The sunset is really pretty. There's even a certain extra shiny glint in the air that makes it all the more fantastically. 

The little shining motes of light resolve, a trail of emerald sparking fairy dust floating through the sky behind a little pixie. She floats down, wings fluttering slowly behind her, a wax-sealed letter comically large hanging down beneath her hands. 

She waves, and waits patiently just outside her window. 

Vivian blinks, then rubs her eyes and looks again. 

The pixie remains solid and real. 

She goes and opens the window. 

"Er, ah, hi?" 

She summersaults in the air, voice twinkling and bright. She wiggles in place, and floats in a little closer, knocking her hand against the letter, with an oddly wooden sound coming from it. Shes makes a soft questioning noise, and perks up curiously at her. 

Cautiously, Vivian accepts the letter, since the pixie's voice is too bright for her to understand. 

Tearing open the wax seal, she pulls out the letter within. 

The pixie almost bounces up into the air after releasing it to her grip, before steadying herself and slipping up, up and away into the sky.  

What? 

Okay, she saw the fairy, fairies like that do not exist — 

Honestly, she could use something to do. 

She takes a moment to flick a comb through her hair and pull it back, puts on a clean v-neck, and tears the talisman. 

There's a brief sensation of being nowhere in particular, somewhere higher and lower and elsewhere, before the world resolves back into focus. 

The stained wood walls of the room are bathed in a gentle sunlight streaming in from above, unbroken save for a simple steel stand for shimmering silver cutlass, reflecting the sunlight somehow with the pale patina of moonlight. The room holds little more then two recliners on both sides of a simple wooden desk, marred only with a matched pair of displays and keyboards, and a copper name plate proclaiming her to be "Tiera, F.I.X.F.I.C. Agent Emeritus and Agent Handler". 

She wears an easygoing smile and flowing brown dress like she was born in both. 

"You must be Vivian. A pleasure to meet you." 

"Ah, yes, hello." Vivian looks around, suppressing her shock that that actually worked. 

"Good afternoon, ah, Tiera?" It comes out as a question rather than a statement. 

She chuckles gently. 

"Hello and Good afternoon to you too. Rigel really is beautiful, isn't it?" 

A smile spills along her face, a little wistful sigh running through her chest and shoulders. 

"I, ah — yes, it is." She looks up at the skylight that the sun — no, Rigel's — rays come spilling through. 

After a moment's thought, she settles herself into the recliner across from Tiera. "So," she says. "Please, explain — this is all rather a shock but I want to know more."

"As you've seen, magic exists, as do quite a number of technologies that are far beyond your world, at least as it is now." 

She pauses for a moment, and just smiles up wistfully past her. 

"There's a whole big multiverse out there, and that means that there's a lot of people, people as real as you or I, who are having a rather hard time with things. F.I.X.F.I.C. is a multiversal organization that tries to help with that. I won't go over the whole political spiel, but suffice to say, we try to triage worlds of oppression and suffering as best we can. Part of that work goes through agents - people who we can empower to go out and help people. There's a number of complicated factors that go into it, but essentially, in many worlds there's only so much influence the broader organization can exert on some of the worlds in crisis, because that part of the multiverse has a certain... 'cosmic balance' to it that we have to abide by, at least in operations at scale. We can give you incredible tools, incredible skills, even give you access to an ally or two, but only in proportion to the difficulty of the task. Those who sign on as agents are given a new body, those powers you choose, a mission to help people through a crisis as best you can, and payment after the mission, for services rendered. Our systems detected you as someone who is especially compatible with the esoteric techniques involved, as someone of an exceptional character." 

She hums lightly. 

"Does that make sense to you? I know it never quite sinks in the first time you hear it, but..." 

She slips her fingers back through her hair with a bright smile. 

"I guess that makes sense. Me, though, an exceptional character?" 

Vivian pauses for a long minute then rubs the back of her head. "... I mean, I try to help people who need it when I can... But anyone would do that, you know?" 

She smiles lightly. 

"I think... that there's a lot of good in a lot of people, even if it's hard for them to let it shine through, sometimes. And sometimes, what that means, to be not just a good person, but an exceptional one, is that when you ask yourself "Can I help?", you find that your answer is "Yes" more often then those around you. Even if they're asking the same questions, even if they have the same skills, that can... shine through, sometimes." 

"Oh." 

Vivian takes a moment to digest that, and then exhales. "Yeah," she says. "I guess you're right about that. I still keep comparing myself to, you know, the kinds of people who spend a big chunk of their income on preventing malaria, and things like that... But I guess there will always be outliers." 

She exhales and smiles. "Alright, I guess that makes sense for why I was recruited. You can probably give me... skills and things. Harder and a lot more ethically fraught to change the personality underneath."

She nods lightly. 

"There's a few options for changing some underlying metaphysical characteristics as well, but those tend to be slow, imprecise and indirect to compensate for their reliability." 

She taps at her keyboard for a moment. 

"Would you like to see our standard options? I find that a lot of agents-to-be find it helpful to have a reference point on hand early on." 

Vivian nods. "Please." She turns her attention to the screen before her. 

"Here you go. Please tell me if you have any questions you'd like me to answer."

She focuses on the screen for a while. 

"Free perfect transition... That's worth a lot to me, obviously. And the job benefits are tremendous. Of course, the stakes are ridiculous as well..."

She takes a long breath. 

"This isn't a rush, or a fight." 

She reaches her hand out to her. 

"You can take more than one breath. It's okay." 

Her smile turns a little wry. 

Vivian cracks up, and takes Tiera's hand. "Thank you." She lets out an exhale she didn't know she was holding, and looks back to the screen. 

"... I know I can handle crises," she says, not quite looking at Tiera. "I've dealt with a lot of them before on other people's behalves. Legal battles, finding places for people to stay on short notice, even people threatening suicide. But when I fear for myself, I tend to retreat. I think it's always easier on someone else's behalf." 

She squeezes Tiera's hand. "But you — FixFic, I mean — can give me training, yeah? I think it'd be worth it, to — be able to help in a real way."

She nods solemnly. 

"We can." 

She lets out a sweeping little light breath of her own. 

"And yes. It's always meant the world to me, when I can help someone, and see them just... smile at the joy of it all. It's been a privilege to be able to make such a difference, really, and I know many of my colleagues would say much the same." 

She squeezes her hand gently back, lingering with the solidity for a moment.

"For me, being brave is often about... keeping it grounded in what's important. And when there's so much going on in front of you, and so much work left to do in this world..."

She leaves the rest wordless, her eyes flicking closed, lost perhaps in memory, for a while.  

Vivian simply nods, and thinks about all the people suffering, even just in her own world. 

There is so much work to do. So much to heal. So much to mend. It's never as easy as simply kicking the bad guys' asses. 

Her fingers rest warmly against her hands, soft yet firm.

The silence stretches, and eventually Vivian pulls herself from her reverie.

"... Alright. I feel a little more centered. I think I do want to do this. Even though it's scary."

She smiles, soft and approving, and slips her hand back to her lap. 

"I'm glad to hear it." 

Vivian settles her hand back in her own lap. "So, let's talk specifics. Obviously I shouldn't go up against a more dangerous mission world to start with — we should focus on a twenty or maybe thirty point mission. Picking what mission is maybe the most important decision, so... let's talk about that."

She nods obligingly, and brings them up on their screens. 

"Don't be afraid to bring up things that you'd like to see in this sort of mission, even if you don't think it could apply to the ones listed here - I might be able to find one outside of the preapproved list that may fit you better." 

"Of these... I think I'm too sensitized already to historical events that are familiar from my own timeline like the Civil War or World War 2. Spending a long time in a lower-technology world would probably make me miserable due to ambient conditions. Anything over 30 points is probably not good to do as a rookie. That leaves — flashpoint duty, X-COM, saving christmas, the espionage worldsheaf, and the cyberpunk worldsheaf."

She exhales. "What I'm good at naturally, though, is — working one person at a time. A world where if I could heal someone's mind or soul, or enough people's, everything would be different — that's the kind of environment that I'd be able to thrive in, I think."

"I think it depends a little on what makes you uncomfortable about the conditions - I've seen some agents take functional magic or hogwarts graduate as something of a replacement for modern amenities, with some success, though there's a certain... persistent squalor that some find unsettling, even if they can wave away many of the consequences of it. I agree, to an extent - there's some people that thrive the most when they feel that they are facing impossible odds, or are especially suited for a particular powerset that requires a more difficult mission, but I would definitely recommend them as a starting place, at least." 

She hums contemplatively, flicking through the notes on the screen. 

"I think what mission fits that criteria best depends on what kind of person you want to heal? The espionage world is especially driven by a small handful of outlier masterminds and to a lesser extent gadgeteers, for example, while the success and failure of the X-COM project relies on successful political maneuvering and team cohesion, in the worlds I've seen where they are more equipped to succeed without our intervention, for example, and both of those are very different problems to work on, I've found."  

Vivian considers for a moment. 

"I think what I am best at is giving people reasons to hope, rather than redeeming people. So XCOM, more than espionage. I quite enjoy Mafia as a party game but I'm honest to a fault when I'm dealing with people I actually know. The cyberpunk worldsheaf also comes to mind because a lot of the issue is everyone being... inured to the system, you could say." 

She nods along. 

"That's certainly a reasonable path to take - though sometimes part of the appeal of that sort of healing is that helping one person has this - cascading effect to help the material and mental condition of others, and that doesn't quite apply as much in the cyberpunk sheaf as it might in a more magical world." 

"That's true. That has me considering perhaps Camelot as an option, since it is... less bad on historic issues with the treatment of women specifically, could have functional magic brought to serve as amenities, and solving individual people's problems matters deeply if you're a Knight of the Round Table."

"It's also a world where being able to offer those comforts is likely to be especially helpful in working on King Arthur's social aims as well. If you fuzz your requirements a little more, the zombie apocalypse or star wars worlds might also be worth considering for fit." 

"I think I'd get along terribly with the Jedi, what with their emphasis on restraint and neutrality, which would make getting things done in the star wars worldsheaf difficult. As for the zombie apocalypse... It's easier in some ways and harder in others. It might be worth considering. Nightmare Canyon is also worth considering for its relatively small scale if one has functional magic..."

"It might be possible even without taking any personal magical power fit to grant such conveniences to get something relatively comparable as the guest of the fairies in Nightmare Canyon as well." 

Vivian nods and crosses her arms over her chest. "Really, it seems like there's a lot of options. It's hard to narrow things down. Maybe the smart thing is to pick the world I'd be most comfortable with, but I feel pretty generally out of my comfort zone. I feel... the world I'd be most comfortable moving in, doing work in, might be the Cyberpunk one, because in some ways it's most similar to what I've been doing in my own world." 

"I can see the connection. Certainly, there will be a lot of people who would really appreciate that sort of help in that world especially. There's an argument that the zombie apocalypse world might be even more similar, though I think that it'd be a little harder to retreat there. When a world is going through that sort of catastrophe, there's often a certain culture of violence that forms that I think you might find unsettling." 

"Yeah. I think maybe it might come down to what's easier to equip me for and what the equipment sets would feel like from the inside. Zombies are in some ways an ideal enemy — not smart, not people — and in some ways an awful one — rotting, disease-ridden, unsettlingly biological. But there are options to mitigate that kind of thing..."

"It's worth keeping in mind that Xazar has his cultists - though I don't believe he is empowering them per say - and that he is not necessarily bound from leaving his fortress, so a number of strategies that would work effectively against a more animalistic foe wouldn't necessarily work there. On the other hand, there's a direct solution available in the destruction of the shard that isn't available in the cyberpunk worlds, and the degree of intelligent opposition is still rather quantitatively different, especially in the degree of more mundane resources they have access to." 

She hums quietly. 

"I'd say that the tools at hand are more immediately useful for managing at least a small area's zombies than the oppression of the cyberpunk world. Though, there's less variance in the degree and intensity of opposition you can expect if you are trying to work on scaling up outside of your personal abilities. As for the experience of having the powers or equipment... that depends somewhat on the options you choose, of course. Are there any that you have in mind, or would you prefer a broader overview first?"

"The options that I find personally attractive, looking at this list — that I think are just cool and would like to have in the long run — are Sincerity, Iron Will, the Omnicompass, the Paladin and Shining Knight Packages, and maybe the Gamer or Strategocron. Trying to stick to things I could actually buy for this mission. Iron Will feels like it shores up one of my larger weaknesses, while the paladin package and Sincerity... just feel right, in a way. Whereas the Gamer, Shining Knight package and the Omnicompass or Strategocron give — concrete objectives, which is another thing I'm weak on." 

She smiles gently. 

"Going down the list..."

"Iron will doesn't nesscarily 'feel' like anything - it's more that it shifts the proportions of good days and bad days, moments where your mind flows well and your confidence and energy feels close at hand, and the like. With the five token version, there's a certain ceiling to how much you can be mentally drained - at worst, you'll always be able to muddle through the day's work." 

"People with the paladin package tend to report feeling a certain comforting thrum of light and energy running through their bodies, like being marinated in liquid sunlight, or feeling the pulse of a dragon's heart within them. The 'morality sense' tends to feel a little like that, too - a sense of shadows and brightness, shining through into the soul like ordinary light through your eyelids, though with time you can learn to read it a little more finely, and the exact manifestation of each of these effects depends a little on you and your patron deity." 

Vivian listens and nods along. The first sounds... familiar to her, in some ways. She's had bad days where the work simply didn't break her before. And days where it has broken her before. Maintaining motivation sounds like it would be a lot easier with Iron Will, which is good. 

As for the paladin package... She wants that. It feels good. Proper. 

She doesn't say anything, though, instead electing to keep listening closely. 

"The shining knight package is a little more personal and subtle than that, I've found. It's more that you have a feeling of being warm and settled beneath your skin then being flooded with an external power from the inside out; and a felt sense that you've thought things through and found the start of a solution, when a quest comes. It also comes with a number of skill downloads - those tend to manifest as something of a mix of an instinct, an autopilot, and a queryable database, alongside the more ordinary feeling of simply having a skill for yourself." 

"The gamer gives a certain feeling of automaticity - at first, there's usually a lot of manual use of the interface, but as time goes on, it becomes easier to simply know and slip through the process of using a skill or interacting with the interface. It gives a certain sense of separation as well - that at once you are in your body as you might normally be, but that you are also... platonically yourself, seperate from the world, floating free and fine. I think the experience might remind you a little of gender euphoria, actually."  

"The sincerity effect and the omnicompass are both essentially entirely passive and don't feel like anything to use." 

"I hope that answers your question?"

"Gosh. All of it sounds wonderful. I think the knight package is a little less attractive than the others, but the description of the Gamer as 'like gender euphoria' absolutely sells it to me strongly. Iron Will also seems like... a relatively small thing that might have really big payoffs, you know? I think that's not much different than, for example, the cognitive package, but because I'm so often short of willpower day to day it feels a lot more viscerally good to me." 

"I feel that... the paladin package appeals to me deeply because it's so deeply about caring about and reaching out to others. About knowing who to trust, and giving them someone to rely on in turn. And the powers to heal and to banish corruption feel right."

She taps her chin. "On the other hand, the Gamer... is in a sense an exaltation of the mind over the body. It turns you from a person who is a body into a person who has a body, in some ways; it lets you think without relying on meat, gives you direction, and the indefinite reach of its stacking abilities is remarkable. But it comes with the drawback that early on, you're vulnerable, and have little in the way of initial strength. And compared to the paladin package it feels like a more... selfish route, I might say." 

"The quest sense is a powerful tool, and in worlds where excellence in personal combat or the managing of magical creatures or vehicles are especially important skills, the shining knight package can be incredibly useful, though I agree that it's likely doesn't compare too favorably in the context of the worlds that you are focusing on now." 

She relaxes a little more after saying that.

"I should warm you that the paladin package doesn't sense trustworthiness itself, but good and evil, and magics associated with those forces. It's incredibly helpful to have, but not a complete solution to the problem, I'd say." 

"The ability to ignore wounds is often quite helpful early on, as is the ability to 'grind' your skills, but yes, if you can't sufficiently control the start of the conflict, it can be quite limiting. And as for selfishness..." 

She purses her lips. 

"I don't think it's necessarily selfish, to have goals for what you want yourself to be. It's so easy for that line of thought to go too far, and for it to be 'unselfish' to want no one to get to enjoy their lives at all. Still, it can be a little selfish, sometimes, to need to be the one fixing things as directly as you can. In a place like the cyberpunk worldsheaf, you might end up developing technology or methodology that helps others excel, far more than it makes you yourself shine, and that can be a kind of unselfishness. But that doesn't mean that things that are focused on enjoying the experience of doing good yourself are bad, either." 

She shrugs her shoulders with an open smile. 

"I think you would do excellent work with either option." 

Vivian nods, considering Tilea's words. "Then I think the decision between the paladin package and the gamer package comes down to details of build and world, and we should start looking at what would fit in the remaining five to ten tokens for both worlds."

She nods a little. 

"I do think it's still worth considering the 20 token worlds, but it's definitely also worth considering what exactly it would look like to use either of those power sets in those two worlds you've mentioned."

She perks up a little. 

"Oh and... before I forget..."

"Would you like to attend to the body refit and your trip to the light pools now? Because we're offering those services complimentary, there's a little more flexibility available for when to undertake those."  

Vivian considers, listening along with a few nods. She opens her mouth to speak — and is completely blown off course by Tiera's offer. 

"Yes yes yes!" Vivian's eyes light up and a huge grin comes to her face. "That's like asking if I want chocolate cake. Yes, please."

She laughs, bright and warm at her excitement. 

"Alright. Just a moment, and you'll be whisked away, if that's alright with you?" 

She pokes a few commands into her keyboard, then they give her a satisfying bloop. 

"That's alright with me. Thank you for asking, though."

A cascading beam of soft swirling light wraps around her, and teleports her away to a new room. 

The room looks largely like a normal doctor's office - with the only real differences being a replicator inset into one wall, a standing desk with a LCARS style console inset, and a mesh of wires that takes up much of one wall. 

"Hello, hello. You must be Vivian. I'm doctor Gen, and I will be the overseeing physician for your body refit." 

He extends out his hand with a congenial smile. 

She shakes his hand, mostly on autopilot. "So," she says. "How does this work, exactly?"

"Right to the point, then!" 

He nods his head enthusiastically. 

"Presuming that you're just looking to stay human, it's a relatively simple process. From your perspective, you should simply be sedated and wake up fresh as a babe, and ready to go on your merry way! There's a variety of authorized methodologies, but the one that I'm expecting to use is an injection of a nifty bit of nanotechnology that will reconfigure your biology down to the genetic level to your desired state. We can readily adjust your physical form towards anything reasonably plausible within the bounds of humanity, but for safety reasons broader neurological work beyond helping you adjust to your new body is out of scope for the procedure. Still, there's a bit of wiggle room left in the hormone modification process that allows for a little bit of tweaking, if you so desire." 

"Alright. Uh, is there like a neural interface I can mesh with to share my ideal human form with you, or do I have to use my words —" like a good girl "— and communicate the details verbally?"

"Such technology exists! Unforunately, it's not the most reliable with untrained subjects. Customarily, a form would be customized and altered in holographic form, we would discuss any non-visible alterations that you were looking for, and the final body reconfiguration process would use a combination of the form I devised based on your recommendations and your mental input, to avoid more problematic deviations." 

"Alright, then." Vivian smiles. "Honestly I feel I'd be contented with almost any reasonably feminine body, but, well, I do have one or two requests..."

She crosses her arms over her body. "Let me see. Naturally purple hair would be nice. I'd like to keep my height. Given that we're going to be taking this into service making the new body reasonably fit and healthy just makes sense. I have chronic acid reflux from eating too many cheese buns at university, and my right ankle sometimes gives me joint pain, but otherwise the body is pretty much fine... I'm a little attached to being myopic but I think going into a danger zone it'd be better to not need glasses. Otherwise..." she purses her lips. "Something relatively modest? I don't especially want to draw the eye, but neither do I want to be plain."

He hums softly. 

"A common starting point is a 'bugfixed' 'direct' natal sex swap... Let's try that." 

He pokes at his console, and a hologram shimmers into existence, before shifting again. It has a fairly similar general frame, with the muscle of a runner, b-cup breasts and wine-purple hair that could pass for a rich black at a distance. Her face isn't quite plain persay, but it is a little unremarkable.  

She smiles softly, looking at the version of herself up on the podium. 

"That's not so bad. Could maybe use something in the cheekbone department and a slightly larger... bosom. The shoulder to waist ratio is maybe a little off too."

He obligingly pokes at his console a little, and gives it a bit more of a defined cheekbone and a bit of a general sleeker look in the face, alongside a pair of breasts at around low-D and slightly firmer shoulders and wider hips. It makes the overall look a little bit more exaggerated and eye drawing, but not much more so then you'd expect in a gym regular. 

"Not bad..." She smiles. "I like it. Um... can I ask for a natural "tattoo" on my... let's say right shoulder. Of a rose. I never had the courage to mark up this body, what with the health and class implications, but I'd like to be a little bolder in my new life."

He hums. 

"I can give a birthmark of that approximate shape, or alternatively a conventional tattoo?" 

"A conventional tattoo would be fine."

He nods. 

A while later, two different designs shimmer into place on each of the holograms shoulders. 

"Your thoughts?"

"Closer to the first than to the second in area covered, but I'd like the individual blossoms to be smaller."

He adjusts it, adding a third blossom and managing the proportions to fit the same 'frame'.

Vivian smiles, already a little besotted with her new form. "Looks lovely. I think I'm satisfied."

He claps his hands together with a bright smile. 

"Alright then! If you'd please make yourself comfortable on the bed, I can start as soon as you'd like." 

He reaches down, and pops up a case, drawing out a hypospray. 

She takes a deep breath, and lays down. 

Here goes nothing, she guesses.

He walks over. 

"You'll feel a brief touch on your shoulder, then you should fall unconscious within a second or two. Are you ready?"

She nods. "As ready as I'll ever be." 

He reaches his arm out, hangs the hypospray above her shoulder, and there's the faint hiss. 

In mere moments, she falls deep asleep. 

When she wakes up, her body has been changed and dressed in a soft white hospital robe. Doctor Gen is there, fingers plicking against the console, watching and waiting. 

She looks down at herself...

... and takes it all in. 

She's in her proper body, now. She's free. 

She practically hops up from the slab —

— almost overbalances because her center of mass isn't where she expects — 

— steadies herself, wobbling to a standing position — 

And smiles, smiles, smiles. 

"I honestly wasn't sure if you all were on the up and up, but, well. This has totally set my heart at ease. I feel... so light."

She stretches her arms above her head, and feels distinctly more shift of her breasts than she's used to. And between her legs she's feeling entirely different sensations. 

"Thank you, Doctor. Thank you so much."

"I'm glad, I'm glad!" 

He smiles approvingly. 

"And you're welcome, of course. Always a pleasure to see people shining. As for your balance... I'd recommend not thinking about it too hard - the process should have largely adapted your reflexes to the situation, but that doesn't mean that you won't have a few memories of how this works that don't quite fit your current form." 

"Alright. I'll try not to overfocus on it. Ah, may I please have a change of clothes? I'm afraid my old ones might not fit anymore."

"Of course! Do you have anything particular in mind?" 

"I generally prefer maxi skirts and v-necked blouses, but, well..." She gestures to her new body. "This rather precludes the reasons why I was so attached. I still think I'd prefer not to wear jeans for the moment, since I'll likely be stuck with them for practicality purposes.  Purple maxi skirt with butterflies and a matching v-necked top? Not too different from what I was wearing when I came in."

"That should be perfectly doable." 

He walks over to the microwave-sized indent in the wall, presses the button. 

"A purple 'maxi skirt' with butterflies, with a corresponding v-neck for Miss Violetta." 

A blue shimmer of light pours out with a hum, leaving the clothes folded up nicely on the surface. He takes them with care, and walks them over to her. 

"I hope that these are satisfactory?" 

She accepts them with a smile. "Looks wonderful. May I have privacy for a moment to change?"

"Yes, yes." 

He pops over to the console, pokes it briefly, then sigh-nods with a little approving huff. 

"I'll step out now. Once you're settled in to your satisfaction, please just press the button at the door and you should be returned to Tiera's office to continue your work, if that's alright with you?"

"Way, way more than alright. Thank you again!"

He bows from his hips with a tender smile. 

"You're more than welcome." 

He saunters over to the door, and dissappears in his own shimmer of light. 

Well then. It would be stupid to go over to the synthesizer and synthesize random things, but that doesn't mean she's not tempted. But it can wait. She's gotten payment up front — now she needs to repay her benefactors. 

Quickly, she slips on her new skirt and top, and then heads over to the door. 

"Ah..." Right, the door button. She pokes it experimentally. 

With a shimmer, she's back in the same room she started this little sojourn in. 

"Good morning. Might I say that you look lovely."

She flushes slightly, and smiles. "Thank you, Tiera. It... really helps. Were we going to do the pools next, or work more on our mission plans?"

"You're welcome. And that's up to you - it's hardly the oddest preference to not want too many things running you over so close together." 

"Honestly, with this new body I feel stronger and more confident already. I think I'd like to try the pools now while I've got some courage together, and they should make it easier still. And then we can talk about the mission."

"Alright." 

She types away for a little while, and then presses in a command, disappearing them in a blink. 

They both appear in a small room with pearlescent black walls, framed with rows and rows of sunglasses on stacked shelves made of the same odd stone. A dozen or so other figures stand in the corridor, figures in odd futuristic suits of concealing armor. A rippling shadowy veil billows across one end of the room, moving in an unseen wind. 

Her hand darts over, and plucks out a pair of sunglasses for her. 

"Take these. While you wear them, it will nearly totally dampen the effect. You'll experience visions of multiple layers of reality without them - it's disconcerting, but harmless. Don't try to dramatically offer the wholeness of yourself to any font of light, but otherwise, it's perfectly safe for you to be here. You will reflexively feel when you're finished - simply walk back across the veil, and I'll collect you and return you to my office. Any questions?" 

She takes the sunglasses and puts them on, then looks towards the shadowy veil and steadies herself. 

"No, no questions."

"Alright, let's see how this goes..." 

Carefully, she steps through the veil, trying to keep the memory of Tiera's words in mind. Offering herself up is not the order of the day.

It looks like an empty white room, like a low budget heaven. If not for the slight... 'fizz' in the air, it wouldn't feel like anything special at all. 

Honestly, she feels a little underwhelmed. 

Cautiously, she takes a peek without her sunglasses.

A dazzling dance of softly falling snow, fluffy clouds as far as the eye can see twinkling and sparkling, an effervescent rain of mercurially drifting motes of light from on high, singing to an unheard tone. You taste the merry chill on your skin and the wintery warmth of being balled up beneath your covers. 

A mountain pool on frigid water, crisp and clean, framed in by walls of snow, pale and pure, slowly melting, burbling and bubbling softly as spring begins in full, a little creek forming, making the limestone shine slickly as it passes. 

God-rays filtering through a church window, the fiery and fawn light alike of fall filtering through, each little streamer of light humming an angelic tune, the steady strength of suppleness and readiness rolling through you. 

A dock on a lake, so richly blue, the soothing wash of the water's waves just cool enough to make the summer's heat shine, an unending moment of rest somewhere beautiful and far away. 

A wave pool in grey marble, a wooshing rushing tide carrying you along countless others, floating along on the kindness of the sea. 

The soft shifting of the snow 

The buoying waves of the pool

The quiet creaking of the dock

The solidity of the floor

is reassuringly restful and relaxing, as she sits and waits, taking in the beautiful scene(s).

Eventually, there's a certain... fullness, a sense of saturation, like the steady glow of your muscles after a hard work out. 

She exhales. She supposes it had to stop eventually. 

It feels less hard to let go, now, though. Easier to step away from comfort. Easier to face the day. 

She steps out through the shadowy veil and nods to Tiera. 

"All done," she says with a small smile.

She takes her hand gently, and in a moment beyond space, they're back at her office. 

"Alright, so, where were we — build details for perhaps the zombie world and the cyberpunk world, I think?"

"Or thoughts for the 20 token worlds, yes." 

"With a little more time to think, I think that what we should really be focusing on is — completing the mission objectives, in each case. For the zombie world that looks like doing major, worldwide damage to the zombie population, or else killing the shard of the evil deity — which largely works out to the same thing. For the cyberpunk world, it looks like establishing new supply chains that aren't dependent on the ultraelites and doing educational and financial reform. In other words, in the first case it looks like giving humanity the tools to fight back on a global scale, and having the ability to survive the shard stirring, whereas in the second case it looks more like founding a new nation or starting a revolution." 

She nods firmly. 

"That sounds about right - though with the right skillset it should be possible to coopt the existing infrastructure from the inside, rather than establishing an alternative supply chain. Even if that's not a particularly appealing path to you, it might be worth considering what you are looking to preserve." 

"A good thought. I think that in both these cases, direct combat prowess isn't actually the most outstanding feature I need. In the cyberpunk world it's more... charisma and technological and material resources to give people a chance to depart from or reform the broken system. In the zombie world it's something more like the introduction of more effective weaponry and farming technology to support the withering human population, though there is the possibility of a direct solution by "simply" killing the god-shard... Though that in itself is a tall ask. I wonder what similar resources might directly address the objectives on other worlds..."

She hums softly. 

"I'm not quite sure how to answer that. I will say that... the availability of certain magic and exotic technologies means that there's almost always odd alternative solutions. Even when there is a concrete threat, the approach you take, strategically and tactically can require very different skillsets. As for personal combat power... I think it's rarely wise to entirely neglect it, but some missions nearly require a much more comprehensive combat capacity then you are likely to need in those worlds." 

"Do you have any more specific approaches in mind?" 

"Good question. Give me a moment to review things again."

"Possible solutions to the zombie apocalypse... Take the 20-point holy grail and Gate Master. Use Gate Master to reach into the god shard's fortress and pour holy water from the grail on it. This has several flaws — I suspect the portal magic isn't going to be strong enough to stand up to a god shard, even if the Holy Grail's water is potent enough to destroy it — and it leaves me temporarily vulnerable in relative melee to a deity shard with no defensive powers of my own. But it'd maybe be possible. A similar build is possible with Extracalibur but again is all offense, no defense. If the mecha's angel fusion would overcome the deity's redirection effect, that might be worthwhile though."

"For the cyberpunk world, again the holy grail is a decent option since it can cure drug addiction on a large scale and heal away the damage caused by prosthetics. Another good buy is the 8-point version of technological uplift, or maybe even the 20-point one, which would allow us to develop an independent techbase more easily. Alternately one could purchase the Enterprise and park in orbit and beam supplies down to the surface, but I think that doesn't scale as well as I'd like it to."

"Honestly, I don't like my chances pouring water onto a deity from a mile away, even if it has a chance to work. I think the cyberpunk world might be easier to put together a working build for."

"I think... It's not impossible that contact with the grail itself would enough to overwhelm his defenses, but the effect of the water of the grail is considerably less potent. It could still be quite a valuable asset, of course, but it's unlikely to be a quick solution in-and-of-itself. The angel-binding is quite a useful tool, but I wouldn't want to rely on it being able to readily match both the fullness of his strength and defense both - even if it were able to completely counter the redirection effect, I'm not sure you would be able to match his magic in combat with that alone. The Enterprise is unforunately accounted for as an ally option - so I don't believe it will be available for either mission."   

She lets out a little tsk. 

"Perhaps, though it's always hard to say much without going through your options for both. What do you have in mind in the cyberpunk setting?" 

"Let me think..." 

"For combat capacity, we need to be able to effectively fend off or escape from a hitsquad of goons. There are multiple ways to do this. You could have the resources to hire your own "security contractors", personal combat or escape abilities equal to the task, or a bodyguard capable of handling the situation while you flee."

"Your own security contractors is the long term solution. Once there is something worth defending, it'll be possible to hire or influence people to defend it. But before then we still need personal defense."

"Personal combat or escape abilities would look like... well. You could have the fight not matter because you come back, with something like one-ups. You could avoid the fight entirely, with something like charmed life or save points. You could be personally tough enough to survive or fight back — something like the paladin package or captain america package."

"Bodyguards probably looks like Servants or other agents."

"Okay. So that's it for combat. Then there's building things and gathering resources. This is where the Holy Grail, Gamer loot drops, and technological knowledge come in. Charisma powers also live here because they gather the most important resource, people. Again, having an organization makes it easier to gather resources, but we need something to start off with. Simple Resources might work, or an Identity with pull."

"Then there's specifically breaking the drugged food thing — Survivor, Holy Grail, maybe the Paladin package."

"But I feel like I'm getting into the weeds here. Balancing a build within a limited point budget when you have multiple priorities is just genuinely difficult!" 

"By all means, get into the weeds. It's what I always recommend for people trying to get a green thumb." 

She smiles wryly. 

"Getting contractors is just good sense, as long as you aren't do anything with finnicky compartmentalization requirements, though in worlds in this sort of technological era there's usually a bias towards offense that makes it difficult to rely on them as a be-all-end-all defense where you can avoid it. Escape options can have a similar problem, given how dangerous those sorts of weapons can be, though more abstract options can bypass that to a significant degree. Even durability can be a little difficult to rely on alone, in the worst case scenarios where a genuine military force is being rallied against you." 

She taps her fingers against the desk. 

"One thing I'm not sure you've considered is broader magical options - many of them do or can include the capacity to enchant magical items that could be quite useful as well. As for starting resources... the idea behind basic equipment is that you have enough resources for an ordinary person in that world to be able to work for a while, I believe. Still, a basic identity and a token or two of equipment can go a long way towards making it easy and free from unnecessary obstacles, so long as you have enough of an advantage to leverage."

"And... While I agree that the drugged food is a serious problem and that it would likely be a substantial benefit to have an easy comprehensive solution from the start, I don't think it definitively requires an outside of context solution." 

"To be frank, I just experience horror at the prospect of having to eat drugged food to live, and since 90% of the food on the planet is drugged I assume it'd be hard to access safe food even for myself."

"I think what I'm most concerned about regarding combat is surviving things like bombings, poisonings, snipers, deaths I don't see coming. If I die that's mission failure in most cases, and I don't necessarily have the resources to defend against every sneaky idea someone could try. That's why I'm attracted to something like Save/Load or One-Ups, because I have to get lucky every time while an attacker only has to get lucky once." 

"Broader magical options... Hogwarts graduate has many odd one-offs that I'm not sure how to estimate. Functional Magic I was assuming not to come with item creation. I'm not sure what's included in the Lunar and Terrestrial exaltations, I'm not very familiar with Exalted."

She nods a little solemnly. 

"It's not so rare as to be impossible to find with wealth, but that's still far from ideal. I understand the appeal of more absolute defenses, but it might also be worth considering an advantage in luck instead? So many scenarios that would otherwise be instant deaths can be reasonably avoided with a lucky break, I've found, especially with a defense like the paladin package's healing. Heroic destiny is also a reasonable enough option for that - it will almost always try to at least make you able to fight and face your foes, and will tend towards helping you out even outside of defense as well." 

"I'm afraid I can't give too many details, but hogwarts graduate generally works best for relatively simple, disposable workings, functional magic tends to work best when narrowly mimicing spells you can cast and for expensive personal enhancements, and the magic of the exalted seems to work best in subtle enhancements and broader workings, though their work applies the best as the pinnacle of a nigh-industrial process in a magical world, though they can also naturally learn more conventional skills in those areas with aplomb. If you have something more specifically in mind, I might be able to answer your questions on that matter?"  

"Would Survivor be sufficient to remain unaffected by the drugs in the food, or would I have to take a more extensive option?"

"I'm not completely sure, but I'd expect it to hold up unless someone made a dedicated effort to research something that would specifically work on your physiology, at least so long as you don't select the world variant with spirits." 

"I wasn't planning to."

"So, hmmm. Charmed Life, Survivor, that's eighteen. Then some form of defence that fits into twelve points... I'm tempted to say a Servant. And then with the remaining two points, a better Identity to start with?"

She frowns. "If I take Heroic Destiny over Charmed Life then I can also fit in five-point Iron Will... I'm not sure if that trade is worth it or not."

"There's also the option to take some number of lucky breaks for even fewer - which might make sense, depending on how much you plan on avoiding more direct conflicts." 

"Managing limited resources tends to make me timid, but..." She blows out a puff of air, her violet hair stirring in the small breeze. "It's worth considering. I expect to be operating for a while, so one suspects I'd run out of lucky breaks fast, but..." 

She taps her fingers together. "Okay, I'm going to try and do the opposite of my current build philosophy — grabbing a large, 15 to 20 point item and then fitting smaller things in the corners — and instead try for something more grab-bag-y. Let's see what I can do without ever taking something over five points, then what I can do without ever taking something over ten points."

"Grab bag under 5 build..." She brings up a new window on the terminal and starts jotting notes. 

[30 Points, nothing over 5 points]

Flexible: [10]

Identity [5]

Resources [2]

Iron Will [3]

Personal Protection: [14]

Captain America Package [3]

Skill Upload (Small Unit Tactics) [4] 

Survivor [3]

Lucky Breaks [4]

Politics: [6]

Sincerity [2]

Skill Upload (Statecraft) [4]

"This one basically just makes me an exceptionally fit, strong, tough and skilled human. It's interesting to see what the priorities are on this more granular level. I feel like Iron Will is actually an odd duck out here, with no clear single purpose than to shore up my inner reserves. I waffled between putting Status in politics or in flexible."

"Okay. Let's try that again, but let's allow up to 10 point items this time."

[30 points, nothing over 10 points] 

Flexible: 

Identity [3] 

Heroic Destiny [10]

Defenses: 

Servant [10] 

Survivor [3]

Politics: 

Skill Upload: Statecraft [4]

"Here I'm reasonably sure that the defenses will be enough — a Servant and a Heroic Destiny together should hold — but I'm less sure about the politics side due to loss of Resources and Sincerity, and a weaker Identity. At least theoretically, Heroic Destiny should provide me with the kinds of resources I need, and the slightly weaker identity would give me a stepping-stone to the big leagues... But a lot would depend on exactly what kind of Servant I summoned."

She frowns. "Is functional magic limited to copying specifically d&d 3.5 spells for wizards, or does it have the capability to neutralize poison at a high enough level?"

"For the first build... I do think that you would likely benefit a bit more from marginal investments in social competency - a build like that to my eyes looks like you'd be best served by just trying to hire someone you could depend on being competent and leaving the details to them. Alternatively, I could see taking something like the base version of the jedi package making sense, as an additional backstop for personal defense and an additional tool in general for scouting out your options." 

"For the second build... I could see something like this working reasonably well, if say, you wanted to take a servant that had the ability to conjure food or remove poisons, or you were willing to rely on the limited undrugged food supply chain." 

Heroic Destiny [10]

Servant [10]

Sincerity [2]

Perfect Diplomat [3]

Identity [3]

Skill Upload: Statecraft I [2]

"Or if you instead wanted to take survivor still... Perhaps something like this?" 

Heroic Destiny [10]

Servant [10]

Sincerity [2]

Survivor [3]

Identity [3]

Skill Upload: Statecraft I [2]

"Though what exactly you'd prefer I think depends a little on how you want to weigh these social benefits against each other." 

"In terms of the magic offered by functional magic... You aren't bound literally to the contents of the rulebooks, but the general limitations and structure of the spells are much the same. You should be able to detect poisons exceptionally readily, and reinforcing your body or mind against poisons should be somewhat doable, but I'd expect you'd have an exceptionally hard time finding a practically scalable magical solution to poisons in situ."

"Wait a minute, I didn't even think of creating food from nothing. I thought about bringing my own food with Resources but by the time you get up to its rarity on the world it's probably better to take Survivor for personal protection. Conjuring... Hogwarts magic can't do permanent food. Dungeons and Dragons Create Food and Water is only for clerics. Magnificent Mansion does exist, but is seventh circle, which means I'd have to take archmage-level casting and spend literally all my points... What do the options look like for Servants?" 

"I think you're overfocusing on specifically creating food from nothing - while that might be exceptionally difficult in many systems of magic, merely removing poisons is something relatively accomplishable in many system of magic, including the Magecraft of many servants. I know it's not barred by the laws of magecraft, though I expect at the very least simply conjuring food isn't an option that would scale well, outside perhaps a heroic spirit who's legend is entirely based on such things." 

"That makes sense. So a Caster-class servant might be ideal for such magecraft abilities, yes? Or is facility strong enough to neutralize poisons likely to be possible for other servant classes?" 

She hums. 

"Servants have many talents, and a number of them can be summoned in multiple classes - but the ones most well-equipped to scaling that sort of thing would generally be Casters, yes. Do you have a minimum scope in mind for the task?" 

"At absolute minimum, enough to secure a steady supply of non-drugged food for myself personally. But it's naturally better the more it's possible to scale it."

"I'd expect that most generalist Casters or the like would be able to arrange something for you, personally, whether that be some sort of poison resistance enchantment or a method to remove poisons from the food itself personally. In terms of relatively scalable options, you might have some success with a caster with enchanting skills, though I'd recommend you consider a servant with a more technological bent if it is that important to you, or considering if you would be willing to work with Gilgamesh and requisitioning foods from his vault." 

"So within the Servant space, there's a tradeoff between taking a Servant who's a master technologist and capable of building many things or scaling a neutralization solution, and a Servant who's a master combatant and almost certain to be able to defend me in person. Caster is the weakest servant class statistically, so it's somewhat tempting to take two..." 

She frowns, and types away at the monitor. 

Possible Build:

General:

Heroic Destiny [10]

Servant x2 - Leonardo Da Vinci (Caster) - King Arthur (Saber) [15]

Politics:

Skill Upload I (Statecraft) [2]

Identity [3]

"Hmm. This makes a certain amount of sense, and certainly has broad applicability, I just feel that the Servants in this case are pulling most of the weight. They need a Master with plenty of mana to sustain them, so I guess I do have an actual role here, but..." 

She fusses with her lower lip as she considers.

"... I have to ask a really awkward question. In the original Fate canon it was necessary to exchange bodily fluids with a servant if they'd endured heavy fighting in order to regenerate their mana from the Master's od. This was retconned to be a pure ritual exchange in later versions. Which of these methods of exchanging mana is possible, and if both are possible, which one is more efficient? Or is the question wrong, and my Servants wouldn't even require mana or od from me to be sustained?"

She chuckles faintly. 

"I believe you are misremembering - though it's possible for a servant to gain some marginal mana through a variety of methods. In any case, FIXFIC's systems would be what would be supplying them with mana in much the same way that CHALDEA does, if that means anything to you, with you as the master serving simply as the servant's anchor to the world."

"I never played or learned the lore of Grand Order, unfortunately. But if you're supplying the mana for the Servants and I'm just a channel for it, that does settle the question." 

"I am somehow both relieved and disappointed."

"... Oh, damn it." 

"I forgot to mention to Doctor Gen that I wanted this body to be infertile. Silly thing to be thinking of before a mission but frankly it would be a load off my psyche, at least in the medium term. Am I out of luck or would it be possible to make that edit as well?" 

Her eyes crinkle with quiet mirth as she cycles through the stages of grief. 

She frowns slightly at the fertility comment. 

"Not immediately - though I should be able to include contraceptives as part of your basic equipment - I'd expect an IUD or perhaps a hormonal implant to be reasonable feasible in the cyberpunk world as part of your base allotment. I hope that isn't too much of an issue?" 

"A hormonal implant should serve me. If it takes more than three years for me to solve the world then I'm reasonably sure I'll be able to get it replaced by then. Next time perhaps I won't hurry things through so fast; I was just so excited to finally have a body that fit me..." 

She laughs and shakes her head. "Honestly, it's just typical of my life that I should fail to plan ahead on something like this." 

"Honestly, while it's definitely an inconvenience, it kind of makes me happy in a weird way. I think my dysphoria appreciates being... finally normal, even if it comes with a major headache." 

"And it's just such a me thing to do that I think it feels more honestly mine. It's not your body till you've messed it up somehow, I guess. It's like how it's not your house until you've damaged it or not your sword till you've bled on it." 

"Anyway. It's only a single boon point to fix, so I'm sure we'll fix it in the long run if I'm any decent as an agent at all. And as problems go, it is definitely a nice problem to have." 

She sighs, and tries to focus back on the actual work.

"If I divide my points evenly between my three priorities - personal protection, flexibility, and politicing - then we could end up with a build that looks something like..."

Heroic Destiny [10]

Servant (Leonardo Da Vinci as Caster) [10] 

Upper Left Blue [10]

"One could also take, perhaps, something more like..."

Versatility:

Heroic Destiny [10]

Personal Protection:

Servant (Leonardo Da Vinci as Caster) [10] 

Social-Fu:

Empath [3]

Perfect Diplomat [3]

Sincerity [3]

Resources [1] 

"But in some ways this is merely reconstructing Upper Left Blue from smaller pieces, and I'd be concerned about possessing the ability to sense negative emotions in a landscape that's so dominated by hopelessness, especially without Iron Will. The first build is perhaps superior; people will forgive you for not using the correct forms if you are charming enough."

"Does Upper Left Blue require me to interact with the person directly so my 'presence' hits them, or is the effect retained in text and recordings? And if it's the former, does directly texting or being on the phone with someone count?"

Her fingers slip through her hair, a respectfully short and quiet little chuckle on her lips, followed by a faint smile. 

"I can certainly see the appeal of having some form of scar to mark the whole experience - even if it isn't visible on the outside. It can be hard to just... believe things can be different and done, on their own, sometimes." 

She taps her lips softly, looking off into the distance in thought. 

"Upper Left Blue works along the normal vectors of persuasiveness - there's no one particular result that it tries to guarantee, so it tends to follow what people find naturally persuasive. If someone without the involvement of any special powers is most readily convinced by text, a call, or the written word, that's what will work best with Upper Left Blue, in general. That being said, it focuses less on abstract rhetoric and more on giving you a way to be personally persuasive and convincing. I would say that a build like the second one is better for driving a hard bargain as a diplomat. ferreting out intelligence as a spy and aggressively convincing people of things, while upper-left blue is more suitable for cultivating relationships, camaraderie and loyalty."

"I hope that makes sense to you?" 

"So it's a matter of approach. Upper Left Blue is the softer, slower approach, more flies with honey than vinegar. Whereas the second build is more about pushing and being willing to break things."

She frowns. "I need to think about this seriously. Fixing this whole place is going to be an extensive affair - let me bring up those mission objectives again. 

Meaningfully restore public schools for a majority of the world: 2 Boon Points

Break up Aggrocorp's near-monopoly on food: 1 Boon Point

Remove addictive substances from the majority of food: 1 Boon Point

Free 25/50/75% of population from bank debt: 1/2/3 Boon Points

Free most people in indentured servitude contracts: 1 Boon Point

Free 90% of people in indentured servitude contracts: 1 Boon Point

Make college affordable for most people: 2 Boon Points

Ensure that 10 particularly vile billionaires pay for their crimes (via death, imprisonment for over 10 years, or loss of most of their possessions): 1 boon point

"So to condense that down, we need to fix the food supply, free as many people as we can from debt slavery, and re-introduce education that is affordable for the masses. We also need to make sure that the worst of the present crop of billionaires can't hold on to power and are brought to justice." 

She steeples her fingers in thought. 

"I wouldn't necessarily put it that way, though it often works out that way. It's more that... with tools like Empathy and Sincerity, talking to people can be very much a 'technical challenge', about finding out what they need to hear as truth, and reading them as precisely as you can. It's certainly still possible to make use of that approach with Upper Left Blue, and it's an excellent tool to..." 

Her lips curl up in a bright little smile as she searches for the words. 

"'Hit them over the head' with the force of your personality. There's a certain joy in getting to be direct like that, even if it's often more about the relationship building or speech making." 

She nods along as she discusses the goals.