"Well, maybe it's a civ-builder visual novel with a romance aspect, I've seen weirder."

"...huh, okay. Do I get to do game design as well as universe design or does the former just fall out of the latter?"

"Designing the mechanics of the game is non-standard but allowed. Designing the events of the game is actually more core to the choices offered to you than designing the universe, I just offered you the universe options first because you seemed likely to prefer that I not start out by quizzing you on preferred hair options."

"Do the hair options matter, or is it just that the character avatar creator is usually the first part - wait, no, I'm not even the protagonist so that can't be it, can it?"

"The hair options matter."

"Wow, okay, thanks for not leading with that, I guess. Does picking a high tech level require that everyone involved start with a remembered history including a whole tech tree or can I - I don't know, start people among the ostensible ruins of an alien civilization that they co-opt no problem and have them zipping around faster than light the following week."

"You can start people among the ostensible ruins of an alien civilization, that makes narrative sense."

"Okay. Working assumption that I go high tech high magic, then. I suppose I will have to find out what my hair does sooner or later."

"There are three hairstyle options--'Drill hair;' classic unrealistic ringlets; this option gives you the perk 'Ohohoho!' for free. Given who you are as a person I don't think you're likely to choose that one. 'Hime cut,' a more practical and serious long hair and straight bangs combination. Choosing this option gives you the perk 'Silk Hiding Steel' for free. And the option most versatile in execution: 'Elaborate' hair. Artfully arranged up-dos, hair so long it reaches your knees, even the most absurd and impractical of Marie Antoinette's coiffures. Anything that looks like it takes more time than you can spare to maintain. Which is why if you pick this, you may take an extra Maid minion for free."

"Does really long hair actually take that long to deal with if you just, like, bun it? - didn't Marie Antoinette wear a lot of wigs."

Her eyes unfocus. "--Yes. But you can get the same effect without wigs if you really want. If you just bun it then it doesn't look like it takes that long to maintain either and it doesn't count as an Elaborate hairstyle."

"How much time are we talking, here, and, like, by what mechanism am I going to be prevented from having my maid do my hair one time and then telling her she can have the morning off while I just bun it thereafter."

"If you suddenly start going around with less attractive hair there will be social consequences at least." She's just not going to mention the 'it just wouldn't occur to you to change your hair' thing; Bella really doesn't seem like the kind of person to whom such things just don't occur even with light Fate pressure. "It says it has to look hard to maintain, not that it has to actually be hard to maintain." She does the looking-at-something thing again. "How about...this."

"It would be easier with a maid, but it still wouldn't take more than a few minutes, and the flower pattern fits in with 'Roses' of Villarosa splendidly."

"I guess I can like, have her do it while I check my email or something. Is it just me or does that mean, uh, Roses of Roseville."

"You're not wrong, no."

"Do they default speak Italian there or something?"

"The language aesthetic tends to default to a sort of French-Italian blend with maybe some German thrown in."

"I assume I get fluency for free."

"You grow up there, preventing you from being fluent would take some doing."

"About that, you said I don't, like, actually experience that childhood, I just wind up with - blended memories suddenly as a teenager. According to whom is my childhood arc specified?"

"...You do experience your childhood, you just don't remember your life on Earth while you do it."

"I thought you said I wouldn't relive it."

"You won't experience it as reliving anything because you won't remember doing it before."

"How much control do I get over my childhood circumstances, parents, etcetera."

"Well, we're not done with the hair options but we can skip over to your role section if you like."