soul hidden in an egg or whatever strikes your fancy.

"Consortation gets you demons who will trade favors with you. Many witches use this up to midrank no problem as a magic Craigslist, starting with little six inch imps at rank one - I think these are possibly more useful to tiny witches - on up through foliots, succubi, nabasus, balors, astarothi, all want you to do appropriate classic sin things for their labor, I know a very nice spa staffed with sloth demons who like it when you lie around doing no things. Rank five is only good if you want to give a boss demon a soul at least every month or refinance with also souls in some other configuration. Which I am neutral about you doing. If you do want to do that it's another immortality method, gets you a big whack of more power points or another standard wish but people usually go for the power points one, also you keep your loot if your boss demon should die in some way though they do not do this each Tuesday. Some witches turn into demons their own selves in this way also."

"...Mmh. I might want some necromancy for the tending to the dead aspect. It's... It doesn't sound fun, but... It sounds like it needs doing."

"Does need doing, does not specifically need you doing if it is not your best life."

"But like. If I don't who will."

"Necromancers! I give out necromancy like candy here, you know, and I am not the only awakener."

"...I can at least confidently say 'no curses'. If I have to smush a monster I can do that with Avatar stuff and ideally I won't ever fight people... If I can help it. Maybe if they're up to evil stuff. I know, I know, before you remind me, neutrality."

Sigh.

"Consortation does not spark joy either."

"Two restrictions in the shopping cart for now. Boop boop. Here is one that makes you socially offputting. Exact presentation varies so it is not like you only have to go find the other people who have this same thing."

"Meh... I've dealt with being the weirdo. It's not so bad. Solid maybe? Like, let's not confirm it but put it in front of anything else if I need points."

"One that makes you very delicious looking to monsters?"

"-Ooh. It'll save time on hunting them down if I decide fighting is in my blood. Which. It sounds appealing in a way just like crafting-type work, but also dangerous. This is- By 'monsters' you mean things that will pretty reliably kill people, right, not like, magic geese minding their own business in a magic pond?"

"Such a time saver for a monster hunter, yes. Not magic geese, not normal bears, big things with too many heads or paralyzing screeches or what have you. Three ranks of any elementalism will put your usual monster down hard if your wits are where you last saw them."

She affects a grave, gravelly voice. "Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer..."

Cough.

"...But yes."

"If monster hunting is not for you plenty of places are low monster density, it creates no new monsters in itself." Basket. "Be weirdly light, weirdly heavy, or thanks to the amazing powers of magic, both at whichever times are inconvenientest? Affects swimming, stuff hitting you, broomstick capacity."

"I mean, I'm not a big fan of swimming now but cutting off the option forever seems kinda... Oh, I'd already be weirdly dense as a luxal, right? Bronze bones?"

"Yes, a good bit so."

"Let's call it another solid maybe, like being off-putting."

"Popular one, girlfriend has it - makes you striking and pretty and memorable? Bad combination with stealth missions even shapeshiftily, but being invisible still works fine."

"I can see the kind of person who sees that as free points! Does it fuck with the masquerade too bad? Or do you get, oh, she's a gym bunny, she's an Instagram influencer, going around town?"

"Does no harm to the Masquerade. Just one of those magnetic faces. Veil helps you anyhow, everyone will ask or more likely not bother to ask where you got your contacts and pretty body jewelry even if you cover up not at all."

She dithers but--

--It makes her feel warm and excited inside? Mary Sue magic, just being attention-getting as a native superpower...

"Basket." She nudges the mote.

"Basket! Here is a personality disorder you can have if you like, bit of a sociopathy."

"What, as a treat? Pass. I don't... I feel like I'm the kinda person who can go off the deep end if I let myself already, so... Not that I gotta explain."

"You do not gotta explain, none of my business. Here is the one of ugliness. Compatible with the eye-catching one but not so as to be less ugly that way."

".....Hmmmmmmmm..... Nah."

"Unpopular," agrees Nia. "Be addicted to thing of choice? Not too cute like addicted to morning jogs or saying please and thank you, but you can be a little cute, I know a very old witch addicted to baths from when they were thought unhealthful."

"...Maybe caffeine? Kind of already am. But like, depends on the downside cost- How bad the withdrawal is."

"Not so much withdrawing as impulsiveness in indulging? Likely to walk into every Starbucks even if you have already had six cups. Not feel quite yourself without it, but no progressive worsening, not headaches and fatigue, magical not chemical."

"Yeah, that's fine, I have way too much coffee and soda already."

Basket. "Can take more times if you have more ideas."

"Nothing sticks out? And I'm wary of adding things that aren't already a habit?"

"Sure. You want to keep all your limbs and senses?"

"Unless I'm really hurting for points and maybe revisit the offputting or black thumb ones first."

"Alternately make a sense super sensitive, bit of a superpower but can be annoying."

"Hmmm..... The classic 'five senses'? Hear a pin drop or a heartbeat and breathing across the room, loud music is painful?"

"Those five, yes. They make pretty good disability aid things for them. Silk clothes, dimming contact lenses, earplugs."

"...But, like, permanent. Hearing in the maybe bucket with black thumb."

"Add a thing you need the way you need air or water or food? Can get mightily cute with this one if you have a good idea."

"........I am not sure if this is terribly clever or useless, but. Bronze? Having bronze bones and all."

"Need to be touching it and the way you need air? Sure! Twelve points."

"I'm just a bit worried I don't count as 'touching' my bones..."

"You do."

"...Alright then, I guess my secret weakness to bone-removing curses is, uh, most people would fare poorly without their bones anyway and it's twelve whole points... Okay." She does a headshake.

"Mm-hm. One where the veil does not protect you? You would need to cover up and talk fast when out and about among humans who do not know things, but a luxal can pass with a good story."

"I just really like my gaudy jewelry. It's cosplay. Et cetera. ...Mm, I'm leaning no, though."

"Pick your own kryptonite? More points if it is more likely to meet you."

She practically hisses. "No!"

"Wow, okay! One where you need to exercise every day to get your magic working full strength?"

"I-" Deep breath. "-Sorry. How much exercise are we talking? But probably no. I'd forget. Even knowing it's important."

"Hour a day maintenance, play catchup with extra if you fall behind."

"...I don't think daily workouts are part of my best life. Unless fucking around with earthbending counts?"

"Has to be physically strenuous, but can be also magical if you want to make yourself a platformer to run around on."

"That does sound fun... But I'm not exactly hurting for points right now, am I? Another for the 'maybe' pile. Which is getting kinda big."

"This one puts you in magical cahoots with a lineage - not bad by itself, but the lineages you can get in with this way all have nasty rivalries you'd pick up, makes you magical-lineage-racist about it and your lineage's enemies at you too. Can get ugly, can simmer lowkey for a long while."

"I don't want to borrow enemies? Is this like... Fate stuff? Spooky."

"Spooky fate stuff yeah. Fixation on some frame of mind? Classics are violence sex curiosity paranoia but I did learn about making a custom one if you have an idea shaped right."

"Uh... Probably not. My brain is me!"

"Okay. There is one where you choose all the choices and then leave the shop and forget this ever happened, and then, something yikes happens to you to trigger you awakening, sooner or later, but you get chosen things not random things like a normal natural awakening?"

"Nope, no, I still don't want a trigger event. That shit is- People underestimate the trauma."

"Enough Psionics makes you immune to nonmagic trauma."

"Sure, maybe I'll be alright long term, magic or not. And maybe it's a one-time thing, but... It does not spark joy. It sparks dread. Also the memoryfuckery is bad."

"Remember me again once awake, but valid. One that makes you imposter-syndromed?"

"...Nah. I don't like the mind ones pretty generally. Maybe it'd drive me to work harder but it just sounds so draining."

"Compulsion is like addiction, stronger but you can be cuter about what you are compelled to do if you wish to study your flashcards every time you see your computer."

"...Sus. Not thinking of anything clever and not liable to screw something up long term, like the bone-removal curse weakness."

"Okay. That is all of them you have on offer. Thirty four complication points. How many in long term potential how many for spending here?"

"Oh, definitely long-term. I can pass the cookie test, thanks. At least on deferring rewards, not on suffering."

"Thirty for long term is your max, so four to spend today. Look at ranked things more, or little wild goodies?"

"...Can I get a little more info on how the fixation thing manifests first? Like, worked example? Maybe I want to fixate on seeing the bright side of things more often. But it seems a very blunt instrument for brain changes... Oh, did I take the attention-getting one? I think I want it."

"Yes, eye-catchingness in the basket. I think I can swing an optimism fixation but... disrecommend based on how you seem to be approaching things especially since you have capped out long term potential points."

"Hmm. That seems like a lot. Worth reviewing what I took as drawbacks and seeing if any can be dropped. Then the wild magics?"

"Sure. You have your eye-catchingness, you have restricted curses and consortation, monsters will be excited to meet and eat you, the witch mark, addicted to caffeine, required to be touching bronze lest you suffocate, that last one is your big number at twelve and the others are twos and fours adding up."

"Okay yeah I don't feel bad about any of those. Maybe also restrict necromancy to remove the temptation, maybe not. Bet I can make more overall difference making rank five magic stuff for goody-goody types than personally psychopomping..."

"I would usually disrecommend restricting any school of magic with a zero rank, makes you more disabled than you would guess from not growing up around witches in a way your guess will not be wrong about the other disability ones. Can do if you wish, of course."

"...What's the zero rank of necromancy?"

"See ghosts and spirit creatures. Even if you are not a necromancer you may want to be able to call necromancer-911 about them."

"...Yeah alright."

"Curses and consortation do not have rank zeroes so you are good there. Look in on wild magics now?"

"Sure... I'm getting a bit spaced out by all of this. Hence the definitely sleeping on it and coming back."

"Valid! I shall save your basket for tomorrow's revisitation. Unpopular one - trades in your rank 5 capacity for twelve power and also at least go-to-Regionals level skill at every mundane everything?"

"Rank five has the big ticket stuff and the immortalities?"

"You would still have your luxal immortality but yes."

"Nah."

"Didn't think so. Immunity to poison, control live poisonous things? Dovetails nice with some Naturalism."

"Little edgy. Does not spark joy. Next?"

"Convenient little fuelless fires that stay where put including not catching on things, can be warm or cold, good for brewing and lighting and climate control?"

"Ooh shiny. Yoink. Say, if there's a magically enforced thing for being ugly, is there one for being hot? Or is that just cosmetic witchery. Or the flashy drawback."

"Not as such but you can design your true form any which way you like it within your choices! Only, turns out not everyone is artistic about it, so cosmetic witching on top. 'Witchery' is technical and means the hat robe 'n rod trio and the ranked magic to do with them."

"Right. Well, I'm starting with rank three hexing and that can do cosmetics, right? ...I bet beauty standards change when everyone can be hot, too. More about presentation, less about the genetic lottery."

"Yes, can do, and yes that too. But if your problem is that you do not know what to look like, you will not get any farther DIYing it after than before you design the true form."

"Something to research tonight."

"Also not everyone can be hot, there are people with the hideousness problem and some of them did not choose it."

"...Oof. Hrm. Uh. And, I'm guessing, nothing doing on getting around it? Wearing illusions if you want to? If they get cosmetic hex it just always turns out bad somehow?"

"Persistent with shapechanging but illusions would do it."

"Mmh. More stuff to look up later."

She notes down '~theory on drawback stickiness???' then dips back into the trance-thing.

"One for charging all your devices just by being nearby, be a tazer, steer lightning that is already occurring elsewise."

"Is that not replicable with wind elementalism?"

"Not the devices part, actually."

"I will live without being an induction charger."

"One for being a boy? I do not get the vibe but just in case."

"Oh huh! I... I'd, like, try it, but not true-form-ly, no."

"For just trying it, hexes have you covered. Prestidigitation! They named a Dungeon and Dragon after it, same deal, cleaning, warm or cool or flavor food, little illusions and constructs."

"Hexes, okay..." She takes a moment to chase off... Some mental images.

"I've already got the special fire for heat and cold, and hexes 3 for animating cleaning stuff. How pricey is it?"

"Only one point!"

"Mrr... Hmm... My munckin instinct is still disliking it, gonna pass."

"Huh! Okay. Give people hypnotic commands with eye contact?"

"-What the fuck, is there a defense against that?"

"Sure, runes or psionics or whatever, not hard."

"Christ. Okay. Also, uh, no. Especially if it's not a good defense against serious foes." But maybe with someone who likes that sort of- No.

"Probably then also not the one for making performance arts captivating?"

"...That's actually less alarming than the hypnosis thing? Less... Nonconsenty. But I am not so much a performance artist."

"You do have forever and the perk also helps you along talentwise. Four points. Synergizes with curses but you haven't them."

"Eh. If I make it as a performance artist I want it to be 'cause I'm worth the attention, not just magic. I do also have the eye-catching thing already. But it really doesn't seem my vibe."

"All righty. Mime powers! Very useful actually, mime into place a chair or a hair elastic or bicycles."

"Ooh, real good daily life helper. Mime tableware? Mime cleaning implements and then hex them?"

"Yes and no respectivewise."

"How many points? Three or less, yes. More, have to think about it."

"For a sorceress two. One where you needn't sleep but can whensoever you may want with lucid dreams?"

"Ooh. Very tempting... Cost?"

"Also for a sorceress two!"

"Half again as much time to do stuff! Yes."

"Unpopular one: mood weather?"

"Huh. Seems like it'd make me a bad neighbor?"

"There is a place near me with a Fisher King situation, keep the liege happy and the weather is nice, but it is not for most people. Charge Swap if you like being a luxal but would rather get mana some other way?"

"I thought it was luxal-oread?"

"If you like! You said 'maybe', so being both is not in your basket yet - hybridizing is four points if you use luxal affinities, two if you use oread ones."

"What about net point cost on other stuff from the affinities? I haven't been digging into the nuts and bolts because I figure that's your job and you know it..."

"As it stands right now same either way. Luxal affinities cheapen alchemy, runes, divination, metallurgy, portals. Oread affinities cheapen hexes, familiarity, earthmoving, metamorphosis. Do not affect most wild magics especially ones that seem likely appealing to you. So depends which of those sets of things you want to go farther with, which affinities to use."

"Luxal affinities." She nods firmly.

"And oread hybridization, all right. And no charge swap, I take it. Levitation! Popular one, effortlessly hover and maneuver in the air, twenty five miles an hour. Works on things you designate too, they will sit in the air. Most things that give you a flight speed also add it to your broomstick speed if you have a broomstick and this is one of those."

"Yeah. That sounds a lot easier than doing parkour about monsters. Though I won't discount closed spaces, flyers, or ranged attacks."

Levitation in the basket. "Broomstick upgrade?"

"How's it play with witchery?"

"Very nicely but Witchery ranks not essential! Makes it faster in the air, faster to summon if it is not already instant from Witchery, better maneuvering."

"I have the floaty thing and don't feel like I'm really hurting for broompower? I don't plan on a lot of high speed chases or races. Though it could be fun."

"Essential for broom jocks, but you can always buy it later if you decide to be one of these."

"Yeah, I'm gonna be an Avatar wannabe and potion brewer slash runesmith or whatever runers do."

"I most often hear 'enchanter' for runes, 'alchemist' for potions. That is all the wild magics you have offered to shop for today. You have twenty one spending points left with runes and alchemy at two and hexes at three and all sorceress things at one."

"Huh, that's more than I thought? ...Rank three alchemy, one in runes. Two in... Earthbending. What does the mothergifts one do again?"

"We are all related back far enough and manygreats grandma gave us all clothes! No ranks gets you a one piece robe or dress or something - does not come with underpants, they were not fashionable in ancient times - and a hat, can be the classic or anything else with plenty of brim - and a rod, like a wand or staff, useful for point-and-shoot with your magic even if you can cast empty handed. Takes ten minutes to appear them instead of whatever you are wearing unless you are wearing enchanted things which stay, cannot change how they look without help - I do not yet have the fourth rank to do this help for you but it is not hard to find tailoring in witchy places. At least they fix themselves up when re-summoned if you ripped something. Buy one rank to turn the rod into a broomstick and be able to change your design with ten minutes noodling on it. Two ranks to make the garment multi-piece and all-weather-appropriate and changeable shapes and colors in only a minute's thought, and get your broom faster stronger and attempting to catch you should you fall, though you do not need that last with levitation. Rank three makes your hat a pocket dimension! And also your pockets if you put pockets, or sleeves if you have big sleeves. Pauses live things, if you want to pull rabbits. Broomstick is faster, takes more weight, and now does climate control, windshield, invisible cushion to not squash your nethers; can also now turn into a magic carpet. Getting dressed in an eyeblink and changing designs just as fast. Rank four, garment like invisibility cloak, broomstick or carpet covers passengers likewise, not immune to some sensors even mundie ones so don't fly over airbases, can become the witchy tailor. Rank five, go rummage in your hat-closet your whole self, interiorly decorate it like it is a holodeck, bring passengers in through your hat or your cloak or whatever, anyone inside can click their heels together about how there is no place like home and appear there, you can do that or just pop out where you popped in."

"...Three ranks of witchery. Too convenient to not to. Honestly I could never buy clothes again and be happy."

"Popular for convenience, yes! Portals, divination?"

"Maybe later."

"Valid. Fourteen points burning a hole in your pockets."

"Still? Uh, hmm... I peaked a little over long term into short term, right, what drawbacks do I have all in all, maybe I can drop one... Maybe I would like to ever do consortation after all, it sounds like an awful idea from here but, like, people exist independently of the systems that surround them and all..."

"Currently at two restrictions, monster bait, eye catcher, witch mark, one addiction, and requirement for bronze."

"I should... Stop... Making mechanical choices like gamer brain wants to and learn more about the world I'm about to step into?"

"Sure, what questions have you?"

"What's a magic career look like? What's magic house-hunting like? Like, daily life stuff. How do witches go about, uh, dating and stuff? Are guys rare since being a guy is a specific power? Is magic inherently feminine or something? -Sidetrack, more a question for a library. Does YouTube work in witchy spaces? I presume the IRS cannot reach out and touch me through the veil but any law and order on the magic side to worry about besides 'don't fuck up the veil'? How does maintaining a muggle presence tend to work for people? Magic uni? I still probably want to attend the mundane one I got into, does that predictably go horribly wrong, with being monster bait perforating the veil when a 'bear' attacks me randomly or anything?"

"Guys are rare, total clambake, if you are straight you will have slightly a time. No one is sure why this is the case. Will not inconvenience you too much for having babies because hexes can handle the anatomy on the temporary. Careers vary all over the place - I do this but it pays less in money and more in something sort of like insurance, boyfriend does commissioned water workings for the big whacks of cash, girlfriend does a little alchemy and has a side hobby doing theater makeup but mostly has family money. There are neighborhoods you can buy a house in, some people live in their hats, I live at the bottom of a nice lake but that is because of the waterworking boyfriend and would not usually be for an oread, if this concern is immediately you might want to go to Arcadia or Hawthorne and have a dormitory and you can do this even without their fate twist if you wish, now or later. Fine to go to your normal uni, there are not monsters going abroad so much around your Earth - maybe you get into a fight with a mad ghost or something once or twice a semester, but there is a rank zero magic to step a little out of reality with whatever is bothersome so you do not attract attention bothering it back. There are dating sites on HexVPN or the classic meet people in random situation or through friendlies approach. Anywhere with a HexVPN can reach YouTube but not everyplace is with the times. The IRS does not know fuckanything but if you mess with anything big dangerous and unpopular, O.R.C. may come after you - no affiliation with the species of the uncapitalized same name. Muggle presence is fine so long as it is Veil-friendly, pretend your potions you sell are homeopathic and this seems to work all right."

"...Eh. Hmmm..."

She successfully does not blurt out facts about her sexuality, contemplating this.

...Hold on.

"Waterworking, like, I'm imagining the whole thing being all in the moment motion, I was comparing it to Avatar and all where the only lasting effect is moved stuff staying in the new spot, but it sounds more like you have an air dome down there? Or something enchanted to be breathable or something? A dorm room sounds nice. So does mildly cursing my mom's latest boyfriend but that's an impulse I do not endorse. Hex VPN? I'll probably go more with etsyable jasper and brass and stuff on the mundane side. You know what, rank me up in potions as far as I can go, especially if I can hit rank five, arch-curatives sound all really easily liquidatable on the witchy side of things and I could use some liquid."

"All the way up in potions it is. HexVPN is witch internet, requires a particular magical device, both open enrollment witch unis have them. Rank five waterworking allows permanent water walls. They could be dispelled so I do keep all of my things that must not be wet somewhere they will be okay even if there is some kind of trouble with the lake but I can walk right into our home without getting my toes at all wet."

"Permanent water walls, that's really neat, would they hold up even in, like, the bottom of the ocean? I can think of industrial uses for that. And yeah, magic uni sounds like probably the thing."

"Sure, bottom of the ocean is no problem. If you want to commit to one of the schools you can take their specialty magic today - I can only do this for you for one faction but there is nothing stopping you from falling in with other crowds and learning more."

"There's two schools, so two specialty magics to pick from?"

"Or a nonschool. I can do the Hespatian Covens, Lunabella, the Watchers, and Alfheimr where I live."

"Uh, elevator pitch on these?"

"Hespatians: Secretive little ritualist cells, headquarters in Hell, magic is called occultism and involves sacrifices or being naked or doing the do or depending. Lunabella, lovely city on the moon, very high standard of living, useful magic involving personal demesnes which has a rank zero you can pick up without ever setting foot moonward, major hiccup is that citizenship requires being involved in a network of fealty common to gloss as universal nested enslavement. Watchers, pan-Abrahamic interfaith society of witches, their magic is summoning angels. Alfheimr is very gorgeous, full of the fey - catchall for some species, fairies proper are only one of these - doing feudalism, either messy high turnover feudalism in Winter or fancy formal feudalism in Summer; magic is Covenants, magical contract drafting."

"Definitely not the hespatians. Watchers don't sound fun either. And I'm sus of involvement with fey stuff. I think I need to hear more about Lunabella...?"

"Lovely place. Greek influences, run by a fellow who is now the king and construed as enslaved to the constitution. Everyone has an owner, or 'matron', who is responsible for them, and may buy people to be responsible for those. The magic allows a lot of control indeed of anyone inside a domain, so it is sort of formalizing what is already true if you go over to a powerful Lunabellan's house, that they can do what they like unless someone also powerful would complain about it. Generally possible to go over your matron's head to your grandmatron if anything is sketch, it would be so strange to not let you talk to people, and also quite possible to shop around for matrons who have any which character you might wish, hold out for a good deal before selling yourself into the system."

"That sounds extremely stressful. Like, what if I fuck up. What if I thought I got along with this person but really that was a front. What if what I want changes in five years. Do they tend to have exit clauses? But probably pass."

"I don't know how common exit clauses are. Possible they are all the time happening. Reevaluating in five years not unusual, I think. Cannot personally vouch for any Lunabellans who are in the market."

".....Huh."

She sighs and rubs her temples.

"Oh god, I've reached the point of stressing about suddenly becoming magic. Got to take this seriously, think about what my best life consists of and all..."

"If you need more time for thinking about it than I can keep the shop here, I can do a house call but you would owe me."

"Maybe. I can get alllll the info and turn it over and do a spreadsheet... What kind of owe? Make a high rank potion or two owe, or what?"

"The mana back for the getting to where you are - I do not know where you live so I do not know how much - and some for my time in doing it. Could put that mana in a potion or could just mint it."

"...Riiiight, mana, mana... Does hanging out in a jewelry store tend to work for luxals? I might want, like, a loan, or at least some arrangement of 'I get to hang out here under watch'... Museum or something, one of the tacky ones that are more showing off than educational, like the room full of gemstones at the Field Museum..."

"Yes, jewelry store and museum will work fine if you are not expelled for loitering. I do not require the mana right then immediately, just, it is an amount I would be out."

"No no I get it. I want plenty for my own stuff too. Now I'm imagining an arrangement on Lunabella where I hang out in someone's treasury until I get enough dosh for my own. But slavery. I assume they chose the word deliberately, as opposed to say, contracts. I feel like I don't get it."

"Well, they actually speak Lunabellan Greek, so it is a translation. There are contracts involved."

"I don't suppose there's a way to tour these places while still a mundie?"

"Not so much. Mundies cannot even see the stuff in the Lunabella domains, that is why the moon does not look inhabited. Same problem with portals that are not designed special to include you, you walk right through like no magic was done in the place. Some factions have websites?"

"Websites are significantly better than nothing... And I'm curious enough to visit Lunabella and ask around what the process is like but definitely not curious enough to have fate about it."

"Fate is not necessary for long term opportunity to do a magic, only for buying it in points here now today."

"I'll pass entirely, then."

"It does give two points, you might want to at least consider the schools, which are website-havers."

"Have you got a Hex VPN here?"

"Sure, network is called HareNet, hare like the animal, and the password is waterwheel all one word lower case."

She will connect and try to look up the two schools, then. Hawthorne and Arcadia, wasn't it?

That's them.

Arcadia has a university website which is like all other university websites except the photography is a lot more interesting and there's less empty copy and also it advertises magic classes. She can enroll once she's awakened; apparently the website can tell that she isn't yet, but it'll still let her put together a mock courseload and browse the many clubs and look at the schedule for forthcoming campus themes (currently: Tropical Sunrise; last quarter: Haunted Woods; candidates up for students to vote on for next quarter: Underwater Shipwreck, An Homage to Saihua Museum of Fine Art, Papercraft Wonderland, and Inflorescence).

Hawthorne's website is very Web 1.0. The background is pale grey, the links are blue, the images of serious uniformed witches in labs and on brooms are static, and the whole thing is formatted in a table. It has:

- a list of wand spells taught at each rank (highlights include Counterspell, assorted painful dueling spells, Mage Hand which gives feedback just like normal hands, and, at rank 5, one to make things bigger on the inside, and ones that permanency-ify or contingency-ify other spells);
- a rubric of student behavior and according disciplinary penalties up to and including (for crimes such as "aggravated Outsider contamination") execution, with a downloadable PDF that advertises itself as being more than three hundred pages long;
- a map of the campus (it's under the Greenland ice sheet, and it is very large, with fourteen different libraries);
- a preliminary House sorting quiz (there are more than a hundred Houses and being sorted, even tentatively and nonbindingly by this form, requires information a non-awakened witch doesn't have yet like which magics she has at her highest rank);
- a course catalog, with all the expectable magic classes, and also required seminars in behavioral, physical, spiritual, and social health;
- an explanation of the strange underground illumination cycle, the way new buildings add themselves to campus on their own as-needed, and a link to the surrounding college town, for a value of "town" which has more people in it than Germany;
- an academic calendar.

"...Hawthorne does not seem like my vibe any more than the Watchers. Arcadia seems neat, but all college websites that are trying seem neat... Still. If anything, what little you've said about Hespatians and maybe the Feywilds does but also: No. I don't wanna go full edgelord. These are the only two that take public awaken-ees?"

"Arcadia takes all comers and Hawthorne all with a certain potential which you have. There are other schools in the worlds, and lots of people learn mostly from tutors, and you can seek these options, but I do not have an in with them for you."

"I got into a gifted student school once, on this scholarship doohickey. It seemed like everyone there was on drugs and it was awful in almost every possible way. There was this extra class that we had to do some kind of... Volunteer work, and it turned out to be a free labor scheme and money laundering thing. I couldn't keep up at all, but I tried, 'cause it was a boarding school. And then got kicked out at the six month mark. The security guard guy tried to get people alone with him. My English teacher there was nice, even if she seemed, like, one bad day away from finding a bridge and jumping... What am I rambling on for. Mark me lazy I guess, hard work and discipline isn't part of my best life. Arcadia, then."

"Arcadia it is. I went there for a little bit my own self. Very customizable. Their magic is digicasting, going into or taking things from arts and books and games and such."

"...Parallel world style or emulation style? I presume someone would have tried, like, writing something utopian, and then bringing it into the real..."

"The things brought out are a bit limited even if you go all the way to rank five, alas. I do not know these styles you describe?"

"That answers my question. Parallel world would be, like, you going to a different Earth that happens to have Hogwarts on it. Emulation is a term for- In computery contexts, imitation, sort of. So, they're imitations, emulations, of the media, not some... Bizarre reach through possibility space for a place where Harry Potter actually fought Voldemort or whatever."

"That is right. You can go find Voldemort but he was not already there when the books were written; you go meet the author's idea."

"Makes it a lot less appealing but Arcadia's still fine."

"Alrighty. Now where were we?"

"Me not having a clear idea of what life looks like in five years with any given set of choices?"