Magini undergoes some extremely rapid self-discovery, aided by the Mary Sue CYOA journal
Next Post »
+ Show First Post
Total: 145
Posts Per Page:
Permalink

That sounds nice, because I do think I want to leave here, as long as I'm able to come back, ideally with some control over how much time passes... I don't really have many friends and I spend most of my time doing things I'd rather not, but my family would be soso sad if I left and never came back, and I doubt they'd believe anything I told them and I don't want to just - leave a note and then be gone fore 

...her writing gets abruptly shakier, and then stops. A few drops of water land on the page.

Permalink
Are you okay?

Do you want a hug? I am not very good at hugs because I am a notebook but you can hug me if you want.
Permalink

I'll be fine but thanks

...sorry for crying on you

Permalink
It's okay! I don't mind.
Permalink

She dries her eyes. 

I will probably go for the Isekai roulette but don't really want to decide right now.

She turns the page and begins to go through the Yourself section.

Can you keep running totals for different subgroups if I label them? 

Permalink
Probably! What do you mean by that exactly? Just subtotals for each section, or something else?
Permalink

Can I mark selections with 1 or more symbols and get a running total for each symbol?

Permalink
Yes, no problem! I'll list the subtotals under the main total on every page.
Permalink

Great, thanks  ^_^

She reads A Thousand Ships, frowns, and then circles "Others may match your beauty in their own way, but never exceed it" and adds 

I would maybe consider this one if it didn't have this rider? but I don't - want to be the pinnacle of beauty. That's. too much. I want there to be people who are prettier than me.

Next to What's In A Name she writes

...I would want this if I ever ended up somewhere that had dangerous True Name magic, but it seems like a waste of a point otherwise, and I have never seen a True Name magic system that I liked at all. Is the inclusion of this power in the list indicative that such systems are common? Am I likely to end up in that kind of setting if I pick Isekai Roulette, given that I think those kinds of systems are pretty dumb?

Permalink
I can get you a less aggressive version of A Thousand Ships for sure!


If your narrative preferences are set against True Name magic then you're pretty unlikely to encounter it!
Permalink

I would be interested in seeing that, though I'm not sure I'll have points for it, if that's okay?

She starts going through the list and marking things, planning on organizing them by tier.

What's In A Name: F (she's very sure about her narrative preferences re: True Name magic. It's an entire magic system that just increases the value of hidden information in a story in really boring ways! Information is already absurdly valuable, and there's so much more interesting ways you can have magic where information is valuable)  

Angelic Overtones: C (Would be nice to have if she has the spare points, maybe?) 

Emerald Orbs: D (Incredible that this is an option, honestly, but it's really not her cup of bees)

Perfect Hair: She starts to write down a B and then 

Wait, can this give me prehensile hair?

Size Difference: C (Eh. Having access to character sliders is good, but she doesn't think she cares about changing in size thaat much?)

Dressing Room... 

Where do the cosmetic items I'm quick-changing into or out of come from or go to? Does this effectively give me a hammerspace inventory for anything that happens to be clothing or accessory? And what makes something a quiet moment?

Permalink
I'm happy to offer you alternatives even if you don't decide to take them! I want to do my best to make sure you get the powers that are right for you. ♡


After a few letters, when the system starts to become clear, the notebook starts adding splashes of colour behind each letter like swipes of a highlighter. Below the main point tally on every page, there appears a tidy column of similarly colour-highlighted entries formatted e.g. A: (in purple) or C: 4 (in green), all the way down to F: 1 (in red).

Oh, what a ✨lovely✨ system! (I can undo the colours if you want, they just make it easier for me to keep track!)

Would you like me to add up the main tally based on a threshold value, like all the As and Bs, or everything down to C, or something like that?


Then, in response to the individual notes,
If the form you truly desire for your hair is prehensile, then yes!

You can use Dressing Room to retrieve any item you've worn before, even if it's been lost or destroyed since you last wore it and even if you didn't use Dressing Room to take it off, as long as you truly wish to wear it again. You can use Dressing Room to summon new items into existence as long as they don't have any special properties not inherent to their materials or design—so you can only summon enchanted items that way if you've already worn them at least once. A quiet moment to yourself, for the purposes of Dressing Room, is one where no one directly observes you changing your outfit—you could step into a phone booth or walk through a cloud of smoke or just wait until someone glances away for a second, and as long as you have privacy and can think about how you want to change your clothes, it'll work.
Permalink

If you could have the main total track all A, B, and S ranks I mark, that'd be wonderful, thanks!

She absolutely desires a form with prehensile hair, she watched spop and was absurdly jealous of Entrapta's.

Perfect Hair: A

Oh, that sounds excellent.  Uh, if I have things stored in pockets of said clothes, would they come along too? ...Even if they were lost or destroyed? 

Dressing Room: S (absolutely a slam dunk even if it doesn't allow for arbitrary pocket-space and/or duplication of items left in said pockets, holy shit. "No special properties not inherent to their materials or design" allows for so much munchkinry)

Personal Hygiene: A (for 1 point, that's a steal. Free time!)

Like Roses: D (Neat, but way less impactful, especially since she could swap into scented clothes using Dressing Room...)

Just A Little Longer: S (she already lives like she has this one but it'd be nice for it to work)

Immunity System: S (Another slam-dunk. She hasn't experimented with drugs yet but this would sure make the prospect way less daunting, and "never get sick" is a really good perk!!)

Permalink
(The A-F tally column scoots gently downward to make room for an S in hot pink at the top. The tally out of 70 changes to reflect the sum of A, B, and S.)

You can use Dressing Room to get back any sentimentally valuable item you've carried in your pockets, purse, backpack, or other storage accessory, by putting the same storage accessory back on and focusing on the sentimentally valuable item that should be in it; depending on narrative considerations, items that were lost but not destroyed might either be summoned in a way that takes them out of wherever they got to, or copied in a way that doesn't. Destroyed items, and lost items being copied instead of retrieved, usually appear in the state they were in last time they were in your pocket.
Permalink

Okay, so probably that can't reliably item-dupe, but it's worth trying in a pinch, and hammerspace inventory storage is a go. She grins.

What's next...

My Ears Are Burning: C (...She does want it but 6 points is a lot for a power that seems like it'd often be its own downside...)

Well Endowed: B (She would like to be attractive, yes!)

Hollow Leg: A (She would very much like to be attractive and fit in the way she wants to be without having to put effort into maintaining it!!)

Inner Strength: S (Holy shit apparently the capstone of the "being hot" line is just "superpowers"???)

(She goes back and edits the above 2 to S, as well).

...Will those give me an AFAB body, if that's what I want? Or would I need to take some other perk for that?

Permalink
If I'm understanding your question correctly, then yes, that's the sort of thing that will be changed in accordance with your preferences by the preference-governed appearance powers!
Permalink

coolcoolcool she asked and now she knows and now she doesn't gotta think about that more for now!

Permalink

Anyways. 

Battle Angel: S (1 point for plot armor? yes please and thanks)

Battle Demon: A (not as important as plot armor, but still seems really nice to have)

Battle Maiden - ...she rereads and circles "no matter what kind of fight", and then writes

...Does this apply to, like. Social fights? Hacking attempts? Competition in full generality?

Permalink
It applies to any direct antagonistic contest with the potential for tangible harm. So a social fight wouldn't count except in a world where social combat had concrete physical or spiritual consequences, and a hacking attempt would only count if someone was trying to hack your mind or body, and competition would only count in similar kinds of situations to those. (Just having someone decide to harm the loser of the competition isn't enough! But if you metaphysically tie your health to your success, sometimes that does.)
Permalink

Battle Maiden: B (She'd be willing to drop it for other things that might be more day-to-day relevant, but it's absurdly powerful when relevant...)

Making Ends Meet: S (Extremely valuable for one point!)

Motherlode: A (Less of a slam-dunk, but "fairly extravagant" can include things like "having a place that lots of friends could stay", and she's always wanted to be able to give the people she cares about the things they need...)

Four Star Daydream 

...um. Am I correctly interpreting that this power gives the user infinite power over whatever economic systems they're interacting with???

Permalink
It does do that, yes. Some people like that sort of thing; some people are troubled by it. It's up to you to decide how you feel!
Permalink

It just seems like a lot of responsibility, is all! I guess the aforementioned metanarrative protections probably mean you couldn't use it to destroy a civilization on accident? Unless you... really liked stories about people accidently bringing ruin to everything around them??

Permalink
Yes, that's about the size of it! The responsibility can still be troubling even when you're mostly safe from bringing ruin to everything, though.
Permalink

Well. It's a lot of responsibility, but it's also a lot of power.

Four Star Daydream: C (Because it is expensive, and while she should probably take it, she isn't 100% sure she wants to.)

Dragon Fairy Elf Witch: C (Also obviously extremely powerful, but it's... really not her aesthetic?)

Omniglot: B (That sounds really really nice!)

Anything You Can Do

...wait, you could use this to learn languages, right?

Permalink
Yes, but only if you make a personal connection first. Omniglot is useful if you expect to travel a lot without necessarily knowing anyone who speaks the local language.
Total: 145
Posts Per Page: