Oh, I just realized I've been doing something silly...

When I add up everything you've marked S, sometimes those powers and drawbacks have prerequisites that you've marked A or lower, and those don't get included in the total. But that means the total marked under S isn't the "real" total of points you would gain and spend if you took everything marked S, because you would have to take their prerequisites, which would also gain or cost points. Does that make sense?

If you want, I could try to go through and add up what the "real" point totals would be for taking everything in S, but it would be a little trickier than just adding everything up by symbol automatically, so I don't think I want to keep a running total of it in the list if that's all right.

Yeah, I think maybe we need to go through and update things so they match tiers with their prerequisites, either moving things up or down until they match. That'll make it so you can stick to just adding up symbols, and also force us to think about perks with prerequisites more. So yeah, totally just stick to adding up symbols.

Okay, that works! ♡

So they carefully go through and check everything for perks that are rated higher than their prerequisites. After a bit of waffling, Closed Book gets upgraded to B to match Iron Will. Disney Princess gets upgraded to S to match Cotton Candy. Best Friend and Bestest Friend get upgraded to S to match A Friend Like You, Friend From Within, and Transformer. You Can Teach Better gets downgraded to A to match Anything You Can Do. 

In the drawbacks, Beauty Is A Curse gets upgraded to B to match Even Worse. Love Is A Battlefield is downgraded to A to match Dramatic Damsel. Live The Role is downgraded to match That's How It Goes.

Okay, everything's consistent enough that simple sums of symbols will work now. Thanks for reminding us about that.

Happy to help! All right, let's see...

Name: Circle of Friends - Cost: 5 ☐
(Requires Friend From Within)
Anyone who lives in your head can choose to externalize themselves as with Friend From Within; to do this, each of the people becoming separate must choose their own unique Drawback, reserving at least one of its points unspent. That Drawback, its children if you take them, and any powers you take using their points will be unique to you, manifesting only when you are separate from the others—because any of you who externalize this way will be able to merge with each other and split back up at will, and even while separate, will maintain a constant mental connection letting you share thoughts and feelings freely. If you later gain more passengers who want to externalize, their unique Drawbacks and powers will be chosen for them by the narrative.

Oh that's fucking excellent. Yeah, we can work with that. We may need your help a bit on some of these individual drawbacks, though, and ideas for what perks to spend 'em on. What's up with the reserved point?

You could think of it as each person who externalizes spending one point on their own externalization, separate from the cost of the power for everyone.

Ah, that makes sense. Think the mental connection could have an upgrade, maybe? We're aphantasic and have a hard time maintaining our mindspace as a result, so a perk that makes mindspace stabler and more persistent and vivid would be really nice. Valid if not, but I'd feel like a fuckin' ditz if I didn't at least ask.

I'm not sure I know what you mean by mindspace, could you say more?

Sure! So some plural systems like making a mental space where they can hang out and organize mental resources and snuggle and such. These things are typically called "mindspace" or "headspace". There are other names people use, but I can't remember 'em so meh. Mindspace is really nice to have as a retreat from the world sometimes, because nobody but headmates can ever get to you there. The problem is that it runs on your visualization abilities, which means that if you're aphantasic — if you can't visualize worth a damn — then your mindspace isn't very present or interactive. Another thing that can get in the way is if you're not very polyconscious, because the easier it is to let people run on their own in the background when they're not in front, the easier it is for them to contribute to maintaining the mindspace.

If I'm understanding you right, I think anyone who externalizes will be very good at being polyconscious even when merged, using the power as it works now. I'm not sure exactly how to manage a power for making it easier to visualize and imagine things... would you rather have that as its own thing, or an upgrade to the mental connection focused on having a more concrete mental space to hang out in?

Hmm. On reflection, I think you're right about the polyconsciousness. That on its own will help a bunch for us. As for the visualization, I think maybe an overall visualization upgrade would be better than a specific mindspace upgrade? Or maybe both? I'm not sure. It's hard, because there's the persistence thing separate from visualization to really make a mindspace stick, but also visualization would just be useful for all of us, especially Neo, who loves visual arts.

I'll think about it. I have a few ideas.

For your individual drawbacks and powers, you can mark them with your names, or pick symbols for each of you, or something else if you like. And I'm happy to help you figure out which ones you want to take individually and which ones you want to take as a group!

Thank you! That probably means we need to go through everything carefully again, though, try to find some inspiration. Hmm. So you're working with any useful information alongside us here, I'll explain a little about each of us. Sable leans toward ink and eldritch vibes, likes to shapeshift, would enjoy having an "animate liquid" form. She's not sure what to spend her externalization points on, but has a clear idea about her drawbacks. Maya's not sure about a drawback, and the main thing she's interested in is her ship form — maybe getting access to some of its nature in her humanoid form? Neo likes illusion powers and temporary conjuration. Probably she'll take the damsel drawbacks, because she directly kinks on Love Is A Battlefield. Ruby's into guns and engineering and hunting monsters and helping people, and we've got no idea what to get her as a drawback. And as for me, I might spend points on soulbound? No idea about the drawback. Maybe something could riff on my sadomasochism? Dunno.

Anyone who isn't sure where to spend their points can also leave them unspent. Unspent points stay with you as unrealized potential, and someday if it seems like the moment of your life when you'll most need another power, they might spend themselves on one—either something from the list, or something new. You won't get to choose when to spend them or what to spend them on, but you also won't be limited to just what's on the list or what you and I can think of right now.

Useful. Okay, that's worth keeping in mind. 

Sable moves Backchannel into her personal list. The girls also downgrade Not Like Other Girls to C, trying to save points. It really is rather situational. They also downgrade the Friends In set of perks to situational. Same with Princess And Dragon.

Hailey marks Personal Slipstream as just for her., and insists they take The Rescuer off the group list. Sable can claim it personally if she wants.

She also suggests they bump They'll Know up to A. It's not like they're going to be using any mentally-affection powers on people, and they prefer to have consensual effects on people anyway. That gets them to 97/91 on S→A, which is close but not good enough.

Any ideas for point savings or bonus drawbacks here? The big thing we're tempted to downgrade is Star-Straightened, which is very expensive, but if a fate issue turns up it's absolutely fucking crucial. Technically it's a really high-value situational perk, because if the world we go to doesn't have fate-based threats then those points were better spent elsewhere, but if our destination does have those threats then this is an essential protection. So I just don't know.

The question I ask in this kind of situation is: if you were writing the story of you, would you send yourself (or yourselves) up against fate? The narrative forces at work in your life will be very much based on what you yourself find narratively and aesthetically appealing - not necessarily where you would choose to go or what you would choose to do if you were steering your story from the inside, but what you would find satisfying and entertaining on the story level. Star-Straightened is most useful to people who start in worlds with fate problems that they want to break free of, people who want to focus on fate as a thing to find and change in the multiverse, and people whose narrative sensibilities disagree with their personal preferences about how much fate they want to see. That's not to say that you'll never see fate effects if you don't want to on any level, but they'll be much rarer that way, and you're likelier to find other ways around them if you really need to.

Anyway, I think I have something for that power you were looking for!

Name: Inner World - Cost: 2 ☐
The world of your imagination is a real, concrete, persistent place, which you can experience in parallel with the world around you—though you might find it easier to focus on one at a time. It makes an excellent setting for lucid dreams, telepathic conversations, and notetaking. Mental enhancements affect its size, depth, and detail; mental defenses guard it against intrusion. Your control over it will grow with time and practice.

Oh that's excellent. That's perfect. And good way to reframe the fate question. 

I think I have a somewhat more nuanced attitude toward fate than Hailey does due to some unpleasant exomemories of a troublesome prophecy. On the whole, we do not mind "positive" fates, but fate-as-threat is something we find highly unaesthetic in narratives unless there is a solid option to get a good ending for everyone we care about despite it. So, based on that and your advice, it sounds as though we are unlikely to run into fate-based threats that we cannot handle, even if we do not take Star-Straightened.

Additionally, I had a thought regarding my drawback. I am an essentially-obligate submissive whose most essential nature is devotion to her lovers. Could we perhaps frame something along those lines, like being compellable by my true loves, as a drawback? Perhaps with an exception for looking out for their best interest allowing me to flex an order?

Actually that gives me an idea too. The other girls are open-enough to the Damsel drawbacks that I'm considering a custom just-for-me drawback. Idea I had was what if we framed my muteness to be a drawback? Like "no speaking aloud, no making voiced sounds", or something like that?

I can try to come up with both of those! Though the muteness drawback might come out a little strange. I don't think it will be as simple as "no speaking aloud".

Okay now I'm just curious to see it. Sounds fun.