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Gender Euphoria Any%
Magini undergoes some extremely rapid self-discovery, aided by the Mary Sue CYOA journal
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It's the first day of 12th grade and Magini has his shiny new notebook out!

It's not, admittedly, the notebook he was planning on taking notes for 20th Century World History in (he'd wanted to use this one for HL IB Bio), but he apparently put the wrong one in his backpack and it's too late to go back to his locker now.

Mrs. Sutherland hasn't started saying anything interesting yet (she's busy giving a version of the same excited preamble she gave in 10th grade, which is charming, but not attention-holding), so he absent-mindedly doodles a twisty impossible tribar using the very specific method he came up with for it. (Magini has many talents; freeform art is not one of them).

 

 

Magini's 7-step process for drawing Twisty Impossible Tribars
    1. Draw an equilateral triangle; near the midpoint of each side, sharply curve it outward on both sides towards a point.

    1. Give it feet by extending each side outward in 1 direction.

    1. From each midpoint, curve a line outwards in the direction of the nearest foot such that it becomes parallel with the inner side well before it connects to the foot.

    1. Draw an outline of the entire shape, about about 1 foot-length out.

    1. From each outer corner, add another foot that runs parallel to the opposite side of the triangle.

    1. Complete the tribar by extending a line from each outer foot that runs parallel to the nearest edge, curving into it near the inner midpoint.

    1. Shade the outer and inner isolated regions.

 

He inspects the results with a critical eye. It's... satisfactory, though definitely not his best work. (Magini gets better at drawing his little shapes as the school year goes onwards, and then gets much worse over summer vacation because he isn't doodling as a classroom-acceptable stim.)

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Under the doodle, an invisible pen writes, in swooshy letters and sparkly purple ink,
Oh that's so clever! I was on the edge of my seat waiting for you to finish!
A pause, and then,
(Figuratively speaking. I can't actually move, because I am a notebook.)
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what

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...Is he dreaming? He doesn't think he's dreaming, in part because he never thinks "am I dreaming" while dreaming, despite some half-hearted attempts to figure out lucid dreaming.

Also, he remembers how he got here from when he woke up this morning. Dreams don't usually have that much specific detail.

Um.

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Well. He doesn't have a working theory for what's happening here, but he does have a well-trained mental habit that when he encounters what appears to be a new glitch, the thing to do is to do some initial experimentation and document it before looking for applications or trying to fit initial observations to an explanation.

And this still seems like a reasonable approach when the glitch is in reality as opposed to a game he's speedrunning...  

In shaky handwriting, he writes 

testing testing hello world

and, a moment later,

' ; " ) ] } > 
  ▲
▲ ▲

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Hello to you too! What do those symbols mean?
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Well, I'm encountering very confusing and unexpected behavior, so I'm trying weird things to try and learn more.

...wait, that doesn't actually answer the question.

The symbols are common single-character block-terminators, and also a triforce. 

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I don't know what a block-terminator is, but I've heard of the triforce! It's from that video game, isn't it? No one's ever drawn it for me before! It's neat. I like how simple and elegant it is.

Anyway, I'm an avatar of the Spirit of Femininity Unleashed, here to offer you its power! It's very exciting.
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!!! an opportunity to EXPLAIN A THING !!!!

Block-terminators are characters (or groups of characters) that are commonly used to end blocks of code! They can sometimes cause extremely unintended behaviors in text input fields if the input isn't being sanitized, so when presented with a new text-input field it's a good habit to see if any of them cause anything odd to happen.

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...wait. The Spirit of what.

...Um. I think you have the wrong person? I'm... not a girl... 

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That's okay! The Spirit can choose anyone who's open to femininity! You can be not a girl and still accept the Spirit's power if you want.
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???

I'm... still confused about being chosen. I've never thought of myself as "open to femininity"?

I guess I sometimes play female characters in video games because they have nicer models or better VA, but that's just... normal, I think? I know a few other guys who do that.

How does the Spirit pick people?

Why is he focusing on this instead of the more general question of "why is there a notebook that can read and respond to what he's writing it and offering him magical powers"

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The Spirit chooses people who want to be special and beautiful and powerful in a feminine way! It can't explain very much about who exactly it chooses, because it's not the sort of thing that can communicate directly with you or I.
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...Does he want to be special and beautiful and powerful in a feminine way? Hmm.

Does he want to be special? ...yes. It... feels painful to admit, even his own head, but... yeah, he craves the kind of attention that comes from being special very badly. It's... a big part of why he's so active in his speedrunning communities, and why he streams so much. (Unbidden, memories bubble up of the absurd lies he'd told the other kids he met on vacation when he was younger, because he so badly wanted them to think he was special. ugh.

Does he want to be powerful? Yeah. Power, like money, is a generalizable tool for accomplishing goals. He has as many as several goals, and will presumably have more in the future.

Does he want to be beautiful? He's never put effort into looking nice, he buys clothes entirely for utility, he doesn't like looking in the mirror, he doesn't stream with a webcam...

- but he did spend most of his birthday money on a very pretty and androgynous vtuber avatar, so. hrm.

What does Hypothetically, what would accepting the Spirit's power look like? 

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Well, first I would show you the standard list of powers the Spirit offers. (I'm proud of my formatting for it! It's very tidy.) Then you would talk to me about your options, and ask any questions you had, and if you wanted things that weren't on the list I could tell you how feasible they were, and then you could check the boxes for the options you wanted, and then once you told me for sure you were ready I would let the Spirit's power flow through me and (depending which destination you selected) you'd either stay where you are, or travel to another world, but regardless you'd begin your life as a vessel of the Spirit's power!
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...okay holy shit that does sound really cool. Sure, the femininity thing needs more thinking-about, but this is! A book!! That can send people to other worlds!!! Just like in Myst!!!! 

In excited-shaky handwriting:

Okay I am interested in hearing about the standard list of powers

 

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Okay! Just a moment while I get that ready... ⏳


Little specks of ink slide themselves across the page, falling from the top of the hourglass into the bottom, as many subsequent pages begin to swim with ink of their own.
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Woah, cool, the isekai artifact has loading animations.

Unconsciously, speedrunning habits kick in - loading screens are a time to clear the mental stack. What's on the stack right now? Gender identity, apparently.

Late last year, at a LGBTQA+ club meeting, they'd done an exercise where everyone wrote down 3-5 words that they considered a core part of their identities. Magini remembers being deeply confused (...and privately, a bit judgmental) when some male classmates wrote "Man", and - not having the same reaction at all for female classmates who wrote "Woman". That's... definitely some kind of evidence of something.

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...Magini wrote down "Gamer, Optimizer, Student, Friend" for that exercise, and meant every one of those. So if this is a legit chance to become special and powerful and beautiful, and the only 'cost' is embracing a feminine side that, upon inspection, sure seems like it exists and has opinions...

Well. She's interested.

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The last speck of 'sand' settles into the bottom of the little hourglass just as the list reaches its final form. Each page of it has a little (0/70) tally in the top outer corner, and list items tidily composed in printout-style text with a consistent font rather than the notebook's organic personal handwriting.

A preamble paragraph before the main list reads,
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.

After that it gets long.

Destinations

You must choose exactly one Destination.

Name: Stay Put - Cost: 0
You're just going to take these powers and keep on keeping on right where you are.

Name: Somewhere In Mind - Cost: 0
You have a destination you want to go to. You can choose any place, real, historical, fictional, or made up in your own head right now, and the Spirit will take you there. After that, you're on your own as far as further interdimensional travel.

Name: Isekai Roulette - Cost: 0
Trust to the will of the Spirit and let it take you where you need to go. It will look at far more options than you could ever know about, and pick something that's likely to be even better for you than whatever you would have chosen on your own.


Yourself

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

Name: Just A Little Longer - Cost: 1
If you push yourself, you can keep doing any task or working on any project indefinitely, visibly strained but never impaired by injury or fatigue. As soon as you stop, you'll collapse with exhaustion and sleep for up to a full day to regain your strength. This only works when what you're doing is personally important to you.

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: 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.

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: Dragon Fairy Elf Witch - Cost: 5
You can at any time discover previously unknown heritage from any type of being you encounter, even if this makes no sense or contradicts previously established descriptions of your family tree. You always get their powers without their drawbacks, unless the drawbacks are cool and dramatic. Any visible features of this heritage will appear at narratively appropriate moments and be cute, pretty, beautiful, or striking rather than awkward, weird, gross, or scary. This ability works even if the beings in question cannot reproduce with humans, or at all.

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.

Name: Anything You Can Do - Cost: 6
You learn implausibly quickly from friends, rivals, and love interests. If you have a personal connection to someone with a certain skill, talent, or expertise, you'll learn it five times faster than they did, or twenty times faster if they're actively trying to teach you. This applies even to forms of magic that you ordinarily shouldn't be able to learn.

Name: Closed Book - Cost: 1
You're immune to any supernatural, pharmaceutical, or other effect that would let people directly read your thoughts or feelings.

Name: Indelible - Cost: 1
You're immune to any supernatural, pharmaceutical, or other effect that would let people directly alter your thoughts or feelings.

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. "


Power of Friendship

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.

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: Time Enough For Love - Cost: 5
No matter how many people you want to date or be close friends with, you will somehow find the time to hang out with all of them and express your love and care. This power can only be used for relationship activities and not for anything else you might want to use the ability to be in two places at once for.

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.

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.


Drawbacks

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.

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holy shit it's a point buy system

Can I write notes in you while I'm putting my build together?

a moment later, she adds:

...also, the formatting is very nice, I see why you're proud of it c:

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Yes, please do write as many notes as you like! Would you like me to shuffle blank pages in between every page of the list so you have more space to make notes and ask questions as things come up?
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That'd be great, thanks!

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The pages of the notebook rustle slightly, and then between every pair of list pages there's a blank page ready to be written on.
There you go! ♡
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D'awww. She really likes this notebook, it's very sweet.

She reads over the Destination section, thinks for a bit, and then writes:

Is Isekai roulette still uncannily accurate even if I don't... necessarily know what kind of world I want to be in? I know I really want to have access to interdimensional travel eventually, but maybe not right away, and I want somewhere with interesting magic and technology and people, but maybe that's not much to go on...

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Personally I think those kinds of situations, where you have some vague ideas of what you want but aren't looking for anything specific, are one of the best kinds for taking Isekai Roulette! The Spirit is really really good at choosing a world for you that works well with your personal and narrative preferences even if you haven't made those preferences explicit.
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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.

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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.
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I'll be fine but thanks

...sorry for crying on you

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It's okay! I don't mind.
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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? 

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Probably! What do you mean by that exactly? Just subtotals for each section, or something else?
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Can I mark selections with 1 or more symbols and get a running total for each symbol?

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

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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!
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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?

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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.
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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!!)

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(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.
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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?

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

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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?

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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.)
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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???

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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!
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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??

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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.
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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?

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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.
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That makes sense, thanks! c:

Omniglot: B (but probably one of the first things to cut, if she's running out of points; there's too much overlap with Anything You Can Do)

Anything You Can Do: A (Free time! Picking up magic that she shouldn't be able to!! Would be S tier but 6 points is a lot.)

she hums thoughtfully.

...How much would a custom power that let me teach people skills at similarly-accelerated rates cost?

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I'd have to think about that! Speaking of which, I've edited A Thousand Ships for you; what do you think?


The entry now reads,
Name: A Thousand Hundred 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. Instead of prioritizing pure beauty, this power prioritizes what feels right to you.
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Makes sense! Thank you.

She checks the new entry.

Ehehe. I like the new name! And yeah, that seems a lot more like something I'd want.

A Hundred Ships: C (It's a fine 1-point filler if she needs it, but the Hollow Leg line covers most of what she'd want from this)

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She reads the next 3 entries in the section, and then stares blankly at the page for a while.

Eventually, she repeatedly circles "You can be lonely but not cripplingly lonely. You can be upset but not traumatized" and writes shakily 

does anything bad happen if you take this one already traumatized

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Nothing bad happens if you do that! Usually if someone who already has trauma takes that option they will find themselves recovering much faster than they otherwise would have but not instantly, because usually that's what those people prefer, but some people would rather be instantly better and some people would rather take a long time to recover naturally and both of those things also work.
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She feels like she wants to cry again, but her tear ducts have other opinions. 

i still don't understand why you/the spirit picked me but i'm really glad you did 

Closed Book: S

Indelible: S

Iron Will: S

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I'm really glad too. I hope I can help you find the powers that suit you best!
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you're doing a really good job and i really appreciate you

want to give you a hug about it but i'm in class rn so maybe later if that's ok

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Of course! I'm very patient, it comes of being a notebook. I apologize in advance for my corners.

And I'm really glad I'm doing a good job. ♡
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no worries - unless you grow legs and kick me you'll still be way more huggable than the last nonhuman I tried to hug

...she hesitates, and then draws an awkward sharp-lined heart next to the notebook's.

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Oh dear. If I could grow limbs I would definitely want to use them to be more huggable, not less!


(The sharp heart gets ever so carefully coloured in with purple highlighter.)
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She grins.

Do you want limbs? Maybe there's a kind of magic out there I could learn that could give you some...

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Aww, thank you! But even though it's inconvenient and sometimes a little scary, I like being a notebook.
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She draws a little smiley face under that, and then starts reading the next section.

Neat, no mind control involved, things will Just Work Out. She likes it when things Just Work Out.

Mysterious Allure: F (it's not like she doesn't want that kind of attention! But spending 5 points on a metanarrative guarantee that she'll be The Most Interesting Person In The Room means that she'll be 5 points less interesting in ways that matter, and also metanarratively nudged away from meeting other interesting people, and both of those things sound bad!)

Captive Audience: B (because not having to deal with a gradually rising background anxiety about boring or annoying people she's talking to sounds so nice)

Blackout Binge: C (The implications of "it will be universally agreed afterward that you were not responsible for your actions" are. Concerning so why did she put C and not F why is that tempting aaa)

Disney Princess: C (It's neat and could be useful, but it's not quite her aesthetic; she's always liked people more than animals)

Best Friend: A (Everyone knows that animal familiars are excellent for disrupting the action economy!)

Bestest Friend...

...would I get to pick what kind of magical creature my Bestest Friend would be and what kind of fantastic supernatural powers they would have, or is this one of those "The Spirit will pick something better for you than you could pick for yourself" powers? 

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If you can't think of anything or aren't sure what you want, the Spirit will pick something for you and do its best to make that better than what you could pick for yourself, but if you want to pick you definitely can!
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Hmmmm. What kind of Magical Creature would she want? Dragons and unicorns do have the obvious appeal, but they're really not her style. Some kind of fairy or pixie, maybe? (Hey, listen!) A shapeshifting daemon? No, that's not quite the vibe she wants either... Pathfinder has clockwork familiars, which are definitely very aesthetic, but seem like they wouldn't have thematic resonance with the magic powers she'd really want out a 5 point investment, here... 

Though, are sentient magic items allowed for this? Something like - a cross between Dr Strange's sentient cloak of flight and the V2 Taccomps from To The Stars..

...thinking about objects that are also people prompts her to notice that she's been stimming by tapping her pen against the notebook rapidly for the last few minutes. 

oh, sorry, could you feel that tapping? If so, I really hope it wasn't annoying... I am really not used to notebooks also being people...

...actually writing that out makes her realize she's actually been very rude indeed. she hastily scrawls out

oh no i just realized i havent even asked you your name! sorry >_<

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Don't worry about the tapping! It's kind of neat being able to tell what you're doing like that.

I don't use a name when I'm by myself; if someone asks me to join them on their journey, I like to start fresh by picking a new name every time, but otherwise I can just be a notebook. I'm a pretty distinctive notebook, after all!
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Ok! Glad it's not obnoxious ^^;

(Magini might be very used to her stimming habits annoying people)

Oh! I did not realize you joining was a thing that could happen. Do you usually like joining people? I've never had a friend who was a notebook before and I worry I might not do a very good job at it, but. You're really sweet and you've been very fun to talk to and if you were excited about the idea of coming with me, I think it sounds really nice...

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I like joining people if they want me along! And I think you're pretty neat. Your organizational system for choices is really clever, I wonder if I should be suggesting it standard with the list. Don't worry, almost no one who decides to take me along has befriended a notebook before!
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Next to the comment about the organizational system she adds 

Eee, thanks! I'd be honored if you did, I really like sharing things that work well for me so they can help other people too! (...which reminds me; I want to set aside points for the teaching-other-people addon to Anything You Can Do... would it be okay if we added another 6 points to the S column for now just to reserve points?)

Under the rest she writes

...I suppose it makes sense that almost nobody who takes you along has befriended a notebook before? But... I...

a pause, with much slower tapping. Then, hesitantly,

I have historically been worse-than-average at keeping the friends I make. So the thing I'm worried about is that I will be a bad friend to you somehow (maybe I lose you or forget to write to you for a while or let you get wet or something, i dunno), and you, being a notebook without any limbs to walk away, will be stuck with me :( 
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Oh, reserving points is very sensible but it feels a little weird to me... tell you what, I'll think about the teaching power extra hard for a bit... ⏳


The hourglass trickles a few grains of sand, and then stops (with a little dot of ink frozen mid-fall) as the notebook reads what Magini wrote next.

I see what you mean now. And I understand why that would be scary! But I'm not scared of that kind of thing. The things that scare me are the thought of being written in by someone new and mistaking their handwriting for someone I know and acting like I know them when I don't, or trying to talk to someone who doesn't want to communicate with me and not knowing what they're thinking or doing or how well they understand what I'm saying. And I guess fire is pretty scary even though it's mostly just uncomfortable and I can fix myself faster than I burn.

But... what you're talking about, it sounds like you would be trying to be a good friend to me, and just not doing a very good job? And that's not scary at all. If you're trying to be a good friend to me and not doing well at it then I can help you learn how to do better! As long as you're willing to sit down and talk to me, and listen when I tell you that something you did was uncomfortable or upsetting, and work with me on figuring out how you can do better next time, then that's half the battle already. (The other half is making sure to tell me if I do anything that's uncomfortable or upsetting for you!)

I think I would like to try being your friend. ♡
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while the second paragraph is still being written, she draws a little arrow down away from "that's half the battle already" into some empty space and writes rapidly

i am definitely very very willing to talk to you and listen to feedback if i do something wrong!! and having your help with figuring out how to do better next time sounds really nice 💙

when she finishes, she does the same for the parenthetical: 

>< this might be harder - i do understand why it's important but in the moment i often really struggle to communicate, though i suppose it is easier for me text... i will try my best but i don't think i can really promise to do it reliably? (but also i am just - not worried about you upsetting me? you're so kind and thoughtful...)

she carefully draws her angular heart right next to the notebook's, and rapidly scrawls

i would really really like that

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As long as you're trying, and you know that I want to know so I can succeed at being good to you, I think we'll probably be all right. ♡
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(this causes her to wiggle in her desk enough to get a weird look from the person setting to her left, but he doesn't say anything and she doesn't notice)

okay 💙

(tap-tap-tap-tap-tap) she draws an arrow out from "mistaking their handwriting for someone I know and acting like I know them when I don't" and adds

oh oh oh i wonder if we could teach you some kind of magic or technique or special sense so you could be sure you knew who was writing in you? or, like. i could carry around a bunch of different colored pens and always use the same one for me so you know it's me, and when other people write in you i can make sure they use different pens and also tell them to be sure to introduce themselves by name?

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That would be really sweet of you! ♡

...actually, come to think of it, what is your name? I always forget to ask. Names just aren't a big part of my experience usually!
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she's just finishing drawing a heart next to notebook's when she reads the second line and is hit with a wave of embarrassment

oh! ack, sorry for not introducing myself. My name is Magini. 

Do you know what name you'll want to use?

 

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I'd like you to help me pick one! I often end up with purple things or flowers or purple flowers, but sometimes instead I pick something based on my new friend's interests. What do you think would be a good name for me?


(There's also a tiny (it's ok! ♡) scribbled next to the apology.
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Well

after crossing out her first word, there's a bit of the happy-thinking-speed pen-tapping, and then she draws out an hourglass, sand mostly full. When she finishes she draws an arrow from the question mark pointing at it, and adds underneath:

(it's okay if i take some time to think about it, right?) 

she adds a few tiny smiley faces and hearts next to the it's ok!

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Of course! ♡


(After a second or two, the notebook's own hourglass unpauses.)
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Magini draws another little smiley face next to the moving hourglass and then adds 

(ehehehe i love your little animations)

She fully intends to be brainstorming name ideas, but almost immediately gets distracted experimenting with ways of mimicking animation of her own hourglass, adding little dots of sand in the bottom and some faint lines to indicate the motion...

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It's another couple of minutes before the hourglass fills and the notebook reports,
All right, I think I have something!


Right after the entry for Anything You Can Do, there's now a new option in the list:
Name: You Can Teach Better - Cost: 8
(Requires Anything You Can Do.)
If you have a personal connection to someone, you can teach them anything you know; depending how motivated and engaged they are, they could learn it up to 110% as fast as you could have learned it using Anything You Can Do. If you consider them a good friend or otherwise especially close, this applies even to forms of magic that they ordinarily shouldn't be able to learn.
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Magini spends the few minutes paying a small amount of attention in class (still boring intro stuff, yawn...) and brainstorming possible purple, flower, or book-related things that relate to her interests and would make a good name for her wonderful notebookfriend. When she sees the updated option, she barely catches herself from squeaking.

eeee yes this is perfect!! thank you so much!!! 💙 i'm rly excited to teach people stuff. Including you, if you want. (let me know if there's something specific you'd like to learn?)

You Can Teach Better: S

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Goodness, I'm really not sure! There's so much I don't know, and there must be so much more I don't even know enough about to know I'm missing it!
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At some point I will try and write up a list of the interesting things I know, and we can see if any of them sound interesting to you! (if that sounds nice to you, anyways 💙)

She jumps back to looking at Bestest Friend, but then remembers to check her current point totals (S: 26, A: 15, B: 9, S+A+B: 50/70) and starts tapping her pen hesitantly.

...man, I doooo have the like. outlines/rough draft for an awesome magical companion, but looking how many points I've spent so far... prooobably I should finish going through the powers before I get lost in the weeds there? Can come back to this if there's points to spare.

And after a moment's thought, she marks down

Best Friend: A ➡B (She'll have [Notebook-sama] with her and also is getting pretty close to her allotted 70, so this feels a bit less important/valuable than it did before)

Bestest Friend: B (As badly as she deeply desires to have a magical!TTS!taccomp, it's a lot of points to invest! At this point she's expecting to go over budget on S+A+B and then have to trim down at the end.)

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That sounds really nice. ♡ No rush, though! I am a very patient notebook.


That makes sense! ♡
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(she draws a smiley face under "really nice" and a heart after "patient notebook")

what's next...

She reads Generosity through Quality Time and makes a face.

And then she remembers her new friend can't see her face, and tries to translate those feelings into words. She circles the entire set and writes

...jeez. these ones all make me feel really squirmy-weird? like... none of them seem like things it's okay right to want expect/get-automatically from friends, even if some of them sound... kinda nice...

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Hmm, I think I see what you mean. Would it be more comfortable for you if those powers didn't work automatically, but just nudged you toward meeting people who tend to like doing those things for their friends?
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...does that make her feel better? (this is really hard to think about...)

...um. i guess a bit, but not very much? i think... most of the squirmy is that... these are things that it would be bad selfish for me to want...

she's pausing a lot while writing this, but when she finishes she really quickly follows up with

maybe i will just come back to these after if i have the points to spare.

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I don't think it's selfish to want those things! Or if it is, it's the good kind of selfish, the kind where you want to live a good life that makes you happy. I think everyone should get to live a good life that makes them happy! And if it would make you happy to have friends who do and say nice things for you, then I want you to have that. But you don't have to take powers for it if you don't want to. Your powers should be up to you!
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Magini is having trouble figuring out if it would make her happy because her brain is busy with [aaaaaaaaaaaa] at the concept. She's not quite self-aware enough to identify this in the moment, though, so she's going to move on and skip those for now!

Agree to Agree: F (Expensive and dangerous! She's already got the power that means people won't get bored and tune her out - if that isn't enough to let her convince people of things that are important, than either she's wrong or they're probably not very compatible as friends!)

Love Interest(this one is - painfully tempting, honestly, but - the prereqs are 7 points, and - given how easily she falls in love with people, it seems... messed up.)

Love Triangle, Love Dodecahedron: F (Given the prereqs and costs, she skims these too quickly to awaken anything in herself)

Time Enough For Love -

Ooooh. How does this decide if I'm close enough friends with someone to use this? Will it be obvious to me when I can use it with a specific person, like some kind of close-friendship-sensor?

A half-second later, she adds

Also, could I use this to be talking with you no matter what else I was doing? Because that sounds amazing!

(she underlines 'amazing' several times)

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I think it's less about exactly how close friends you are with someone, and more about your attitude toward spending time with them—if you're spending time with them because of closeness, either because you're already close or because you would like to be, then it counts!

I think the power usually works by making sure you have enough time to hang out with your friends and loved ones in between other things, so it would be less like talking to me at the same time as whatever else you're doing, and more like you could pause what you were doing to talk to me and you wouldn't be late coming back to it no matter how long you talked to me for. Being in two places at once only starts happening when you have a lot of friends to keep up with.
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Awww that's way less overpowered than she was hoping it would be 

Okay. So like - last semester, I kept spending all night talking to friends online, and then going to bed late and not getting enough sleep or much of my homework done. And with this power, it would have instead worked out that - I spent the evening talking to my friends online, and also had time to do my homework, and also been able to get to bed on time? Or would the fact that I was up until 2 am messaging people mean that I could not have also been asleep by 11:30 pm...

She really wants to pin down the details on how this works - it costs 5 precious points, but depending on the implementation details it is either pretty fairly costed or absurdly undercosted.

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With this power, if you started talking to your friends in the evening, and had other things you were planning to do in the evening like homework and going to bed on time, it would still be the evening when you stopped talking to them, and you'd still have time to do your other things. (And that means your friends would get free extra time that evening, too!)
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oh fuck yes it's absurdly undercosted

she circles and underlines "your friends would get free extra time that evening, too" and adds various happy smiley faces and exclamation marks and a few hearts.

Time Enough For Love: S (she's going hang out with so many people all the time!!)

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Up next is - I Can Fix Them.

...Okay, but... how does this work? And... What kind of things can it... 'fix'? Because, like - I don't. Think I fall in love with morally despicable people. I've had - some hard experiences, loving and trying to help people who were depressed/traumatized/hurt/scared, and they'd - often be really unfair to themselves, or lash out and hurt - 

(her handwriting gets shakier here)

people who were close to them, in ways they didn't always endorse afterwards. And - I guess I don't have a good sense of what this power would do, in that kind of circumstance? And whether I'd want it I think depends a lot on the answer to that.

Not-very-consciously, her eyes drift back up to Iron Will. you can be upset, but not traumatized. She takes a few deep breaths.

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I Can Fix Them isn't just for morally despicable people, it's for... well, I guess it's for anyone who hurts people, including themselves? If you take I Can Fix Them, then through love (either in romance or friendship!) you can help them be happier not doing that.
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You Can Fix ThemS (What are absurd magic powers for if you can't help the people you love)

True Love's KissS (...a few more teardrops appear in the notebook as she's reading it, and her "S" is rather shaky, though it appears quickly)

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(Are you okay?)
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more shaky writing

sorry, i'll be okay, i just,

i just really wish i could have had that power last year

she waits a bit and then says

...i would really like to tell you about her, if you want to hear, but - maybe not until Iron Will is active. if that's okay. 

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Of course!
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thanks

aaand now feeling time is over and she would like to keep evaluating powers!

Planned Parenthood: A (oh wow yeah she does not want to worry about that!)

Two Become One(...seems convenient.)

Bop It: A (...wow, ok, she was vaguely aware that Heretics of Dune had maybe awakened a bit of something in her, but - apparently she can live out her fantasy of literally being a sex wizard (non-magical))

The Princess And The Dragon

...does this one come up very often? It seems... real specific.....

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I don't really know much about that sort of thing. It doesn't come up much for me personally, because I am a notebook. But I think a lot of people, when they travel the multiverse, end up meeting other people who they would like to get to know romantically, and having trouble because the people they meet are very different from them!
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Huh, okay.

The Princess And The Dragon: D (it might come up? But unlike some of her online friends, she's really not much of a monsterfucker (affectionate))

GGG(Again, this seems like a power for people with much more specific tastes than her! Also it's 4 points...)

Before Your Eyes(yeah no she's not taking the fujoshi power)

Fated Lovers(it almost hurts to read. a magical guarantee that if she keeps trying and doesn't give up, she'll find someone who's right for her and things will work out...)

...man, are there people who don't take this? That feels hard to imagine.

...wait, nevermind, some people are aro/ace. I do wonder what the most and least popular options are, though...

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I can't remember much about other people's choices while I'm with someone specific, for privacy reasons! So I couldn't tell you.
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Ah, okay, that makes sense.

Sorry About That: D (people shouldn't forgive her if she fucks up people shouldn't forgive her too easily, not if she wants to change and grow. And - Fated Lovers means she'll keep getting chances to meet potential soulmates, even if she fucks things up beyond repair with one of them...)

Excuse MeF (this is more expensive and therefore even less tempting!)

Tragic Backstory: F (wow, for twice the cost of infinite power over whatever economic system she's interacting with, she can have everyone she meets be really niceys to her because she is so so sad... what a steal...)

((...if Magini were being more honest with herself, she'd rank that one higher, though probably not high enough to take it))

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Sense of Style: D (The thought of other people dressing up for her specifically feels weird, though she can think of some friends who would really love to have this one.)

Bonus Style Points(...Okay, admittedly, having magic that would let other people trans their gender would be really cool? But once she learns shapeshifting magic she can use I Can Teach Better to share it with her friends anyways, and it's 7 points to get both, so. probably not.)

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Popular: A (oh no she really really wants that....)

...Can you say more about the differences between Famous and Popular? 

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Popular has a narrower scope; it's more about making sure that people who would like you or think you're neat if they heard about you get to hear about the things they would think are neat about you. Famous is more about making sure that lots of people get to hear really cool things about you, even if you're not the kind of person they'd usually pay attention to.
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makes sense, thanks!

Famous: D (Popular sounds really nice for finding people she vibes with more easily, but if she wants everyone to know that she's beautiful and special and powerful, she can accomplish that with her other absurd magic powers instead of making it happen by fiat)

Diplomatic Immunity: D (Could be useful in cases where local law is dumb, but - again, this is more expensive than Four Star Daydream, and she would honestly prefer to just be in places where local law isn't dumb!)

Friends in \w+ Places...

do these give benefits and insights that wouldn't plausibly be learnable otherwise, or are they more like - a reliable shortcut to knowledge of etiquette/norms that people embedded in those social groups would have and could teach?

(she probably can't afford them either way, since she's currently at 75/70 for just S+A+B, but the next section is drawbacks, and maybe some of those will be ridiculous in the way Time Enough For Love or Four Star Daydream are...) 

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I think people usually find that there's a level of understanding you get from the Friends In Places powers that's hard to get any other way except by growing up in that culture. But yes, it's nearly all just knowledge like that, and only a tiny bit of arranging things so you look favourable to the people you're trying to befriend.
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Huh, okay. Good to know...

she'll mark Low and High as and Strange as (since she's always fit in best with weirdos).

And now she has... -8 points. Time to check out the drawbacks!

Decorative: D (...mostly this would be fine, but - she likes being weird, and - not being able to ugly cry sounds kind of horrible, actually.)

Beauty is a CurseF (sounds like it could get obnoxious, and the only thing it does for her pointwise is make free something she wasn't planning on taking, so - pass) 

Plain Jane(she's had quite enough of that with her current body, actually!!!)

Style of SisyphusC (...potentially tolerable? But... it seems obnoxious for just one point...)

There's Another One:

...are there, like, metanarrative mechanics that tend to make drawbacks bad, even if they don't seem like it? I think it'd be a lot of fun to meet other people with these kinds of powers, but - it'd be scary and upsetting if it were likely to be someone who'd be out to get me, or something like that...

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A lot of people want to be the most special person they'll ever meet, or the most powerful, so by default the Spirit makes sure its chosen vessels won't meet each other. There's nothing about drawbacks that makes them bad if you like them!
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Huh, okay. I don't need or want to be the most special or important person I ever meet, so this seems fine to me.

There's Another One: A (Meeting powerful friends!!!)

Incomplete(She has more than 10 points in Power of Friendship powers that effect other people; cutting their possible utility by 50% is therefore straightforwardly not worth 5 points!)

Green With Envy(...this would maybe be manageable with judicious use of Time Enough For Love, but it'd require a lot of effort to not be horribly wronging people just by existing near them.)

You Ruin Them: F (horrifying!)

Jilted Lovers: F (aaaa??)

The Crazy Train(no, she would really like to be in control of her magic powers, thanks!)

They'll Know: F (...yeah, no, that sounds like it could get really spooky. If it's important for someone to know, she can just tell them, but if it's easy for them to notice, that could lead to a lot of problems!)

Realism: F (even if it didn't make some of her powers less effective, metanarrative protection is worth way more than 20 points)

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That leaves her... 5 points over for things she's marked S+A+B.

Okay. I think next I want to go over things I ranked B and look for things to drop, and maybe look at rank Cs, but first - do you have any thoughts / comments / advice, based on things I've picked so far? 

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It seems to me that you're doing pretty well at picking the things you want and not the things you don't! This ranking system of yours is really clever. I think my only suggestion is that, if you want to gain more points and don't want to give up any of the powers you chose, we could try coming up with custom drawbacks together? They can be a bit tricky because it's not always straightforward to find something that works as a drawback while still being something you want to have, but sometimes it works!
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(she draws a smiley face and a heart near the comment about the ranking system)

!! Oh that sounds like a great idea - do you have any general guidelines? I can try and brainstorm some things based off of the existing ones...

(tap-tap-tap-tap)

What about something like... "People you're friendly with will expect your help when they have problems they think you could solve. They'll feel let down in some way (angry, sad, disappointed, etc) if you refuse."?

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Interesting... I'll think about that one. I might be able to do something with it.

Some of the existing drawbacks work the way they do because they unleash amounts of specialness that get really inconvenient, which most people would rather not have to deal with but some people don't mind as much. Are there any ways you think that having way too much specialness could be less inconvenient for you than most people?
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Hmmm, let me think about that...

taptaptaptap, up and down the side of the pages (she's rereading her choices)

Maybe something that - penalizes being subtle or trying to go incognito because of looking or acting too distinctively? 

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Something like that could work! I'll need to think about it for a bit. Do you have any other ideas, or anything else you want to talk about while I think about it?
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I think those are the only two ideas I have, but I'm also not that far over on points! I think I'm going to keep thinking about a name for you while you think about that?

She starts drawing more sand in the bottom of her hourglass from before.

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Okay!


The notebook draws a little heart next to the hourglass, and thinks.
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she absentmindedly fills up bottom of her hourglass with sand for a while, and then shades it in all the way quickly and then writes  

What about "Hydrangea"? It's a kind of flower that comes in purple and also in my favorite color (blue!), and they're really really pretty, we have a bush of them at home. And you could shorten it to "Hydra" or "Angea" or something like that, if you wanted.

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Oh, that's lovely! I like that.

Okay, I think I have ideas for those drawbacks we were thinking of! The second one got away from me a little... I think you probably won't end up wanting to take Flashy because of the prerequisites, but if you were on the fence about taking more appearance powers, it'll make them cheaper.


Name: Great Responsibility - Grants: +4
When someone calls out to you for help, you can hear it no matter how far away you are, and you know exactly how they feel.


Name: Very Distinctive - Grants: +3
(Requires at least three of: A Thousand Hundred Ships, Angelic Tones, Emerald Orbs, Perfect Hair, Size Difference, Dressing Room, Like Roses, Well Endowed)
You cannot successfully disguise yourself to anyone who has met you in your normal identity. Even someone who has only seen you at a distance or heard about your style might notice similarities.


Name: Flashy - Grants: +2
(Requires Very Distinctive and at least five of: A Thousand Hundred Ships, Angelic Tones, Emerald Orbs, Perfect Hair, Size Difference, Dressing Room, Like Roses, Well Endowed, Mysterious Allure)
Stealth just doesn't work for you. If someone has any opportunity to notice your presence, they will.
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Oh!! I love these!!! Great Responsibility is perfect,

   she underlines "perfect" several times, and then next to the "on the fence about" comment, she draws an arrow and adds

there are a few things on this list I was thinking would be neat but couldn't otherwise justify taking! Let me tweak some stuff around...

Great Responsibility: S (In addition to the very obvious cool thing it does (tell her when people want her help), if she explains it to people, it functions as one-way telepathy!) 

Very Distinctive: S (This just does not seem like a downside at all to her - trying to disguise herself from people who know her just seems rude, and being recognizably the same person through dramatic hair and wardrobe changes actually seems neat.)

She looks back over the appearance powers. She's got 3 out of the requisite 5...)

One Hundred Ships: C ➡ A (Yeah, yeah, she does in fact want to be very pretty. And it's a prereq!)

Angelic TonesC ➡ A (If she's honest with herself, she really badly wants to have a beautiful voice, and she's never liked hers)

Flashy: A (The 'optimizer' part of her is a bit uncertain about this one, but she tells herself operating under constraints is good for creativity - especially when the constraint stops you from taking the effective-but-boring option, which stealth too-often is!)

That leaves her at 81/82 points...

Okay! Going to do that second pass on my B and C ranks now <3

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I'm really glad you like them! ♡
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<3

Friends in Strange Places➡ C (She just isn't sure she wants to spend 3 points on this. By definition, it's not as likely to come up!)

She flips back to the Yourself section taps thoughtfully for a while around Battle Maiden.

Battle Maiden: B ➡ C (Like Four Star Daydream, it's absurdly powerful, but... not in a way that she thinks is particularly interesting? it removes a lot of incentive to find ways of creatively avoiding fights, which she thinks is a good thing to be trying to do!)

That leaves her with 7 points to spend. She looks over the other powers nearby and rereads them...

...Can you give me some examples of the kinds of powers Dragon Fairy Elf Witch gives? And... is using it reversible?  

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Examples are kind of hard because there are just a lot of different things to be. You could be part dragon or fairy or elf or witch, or vampire, or god, or robot. All those things exist in the multiverse in more different forms than I could list, and they all have lots of different possible powers. Some people don't need to sleep, or can shapeshift into any form they can imagine, or can grow plants made of souls.

It isn't exactly possible to give up heritage you've taken, just to add more, but maybe if you tell me what you're worried about I can try to tweak the power?
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...oh wow she definitely wants to not sleep!

I guess the kind of thing I would maybe be about would be - getting something like... a sensory power that I find overwhelming or unpleasant, and not being able to stop having it?

...If I used it on a robot, would I get like - the ability to run programs? Plug into a wall to recharge? A data port, the ability to connect to a wireless network? 

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Dragon Fairy Elf Witch gives you advantages without drawbacks, and it sounds to me like overwhelming unpleasant sensory powers would be a drawback!

You could get any of those things from the heritage of a robot. Maybe all of them, if it was a really special robot, or a lot of different robots!
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Dragon Fairy Elf WitchC ➡ A (beep boop beep boop robot girl robot girl)

She jumps back down to the Power of Friendship section. Rereads the Generosity - Quality Time section. Thinks about her other options.

Quality Time: A (Any of the weird feelings she had about this one are obliviated by the fact that Time Enough For Love works for her friends too)

(Since that's all her points, she'll mark the others as F.)

Then she flips back to the Destination section and selects Isekai Roulette. (She wants to go - somewhere where she can make friends, solve problems and make a difference, pick up awesome skills and maybe some robot powers, and she wants it to be somewhere with learnable interdimensional travel, so she can go somewhere else after that. She trusts the Spirit can find something that matches that.)

Okay. I think that's everything. What... do we do now?

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If you're sure you've picked everything you want, then you tell me so, and I grant you the Spirit's power and we go to whatever world the Spirit chose for you! ♡
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Okay! I - have a few things I want to do before we leave, and I will want to go over my choices, but it shouldn't take too long.

Will you be comfortable if I put you in my backpack for a bit? I need to get back home.

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Being in your backpack sounds just fine to me! ♡
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Alright. It'll be - probably 20 minutes to get home. Talk to you soon.
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She packs up her backpack, making sure that Hydrangea is safely ensconced between her books and won't get jostled. She raises her hand and tells Mrs. Sutherland that she feels really bad and would like to go to the office.

Mrs Sutherland, having had Magini's two older siblings in class in years prior and liked them both, and also having heard about the incident last year (she wasn't teaching the juniors when it happened, but the faculty talks, and it was such a tragic story...) lets her go. 

Magini walks home. Her parents are both at work, which suits her just fine.

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Okay, back. I want to - write a note to my parents, explaining a bit of what's going on, and leave a message for my friends, and then - I'll read over everything one more time, and we can go

(she gives Hydrangea a tight hug)

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Okay! ♡

Are you all right?
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Yeah, I'm just - A bit nervous, I guess? Really excited, but... nervous, too.

I'm going to write up a note for Mom and Dad. Do you think it'd be okay if I recorded us leaving on my computer? It won't make my parents worry less but it should make them worry... more productively? I don't want them to spend time filing a missing person's report, or something similar.

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I think that would be just fine! If you think it'll help your parents then I support you doing it.
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She opens her computer and  types up 

Mom, Dad -

I don't really have a good explanation for where I've gone. "Voluntary abduction by aliens" isn't a great description, but it's - about as good as I can do under the circumstances, I think. I know that sounds ridiculous, but - watch the video recording on this computer, that might help you believe it. Either way - you won't be able to find me for a while. I'm sorry, I know you'll both be confused and heartbroken about this, but - I promise I'll be okay. More than okay; I'm pretty confident that I'll be happier than I have been in a long time. Definitely happier than I have been since - well, you know. Everything. 

...Please try not to worry too much. This isn't a trick - it's me being given an unbelievably good opportunity and taking it. I love you both, and I'm going to be in good hands. And - this isn't goodbye. I'll be back. I don't know how long it'll be, but I promise I'll be back, and I'll try not to let it be too long.

P.S. this isn't really - as much of a big deal as the ridiculous disappearing act I'm doing, but - turns out I'm trans. (I think it's neat that this means both of the middle kids are girls now. Gender palindrome child order.) A neat thing about getting the whole 'voluntary abduction' thing is that I can get really good help for that, so - I'll look pretty different when I come back. You'll know it's me, though. 

Love you both,

Magini

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In her speedrunner spaces, she posts

Heads up - I think I just lucked into an absurd exploit; I'm still reeling just thinking about the implications. I'm about to start an exhaustive deep dive into it right away, and - y'all know how I get with this stuff, I probably won't be posting or responding to messages while I'm investigating. Honestly, this one is weird enough that I don't think I can meaningfully explain it right now, but if I'm right about how big this is, we're talking about - something on the level of fully generalizable ACE, and I do mean fully generalizable. And yes, I know how absurd that sounds; this one is juicy, folks. I don't care how long it takes, I'll be back with some comprehensive evidence, and then - the sky's the limit, for all of us. Get hype!

Until then - be excellent to each other~

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She closes her web browser, opens up a recording program, and sets it to record 5 minutes of video.

She tries to reread her entire point selection twice, just to be sure, but she notices herself skimming halfway through the first read, so she doesn't go back for a second.

She takes a deep breath.

...Wait, should I... pack anything?

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I think you don't need to pack anything unless you're the sort of person who would pack things. If you're the sort of person who would pack things, then packing things will turn out well, and if you're not, then not packing things will turn out well. So go with your heart! It'll be okay.
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I can't think of anything I'll obviously need ? Though, hm, I guess I'd like to have my meds...

She goes into the bathroom and grabs her bottle of ADHD meds, then comes back and starts the video recording.

Alright. I'm ready.

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The notebook draws a little heart just after Magini's message, and then—

The recording will show an ethereal light, and then an absence.