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Disparateum definitely needs a second pass for the mechanics sections to clarify things like this, so don't feel bad for feeling confused!

The idea behind the seven points is that you have seven total ranks across your traits, and no trait has to start at a particular rank. However, as it becomes clear, gaining ranks isn't actually that difficult, and as such it's not too big of a deal if you decide to be flexible with character creation and add a few extra ranks as appropriate. The PCs in Apoptosis, for example, all begin with ten ranks instead of seven, purely just to give the sense that they've been doing stuff before you, the player, showed up.

As for the characters in Small Business, the confusion there comes from a bit of a subtle joke. The record store is a crossroads between worlds, and Pwk, Victoria, and Oliver are meant to be characters from other games crossing over into ours. The "From Another World" trait that they all share lets them borrow a mechanic from their home game to use here; Pwk, as a Warlock from an OSR/D&D-style game, gets an inventory of useful items; Victoria Ashrider, as a character from a Powered By The Apocalypse game, gets a signature 2d6+mod Move she can use when intimidating people; and Oliver, as a Belonging Outside Belonging character, gets a picklist of personality traits. One thing I need to add are a lot more NPC examples, so these three oddballs aren't quite so front and center.