"You've been making such a thing out of not doing it I thought you were just gonna refuse out of principle."

"I asked the notebook to hide all of the pages where we discuss things because I am definitely embarrassed of all the thinking-out-loud I did there."

"Also I don't need the help pretending to know your dark secrets." Vivian makes grabby hands. "Gimme the friendbook, I wanna read your dumb horny life choices."

He opens the notebook to where the list of powers would start... and finds it blank. "Oh, I guess she hid the powers too, sec..." He asks the notebook to bring the powers back and just the powers without any of the discussion. Once he's satisfied, he offers the notebook to Vivian. "She changed A Thousand Ships, Love Interest, and Planned Parenthood and created Backchannel for me."

"Interesting names," he chuckles (because he is the kind of person who chuckles).

"Once again, you don't know the half of it. Also now that I think of it I bet if I asked I could get a power to make me a secret princess."

She reads through the Personal section. Comments, "Goddamn. I like this CYOA."

Then she reads the Power of Friendship section.

She staaaaaaaaaares at Peter when she hits I Can Fix Them.

"Peter."

"What? Oh," he says when he sees what she's looking at. Thankfully he is physiologically incapable of blushing, but not blushing is very much the thing he's doing right now. But he's good enough at reaction times to not look away guiltily or anything like that and instead he just holds Vivian's gaze. "Yes, Viv?"

"I know I was just being snippy about being too paranoid but have we considered the possibility that this is enemy action. Or, like, an ironic personal Hell. Have we considered the possibility that this notebook is Satan, the Devil, here to torment you for your sins by making you make hilariously bad romantic decisions."

"I didn't pick it!!" he says a bit too defensively for someone who hadn't been thinking of picking it.

"What? What is it?" She leans over to look.

As does Gabriel. "...you're tempted by that?"

Now it's Marcus's turn to stare at Gabriel. "Gabe, have you been, like, entirely absent for the last two or three years of this man's—or whatever he is—of Peter's absurd romantic drama."

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."