"Make ice cream, so far. But enough about me. Psychic, hm? That's one scary power, honestly."

"I'm not super thrilled with it, it seems like half the powerset is stuff I won't touch for ethical reasons, but the defensive aspect is good. I'm going to need to pick a good array of other powers to compensate."

"I suspect a conversation about ethics would either be illuminating or infuriating."

She will frown at the menu and order something.

"Why one of those?" Fish and chips and tartar sauce.

"I self-identify as evil. Or at the very least, selfish. The reason I don't lie, and cooperate with people, and stick to deals, is because this is a very useful reputation to have, and I have standards. The only thing wrong with mind controlling someone, in my opinion, is the norms it might create that mind controlling or otherwise randomly attacking other people without a reason is okay, which might lead to me getting mind controlled or randomly attacked."

"Huh. Well, it's plausibly convenient for you that I don't feel that way, isn't it?"

"Yes. But the thing is, I don't have to trust that you feel that way. There is a social contract. Not ironclad, and society is complicated of course, but in the modern day you can be pretty sure that most people aren't randomly backstabbing most other people. That's an incredibly valuable piece of social technology."

"Sure, I can roll with that. At any rate I think I will need backup to function well in fights if I'm not using half my main powerset and frankly even if I were. Gravity and space powers sounded awesome, are they looking for a third?"

"Gravity Maven is looking for magical friends. Titanium Steel I think will be glad to have more backup."

"...magical friends?"

"Friends who are magic, and therefore exciting. Superhero buddies, basically. Not just coworkers. Apparently I'm too professional." She smirks.

"Okay, for a second there I was worried it was a euphemism. I should talk to them, can you put me in touch?"

"What would it even be a euphemism for? Anyway, sure. I'll hand our your number? I'm kind of hoping to keep you as a contact. Any powers particularly standing out? Happy to give tips on synergy."

"Yeah, hand it around." Bella pulls out her notebook and rattles off what the puchuu told her about her potential.

Tanya's hands blur as she copies out some information and writes it up differently.

Character Sheet

 

Large form (tall), +1 VIT*

Psychic Specialty, +2 MAG +2 LCK

Fist weapon, +2 STR

---Assuming spending 1 bronze---> Magic weapon = +1 MAG

Elaborate outfit, +1 MAG

 

Major Power: Focused Assault 

Bronze to change to other assault types, Silver to change to any major power, Gold to get a 2nd major power (any)

 

Minor Powers: 

Disguise Artifact or Escape Mechanism (brz) (silver to pick any combat power)

Monstrous Metamorphosis (+2/2/2/0/0)** or Money Tap (brz) (silver to pick any combat power)

Magic Handbag or Absolute Direction (brz) (silver to pick any support power)

Enhanced Sustenance (applies out of costume) or Wings (brz) (silver to pick any support power)

Magic Gifted (+1 MAG) or Cosmic Heal (brz) (silver to pick any power)

Spend 1 gold to gain two additional minor powers of any description

 

Stats

Strength: 4

Agility: 4

Vitality: 5*

Magic: 6 (7 with Gifted)

Luck: 4

 

1 gold, 3 silver, 4 bronze left

Coins-->stats at +4 for gold, +2 for silver, +1 for bronze (max 2 coins spent on any single stat)

 

*Applies even out of costume 

**Applies to physical stats when transformed

"Okay, so. Are you willing to disable nasty things with your specialty? If you're hardly going to use it at all, that informs different tradeoffs. You can also change your specialty to something related with coins, if that appeals?"

"I'm willing to do things that, hm, don't have too many invasive moving parts? Knocking them unconscious is fine, detecting that they exist is fine, I just don't want to be doing, like, mind control."

"Okay, then Gifted isn't going to do much for you. And pushing magic above eight would be overkill, that's enough to get through to most things that won't just no-sell you entirely, and keep your noggin tightly sealed against, likewise."

"Yes, gotta... seal my noggin."

"What do you want to accomplish? What kind of girl is this character?"

"Oh, like, defending civilization and all that's good, plus incidentally seeing the cool mysteries of the universe."

"So you need some combat potential beyond mental slap, I think. Overworld Shift would be a great minor power for you- It reduces collateral damage and gives you a fast-travel method. Sustenance pairs well with the major power Regeneration, and Regeneration also goes well with Cosmic Heal- It's expensive, which regen really helps with. I recommend Monstrous Metamorphosis for survivability, but it has its drawbacks too, and I'm a paranoid bitch sometimes, so."

"How hard is it to use the overworld as fast travel? I didn't really like the sound of the Monstrous Metamorphosis thing...

Shrug. "It's not for everyone. I don't even have it myself, but I've seen it save lives. As for the Overworld, I don't wanna say it's easy, but I find it easy at this point. It's not just... Paths, people live there. I do recommend Absolute Direction for it."

"Which leaves me with how much budget - I don't actually think the puchuu gave me a number, is there a standard -"

"To be clear, you want Escape Mechanism replacing Disguise Artifact, Overworld Shift replacing Monstrous Metamorphosis, Absolute Direction replacing Magic Handbag, Enhanced Sustenance no changes, and Cosmic Heal replacing Gifted Magic? And a magic-focusing staff instead of gauntlets as your weapon? That leaves you with... One gold, two silver, one bronze coin remaining. The gold is best used either on a major power or two minor powers. One silver or two bronze coins can boost your magic power to eight, that'll keep you pretty steady in that frame... To get Regeneration you can spend silver to replace Focused Strike or the gold to get it clean, honestly you kind of need more offensive power so I'd recommend not replacing focused strike...

I could loan you a few bronze to tick your stats up. It's not... Really the done thing, I'd want considerable interest. I don't really know you after all, so it's a risk. It bugs me to leave gains on the table."