The lights come up slowly, over the course of a few seconds.

He's in a warm, comfortable room, decorated like a fairly generic waiting room or office. The chair he's sitting in is plush; the worn upholstery is pleasant to the touch. There's a painting on the wall, depicting a wrought-iron gate, half-open, overgrown with roses; their red petals are a splash of vibrant colour in the room's otherwise muted palette.

Ahead of his chair and slightly to one side, there's a solid oaken desk, somewhat comically large for the slight young lady sitting behind it. She pushes her horn-rimmed glasses up her nose, tucks a lock of straight dark hair behind her ear, and in the same continuous motion reaches up to adjust her halo, a glowing golden circlet suspended a few inches above her head. Feathers rustle behind her, a restless motion of her enormous white wings; her chair is backless to accomodate them.

"Congratulations!" she says, a little hesitantly, perhaps picking up on the fact that he is not feeling very congratulatable at the moment. "You've been selected by the ineffable Will of the Multiverse to reincarnate as," she picks up a clipboard from the desk and squints at the form to double-check, "the villainess of an otome game."

"Excuse me a moment, miss," the Tyrant says calmly.

Then he stands up, picks up the chair he's standing on, and kills it. Thoroughly, systematically, smashing it against the ground then shattering every last piece of it into a thousand shards along every stress point, tearing out the plush and shredding the backing, slamming the last remnants into the carpet before grinding them under with his boots.

(He's screaming incoherently while he does this.)

"I'm sorry," he says, finally, still breathing hard as he turns. "What did you say?"

"Ah," she says, somewhat at a loss. "I said."

With a quick breath, she steadies herself and continues more firmly, "Congratulations, you've been selected by the ineffable Will of the Multiverse to reincarnate as the villainess of an otome game."

She regards him and the remains of his chair for a moment, and then adds tentatively, "Was the chair not... good?"

"... The chair was unobjectionable," he says, and the genial tone in his voice almost conceals the pain. "My older daughter just had me assassinated." It's so much easier when there's someone there to discuss it with, calmly. "Or possibly her assistant who is going to betray and murder her, both are possible from the information I have." He leans on the desk. "Would you prefer I sit?"

"I prefer you do whatever makes you more comfortable," she says, with a slight gesture towards the former location of the chair. A soft cloud of faintly sparkling blue vapour envelops its remains, and when it dissipates, there are no more splinters; then a second cloud, this one pink, coalesces out of thin air into the shape of a replacement chair and dissipates to reveal one. It's powder blue, where the previous chair was a misty grey, and the upholstery is slightly newer.

The Titanium Tyrant will sit, then. 

"Now, to go over what you were saying," he says, anger and pain still seething beneath his swift voice, as he rattles off one by one - "I am dead, I cannot or will not be brought back, there is an afterlife, the afterlife involves reincarnation - at least for me - I am still going to be a villain in my next life, and... I am sorry, my Japanese was rusty, what did you say I was the villainess of?"

She clears her throat slightly and reads off her clipboard, "'The non-existent smash hit otome game, manga, anime, and Broadway musical Roses of Villarosa.' Ah, I'm not fully familiar with the genre myself but otome games appear to be structured similarly to visual novels, with a female protagonist and a plot focused on that protagonist finding love with one of a selection of available boys."

Sandor Balog, Titanium Tyrant of Novapest, blinks. "... I think my younger daughter has played some of them?" He considers a moment. "I suppose I should ask if this is an ironic hell, or a simulation crafted for a replica of me after my death to annoy and/or redeem me? Both possibilities loom larger in my mind than they did before." Honestly he's going with the latter, though he needs to subtract some plausibility because it would need to be a historian who resurrected him; Minerva, Jack and Mechanos all have better taste.

"The Will of the Multiverse is ineffable, so it's hard to say for sure, but as far as I know this is an ordinary otome game villainess reincarnation, which is to say that the Will thought incarnating you as the villainess would make the plot of such a story more interesting."

The Titanium Tyrant sighs. He has just had a very, very long day week month year, and is not enjoying himself. At some point a bunch of twenty-second century (or so) scientists are going to leap from behind a metaphorical curtain and say 'ha ha! Fooled you!' (and, indeed, know that he is thinking this) and though he is physically fresh and happy (and, he realizes, younger than he has looked for years) that does not help as much as he would have thought it would.

"So. The Will of the Universe is trying to make a more entertaining story, the specific type of story it is making is a female-protagonist romance styled as a Japanese video game," the sheer implausibility of this statement is staggering but he will be polite anyway, "and has seized me as a tool for doing so. Understandable." (He is very interesting pain.) "Please go on."

"There are a number of choices available to you, to define the style and story of your otome game," the angel explains, smoothing down the papers attached to her clipboard. "You will be able to choose several things about your character design, the tech and magic levels present in the game setting, your background and the background of the heroine and the boy you will be fighting her over, and an assortment of other miscellaneous points of interest; and besides the choices defined on my form, it's also possible for you to make suggestions about the plot and worldbuilding which our universe construction team will take into account if at all feasible."

He nods.

"I am afraid that I have some questions, before we begin." He leans on the desk. "First, are afterlives universal, and if so, are they normally net-positive utility for supervillains?"

"The universality of afterlives is a complicated question with many influencing factors," she says. "I think it would be fair to say, though, that broadly speaking across universes, supervillains are unusually disadvantaged in the afterlife area."

Right. Understood. Everyone needs to be rescued from Hell. One more job for the Titanium Tyrant pain.

"I had, as it happened, been referring to this universe," he says, just to clarify. "Are you aware of its afterlife status or policies for non-me individuals?"

"Well, it's one of the universes compatible with this style of reincarnation, which rules out several possibilities, but I don't have specific details and the situation could range from 'universal paradise' to 'complete annihilation barring the deliberate intervention of higher beings'," she says apologetically.

"I see."

This does not change the situation greatly.

"Will I be permitted to bring any of my own people with me to this new world?"

"Hmm, let me check," she says, her eyes going distant for a moment as tiny pinpricks of blue light flare in their pupils.

"Yes, all right, the rules have been recently revised but you should be able to name any number of people to be reincarnated in your new world alongside you. If the number is three or less, you can choose specific roles for them in the story; if the number is ten or less, you can choose for each one whether they should have a specific role in the story which you do not choose, or simply be reincarnated somewhere in the world where you may or may not get the chance to meet them; if the number is more than ten, you have no control over the circumstances into which they reincarnate." The points of light glow briefly again, and she adds, "If the number is greater than the projected population of the setting you create, some souls will need to be held back for future opportunities to reincarnate into it, and if you manage to destroy the universe before that happens, they'll be sent on to reincarnate into broadly similar circumstances elsewhere."

Manage to destroy the universe? Well, that's ambitious. The worst he ever risked was shattering the earth.

He nods. "I understand." Which ten would he pick if he was limited to ten? Thei pain, Heavyhand, Blitz, Elizabeth Elizabeth, Julius, Catherine, Mechanos, Prudence, Jack and Andrew. Zenith or Solaris? Would he sacrifice his enemies for them? (He reaches into a pocket of the clothes he usually wears; begins folding a piece of paper over and over again, twisting it between his fingers.) But will he sacrifice the chance to meet his wife to them? Of course not.

"Would my fellow reincarnators recover their memories?"

"In time, yes, though their recollections may be delayed until after your storyline resolves so as not to interfere unduly in the plot."

"I see." this would be so much simpler if the answer was 'no'

"You were telling me about my next life?"

"Yes!" she says. "I have here a form on which I will record your selections regarding your reincarnation. Would you like me to go through the options in order? You can change your mind about your choices at any time up until the point at which you finalize your decisions and we proceed to the reincarnation process."

"Yes, thank you," says the Tyrant.

(He is currently face to face with the rather obvious fact that he's going to fall in love with someone else, and then his wife will get all her memories back. He supposes he could have her come back as the someone else, but then he could only resurrect three people. For someone supposedly superintelligent he is coming up with remarkably few solutions to this problem.)

"Right then!" She tucks a lock of hair behind her ear and scans the form with her eyes to find the start. "The first question is your hairstyle, which will heavily influence the aesthetics of your character design. The options are Drill Hair, which gives you a free intimidating laugh, Hime Cut, which gives you a free psychological perk, and Elaborate, which gives you a free maid. I can show you examples if you're not sure what they look like."

She fishes three photographs out from behind the front page of the form. The first depicts a blonde girl with ringlets so aggressive they do indeed start to resemble mining equipment. The second, a girl with pin-straight black hair cut long with simple bangs. Finally, the third girl has her dark brown hair in a cascade of interlocking braids that reaches below the frame of the photograph, which cuts off at around the level of her hips.

This is ridiculous nonsense but unfortunately the risk/reward ratio is in favor of taking it seriously. He wishes he was back to not having to make tradeoffs there was never when he didn't have to make tradeoffs.

(So much for the Titanium Tyrant.)

"Does this maid have superpowers," he says calmly, "or could I hire a substitute? And what psychological perks exist?"

"The maid is guaranteed by the system to be competent, loyal, and effective; you are granted a choice of two minions with this guarantee from a pool of possible kinds, and the free maid is a third minion of the Maid type. As for psychological perks, the specific one granted by the hime cut is Silk Hiding Steel, which improves your ability to function well under pressure. Some applicants find it redundant and I venture to guess you'll be one of them."

"Interesting." He considers. "Then the evil laugh would also be redundant."

... Actually wait - 

"Will I have my present powers in the next universe?"

He'd been assuming 'no' but if the answer is yes -

"Almost certainly not, but I might be able to guess better if I knew what your current powers were."

"Hyperanalysis," he says. "The ability to tell how puzzle pieces fit together, better than any human alive. And how metals alloy. And what people will say, or do, or think."

He had built the first powered armor that ran on the laws of physics. He had been sixteen and he had rusting car parts and stolen mechanic's tools and he named it the Durendal. (He hadn't thought he'd done anything impressive; one of the first heroes to die in Normandy had worn his prototype and the only challenge had been reconstructing how he had to have done it.) He had clock-fought Psion with a hand laser that couldn't scratch his skin and shaped every blow of the fight to follow his visions.

And he'd been shot, by an ordinary assassin, because he hadn't checked his backup systems.

(Pride goeth before the fall, Sandor.)

"That sounds like the sort of thing that's unusually likely to show up in some kind of lesser form in a new incarnation, but I wouldn't give better than one in three odds of that in any particular case," she says. "It depends on the whims of the implementation teams. I suppose you could increase your chances by suggesting worldbuilding that makes that type of power likely, but you'd have no way to guarantee that you in particular ended up with it."

"Understood." Then he'll need to cope without it. He's done that, in prison. He's survived.

"Then it sounds like I'm going to have an Elaborate haircut."

(He in fact expects the curtain to go up at this point, though he has sufficient self-control that he doesn't show it.)

She makes a note on the form in pencil and proceeds to the next question. "Hair colours have mild personality effects but they're generally trivial to compensate for if you don't like them," she says. "Your choices are: blonde, with no effect; red, increasing passion and aggression along with physical strength; silver, increasing intelligence and creativity; brown or black, granting you the ability to successfully pass as belonging to a lower social class, at the cost of agency and assertiveness; or any hair colour not found in nature, which will increase the tendency of the setting to run on anime tropes."

He considers getting a complete dossier on 'anime tropes', before immediately concluding - "Silver, thank you."

Little pencil note. "Well, some people might not like that it can reduce your physical strength slightly," she suggests, "but as I said, those downsides are generally trivial to overcome. And there's a persistent rumour that blondes have more fun but as far as I can tell it's only true in that the people who are determined to have fun and hear the rumour pick blonde."

Ah, self-fulfilling prophecies. Of course.

... Being physically weaker will suck but he can always build a powered exoskeleton if he needs to. "Understood, thank you. I'd prefer more detailed descriptions to less, wherever possible, unless our preparation time here has relevant limits." Which might of course be true - his source isn't telling him everything but yelling at her won't help - if he tries to focus his powers on her does he get anything useful?

(It's difficult to focus his powers on her, because mostly they are just explaining in exquisite detail that THEI IS DEAD. They're only doing a little suggesting plans for getting her back, even now that those actually have a chance of working.)

"The limit on our preparation time here," she says seriously, "is that if you spend long enough in this place that your human mind surpasses its operating limits and ceases to function, I'm authorized to make my best guess as to what you would have wanted and then send you on to your reincarnation, with your memories appropriately blurred so that you won't become catatonic on arrival. I think last time that happened it took at least a few million years, maybe much more than that. The applicant was very intent on not proceeding to the next stage."

The angel has One top priority, which is presenting her applicant with his choices in such a way that he chooses among them as he genuinely prefers, with no tricks and no misinformation, to ultimately construct the Villarosa that is right for him personally. She is also kind of concerned about him on a personal level, but he doesn't seem receptive to that sort of interaction so she's keeping it to herself.

"I'd meant to give you the overview first and then go into more detail afterward," she adds, "but we can go straight into full depth if you prefer."

He's glad to hear that the angel's priorities are in common with his. (And he is not receptive to that sort of interaction; there are four people he could ever have gone to about that and two of them are dead.)

"Good. I have every intention of proceeding to the next stage, in as effective a manner as I can manage," he says. "But I always prefer to have as much information as I can bear." Really?

"I'll keep that in mind," she says. "So! The next choice is your character's Race, which may be either Human or Elf. In short, humans are the baseline default species of your new world, and elves are a similar but distinct type of people that are in some way, and usually in many ways, better than humans. Stronger, smarter, taller, and prettier are some of the more common elf attributes. You can suggest to the worldbuilding team as many design considerations for the distinction between humans and elves as you like, including deciding that the humans of Villarosa should by default be stronger, smarter, taller, and prettier than humans in your previous world, or deciding that the 'humans' of Villarosa should be radially symmetrical flesh orbs with sixteen tentacles if that's what you prefer; also, if you choose Human, you may at your discretion omit the concept and implementation of elves from your Villarosa entirely. If you do choose Elf, you must take an extra flaw later on to compensate."

"I understand," he says. "The question of Elfhood will be dominated by the costs of the flaws, then; would it make sense to put this off until I see which ones are affordable?"

"That would be entirely reasonable!" She leaves this entry blank and flips to the next page of the form.

"The next choice is the Tech Level of your Villarosa. In brief, each of the options is as follows: Faux Medieval is a reimagining of the medieval period into a cleaner, more pleasant shape with better plumbing and more literacy; Actual Pre-Modern is the true-to-life version of that time period, or of an earlier one should you so choose, and you can gain a free perk of your choice later on by taking it but frankly that is a decision I have never seen someone not regret. Early Modern covers the beginning of globalization and the establishment of the scientific method; Marvelous is an extrapolation from Early Modern science fiction, into laws of physics different from your own because Early Modern science fiction was very optimistic and imaginative. Industrial picks up more or less where Early Modern left off, and covers a range from the invention and popularization of the steam engine up until—it says 'your First World War' here but I don't know if your world had one, I've mostly worked with applicants from Earths without superpowers before and I'm less familiar with yours, and goodness knows these forms aren't updated half as often as they should be. Anyway, Steampunk is another extrapolation, into a world where clockwork and steam power become vastly more advanced but no one ever invents electronics. Contemporary covers the age of electronics and the Internet, and on average will lead to the most egalitarian societies though the details you suggest to the worldbuilding team can influence that outcome heavily. Cyberpunk is an extrapolation where electronics and the Internet become dominant technological forces while space travel and many other forms of technological progress stagnate; and finally, Space Opera covers the range of tech levels in which space travel has become commonplace, usually but not always through the invention of some form of faster-than-light travel, and human civilization is at least multiplanetary and often interstellar."

She hasn't seemed noticeably out of breath as she was speaking, but she definitely inhales after finishing that little speech.

"Are there any options you would like more specifics about, would you like me to go through all of them to give you further detail, or would you prefer to make a preliminary selection and move on for now?"

"We had a first world war," he says heavily.

Minerva would take Marvelous. He does not even think she would wait to hear about Space Opera; she might, she's grown a great deal, but she would take it. She already tried it once. The power to shape a perfect, ideal future, without the limits of entropy - Minerva would take that, and step into her ideal world with a smile on her face.

(Minerva is dead, and so is Thei he.)

"I am not interested in Actual Pre-Modern," he says, subdelegating that decision to the individual with extensive experience and benevolent goals, "but I would like to hear more about all the other options, particularly Faux Medieval, Marvelous, and Space Opera."

Our default option. Knights and ladies and lady knights! Adventurers taking jobs at the Guild and drinking their hard earned gold away in taverns! Maybe even having real stats and levels, if you want!

This has all the flavor of a medieval setting with almost none of the misery or inconvenience. Literacy is common, the castle has hot and cold running water, the local healer is just as effective as a modern hospital, food is varied and fresh all year round, and somehow modern elastic undergarments exist too. This doesn't have to be strictly medieval, either. You can flavor your setting with anything from Ancient Egypt to the Renaissance, though this won't really change the tech level, just the aesthetics.

Similarly to how the Space Opera and Cyberpunk tech levels resemble the science fiction of your era, the Marvelous tech level resembles the science fiction of the Early Modern era. In a Marvelous world, the early progress of technological advancement went in directions more comprehensible to its pioneers. Think Mary Shelley or Jules Verne, if you're familiar with those names. Things might be a little fantastical by your standards, but the world will consider itself a mundane one unless you add magic separately. The actual level of technological advancement might fall anywhere between the start of Early Modern and the end of Industrial.

Pick this one and our world design teams will be working overtime, because Villarosa will become the Star Kingdom of Villarosa, stretching across five solar systems. Faster then light starships, laser guns, maybe giant robots. This will technically (no pun intended) have much more advanced technology than any other option, but somehow the average person's life will still look a lot like your world, if with a higher standard of living. Our world designers really love their space feudalism, also, so the social structure will look more like an earlier period. But you'll easily be able to snag a private space yacht, which I think makes this a pretty awesome option.

"Yes, thank you," he says.

(It's going to be space opera. He is basically confident. He is still not going to surrender valuable resources just because they are not very valuable; he has learned patience.)

This is a pretty exciting era! The scientific method is becoming established, and technological progress is just starting to accelerate. Firearms and cannon are introduced, but aren't yet fully dominant on the battlefield. The world is coming together into a global civilization for the first time. Of course, this doesn't always go well for everyone involved, but the world of Villarosa may have a gentler and kinder transition than your world did, if you want. This basically covers any technological level from your Renaissance through the invention of the steam locomotive. You may optionally add some higher- tech conveniences as with Faux Medieval.

Factories, railroads, and steamships. Firearms are now the primary weapon of war, and technological progress really takes off, the world changing rapidly with each generation. This again covers a pretty broad range of influences, but basically hits anything where real mass industry exists, up until about the level of your First World War. Classic picks from your world are Victorian England or Meiji Japan. You can still optionally have a smattering of added conveniences, but by this point there's not quite as big a gap to fill.

This is an alternative technological route that your world lacked. Ingenious gears and intricate mechanisms allow steam to power incredibly complex and advanced machines. Clockwork golems, steam-powered battle tanks, and huge analog computers. Daily life has a technological level anywhere up to your current day, just through a different route than your world achieved it. Though society and politics still tends to resemble something from your Industrial period, 'for whatever reason'.

This will make the world of Villarosa a lot like the world you're leaving behind. Digital computers, automobiles, and skyscrapers. You can choose anywhere from the mid-to-late Twentieth Century to slightly in the future of your world to set the exact tech level. This is the only choice that potentially gives you access to an Internet you'd recognize, which seems surprisingly important to our reincarnators. This is also probably the most egalitarian option, socially, if that matters to you.

This is one possible future of your world. The gap between the haves and have nots becomes a gaping chasm. Vast mega-corporations wield immense influence. Noble titles mean less, and wealth means more, but the two will go hand in hand in this Villarosa, with noble ranks corresponding to ownership shares in Villarosa's native mega-corp. Computer technology is generations in advance of your own, and virtual reality may be just as important as the physical one. Space travel will be more advanced than your world, but still limited to small colonies and habitats in one solar system. Cybernetics are common, and highly advanced technology has reshaped the way ordinary people live their lives in thousands of ways.

"I will take that under consideration," he says drily. "My preliminary decision is 'space opera'. I have a question, though; does the statement about the internet in 'contemporary' mean that there can be no space opera with an internet, or simply that whatever widely-linked network of computers they have will have different content and organization than ours?"

(This is not actually of vital importance to him but the knowledge that his future won't have an internet affects things enough so that he's pretty sure this justifies asking.)

"There can certainly be widely-linked networks of computers in a Space Opera setting, but they will have different content and organization than you are used to, and in particular it is often the case that computer network information exchange is limited by lightspeed where travel is not," she explains. "Which means that by default, in a Space Opera setting, each planet will have its own global network which exchanges information with other planetary networks on a significant time delay, via intrasystem sublight communication methods or interstellar mail carriers."

"Fascinating!" he says. "Space opera, then, certainly. And the next?"

"The next question is Magic Level, for which the options in brief are None—obvious details, free perk, I have seen this one go unregretted as many as a handful of times—Low, which makes magic rare enough that you are unlikely to meet more than one person who knows how to use it; Medium, which makes magic-users common enough that you're likely to meet a handful of them; or High, which makes magic common enough that it's almost unthinkably rare not to have any, and accordingly gives you the Magic-User perk for free. Would you like full descriptions for some or all of those?"

MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC

"Yes."

This is just like your old world, where none of that exists outside of fiction. Why would you pick this? I'll throw in any perk you want for free, but seriously. How boring can you be?

Magic will exist, but will still largely be the stuff of myth and legend, not a day-to-day part of life. Magic users will be exceedingly rare and almost always self-taught, and there might only be one person in a generation who rises to the level where their abilities are more than a mere minor special power. If there are any magical creatures in this world, they will be similarly rare, possibly unique beings.

At this magic level, there might be only one or two magic users in your story, or even none at all. Having any magical abilities, let alone powerful ones, could prove an unexpected strength that your foes are unprepared for.

This is where magic really starts becoming a part of the world, and is our default option. We're still talking only a few hundred or a thousand real magic users in Villarosa, but that's enough that encountering magic is no longer a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Most magic users will learn from a master as an apprentice. Magical creatures definitely exist and have societies of their own.

At this magic level, multiple characters in your story could have magical abilities. Still, the majority of characters will not be magic users, and being one yourself can give you a significant edge.

In this sort of setting, magic is everywhere and woven into the threads of everyday life. It'll likely be the case that nobles are expected to have magical ability. Magic is taught in schools, and even warriors will be using some magic. Magical creatures are common and some may be integrated into the society of Villarosa, though just how will vary.

At this magic level, essentially every major and most minor characters in your story will be magic users. You may take the perk Magic User for free, but it no longer gives you any real advantage over your peers.

"Fascinating," he says, steepling his fingers. "For the moment we can put down 'high' and move on..."

... In a practical question, the question is if he wants Low (he is the world's greatest and only archmage) or High (AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA MAAAAAGIC!), and the real question there will be the value of a perk.

This one is my choice. Every young girl and more boys than you might think go through a phase where they want to be a princess, you know, and vaguely omnipotent servants of the Will are no different. Pick this and you'll live that dream as the daughter of the King of Villarosa, the highest ranking and most desired bachelorette in the nation. This comes with all the obvious advantages, and will automatically make you the alpha female in any room. Yet abuse your royal privilege too much and you might find it less protection than you think... just like your canonical counterpart.

Here you'll be the only daughter of the highest ranking noble in the land - by default the Duke of Thorns, though the title will change based on the cultural influences you pick for Villarosa. This is a lot like being a princess, but less so. However, what you gain is that your engagement will be an important part of your father's political plans, so you can can call on his resources for aid in defending it. But that'll only last as long as the politics make sense... if things go wrong you will quickly find yourself disowned and left unprotected from your enemies.

If you don't want to be nobility for some reason, here's your pick. You'll be the daughter of the wealthiest merchant in the realm; not noble, but rich and prominent enough to freely move in those circles. You won't have the power of a noble title, but what you will have is money. All the money. And that's a power all of its own. But be careful... unless and until you marry the right boy, you're still technically a commoner, and your father's money won't be protection enough if you offend the wrong people.

The last thing he wants is to have to justify his strategic decisions to his father.

"Princess, I expect."

(Don't even go there)

The eldest son of the King, the heir to the throne, and all around nice, heroic guy. The same age or slightly older than you, talented in everything he does, and romantic enough to make all the girls swoon - including you. You can't really go wrong with him... except for the fact that he's going to betray you and fall in love with the heroine. He's also the most likely to take strong offense to any bullying or nefarious tactics on your part.

If you are the Royal Princess and pick the Prince Charming as your fiance, you may choose to make this character the son of the Duke of Thorns instead. Alternately, you may invent a convoluted excuse for not being blood related, or have royal brother/sister marriages be accepted in Villarosa. No judgment.

This guy is the dark mirror frenemy of the Prince Charming, usually close to the same age as him, and therefore you. At the start of the story, he's even more talented than Charming, but ultimately the good guy surpasses and befriends him. You know how the story goes. Dangerous and dominant, he'll make your knees weak and your heart beat fast. He can be mean, but never quite evil, and he's got a heart of gold deep inside just waiting for the right girl to unlock it. Ah... that said, the right girl is the heroine, not you.

The Dark Rival can be either the Prince Charming's brother, or the son of the Duke of Thorns. If you are the Royal Princess or the Duke's Daughter and the Dark Rival is your sibling, you have all the same options as you did in the last choice. Still no judgment.

The oldest of your choices, this character has already graduated from the academy and made a name for himself. He is of lesser nobility, but by merit has ascended the heights of society. Your setting choices may alter his exact deeds, but by default he will have made a name for himself both as a warrior and a commander. To you he will be cold and formal at first - not cruel, not unwilling to be wed, but certainly the least emotional of your potential fiances. A tragedy in his past drives him and hardened his soul... but the heroine is the one whose love will melt the armor of ice around his heart.

... NO.

... NO.

... "I think the third option is the only one who it would not be actively embarrassing to pursue," he says. Then he pauses. "Is there in fact any reason why I need to participate in this elaborate contest with the heroine, instead of letting her have him while I conquer the world?"

She makes her little pencil note.

"Well, about that," she says. "The next choice is the choice of Heroine, but after that comes Fate, which picks out the canonical conclusion of your story, a conclusion which you can only avert by foiling the heroine and winning your fiance's love. I would describe approximately none of them as compatible with world conquest."

"Aha. Thank you. And the heroine?"

This is the default option. Of humble background, without any social status, this amazing young woman won admission into the exclusive Royal Academy on sheer merit. Given the stratified social structure of Villarosa, this is quite the achievement, but makes her the proverbial nail sticking out. That gives her an obvious weakness, but she is by far the most talented of the potential heroines. She will outshine her more pedigreed classmates thereby attract the notice of your fiance. She will rise to meet any challenge or challenger... including you. Good luck, villainess.

Despite being royalty, this heroine is for some reason neglected and powerless. The most popular reason is for her to be the King's daughter with a previous, politically inconvenient Queen. She might instead be a legitimized bastard daughter, or a refugee from a destroyed kingdom. Regardless of the reason, she lacks most of the advantages of her station that the Royal Princess enjoys, and while far from incompetent is the least personally formidable of the potential heroines. What she does have is the heart of a saint, the beauty of a goddess, and the love of your man. And, even if she is neglected, she is still a Princess, which will tie your hands in dealing with her.

You can consider this heroine a midway point between the last two options. Her parent died accomplishing some great deed - in the default setting, defeating the Demon Lord. This won a posthumous elevation to the ranks of the nobility. This gives his or her daughter legitimate noble status, but none of the experience or social mores expected of a noble young lady. She will be quite talented, but will lack the extreme genius of the self-made Extraordinary Commoner. What she will have is fame, the inherited gratitude of the country, and connections with her parent's influential and dangerous surviving companions. Your fiance's curiosity with her will soon turn to attraction, and the Hero's Daughter is not to be underestimated.

The Extraordinary Commoner might actually be a threat. No. 

The Poor Princess would be very difficult to threaten, but she'd have all the resources of the kingdom investigating assassination attempts on her. (Probably. Maybe not if she was from a neighboring country, but even then she'd be hard for his assassins to find.)

The Hero's Daughter... hmm. More competent than the Poor Princess, less so than the Extraordinary Commoner. Fewer connections than the Poor Princess, more than the Extraordinary Commoner... no easy task, perhaps (or perhaps this add copy had never considered the Titanium Tyrant)... but communications with other star systems are slow, and... yes, he can customize a setting where those 'influential and dangerous surviving companions' are out of range. And assassins very rarely prefer the inherited gratitude to the country to money.

(Precisely what he is contemplating does not appear on his face, though that he is contemplating certainly does.)

"I think the Hero's Daughter would be the safest decision," he muses, "though if there are statistics on how commonly the villainess wins against each of those, I would certainly take those into consideration."

"At a guess, without access to hard numbers, I'd say the Extraordinary Commoner wins substantially more often than the other two but I can't say which of the other two wins more, and anything can happen given strange enough circumstances."

She pauses, looking at him, then adds, "There will be an option later on to enable the possibility of peaceful reconciliation with the heroine. I venture to guess that you might find it more tedious, but by the numbers it's a surer bet than unilateral victory, provided you're capable of it. When villainesses fail at that one, it's generally because they overestimate their own ability to sincerely make peace."

The response inside the Tyrant's head is a sudden scream of NO! If he was in better mental shape, he might be able to sort that scream out from his genuine arguments, he might update, he might realize that there was a new option, a better option, and embrace the illusion of goodness. Instead there's the scream of NO! and the most brilliant mind on Earth musters all its arguments for why he should reject the possibility of compromise. He will not be defeated either way, for he is the greatest villain who has ever lived, only one man has ever challenged Sandor and he will never be part of this story - whether he succeeds or fails, it is better to die free than to live a slave and he will not accept any compromise between slavery and absolute power; his failure in this life was that his power was insufficiently absolute, after all no heroine worth her name would be prepared to let him conquer the world - he read that description, the Star Kingdom of Villarosa needs him to fix it, nothing less than absolute power could mend it - yes, it is true, it would solve the problem where he can't have Thei and "his" love interest both if he simply yielded the young man he has no interest in to the rival, but then he'd have two competent enemies he'd need to destroy -

I will not yield,
To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet,
And to be baited with the rabble's curse.
Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane,
And thou opposed, being of no woman born,
Yet I will try the last. Before my body
I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,
And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!'

"Thank you,' he says grimly. "The Hero's Daughter, then?"

Little pencil note.

"Your choice of Fate, then, has six options: Death, Nunnery, Servitude, Impoverished, Exiled, Disgrace. I'm sorry about the inconsistent naming scheme; my petition to standardize it is currently being fiercely debated in several relevant subcommittees. Anyway, Death grants a perk and Disgrace necessitates a flaw, and my colleague's descriptions are largely inadequate and misleading so I will just have to summarize them all myself as best I can."

She clears her throat and straightens slightly in her seat.

"Death: the story will by default end with you dead. You may submit notes to the story team on the details of what you would find to be a fitting end, but contrary to what my colleague wrote here, they can discard those notes if they see fit. Likewise, you can suggest to the worldbuilding team that your Villarosa be supplied with a comfortable afterlife or easy means of resurrection, but you should not expect those benefits to straightforwardly allow you to ignore this Fate. Again, you earn an extra perk by taking this."

"Nunnery: you will be forced to join some form of religious order or similar institution, where you will live a safe and stable life of hard work in a good cause, without luxury or romance. Picking this option will necessitate that such an institution exist in your world in common use as punishment for crimes, and you cannot avert it by providing worldbuilding notes that would seem to exclude the possibility. I don't know why people keep trying that one but they do it all the time and sometimes my colleagues let them try it without pointing out that it will fail, a practice I find deeply unprofessional."

"Servitude: at the conclusion of your story, if you fail to win your fiance back from the heroine, you will be stripped of your status and bound to her service. If magic or technology exists in your Villarosa that is capable of enforcing loyalty, it may be used on you here. Since the heroine is fundamentally a good person, you can be sure she will not treat you cruelly. Since the heroine is by and large not a complete fool, you cannot rest assured that this option will definitely provide you with a smooth and easy path to eventual power-behind-the-throne status. It's been done, but not nearly as often as it has been attempted."

"Impoverished: once again you will be stripped of your status, but this time simply cast out into the street to make your way as a common citizen. Your life from there depends largely on how well your Villarosa treats its common citizens. The description explicitly states that you will never again be wealthy or noble. It means it. There is no path through this option that leads to a more comfortable life than that of a completely ordinary person with no special advantages. Please do not fling yourself onto the growing heap of villainesses with clever money-making schemes who think they can trick Fate."

(She is, visibly, so tired of the growing heap of villainesses.)

"Exiled: You will not only be exiled from Villarosa, never to return, a pronouncement which once again has the weight of Fate behind it; you will also be forced to marry a stranger, an older, childless foreign nobleman. You cannot avert this fate by providing worldbuilding notes that heavily imply there are no foreign lands to be found; one will inevitably turn up regardless. It is possible to lead a happy life in this fate, but only if you work together with your new husband to build a life that you both enjoy. If you do not have the capacity to do that, you are better off trying something else. Also, and I cannot stress this enough, murdering him to steal his power is many, many people's first thought here and it has never, ever, ever worked."

(She is so tired.)

"And finally, Disgrace: you suffer the direct public humiliation of being abandoned by your fiance, and corresponding loss of reputation, but you retain your wealth and rank. Again, you must take an extra flaw in order to take this, and I'm sure you can see why; it's by far the most advantageous choice in practical terms, unless you're one of the very few who can pull off a turnaround on Servitude, or you manage to construct worldbuilding notes that make Death work for you."

"Thank you."

The thing about being the Titanium Tyrant - inventor of powered armor, first villain to defeat the Atlantic Six, conqueror of Novapest in despite of all the world, and mentor to half the archvillains in history - is that people saying "it's very hard" stops really meaning very much to you. He thinks it will be Servitude, but -

"So the question, then is if Death, Servitude, or Disgrace is the simplest option to recover from," says the Tyrant. "Which depends on the nature of magical servitude in the setting, the afterlife mechanism, whether or not Fate opposes a Disgraced princess rising to power, and the strength of perks. Can you tell me more about all of these, either what they are or whether or not I have the ability to define them?"

"You have the ability to suggest worldbuilding notes about the presence, absence, or nature of magical servitude, and likewise the setting's afterlife mechanism," she says. "Fate will not utterly forbid a Disgraced princess from rising to power, but, in addition to making it difficult, will increase the difficulty in proportion to your competence so that no matter how good you are at scheming to gain power, your odds of success will be no better than the threshold value. I'm not allowed to know what the threshold value is but I've been told it's worse than a coinflip. As for the strength of perks, we'll get to that in the Perks section."

Suggest, not specify. Noted. "And if I am bound to Servitude, Fate ensures I cannot escape, but is it Fate or the heroine's competence that ensures I cannot rise to power through her?" If he cannot take power again, Servitude and Disgrace are identical; all men are tyrants or slaves. And he cannot count on an afterlife to save him. So. Check.

"Fate lends her an edge if she needs it, and Fate ensures that the one thing you cannot do is convince her to free you under any manner of false pretense; but if, without leaving the position of a servant, you can contrive to exert influence through the one you serve, Fate will let you have that once you've earned it."

"Thank you. And what are the rules and restrictions that define my ability to choose a magic system or an afterlife system?"

"By default, all your suggestions will be implemented; the conditions under which they won't are if you make suggestions that contradict your chosen options, if you make suggestions that contradict themselves or each other, if you make suggestions that the worldbuilding team can't figure out how to implement as written, if you make suggestions that seem to contravene the spirit of the enterprise, or if something really weird is going on."

... Damn it, catchall.

Well, he'll have to make this his backup plan.

"Thank you. Can I institute reincarnation as an afterlife system, and if so, would Fate apply to future lives?"

"Reincarnation is a broadly acceptable afterlife system, but yes, Fate would apply to future lives, though tending to decrease in effect over repeated cycles if you stay within the system that long. At a guess I'd say that if you chose to implement reincarnation and then met your Fate whatever it happened to be, you'd find that your next five or ten lives after the first would be narratively appropriate for a failed villainess in a way reflective of your Fate, and outcomes could begin to diverge after that point."

"I see."

Well, this seems not too hard to metagame. If he picked Death, he'd be fated to die young five to ten times - this process could be accelerated, given a knife. If he picked Servitude... "If I picked Servitude, died, and reincarnated, would I be bound to serve others or to serve specifically intelligent good-aligned others?" One of these is much more tolerable than the other.

"The correspondence in situations like these is more thematic than direct; you could end up serving the heroine's next reincarnation, or you could end up in a position where your own servants treated you as you'd treated the heroine in a previous life, or something else that... echoed the concept of your original incarnation without necessarily reproducing it faithfully. In general, though, you would not end up serving someone who mistreated you in a way the heroine would not, and that constraint tends to imply you would end up serving mostly good people."

"That sounds reasonable. Is the duration per-lifetime or based on experienced time or some third option, and if the first, could it be shortened with a bullet or lengthened with the peaches of immortality?"

Which exist (Thank you, Andrew), though 'immortality' is an overstatement. (He should know.)

"The duration of... your entanglement with your Fate? Based on some combination of lifetimes, experienced time, and narrative concerns, I believe. Exiting your reincarnations early won't tend to improve it."

"Understood. Thank you. I think we can put down Servitude for now, then, and move on to the next stage." And he'll update his mental worldbuilding notes.

Scritch scritch goes the pencil.

"The next section is Minions, where your options are Maid, Classmates, Admirer, Animal Companion, AI, and Butler; you may pick any two non-Maid Minions to add to your free Maid. I'm also meant to tell you that the heroine will have a single companion of her own, who will be generally less effective than one of your Minions; the Hero's Daughter's standard companion is the Mentor, an older family friend with a role similar to your Butler. Shall I read out the individual descriptions?"

"Yes, thank you."

All those except the AI sound rather unimpressive, frankly. Presumably, though, they - like the Maid - have more skills than would be likely at a first glance.

This will give you a female personal servant (or a cross-dressing boy, if you like, though such would surely be scandalous if revealed). Unlike any "normal" maids you have, a Maid minion is guaranteed to be highly competent, almost unquestioningly loyal, and have some useful skill beyond housework. Most commonly, she might double as a bodyguard or a spy. Oh, and even if it makes no sense in your setting, she can come with a traditional maid outfit, if you want.

This minion is actually two people, but they will almost always act as a pair. Picking this gives you two female classmates your age of slightly lower social status, whose families are formally or informally in service to your own. These two are therefore predisposed to be your friends and follow your lead. The Classmates are probably the most independent and proactive minions, and therefore also a deniable asset. They can be counted on to give you insight into the Academy gossip and help subtly manipulate it; both of which are tasks your exalted status can make difficult to accomplish yourself.

This minion is the male counterpart of the Classmates, though he is only a single boy. He is a talented but not exceptional fellow student with an obvious crush on you. While he knows and accepts he has no chance with you, that doesn't mean a bat of your eyelashes doesn't twist him around your little finger. You may choose for him to be a rival or a friend of your fiance; either way he will prove a useful tool.

You may optionally choose to take an extra flaw. If you do, select one of the choices you have not already picked for Your Fiance to be your Admirer instead.

This minion is some domesticated or tamed animal that you have bonded with and trained. In technologically advanced or magical settings, it will have near human intelligence as a genetically engineered or magical companion; in more mundane settings it will simply be an implausibly well trained pet or steed. This can be anything from a pet cat to a pegasus mount. You can even have a dragon, but only if your Villarosa's dragons are the lesser kind that can be reasonably domesticated; not if they are monsters of vast power.

This gives you a human-level artificial intelligence as a personal servant. Besides the obvious advantages of an ally that never tires or sleeps, the AI will be capable of trivially hacking and controlling any run-of-the-mill computer systems. If Als are common in your Villarosa, the AI minion will still be more advanced than the commonly available kind.

Unlike your other options, this minion is not directly your servant, but is instead a much older person, usually employed by your father, who has taken a liking to you. This character is often a man, but can also be a woman. Their actual job title could be Majordomo or Head Maid, or they might even just be an old friend and ally instead of holding a formal role. They are extremely skilled, but they are unlikely to ever intervene directly in your struggles. However, they instead can be an important source of grounded and wise advice, if you are willing to listen.

Artificial intelligence is mandatory, and Maid (bodyguard, it translates) is free, he won't need two. Animal Companions are no help, and Classmates - no, "independent and proactive" minions are Fate's tools, not his. This leaves the question of Admirer or Butler; he's tempted by Butler, because it raises the prospect of getting Andrew on his side (for the first time in his life), but not if the Hero's Daughter is assisted by a Mentor; he can't afford to give Andrew a place in the story at all if he might find himself on the other side from Sandor.

"No need for the traditional outfit," he says drily. "AI, and I suspect Admirer."

She makes her note.

"The next section is Perks," she says. "You may have two of them for free; all others must be earned by taking relevant options or by balancing them with Flaws in the following section. The list is a little long so I'm going to make an effort to summarize but I assume you'll want all the detailed descriptions eventually."

She clears her throat again, and: "Bad for Her, Good for You lets you choose an outcome from your list of possible Fates to inflict on the heroine if she loses. Double Route introduces a second love interest, betrothed to someone who is not you, and allows the heroine to choose between them. Equal Friend introduces a second villainess as your friend and ally. Extra Minion gives you another minion. Feminine Wiles grants you incredible skill at seduction. Goddess of Beauty makes you incomparably beautiful. Good Ending offers you a canonical story path where you reconcile with the heroine and avoid your Fate. In Love causes your fiance to fall in love with you in addition to the heroine. Lady of Battle gives you exceptional combat skills. Magic-User gives you ordinary amounts of magical power for someone in your setting who has magic at all. Magical Prodigy upgrades that to exceptional magical power. Marvelous Talent gives you an ordinary talent or skill which will be considered a traditional hobby for young ladies in Villarosa. Ohohoho! gives you a supernaturally intimidating laugh. Scientific Revolution doesn't apply to settings with a tech level higher than Early Modern. Silk Hiding Steel increases your ability to function under pressure. Surprisingly Useful Skill allows you to choose an existing skill of yours and have it apply to your new life in unexpectedly useful ways. Unearthly Insight enhances your intuition and gives you hints about what is happening in unclear situations. Yuri Heroine makes the heroine bisexual."

"I understand Extra Minion. I know I am not interested in Good Ending or Yuri Heroine." He does not notice the flinch; he's been flinching very often recently, inside his own head, and usually it just means that THEI IS DEAD or that (he's a bad father), and it's very hard to notice, sometimes, what else it can mean. "You said earlier that Magic-User was free if I picked High Magic, and that you believe I do not need Silk Hiding Steel." He can function under pressure perfectly well, as the present situation attests. "I would like full descriptions for Double Route, 'Bad for Her, Good for You,' Equal Friend, Feminine Wiles, Goddess of Beauty, In Love, Lady of Battle, Magical Prodigy, Marvelous Talent, Ohohoho!, Surprisingly Useful Skill and Unearthly Insight, if you have no objection."

And he will have more specific questions about some of them later, he expects. (Does Equal Friend actually mean an equal? When has he ever had one of those?)

While the game Roses of Villarosa has multiple routes, by default in your story the heroine will be following only the route where she "captures" your fiance and comes into conflict with you. If you select this perk, the heroine will instead progress down two potential routes. Select options for Your Fiance and Your Role, and these will be the other "capture target" and his fiancee. The heroine's attentions will be divided, and you may be able to manipulate her to choose the other man... but doing so would surely make an enemy of the other villainess.

Roses of Villarosa was "originally" a game, and with this perk it is possible for the player to lose. Go back to the Your Ending section and select a choice other than Disgrace. This is now the fate that awaits the heroine in her bad ending for your fiance's route, with your and her roles reversed. Your meta-knowledge can help you reach this ending, but that's a mean thing to do to a nice young woman like the heroine. I guess you really are a villainess, huh?

Remember how the other options you didn't select in the Your Role section still exist? You can pick one of those villainesses to become your friend and ally. She won't take orders like one of your minions, and she'll expect your friendship and support in return, but she will still be a great help.

No offense to whatever seductive skills you had in your previous life, but they aren't as good as what we'll give you with this perk. Pick this and you will have a particular talent for attracting and manipulating men. You still won't be able to stop your fiance from falling for the heroine, though you might delay it.

By default you will be quite an attractive young woman, but with this perk you will be widely considered the single most beautiful woman in Villarosa. It's shallow, but there's no denying this can be a powerful advantage.

Your fiance will always fall, and fall hard, for the heroine. But if you pick this perk, you and your fiance will start the story genuinely in love. This will make him conflicted as he finds love with the heroine, more sympathetic toward you, and easier to win back. But you will be feeling these emotions as well... so it will hurt so much more if he picks her over you.

Depending on the details of your version of Villarosa, you may have some level of combat training by default. Even if you do, this perk will take it to the next level, making you a highly skilled fighter on par with the strongest members of your class.

This perk is the one that makes you an extraordinary magic-user, though not one out of line with what others - such as the heroine - might achieve. This could take the form of simply being more powerful, or having access to unique or rare magical abilities. Or both! [Requires Perk: Magic-User]

Life isn't just battles and magic, and with this perk your canon self- and you - will gain a great aptitude for something outside those domains. Think art, dance, a sport, mathematics, or even underwater basket-weaving. You don't need this perk just to be good at something, but taking it will make you world-class. Whatever you pick will be considered a traditional hobby for young people of your status and gender in your Villarosa, as well. You may select this perk multiple times.

You gain the ability to deliver the villainess laugh on command, and something about it is almost - or depending on the setting, maybe actually supernaturally intimidating, striking dread into your foes and encouraging your minions. You will be a much more feared and imposing person, and even the heroine will hesitate to directly confront you.

A skill of your choice from your old life will serve you well in Villarosa, giving you an unexpected edge. Maybe a computer science degree is oddly applicable to crafting magical spells. Maybe those Shakespeare sonnets you have memorized allow you to become a great poet by bringing them to a new world. Whatever you're good at, we'll make it work.

You will have a talent for piecing together hidden connections and staying one step ahead of events. This doesn't really make you any smarter, but can make you better at applying your intelligence. Depending on the details of your Villarosa, this could take the form of actual premonitions, excellent deductive skills, or simply having eerily accurate hunches.

"Double Route" would obviously be the most powerful, since it would halve his odds of defeat - if he was playing a normal game, instead of a world-domination game. "Bad for Her, Good for You" would be the correct one to take if he expects to win, since it would get him a powerful ally to assist him in maintaining power. "Goddess of Beauty" would fail against any love interest worthy of him. "In Love" is a deathtrap; if he can't maintain his composure, he's hopeless. "Lady of Battle" is superfluous, "Ohohoho!" is unnecessary, and most of his skills will already serve him well in Villarosa. This leaves "Feminine Wiles," which disgusts him but does indeed cover his admitted weaknesses, "Magical Prodigy," and "Unearthly Insight" to go along with "Double Route," "Equal Friend" (how equal?) and "Bad for Her, Good for You" as prospects. (And of course he'll want Elf, he can see how this fits into his master plan already...)  

"Questions, then.

"On 'Double Route', is the heroine still Fated to seduce my betrothed, or is she Fated to seduce one of the two?

"And on 'Equal Friend', how competent should I expect her to be - should she scale to my competence, like the difficulty of escaping Fate, or is she merely as capable as a normal villainess in this kind of story, or neither?

"And can I specify that what I want from 'Unearthly Insight' is my present power at whatever level I can buy it at, or is that a misreading of the perk?"

"On Double Route, both your own betrothed and the alternate love interest will fall in love with the heroine, but it is up to the heroine which one to seriously pursue and it is often possible to arrange that she choose the other one. On Equal Friend, there is no guarantee of true equality but it is usually the case that your friend will be chosen specifically with an eye to personal compatibility, complementary skillsets, and a tendency to be able to offer you useful support at least as often as she needs your own support in return. Specifications you make about the nature of Unearthly Insight will fall into the category of worldbuilding suggestions and be taken into account in the same way."

"Understood."

He pauses.

"I think I'll need to see the Flaws, before I make decisions about Perks."

How many does he have? Just what will they do? Can he afford to assume he'll win, and can therefore afford "Bad For Her, Good For You" or not?

She nods and flips the page.

"To summarize: Abhorrent Admirer gives you an acquaintance who is in love with you but is unattractive, useless, annoying, and impossible to get rid of. Anything You Can Do makes the heroine better than you at literally every skill you have or develop. Dark Secret gives you or your family a scandalous secret, the details of which you may specify at a higher priority order than any other worldbuilding element you suggest. Ditz gives you attention deficit disorder. Equal Enemy activates another of the villainess roles and makes her hate you. Ghost In The Flesh gives you the canonical villainess whose role you're assuming as a second personality. In Character forces you to behave in-character as your canonical counterpart except when acting anonymously. Jealousy makes you debilitatingly jealous of your fiance and the heroine. Magicless removes your magical power; you can only take it in a high-magic world. No Compromise alters your personality to be incapable of accepting any outcome where you do not win your fiance completely. Patriarchy makes Villarosa sexist. Peggy Sue gives the heroine complete memories of a timeline in which she faced your canonical counterpart and learned all of her secrets and weaknesses. Save The World introduces a broad-scope threat such as an invasion or apocalypse. Sickly gives you poor health at a level that is inconvenient but not deadly. Spoiled Rotten gives you your canonical counterpart's expensive tastes and tendency to throw tantrums when she doesn't get her way. There's Two Of Them adds a second heroine as the heroine's friend. Unattractive makes you ugly or disfigured."

... All right, what the hell is wrong with Anything You Can Do. Is it just a lose button? (No, it's to go with Good Ending if you personally have skills at empathy, compromise, and negotiation. A coward's choice, but an effective one.)

Dark Secret looks both free, and an excellent excuse to give himself secret superpowers. Ditz... would be less than ideal and at some point he will find who chose that name for it and roast them alive.

(He drums his fingers against each other.)

Equal Enemy is a mild problem, how mild depending on how vulnerable to assassination she is. (Probably not very.) Ghost in the Flesh could theoretically be endurable. In Character would either be debilitating or free. No Compromise, same. Peggy Sue is also known as 'suicide'. Save the World seems wholly acceptable... Sickly would be dangerous... Spoiled Rotten would be suicide... There's Two Of Them would be suicide... probably, maybe not if it was the Poor Princess... Unattractive could be manageable...

"Dark Secret, Ditz, Equal Enemy, Ghost in the Flesh, In Character, No Compromise, Save the World, Sickly, There's Two Of Them? Unattractive?"

You or your family have some secret, the revelation of which will be devastating. The details are up to you, but popular options are being secretly bankrupt, treasonous, or in possession of forbidden magic.

This won't make you actually any dumber. What we will do with this flaw is alter your personality to ensure that intellectual pursuits are a low priority. Reading will bore you, and you'll be easily distracted from your studies. Your natural talent will ensure you can still pass your classes, but you won't be at the top of the class. Oddly, this flaw can make the perk Unearthly Insight more powerful.

This is the opposite of Equal Friend. Take one of the options for Your Role (that hasn't already been picked). This girl will take an immediate dislike to you and become your rival. While she might be the villainess of a different route, in this route she will ally with the heroine against you. But maybe you can use her villainous nature to drive a wedge between them?

You may choose to also bring the remaining villainess into your story similarly, if she is not already your friend, but this will not count as a second flaw.

The bright side of this flaw is that you'll never be alone! Instead, the "original" canonical villainess of the story will be living in your head alongside you. Maybe you can be friends, but she's not a very nice person, and will probably be trying to take "her" life back. She will be able to take control of your shared body temporarily with your permission, or when your mental strength falters.

You may select this flaw twice, in which case your positions are reversed and you start as nothing but a voice in the villainess's head.

We can add a compulsion that will force you to try to stay in character as your canonical self. You're not going to be forced to follow her canonical path to the bad ending, but you'll need to make sure that your actions can be justified as something a selfish, spoiled rich girl like your canonical self might do. However, you can shift what counts as in character slowly over time by believable character development, and the compulsion will only apply to your open actions; deeds done secretly or anonymously are exempt.

At the conclusion of your conflict with the heroine, if you avoid your bad ending, the compulsion will cease, though by that point you may be used to acting that way.

We'll alter your personality such that, like the canonical version of your character, you will be incapable of simply conceding your loss to the heroine. You won't accept losing your fiance, or sharing him, or anything else. He will be yours, and you won't settle for anything less unless forced to.

It could be as simple as an invasion by a neighboring nation, or as dramatic as the Demon Lord rising again to destroy the world. But now Roses of Villarosa has an adventure element, as the heroine and your fiance successfully save the Kingdom of Villarosa from some threat. You too will face great danger, and you'll have to be careful that your efforts to save yourself from your bad ending don't create a worse one.

By default, the body we'll give you is fit and healthy. With this flaw, you'll instead have a weak constitution, a tendency to fall ill at the slightest provocation, and a persistent cough. This won't ever kill you, but it can be dreadfully inconvenient. I don't recommend taking this with the Actual Pre-Modern tech level.

Remember how I said there wasn't room in Villarosa for multiple heroines? Well, now we'll make room. Go back to the Your Nemesis section and pick another heroine, and she will exist. She will not be romantically interested in your fiance, but she will rapidly become the actual heroine's friend and therefore your enemy.

You may choose to also bring the remaining heroine into your story similarly, but this will not count as a second flaw.

It's not fair, but looks matter, and with this flaw yours won't be winning any awards. You might simply have an unfortunate face, be disfigured significantly in some way, or just not match the body type preferred in your Villarosa. Regardless of the specifics, you won't be considered attractive, and it will prove a significant social handicap for you in your new life. [Incompatible with Perk: Goddess of Beauty]

"Thank you," he says absent-mindedly.

Dark Secret: Free. (It gives him forbidden magic!)

Equal Enemy: Thank you no. Ghost in the Flesh: No, Save the World: Free, Sickly: No, There's Two Of Them: Good god, no, Unattractive: Less than ideal... Ditz: Unacceptable for the ruler of the world, unless - "I assume there aren't medications available, even in science-fiction settings, that can be used to nullify the costs of this flaw?"

(And that leaves...)

"Even in science-fiction settings, you will find that the flaw still affects you in the described ways regardless of your use of medication," she confirms. "The effects can be managed and lessened, but not nullified."

Right then.

"So the question, then, is In Character." He steeples his fingers. "The question is if, if in fact all my open actions what a sufficiently intelligent selfish, spoiled rich girl would do, is this acceptable, or is she forbidden from being aware that kindness, empathy, hope, generosity and forethought are worthwhile as wholly practical virtues, totally ignoring their moral value? Because I can easily believe that she and I have the same goals, barring only that I am sixty-eight and not a fool and so know better methods."

"That seems like the sort of thing you have a very good chance of achieving by providing notes that emphasize your canonical counterpart should be notably intelligent," says the angel, adjusting her glasses. "Though I can't guarantee that your characterization... hmm..." She frowns slightly, thinking to herself. The light-points flare in her pupils again. "—hmm, I have an idea and I'm not sure if it will work because I can't find a record of anyone else ever trying it—theoretically, if you took Ghost In The Flesh, and convinced the spirit of your canonical counterpart that your actions were the actions she herself should have taken, that would make them de facto in-character, and would mean that you would be able to alleviate the restrictions of In Character by justifying your actions to her. I think. I don't know if that's the sort of thing you want to try, but as far as my understanding of the system goes, which is generally pretty far, it should work. But the strength of the edge it gives you over simply taking In Character and making strong suggestions about your counterpart's personality may not be enough to justify the downsides of the flaw, because taking In Character and making strong suggestions about your counterpart's personality is a fairly solid solution already."

... "If I take Ghost In The Flesh she will attempt to take over my body whenever she has the chance, and will desire to take over my body. I think that making suggestions about my counterpart's personality is likely to be the best solution."

He pauses. "In Character, Dark Secret, Save the World. Are Flaws the last section?"

Because in that case, he thinks he's ready to begin describing himself and the world.

"Yes, that was the final section."

"... One question, then," he realizes. "You said people I bring in will recover their memories. Is this guaranteed or optional?" Can he bring in Andrew and Minerva or will they endlessly oppose him?

"It is possible to bring someone in with the intent that they will not recover their memories; they will then not be guaranteed to recover their memories, and will instead by default not recover them; but neither will they be completely guaranteed to lose them forever, if for example someone within the setting discovers a way to recover lost memories from past lives, or if your Villarosa interacts with another universe after the conclusion of your plotline and something unpredictable happens. —your Villarosa will not interact with other universes before the conclusion of your plotline, but afterward, it is the sort of thing that has occasionally happened, and generally makes it difficult to guarantee that any particular event will definitely never occur. By and large, though, you can be sure it won't happen within a handful of lifetimes from the point of your arrival."

"... I see. Thank you."

He'd assumed he'd bring in ten people. He was thinking of which ten. He was counting names, trying to imagine who he'd sacrifice.

Then he realized they'd recover their memories after the story was over, and then he realized what it meant.

"In that case, I would like to make two lists of people to reincarnate into the world, one recovering their memories - after the story is done, no doubt - and one not. These lists will be very long. For now, though..."

He shoves the chair back and stands.

"Let me then give the second draft - break in if any of this is a problem. Elaborate silver hair, elf, space opera, high magic, as we discussed; royal princess, noble prodigy, hero's daughter, servitude, free Maid, Admirer, AI. Bad For Her, Good For You, the Rich Heiress as an Equal Friend, Magical Prodigy, Unearthly Insight; the Flaws are Dark Secret, Save the World, and, yes, In Character."

Spins, turns, begins pacing; no matter how long the strides he takes, the room is large enough to accommodate him.

"Let us begin with the Star Kingdom of Villarosa, or whatever name the design team chooses for it." He flashes her a grim smile. "Founded around five hundred years ago, or so the story goes, by refugees from a destroyed civilization sharing their secrets with the nascent civilizations they met, bringing world after world into harmony and unison together. These are, of course, the 'space elves,' and the people they rule over are largely humans or humanoid aliens lacking tremendously plot-interesting abilities. They have a feudal hierarchy - since it is demanded - ruling over a great many worlds with a combined population of a trillion or trillions; most of this population is de facto autonomous, living under its own laws, paying negotiated tribute to regional and planetary lords who possess military spaceships and supernatural powers, and the duties of protecting their people from interstellar threats and assuring them representation at the royal court."

Pace, pace, pace.

"Average life, for those people on the ground, is very good; scientific progress is not exceptional, thanks to limits on social mobility, but the average person's life is very good, thanks to immense total societal wealth. There are socially valuable jobs doing useful and productive work, planetary and system-wide internets, good matchmaking for entertainment and relationships, and overall all the opportunities required to live happy lives, such that the vast majority of the population is enormously more comfortable with their lives than on Earth, strongly preferring living to not living. Average lifespan is about ninety; average intelligence has a much narrower band than for people on my Earth, with what Earth would call average intelligence being considered 'unintelligent' here, but the upper reaches of the population being in roughly the same place - the range that would catch as large a fraction of Earthlings as fall between 60-140 IQ on Earth would find a populace averaging 100-140, by Earth's standards." Doesn't have to deal with idiots, check; hasn't just superintelligenced himself out of relevance, check.

"The nobility is defined by their ownership of spaceships, and their elven blood, and by the opportunities for advancement found in the fleets of the royalty and the high aristocracy that maintain order in the Star Kingdom and defend it against its foes, and by their psychic powers - I would prefer that name to 'magic' for it to avoid straining genre," he adds, "though of course it is the same meaning. At the peak of is the feudal hierarchy Elves; immortal under pleasant or ideal circumstances, they wither and age as swiftly as humans in unpleasant or unhappy circumstances, but can recover their youth if restored to better conditions." So he won't condemn himself to slavery for ten eternities if he loses. "They are - what does it say? 'More intelligent, swift, strong, magically powerful, attractive than humans'? Just so. They are cross-fertile with humans, though the children are recognizably human except that they might possess psychic powers; once those powers were only found amongst the elves, among whom they are universal, but five hundred years is nearly twenty human generations, and though the less elven blood the less chance of developing powers, with any blood there is some chance. Elves take only one elven spouse at a time but may have multiple human consorts, usually though not always sequentially. Most of the aristocracy is descended, therefore, from one of about two hundred initial Elven colonists, with careful choosing of spouses and consorts from amongst the nobility and the upper levels of the common people to avoid intermarriages. Elves come of age at the same time humans do, and master skills at the same speed if they wish to train, though some prefer to avoid doing so; the elder elves can therefore extraordinarily formidable, though very few technological developments have come of them - a new paradigm advances over the bodies of its detractors, after all, and few elves have an interest in science."

(He's almost growing younger, as he speaks; wrapped up in his monologue. The spell he is weaving is a thousand distractions, hidden weapons for him to wield against his enemies disguised amid profuse building details, thorns in a garden of roses.)

"Psychic powers are stronger based on - a random element of talent at birth, on trained skill, on intelligence, at the tutors you've had. Their peak is the royal family, which possesses rare techniques, one-hundred-percent elven blood, and the best tutors," and in fact their peak is him - elf+silver hair+magical prodigy+Being The Titanium Tyrant is every modifier he could find to stack, "but they are present throughout the nobility and are, indeed, considered evidence that commoners who possess them should be admitted to the nobility, through marriage, adoption, or occasional merit scholarships into a royal or aristocratic fleet. Psychic abilities are carried out through mental motions without required physical motions, though untrained psychics may use them to help them focus, and include very weak precognition, telekinesis, shielding yourself or others from harm, creating heat or lightning or kinetic energy, enhancing physical abilities and detecting but not reading minds, though non-artificially-intelligent computers can be communicated with - and, indeed, this is one of the major uses of the powers; to cause ships and their pilots to effectively synchronize, producing a more effective stellar combatant than any non-psychic-crewed ship. All of these, of course, scale with power. At the absolute highest levels, a psychic can read or send emotions, teleport long distances, instill compulsions - of which the most famous is a servitude compulsion used only very rarely in history, only by the royal family, and only on infamous but extremely-skilled rebels, to tell the truth, support the compeller's cause, and not oppose their will - and very occasionally receive long-distance visions of the future, these being of the Fated future if there is one or otherwise of events as likely, and otherwise possible - but difficult - to oppose. Imposing compulsions requires overwhelming the psychic defenses of the target, and minds have a signature that is possible but difficult to disguise, and possible to recognize if seen again, though not to tie to physical features."

"There is an afterlife. It is reincarnation, it is well-known to exist, and it is merit-based, according to total-sum utilitarianism, with the best lives awarded to those who have done the best job of contributing to the flourishing of all entities capable of feeling joy, this flourishing being summed according to every conscious act done throughout that "soul"'s consciousness, in any lifetime. After each life, your joys in that life are counted as paid to you as reward, your suffering in that life is counted to you as owed to be repaid in future lives, along with the good you have done as owed to you and the evil you have done as charged against your credit, and the score of all your previous existences is then updated with the score of this one. (This afterlife is, of course, used in propaganda by the existing nobility to justify their own power; they have, after all, received their position as rewards for their goodness.) Additional powers, strategically-useful memories from past lives, and good fortune will strike those whose karma is positive (again, by utilitarian standards); poor fortune will seek to discharge negative karma. To the extent that the system is intelligent it attempts to steer all lives towards having net-positive impact, but it has little power to do that since it will always put justice above encouragement."

And, since everyone's lives are good, they'll deserve good lives, producing more good lives to deserve more lives, all of which he is ethically responsible for as the creator of this universe, causing him to have an insanely-high, constantly-rising karmic score that ensures he will have the best life possible every generation he is born, admittedly subject to his Fate.

"Does all this work, as a world? Should I go on - to the Royal Family, and the Dark Secret, and the threat the world must be saved from, my enemy - and myself?"

A pen appears in the angel's hand as he begins dictating, and she scribbles notes at frankly superhuman speeds, nodding or frowning occasionally as she listens and processes everything he's saying.

"Yes, I think that all holds together reasonably well," she says. "You have the option of constructing a magic system in a Space Opera setting that is outright magical, called magic, and either facilitates widespread magitech or provides an interesting contrast with the more traditional technology of the setting or both, but what you've done here is also perfectly viable. Go on."

"The Royal Family is elves, and in its second generation - the founders came in the initial group, but as young adults still with their parents. Both King and Queen have had a number of children with mortal consorts, but have only had two together, a son and a daughter a year apart, and that recently. Both ruling royals are competent, neither exceptional; both understand elven psychology very well, human less well; both are psychically powerful - two of the three strongest alive - and on the tremendous resources they control as monarchs; the Kingdom under them is prosperous, but doing tremendously less well than it could be. Both of their children have been engaged to humans as early political marriages; the assumption is that the humans will die in seventy years or so and that it will be good practice for 'real' relationships.'" There is irony in his voice. "The son is the Prince Charming; well-intentioned, kind, able but held back by his sense of morality, torn between loyalty to his family and the family interests and doing right by the people of the realm, with a knack for every skill he's put his mind to. He is engaged to a fantastically rich young lady who is extraordinarily socially gifted, not especially moral, and understands kindness and generosity as tools to build resources and reputations, not as goals in of themselves. (We will get to her later.) He may be the - fourth - most powerful psychic in the world."

"The daughter is, of course, my character. She is the most powerful psychic in the world - 'elf', 'silver hair', and 'magical prodigy' suffice to justify that; it is also justified, of course, by royal tutors, which she has been provided with many from a young age, few of which she gets along with. She is spoiled, selfish, holds grudges, enjoys flattery (but has a knack for telling if it is honest), enjoys what she is good at and dislikes what she is bad at, despises being pushed around by others - which caused a rift with her parents that she prefers to pretend does not exist - is almost completely friendless but deeply attached to the tiny number of people who she cares about (her brother's affianced, who has been teaching her how being a good person is instrumentally useful, and her maid, and the artificial intelligence given to her as a guardian and teacher, the most powerful known to exist), but also very intelligent. She prefers indulging in her vices, but is prepared to put off this indulgence if a crisis looms - she is, after all, immortal, and there will always be time for games later, and she has self-control even if she dislikes the need to use it. She is very strong-willed, which as a child she usually wasted on quarreling with people for no particularly good reason. She has an extremely effective intuition which she often steers by and suspects may be psychic divinations; that gift, very rare, is believed to be confined to the royal family, with the King and his mother before him being the only two elves to commonly report visions. She is betrothed to -"

The Tyrant, still pacing, pauses to cast a smile over his shoulder.

"Well. We will get to him later."

And his boots are thudding again across the carpeted floor. (It is, at least, carpeted when his boots are on it.)

"She has just received a prophetic vision that a specific girl is going to seduce her fiancé away from her and then have her psychically enslaved via the traditional family compulsion, and considers preventing this her highest priority. Suddenly she needs to grow up, and has almost no one who she can to depend on. And, 'in the game', she makes the wrong decisions, teetering chaotically into worse and worse methods, distrusting her loyal advisors, driving her betrothed away by her attempts to keep him to her, and ultimately causing her own defeat. A failure of picking plans from out of the wide window she considered to use to accomplish her goals, not of the goals themselves. Here, she has a better means of picking plans."

"Does all this seem reasonable?"

The angel is nodding along. "Yes, I think that works very well as a backstory and is unlikely to meet with any objections in implementation."

"Good."

He nods again, sharply.

"The next step is, then, the threat. There are other states and peoples that exist, out in space; it is a large galaxy, but the Star Kingdom of Villarosa is mightiest of all those that, and most of those are confined to nomadic bases or single systems."

And he continues to pace.

"The Black Fleets are not known. They are never observed to engage in diplomacy, or send signals, or send or accept surrenders, they do not attack planets except to disable anti-orbital, they target only space-based systems and shops and blockade worlds, leaving them trapped and isolated. The first known fleet is believed to have arrived more than two hundred years ago, traveling along hyperspace pathways thought impenetrable, consisting of ships tremendously more powerful than Villarosa possessed - but few ships. There was a desperate battle, they were defeated, they were reverse-engineered, and better ships were created, in case the threat ever appeared again. It appeared sixty years after that, with fleets less comparatively advanced but that Villarosa barely defeated."

Turn - 

"Thirty years after that, and fifteen years before the present, the last war took place; multiple Black Fleets attacked different locations simultaneously, and there were many desperate battles and much heroism as the lords of Villarosa fought to oppose it; the King having died in the invasion before that, the Queen fought - and perished - leading the fleet from her flagship. The tide was nonetheless turned by the heroic action of her ship; when the queen died, the young man who took charge, revitalized the ship, captained it to battle with only a handful of crew remaining and died winning the victory was posthumously ennobled - and his family with him - for this action, in spite of his lack of psychic powers. The young princess was betrothed to the sole member of the crew who survived, an exceptionally gifted young officer - human, noble, in possession of his own powers if not so great - who has had to live with his own scars from the battle ever since. During the war, a number of star systems that had been occupied by the Black Fleet were forced to manage their own affairs, and obtained a taste for independence. They were reluctant to have the fleets return, and many are now independent or 'autonomous', having built up their own forces to oppose the resumption of royal rule. So Villarosa stands on the edge of catastrophe - more advanced in science than ever before, reduced in size, with much of the older generation dead and a new hand on the throne."

And about -

"We are now on schedule for another wave. Both royal children, both of their betrothed, and a number of other interesting individuals - the son and daughter of the kingdom's most important noble, the only daughter of the hero who won the war, a handful of common men and women rushed into the edge of the nobility to make up for the war's dreadful losses - are now on the rebuilt flagship, a hybrid battleship/carrier built strongly but of the last generation, now in use as a training ship, so that they can get the experience they require before the worst comes. Everyone hopes the crisis will not occur, but the royal family have seen that another attack is coming, and that this one ship may be the key to the entire war."

"Any questions, yet?"

"Not yet," she says thoughtfully. She has accumulated several pages of notes by this point. "It's certainly the bones of an interesting story."

Right. More setting comments! The population is slowly growing and nowhere near capacity; trade between worlds is expensive, since populations are tremendously huge and ships can be expensive, and so is largely in luxuries and a small number of very important goods. Planets blockaded by the Black Fleets experienced economic troubles and had to scramble for solutions but succeeded in finding them, with their lifespans not significantly decreasing under occupation. "This is, of course," he says drily, "why so many of them seceded; they could manage without the royal government, did, and saw no reason to resume paying taxes afterwards. They are not especially happy with the - de facto - answer of 'the Royal Fleet.'"

Ships are constructed in orbit, at specific starbase-factories, with most of the metals used to make them coming from asteroid mining. Civilian ships are usually sponsored by major merchant corporations that can muster the resources to build them; military ships by the great lords and the Crown, with the largest fleet by far belonging to the Crown. The actual work is largely carried out by skilled and talented craftsmen, shipbuilding being considered the most prestigious non-noble career. 

FTL consists of rare stable paths between systems through 'hyperspace', which are quite small on astronomical scales though huge compared to, say, a person; lanes are of varying stability/ease of navigation, anything leaving the lanes is lost forever (a fatal process), and the Black Fleet's ability to navigate difficult unstable lines is only now being equaled. Technology to stabilize and carve new lanes is possible by the laws of physics but at least a hundred years to prototyping, and probably much slower at the speed Villarosa is progressing at. Ships traveling on these hyperspace lanes may encounter each other unexpectedly, triggering battles if the ships are hostile, but since this environment is extremely unsafe as many battles take place in systems as outside it. Only ships with the required large and expensive piece of equipment can enter or leave (or survive) hyperspace; hence the importance of carriers, which can secure escorts from the dangers of the travel method. Leaving hyperspace can put you in a fairly wide area outside the gate, somewhat unpredictably, limiting the ability of the attacker to simply mine a known exit.

Full-scale warfare on the ground essentially never occurs; orbital bombardments would defeat any ground-based threat but are not used because there is a clear consensus that if you would be orbitally bombarded you instead surrender. When there's ground-based fighting it's either duels between nobles (in which case the stronger psychic almost always wins) or attempted assassinations or bombings, or troops taking control of territory opposed by guerillas who didn't obey the surrender notice. 

The legal system varies depending on the individual region - most planets take care of their own affairs, and their ground-level legal systems do not particularly impact the adventures of spaceborne aristocrats or aristocrats-to-be, but all nobles have the right to appeal to their liege-lords for crimes committed by them or against them, and, ultimately, to the monarchs (who may decline to hear the appeal, but who always have the right to). Noble courts go by traditional methods of determining the truth that are sometimes just copying what local systems are doing, which can work well, and sometimes frank exercises in aristocratic power to decide the "right" answer, ie the one more favorable to the aristocrat; they sometimes use trial by combat to provide a pretense of fairness in what the judge who chose the method knows perfectly well will be the execution of a weaker claimant who dared to challenge the nobility. "In the interests of keeping the ineffable Will of the Multiverse happy," he says drily, (and to let him import his preexisting skills) "symbolic, psychic-assisted swordfighting is common as a mode of duels, since you can channel your psychic powers through a sword and cannot thorough a rifle."

(Sandor is well aware of what the nobility tropes in Roses of Villarosa are supposed to look like, and is prepared to play to them.)

The most common ground-level options tends to vaguely resemble Anglo-American jury trial systems, since this works fairly well, but there's a wide variety between worlds and between jurisdictions on individual worlds.

Advanced technology in common use does not include any mind-reading or (at all reliable) truth-detection machines, but does include cameras. There are no robots smaller than medium-sized birds, and miniaturizing them further is quite difficult; artificial intelligence is tremendously expensive and there is a reasonable expectation that it will stay this way forever; people-quality AIs require huge amounts of money to construct, and cannot easily copy themselves, and although manual-labor machines you could call robots exist, the line between those and any other manufacturing technology is not very sharp.

There are system-wide internets and ship-related internets, and near-total internet anonymity; the easiest way to discover someone's online identity is to get video evidence of them and their computer screen together. This does not work very well on psychics, who can interface with the computer without touching a keyboard or looking at a screen that anyone else can see.

Scientific progress on ordinary planets is usually limited to commercial uses, which includes medical technology or healing drugs for sale; science is also sponsored by monarchs or nobles for their specific ends, most of which are military - specifically, the construction of more advanced ships less expensively. There is very little research into non-applied science or social science except insofar as governments think it serves their purposes.

(So far no equivalent of heroin has been invented and the entire line of research that is dangerous addictive drugs is correctly considered a dead end. Even their painkillers are nonaddictive.)

She notes all this down, then mentions, "It's possible, though unlikely, that the lack of addictive drugs will be revised to add drama. It seems to me that the premise contains plenty of drama already, but I'm not in charge of any creative teams."

"I would have thought we had a great deal, yes," the Tyrant says drily. "Considering psychic duels, spaceship battles, swordfights, and a corrupt aristocracy engaging in complicated political maneuverings." He doesn't think ways of hiding from the world add any drama at all, but then he's never wanted to hide.

Still, if there's insufficient drama, he can go on about the major corporations whose true resource that they are founded on is noble access; about the difficulties that can be caused by the fact that the engagements are made by parents for political advantage rather than the children for love, the brave explorers searching for hyperspace pathways to new systems, and all the other fascinating elements of a science-fiction setting that doesn't need to worry about a budget or a plausible historical-development pathway.

(He'll also toss in that it's a universe where total mass+energy is increasing, and so entropy isn't an issue and the universe is expected to continue existing forever, because why not?)

"Oh, that's an element that the more optimistic members of the worldbuilding team will love," says the angel with a slight but genuine smile. "Immortal universes are a certain sort of person's favourite thing to build."

"Do they have other preferences? I'm happy to assist them, where practical."

"Often hard to guess in advance what a particular team will favour, but the optimistic contingent also enjoys making magic grow in capability or availability over time," she offers.

"Already present," he says, amused, "since the fraction of the populace with psychic abilities is increasing thanks to reproductive differentials, but it could be increasing more. I think there are going to be important developments in a few centuries regarding the development of procedures, chemical or otherwise, that can trigger psychic powers in individuals born without them, as well as - eventually - devices that can empower the abilities of those who already possess them. Anything else?"

"I suppose given reincarnation, increasing the proportion of people born with magical power does increase availability, but it's not what 'increase availability' usually means," she says wryly. "Anyway, hmm, most of the other suggestions I could make on that score are... more speculative? There are all sorts of things that specific worldbuilders might get excited about while other ones wouldn't care. I suppose, looking at the picture you've painted so far, the team you're likely to get is going to be optimistic, interested in the science fiction aesthetic, interested in politics... you could entice a more creative team into the job by providing more opportunities to combine magic and technology in interesting ways... you could make whoever's designing the biospheres happy by making interesting suggestions about animals with psychic powers... oh, the planetary design subcommittees always like to be included, and they're happy with just about any notes on planetary design that aren't planet-wide biomes, though I've also seen someone sit down and produce a brilliant justification for planet-wide biomes that sent their planetary design people into fits of delighted giggles... I shouldn't tell you what it was, it's so famous by now they'd recognize it instantly."

"Overall my objective is less to get an extremely creative team than it is one that considers me their collaborator rather than their taskmaster," he says. But Sure, he's happy to talk about planetary designs! He's curious just what inhabited tidally-locked-to-their-planet moons the size of worlds would look like, and how about a ring of habitable moons with sub-Earth gravity in orbit around a world at fixed speeds so that it takes much less propulsion to get from one to the other. How about a world that ended up with limited heat output from the sun and so deliberately set up high levels of greenhouse gases to trap all the heat they generated (and got from their planet), that would have a very narrow temperature range across the entire surface but a wide variety of biomes and he bets they could get solar output levels that were plausible to produce it. He also thinks that the idea of settlements deep underwater to protect from planetary bombardment is clever, maybe on one of the newly-independent worlds?

He also thinks that the idea of prey animals with psychic senses to detect strong emotion (so they can run away from it), which were then bred into a distinct subspecies that can detect hostile intent but not at all reliably, would be interesting, and similarly that you could do some interesting things with telekinetic animals moving themselves as a means of getting implausible weight/speed combinations of animals on land or on the air. He'd prefer to keep psychic animals rare, though, and to avoid giving them any of the rarer powers such as compulsions as much as possible - he'd like to keep those unusual, at least for the moment...

She nods along to all of this and takes copious notes, affirming as they go that these are indeed the sort of interesting details that will endear him to his worldbuilders.

Good. He also has notes on spread of species from different worlds (he thinks there's a very small number of initial seed worlds that evolved life and it was transplanted elsewhere by spaceship, often slower-than-light before the Elves and their faster travel arrived), evolution, and adaptation, and interesting ways to contrast plants and animals the elves brought with them and ones they found when they arrived. (He also has the Giant List of Everyone He's Bringing In with him, which is not, quite, everyone he's ever met.)

It's very nice and distracting and means he doesn't have to pay attention to the fact that he's going to be reborn as a girl, forced into love with someone and then have to save the world while fighting Fate or be enslaved for six centuries.

They have, approximately, all the time in the world; she's not going to be the first to suggest they get back to the business of finalizing his mechanical choices, not unless he starts to show clear signs of deterioration.

But, alas, all good things must come to an end, and the Tyrant must eventually stop petty worldbuilding and move on to more important topics, like the rest of the supporting cast!

"The Admirer is the Noble Prodigy's younger brother, also gifted - but not as gifted, also capable - but not as capable - who has the misfortune of falling desperately in love with his brother's betrothed. As they are both human, he has some doomed hope that she will take both of them if he can help her enough, but it is... rather unlikely, if not literally completely impossible. He takes a dislike to the heroine because she seems not to get on with his beloved, and has enough charm and popularity amongst the class to cause significant difficulties for her."

He pauses.

"The Heroine. Clever, plucky, charming; new to her psychic powers, which were late to awake, she learns quickly but does not start knowing a great deal. She's loyal to her conscience and her father's legacy and the Kingdom, and she has trouble whenever these conflict, too inclined to take the higher and harder path as a heroine must whatever that may be, something she gets over little and with great difficulty. Her main weakness is pure power; lacking her rival's sheer strength and ancient tutors, she relies on swift learning and clever plans." Except, of course, that I'm cleverer. "Her main strengths are that she is utterly fearless and determined, prepared to push and fight for what she values however great the odds," the Tyrant prefers to fight people who will fight back, "an exceptionally gifted warrior, pilot, and captain," let's put her specialties where they won't cause him problems, "and also basically competent, which surprisingly few people I have met are." And they will then stack as much intelligence and charisma on top of this framework as they consider necessary.

"Will this serve?"

"Yes, I think it will do nicely," she says. "Though do note that it's likely they will change at least a few minor details about the Heroine, just to avoid the issue of having you go into the story already knowing everything about her."

"Unfortunate but understandable," he says. (He would like to go into the story already knowing everything about her.)

The Heroine's Mentor. "She's an experienced veteran who is one of the senior staff; calm, reasonable, intellectual; she has a great many bad experiences with defying authority when she was younger, which ended in her-caused disasters, and so is careful to respect the chain of command. She was friends with the Heroine's father, and intends to keep her safe, but is somewhat hampered in just how extreme measures she can take, both to investigate incidents and resolve them, by her need - personal as much as legal - to stick to procedure." And if Minerva lands there, well, he has no objections. He's beaten her before; she's predictable enough.

"What is there that I have missed?" Is it just the Dark Secret?

She consults her notes. The clipboard has grown to be rather a brick at this point, with new pages appearing at need. "You haven't specified your Dark Secret, which of course you're not obliged to but I imagine you have something in mind."

"Oh, yes."

So he explains it.

The angel smiles.

"In that case, I think you're all set!"

She pulls the enormous stack of notes off her clipboard, neatens it by tapping it on the desk, and somehow in the process transmutes it into a very large spiral-bound notebook; then she readjusts the form remaining on the clipboard, tucks a pen into the clip, and passes all of the above across the desk. "Feel free to look over everything and sign the form when you're ready to finalize," she says. "It's been very nice working with you!"

He rereads it all, carefully, intently, to make sure he understands. He goes over his mistakes, and corrects a few minor details.

"You as well," he says, and, hands held from shaking by main force, signs.

"Good luck!" says the angel. "I hope you find happiness!"

The cozy little office winks out like a shuttered lantern.