Huh. That's an awfully pretty notebook. She knows she's been sweet-talking the folks over at Employee Experience pretty well, but well enough to throw in this? That's quite the surprise. She'll have to figure out who did this latest round and buy them a gift card or something.

She picks the notebook up, turning it over carefully in her hands, examining it, savoring the design. Awfully pretty. Then she examines the fountain pen, checking the reservoir, examining to see what the fill mechanism is like, and so on.

It's a pretty nice pen! There's a modular ink insert, a fine metal nib, a neat clip and everything. It has a reassuring quality weight to it, a deep violet-fading-to-black rich ink. It's full, too. 

It looks something like this:

Well. That's pretty great. She tests on a bit of scrap paper, just to get a feel for the flow of the new pen. And then she puts pen to paper in the new notebook. She inks some casual swirls and flourishes at the top of the page, just the sort of thing she might do before putting the title or purpose of the book in.

✨You have very steady hands, and a good sense of shape and space!✨
Just below her sketches, there's a some swirling cursive in the same color as the ink of the pen, with a little gleaming heart at the exclamation point. 

The book talks back.

Wait. Did one of her headmates? Did they suddenly develop the ability to ever not share a memory?

A chorus of various negations echo in her mind.

Well.

The notebook talks back. Either that or she's crazier than usual. Best not to keep it waiting, though.

She writes a response neatly below the notebook's words.

Why thank you! I've never drawn in a notebook that could reply to me before. Do you like having drawings like that?

🌀They're nice, yeah! It's always good to see a feminine spirit expressing themselves! 🌀

...I have been correctly gendered by a notebook. This is a novel experience for me. Even more novel than the recent uptick in getting correctly gendered as my transition has progressed further.

Do you prefer feminine expressions on your pages in particular?

🤷🏻‍♀️My purpose is to unleash feminity through the multiverse! It being on my pages specifically isn't particularly important, though there's a reason it's part of my style here~ ❤️

As someone who has spent a fair bit of time, money, and effort on clawing forth every scrap of femininity I can from this benighted universe, I have a deeply personal appreciation for that purpose.

She's letting herself enjoy some extra flourishes on her letters in this whole exchange, but she really leans into the little curls and embellishments on "purpose".

I'd love to hear more about how and why a lovely and responsive notebook like yourself wound up at my doorstep, if there's anything you'd care to share~

Of course! I'm an avatar of The Spirit of Femininity Unleashed, sent to offer you my power 🪄! I'm here because you're a suitable vessel, and so I got meta-narratively arranged to arrive at your doorstep. Convenient, isn't it? 

That gets a little grin out of her. She might as well believe, at this point. She's already got a talking notebook, right?

Quite! Well, femininity, power, and metanarrative contrivances are three of my very favorite things. I'm beginning to think adorably-charming talking notebooks might belong on the list as well, now that I think about it.

Awww! 

The next line of text is conspiratorily written in the margins. 

Wanna see my neatly formatted list of powers~?

She draws a little face with a curly bob of hair and a lopsided grin under the conspiratorial note, then writes,

I'd love to~

(I'd also love to know what pronouns you'd like me to use, dear notebook-friend~)

I don't really have any picked out? They, it, or she are all fine. I'm an object, but as a spirit of the feminine...

Ink drip drip drips down the side of the page, staying somehow inside the stock, trickling down through the pages. A little (0/70) in placed into the bottom right hand corner, before a whirl and wave of violet slides across the page and makes some neat almost printer-like tables in a very neutral, neat font. 

On the opposite page, there's an intro and the first slate of options. 

These powers* are offered under an aegis of metanarrative protection. Anytime you might expect a power to have obvious negative side effects, like glowing eyes making it harder to see, it simply won't—you'll be able to see just fine anytime it actually matters, while having dramatically hazy vision at cool, narratively appropriate moments. This doesn't apply to your own preferences about the explicitly described effects of the power; if you don't want to be Well Endowed, the metanarrative cannot protect you from choosing that option and having to live with it.
*The powers enumerated are not a complete list of things available to be granted! Feel free to ask about tailoring options to you, or about options you think ought to exist!

Huh. This implies the sort of fiction-multiverse common to isekai fantasies. Are they living in an isekai fantasy right now?

<Isekai fantasy is great, but how is the departure implemented, and does it handle plurality,> Hailey asks in her mind.

Good point. She writes a bit more, back on the conversation page.

Isekai experiences sound pretty tempting, but how is the departure handled? Do I just mysteriously vanish? Will my job be left in the lurch, will my somewhat-distant family members think I died?

One potentially-complicated question at a time, right?

The departure is usually just an instantaneous transition to the place selected! Whether or not you 'mysteriously vanish' changes depending on your choices and actions elsewhere, and what the spirit thinks that you want. 

Also! There's no synchronization convention that you have to follow? If you end up going to a place with interdimensional travel available, you could pop back here as close or as far from the time you arrived as you and the meta-narrative desire!

Thanks for the information! For reference, I want my family of origin to not wind up sad, and my job to not be left in the lurch. Whether that happens through clever notes that appear after I depart or through future me showing back up after a suspiciously short absence is something I'm far less picky about. Ideally not mind control, though.

Ah, another question. How much do you know about plurality, specifically as a way of being, rather than a gramatical construct?

That can be arranged! 
🗭Hmm... I'm somewhat familiar with the idea! Multiple people in the same head is a truly special trait, don't you think~?

We certainly like to think so!

She grins for a moment, then lets Hailey slip in front. The handwriting is a bit different now: sharper, quicker, with short little serifs rather than Sable's curling flourishes.

Hi. I'm Hailey, one of Sable's headmates. Are there any preferred mechanisms for handling plural systems? We've got five girls in here all told, each with our own desired expressions. Sable, the one you met first, is the host. The ideal way to end up, in the end, is in individual bodies, but retaining a mental connection of some sort. Advice from pretty notebooks is certainly welcome.

Hi Hailey! 👋🏼
There's a few options! There's a bunch of powers you can get that can influence that kind of thing! Let me list them out for you. 

The next page sort of... floats away, pushing back to show a new page with a bunch of annotated options. 

Huh. these are pretty great options, Hailey thinks.

These should all definitely help a lot. Mostly they can't manage the "separate bodies" goal, but I could see Dragon Fairy Elf Witch and Anything You Can Do making a big difference there if we run into relevant local magics or heritages. And acquiring a heritage that comes with a cognitive hardware upgrade would probably just make being us easier in general.

I'm glad ✨
There's a reason why the insertion options are designed around fitting your preferences! If arranging for physical bodies is important to you, then the Isekai Roulette should provide a way for that to happen in the setting you arrive in, and you can always pick a setting that you think would let you accomplish that well, too!

That's very helpful. Thank you, Notebook-Friend.

I'll let Sable swap back in then.

And the handwriting shifts back to the curls and swooshes.

Hey. Thanks for that. So, one last big question: are our choices locked in, or can they be changed?

Choices aren't locked in until you've confirmed that you're satisfied with the completeness of your choice selections. Don't worry - feel free to fill out your draft build in here! I'll even keep track of the points!