"Most people are bad at throwing away their pride when it's getting in their way!"

"That's...not false, but--there are, actually, quality of life concerns--I'm not saying that the concerns are necessarily overriding, or that they apply to everyone, but a lot of people find someone who is actually better than them at everything really unpleasant to be around." 

Seshka starts to reply, and then stops. 

...She isn't going to remember any of this. 

If the heroine is someone she genuinely doesn't want to be around, she can't just grit her teeth and get over it because it's important; she won't know the importance of this specific person. 

Not befriending the heroine is not worth one perk. If she hadn't taken Not A Fan or Unprepared--but she did, and putting either one back would cause problems. 

So. 

If it's an excuse, it's at least a good excuse. 

And if it turns out to be the wrong choice, at least she won't remember making the choice later to beat herself up about it. 

"Okay, fair enough." 

"If it makes you feel better, the heroine is a lot likelier to specialize differently from you if you don't take that flaw, which could increase your collective effectiveness by more than Anything You Can Do would increase her personal effectiveness."

"Some." But it does not give her another perk, you see. 

She eyes the pamphlet again. Most of the flaws she hasn't already taken are hard nos, but...

"The flaw Dark Secret, is that guaranteed to be disastrous if the heroine finds out, or just if it gets out, like, generally?"

"It's not guaranteed...it does depend on what the secret is, but it's likely that even if her learning of it didn't turn her permanently against you, it would take some work for the two of you to get past it." 

"I don't suppose heroines are automatically open-minded enough that if the dark secret is a family secret, of the not remotely my fault variety, she would definitely not care." 

"Well, that's a possibility, but then you can't engineer your culture to not blame you for family secrets that are not remotely your fault, because the dark secret has to be genuinely damaging if it gets out." 

"...Hmm. Good point." 

Her eyes flick to the pamphlet and back again. 

"The Abhorrent Admirer, is that a permanent situation, or just for the duration of the plot?"

The angel wobbles her hand. "It's only guaranteed to be for the duration of the plot, but that doesn't mean you'll automatically be able to make him go away as soon as the 'story' is over." 

"But it's not permanent."

"It is not."

"I will take that, then, and a Marvelous Talent for crafting rods." 

"Sure thing." Note note.

Seshka eyes the perks and flaws critically. 

She...thinks that's it, for now? None of the other flaws are jumping out at her as acceptable to take--maybe if she thinks of an acceptable Dark Secret, but she hasn't yet--and there aren't any more perks she particularly yearns for, although she should probably avoid thinking too hard about other Talents she could be Marvelous at. 

It would be really convenient if taking a third heroine did count as another flaw, but oh well. 

She's nowhere near done with the nitty gritty of the world to come, though. And she expects to enjoy designing her own patron.

It's time to get down to work.