They share the easy silence for a little bit as they finish their waters. "So back to it?"

"How can we not? The Power of Friendship awaits!"

They both laugh this time.

Alright, I am back to tackle the Power of Friendship.

I still like Captive Audience but not enough for a plus.

I haven't changed my mind about Mysterious Allure or Blackout Binge.

Disney Princess is adorable and required for the treasure that is Cotton Candy.

It looks like it has a bunch of new friends though.

Yes, clearly there's been some interest in Disney Princess and its neighbours.

Looking through the list I think I'll mark Where the Heart is with a minus. None of the others are really speaking to me. I don't really need to be a crazy cat lady or a Pokemon Trainer.

Actually thinking about Where the Heart is... I wonder if it could apply to Inner World. Depending on how much I'm moving around I could see myself thinking of that as home because it's what's staying constant.

I think if you see your Inner World as your home, Where The Heart Is will absolutely apply to it!

That's cool. I'll keep that in mind.

It looks like the best friend line is next. Lots more additions here too. I was about to say that I still didn't really appeal but if I'm taking Where the Heart Is I could maybe see also taking what I need for Another Kind of Friend. I'll put those at question mark tier. A part of me wants to stack that further to give them a human form but that's adding up to a lot and I'm not sure I really want all of this. It's also... I remember your comment about beehives maybe being people and I think in part it's limiting to think they need to be shaped like me to count as a person. I wouldn't want to have to leave behind a home that's a person though. I guess if they're really important to me Eternal Love would help me find a way even without the specific perks.

Yes, people can come in all kinds of different shapes. (I'm a notebook!)

If you spend enough time with a Where The Heart Is home for it to become a person, and you have Eternal Love, you'll find a way to take the person with you even if you have to leave that physical location. Another Kind Of Friend is useful if what you want is for your home to be a person from the very beginning, and have a Best Friend kind of relationship with you, as opposed to taking the more natural course of Where The Heart Is and slowly developing into a person over a long time while you're living there.

I think that makes sense. That's helpful context. I'm not sure how much I care about them being a person right away. It's not something I had put much thought into wanting before. I think the first time I looked at the Best Friend powers I thought that it would be changing the genre of my life and I guess Where the Heart Is will also mean that but well... that's what this is about isn't it. I'm not going to be a college student trying to make a small difference in a big world I'm going to be someone who can shape the world around me a lot more than most people. Even just the smaller powers mean that I can do things that most people would consider impossible.

Yes, that makes sense. It's a pretty big change!

Reading carefully the other thing I'm curious is this line in Best Friend "they often hold the key to solving whatever situation you're up against" I'm not really sure I understand what that would look like. Is that a necessary part of things?

It's not exactly necessary, but taking Best Friend does mean a tendency for the stories you find yourself in to include your Friend as someone who helps you figure things out and solve problems. How that works in practice depends on your preferences and narrative sense; someone who really liked the idea of having a beautiful mysterious raven familiar who could fly up to high places and steal small objects for them might see a lot of that kind of story, but someone who preferred to have a Friend who was a good sounding board for thinking through situations and solving puzzles would see more of that kind of story instead, and someone who wanted to focus more on the friendship aspect and less on the helper aspect would get what they wanted too. Does that make sense?

I think so. So the power is flexible and I can emphasize the parts I want or don't want.... Would that degree of control be impacted by taking The Crazy Train?

Taking The Crazy Train means you can't consciously control your powers, but they still respond to what you want and what resonates with you, so it's likely that things like the shape of Best Friend's narrative influence would play out similarly in either case. If you have a lot of internal conflict between what you want and what you think would make a good and interesting story, though, The Crazy Train will generally lean toward the second thing.

I think I prefer stories where people have to work together to do things so I can imagine the Crazy Train making things lean that way but I'm not sure I mind that. I like people working together in real life too.

Then it sounds like that would work out pretty well!

It does.

She draws a little smiley face next to her words to match the expression on her face.

I still like Cuddle Buddies and Quality Time given what we've talked about and how you said they can help nudge me in the direction of being the kind of person they'd do those things with but I think there's enough general powers in that vein that I'm going to put them down to minus. Also with Dream Together I'll have a reliable source of hugs.

Backchannel absolutely gets a plus.

You can Teach Better can stay neutral.

I still think Not Like Other Girls runs counter to being an example that changes people's minds.

I'm still not really sure I want pacifist. I think I like A Gentler Way better but I'm still not sure it's what I want. I'll give it a question mark to remind myself to come back to it.

That makes sense! Let me know if you think of a way to make it work better for you.

Hmm what's next.

I'm still not interested in Love Interest et al.

Time Enough For Love we've already covered.

Work Life Balance is new though and thinking about it it makes me less sure I understand Time Enough For Love. It says that it only works for things related to building your relationship with someone and I feel like a lot of that comes down to mindset. Am I understanding that right?

It feels like it could be a tricky balance to strike, for example if I'm taking a moment to collect myself is that because I'm trying to be kind to myself or because I want to be more able to address the situation at hand? I feel like often the answer would be both.

Time Enough For Love can apply to a lot of activities, including useful or productive ones, as long as it sincerely qualifies as a relationship activity for the people doing it. Similarly, Work-Life Balance helps you be kind to yourself and take time for yourself and spend time doing things you enjoy and things that help you be more okay, even if doing those things also helps you in other ways.

Okay so it's generous. I think I'll check that for now. I think Time Enough For Love already does a lot of what I need in terms of taking care of myself because a lot of the ways I do that are talking with people I care about but I do some things for myself alone.

Alright so next is Safe At Home. Apparently it now has an alternate version. I don't think I quite understand because in one interpretation they look like they're the same and on the other they're different enough that I might want both.

I don't think the original power would have protected people I care about who were fighting beside me if I was understanding correctly it just meant we wouldn't be used against each other.

The new one feels like it's mostly more comprehensive but it also loses that specific protection.

Am I understanding that right?

Safe at Home promises that if you have loved ones who want to stay out of any conflicts you get into, they won't be drawn in by people trying to harm them because of their relationship with you. They might get hurt because of their own actions, but not as a means of attacking you; and if your loved ones are getting into conflicts of their own, you won't get hurt as a means of attacking them either.

Opting In is meant for situations where there's a generally dangerous person, and drawing their attention to you also means drawing it to other people around you - not necessarily your loved ones, but anyone else who might be associated with you or might even just be in the same room. Those people could get hurt because of you, not out of a deliberate attempt to mess with you through them, but just because they were around when you started talking to the dangerous person. It also helps a lot with the same things as Safe at Home, but its focus and emphasis is different; if someone is trying to get at you through your loved ones, but it's not because you drew their attention on purpose (or got their attention indirectly in ways that count for the power), Opting In won't help with that. But if someone is trying to hurt your loved ones, not to get at you through them, but just because you got their attention and your loved ones were also around, Safe At Home won't help with that.

Does that make sense?

I could try to come up with a third variant if there's something specific you want from this kind of power. I think it's hard to make a guarantee like this that's both really broad and really firm, though, and if you want to ensure other people's safety in ways that these powers don't work well for, it might be better to try to come at it from a new angle entirely.

I think it does. I'm realizing that I don't know what I want from this. I'm slightly leaning towards Opting In but it's still a question mark.

A part of me wants to just rely on Eternal Love but Eternal Love doesn't mean my loved ones have something like It Gets Better and I'm not sure how being hurt really badly could interact with the provision about not wanting to come back if they die.