damask'd, red, and white | Glowfic Constellation

mysterious and powerful

It would!

sweetly-played

She almost checks it then and there—but—

Can I uncheck something I've checked, if I change my mind later?

mysterious and powerful

Yes, absolutely! You can scribble out your checkmark, or ask me to erase it for you—but with as good as you've been at writing in me so far, I bet you can also figure out how to erase it yourself.

sweetly-played

She tries it. Checkmark on, checkmark... off...? Checkmark off.

Neat!

Okay, onward to the Yourself section...

sweetly-played

A Hundred Ships seem better than a thousand. She's much more interested in looking how she wants to look than in looking like The Prettiest. She's reluctant to actually check it yet, though, since it's such a shallow power... then again, the Spirit is allegedly commanding her to be beautiful and powerful and special, so maybe they're all going to be this shallow...

What's In A Name sounds... specific. Angelic Tones is tempting. Actually that whole batch is tempting, right up to Dressing Room which... um... yes??? Pocket Dimension: even more yes????? She checkmarks both of those the moment she finishes reading them.

Undressing Room brings her up short, though, because it seems incredibly powerful but also... hmm. The Spirit is allegedly commanding her to be beautiful and powerful and special and feminine in just the way she wants. And is this really what she wants? To be... something that has transcended the physical reality of clothing? She's not actually sure she's entirely comfortable with transcending the physical reality of clothing. She'll skip it for now.

That brings up a good point, though.

Can you tell me more about... what the Spirit wants, and how I'm meant to relate to that? Is this a bargain where I fulfill my end by choosing the right powers and doing the right things with them, or is it more like a gift where I'm asked to pick out whatever I like and carry it off with no further obligation?

mysterious and powerful

It's definitely a gift. But it's also really important to the Spirit to help you choose the powers you want, the ones that will be most comfortable for you and make you happiest, and that's my job.

sweetly-played

What if I'm not sure that any two of the powers I want, the ones that will be most comfortable for me, and the ones that will make me happiest are the same ones?

mysterious and powerful

That sounds like a tricky situation to be in!

I would say... these powers are meant to let you lead your best life as your best self. If something would make you happy, but there are aspects that would make you uncomfortable, you can ask me to figure out a version that has the parts you like without the parts you don't. If you have mixed feelings about something, and the parts that make you uncomfortable are also the parts that make you happy, then you can decide for yourself what matters more to you and what you want to do based on that. I'm happy to talk to you about what you want if talking to someone about it would help.

And if you think something would make you happy, but you don't want it because you're concerned about the implications or consequences, or if you want something because you're afraid of what might happen if you don't take it, but you don't think it would make you happy to have, then you can still make whichever choice you want, but the intent of the powers and the Spirit's goal in creating them is that you should always be able to get better results by reaching for your heart's desire with both hands than by building a carefully crafted structure out of things you don't enjoy to try to make a safe haven for the best life you think you can get that's protected by the sacrifice of the best life you could dream of.

Does that make sense?

sweetly-played

Whew, that's really something. She reads over those paragraphs, and then reads them over again, and then a third time in case she missed something.

It is traditionally a terrible idea to bargain with strange and terrible powers based entirely on vibes, but this cosmic notebook is really very friend-shaped so far.

She writes, slowly, with the cosmic pen of her mind,

Yes, I think so. Okay.

sweetly-played

And onward.

She skips Undressing Room for now but checks Personal Hygiene. Hesitates a moment over Like Roses, but leaves it be. Just A Little Longer and Immunity System are obvious wins. Breathe Easy seems like a solid extension of those, though she's starting to worry at that point that she might be going too far in the pragmatic direction and should head back to the start of the list and pick up some shallower powers... well, how about she doesn't do that yet. This can be a first pass and she can make a second one later. Dessert after dinner, and all.

My Ears Are Burning: um. Um???

Is My Ears Are Burning as terrifying for everyone involved as it sounds???

mysterious and powerful

Yes. Some people are the sort of person whose best life involves My Ears Are Burning, but most people aren't.

sweetly-played

Good... to... know.

Well Endowed seems... not bad but not for her; she likes her general levels of smallness. Hollow Leg, though... oh, and Inner Strength... and Lightfoot...

After some hesitation, she checks off Well Endowed, Hollow Leg, and Lightfoot. Inner Strength is also cool but she's not sure she wants it three whole points' worth.

Battle Angel, Battle Demon, and Battle Maiden all seem like obvious wins from a pragmatic standpoint. Gloryseeker seems a little odd; she skips it, at least for the moment.

Pacifist, now...

Pacifist is tempting. But it's (sort of, partly) redundant with the whole set of powers she just took. And the more she thinks about it, the more she feels like it's... like Undressing Room. Transcending the physical and social reality of being a person who can get in fights with other people.

She skips Pacifist.

What's her point total at the moment?

mysterious and powerful

(20/70)

sweetly-played

Not too bad. Sure, she'll grab Making Ends Meet and Motherlode, and... huh. Huh. Four Star Daydream does sound very daydream-like, but Five Star Daydream...

She's supposed to take the things that appeal to her, right, the things that sound viscerally like they're part of a life she wants to live? And on that level, showing up in a new world and having the opportunity to make tons of money by doing useful stuff just fall into her lap sounds like a great life to be living. Five Star Daydream it is.

Omniglot: yes absolutely give her all the languages immediately.

Anything You Can Do: ohhh boy this is the sort of ability that has social consequences but also she doesn't care and wants to learn everything. Scoop.

Dragon Fairy Elf Witch:

She's going to need a moment to process Dragon Fairy Elf Witch.

It's ridiculous, obviously, but it's—well—

She could have all the magic. She could be a scion of every family, with no risk of bloodwarp—she could be a scion of every family with every bloodwarp they could all create together—at least if she's reading this right, and she's pretty sure she is—she should check. She should stop getting quite so overexcited and check.

How does the heritage gained by Dragon Fairy Elf Witch work, exactly? The way I'm used to things working is that if one family has vampires in their blood and another has sirens, and they cross, their children won't have some abilities from vampires and some from sirens; they'll have some kind of magic or other, but it won't necessarily be the same things as either of their parents. But "you always get their powers without their drawbacks" sounds like I could Dragon Fairy Siren Vampire myself and get siren powers and vampire powers and who knows what else and none of it would be bloodwarped away. Is that right?

mysterious and powerful

Yes! Heritage that combines to form new and different powers like that might form those powers, but it will never take any of your existing powers away, and you'll always be able to access the powers of the being whose heritage you're picking up even if that doesn't really make sense with how their heritage normally works. You can't always pick up every single power of a type of being immediately, but having multiple examples from different family lines can help you fill in any gaps, and the rarer a being is, the fewer examples you usually need before you can get everything you want.

sweetly-played

Soooo that's a big yes on DFEW.

Snowglobe and Unleash The Magic can come too, on the same principle. They seem a little redundant, but every little bit helps, right? And she's starting to get a sense of just why she might choose something other than Somewhere In Mind. She wants to go home to her family immediately and reassure them that she's not dead, but, all things considered, she does think it would be even better to go home to her family a couple of years from now absolutely rolling in multiversal cash and pirated superpowers. They'll understand.

That's a thought for her next pass over the list, though; she's not going to shift her attention around and potentially lose her place. What's the next power? Soulbound. Does she want Soulbound?

...yes. It's eight points but, also: yes. Having it always be the case that things that viscerally feel like they ought to be an indelible part of her being actually will be that is worth eight points.

Nothing bad happens if I check enough boxes to send my point total above 70, right?

mysterious and powerful

Nothing bad happens at all! You can't finalize a set of choices that costs more points than it allows, but just having them selected isn't a problem.

sweetly-played

Oh good.

So, Personal Space.

She considers Personal Space, very carefully and thoughtfully.

She decides that her best life does not involve Personal Space.

Closed Book, Indelible, and Iron Will also seem like they are... how did the notebook put it... things she's afraid of not taking because of the consequences of not having them, but still thinks she might be happier without.

It Gets Better, though! That one she can check without reservation. (Mostly without reservation. But—being able to get Bad Ended permanently is not really a feature of her best life. And being able to get Bad Ended temporarily is still possible with It Gets Better. So it's fine.)

The Great Equalizer and Star-Straightened both seem like solutions to oddly specific problems that cost more points than she really wants to spend on solving those particular problems. 61/70 going into Powers of Friendship, oh boy. The Powers of Friendship section does not look like it is going to contain fewer than ten points' worth of desirable options.

sweetly-played

Does she want to be Mysteriously Alluring? ...not if she can't turn it off, and also not at five points. Maybe at one point. Not if she couldn't turn it off, though.

Does she want a Captive Audience? ...yes, but not that much, really. She'd rather captivate her audience by being personally scintillating than by I Can't Believe It's Not Mind Controlling them about it.

Blackout Binge is a power for someone else who is not her.

Disney Princess... likewise.

Best Friend? Oh, boy, Best Friend. She is, it turns out, really very torn about Best Friend. The subsequent upgrades do not make her any less torn.

She decides to skip it for now and come back on the next pass to think it over. Generosity? Well, it's not that she doesn't like presents, it's just... ehhhh. And ehhhh for the rest of that bunch, too, right up to Agree to Agree which is just, what? No??

...she's taking Backchannel though, yes please. And You Can Teach Better, absolutely, that fixes a substantial part of the problem with Anything You Can Do.

Not Like Other Girls: ehh...hhhhh? She's not sure how she feels about the pragmatic implications but she is sure that the vibes are wrong and she has been told to let the vibes be her guide.

Love Interest requires Mysterious Allure and also solves a problem she emphatically doesn't have. Far better for people to sort themselves out of her way if they're not in her target demographic than for them to like her back indiscriminately so she has to pay careful attention to whether they're actually compatible! And that takes care of that whole tree.

Time Enough For Love: yes please.

Safe At Home: ... huh.

Huh.

It's obviously incredibly pragmatically useful.

But... she's not sure... she likes the vibes?

She checks it, but hesitantly.

sweetly-played

I Can Fix Them is tempting, but the vibes are off.

I Can Help Them is everything she wanted from I Can Fix Them but wasn't sure it would give her. She checks it immediately. 87/70, wow, she really hopes she's going to be able to scrounge some more points from somewhere.

Inspirational is back in the Fix Them bucket and she doens't want it for the same reasons. True Love's Kiss... is perfect and necessary. Eternal Love likewise. (Actually, Eternal Love might solve the problems she had with Safe At Home. She goes back and unchecks that one. 86/70 now.)

The Rescuer gives her pause.

It's not that she doesn't want it; she very much does want it. It's just that... it seems like, if she takes The Rescuer, her life is going to end up being about The Rescuer. And she's not sure whether that's what she wants her life to be about.

While she's thinking about that, she also thinks to clarify:

It's sort of ambiguous what kinds of love matter for things like Eternal Love and True Love's Kiss and Time Enough For Love. Can you say more about that?

mysterious and powerful

Yes, absolutely!

For the purposes of Time Enough For Love, what matters is social and emotional intimacy. If you're doing an activity with someone either in order to enjoy their company or because you want to grow closer to them, then Time Enough For Love applies.

For Eternal Love and True Love's Kiss, someone you love can be a close friend, a romantic partner, or a family member. The important thing is that you care about them personally.

sweetly-played

Thank you.

Okay, so leaving the Rescuer question aside for now... she thinks she likes Providential Parenthood better than Planned. Don't overthink it, Rosy. Let the vibes be your guide.

Two Become One, Laugh Together, and Here For A Good Time are such an interesting set of possibilities. Overall she thinks she will take the middle one. She might have gone for Two Become One without looking back if it had been the only option, but Laugh Together is just obviously better.

Bop It sounds fantastic. Maybe not the most pragmatic option, but this is just her first pass; she can cut it later if she needs the points.

GGG is a power for people who want different things from what she wants.

Before Your Eyes likewise.

Reaching Out, now... hmm. Hmmmmm.

What if I want a version of Reaching Out that's less... general? More specifically for people I'm already being intimate with? I guess, sort of, the Reaching Out version of GGG, if that makes sense?

mysterious and powerful

That makes perfect sense! I'll think about it and get back to you. ♡

sweetly-played

Right then.

So, Fated Lovers... well, okay, yes, she wants that. She's not entirely sure she really needs the help, though, and she's conflicted about taking it, so she'll leave it off for now. Fated Friends likewise but she wants it less and dislikes it more, and it's more expensive.

Sorry About That through Tragic Backstory are all a big pile of yikes and she is glad to see the back of them.

Sense of Style and Bonus Style Points are for a person who is not her and wants things different from the things she wants.

Like A Mirror... is interesting. She's not sure it's worth three points to be steered toward her only potentially extant otherworldly doubles, though. She wonders... actually, instead of wondering she can just ask.

Does Like A Mirror enforce my doubles getting along with me, or is my doubles getting along with me just a natural consequence of them being my doubles?

mysterious and powerful