A Game of Fate and Destiny: Multiverse Edition [Multi-cross Quest]

Sarah blinked.

That was odd in and of itself, considering she wasn’t sure she’d ever been able to blink in a dream.

She’d had strange dreams before, but none that were just herself floating in a vast, empty blackness.

After a few moments, text began to appear before her, the words being read as they appeared by some booming, vaguely feminine disembodied voice.

Welcome, dear contestant, to the first ever Game of Fate and Destiny: Multiverse Edition!

Miss Nelson, congratulations! While perusing the omniverse for contestants, we’ve found you to be the very first applicable candidate for our newest show, thanks to your very special soul!

“Um?” Sarah tried to interrupt, but the voice steamrolled over her, like it was pre-recorded.

You’ve been chosen to visit not one, not two, but four universes to try and complete the Destinies of those worlds! To put it in layman’s terms, something is going to happen in each of these worlds, a story, if you will. Your task as our contestant is to do your best to reach the end of those stories, and though that ending doesn’t necessarily need to be identical to that which is preordained, it is advisable to get close.

As for traveling between these universes, your body won’t be making the trip. Instead, your mind and soul will slip between a different body in each universe each time you go to sleep for the day. Don’t worry, a short nap won’t do it. Your mind and soul will travel between these worlds in a circular loop, and time won’t pass in these universes when you aren’t present. The loop is currently four worlds long, but it might grow in the future...

Now, we know what you’re thinking. And while these worlds might be completely foreign to you, you won’t be making this journey alone! You’ll be watched every step of the way by our viewers at home, and you’ll find our beloved Audience is quite familiar with these worlds! They’re rather knowledgeable about this sort of thing, so we’ve included a feature that’ll allow you to ask them for advice! The Interdimensional Chatroom! A handy feature installed into the depths of your soul, you can use it to pose questions asking for advice when you reach a crossroads or need to make an important decision! You don’t have to take their advice, but they might take it personally if you ignore them all the time! You’ve also been equipped with a second tool, which we’ll call the Achievement Hunter! This one’s got a passive effect. Basically, the more things you achieve, the stronger you’ll become. Think of it as a reward system for doing impressive things.

Like we said before, the objective for each universe is to clear that world's Destiny. The Audience will be able to help you figure out what that is, and completing that objective will your time in that universe coming to an end shortly afterwards. There are rewards for clearing a universe, of course, but some will be more difficult to complete than others.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a game if we didn’t tell you how you lose. Not to worry, there’s only one way to lose, and that’s by dying in any of the universes! Don’t worry about actually being dead, this’ll just mean your soul gets returned to your original body without any of the prizes for winning.

Oh, the prizes? Well, the main one is Godhood. Capital-G Godhood, complete with your own personal universe. You don’t even have to give up your original life to do it. Being a Capital-G God is convenient like that. There’s other, less substantial prizes too, but that’s the main one.

Now then, before you can get started in any of these worlds, you’ll need to create your Avatar for that particular world.

This will be your body within that universe for the duration of the game. During your Avatar creation, you’ll also be allowed to choose from a number of options to make your time in all the universes a little easier. Powers and Boons that will be available in each universe. Unfortunately, we haven’t quite worked out how to help you move physical objects along with your soul, so any Items you acquire, either during the Avatar creation or otherwise, will stay in their original universe. Sorry about that.

Since you aren’t exactly familiar with the worlds you’ll be going to, we strongly suggest that you look to the Audience for advice in developing your build. For each of these universes, most of the choices you make here will be irreversible.

So! Without further ado, here’s the Avatar Creation Sheet for the first world! Which, ironically enough, is called Avatar!

A wall of text not entirely unlike a game menu appeared in front of Sarah’s face, complete with what seemed to be a translucent keyboard and checkboxes for selecting items. At the same time, she felt something...odd...appear inside her mind. It was like...oh, like a messageboard on the internet. Nothing was posted there yet, just a blank thread. At the top was the title: A Game of Fate and Destiny: Multiverse Edition.

So that was the Interdimensional Chatroom? And that was just...inside her head now?

Wait, hold on, back up.

If the disembodied voice was to be believed (and that was a massive ‘if’), she was a contestant on some multi-dimensional game show? Had...had she applied to be a contestant for something like that? Or had she just been kidnapped in her sleep?

After what felt like twenty minutes (though she had no real way to tell), she gave up on waiting for things to change and started reading the menu in front of her.
Avatar: The Last Airbender

A world of great beauty, though it is currently embroiled in a 100-year war. Many people in this world possess the power to control one of the four classical elements: Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. These people are called ‘benders’. You will be starting in one of the four nations of this world, though which one depends on the choices you make. Your starting age will be fifteen, and we’ll be making you a bender, of course. You’ll arrive in late winter of the year 99 AG, 2 days before a pair of children from the Southern Water Tribe find a boy and his bison frozen in an iceberg.

1. Appearance: Your exact appearance is largely up to the ethnicity of the nation you choose to hail from. However, if you want to choose some features, like being tall, or having long or short hair, you can choose that here.
   1. Write-in
2. Nationality: This will determine your Element for bending and your ethnicity. It also dictates your starting clothes and location. Do note that you aren’t expected to adhere to the philosophies and principles of the nation you choose, only that others may expect you to follow them, and perhaps take issue if you do not.
   1. Water Tribes: An adaptable and community-minded culture, they make their homes at the North and South Poles. Their philosophy is one of balance. Waterbending will allow you to manipulate water, as well as convert it to ice and steam at will. The strength of this power is tied to the phase of the moon.
   2. Earth Kingdom: A proud, tradition-centric culture, they possess the largest of the four nations. Their philosophy is one of conservativism, taking action only when necessary. Earthbending will allow you to manipulate rock and stone, and favors defensive might with powerful counterattacks.
   3. Fire Nation: The strongest nation in terms of military and economic might, their culture is both passionate and innovative. Their philosophy is one that favors quick action, and concerns itself more with the ends than the means. Firebending will allow you to control fire, and to generate it using your body heat as a catalyst. It’s strength rises with the sun.
   4. Air Nomads: A now-extinct people, they were a nation of free-spirited pacifists. Their philosophy is one of peace, avoiding conflict rather than engaging in it. Airbending will allow you to manipulate the air around you. Unfortunately, they’ve all been wiped out, except for one, so your existence might attract a bit of attention. Finding a teacher might prove difficult too.
3. Boons: Special skills to help you survive in this world. And, as a special treat, these Boons will accompany you to other worlds as well. They’ll stack with other Boons with similiar effects too. You may take one for free, but any more will require you to take Banes to pay for them.
   1. Talented Bender: For all that can be said about training and hard work, there’s always that extra edge that those with talent have over those without it. You are now on the favored side of that equation, possessing remarkable talent with your nation’s element. You can learn new skills within your field with speed that amazes your teachers. And of course, you’re simply better than others in terms of raw power. Your attacks just have a little bit more weight to them.
   2. Spiritually Attuned: Something about you resonates with the spirits of this world. They will rarely act aggressively towards you, and are willing to talk to you, at least for a little while. You can sense the presence of spirits and the Spirit World, and may even be able to cross over with practice. Even so, this Boon alone won’t save you from having your face stolen, so be careful.
   3. Soldier: You’ve been trained as a soldier, giving you knowledge of your nation’s preferred fighting styles and weapons. This applies to both your bending and non-bender approaches to combat. It also makes you a little better at keeping your cool in battle.
   4. Fine Control: Raw power is nice and all, but if there’s one thing that demonstrates your sheer aptitude for your bending art, it’s your precision. Bringing every raindrop to a halt in midair during a rainstorm. Molding a statue so perfect in its likeness that it could pass for the real thing. Thin jets of flame that cut through metal like swords. Controlling air currents so not a single speck of dust touches you. This is the level of control over an element is something masters spend lifetimes to achieve, and it comes to you rather naturally.
   5. Prodigy: Now this is something special, isn’t it? You’ve somehow learned the secret to your bending art’s specialist branches. If you’re a waterbender, you can heal wounds with Lifebending, manipulate plant life with Plantbending, or puppet the bodies of others with Bloodbending. If you’re an earthbender, you can sense vibrations through the earth, control metal via Metalbending, and create lava with lavabending. If you’re a firebender, you can create blue flames, manipulate heat without flame, and shoot lightning. If you’re an airbender, you can sense your surroundings through the air around you, create areas of extremely high pressure or even vacuums via Pressurebending, and project your spirit from your body. You only start with the most basic knowledge of these arts, but with training and effort, you could become a force to be reckoned with.
   6. Survivalist: It’s a wild world out there, even without the war to consider. So what could be more valuable than knowing how to survive. What plants and animals you can eat. Where it’s safe to pitch a tent in the wilderness. How to avoid dangerous animals. How to hunt for food. You might not know it all, but you know enough.
   7. Chi Blocking: You ever wonder how all those enemy benders would fare if they couldn’t sling around their fancy elementalist powers? Well now you can find out! You possess knowledge of the art of chi blocking, a martial art that focuses on light, precise jabs targeting pressure points. Using it, you can disable a person’s bending powers, or make their bodies go limp, or paralyze them. It doesn’t work through thick armor though, and you have to be able to get in close. As an added benefit, this Boon makes you extraordinarily flexible.
4. Items: Your abilities on their own might not be enough. These items may help you on your journey. You get one for free, the rest require Banes to acquire. As we mentioned earlier, items don’t follow you between universes. Sorry about that.
   1. Bender’s Weapon: A trademark tool all of your own, designed to supplement your bending powers. Waterskins for waterbenders, stone hammers or fans for earthbenders, a glider staff for airbenders, or dual broadswords for firebenders. Your weapon repairs or refills itself every other night. You can buy this more than once if you want extra copies of your weapon, or if you want weapons belonging to one of the other groups.
   2. Survival Gear: More than just the basics, this pack comes with all the essentials for living on the land; a tent, a map, flint and steel, simple rations, tools for setting traps and hunting for food, and so on. Your equipment always manages to stay in good condition, no matter the elements it suffers through.
   3. Master’s Scrolls: A collection of scrolls covering the various forms and techniques for bending your particular element. Using these to guide your training will see your skills improve by leaps and bounds, though an actual teacher would be useful.
   4. A Mount: A faithful animal companion, large enough to carry you, a couple friends, and your stuff. Exactly what animal is up to you, though it has to be within reason. If you want a moose lion or something, go right ahead, but if you want one of the animals that taught the original benders, you’ll have to be a bender of the appropriate element. You have an established bond with this animal, but if you mistreat it, it will abandon you. Also, if it dies, it stays dead, so take care of it. Feel free to give it a name while you’re at it.
   5. Schematics: An assortment of blueprints and plans. Some of them are detailed maps of buildings, while others are of assorted machines, some of which look a bit...advanced for this society. They’re not quite complete, but with time, you might be able to figure out how to make the weapons of war they display.
5. Banes: Perhaps you want more skills? Well, they’ll cost you. These Banes will provide you with extra dangers or challenges on your journey, but will also allow you to take more Boons or items in exchange. Unlike Boons, Banes do not carry over between universes, and they can only be used to buy things in this universe. One Bane will earn you one Boon or item.
   1. Unsure Footing: Instead of starting in a city within your native nation, you’ll be starting somewhere else entirely. You’ll still find yourself in a city, or at least a town, but the kingdom is chosen at random from the three other nations. Hope you packed a map.
      1. Dangerous Territory: Scratch that, the location isn’t random at all. If you’re from the Fire Nation, you’ll be starting in the Northern Water Tribe capital at the North Pole. All other nationalities will be starting in the Capital City of the Fire Nation. You aren’t really supposed to be here, and the residents will probably be looking for an excuse to throw you in jail. Try not to cause trouble, alright?
      2. Chopping Block: Or, just do that anyways. Now, you aren’t just starting in hostile territory, you’ve already been captured. You start your journey imprisoned within the appropriate capital city, and are awaiting interrogation and execution. Your items have been taken from you. To say that escape will be difficult is an understatement.
   2. Culturally Insensitive: You have a knack, a talent even, for walking into a new environment and insulting the culture of the people there. Whether on purpose or by accident, you find a way to degrade their traditions, way of life, or customs. This won’t lead to you being executed or anything, particularly if you apologize, but it’ll certainly make it hard to make new friends. And you’ll probably stick out like a sore thumb when you show up in an unfamiliar place.
   3. Wanted: You’ve committed a crime, or at least that’s what you’re accused of. The law enforcement of the nation where you committed the dastardly deed would like nothing more than to capture you and bring you to justice. You might be able to prove your innocence (if you are innocent), but that will take time and effort. If you take this with Chopping Block, the nation you’re imprisoned by is the one holding you accountable for the crime. And your trial is coming much sooner.
   4. Pacifist: You’re so peaceful, you couldn’t hurt a fly. By which we mean you actually can’t hurt a fly. Or a person, no matter how much they deserve it. Even considering taking lethal action against another will make you weak in the knees, and actually taking a life is literally impossible for you to pull off. If you happen to kill someone by accident, you’ll fall into despair for a while, and your fear of accidentally killing someone again will grow.
   5. The Avatar: Congratulations! You’re the Avatar! You’ve supplanted Aang’s role in the story. As such, you need to fulfill his destiny and put an end to the 100-Year War. The Fire Nation will recognize you as such, and will react accordingly. If you take this with Chopping Block, you’re imprisoned by the Fire Nation, and Fire Lord Ozai himself will be seeing to your executing when he arrives in two days. Oh, and in case you were getting any ideas, no, you aren’t actually the Avatar, with any of the associated powers. Only one element for you. Good luck!

Sarah stared.
There was just...so much to unpackage here. She was able to understand most of what was written, though the comment about having her face stolen was concerning, but she didn’t have much context to frame it in. After going back and forth between the different nationality options and surveying the Boons and Banes, she gave up and turned to the Chatroom in her head.
Then she tried dumping all the choices she had to make into it.
“Um. Any advice?”
Voting Options
Appearance:
[] Write-in

Nationality:
[][Water]
[][Earth]
[][Fire]
[][Air]

Boons:
[][Talented Bender]
[][Spiritually Attuned]
[][Soldier]
[][Fine Control]
[][Prodigy]
[][Survivalist]
[][Chi Blocking]

Items:
[][Bender’s Weapon]
[][Survival Gear]
[][Master’s Scrolls]
[][A Mount]
[][Schematics]

Banes:
[][Unsure Footing]
-[][Dangerous Territory]
--[][Chopping Block]
[][Culturally Insensitive]
[][Wanted]
[][Pacifist]
[][The Avatar]

 

Avatar: Day 1

Sarah sat up with a jolt.

It had been months since she’d been taken to this dark space, and the Audience had said nothing. She’d begun to think they didn’t exist at all, or that her mental chatroom was broken, or they were hanging her out to dry, or they just weren’t interested.

She’d tried accessing the Avatar Creation Sheet, but had been barred from doing anything without at least one suggestion from the Audience.

So she’d been left there. In the endless darkness.

Alone.

She’d discovered she couldn’t die. Lack of food or water did nothing to her in this place, and she was physically incapable of harming herself. No one had responded to her screams and cries for help.

She’d just been alone.

{Sarah’s time locked in the Avatar Creation Sheet has given her [Cleithrophobia].}

Sarah grabbed hold of the message and opened it within her mindscape, the action effortlessly natural.

Advice! Information! Something to work with!

Sarah may have actually cheered as the Avatar Creation Sheet unlocked itself in front of her.

No, she definitely cheered.

“Thank you!” she shouted into the empty world around her, giggling with delight. “Thank you!”

First, her choice of element.

Between the information in the Avatar Creation sheet and the suggestions, it was obvious the Fire Nation was the designated villain of the setting. Across the four messages, there were suggestions for three different elements; two for water, and one for air and earth each. The argument in favor of water was that it offered a balance of defensive and offensive options, and it came with a healing power if she took the Prodigy Boon. That seemed pretty important. On the other hand, air apparently had better offensive and defensive options, supposedly to the point that the only reason they weren’t ruling the world was because they were pacifists and ‘removed’, which was presumably the extinction mentioned in the Avatar Creation sheet. The argument in favor of earth was that it was available pretty much everywhere and apparently good for surprise attacks, despite being less mobile than the other options.

From there, the different suggestions deviated further based on what Boons, Banes, and Items would synergize best with her choice of element and reduce the impact of the Banes she chose. There was also a brief back-and-forth about mobility limitations and ease of access to the element she chose.

Sarah closed her eyes, considered it and decided to go with the option that had gotten the most suggestions.

She selected water as her element.

Next she had to choose her Banes. The consensus between the advice given was to definitely take Unsure Footing, and Wanted if she felt lucky. So the question was, did she feel lucky?

{Three months without communication from the Audience has made Sarah [Determined] and a [Risk Taker].}

Sarah filled out the sheet.

She hit Y, and the screen disappeared, replaced by a pair of rolling dice.

“Alright, I’m done!” Sarah shouted into the void around her. “Now--”

And suddenly there was light.

“--what?”

She was...standing on the edge of a cliff!

She immediately scrambled away from the edge before taking in her surroundings properly. As far as Sarah could tell, she was on top of a mountain of some kind. A very sheer mountain.

There were several other tall, pillar-like rock formations surrounding the one she was standing on, separated by a void with a drop so far whatever ground was at its bound was hidden beneath a veil of clouds. Lush greenery was growing all around, somehow finding purchase in the gray stone of every mountain.

Most prominently though, was the city.

On the mountain she was standing on, maybe a kilometer away from the cliff’s edge, was a dense cluster of white buildings with blue roofs. They were packed together, arranged with a vertical design, rising with the mountain to meet a tall tower at its center. She could see what looked like birds circling the structure, swooping down over the houses below.

It was very quiet.

A gentle breeze stirred her hair, which she abruptly realized was now chin-length. Tugging a few strands into view, she realized it was orange. She couldn’t quite remember what it had looked like before. She felt a little taller as well, and perhaps a little heavier. Running her hands over her arms and legs, she was able to feel the changes the suggestions for her appearance had wrought upon her body, her limbs thicker, her head more squarish.

She idly wondered if she was stronger than before, or if her new musculature was just cosmetic.

Her clothing was made of some kind of fur, warm and soft on the inside, but rough on the outside. Probably waterproof.

A sizable waterskin was attached to her waist by a leather belt, sitting above her bottom like a fanny pack, only filled with water. Despite how full it seemed, it didn’t feel uncomfortable or heavy, like it was dragging down her pants or something like that.

And that was when Sarah realized she could feel the water inside the container. Almost like a sixth sense, or that feeling of knowing where her arms and legs were even when she couldn’t see them. In fact, if she reached out just so...

She felt the water ripple within her waterskin in response to her ‘touch’.

Sarah sighed, slapped at her cheeks, and pulled up the Chatroom.

“Any pointers on where I should get started? And is there anything important I should know about this place?”

Vote
[X][Directions] Write in activities that Sarah should prioritize. There is enough time in the day for her to get 3 things done.
[X][Information] Write in anything you think Sarah should know about her location or the world of Avatar in general. Bear in mind she currently knows nothing about either.