In the meantime they keep picking through the existing perks and drawbacks to see if there's anything else they want to adjust. Star-Straightened gets moved down to B, but after poring through everything else twice, they don't find anything else that shifts easily.

Okay, I've got something...

Name: Keys To Your Heart - Grants: +6 ☐
(Requires Love Is A Battlefield)
When you fall in love, you give away a key to your heart: a metaphysical bond that commands your absolute devotion. You have no control over this bond, and no way to revoke it. Anyone who holds a key to your heart can give you orders you are unable to refuse. You can delay or ask for clarification, but only to serve their interests, not yours. You cannot betray them in thought, word, or deed. Conflicting loyalties to different keyholders who are at odds with each other—or worse, conflicting direct orders asking you to do contradictory things—can cause a state of painfully frantic indecision, but ultimately the stronger relationship will win out. In the case of one person giving you orders that conflict with themselves or with that person's interests, you can reason through what they would want you to do in that situation, or ask them to clarify. You and those commanding you always instinctively know the difference between an enforced order and an unenforced request.

Maya immediately falls into front and flushes.

Oh. That is beautiful. Yes, that is absolutely my drawback. I adore it. That does suggest we will have to find a separate drawback for Neo, however, because Love Is A Battlefield will need to be part of the shared build to be available as a dependency there.

Originally it was settling toward needing Marionette as a prerequisite, but I steered away from that in case you wouldn't want to go that far.

I'm working on something for Neo too, though I'm not sure if it's going to come out right...

Ruby, do you have any thoughts on a personal drawback?

She tumbles into front (and into Maya's metaphorical lap) at the question.

Um. That's hard. I could maybe enjoy Mood Ring and Moodier Ring? Or maybe something that makes me have to defend people in need? Not sure.

Mood Ring and Moodier Ring can be nice to have, for someone who likes to be expressive!

I'm not sure about defending people in need; that sounds like it might get entangled with the Divine Mantle line if I tried to make a drawback for it, which wouldn't work very well here.

Probably I'll just go with Mood and Moodier Ring then. They're nice and simple. Together they're enough to get some of the combat-focused perks. I'll try to think of something better, though. Thanks so much for all this help! You're really great. ♡

I try! ♡

The girls move Dramatic Damsel, Love Is A Battlefield, and Seen With The Heart all into A-tier.

Seen With The Heart seems like essentially free points given the givens.

Maya makes Keys To The Heart the basis of her personal build and puts some thought toward what she might want to spend that on.

The girls also move a few things back up to take advantage of the new points available from the Damsel series. Angelic Tones moves up to A since they'll all enjoy it (indirectly in Neo's case), and Ruby will need it for Moodier Ring. Battle Angel and Battle Demon both move up to A since all of them love a good fight in their own ways. They also bump up Opting In, since that's broadly applicable.

Sable adjusts her personal perk selection to be Backchannel and I Can Help Them, leaving her with three extra points to contemplate.

And Maya takes Inner Strength for her build.

Do you know what you're going to want to forget with Selective Memory?

Oh, and I should explain about There's Another One...

You asked whether other vessels of the Spirit you meet would be likely to be friends or foes, and that can be hard to predict. But Sable has I Can Help Them, and people being Helped like that is one of the Spirit's very favourite things. So even if you meet someone who's inclined to be trouble, as long as Sable is willing to reach out to them, I think you'll be able to find a way to get along and be okay. That's not to say there won't be any rough patches along the way, but I Can Help them is very powerful in these kinds of situations.

That is a strong vote in favor of There's Another One, then. Thank you for that. ♡

As for what to forget, we are inclined to select things that will not cause us a great deal of trouble. Our theory is that passives should be safest there. Current picks are: Omniglot, Cotton Candy, and Grimm's Fairy Tales, but suggestions are very welcome.

She bumps There's Another One up to A.

And I think I have something for Neo now.

Name: A Single Perfect Flaw - Grants: +3 ☐
This could be a direct physical limitation, like having no voice, no sight, or no wings; it could be an everyday difficulty like clumsiness, or a magical curse that makes frogs fall from your mouth whenever you speak. Whatever it is, it must be both a significant limitation or inconvenience, and something that resonates with you personally or narratively. Once you take this drawback, your Perfect Flaw becomes permanent and irrevocable across all future versions of you. It can be mitigated or worked around, but never cured or removed.

Yes. That looks perfect. That reads like sign language and writing things out work fine, but literally nothing and no one will ever manage to give me functioning vocal cords again. Does that sound like a correct read to you?

Yes, exactly. And you would be able to use magical or technological effects that translate what you write or sign into words spoken aloud, but probably not ones that express your thoughts directly as spoken words, if I'm understanding correctly what you're choosing as a Perfect Flaw.

That's perfect. What about non-word noises? The ideal here is that unvoiced snickers and silent airy giggles are fine, but hums and shouts and moans and such aren't.

Yes, I think that holds together.

A single relieved tear drops onto the paper.

Thank you. ♡

♡

Also, I think I was imprecise about describing how individual drawbacks and powers interact with the division between merged and separate selves. Each of your unique powers and drawbacks follows you, but the question of where 'you' are is a complicated one when you're simultaneously individual and separate people who can have a mix of individual or separate bodies. For example, Neo's Perfect Flaw should follow her through merges as long as she's the one communicating, but not affect other participants in a merge—the merged body can have functioning vocal cords, but Neo still won't be able to use them. And I Can Help Them will work for Sable regardless of what combination of bodies she's working out of, but Ruby's Moodier Ring will only express her feelings from a merge when she's actively outwardly expressing them. Does that make sense? This is a bit difficult to talk about because the concepts are unfamiliar.

Makes sense and is perfect. Thank you.

♡

Let's see, what else...

There isn't any provision right now for Maya to be a ship and a girl at the same time, but the powers should seamlessly integrate any future solutions you find for that, so hopefully that's okay?

I think it is probably okay. I think the odds are decent we will find someplace with a decent option for "be in multiple places at once", which would be the ideal solution for it, at some point in the fullness of time. We are becoming very difficult to kill, so in all likelihood we will live long enough to find or invent a method. 

Hmm. Do you have any thoughts on things for Neo to spend her points on, other than banking them? Her main "theme", as it were, is shatterable hardlight illusions, but that may be something best copied from a local ability.