You can summon the contents of pockets, purses, or backpacks by summoning the specific pocket, purse or backpack that you carried a specific thing in, if the contents are sentimentally valuable to you or if they're what you habitually carry in that pocket, purse, or backpack. Summoning sentimentally valuable items this way is guaranteed; summoning things you habitually carry is usually possible but might fail; summoning things you've only carried once or twice and aren't attached to is much harder.

That sounds really useful. And the limitations make sense since otherwise you could just get anything with this one small power.

She checks it and moves on.

Hmm, how does always being clean and fresh interact with sex? Lube is pretty important there and also even though I've never understood it some guys really like to see their cum on your body. Same question for like massages that use oil or things like that.

I don't really have experience with that sort of thing, because I am a notebook, but my understanding is that various oils and other substances can count as clean if they are on your body because you want them to be there and they don't contain anything you find gross or unpleasant. Someone who wanted to have substances on their body but experienced those substances as yucky and unpleasant-feeling would probably find that Personal Hygiene got in their way by prioritising the desire to feel clean and nice over the desire to have stuff on them, but as long as those desires aren't in conflict there shouldn't be a problem. And besides just removing things, Personal Hygiene can also keep them clean as an extension of keeping you clean - so a piece of candy held in someone's hand wouldn't get unpleasantly sticky or melty and wouldn't pick up dirt or lint from the environment, for example.

Oh wow, that's really convenient. I think that would probably close off some options for me but I think it sounds worth it.

She checks the box.

For Like Roses is my scent always exactly the same or can it have like layers. Like just normally, I smell a little different when I'm aroused and a lot different if I've just had a bunch of sex though maybe Personal Hygiene would already reduce that. Would those kind of changes still happen?

... Also I'm just realizing some people are uncomfortable talking about sex. It doesn't seem like you're one of them but I can be more circumspect if you would prefer that.

Tom laughs. "I guess I'm too used to you because it didn't occur to me either."

Like Roses definitely allows your signature scent to encompass subtle changes for different circumstances, like mood or recent activity, though the base scent will be very stable.

I don't mind the way you talk about sex; I'm only as hesitant about it as I am about any other experience that I can't really relate to, like eating. Well, maybe a bit extra hesitant because I know it's a delicate subject for a lot of people and I don't feel confident navigating that.

"What are you thinking here? You don't wear perfume."

"I'm thinking about the research about how scent has an especially strong link in memory and so maybe if I have a unique scent like this it'll make me have more of a presence and stick in people's minds better."

"And why are you focusing on that? What are you looking for here in general?"

"I think you can guess from the shape of my questions but I want to change things. To show people a different way of being and make them maybe reexamine their assumptions about the world and become more comfortable in their own skins."

"That makes me want you to pick Stay Here just so I can see you doing it. I guess that even if you don't that would just mean you'd do it later whenever you can back."

"Yeah... I'm still putting off that decision. Nothing I've seen so far really works better if I leave."

She turns back to the notebook and checks Like Roses.

She checks Just A Little Longer and Immunity System without questions. And then she rethinks things for a moment.

With Immunity System do I have control over how much alcohol and such impacts me or is it just that it protects me at the point that it gets dangerous?

You're protected from being more affected by those things than you want to be, but you might not have direct control of exactly how affected you are; it mostly runs on your general preferences rather than in-the-moment desires.

Thanks.

She turns her attention to the next power and huh. Does she want this?

"Don't you dare."

"Would it really be that bad?"

"If you were just planning to be a mostly unremarkable person then no it wouldn't be but you've just said you're planning to be a public figure. That means constantly being bombarded by thousand or millions or maybe even billions of people's thoughts. Would you even be able to sleep? Would people's disapproval, and you know many people would disapprove, erode your confidence? Please don't do this to yourself."

"You're right... maybe there's some way to focus or control it but without that you're right it's too much."

She pauses to think about why she wants this. It's about being able to reach people and avoid making bad assumptions about their thoughts and feelings. Is there anything else in the power that appeals? Well there's the side benefit of being able to know who's trying to oppose her efforts and also the benefit of knowing when people are hiding near her. She can see a lot of ways it could be useful actually but only if its more flexible than it sounds like.

How controllable is My Ears Are Burning? I feel like a lot of parts of it could be useful but I think a lot of my plans end up with me being at least somewhat famous and if I can't ignore some of the impact of that this would probably make me really unhappy.

My Ears Are Burning is only really good for some specific kinds of person and if you think you aren't one of them I think you're probably right. You can't control it or turn it off; you can think your normal thoughts and pay normal amounts of attention to other things, but you can't go back to not knowing what people are thinking about you and you can't really not pay attention to it, not fully.

I think I'll skip this one then.

She quietly checks Well Endowed considering a more generous figure a price well worth paying for resolving one of the lingering issues she has with nudity.

She smiles widely upon reading Hollow Leg since it removes that cost. She checks that too and adds the note of Kid Mode remembering the Notebook's earlier comment.

Then she gets to Inner Strength.

How strong does Hollow Leg make me? Could I carry someone else like I could a kid or would I need Inner Strength to be able to do that?

Hollow Leg will let you get just about as strong as an ordinary person can get, if you try, but I'm not sure if that's strong enough to do what you're asking about.

Okay, I think I might have just asked wrong. I'm pretty sure firefighters can carry most people if they need to. Maybe they need help for unusually heavy people and it probably isn't as easy as doing that with a child but they can do it. I think that's enough strength for what I want.

Are there other reasons I might want Inner Strength beyond being really strong? I think it also talked about toughness and provided an example there but it didn't explain as well about endurance.

Inner Strength mostly makes it that endurance isn't an issue for you anymore. Since you have to go so far to strain yourself, and your endurance is enhanced on top of that, most people with Inner Strength don't feel fatigue from exertion ever again unless they're working long hours doing the kinds of things construction equipment is for.

Wow, that's pretty amazing. Does that just apply to physical fatigue or does it also help with mental fatigue?