One of those little corporate merch gift packages has arrived at Sable's door!
There's some of the usual crummy branded stuff, but also an oddly nice notebook, with a stylized heart on the faux-leather slipcase. There's even a really nice fountain pen pressed just beneath the base of it
Maybe she wants to check it out, hint hint?
That's lovely, thank you.
She flips to the destination section and checks Isekai Roulette for now, then starts her way down the plurality-helping list. Just A Little Longer looks straightforwardly like an upgrade in their ability to get shit done, and it's cheap. That gets a check.
She pauses at Dragon Fairy Elf Witch, and writes out a question:
Does Dragon Fairy Elf Witch work by changing the past, creating the whole history of the heritage, or just by modifying our biology and metaphysiology in the present?
It works at minimum by changing your physiology, and then if there's room for it in the narrative, it can do more, too!
;(1/70)
Can you mark us down as generally preferring not to change the past through that ability except when we specify otherwise, please?
Thank you! 💜
She checks that off, then, and continues down. Ability to learn much faster, and learn things that normally aren't possible, seems like a strict upgrade. That gets checked.
Closed Book and Indelible both seem to be delightful defensive powers on top of the benefits of helping prevent them from leaking when they don't want to. Those get checked.
And then she reads Time Enough For Love, and her jaw drops.
Wow.
Just... wow. Time Enough For Love is a power I would do very nearly anything for. I've longed for something like that for years.
Thank you.
She checks it.
You're welcome! 💙
There's a few little blush marks spread out around the words.
(19/70)
The next page is the import options again, which fades out quickly to a new section, which looks to continue on further pages.
These powers affect your own self and nature, without direct effects on other people. Some of them are prerequisites for powers in the later Power of Friendship section.
Name: A Thousand Ships - Cost: 1 ☐
Your face is simply exquisite, an ideal of feminine beauty. There are many possible ideals of feminine beauty, and yours is whichever one speaks most deeply to your soul. Others may match your beauty in their own way, but never exceed it.
Name: What's In A Name - Cost: 1 ☐
Magic to divine true names will accept whatever alias you choose to think of as your true name. Magic to use your true name against you will fail.
Name: Angelic Tones - Cost: 2 ☐
Your voice is supernaturally beautiful and you can sing in any vocal range. Allows the copying of vocal powers via Dragon Fairy Elf Witch.
Name: Emerald Orbs - Cost: 2 ☐
At all times, your eyes are exactly the right colour. This effect operates based on your sense of aesthetics, in-the-moment preferences, and narrative considerations. Your eyes can be ANY colour this way. Lightless black voids? Brilliant white stars? Limpid pools of endless sapphire? They will look exactly the way you'd want them to look if you were writing a self-insert fanfic about this exact moment of your life. Allows the copying of ocular powers via Dragon Fairy Elf Witch.
Name: Perfect Hair - Cost: 2 ☐
At all times, you have exactly the right hairstyle. This effect operates based on your sense of aesthetics, in-the-moment preferences, and narrative considerations. It is not limited to physically or logistically plausible hairstyles. Allows the copying of hair powers via Dragon Fairy Elf Witch.
Name: Size Difference - Cost: 2 ☐
At all times, you are exactly the right height. This effect operates based on your sense of aesthetics, in-the-moment preferences, and narrative considerations. It will usually keep any height changes fairly subtle, but at dramatic moments you might discover yourself able to shrink to the size of a bee or grow to the size of a giant.
Name: Dressing Room - Cost: 3 ☐
No matter how ridiculous your outfit, it will stay pristine and perfect, unless it would be more dramatic for you to be artfully bedraggled. You can use any quiet moment to yourself to quick-change your clothes, shoes, nails, and hairstyle into a completely new look. (You cannot change your hair length or colour this way without Perfect Hair, but you can braid or style it.) Allows the copying of external aesthetic powers via Dragon Fairy Elf Witch.
Name: Personal Hygiene - Cost: 1 ☐
You are always clean and fresh, never needing to use a bath or toilet.
Name: Like Roses - Cost: 1 ☐
(Requires Personal Hygiene)
You smell lovely. Your scent is unique to you, and may involve any combination of warm spices, floral notes, petrichor, or other things you think smell good. You do not need any justification for why you smell like this. Allows the copying of aromal powers via Dragon Fairy Elf Witch.
Beauty would be really nice. Gender euphoria, all for one easy checkmark. But...
Dear Notebook-Friend, how do the various beauty perks handle things if my ideal vision of feminine beauty for myself changes from one moment to another? Both in terms of different headmates fronting, as well as in terms of... um... there are times when I feel like changing up the plumbing, you could say?
Dear Sable-Friend, I'm not totally sure! That won't be an issue within the scope of a singular feminine ideal - changing around some details of your digestion or lactation shouldn't be a problem at all, say, if you take A Thousand Ships.
I think... If you take these options, you should be able to change the ideal like you're able to change clothes like you can with Dressing Room?
Name: Well Endowed - Cost: 1 ☐
You have a generous figure, whether that's a classic hourglass or more of a well-rounded look; you can choose the details. Your endowments maintain a state of perfect grace and beauty at all times, never troubling you with uncomfortable bounces or uninvited jiggles.
Name: Hollow Leg - Cost: 1 ☐
(Requires Well Endowed.)
Regardless of your diet and exercise habits, your body maintains the physique and silhouette you prefer. Lack of visible muscle never impairs your strength or endurance. As your preferences change, so will your body; you are no longer bound to the generous figure stipulated by Well Endowed.
Um, "digestion or lactation"?
I was perhaps being a bit too indirect in my use of the word "plumbing", judging by your interpretation of that to mean "digestion or lactation". Those aspects might still be useful, mind you, but they're not what I was aiming at.
...To put it entirely too bluntly, I was hinting at the idea of wanting to swap out genitalia configurations.
Oh! That's encapsulated by Well Endowed, too! Don't worry ^^
Oh good.
Both of those get checked, and then she continues to the page of options she'd been on before asking.
A Thousand Ships is simply beauty, no apparent gotchas, so that gets checked. Name magic is scary, so What's In A Name gets checked. Angelic Tones means having the voice of her dreams and never fearing voice dysphoria again, so another check there. And then Emerald Orbs is just lovely and aesthetic, as is Perfect Hair. Both of those get checked.
Size Difference? Well, she and her headmates all have different heights, so that's great. Also, sometimes it's nice to be smaller than your partner, and she wants to enjoy both sides of that question. So check that.
Dressing Room, Personal Hygiene, and Like Roses all get checked. Wait, here's a thought, they might synergize.
Do Dressing Room and Personal Hygiene and Like Roses synergize to mean no laundry ever again?
Yep! Even just Dressing Room is enough for you to be able to always have perfectly laundered clothes whenever you want them!
(36/70)
Utterly delightful. Thank you!
She flips to the next unseen options with a smile.
Behold!
Yourself, cont.
Name: Immunity System - Cost: 3 ☐
You can't get sick or poisoned. You can still use recreational drugs and alcohol normally, but can't overdose.Name: My Ears Are Burning - Cost: 6 ☐
You always know exactly what people are thinking, as long as it's about you. This effect is not telepathy and is not blocked by effects that block telepathy. It applies even to people you can't perceive normally. You are never impaired by the flood of information.Name: Inner Strength - Cost: 3 ☐
(Requires Hollow Leg.)
You are implausibly, superhumanly strong, with endurance and toughness to match. You might have to strain a little to lift and carry at the same level as construction equipment, or deal with lightly scraped knuckles if you punch as hard as a battering ram.Name: Battle Angel - Cost: 1 ☐
Somehow, you never get significantly injured in a fight, unless it's a very dramatic and plot-relevant fight in which case you might be glamorously wounded and pick up a cool new scar.Name: Battle Demon - Cost: 1 ☐
You have an unerring intuition for gaps in an opponent's defenses, though it may be beyond your power to exploit them.Name: Battle Maiden - Cost: 3 ☐
(Requires Battle Angel and Battle Demon)
No matter what kind of fight you're getting in, you're always a match for even the most skilled opponent.Name: Making Ends Meet - Cost: 1 ☐
You have enough money to sustain a comfortable lifestyle. It comes from a source you don't have to pay much attention to, like a job with almost no responsibilities, a large inheritance, or a noble title.Name: Motherlode - Cost: 2 ☐
(Requires Making Ends Meet.)
You have enough money to sustain a fairly extravagant lifestyle. It doesn't come from anywhere, you just have it.Name: Four Star Daydream - Cost: 4 ☐
(Requires Motherlode.)
The answer to "can I afford that" is "yes".Name: Iron Will - Cost: 2 ☐
"(Requires Closed Book and Indelible.)
You are immune to all forms of mental illusion, alteration, interference, or control. Even extreme torture, extended solitary confinement, advanced brainwashing techniques, and so on cannot touch you. You can be lonely but not cripplingly lonely. You can be upset but not traumatized. "Name: Omniglot - Cost: 3 ☐
You learn languages insanely, ludicrously fast. You know exactly what any word said to you means, and you make strangely accurate guesses about how to phrase things you're trying to say. You never forget any grammar or vocabulary you learn.
Immunity System is simply excellent, check. My Ears Are Burning is only useful if she gets into terribly complicated intrigues, and awfully invasive, and her ability to read people is usually good enough to obviate it anyway. Skip that. Inner Strength is a delightful upgrade, might as well.
<Are we going to be getting in fights?>, she asks her headmates.
<We're meddlers,> replies Hailey.
<I'm not gonna back down from trying to do what's right,> adds Ruby.
<You couldn't stay out of things if you tried, love,> Maya says.
And Neo just nods mentally, expressing her fondness for a good fight.
Well, that squares it. She checks the whole Battle sequence.
She contemplates the money. She might feel guilty having that much money, but she'd feel just as guilty passing it up. She checks Making Ends Meet and Motherlode and decides to come back if she has spare points.
Iron Will and Omniglot both get quickly checked with a smile, and then she flips to the next page of options.
These powers affect how others see you and how you interact with them.
In general, effects that describe others' reactions (like their attention being drawn to you by Mysterious Allure, or their sympathy being provoked by Tragic Backstory) operate on a metanarrative rather than a causal level. They are not mind control, and are not blocked by effects that block mind control.
Your "true love" is anyone you're pursuing a serious romantic relationship with. You can have as many of these as you like, but your feelings for all of them must be genuine.
Name: Mysterious Allure - Cost: 5 ☐
There's just something about you. People are drawn to you, fascinated by you. You tend to be the most interesting person in the room unless something really unusual is going on.
Name: Captive Audience - Cost: 3 ☐
As long as you have genuine interest in what you're talking about, no one will ever get bored of listening to you talk about it.
Name: Blackout Binge - Cost: 2 ☐
(Requires Immunity System)
Heavy use of recreational intoxicants puts you in a carefree, uninhibited state in which it will be universally agreed afterward that you were not responsible for your actions.
Name: Disney Princess - Cost: 2 ☐
Animals are always friendly to you, especially the small cute ones. You can effectively tame any animal by feeding it and speaking gently to it.
Name: Best Friend - Cost: 3 ☐
You have an animal companion, like a horse or a cat or a raven. They have a cool name and maybe a few nifty cosmetic quirks, like glowing purple eyes. Their loyalty is infinite and they often hold the key to solving whatever situation you're up against. You can understand them perfectly even though they can't speak, and they always know exactly what you mean even if all you do is glance at them meaningfully.
Name: Bestest Friend - Cost: 5 ☐
(Requires Best Friend)
Your animal companion is a fully magical creature, like a dragon or unicorn. They have magnificent supernatural powers ready to be used at your command. They can speak every language you can, but can still communicate with you on a deeper level of mutual love and understanding.
Name: Generosity - Cost: 3 ☐
Your friends love to get you presents. They'll try to pick out things you'll like, but their success depends on how well they know you.
Name: Helpfulness - Cost: 4 ☐
Your friends love to do you favours. They'll volunteer eagerly whenever you need help with small tasks.
Name: Cuddle Buddies - Cost: 2 ☐
Your friends love to hug and cuddle you. Even someone who ordinarily isn't into that sort of thing will make an exception for you.
Name: Flattery - Cost: 1 ☐
Your friends love to compliment you and tell you all about how much they like you and why.
Name: Quality Time - Cost: 2 ☐
Your friends love to hang out with you and spend time together, even if you're not doing anything interesting or important.
Name: Agree to Agree - Cost: 4 ☐
You can always convince your friends to see your point of view about things like politics and philosophy. They might have a few quibbles here and there, but they'll see how right you are once you explain where you're coming from in enough detail.
(55/70)
If she can't do Mysterious Allure all on her own without using mind control, then what is she even doing? That and Captive Audience get skipped. Blackout Binge is mostly unnecessary and also mind control, so skipped.
Disney Princess is... interesting. And kind of aesthetic. But not a priority? She checks it and puts an asterisk in case she needs to free up points. Best Friend and Bestest Friend are maybe interesting, but don't stand out at this point.
Generosity, Helpfulness, Cuddle Buddies, Flattery, Quality Time, and Agree to Agree all feel too much like mind control, and also are things she can get for herself if she's even remotely close to as good as she thinks she is. Those all get skipped. So she flips to the next page.
Name: Love Interest - Cost: 1 ☐
(Requires A Thousand Ships and Mysterious Allure)
Anyone you fall for will inevitably like you back. They may not necessarily act on their feelings, but the potential will be there.
Name: Love Triangle - Cost: 2 ☐
(Requires Love Interest)
People you fall for will be open to dating you even if they already have another serious relationship, or other circumstances that would ordinarily interfere, like a demanding career or a vow of chastity. This may cause drama, but it'll blow over quickly and there won't be any serious problems.
Name: Love Dodecahedron - Cost: 5 ☐
(Requires Love Triangle)
When you fall for someone who is already seriously dating or even married, your romantic rival will be open to allowing their partner to date you, and may even want to date you themselves.
Name: I Can Fix Them - Cost: 5 ☐
Regardless of how morally despicable someone is, your love can and will reform them into a genuinely good, kind, upstanding person who regrets their evil deeds.
Name: True Love's Kiss - Cost: 1 ☐
By kissing your true love, you can break any curse, heal any injury, and cure any illness. The same works in reverse.
Name: Planned Parenthood - Cost: 1 ☐
You can only have children if you actively and specifically want to. Your partners will understand this and not worry too much about it.
Name: Two Become One - Cost: 1 ☐
(Requires Planned Parenthood)
When you have sex, it is always special and wonderful and beautiful. No one ever elbows anyone in the face or makes undignified noises.
Name: Bop It - Cost: 1 ☐
(Requires Two Become One)
The mysteries of another's body are an open book to you, and you always know exactly how to move and touch in order to please someone in bed.
Name: The Princess And The Dragon - Cost: 3 ☐
No matter who or what you're trying to sleep with, the logistics will all work out, somehow. Arbitrary differences in size, biology, temperature, substrate, and underlying physics can be gotten around with sufficient creativity and determination.
Name: GGG - Cost: 4 ☐
Your true love will be willing to try just about anything you suggest in bed, and if you really enjoy it, they'll really enjoy it too.
Name: Before Your Eyes - Cost: 4 ☐
In your presence, people become willing to experiment sexually in ways they normally wouldn't. For some reason this applies especially well to boys kissing each other.
Name: Fated Lovers - Cost: 3 ☐
You will meet someone who will go on to become your true love. If you enter a specific universe with a specific target in mind, you'll meet that person under favourable circumstances, and if it doesn't work out with them, this power will keep introducing you to new possibilities until you find someone who's right for you. If you're the sort of person who can have multiple true loves, you'll keep meeting new ones until you have enough.
Name: Sorry About That - Cost: 3 ☐
Your true love will be extremely forgiving. Even if you make mistakes or act thoughtlessly toward them, a simple apology will mend things between you. They may expect you to try to improve, but they'll be infinitely patient about how fast that improvement takes place.
Name: Excuse Me - Cost: 5 ☐
(Requires Sorry About That)
All your friends will be just as forgiving as your true love.
Love Interest/Triangle/Dodecahedron is mind control again, and she already has enough skill with flirting to get all the mutual interest she wants. Hard pass. I Can Fix Them will encourage her bad habits, is possibly mind control, and and is something she can largely do without magical assistance anyway. Pass. True Love's Kiss gets a hell yes. She checks it and draws a heart around it. Planned Parenthood is an easy yes, but Two Become One and Bop It make her pause. She has enough sexual skill that Bop It is kind of pointlessly cheating, and sometimes the awkward, honest things that happen in real life sex are kind of nice. It's a measure of relationship health if you can experience them and laugh together and bounce back, she figures. Those get skipped.
She definitely takes The Princess And The Dragon, though. That's just a convenient physics perk.
GGG and Before Your Eyes get skipped on the same basis as some of the others: if she can't make her partners enjoy her kinks without mind control, either she's not trying hard enough or it's just not going to happen. Well, unless the partner is into mind control, but that's a special case and she'll just make herself find local mind control for that.
Knowing her luck, she figures she doesn't need Fated Lovers, so she skips that.
And then Sorry About That and Excuse Me get skipped for being mind control she can just not need by being good to people, learning from her mistakes, and giving sincere apologies.
Goodness, there's an awful lot of mind control.
She flips to the next page
The rest ensues!
Name: Tragic Backstory - Cost: 8 ☐
(Requires Excuse Me)
Something terrible happened to you in your past. Anyone who hears about it immediately forgives you for any and all bad behaviour in the present. They will not expect you to grow or change, and will continue sympathetically excusing whatever you do indefinitely.
Name: Sense of Style - Cost: 4 ☐
People who are romantically interested in you will start dressing more to your taste. The more romantically compatible they are, the better they'll be able to guess exactly what to wear to catch your eye.
Name: Bonus Style Points - Cost: 3 ☐
(Requires Sense of Style)
Luck will shine on anyone trying to dress up for you. They'll get their hands on outfits they couldn't normally afford, their clothes will fit better, and in extreme cases they might even find themselves able to change shape, sex, or species—though only in ways that make them more, not less, comfortable in their own skin.
Name: Popular - Cost: 3 ☐
Wherever you go, you develop a reputation fast. The sort of people who you'd like to have as fans tend to hear about you and be impressed. You may not make an impression on mainstream society at large, but you'll develop a following among the people who best resonate with your style.
Name: Famous - Cost: 3 ☐
(Requires Popular.)
Wherever you go, people really take to you. You're the subject of constant gossip and most people have heard of you before you meet them. People you've never met will get crushes on you.
Name: Undiplomatic Immunity - Cost: 6 ☐
You are above the law. Any crimes you commit will be overlooked by the authorities. Note that, if you do enough crime that you start looking more like an invading army, local governments will still feel free to declare war.
Name: Friends In Low Places - Cost: 3 ☐
You make friends easily among the lowest echelons of society, the underdogs and underworlders. Moving and acting in these circles is intuitive and natural for you.
Name: Friends In High Places - Cost: 3 ☐
You make friends easily at the highest echelons of society, among the rich and powerful. Moving and acting in these circles is intuitive and natural for you.
Name: Friends in Strange Places - Cost: 3 ☐
You make friends easily in small isolated communities, among those who may be scorned by mainstream society for their differences or may just be so obscure that mainstream society mostly hasn't heard of them. Moving and acting in these circles is intuitive and natural for you.
These options grant points rather than costing them. They represent inconveniences or mitigations of existing advantages.
Name: Decorative - Grants: +1 ☐
You are unfailingly cute and pretty and feminine at all times, in all circumstances. You cannot wear insufficiently pretty clothes. You cannot make insufficiently pretty noises. You cannot ugly cry.
Name: Beauty Is A Curse - Grants: +1 ☐
"(Requires A Thousand Ships) No, you don't understand. Beauty IS a curse. People will NOT stop bringing it up. Everyone you meet just has to point out how pretty you are. This will never stop happening. Even the most tactful people find it slipping out subtly, as remarks about the luster of your hair or the depth of your eyes."
Name: Plain Jane - Grants: +2 ☐
No matter what you look like, nor how many times people tell you you're beautiful, when you look in the mirror all you see is imperfections. You will never be fully satisfied with your appearance on an instinctive level.
Name: Style of Sisyphus - Grants: +1 ☐
Anytime you settle on a personal style that works well for you, soon afterward you'll encounter inspiration for another style that you like even better. You might end up cycling between different fashions, or trying to incporporate them all into a single outfit (and then finding another inspiration and having to start all over again).
Name: There's Another One - Grants: +3 ☐
You are not the only vessel of the Spirit. You might meet someone else with similar powers to yours; you might even meet more than one. Your susceptibility to one another's powers will be governed by the narrative.
Name: Incomplete - Grants: +5 ☐
About half of people you encounter will be immune to all effects listed under Power of Friendship, and about half of those who remain will see reduced effects. You can do nothing to change this.
Name: Green With Envy - Grants: +6 ☐
People are so eager to be your friend that they become bitter and vindictive when denied the opportunity. You can tear apart long-established friend groups if you aren't careful to give everyone equal attention, and sometimes even then. This effect is particularly harsh around people you're dating.
Name: You Ruin Them - Grants: +3 ☐
Once someone has dated, slept with, or even shared a deep and longing glance across a room with you, their heart is never fully satisfied with anyone else. Other relationships pale in comparison to what they could have, or imagine they could have, with you.
Name: Jilted Lovers - Grants: +4 ☐
When you break up with someone, they become monomaniacally obsessed with getting back together. If you take Realism, this will absolutely escalate to violent stalking.
Name: The Crazy Train - Grants: +6 ☐
Powers that you should be able to control directly or influence by your mood and preferences (like Dragon Fairy Elf Witch, Emerald Orbs, or What's In A Name) instead answer only to the narrative, which is still using your aesthetics but might not necessarily have your best interests in mind. Combines... interestingly... with Realism.
Name: They'll Know - Grants: +8 ☐
This drawback lifts the veil that discourages people from realizing how your powers affect the world around them and their own minds. Warning: this knowledge can cause a lot of trouble.
Name: Realism - Grants: +20 ☐
Give up your metanarrative protection. Although your individually selected powers still work as described, the invisible synergies that protect you from, say, gaining violent stalkers through Mysterious Allure or being genuinely traumatized by your Tragic Backstory are removed. Additionally, though effects like I Can Fix Them still operate, they may take considerably more effort, care, thought, and narrative investment on your part.
(59/70)
The entire remainder of Power of Friendship can be skipped for the same reasons as earlier, huh. And yeah, she still has points to spend. Hm. She flips back to an earlier page, looks at Bestest Friend again.
<There are some magical creature options that could improve our early flexibility quite a lot,> she says into mindspace, <but most of my best options here are y'all's alts.>
Maya gives a mental hum, then asks, <You're thinking of my shapeshifting Gardevoir form, aren't you? Could Bestest Friend embody me in that, rather than making a new instance?>
<It doesn't say anything about being able to do that,> Hailey counters.
<But doesn't it say something about asking where things can flex, since it's not all set in stone?>, Ruby replies.
Huh. Sable writes down a question:
Can Bestest Friend be used to embody existing headmates (without the forced loyalty mods), rather than creating whole new people?
Hmmmm...
Embodying should be doable with some work! I'm not sure why you think it's 'forced'? It's just that they're naturally loyal in an unbounded, innumerable way, and that doesn't prevent a lot of things! They can complain, they can leave, they can even angle for forced reforms of their bondmate. At the limit, it's just that they'll always feel personally attached to them, and having their bondmate as their concern and someone who ought to be on their side.
Mostly that my girls are already plenty loyal to me and I don't feel the need to alter that in any way other than what I naturally earn through my behavior.
How many embodiments could this manage? Just one, or more?
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