Chapter Text
It’s dark and empty.
I can’t feel my body.
Or maybe right now I don’t have one?
I’m sure I used to have one.
It’s hard to think here. Wherever here is...
Time passes? Or doesn’t?
I don’t know.
Then a message appears:
You have died.
Then again maybe the message was always there and I just didn’t notice.
It floats in the space I think is in front of me.
I’m not sure this place has directions.
I should probably react in some way to being told I’m dead but everything is fuzzy.
The message changes.
You have died.
Affinity detected.
Loading Multiversal Gamer System.
Welcome new user!
[Expand to view basic system information package]
[Expand to view basic system information package]
The Multiversal Gamer System allows the user to travel between worlds. This includes worlds the user has previously been familiar with and has considered to be fictional.
The user will be granted abilities that allow them to interact with the world as though they are playing a game. This includes the ability to; complete quests, earn achievements, explore hidden dungeons, gain strength (in the form of stat points, skills and levels) and access to the Multiversal Gamer Store.The Multiversal Gamer Store tutorial will unlock when the user earns their first Fate Coin. Fate Coins are earned through quest and achievement completion.
Please Note:
The stat point system impacts the user’s body. Being reborn into a new world creates a new body for the user. Stat points are therefore reset upon rebirth.
Some traits are soul bound and may carry over between bodies.Upon rebirth abilities from previous worlds may be locked. These abilities can be unlocked under various circumstances. Locked abilities that are considered non-native to the user’s current world may have increased unlock requirements and may have altered usage costs or functionality.
When the user dies they will return to their personal dimensional space. Items stored in the users inventory upon death will return with the user to their personal dimensional space. When entering a new world the user may select items stored in their personal dimensional space to take with them. Non-native items and items that significantly impact the user’s starting difficulty may incur additional costs.
Initial world selection is random.
I stare blankly and wait for the words to mean anything.
System…. Gamer …
Slowly the fog over my mind clears and the words in front of me start to make sense.
Memories of before I died float towards me in pieces.
Eventually I start to feel more awake. More real. More like myself.
I don’t seem to have arms, but my attempt to interact seems to have worked because the next thing I know, I’m staring down paragraphs of text.
It’s something like a user manual. It’s simultaneously overly specific and repetitive and not specific enough. It doesn’t explain what an affinity is or why I was selected. It only explains what the system allows me to do, some of the limitations, how to bring up various menus, that sort of thing. The excitement I feel over the possibility of this being a real isekai situation is building slowly but the dryness of the user manual is certainly offsetting that. If the system has any sort of sentience it’s clearly not going to interact with me. Well I suppose that’s better than some of the alternatives…
From what I’ve gathered this is a sort of quick transmigration/jumpchain type situation. Except the system has a bunch of limitations built in. Briefly, I worry that the limitations are evidence of the system being some sort of story obsessed being..this whole thing certainly reminds me of probability limitations... Um I’m sure it’s...fine...right?
Loading Random World.
World Selected:
-Marvel-
Oh..well that’s um..huh. Given the whole Multiversal thing, I guess that means it’s probably not like the movieverse and just kind of all of it. That probably means there’s comics and TV shows I haven’t read or don’t really remember included too. Daredevil, Fantastic 4, X-Men, Deadpool, Spider-man, really I should probably expect just about anything. That’s kind of scary. Then again, it’s also kind of exciting.
-Difficulty Settings-
[Expand to view the difficulty settings information]
Before rebirth the user may customise their game settings by selecting various difficulty modifiers. Some modifiers are mutually exclusive. Some modifiers can be selected more than once. Due to the inherent advantages granted by the Multiversal Gamer System the user cannot enter a new world with a negative modifier score.
The user’s accomplishments in their first life have been analysed. Adjusting rewards based on the previous world’s difficulty setting.
The user has been awarded 3 free modifier points.
Seems like the difficulty settings are basically like a Dungeons and Dragons character background and feats selection.
[Expand to view the full list of positive modifiers]
Improved memory: Memories made after this perk is active fade at a slower rate. (-1)
Memory Preservation: Your memory is better than it’s ever been. Remember everything from your past life including things you’ve already forgotten. Be aware this includes things you might wish to forget. (-2)Perfect memory: Your memory is perfect remember everything you’ve ever done. Memories formed after this perk is active never fade. This includes immunity to external memory manipulation. Inability to forget will make you more susceptible to PTSD and similar conditions. (-3)
Incognito: the source of your powers is hidden and cannot be revealed through any means. (-2)
Notice me not: People’s attention slips off you like water. Your presence is easily dismissed and forgotten. The effect is diminished the more time you spend with someone. Actively attempting to interact with someone will also interfere with the ability. (-2)
It makes sense to me: People around you will find ways to justify and explain away any strange traits you exhibit. (-2)
You can’t make me talk: Complete immunity to mind reading, truth serums, interrogation and torture. (-3)
Comic Book Pretty: Your appearance is always well put together. Even injuries from fighting art artfully placed. (-1)
Forget me not: You leave a lasting impression on everyone you meet. Useful if you’re trying to build fame but that’s about it. (-1)
I’m an adult: Start life in your new world as an adult. You will start with basic memories of growing up. (-3)
Slow Ageing: You age normally until you reach physical maturity. After that you age at a slower rate. (-1)Ageless: You age normally until you reach physical maturity. After that you stop ageing. (-3)
Can we skip to the good bit: You age faster until you reach physical maturity. After that age at a normal rate. (-2)
Right on time: chose a specific starting point in time. The month and day will also function as your birthday. (-2)
Home sweet home: chose your country of origin. (-1)Middle Class: your parent(s)will be randomly selected with a minimum wealth threshold. (-2)
Upper Class: your parent(s) will be randomly selected with a minimum wealth and influence threshold. (-3)
Inherited fame: start with a family member with connections to hero organisation(s). You inherit their legacy, allies and enemies. (-2)Random innate ability: Grants a random innate ability from the selected world. If the ability is deemed too strong it will be subject to alterations. (-1)
Specific innate ability: Grants a specific innate ability from the selected world. Modifier cost is calculated based on strength of the ability. (-n)
Examples/Suggestions: Force Field Manipulation: the ability to create and manipulate force fields. (-2)Random Item: Grants a random soul-bound item. (-2)
[Marvel Specific] Random x-gene mutation: Grants a random x-gene mutation. If the ability is deemed too strong it will be subject to alterations. (-1)
[Marvel Specific] Specific x-gene mutation: Grants a random x-gene mutation. Modifier cost is calculated based on strength of the ability. (-n)
Examples/Suggestions: Enhanced Healing: You get into fights a lot with this perk you’ll heal faster. (-2) Enhanced Senses: your senses are better than the average human. (-1)[Marvel Specific] Non-human starting race: Choose any known race in the Marvel universe. Your starting point will default to the species home planet. (Celestial, Inhuman, Kree, Scrull,..) (-5)
[Expand to view the full list of negative modifiers]
Temporary Amnesia: You start life in your new world with amnesia. Your memories will slowly return to you over time. (+1)
Complete Amnesia: You start life in your new world with amnesia. Upon death regain all your memories. (+2)
Specific hostile spawn point: Start your new life in a specific dangerous environment. (+1)
Random hostile spawn point: Start your new life in a random dangerous environment. (+2)
On their radar: Start with the attention of a random underground organisation. (+1)Eyes on me: Start with the attention of every underground organisation. (+2)
Personal infamy: Start with a negative reputation with all hero aligned organisations. (+2)Inherited infamy: Start with a family member that has connections to the underground. You inherit their legacy, allies and enemies. (+2)
Headhunted: Everyone wants a piece of you. All hero and underground organisations are hunting you each for their own reasons. (+3)
Random Disability: Start life with a random disability. If the level of impairment is deemed too high you will receive a buff that offsets this. (+2)
Specific Disability: Start life a specifically selected disability. If the level of impairment is deemed too high you will receive a buff that offsets this. (+1)I’m just a baby: Start life in your new world as a baby. You will have to grow up all over again. Most abilities will be locked or start in a weakened state. Starting stat points will be capped. You begin with significantly increased neuroplasticity which increases your early learning potential. (+3)
Still growing up: Start as a child of a randomly selected age between the ages of 5 and 10. Many abilities will be locked or start in a weakened state. Starting stat points will be capped. You begin with moderately increased neuroplasticity which increases your early learning potential. (+2)
Teenage angst: Start as a teenager at a randomly selected age between the ages of 11-19. Some abilities will be locked or start in a weakened state. Starting stat points will be capped. You begin with slightly increased neuroplasticity which increases your early learning potential. (+1)
Live Fast Die Young: You age faster than normal. (+2)
No parents: Start life as an orphan. (+3)
Single Parent: Start life with only one living parent. (+2)
Lower class: Your parent(s) will be randomly selected with an upper limit on wealth and influence. (+1)
There’s a lot of options here... I need to figure out at least vaguely what my goals are and try to create a build that works around that. The Marvel universe has a lot of high-level threats, I’m going to need power if I want to survive, let alone help anyone. Just me existing is probably going to butterfly everything.
Some of these seem more useful than others. There’s a few basic practicality things like [Right on Time] and [Home Sweet Home]. Making sure I’ll be in the right place at the right time is important. Especially if I pick something like starting as a newborn, convincing parents that we have to move to New York just to make sure I’ll actually be near the plot sounds like more trouble than it’s worth. Being a kid again would definitely have its downsides, but it seems kind of fun. If I go down that road then I should aim to be an adult by the time the Iron Man movie starts. So? 25? Or so? That’d mean picking 1985 as a birth year since Iron Man’s set in 2010. Wait...won’t that make me, like, older than the internet? That’s going to be weird as shit.
I can’t help but see something like [Perfect Memory] as a curse. I don’t want to forget who I am now, but not being able to forget at all sounds like a nightmare. Being Autistic already makes me predisposed to OCD and PTSD. I don’t need more of that in the middle of a superhero world. But something like [Improved Memory] would be worth it, I think. It’d make studying a bit easier, and if I’m going to take [ADHD] then that might help offset the forgetfulness that causes...
It should also help with recalling what happens in the movies. Though, that doesn’t help for the stuff I just haven’t seen or read. And there’s also probably going to be differences from the movies just because the world is real now. Minor variations in how things work and the choices people make. There’s also the chance that stuff that works in the movies flat out doesn’t work in real life. Unless I’m really just going to be living in a movie logic world, like, physics works like that because I said so. Weird thought, but even if I studied some basic physics in high school it wasn’t a lot and I don’t remember much of what I did study. So even if I did know what experiments to run I wouldn’t know if it was different. And even then, that goes out the window if we’re dealing with the Rule of Cool, because that’s completely situational. Wait. Existential crisis later, modifiers now.
Hm, speaking of autism though...it’d be really weird to just suddenly not be autistic? I don’t really want to find out what happens when you’re not physically autistic, but you kind of are mentally. That sounds like a headache and a half. It’s what I’m used to so it’s basically free points. It’s the same with ADHD. I’m a bit tempted to make my life easier just by not having ADHD, but it’d be weird. And I’ve always thought that having a gamer system would make managing ADHD so much easier.
Things like HYDRA existing and telepathy means I’m probably going to need [You can’t make me talk], it’s expensive, and it’s not very flashy but at least this way I don’t tell any of the bad guys what happens in the future. Thanos does not need to know there’s supposedly only one timeline where he loses. Oh God, I’m going to have to fight Thanos. Fuck. Okay.
Alright, let’s actually select some modifiers. Negative first so I can actually see how many points I’ve got.
[Specific Disability: Autism +1]
[Specific Disability: ADHD +1]
[I’m just a baby +3]
[Point total: 8]
I could take on more negative options but I’m worried about how they’ll combine. If I pick something like [Random hostile starting point] and [I’m just a baby], would my own parents be members of HYDRA or something? Something like [Temporary Amnesia] seems okay on the surface, but if I don’t know what’s coming, I’m not going to be motivated to prepare for it. If I pick an option like [No parents] then I have to deal with America’s foster care system...or do I? Don’t babies get adopted quickly? That’s tempting...
Uuuurrrgh. Maybe I’m being overly cautious, but I can’t help but think of the potential million ways these can go wrong. Maybe in the next world I’ll have more free points, or be more willing to take risks.
Okay, now the positives. If I get to pick my own birthday, it might as well be something that’s not that close to any holiday seasons.
[Right on time: 10th March 1985 -2]
I’m second guessing myself now about picking [Home sweet home]. If I’m 25 by the time Iron Man starts, then couldn’t I just move to New York? But then again, that’s expensive. If I set my spawn point to New York City at least that’s one less thing to worry about. Thanos existing is stressful enough.
[Home sweet home: America, New York State, New York City -1]
[Point total: 5]
I’m really hoping I won’t need the torture immunity but...
[You can’t make me talk -3]
[Point total: 2]
Hm. If I take [Improved Memory] like I wanted to I’ll only have one point left...and there aren’t many one point options I’m all that interested in left on the list. The options that let you choose something specific are more expensive than the random options. I’m not sure I can think of something that’d count as a one point ability. Things like shape-shifting, teleportation and flight are expensive. Unless you get something with a very limited scope, they’re all gonna cost more than three points. They’re the sort of abilities that could completely negate some of the negative modifiers, there’s no way the system doesn’t nerf them to hell and back.
All the minor power options I can think of either have too many drawbacks or are so situational it’s really not going to get much, if any, use. Maybe I take [Improved Memory] and then just try my luck with something random?
I’m just worried that, if there’s no limit on what counts as an ability, then this is like randomising the Superhero Wiki. One time I tried that and I got “Apple Transmutation: the ability to transform subjects into apples” and that’s oddly specific, but at least you probably won’t go hungry now depending on the limitations it has.
But then! The next thing I rolled was “Hungerless: You don’t need to eat anymore”. Which is a ridiculous combination! What am I gonna do with the apple ability then?? Sure there’s plenty of overpowered abilities on there but there’s just as many seemingly pointless ones.
I feel like I’m staring at one of those “you can only choose one pill” memes. Dammit, I don’t want to stay in this void overthinking things forever.
[Improved Memory -1]
[Random innate ability -1]
-Randomising ability-
[Partial Energy Resistance: You are partially resistant to various energy sources including various magics, energy weapons and radiation sources]
[Point total: 0]
Okay thank god it’s not, eye colour manipulation or candy manipulation or anything like that. We can work with this. It’s kinda limited given I’m not sure what ‘partially’ really means, but it does seem useful.
[Confirm Modifier Selections]
Alright, and now what’s done is done. And we’re not going to think about if I could’ve picked better choices. We’re just gonna finish making our character and then start living life. Okay? Okay.
[Customise Character Appearance]
-Please create your adult appearance-
Opening the character creation menu brings up an interface that might just be the best face pinching menu I’ve seen. It’s basically true sculpting and not limited to a bunch of sliders. There’s options for presets. And if you’ve ever played a game like The Sims 4, where you can drag elements around and now everything’s too far apart or too close together and you can’t seem to make it look right anymore? Yeah, it lets you do that intentionally, but it also has a bunch of options to correct weird mistakes. It also has a sub-menu that you can use to shift the avatar’s appearance closer to a selected beauty standard.
I hesitate for a while when it comes to selecting my sex before deciding to go with what I know and selecting female. Between the gamer system, the existence of magic and advanced tech, I can probably find some way to invent or unlock shape-shifting. That’s officially going on my to-do list.
It’s a shame my goal is blending in, so I can’t pick some of the more outlandish appearance options. No horns, fangs, claws… Not even blue hair and pronouns, or eyes that look like they store some kind of ninja power...sigh..how boring..
Still, I think this looks good. Or well I look good since this avatar is what I’ll look like. I look pretty damn similar to how I looked in my past life...I think... [Improved Memory] isn’t retroactive and there’s still some gaps. I’m probably risking getting bullied but I made my hair auburn ish, white skin, and freckles. I pick the same kind of ‘what colour even is this’ blue/green/grey eye shade. I think I made myself a bit shorter than I used to be. Overly big boobs sounds like a recipe for back pain, and I’d rather be a little curvy than overly skinny. I haven’t really added any kind of visible muscle. I’m not sure if training would change that or if the gamer system will just over-ride that kind of thing somehow. If it does over-ride it then it might be useful since I’ll look weaker than I am. I pick an eye shape with a little more lid space than I had before, and that’s mostly because I want more space for weird makeup styles. It means I have to rework small elements of the rest of my face to make it look balanced but it ends up with a very similar feeling. Like, yup, that’s my face.
[Save Character Appearance]
-Appearance template created-
-Please select your first name.-
Input Name:
...Oh no...I hate naming things. Fuck.
……………..
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hmmmmmmmmmmmm
……….
So many names I think of just remind me of someone I used to know. I’ve always thought that the name you have matters in weird ways. The name your parents give you probably reflects their values and the way they’re going to raise you. And sure, there’s an aspect of Nature vs. Nurture going on, but I mean how often have you met someone and thought about if their name “suits them” or not? Stereotypes and personalities we associate with names has got to have some kind of influence on people. If you want to go further there’s that whole “names have power” fae/magic thing. Anyway, it just feels like it matters, having a name that “matches”.
There’s a random option, but I don’t think it’ll let me re-roll if it sucks.
I spend a stupid amount of time thinking. Well I’m not sure time exists here...
Input Name: Morgan
Well here goes nothing...
[Start New Game]
-Loading...-