"As you will, mistress".

Sofia hears the key turning and the bedroom door locking. She waits for a full minute and then quietly tiptoes to the door, and puts her hear to the door.

This has become a ritual of sorts for her - when her mistress is "not to be disturbed" she quietly listens from the other side of the door, while tending to her own needs.

She has never been caught, but often fantasizes about Sana finding her like this. Would her mistress punish her? Or finally bring her to her bedroom? Will she ever love me.

This time something is different, though - even after several minutes have passed she can still hear nothing from the other side. Weird. Her mistress tends to be quite vocal when she's not to be disturbed.

Sana is kneeling on the stone floor, eyes fixed on the small shrine she has in a corner of her bedroom, the dull pain of her legs grounding her.

She closes her eyes, and starts praying.

My Lady of Shadows, I am lost and want your guidance.
Please inspire my instincts and my desires.
Help me take what I wish without care for others,
  wield my body as a tool,
  my face as a snare,
  my tongue as a sword.
Deliver me from love and affection, and fuel the flame of lust in my loins.
Protect my beauty and sustain my bosom.

She unsheathes her fingers and draws the Lady's rune on her face, then stands up.

Despite the short prayer, she feels dizzy, her legs wobbly, and her heart racing. Not an unfamiliar sensation, but an unexpected one.

She sits on her bed, trying to get her thoughts in order.

She feels a weight on her chest, and the absurd need to be alert.

Why? Her door is locked, and Sofia is probably guarding it, as usual. She's so loyal, it's a blessing to have such a reliable servant.

She's noticed that when she comes out of her room after her prayers Sofia is never far off. It's really sweet of her, but she obviously can't tell her that, it would be undignified.

Well, she could take some time and properly relax, that always helps.

She... doesn't feel like it? Uh. Hadn't happened in a while.

That's when she started working out. Turns out that plenty of girls like a toned body after all.

Well. She's definitely not feeling like it now. Might as well keep reading through the powers. She can come back to this one later.

She grabs back the notebook, and resumes reading, pointedly avoiding Personal Space.

Closed Book ⛧ would this be heretical?

Indelible ⛧ definitely good to have

Iron Will She don't need this immunity to illusions seems nice, and not being traumatized... ⛧

It Gets Better ⛧ healing from injuries seems very useful, if she decides to go for the Isekai Roulette and the world she lands in doesn't have channeling or Healing she doesn't have feelings about the rest of the power

Ok, onto the "Powers of Friendship" (such a silly name...)

Mysterious Allure/Captive Audience ꩜ she already has these, skip unless she has leftover points

Blackout Binge using intoxicants is for stupid people that want to end up tied to an altar, and not in the fun way

Disney Princess meh (she idly wonders what kind of kingdom Disney must be if their Princesses are friendly to animals of all things)

Best Friend ✓ it's comforting to have someone you can trust, and she will need some sort of... replacement for Sofia

Bestest Friend ⛧ oh, wow, a dragon! She would be a queen, untouchable. It's really expensive but... probably worth it

Generosity/Helpfulness free things and help are always nice, but nobody really knows her... it's not as if she has any friends, really

Love Interest / Love Triangle / Love Dodecahedron ha, love is for simpletons, skip

Time Enough For Love see above, skip skip skip

I don't know who that is, but if they're someone who other people might hurt or threaten in order to upset or coerce you, and you would rather that not happen, then yes.

She's my maid and yes, I don't want that to happen.

Safe at Home ✓ it wouldn't be right for Sofia to suffer because of her choices. It's expensive at four points, but when she gets more power (a dragon!) people will try to get at her and Sofia would be a prime target, that with being the only person she's any close to

I Can Fix Them / I Can Help Them / Inspirational hahahahaha, this notebook is so terminally Good it's almost endearing

True Love's Kiss / Eternal Love love, love, love, meh

The Rescuer Why does this require the love ones as prerequisites? Sana can't really see the connection.

Is there no way to get The Rescuer without Eternal Love?

Prerequisites have to do with how the powers build on each other. It might be possible to get The Rescuer without its prerequisites if you really, really want, but it would be more expensive than just taking the prerequisites.

I see.

"you can break any curse, heal any injury, and cure any illness. The same works in reverse."

It would be useful if not for "By kissing your true love,".

She has no true love. Never had. Doesn't plan to. Having someone you fall in love with means that you have a weakness someone else can exploit. Usually the person you fell for. And while Safe At Home would protect them from others, it wouldn't protect her from someone if she were so foolish as to fall for them.

Table it for now, onward.

Planned Parenthood / Providential Parenthood ✓ no more abortions! Planned seems the better version

Two Become One/Bop It she doesn't really need these ones, she's a professional, and good at her craft. And besides, she won't need to work anymore, so

Laugh Together this would be downright dangerous

The Princess And The Dragon ꩜ she guesses it would be cool to have dragonblooded children, but it's a bit expensive

GGG true love, skip

Before Your Eyes why. Just... why.

Fated Lovers / Sorry About That / Excuse Me what is this obsession the notebook has with love

Tragic Backstory this is just silly. Everybody has something terrible happen to them, why would it be an excuse

Sense of Style / Bonus Style Points romance, again

Self-Reflection what does this even mean? Not that she'll take this, she's just curious

What does "someone who is you, or was you, or could have been you, or will be you" mean?

There are a lot of worlds, and some of them are versions of each other where things went differently, or contain versions of the same people in different circumstances; if you met someone who was another world's version of you, Self-Reflection would let you keep in touch. Also, some people like to make copies of themselves for fun.

She finds the idea of a copy of herself... startling.

What would happen if she met... another Sana?

... they'd totally end up praying together.

Popular ꩜ could prove useful, but probably not worth its cost

Famous not worth it

Undiplomatic Immunity ✓

How absolute is the protection of Undiplomatic Immunity? Could a corrupt guard still arrest me for something I did not do?

Yes, that could still happen.

That's unfortunate. I would definitely take a power that protected me from unjust persecution.

Friends In Low/High/Strange Places ꩜ she's already pretty good at influencing people of all backgrounds. They're not bad powers, just... would feel redundant.

Drawbacks then.

Decorative ⛧she's already always pretty and feminine all the times, and why would she want to wear bad clothes, or make weird noises. Or cry at all, let alone "ugly cry". She's a bit unsure about cute though, it's useful to be threatening at times.

Beauty Is A Curse ꩜ seems to be annoying for a single point. Which makes her think, does she need these drawbacks at all?

She looks at her point totals:

So, some points short of the full star set. She'll have to review her choices later, but it seems reasonable to keep on checking the drawbacks then.

Plain Jane no. Why. Who takes this

Style of Sisyphus annoying, not worth one point

There's Another One waaay too dangerous! What if the Other One wants to kidnap her? Nope

Incomplete these drawbacks are all terrible! Five points would be give her the full star set, but this would weaken it way too much

Nullified of course the others wouldn't want their minds to be affected, that's exactly the reason to get the powers in the first place

Great Responsibility annoying, and it's not as if she would have any use of the information

Very Distinctive / Flashy not worth it

You do have to pick at least one thing that isn't Selective Memory (whether or not you also pick Selective Memory).

Yeah, she can pick Selective Memory and forget Omniglot. And actually upgrade it to a ✓, it's good for its cost.

Dramatic Damsel nope nope nope nope

Green With Envy ꩜ she doesn't really have friends or dates, but this seems incredibly dangerous

You Ruin Them ⛧ this wouldn't be a big change. She's good and she knows that

Jilted Lovers No. Never again.

The Crazy Train Nope

They'll Know ⛧ this doesn't seem like a huge issue? It says "this knowledge can cause a lot of trouble" though...

Realism yeah, no, not worth it.

Ok, review time!

She is 3 points above if she wants to take the full star set but only pick Selective Memory as a drawback, so she should either pick more drawback or trim the list.

Size Difference ꩜ => ⛧ actually

Like Roses could be very conspicuous, ⛧ => ꩜

My Ears Are Burning ok, fine, keep it at ꩜. The notebook is way too Good to be lying when it says it would be unpleasant

Inner Strength this could be a good protection but... the notebook said something about living her best feminine life and... this wouldn't be it. It stays ꩜

Personal Space gets a ✓ and zero additional thoughts

That means... the full star set is 77 points now, so she needs to grab 4 points of drawbacks beside Selective Memory.

Decorative and You Ruin Them would bring her to 77 exactly, while picking They'll Know to 81, which is four points above.

What happens if I have points left at the end?

Oh, and what does "cute" mean in Decorative, exactly?

If you have points left over, they'll stay with you as unrealized potential until some future moment when it seems like you really need another power, and then spontaneously form whatever power you need. It doesn't happen very often because it's not very often that you're in a situation that might be the one moment of your life when you most need an extra power, but when those moments do happen, it can be really useful to have a few points waiting.

The "cute" in "cute and pretty and feminine" is a softer requirement than the other two. It doesn't mean that you need to be so cute that people have trouble taking you seriously, or anything like that. But it's possible to be pretty and feminine while also being monstrous and terrifying, and the "cute" means that you can't do that; you can be glamorous or businesslike or sexy or regal, even though those are all aesthetics that compete somewhat with cuteness, but you can't take the form of a sculpture made of knives even if it is a very pretty and feminine sculpture made of knives. Does that answer your question?

Yes, it does.

So, it seems having at least some points left over could make a difference in the future. It seems like the safest choice.

In that case, she'll definitely pick They'll Know and may take either or both of Decorative and You Ruin Them.

And she still needs to pick a Destination.

The notebook said that if she picks Isekai Roulette she will be able to come back if that's important to her. Sana thinks that yes, coming back to take Sofia away with her is important to her, so she knows she'll have that.

Somewhere In Mind seems like a bad idea, because she doesn't really know many places beside Cheliax and, well, if she's going away she might as well go to the best possible place for her.

Stay Put could work, with all the powers she would be pretty safe, but... she's always want to see more, know more...

Isekai Roulette ✓