Let's see... to start! Since the Action Scene ended, your emotional stress automagically stepped back to d8.<br/><br/>As I understand it, stress recovery is just an action however you want to swing it, against the doom pool. If you succeed and the effect die is equal to your Stress or better, you step it back by 1. If you fail, you step it up by 1. (If you succeed and the effect die is too small, it just doesn't do anything.)<br/><br/>Emotional Stress also seems the most flexible for counteracting. For instance, on the Space Hopper's trip over, Tabs could work on a magic-related project to cheer herself up. You'd probably go with distinction + sorcery + mystic master. If she insisted on working alone she'd also use her Solo distinction, if she recruited an Auxilia lab team she could use her Team distinction. (So, 3d10+1d8)<br/><br/>If that failed vs the doom pool, something might go wrong and she'd get more frustrated, stepping Emotional Stress back up to d10. If it succeeded, she could step it down to d6 because nothing says a happy kitty like something pretty.<br/><br/>Also, a buddy can help you with a trait of their own (if she got Kanina to help cheer her up somehow) if you give them a PP. Or if they have a SFX that lets them do that (like Tabs' Trust Me, I'm A Doctor for Physical Stress)<br/><br/>(Also, you're not in the Action Scene until you've posted, so recovering stress or spending XP at the very tail end is fine. That's more a quirk of PbP format than anything, in a face-to-face game you'd just go, 'hang on a minute I gotta recover stress')