🎉✨Notes!✨🎉

Scribbled below in slightly smaller, less aligned text is a different note of her own. 

I think it would probably help to talk about the genre that you're looking for? That way you can work to figure out how to make sure you get that through your choices ^^. It's really important to me that you get what you're looking for, and I'm happy to help!

Oh yeah, I will. Writin' up user stories is just emotionally draining in it's own way, and my brain has a haaard time believing all of this in front of me w/out going through each thing, I guess? Glancing down the page and getting a proper thought for each of these is... different. 

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.

Oof. That's kinda pricey for a shitty superpower, is my first instinct ^^. Is very easy to get powers that are much better then this in most like, supers-y or xianxia-y settings? I guess there's like, angles that it could make a diff but that's aesthetically unappealing to me, and probably more generally us? A shitton of stamina is an attractive prospect, tho.

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.

Okay so... Mostly these make sense in the combat-y adventure school 'f world choice. Which honestly is kinda a lot of the things that I'd wanna get up too, at least as a side hustle? That's not to say that I'd need anything like this at all, tho, in some like super general way, especially if there's more goodies later. These feel - a bit cheaty? Battle demon feels the least cheaty,but it still circumvents like, actual combat experience or gettin' to develop that. Angel is good but also just kinda cuts off stakes a bunch of tension and like - stakes and shit, but m'ybe also is a super req'd survival perk in that case? if it was more then a pt I'd probably talk about negotiating down the comprehensiveness for more val, but that's uh. Not the case, so...

Battle maiden is both kinda awesome 'nd kinda cheaty-lame 'nd also kinda... scary? That's a weird word there, give me a sec. 

Uh. Puttin' words to it comes out to something like "I don't want to start w/ the kinda power that this actually gives me, and I don't want the trappings of gaining power and influence to be stripped from me, 'cause that's kinda the fun part". Growing in power and being in the sort of situation where can work to make things better feels more right then uh. Decapitating strikes and then struggling through stragglers. Battle demon seems nice as like - an edge, and something where we can actually exploit things fair and square? Bonus pts. if it works in broader settings then just 'fights' or whatev. 

If I'm nitpicking here, I'd like to tune battle angel so that more injuries are like, possible, but there's some like, later level protection that means that I don't like, miss out on shit by being injured? I like the idea of gettin' to angle towards invincibility but that being... free seems a little awkward? Or m'ybe I'm irl a total pussy about serious injuries and how much they fuckin' hurt and this is all empty talk. 

Haaaaaard to say. 

None of these are Literally Required:tm:, tho, at least. We'll see ^^

You can do that! I don't think that needs a text change but we can figure out one if you'd like? 

Inner Strength should always be a meaningful increase in your physical power and endurance, even if it's much higher then the example above.

I think you're maybe underestimating how much control over your body those perks would give you - there's a lot of physical things that you can tune to make that less bad, and when you're in an ideal world, the pain will probably feel more okay. If you're still worried about that... There's this perk. 

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. "

This will guarantee that won't be more of a problem that you can handle, and are okay with handling.

Oh ok. That's... Okay? That's a lot of endurance but it's still something that feels like it ought to be eminently cuttable. 

...Hold the phone ^^

Could you pull the prereqs up? 

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.

Oh those sound p. good, and likely to be worth including, unless there's like, some big catch on the 'directly' there. 

And uh. 

Sometimes it's an advantage, for gaining trust or getting to experience different things or whatever? It'd be nice if you could make the selectivity work like that. 

Sure! 

A moment... 

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

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

There!

Do, do, doo be do. 

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".

Ooh.

This is - actually less appealing than I was expecting? The reason that financial success is otherwise so appealing feels like it ought to be otherwise covered, somehow? 

I doubt that like, the presumptive outcome if you don't take any of this is being super destitute for a while, which if it was the case would be a big reason to pick up Making Ends Meet, though stability and fall back options are still like, arguably p. important. 

The rest... 

hm. 

Four star daydream is appealing to me, but it seems hard to come in in a situation where like, I have the buying tools to make use of it w/out a ton of work to make it fun? It's not like those aren't purchasable w/ some digging, but that infra might be finnicky... 

Or I'm being a silly and it's mostly covered here. 

Yeah probably it's great for that, in a context where there's a lot of civ to take advantage of people. 

It's just - a lot of stories that I think of, when I think of like, big, pressing adventures, are all about the known world, or some mass of polities or whatever, being surrounded and being in a position where they have to work w/ what they have. Which is both very this, and kinnnnda invalidates it? 

It's hard to think about super clearly w/out the actual like, walk through of what this fuckin' means economically. There's lots of stupid things that could happen, but the metanarrative protections are a thing, so it doesn't say, create deflationary messes by having big numbers, or get brick walled by KYC shit. 

Could you talk a lil bit about what it actually looks like to have? 

The amount of money that Motherlode or Making Ends Meet grants isn't large enough to substantially distort economies, unless there's not really enough of an economy for things to be really available enough to buy. It's not really the sort of thing that needs any special explanation, beyond things probably working out a little bit better in the background of the economy, almost every time someone's taken that perk. Sometimes there is a concrete reason behind the funds - some inheritance, gift, or asset that they're able to get that value out of, but it's not very needed, usually? 

Four Star Daydream is about purchasing power, more then money. You can still get a really big number in your bank account, for convenience, but what the perk does is let you buy anything and everything that you could buy, without worrying about having enough funds or enough things to sell for it. With Four Star Daydream, you can buy a big company, as long as someone else who had enough money to do that kind of thing could do that, and the people who own that company would be willing to part with it for just money. There's some things that you can only buy if you're in an upper class associated with richness, but you won't be unable to buy things just because people would normally think that you wouldn't have that kind of funds - you can prove that you have it just as well as if it had some more concrete source. 

Sometimes people get versions of the perk that mean that they have some vast collection of something valuable, or some incredible advantage in making money, like a perfect skill in market speculation, access to places that they can always make profitable trades in, or the resources of royalty behind them, after accomplishing a great feat that they ended up being rewarded for. 

And you have the power to purchase things! I remember hearing about billionaires that just sort of sit on money and things that are mostly just money, but you actually have that purchasing power! You can buy as much as you want, as long as it's out there to buy, from services to objects to other things! You'll get what you pay for, and other people will still be able to get what they were buying, too, because taking away other people's things just because you can outbid them is the sort of negative consequence that the Spirit stops.

Ooookay then. 

I have a - difficulty picturing what that means if I'm like, buying skilled human services? Like, let's say I take the perk, I plop into a modernish world, then I say "Fuck it, let's make an anime out of every single fanfic I've ever read" or something like that, and I buy the services of studios or whatever to make that happen. What happens to like, the rest of the market? Are there just like, magically more people who can do that kinda work now, and the rest of the anime industry keeps chugging along?

Mhm ^^!

She breaks out into a sharp chortle, and shake my head. 

Really? 

Something like that can happen! You might also end up with some innovation that means that you can get more people more productive at making anime, or you might end up in a situation where the increased investment makes a difference as to the artists they can involve, or something else like that. The Spirit can make ridiculous things happen, because that can both be a really important part of being special and powerful, but having a sense of what's impressive and possible is an important facet of power and narrative in general, so things will rarely if ever end up with a result that you would find fundamentally absurd as a result of your powers, at least once you know what's going on. 

Ohhhh yeah...

That makes sense. 'm gonna probably have to run a v. w/ and w/out for the user stories for some of these... 

Don't want to lock in anything. 

Realistically I think imma gonna grab the mental defense line, except m'ybe in a build or two that I throw in to be bloody contrary ^^

Side by siding these things can be bloody important. 

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.

There we go ^^. You explained this really p. thoroughly. Which isn't to say I don't have a bajillion questions ^^. What kinda class of being does it cover? Can I just like, copy a normal ass housecat and get cat ears? Can I get bloodline powers? The drawback thingymajig is more "Only in so far as it's cool and dramatic and you want it to be a thing", yeah? How does it even work on like, having kids? It doesn't nesscarily actually cause my descent to change, does it? Bet this fuckin' manages incompatible powers too ^^

...Yeah ok I'm kinda vibrating in excite here ^^ 

Feels like it opens up a lot too, if the kinda thing that i wanna be at the end just has to be something that can be made out of a turbo mix of everything. Also is just an organic-y see the world-y power growthy option! Honestly this is even tempting in a turbo minimalist stay here run, much less something waaay more ambitious. 

How comprehensive it is depends a little on the person taking it, but you should at least be able to copy animals and anything sapient. 

You can, if those sorts of features are appropriate for you! 

It works on magical inheritances, yes! Generally, the way that the perk works gives you the kind of benefits you'd get if you were descended from the being that you're applying the effect to, or if that's not something that makes sense, it'll give you enough essence of the kind of thing that they do that it works out anyways. There's more or less always a way to fully awaken the powers that you've gained too, so you don't miss out on anything that you'd get if you just were a cat, or a spirit, or whatever else you've decided to mimic. 

Children you have will generally get as many inheritances as the spirit can squeeze in, while still coming out how you're picturing a child of yours ought to look. They won't necessarily have shapeshifting and variable expression, but most of the benefits of their heritages should still be in there somewhere! 

Mhm, Mhm!

Sweet. 

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.

This is like... useful but it's also the sort of thing that people design shit around? There's also a reason why like, translation magic is something so ubiquitious as a basic thin', because it's a giant bitta friction to stories that doesn't oft help things really work. 'nd 'sides, it's not like you can't just like, learn languages or get a cute lil translator aide. The semantics here also lean against like, having that-that much free utility in terms of being able to do cheaty stuff w/ magic languages? I'm sure I could skim for something that fit that, but I don't like, actually actually super think that's like, extra fun for me? Oh yeah. Uh. The 'strangely accurate guesses about how to phrase things' seems m'ybe p. useful even in a native lang, if it's that-that generic ^^ 'm sure there's some bennie even in native tongue-y things, but whatev. It's not that that isn't good but I feel like this isn't nesscarily a high priority way to do that? I feel like that's the kind of skill that works best just learning for real. I guess if I want to do something low magic-y this is an okay-ish option if I'm also trying to be like, turbo cosmopolitan or whatever? Just the net thing is not thaaaat appealing to me.

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.

Ooooo I'm thinking of this as already part of my build, tbh? The ability to learn like, literally everything as long as I can kinda get into a social circle for something, up to and including magic systems seems like such an obvious pick. It's probably not even that difficult to hack something together for getting a personal connection to some really good resource, and it incentivizes fun-fuzzy-warm socially things ^^. Plus is a nice complement to getting a bajillion bloodline advantages and the like.

Actually like... 

hm. 

If I'm being extra sticklery about this and trying not to think about how much I wanna be a fuckin' catgirl, then this potentially kinda obviates the advantages of taking DFEW for magics? I guess it depends on the limits of the "Forms of magic that you ordinarily shouldn't be able to learn" clause. It seems relatively unambiguous that you could say, pick up something like harry potter wizardry, which works based off more or less a binary toggle of "Wizard Y/N" within otherwise normal humans, and more or less entirely develops by learning stuff the hard way, but more specialized bloodline-y things or things not called magic or whatever? 

It works best for the kind of magic system where a large part of the experience is about learning and growing the talent, rather then being additionally special in some way. You shouldn't have any problems picking up the potential for wizardry or psychic powers, but it'll struggle a little with things that are less like that .

If there's only say, a small bloodline of people with a special power, or there's larger implications to having a power, it's less likely you'll just be able to pick it up by just trying to study with someone. Still, even if it doesn't straightforwardly give you the ability to pick it up, it should help you be able to understand the way their powers work, and maybe even find a way to poach them with the rest of your skills you have, and once you have it, it'll help out too! 

You might be able to pick up the magic system of a race that you aren't a member of, especially if they're fundamentally similar to the kind of person you are and it fits the narrative, but Dragon Elf Fairy Witch will make it a lot easier and more natural to pick it up those skills. 

 

Okay, okay, so the magic of an dwarf or something is m'ybe doable, it doesn't need to be magic-magic but needs to look like it at a distance, and they're not redundant. 

Woof this is gonna be a lot a lot of points. 

Let's sum that now, actually, for the stuff that I really want? 

Call it... 

The 21 points of perks I mentioned earlier, plus DFEW, AYCD, the mental defense line, battle angel and demon.

That's 37 points! 

And that's to the power of friendship section. 33 pts for this one ain't bad, espec. before drawbacks.

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.

...Huh. A lot of questions :3

I think I get that this - works kinda the same way as the like, experience stuff w/ the aesthetic perks. It's not... at all? nesscarily? directly affecting the mind, and is just like, super luck and world selection / nature changing and performance enhancer-y stuff, I guess? Some clarification would be nice.

The term definition is a lil odd here? Is it like, a more general definition change-y thing for us, once we're through it? Like, do 'true love' tests work w/ this definition now or is it just how you're defining it for the rest of the section?

Not sure if that matters but. 

I think you have the right idea. A lot of the friendship perks will only use direct mental influence as a last resort to guarantee success, rather then the fundamental basis of how the perk works, especially if you wouldn't approve of that sort of thing. 

It's mainly the latter! You'll have a lot of freedom for how you define your relationship to systems like that as part of being a vessel of the spirit's power, but it's not trying to make a more specific guarantee here. 

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.

...Why does this make me blush ^^? 

Honestly, my first instinct is that this is like, crazy expensive for something phrased so loosely-goosely? Or that it's like, prereq fodder, but... 

How - impressive, is the effect? Hecc, what's the - angle, towards making me more fascinating / interesting / draw-forth-ing?

Actually... 

I should probably draft something for how I'd want it to work, and then you can talk about how much it's actually like that or could be like that, yeah? 

That sounds potentially wise! It's good to think through things in whatever format feels the most natural for you, and to think about what you're looking for over how it looks like the perks works, because of the flexibility. You can always just ask me questions afterwards, too. 

This is a thinker. 

She taps tap taps her cheek, and closes her eyes for a moment. 

What's the fun in being - what, the center of attention? Having an aura? being conspiciously interesting and important? 

Something like that so... 

Keeping it chunked, keep it focused, keep it clear. 

Annnnd there's moonsilver. 

Hey. This is Moonsilver - I'm going to pop in for a decent while to sketch some of this out. We're all she/hers, unless stated otherwise, by the way. 

Having the technical side of - stage presence is a good thing to have. The ability to just be naturally the sort of person that can put themselves out there, a little puffed up and ready to exert little bit of social control is appealing? 

When I think of wanting to have that presence, one of the biggest angles is just the social dominance angle? Getting to exert ourselves more freely, getting to find a way to come out on top, and getting to have people follow our words and our way is often an exciting prospect, but beyond that... 

It's about - selling our virtues. we want people to listen to use because we're compelling and creative and hot and intriguing and interesting and swift and clever and creative, because they can feel that in the way that we talk and speak and hold ourselves. There's nothing wrong with also being too hot to look away from - that's a big part of the reason why we reached for the Fairest of Them All, after all - but it should at least - bubble down to the sort of reasons that people would endorse making someone worth listening to, or following the stories of, say. 

People want to listen to someone who's bright and brilliant and witty, who has an interesting story to tell, and impressive talents and work product and all that. 

If I'm including everything that tangentially bubbles up, then you have the whole 'alpha aura' angle, signalling the unconscious mind, some more aesthetic powers, some sort of - metanarrative guarantee that being interested in me isn't - wasteful or unproductive or unfulfilling in some general case, or some similar true instinctive reassurance that ogling or listening carefully or following our story is worthy and productive and egosyntonic and of a minimal to non-existent opportunity cost. 

Obviously I don't want it to make me have less interesting company, but I presume that's the point of the disclaimer line at the end? 

Confessedly a touch tempted to sketch out some perk text...