The two shadows both begin speaking quite quickly, talking over each other.

Yvette's says: "The body type, strengths and weaknesses of your new body. When your body will stop aging. The reputation of your family. Your demonic heritage. Your bodyguard. The supernatural strengths of your demonic body, and the tomes of forbidden knowledge that will come into your possession."

Blair's says:
"Aura is the expression of a powerful soul. Manifesting aura is using it to act upon the world. Mana cannot be etched. There are fifteen possible aura techniques: Bolt, Burst, Resilience, Clothing, Spikes, Sphere, Beam, Lash, Naginata, Breath, Form, Collapse, Fade, Mask, Clone. There are seven possible areas of talent: Dance, Vocals, Instrument, Gymnastics, Acting, Scholarship, and Programming."

Hooooly shit.

"Can I specify what to give me if I register as stalling to you, to prevent you from choosing for me, but without actually choosing?"

"Explain the aura techniques?" asks Blair, sugary sweet.

"... Yes."

Yvette's shadow seems rather put out by this.

Blair's shadow sighs. "That's not technically a question, but you are annoying enough to rephrase it properly."

It takes a deep breath.

"Bolt. Project bolts of spirit energy. Burst. Make your aura explode, destroying the area around you while leaving you unharmed. Can be combined with Bolt to make the bolts explode. Resilience. Increases how often you can draw upon your aura. Clothing. Allows you to form your aura into any set of mundane clothes. Spikes. Allows you to form a shell or wall of aura spikes within your arms' reach. Sphere. Create a protective sphere of spirit energy. Can be combined with Burst to produce a blast of energy when struck. Beam. Maintains a continuous beam of spirit energy for ten seconds. With burst, can once again cause explosions where it impacts objects. Lash and Naginata summon weapons of the appropriate type, formed of your spirit energy. Breath. Allows you to go without breathing and ignore the effects of pressure and radiation. Form. With tremendous effort, separate your spirit from your physical body and act with supernatural strength. Collapse. If you should die, your aura will destroy everything within ninety-six feet. Fade. Temporary invisibility. Mask. Disguise your physical features. Clone. Temporarily duplicate yourself. With burst, yet more explosions."

Blair's creature looks a bit winded after that little list.

"Excellent, thank you very much. Now could you just do that for aura etching, too?"

"If and only if I register as stalling -" she pauses briefly to consider. Anything to get away from the one that fucks with her mind and the one that fucks with other people's minds - "Empress card, a, a, raven as my special animal buddy. Got that?"

Yvette's shadow nods. "Yes."

Blair's shadow sighs again.

"There are fifteen again. I will list them.
First, the ability to levitate as a physical effort, as fast or slow as you can run or walk.
Second, the ability to teleport twelve feet, once per minute.
Third, perfect grace and elegance, and the ability to fall any height and be uninjured.
Fourth, supernaturally enhanced hearing.
Fifth, a supernaturally enhanced sense of smell.
Sixth, inhuman flexibility.
Seventh, speed-reading at full comprehension.
Eighth, perfect knowledge of one scientific theory.
Ninth, natural parkour skill and the ability to adhere your hands and feet to surfaces at will.
Tenth, resistance to heat or cold or electricity.
Eleventh, a mind safe from all intrusion.
Twelfth, general magical resistance.
Thirteenth, your aura is naturally hidden and impossible to read.
Fourteenth, you can detect and read others' auras.
Fifteenth, you can completely disable your fear response at will."

"Okay, good. Now. What does demonic heritage mean, and how would it affect me if I were to choose the Hanged Man card?"

"What things can I customize about the Empress card?"

Is he fucking with them now? He's probably fucking with them now.

(He is actually getting valuable intelligence. Fucking with them is just a bonus.)

Yvette's creature responds:
"In the new world, you will have been born a part-demon. The powers of your demonic bloodline. The tells that mark you as other than human. In one case, your maximum apparent age. It is intertwined significantly with the other options available to you."

Blair's seems to have consigned itself to listing things forever.

"The magical and physical aptitudes of your new body. The style of your transformation. The Focus, Element and Signature of your magic."

"What do you mean by 'will have been born,' and what demonic bloodline powers are available?"

"What magical aptitudes are available?"

Yes. Yes it has been. He's not even a little sorry.

Yvette's shadow lists the requested items.

"Exactly what it sounds like. There are four demonic bloodlines: Umber, Grathas, Annique, and Blood."

Blair's shadow grits its teeth in its lipless mouth. He can hear them grinding against each other.
"Specialization towards offense, defense, regeneration, or mobility. Capture the magical potential of slain enemies, develop your own over time and gain a limited-use, ultra-powerful transformation, or learn a ritual to turn the remains of one of my Masters into a additional magical Element or Signature. Specialization towards magical resistance, physical resistance, or magical power."

Yvette sighs heavily. She hates playing these kinds of games. "Will I - I don't know how to word that question, I'll come back to it, what do the four demonic bloodlines do?"

"What types of mobility specializations are there? Or is it just a blanket term?"

Yvette's shadow smiles, then answers the question. "Umber demons are intelligent and skilled at magic. They are known for pale skin and lavender eyes and hair in their human forms. In their demonic forms, they control six tendrils of dark magic as extensions of their bodies.

Grathas demons are tough and physically powerful. They are known for having golden eyes. In their true forms, they are massive wolf-human abominations.

Annique demons are agile and dextrous. They have metallic hair and eyes, and their skin is faintly silver. They are always in their true form: they are innately immune to electricity, due to the immense charges that they channel through their bodies. They always look noticeably younger than other demonspawn.

Blood demons have no magical aptitude whatsoever, but are more intelligent than any other kind of demon. Their tell is that they have red eyes, which glow if they are under stress. Blood demons have innate telekinetic powers."

Blair's answer is simple: "The body channels spells that have to do with movement more easily."

"Do Umber demons have any major weaknesses, and do the people with their bloodline have major weaknesses?"

"... Right. Okay. I'm going to take a page from my sister's book and say that if I register as stalling, I'll take the Empress card, a peregrine falcon animal buddy, and the specialization of magic snatching from things I kill. What are Elements, Signatures, and the - Focus I think it was?"

Yvette gets a simple "No."

Blair's shadow nods. "Your preferences have been noted. As for Elements, Signatures and Foci - Foci are the broad magical traditions. They are Knight, Caster, Archer, General, and Sentry. Elements are the building blocks of the universe, as manipulable by magic. They are Arcane, Fire, Ice, Shadow, Lightning, Gravity, and Life. Your Signature is a magical aesthetic to your castings."

"Are there negatives to having demonic heritage at all?"

"How do the different types of Foci differentiate from one another? In other words, what do those words mean?"

Yvette's Shadow seems to be getting into the spirit of Twenty Questions. "Yes."

Blair's shadow gives him a "now you've done it" look.

"Foci are differentiated from each other by their school's approach to combat and the ways in which its practitioners channel their magical energy. A knight is a soldier with a high social rank, who traditionally fights on a horse while in armor. A caster is one who casts. A general is a military officer of the highest rank. An archer is one who shoots with a bow and arrow. A sentry is a member of a guard or watch."

"Awesome. What are the negatives to having demonic heritage? Besides age stasis."

"... Yvette, can you get me that blanket, we're going to be here a while and my face is cold," says Blair. He looks at his shadow - the one that is on top of him, not the one made by light being interrupted. "And as for you, what do those words mean in the context of Foci."

... Yvette geeeeently tries to extract the blanket from where it is pinned between her and the shadow. Success?