Board Thread:Versus Battles/@comment-27175945-20191014041836/@comment-25603146-20191014165502

Okay, so I guess I need to get to 'things Zain does with prep time', since this mostly seems to be a Prep Time contest-

1) "The Eighth Sephira, an incarnation of the Archetypes 'Splendour'... facilitat(es)... accurate traversal of the paths between realities."

In other words, the power to traverse the Yesod, or plane of dreams. This is useful in that all things leave an imprint within the Yesod, a sort of subconscious/unmanifest self that, on account of having the Yesod Sephira as well, Zain can traverse and explore.

SOLSTICE, as far as I can see, has no reason to not possess a Yesod imprint in some significant way (she has a subconscious, right?), so the Yesod can be used to perform detective work on SOLSTICE and everyone related directly to the things she's done. Certainly, it wouldn't register as an 'attack', not without the target to whom the subconscious belongs making a conscious decision to visit it and lock it up themselves.

The Kether, similar in function in that its universal against "anything that'd be recognized as an attack" wouldn't recognize simply visiting another person's subconscious as a form of attack, either, so there's established precedent for it getting around something very much like an Absolute Barrier.

2) "the power to conceptually tether himself to other places, people, and ideas (can be used to awaken others' True Selves)"

Since none of these other chuckleheads have their True Selves or anything analogous awakened, a month spent on emotional resolution Arcs per target ought to be enough to make everyone 5-B+, Sub-Rel w/ FTL combat speed, and an Archetype Armiger around which new powers develop. More specifically...

''"Wields an Archetype Armiger (All such wielders can perceive and interact freely with non-corporeal beings, spirits, supernatural energies, and Archetypes)"... Resistance to Ailments and to (two variable elemental types), Mind, Soul, Concept, Fate, and Willpower Manipulation''

First off, that. Secondly, depending on what shape their Armiger takes (derived from a conjunction of a broader mythological theme, and a personal more aspiration/objective-focused theme), they might unlock any number of new Armiger Skills as the year progresses. (Sadly, I can't assume that he just power-levels to Act IV level and beyond, though, if this is neutral territory, as story events like getting banished to the Daathe, which directly prompted much of the growth being possible, aren't so in neutral territory.)

This much is very much a Wild Card, as what they'd develop is a case-by-case basis: there exists precedent for characters getting powers that'd let them assemble dramatically potent technologies given prep time, for instance, or gather energy, but the highest precedent set for any powers of that particular variety is... 5-B+.

So TLDR everyone is now on the same general level assuming they're not completely obstinate about refusing personal growth.

3) Sharing the Sephiroth

If any kind of covenant is formed between them: like, a team, anything with some kind of personal significance/emotional weight to it really: then the Sephiroth recognize its members as conjoined with an aspect of the Self and thus share, though not the active effects, the more passive/constant ones: namely, the Regeneration (Low-Mid, Mid-Godly over time), Type 2 Immortality, and assortment of higher-dimensional resistances to various distortions and manipulation.

4) ...emotional support?

I dunno, he doesn't do a lot of actual fighting with hax, and doesn't have a lot of ways around the barrier aside from slowly whacking it, and the Death Arcana does nothing until its down. So, unless either he can somehow convince her to be a good person through the Yesod (which I somehow doubt, he can't speak at all and he's just a relatively normal college age guy) or Reactive Power Level his way to Dwarf Star level from just endlessly fighting SOL's armies, I don't know if he can actually... do anything to her.

For all of this fancy stuff listed, he kinda doesn't throw hax around until Act IV, unless you count Time Stops and such that she no-sells, so being at such a sharp AP disparity is kinda an Ooph.

...so yeah, that's what I've got.