"If I pick Natural Awakening, do I risk being Defeated and thus killed before awakening?"

"Unveiled's permanent, but witches over a few centuries usually lose all connection to mortal humans and leave the Veiled world anyway. The other worlds aren't veiled. If you get the natural awakening, big brother, your defeat, and your nemesis typically won't take notice until then. Defeat definitely not - Fate guarantees that it all happens. But it's entirely possible that your defeat could come within moments - nearly kill you, you Awaken, they keep attacking, you suffer the first death and maybe the second. It's risky."

"You would recall me and all of this conversation when you awoke. For your gender situation... probably you'd be subconsciously a little closer to working it out, but you'd be back to thinking you're male for the time being."

"So I should pick either defeat or natural awakening, both would be cutting it way too close for my liking. And natural awakening is ten points instead of six. But. But. Uuuugh."

"Unveiled would suck with the ID situation, and especially because I could really do without explaining I'm a girl to everyone. But it's six points that would be really nice to avoid getting Defeated."

"That's probably wise. I'd try to watch out and come to help you, I take care of my people, but I wouldn't bet on succeeding in time. And it's more likely than chance - awakening is typically at least mildly traumatic and being attacked by a stalker or ganger is the kind of thing that triggers a natural, or a house fire, et cetera. If it's an overlap with the non-mundane I couldn't promise. There are other flaws we can consider and you can come back to it. Sink like a stone, float like a duck, make your senses duller, or sharper. There's options."

"Wait, making my senses sharper is a flaw? Why wouldn't someone want that? Sink like a stone is also probably fine if I can find some way to breathe underwater?"

"Painfully sharp. Only wear silk because everything else irritates too much, wear wrap-around shades to go outside during the day, or similar issues. Four for one sense, up to eight if you pick three. It's common enough that, for example, there's a section for silk in most witch clothing stores. The opposite is two points per dulled sense or five to lose it entirely, no overlap - losing smell entirely isn't that bad if you pay twice-weekly cleaners and have a personal hygiene routine you can stick to when you half-forget why."

"Oh, but losing smell would be utterly unacceptable, think about all the nice things that will never taste the same. I think I might pick the sharp hearing, do people do that often? I guess there are earplugs for it, if so. Vision would also be fine, probably? Although constantly wearing shades would isolate me a bit..."

"Earplugs make sharp hearing generally inoffensive, though it's also the one most likely to incapacitate you suddenly when they're not quite enough. You wouldn't be too isolated among witches with shades, but mortals and the other races probably more."

"Yeah. Let's pen down super sharp hearing and a good pair of earplugs."

"I had been thinking about the Natural Awakening, sans Defeated, and... I think I'm taking it. I survived this long living as a man, I think I'll survive until the awakening. I'm not overjoyed, but I won't know it, so it's... acceptable."

"Harder for me to help you with than the reverse, but not so inconvenient I'll push you on it. Should I look for you? It's not impossible to be pulled in behind the Veil early. Big brother and the nemesis might take an interest early if you are. Possibly the question is, how long should I wait before looking?"