"... I'm meaning it as myself here before going to Villarosa?"

"...Okay then, I'm still confused what you meant but it's kind of moot since Peggy Sue is off the table anyway - and I don't think I want to risk that coin flip on the narrative.  Alright."

Four years before school; what can she do?  Maybe her father's still alive; if so, she can save him and help him.  If not, she can try get his fellow adventurers to teach her things and maybe help them.  Or she can try to impress the nobility with her brand-new title, and hopefully have a smoother course than Lady Charlotte, especially since she'll be good friends with a Princess...

"So what're you taking?"

"...Oh, there's a thought.  What if the canonical problem is that the Duchess of Thorns - well, the heiress presumptive thereof - is especially - evil, or at least extremely power-hungry, and in on the conspiracy to release the Demon Lord - playing us both, in a way that leads to 'my' death.  Which might result from Lila taking 'There's Two Of Them' and my taking 'Equal Enemy', pointed at the Duke's Daughter..."

"That would be... easier to fix once we know who she is.  Those options wouldn't really work with each other - your 'equal enemy' would mean she's my ally and your enemy; my 'there's two' would mean she's your ally and my enemy.  Both openly, it sounds like.

"... But yes, if we say in the worldbuilding she's involved in the plot, that would be a nice hand up in checking it..."

"It doesn't explicitly specify the openness or lack thereof.  Or that the rivalry has to be unfriendly, for that matter.  Though the name is definitely suggestive on my part, such that I think Equal Enemy would 'win out', in a sense - but let me compare the language closely for conflicts."

"But do we need to use those two... I guess they're flaws, so they'd buy us something more... but what do you want to actually take?"

"I'm not entirely sure, but I might go for the uplift package.  I might also go for Talents.  Anyway, the language of 'There's Two' relies on logical implication such that a false premise negates the 'and therefore your enemy' directly, whereas it's the dislike of me that drives the Duchess' Heir to you.  For the record."

"I've heard a lot of nobles trying to argue words like that when they didn't have a better case.  Sometimes it worked.  But I'm not the one you need to convince..."

She looks questioningly at the angel.

"You know, you're the very first person I've seen to try that!  And I do like that idea, but..."

Pause.

"... What do you know, my superiors aren't returning my messages right now.  So let's go with it, but have a fallback plan!"

"Oh no, I broke the GMs..."

"...Anyway, you can never have enough minions.

"...Oh I should not expose myself to the Abhorrent Admirer just on the contingency of needing a random warm body.  No.  Bad Alicia."

Alicia's 'character sheet' is surprisingly similar to Lila's, really.  Despite being...more munchkined.

[Alicia Thorn, Elven Royal Princess - Normal Difficulty]
(2 Free Perks, 1 Flaw)
Appearance: Silver-haired Hime cut
Magic Level: High | Tech Level: Steampunk/Arcanopunk
Canonical Ending: Death (of Demon-Lord summoning) (+1 Perk)

Minions: [Maid?] [Butler?]

Perks: [Hair - Silk Hiding Steel] [Magic Level - Magic User] [Ending - Off The Rails] [Normal Difficulty: [Magical Prodigy] [Unearthly Insight] ] [Flaw-Balanced: [Lady of Battle] [Surprisingly Useful Skill: Computer Programming] [Marvelous Talent: Acrobatics/Dance?] ] [ Dubiously Available - [Surprisingly Useful Skill: Earthling Trivia? | Technological Revolution? | Marvelous Talent: Item-craft? ] ]

Flaws: [Elf - Save The World] [Dark Secret: Chaos magic (and probably void magic)] [There's Two Of Them: Extraordinary Commoner Diana Pallas] [Unattractive: Too Tall, If You're A Coward] [Dubious - Equal Enemy: Duke's Daughter?]

Lila thoroughly approves.

"Ooh, now I want another Minion too!  And to balance...  Angel, I really don't think Off The Rails should be a perk for me.  I'm the Heroine; if we're playing it that way, it should be a Flaw on my books."

"Either one of those makes total sense.  I'll defend it to the Will of the Multiverse themself, and I'm confident I'll win.  Let me guess, since you're my alt - you're picking Classmates?  Are you asking for Jenny and Kate, or Eldred, or Rifner and Trinn themselves?"

Lila laughs at the last option, just as the angel had intended - Trinn first Duchess of Trinnshire, and her brother Rifner, lived several generations back and had been popular heroes in the town where she'd been hiding for a while.

"Jenny and... Kate or Eldred or someone else.  And if Off The Rails is now a flaw, that gives me room for one more Perk even without the questionable There's Two Of Them...  I'll take a Heroic mirror of 'Ohohoho,' something to give heroic inspiration."

Lila: Canonical Heroine; Elf; Hero's Daughter

Magic Level: High | Tech Level: Steampunk/Arcanopunk

Appearance:  Hime-cut silver hair.

Minions:  a teacher who used to go adventuring with her father; two Classmates (incl Jenny).

Free perks:  Magic User, Silk Hiding Steel

Normal perks:  Magical Prodigy; Unearthly Insight, Surprisingly Useful Skill (storytelling); Extra Minion; Ohohoho (heroic inspiration version); [? Lady Of Battle (questionable) ?]

Normal drawbacks:  Dark Secret (released a demon); In Character; Save The World; Off The Rails; [? Equal Enemy (questionable) ?]

"Right, I'll just take one more pass over this, and then we can dump some lore and aesthetics on the worldbuilding team, and then..."

She's not ready.  But she's as ready as she'll ever be.

(Fuck.)

Lila is taking some deep breaths herself, too.  She reaches out and squeezes Alicia's shoulder.

"We'll need to find each other at some point once we're in Villarosa.  No need to rush, though.  I'll see if I can get presented at Court at some point, but even so, you'll need to take the initiative to actually talk."

Oh.  That...

Thank you, Lila, she doesn't have the capability to say.

"You can send the Princess a letter much more easily than the Princess can justify finding you, I think - at which point we'll be good, but - do we know if we'll even be using the same names..."

"Do you want to use the same names?"

They'll be able to find each other anyway; there's no use in stretching out that part of the story...

Lila nods.  "Why not?"

"I'm kind of attached to what I've got, but I don't mind having more name.  For a sufficiently royal experience."

"Of course!

"I do hope you'll enjoy this second life, Alicia.  I know it isn't completely what you would've chosen - the constraints aren't what I would've chosen either - but I'm sure it can be a fun story, for you and other people.  I'll be watching when I can, and - maybe we'll see each other again under different circumstances."

"I hope so, too, though I'm more hoping I live through it than worrying about the narrative quality; I'm not on TV.  ...I hope I'm not on TV!  Still - it's been fun, and I'm glad I've had the chance to really know you."  She finishes scribbling out her last few worldbuilding thoughts - short phrases like "sand elves" on a loose graph of polities, with Villarosa in the center - and launches herself at the angel in a firm hug.

[Alicia Thorn, Elven Royal Princess - Normal Difficulty]
(2 Free Perks, 1 Flaw)
Appearance: Silver-haired Hime cut
Magic Level: High | Tech Level: Steampunk/Arcanopunk
Canonical Ending: Death (of entanglement with Demon-Lord summoning plot, and the decisive end thereof) (+1 Perk)

Minions:
[Maid: Sia Beraen, Management Specialist / 'Management' Specialist]
[Butler: Great-Aunt Ophelia, Duchess of Thorns]

Perks: [Hair - Silk Hiding Steel] [Magic Level - Magic User] [Ending - Off The Rails] [Normal Difficulty: [Magical Prodigy] [Unearthly Insight] ] [Flaw-Balanced: [Lady of Battle] [Surprisingly Useful Skill: Computer Programming] [Marvelous Talent: Acrobatics] ] [ Dubiously Available - Technological Revolution? | Marvelous Talent: Engineering / Mathematics ]

Flaws: [Elf - Save The World] [Dark Secret: Chaos magic experiments (and probably void magic)] [There's Two Of Them: Extraordinary Commoner Diana Pallas] [Unattractive: Really Tall] [Equal Enemy: Duke's Daughter]