He scratches his cheek. "Um, maybe a bit."

Vivian continues staaaaaaaaring. Then she shakes her head rapidly and thrusts the notebook in Peter's direction.

"I don't trust you to turn it down if it's only morally questionable. You are going to have an actual conversation with this notebook about the extent to which this perk will make the person you fix into someone who is actually pleasant to be around and does not need you to constantly hold them back from the abyss, because if the answers to those two questions are 'no' I actually think you will remember how much the redemption gig fucking sucks. And if the notebook pinky-promises she'll hold your hand about the consequences of your actions, then go with God. Or, you know, the Spirit of Ineffable Femininity."

He looks down at the notebook but doesn't immediately accept it. "I, I don't think that's the highest-priority conversation I need to have with her?"

"...I mean, you remember how it went with Matt..."

"Yes I remember how it went with Matt can we not talk about Matt."

"I don't need it to be the highest-priority conversation you need to have with her. She will still be here for all the other conversations. She does not have an urgent appointment. She is a notebook."

"I wasn't planning on not talking to her about it I just wanted to think about it a little bit more but I did talk to her about all of the other powers that weren't obvious. Like, like Love Interest, because, what do you want me to do right now Viv." He still hasn't taken the notebook back.

"I want you to ask her about the practical implications of I Can Fix Them, ask her if she has any advice based on prior experience - does she have prior experience? Whatever - and then, once you have the basic information you need to think about it constructively instead of just saying I need to think about it while going in circles, you can think about it to your heart's content."

She breathes in and out, not letting go of the notebook. She relaxes her shoulders slightly. "Peter, I'm not trying to bully you into doing what I want. I'm trying to make you actually think about this instead of pretending you're not tempted and then grabbing it on impulse later."

"I wasn't gonna do that," he says, in perhaps a bit more of a mumble than he intended. But he accepts the notebook this time.

"...wait, Matt as in Matthew, the guy who—"

"I just said we weren't talking about Matt, and we are not talking about Matt."

"...geeze, fine."

"Gabe I love you but you're really dense sometimes. Drop it."

Felicia looks like she's thinking about saying something but decides to instead just lean on his shoulder.

...then she asks, "Wait, do you want privacy?"

"Ugh, probably, but like not a lot of it just don't read what I'm writing."

"Gotcha." She unleans but doesn't scoot away and grabs her phone.

Vivian perches like a gargoyle on a nearby stool, after patting Peter on the head.

He sighs longsufferingly.

okay so my friends mostly Vivian are forcing me to "face my innermost thoughts" and "not pretend I'm not tempted by something I'm tempted by" and "be a responsible human being"

so um could you tell me more about 'I Can Fix Them'? like, uh, well, i guess we can start with how it works if my preferences about mind control are taken into account?

I Can Fix Them does need the ability to directly affect minds in order to fully uphold its guarantee. If you want it to never directly affect anyone's mind, then there will be times when it won't work, or will only work incompletely. Either that or it will bend probability so you never meet anyone who you wouldn't be able to Fix without that kind of help, which might mean missing out on a lot of worlds you could have otherwise enjoyed, and might mean strange things happening to prevent you from meeting anyone like that in your own world.

could it work so that, uh, i can fix them to the extent that it's possible without mind control? i'm fine with it not being guaranteed that they'll be upstandingly moral citizens or whatever, and i'm probably also fine with mostly being steered towards people this'd work for? and maybe add an intuition or something for when it'd fail if i tried? like, say, if i start going down the villain route and there isn't really a way to make them stop being villainous i'll, i don't know, instinctively notice the reasons why, or something like that?

also would this maybe work for people whose fixing is less about them being villainous and more about them being, i don't know, self-destructive or depressive or traumatized...?

I am going to tell you something that... isn't exactly a secret, and isn't exactly something the Spirit is embarrassed about because I don't think the Spirit can really experience embarrassment the way you or I would understand it... but I think the Spirit is something sort of like embarrassed about it, and I'm not supposed to point it out if I can avoid it.

I Can Fix Them is the Spirit's favourite power. It's the only thing that unequivocally wins in contests between chosen ones no matter whose narrative preferences are stronger. Besides wanting people to be able to be beautiful and powerful and special and live their best lives that way, which is what the Spirit likes most, the thing it likes second-most is stories about people in love whose love makes them stronger and better and happier and kinder, and people being saved by love who were just going to keep being evil or unhappy without it.

So yes, it will work for people who aren't villains and are just sad or self-destructive, and the Spirit is unusually cooperative about making I Can Fix Them work in unusual or unprecedented ways because the Spirit is just really excited about I Can Fix Them and wants to make it work for anyone who might possibly want it. I can definitely get you an intuition for difficult or unworkable cases!

He stares at that for several seconds, mouth hanging slightly open.

Gabe notices. "You alright?"

Peter covers his face with a hand and offers the notebook to Vivian. "I think you were right, this might in fact be Satan personally trying to tempt me."

She reads it over.

"No, see, what you're experiencing here is self-identification through the other. The Spirit is kin with you."