Oh no, that sounds so sad! The poor notebook, worried that it's forgotten in the back of a drawer, sad and alone, for however long for it takes for wait, for them to die? How does this work exactly does it just persist as long as they live and then go somewhere else where elsewhere is another world? Does picking options and telling it to bestow the Spirit's power on her means the notebook will go away forever which is a little bit sad? Well, she can just ask it.

So if I never pick anything, are you just stuck waiting here until I die? Do you disappear to go somewhere else when I finally die? That sounds so lonely, though, I'm sorry that that's happened to you before! Also, if I make a choice, and you bestow the power, do you leave me also? 

Jenna also remembers that she considered burning it earlier, when she thought it was evil (which is probably isn't but she should still be very very double plus extra sure) and she wants to know what would happen if she tried that but it's probably not polite to ask. It would be upsetting if someone asked her what would happen they burned her, she's not about to ask this poor lonely notebook about it. 

Oh, don't worry, I'm very patient! It comes of being a notebook. To me, sitting quietly alone with my thoughts for a few minutes is not all that different from sitting quietly alone with my thoughts for a few years, and I like them both fine.

Usually, when someone makes their choices and I bestow the Spirit's power on them, I just leave and go to my next assignment! (Sort of. It's complicated. You could also say I'm on all of my assignments all at once all the time, but that's not really accurate either.) But if someone asks, I can instead come with them on their journey through the multiverse. I usually like that quite a lot! It can be fun to be with someone on their adventures and see them write in me about all the interesting things that happen.

Okay this notebook is too friendly, it can't be evil. She's still sticking with her earlier promise not to do anything until tomorrow for sure in case she's being tricked but also: she doesn't need to keep being suspicious. At least not right now. She can be suspicious tomorrow. Right now she can have fun. 

I think I would like that, if you want to come with me! And I'm still sorry about those people, even if it's okay doing that I still think it would be very lonely to be alone for that long. 

Okay, so, time to check off some stuff and see where she is since the notebook is keeping track and she isn't all that good at math and doesn't want to mess up and there shouldn't be any reasons not to check things off. It's fine, right? It's fine. 

She goes and checks off Mysterious Allure (she's going to leave Captive Audience alone, that one still feels weird), Generosity, Helpfulness, Cuddle Buddies, Quality Time, Love Interest, and Time Enough for Love. And then makes sure to also check off Incomplete for good measure. And now are the numbers at the top of the page updated to what she's done so far and how many of her points has she used up already? 

You need A Thousand Ships from the Yourself section to make Love Interest work, but it's fine to not have it checked off yet, it just means I'll need to remind you to check it before I can finalize your choices.

Oh! She should check and see what that is, first. 

Okay, that's not necessarily something that she wants (though having the best face does sound nice she could have less acne that she needs to hide with makeup and her hair could be better though actually wait that's a different thing though isn't it yes there it is) because there's not all that much to complain about her face in the first place unless she's trying to (there's always stuff that could be better but she doesn't need to make it perfect or anything) but as a prerequisite of Love Interest and only one point it's probably worth taking. She checks it. And then checks the hair one for good measure, before flipping back to... no wait the notebook is being helpful. 

Right, thanks for that!

And now back to the Power of Friendship options. 

Where was she? Right, there she was, right after Love Dodecahedron which she is definitely very much not taking ever why would she take that and Time Enough for Love, which brings her to I Can Fix Them. Which sounds useful if she needs it and honestly like a fun part of an adventure with a dashing rogue with a heart of gold that starts out as a mercenary for the bad guy but she converts to their side with a winning smile and repeated complicated ethical interactions where he keeps having second thoughts okay actually yes she's definitely checking that one. True Love's Kiss is cheap and seems straightforwardly good to take, she'll check that too. Planned Parenthood... 

What exactly does it mean in Planned Parenthood that my boyfriend won't care about whether or not I'm having kids? Why is that an option? 

Also, for that matter, she's not how she feels about that concept at all. She doesn't want to have kids, yet, for sure, but if God wants her to have kids... it's one thing to use condoms and stuff (no matter what her mother thinks) but condoms can break and cutting off the option altogether seems wrong somehow. 

It doesn't mean that they won't care about whether or not you're having kids! It just means that they'll believe you if you tell them you have this power, and they'll understand that it really works and you're not making it up or anything. Without that part, a lot of people find that it's hard to explain about this sort of thing and be believed.

Oh, that makes sense! That would probably be useful if she was the kind of person who would want to do that sort of thing... which she isn't. She doesn't have any reason to take Planned Parenthood; she can just let God figure out when she's supposed to have kids and just be very very careful about sex until then. 

Okay, maybe she does have a reason to take Planned Parenthood, she blushes a little when she reads the description for Two Become One imagining perfect sex on her wedding night (or before her wedding night, really, but sex with someone she really loves and enjoys first of course she's not going to have sex with the first hot boy she meets unless he's really really hot and sweet and stuff). And then while trying to think about if it's worth taking Planned Parenthood to get that she reads the next one and blushes even more. 

Is there a reason why Two Become One and Bop It (and also why is it called Bop It) require Planned Parenthood? I don't want to take Planned Parenthood, but I do want Two Become One for sure, and Bop it also sounds really nice. 

The Spirit thinks it is pretty sad when someone has children they aren't ready for, so it wants people who are going to take those kinds of powers to make sure they will use them safely. If you want to have children, Planned Parenthood will definitely still let you!

What if I don't think I should be choosing whether or not I have kids myself? That sort of thing is supposed to be up to God, not me. Other people might want that, but I don't. 

Well, I might be able to get you a version of the power that will let you have kids when you're ready for them even if you don't decide to on purpose, would that work?

That works! Sure, as long as I'm not like, choosing when I have kids on my own instead of God doing it. And I guess I can wait a little while until I'm ready. If you can do that I'd be really grateful, thanks! I really want to take Two Become One and I might take Bop It too. 

All right, one moment!

Name: Providential Parenthood - Cost: 1 ☐
You can only have children when you're really ready for it, or if you actively and specifically decide to.

That is a perfect name for waiting on the grace of God to give her children. She checks off that one and Two Become One and Bop It after a few seconds of blushing thinking about the absolute perfect time having sex with someone on her wedding night or probably before her wedding night honestly but still. It's really cheap and she wants it. And plus if she does find a dashing rogue that starts off as her enemy and she wins him over with a smile and kisses him perfectly and touches him perfectly well, then that'll help convert him to her side, won't it, with the power of friendship and love. Also, it'll be really really hot. Blushing, she reads further. 

And then she starts grinning even further when looking at the next one. The name of it makes it very very clear what exactly it's trying to allow for, and she had never thought that seducing a dragon would be something she ever wanted but it sounds like it could be fun now that she's thought about it. And who knows what kinds of people might exist in the magical world she's going to end up in, there could be dragons and elves and werewolves and fish people and plant people and stuff like that, and her dashing rogue could be any of those. She's not sure which of those she might want him to be, but... there's no reason not to take this one since it's useful. Maybe she can give it up if she takes too many points up? It's 3 points, not just 1, but she checks it off anyways. How many points is she up to now? 

(36/75)

Oh, she's at nearly half already. That's not good. Well, if she's checking all these things off already maybe she can find good drawbacks later, like Incomplete was? Or maybe she can uncheck some things later. The notebook said she could, maybe she shouldn't hold back from checking anything off that she actually wants and she can go back later and cut some of the things out. Still though, she doesn't want to run out of power, or points, or whatever they are, and actually why is there a limit like this at all? 

Question, since I noticed I've used up more than half the points available already, why exactly is there a point limitation? I'm worried that I'm going to end up using up too many points and while I can go back and fix it later so things even out I just want to know why it works this way. Oh, and thanks for the Providential Parenthood option, by the way, since I didn't say it before and got distracted looking at the other skills. It's exactly what I was looking for and I really appreciate it! 

I'm glad I can help! ♡

The points are sort of a way to measure how much effort the Spirit puts into granting you these powers. Different things are easier or more difficult, so they cost different amounts of points. The drawbacks are ways to earn a bigger point allowance by making things easier somehow or other, like making powers work less well or only work some of the time.

Well, okay, that makes sense. There's only so much power this Spirit can put into doing all of these things for her and so she's not going to be able to take all of the nice options. Well she can start by checking off all the things she wants and then come back and filter out the less good ones. Probably tomorrow so she has time to think about it more since she's certainly not going to be doing this until tomorrow anyways. 

Okay, that makes sense! I'm going to check off all the things I want and then remove some of them later if they're too many, so don't worry if I go over the limit temporarily, as long as that's ok. That is ok, right? 

Yes, of course! Until you say you're done it's all just marks on paper, with me keeping track of the math. There's no problem at all with going over temporarily.

Okay perfect! Time to look over so very many more options again she just needs to remember where she was. 

GGG (why is it even called that what does it stand for) doesn't seem all that useful to her, she has an inkling of what might be gotten at here (whips and chains and weird stuff like that) but that's not something that she's into. She's going to have normal sex with people where she touches them and they touch her back and it feels so good and they smile at her with love in their eyes and they share a moment of joy and passion and delight. Normal sex stuff. Not anything weird. 

Before Your Eyes... Jenna thinks about watching two cute boys (Danny and Ron from highschool come most easily to mind she always had a crush on both of them especially Danny but they weren't really who she was supposed to be dating and also her mom would never have let her near them if she found out so she never did anything with it and didn't really want to anyways) make out with each other, touching each other and looking into each other's eyes with Danny's hand running down Ron's back to squeeze his... nope nope nope nope! Jenna blushes and blushes more and goes immediately to the next option. Nope, no way, not at all, that's not something she should want. Not that there's anything wrong with homosexuality, she knows better than her mom and her pastor and such but she's very very much into boys and not girls and it would be weird to be into watching boys kiss each other! That would be wrong. 

Fated Lovers: yes, yes, perfect, a million times yes, exactly what she wants, she puts a checkmark in the box and then circles it and then circles it again for good measure. She doesn't have a target in mind because she doesn't know where she's going to end up though maybe she could talk to the book about if the kind of person she wants to be there and help out is a possibility if she checks the box rather than a specific person because she really likes the idea of converting someone with ethical worries over to her side from the bad guys through the power of love (and kisses, and makeouts, and sex), but even if that's not a thing this is perfect. She's not going to have multiple true loves unless her husband dies which would be terrible but it's good that the option to find new love after something tears her old one from her and she goes through an appropriate mourning period exists.  

Sorry About That is possibly tempting though she's not likely to make mistakes like that but it's good to have a safety net with her one true love but after she reads Excuse Me and Tragic Backstory she has to push the notebook away in disgust and catch her breath. That's awful. That kind of thing is terrible to do to other people! Even if it's through coincidence or whatever she's not going to want to do anything like that to people, she's supposed to be graceful and loving and understanding in relationships and friendships not... be a horrible jerk and get away with it! No. None of these. None of these ever.

Sense of Style doesn't seem that interesting at least not until she starts thinking of swashbuckling rogues in short sleeves that show off their arm muscles or even better if their shirt is open so she can see their muscular chests and plus they can wear tight leather pants to show off their... okay, no, she's checking this option, and the next one. She can always uncheck them later if they're not worth it because they're probably not important and it would be silly to spend so many of her points on something like this and maybe she shouldn't be then she imagines her rogue flexing again and blushes and leaves both boxes checked. For now. She'll remove them later probably. Tomorrow. 

Popular seems fine, and fun -- though isn't that something she's going to accomplish on her own in this world, with being an incredible and amazing actress. It totally is. She doesn't need magical help for that, even if magical help is tempting, but -- no. It wouldn't feel anywhere near as good if she didn't earn it. But she imagines people cheering her name and and blowing her kisses as she travels through a crowd (though that's really more of what Famous seems to do but that one sounds really creepy) and she grins and her pen hovers over it for a while before she shakes her head. No. No, she can do this herself. She can. She will. Probably. Right? 

How exactly would Popular go about working, exactly? Or Famous, for that matter? What exactly would I be popular for, how would it work, exactly? 

That depends! If you already have something to be popular for, like a glamorous acting career (so exciting!), then it's easy to make sure you're popular just by making sure the right people hear about it so they can be impressed. If not, then maybe you get opportunities to do things that people will be impressed by, or maybe the power arranges things so people hear whatever it is about you that would impress them even if it wouldn't impress many other people—so if you happen to have read and liked someone's favourite book, maybe they'd happen to run into you while you had it in your hand, or if you happen to have learned a cool card trick that someone is struggling with, they might see you practicing it. The main difference between Famous and Popular when neither of them is working in mind-affecting ways is that Popular focuses more on bringing you to the attention of people who are already predisposed to think you're neat, and Famous focuses more on getting you opportunities to do cool things that will impress lots of people and then making sure everyone hears about them.

Okay so that all makes sense and isn't too terrible but

Isn't that kindof like cheating, almost, though? I want to be a popular or famous actress on my own, not with help. Plus if I'm going to another world it's probably because I'm going to go fight an evil that only I can fight, or something like that, like in the Narnia books. I don't want to be famous because I picked an option in a book, I want to actually be that awesome and charming even if the idea of walking through a crowd to my latest premiere with cameras going off and stuff is really awesome, it wouldn't be as good if I didn't do it on my own, you know what I mean? 

Of course! Very reasonable of you. If you're the sort of person who cares about being awesome all on your own, then I think you should get the chance to! ♡

Jenna blushes a little at that, happy about how sweet the notebook is being and secretly glad that it's also understanding of her true desires and not trying to tempt her into something she only thinks she wants like she's always been warned about by her pastor's sermons, though usually that's more about the demons of society and not actual literal demons though she was already pretty sure it wasn't a literal demon and now she has extra proof! 

Well, then that's what I'll do when I get back! Actually, wait, is it possible to make sure I only have these powers when I'm not at home? I don't want to affect the people in my real life with them, if I don't have to. 

She doesn't want to take Popular regardless, but it still seems unfair for her to check off something like Mysterious Allure or Helpfulness when she's not on some kind of magical adventure to fight evil and save a planet and then rule over it justly with her redeemed rogue at her side.