After making my characters I'm so invested in them and what I want to see happen to them that I'm almost always tempted to say, "Screw gaming, I'll keep them all to myself and just write a novel."  Damn the Phases making character backgrounds so interesting.

Does this happen to you guys?

So you always take Stress when you use Evocation.  More, if you summon more power than your Conviction.  This technically means that there's no incentive to cast lower power spells, the more spells you cast in a scene.

For example:

Exchange 1)
Harry tries to conserve energy and only summons his Conviction in power.  He takes 1 point of Stress.
Exchange 2)
Harry needs to cast another spell.  If he tries to stay safe again and only summon his Conviction in shifts, he will only take 1 Stress, but that hit will roll up to the second box because there's already a point of Stress in the first box, so he has no reason not to summon a spell with his Conviction + 1 shifts of power.

This keeps raising the ante on evocations in a scene.  Do you think this was intentional?  It does raise the tension rather nicely.

The only reason I would see not deliberately outstripping your Conviction is the possibility of taking the stress as backlash for a failed Control roll.  It's fair to say that the summoning of power and the control roll are the same action and thus the stress from either all counts as one hit, right?

So I've hammered out  a partial character and wanted some opinions on how to finish:

Name:  Jasim "Jay" Bashir
High Concept: Teenage Reincarnation of an Emissary of Ishtar
I think I want to go with Emissary of Power, but I might just stick to Minor Talent.
Trouble:  There's an Ancient Sex Priestess In My Head!!!

Background:  Jasim comes from a Muslim family living in America and, although he was raised in a pretty devout household, he tends to just want to live the American Dream of being a popular high school jock.  As the captain of the soccer team he enjoys the perks of being in the in crowd, despite the fact that he has lost touch with his heritage.  Little does he know that it will bite him in the ass, because both sides of his family are very distantly related to an ancient bloodline of Babylonian priests.  He's lately begun to have disturbingly vivid dreams of ancient times and places.  More embarrassing for him, he's also having wet dreams about men.
Aspect:  Should I go with Not So Good Muslim Boy or All-American Muslim Boy?

Rising Conflict:  In the middle of his gay crisis, the last thing Jay expects is for a four thousand year old priestess of Ishtar to wake up inside him.  Things get really weird as he starts casting ancient spells unconsciously and some strange woman begins talking to him in his dreams.  He tries to bury the stress of both of these things by being aggressively normal, throwing himself into sports, school, and maintaining his popularity.  The camaraderie he shares with his teammates is a large source of comfort for him.
Aspect:  I Just Want To Be Normal

The Story:  Now fully awake, Jay's co-pilot who I have yet to name, has begun to make a nuisance of herself.  She's headstrong, willful, and has magic to boot.  She has the annoying habit of giving Jay unwanted advice and then taking over his body when he doesn't take the advice.  She's kind of a diva in that she was accustomed to being obeyed, had beautiful clothes, beautiful men, and the attention of a goddess.  It's difficult to get these things when you're four thousand years out of date and in the body of a teenage boy, but that doesn't stop her from trying.  This seriously complicates Jay's masculine image and threatens his popularity.  It also sends up mystic red flags that catch the attention of the White Council and shadowy enemies from the high priestess' past.  Jay leans heavily on the support of his best friend and fake girlfriend, Tasha (replaceable name), a tough no-nonsense chick with a cute cheerleader exterior.
Aspect: As a continuation of his Trouble Aspect ... And She's a High Maintenance Bitch.

I don't have a group to play this character with yet, so I'll leave the last two Aspects for later.

Skills (20 points, capped at Great)
Good:Athletics, Presence
Fair: Endurance, Rapport
Average: Alertness, Contacts, Deceit, Driving, Empathy, Fists, Intimidation, Might, Resources, Scholarship

Do those represent a high school student and soccer player well enough?

Powers (6 Refresh)
Marked by Power (-1), Wizard's Constitution (-0), Channeling (-2)

Human Form* (+1), Involuntary Change (+1)
*Beast change (-1)
*Ritual (-2)

Final Refresh: 2

A few issues here:
1)  I know it said under Beast Change that knowledge skills can't be upgraded, but I'm using Beast Change to represent when someone else takes over the character's body, someone who was most likely a Wizard level practitioner back in her day, so I was thinking of giving her a pretty good Lore rating.  You guys think that's ok?
2)  I decided to go with Channeling and Ritual, with Ritual only being accessible when the priestess takes over, because I wanted the Jay personality to have access to a little bit of magic, as bad as he may be at it given his Mediocre Conviction and Discipline scores.  His Channeling element would be Spirit, with an emphasis on mind magic, and his Ritual would also be in Psychomancy.  (Yes, I know this treads on Lawbreaking territory.)  Do you guys think it would just be easier to go with Sponsored Magic?

I'm not very familiar with the mechanics of character creation, so I thought I'd post my half-formed ideas and see if anyone has any suggestions.

The current character concept I'm working on is in Molly's boat.  A young, potential warlock under the Doom of Damocles.  I kinda want him under Harry's wing, but I don't know how many Dooms you can have on you at a time.  If anyone, Harry could pull it off, I'd think.

Anyway, he's the "earnest young man" archetype, good in school, doesn't drink, doesn't do drugs.  He's something of a culture nerd, into classical music (he's a violinist) and Italian literature.  He's also gay and was undergoing "reparative" therapy at an exclusive boutique psychiatric clinic in the suburbs of Chicago.  To top it off, his burgeoning empathic abilities got him diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Unbeknown to the patients, the head psychiatrist of the clinic is a Skavis vampire who has a liking for the "taste" of internalized homophobia.  He manipulates his patients into little drama plays, often harboring years of seething self hate and despair in his "successes" and sometimes bingeing on an outright suicide or two.  This is where my character, Tim, comes in.

During group therapy Tim meets, and starts dating, one of the other patients.  They are just about to work up the nerve to leave the clinic together when the Skavis, who's been monitoring the situation, hires someone from Raith to come and seduce Tim's boyfriend right in front of him.  In the midst of the massive double feeding that results, the Skavis touches off something deep inside Tim and awakens his magic along with his Sight.  Being exposed to the sight of the White Court parasite feeding triggers Tim's survival instinct . . and his repressed anger.

In the aftermath, Tim is found by Harry and things look grim.  Here's a young wizard surrounded by a bunch of mind-burned patients and psychiatrists.  The verdict all but writes itself as Harry is ordered to do the deed and execute the warlock, until he digs some more and Karrin notices the money trail connecting the clinic to the White Court.

In typical fashion, Harry saves the day while embroiling himself even deeper in trouble with the White Council.

Tim, on the other hand, is just trying to cope with his newfound abilities and also his huge crush on Thomas, whom he doesn't know is White Court.  He and Molly don't really hang with the same circles in school, and he's shy.

Main Conflict:  Search for Love v. Bitterness, Betrayal and Revenge

Some Aspects:  Wounded Innocence, "I Owe You Pain!", Lost in the Music, "Oh no!  My Meds . .!"

I wanted Tim to be strong in Evocation, but for emotions rather than force, like Harry.  He has very little Thaumaturgy training and is hopeless with enchanting, alchemy, and making foci.