What sort of protection are you thinking of? Something like True Love's Kiss, which reverses hardship, or something that prevents it instead?

I'd be pleased by either of those possibilities.

I'll see what I can do!

Also, I hope this isn't unwelcome, but please don't worry that you're asking for too much with regards to custom powers. It's fun for me and it makes me happy to empower you in the ways that you want. ♡

(The heart wiggles and dances in place.)

Cute.

Thanks.

Pardon me if this is a silly question, but what's the difference between Agree to Agree and I Can Fix Them?

Huh! I don't think that's a silly question at all, but it is interesting. They are both powers about convincing people of something different than what they were thinking or doing before.

Broadly speaking, I think that Agree to Agree and I Can Fix Them operate in different scopes. Agree to Agree is pretty narrowly focused on things like conversations and discussions where you're trying to find common ground or convince someone to come around to your viewpoint, while I Can Fix Them is aimed much more broadly and covers things like general patterns of behavior.

Another thing to consider is that the motivations behind the power are slightly different. This one's harder to explain, but…

I would say that Agree to Agree works best when you're working on a problem and can see a clear solution that, for whatever reason, nobody else around you seems to. In that situation, you could use Agree to Agree to get all your friends and allies on the same page so that you don't have to waste time arguing about the problem.

And then I Can Fix Them works best when there's someone who's doing things that hurt themselves and others because they're already hurting inside. I Can Fix Them lets you reach out to someone, fix their hurt, and show them a better way.

And while there's definitely overlap, they can't really stand in for each other. You could use Agree to Agree to convince someone that the way they're currently living their life isn't the best way they could be, but knowing that might not necessarily be enough for them to make a change. And you could use I Can Fix Them to try and get someone more invested in noticing and solving problems, but they might still disagree with you on what problems exist and how to solve them.

Did any of that help?

She rereads this response a couple of times.

It's not that she feels bad about the way she asked the first question. But rereading it next to the notebook's earnest answer makes her realize that, on some level, she was expecting its answer to be mean. To subtly say that I Can Fix Them was a power for good sweet caring girls whose pure hearts only desired for everyone around them to be happy and Agree to Agree was a power for control freaks who couldn't stand for anyone to disagree with them. It's not that she doesn't know what people sometimes think of her.

It helped a lot.

I'm sorry, this might be sudden, but can you do you want to come with me when I go? Wherever that might be?

Oh! I would like that, yes. ✨

(The sparkles dance and shimmer.)

Why do you think it might be sudden?

Well, I suppose it feels sudden to me because I only just realized that I wanted you to come along. You're very kind and insightful and I think that I'd like to be able to keep talking to you even after I get my powers.

That's very sweet of you to say!

Just so you know, though, I can't act as your Bestest Friend and I won't be able to learn any information about whatever world you're in that you don't write in me.

Snort.

That's okay. I just think you have an interesting perspective. Do people ask you to be their Best(est) Friend a lot?

Well, I don't remember exactly. But it is something that I know is important to me to make clear whenever someone asks me to join them, even if I don't particularly expect them to think I might become their Best(est) Friend.

Understandable. Would you ever want to be a Best(est) Friend, if it were possible?

She hastens to add:

Uh, to be clear, that's not me trying to cleverly ask-without-asking for you to bend the rules and be my Bestest Friend. Just curiosity.

Probably not!

For starters, there isn't really a huge difference to me between "the rules" and "what I want to do." I'm ultimately a tool created for a specific purpose, after all, and if I wanted or needed to be able to do different things, then… I would already be able to!

In the specific case of Best(est) Friend, though… I'm more similar to the Spirit than I am to almost anything else you could conceivably encounter on your adventures. And, while the Best(est) Friend can be radically different from the person it's attached to, common ground is still important. There needs to be synergy so that you and your Best(est) Friend can complement each other. I guess it's possible that there exists a personality that would perfectly complement me, but… well, under that reckoning, I think you could say that I'm already the Spirit's Best(est) Friend! Except for how I'm not really.

Um, also, just to be clear, when I said "you" in that paragraph up there I was using it generally, rather than specifically.

… Is the way that it mirrored her phrasing in that last part a joke? It's pretty funny, if so.

That's all pretty interesting.

She pages back to look at the list of powers. Looks like a whole bunch of sex-related powers are next. She starts adding them to her table in the regular notebook.

… Just based on probability, Planned Parenthood seems like a good idea! Plus, it's only one point. But it doesn't sing to her, really, and she is making an active effort to prioritize powers that are appealing to her over the ones that sound like they'll come in handy. She flips back to where she's been talking with the notebook.

A new message is waiting for her!

I think I got your hunches power idea to click:

World's Greatest Detective ☐
Cost: 3
You are uncannily, supernaturally good at noticing clues in your environment, piecing them together, and drawing correct conclusions from them. If it's even theoretically possible for you to figure something out with information that is available to you, you can do it with ease.

World's Psychicest Detective ☐
Cost: 4
(Requires World's Greatest Detective)
You can discern true information and draw correct conclusions even without any evidence being available to you. Ancient mysteries and shadow conspiracies are open books. Simply put, if something is true and you would benefit from knowing it, you can figure it out. Note: This power does not constitute true omniscience and is weighted towards information that is relevant to you.

Thanks!

Back to the regular notebook.

She finds, as she looks at the second power, that she's stuck. Part of her wants to give it only two or three points, but… she can tell that it's the part that cares about point value more than power value. Sure, these powers cost a little more than My Ears Are Burning or Anything You Can Do, but she's still got 22 points to spend even before she looks at drawbacks.

She flips back a couple of pages to reread the original conversation that prompted the notebook to think about these powers. It's a good reminder, honestly. The thing she was worried about in the first place was making a mistake and not knowing. And comparing them side by side…

World's Psychicest Detective covers her concerns with Agree to Agree perfectly. She's a little tempted to push for omniscience, but… she should probably try to rely less on powers and more on herself. She doesn't need to be handed everything she wants on a platter, even though it is fun to explore the possibility space.

Maybe that means she should forego the upgraded power? She traces a circle on the surface of her desk with the butt end of her pen.

Reframing it in her mind: the powers she takes should be the things that she wants guaranteed. The things that are still true even if she does nothing, regardless of what might happen. She flips through the options and makes a list of the ones she's checked so far:

• dressing room
• personal hygiene
• immunity system
• my ears are burning
• well endowed
• hollow leg
• inner strength
• making ends meet
• dragon fairy elf witch
• anything you can do
• closed book
• indelible
• iron will
• eidetic
• best friend
• bestest friend
• carry my heart

She looks at each option individually and asks herself if it's something that she needs to be true, no matter what. If it's something that she couldn't be her best, most actualized self without, to the point that she needs it as soon as she gets her powers and can't wait to build it herself out of other powers.

The mental enhancements definitely pass this test. She's actually not totally sure about Dressing Room, Inner Strength, and Making Ends Meet, though.

This isn't actually directly related to those two powers, but I think I might be having second thoughts about some of the powers I checked.

Which ones? You can change your mind about powers as many times as you want.

Yeah, I know. Mostly I wanted to use you as a sounding board. So basically…

• Dressing Room is appealing because it offers precise control over my presentation at all times, but maybe I'd be able to do the same thing with shapeshifting from Dragon Fairy Elf Witch or skills I pick up with Anything You Can Do.
• Inner Strength is similar; I like the idea of being stronger than I look but maybe not so much I need it guaranteed? Especially since, again, I might use Dragon Fairy Elf Witch to become part-something-that's-super-strong-and-tough.
• Making Ends Meet is definitely the one I feel iffiest about. Mostly I don't want to have to pay attention to things like food or clothes or… I dunno, housing and transportation? And clothes are covered by Dressing Room and I'm pretty sure that with Anything You Can Do I'll be learning how to take care of the rest with magic. I think mostly I'd want Making Ends Meet while I'm starting out on my journey as a vessel.

All those thoughts make sense! Which reminds me…

While¹ we've been talking, other versions of me have been working with other potential vessels and come up with… kind of a lot of new custom powers. Some of them are particularly applicable to your concerns, but I can share more than just those if you want.

¹In a sense that doesn't necessarily imply that this has happened at the literal same time that we've been talking. Sorry, I know that sounds weird.

How many is kind of a lot?

About forty powers and about twenty drawbacks.

That is a lot. Maybe just the ones that seem particularly relevant?