"The question I have about that is how elves and humans intermarrying works, like, if you marry the crown prince and the next generation's prince is only half-elf what does that do? And I'm not sure how Ghys's thing is mind control." 

"If humans can become elves under extraordinary circumstances, half-elves can probably become elves under more ordinary circumstances? ...can elves become angels, I think that's a thing that makes sense given the setup so far and also entertains me immensely... I bet it takes some serious circumstances though, I want angels to keep being angels and not get taken over by a bunch of clever asshole ascended elves who go on to wreck the place."

"If elves can become angels I want to have a chance at it," says Ghys. "Not necessarily a guarantee, but a chance at least half as good as either of yours."

"...that's pretty fair but sounds hard to do without opening up the ranks of the angels to a bunch of assholes. No offense. Maybe put that question aside until we've picked the heroine? Who do we want as the heroine, besides—I guess either not the Poor Princess or at least not a Poor Princess who is in any way related to Didyme?"

"What happens if an angel has a kid with a human, is the result an elf or something more complicated? --Sorry, yes, right, particularly since, uh, the 'disfavored child of the previous queen' thing is uncomfortably close to the actual current situation with my older half-siblings. I guess if the Poor Princess is in no way related to me then I don't have a reason to object to it."

"I admit to favouring the Poor Princess because she sounds like the weakest opponent of the three, but perhaps we could compromise on the Hero's Daughter? Or spend some time thinking about how to make the Poor Princess a more palatable option for you, but there are many other questions we could be spending our time on."

"I'm fine with Hero's Daughter, I'm fine with some not-my-family Poor Princess variant but I'm not interested in spending a lot of time considering the question." 

"I don't care about making her a weaker opponent because I'm planning to seduce her," Naomi says cheerfully. "So I'm fine either way. Hero's Daughter sounds good, then we can get back to worldbuilding—I think if angels have kids, with anyone ever, the kids should be elves. Makes sense if angels are supposed to be—better than ordinary people, you shouldn't be able to just be born one, that's not the kind of goodness they're supposed to have."

"Makes sense. How does that fit in with the aristocracy, I feel like the angels should be--outside the system, so to speak, so if two angels have a kid where does their kid fit into it--"

"Oh good point. I mean I guess if two angels have a kid you just have a... new shiny landless noble?"

"...Hmm."

"Hmm?"

"What if nobles--elves--have pocket dimensions. That are somewhat larger than pocket-sized. So that 'landless noble' isn't a coherent concept."

"Oh, how charming!"

"...I am grudgingly charmed even though my own worldbuilding choices mean I can't start out as an elf."

She pats Naomi's hand. "You can become an elf when you marry my brother."

"Acceptable."

"And if elves have pocket dimensions then angels should have something...maybe there's a divine plane where the goddesses supposedly lived and angels can make portals to it?"

"And also have their own pocket dimensions because otherwise, when an elf becomes an angel, bad things happen." Thoughtful pause. "Can our, I don't know, souls or whatever, be routed through the divine plane very very briefly before we get incarnated, just so it's technically true that we were there for a bit?"

"That sounds fine," the angel says. "I can even, oh, briefly cloak your souls in goddess-appropriate amounts of divine magic before scattering the magic and making angels out of it, if that would help."

"Perfect! Thank you very much."

"...I hesitate to cast doubt on a compromise I myself proposed," Ghys says slowly, "but: what, exactly, is the Hero's Daughter a hero of? What calamity exists at the beginning of the world to be heroically fought?"

"Ooh, that's a good point. Maybe...whatever made the goddesses go poof? No, that doesn't work, goddesses going poof is the first thing. Uh...maybe some kind of space station had a mechanical failure and they did something incredibly dangerous to save the lives of everyone aboard and the dangerous thing killed them?"

"Oh, that works and doesn't even require us to think up extra hazards besides 'sometimes engineering fails'! Great plan."

Thoughtful pause.

"...so you guys are going to be elves which means, presumably, that you get to shapeshift your wings into whatever configuration suits you. I'm going to be a human which means I don't. What should default human wings be like? Feathers? I'm deeply conflicted about feathers. They're soft and fluffy but they need maintenance in a way skin doesn't so much. ...actually yeah when I put it like that I think bat-style wings should be the human default and feathery wings should be an elf thing because it's prestigious to need the grooming time."

"Weren't elves supposed to be able to shapeshift? Couldn't you shapeshift your wings clean, get rid of the feathers and put them back?"