Jump 0: The Explanation

>>Liberties<<
Items Guaranteed by CP: I’d like to keep the shit that I pay for.
Alt-Form Armoire
Alt-Form Blender
Singular Power Pool

>>Restrictions<<
Heavy is the Quill: I planned to write at least 1000 words for each jump as it is.
Always Drop-In: It seems more fun to start as a nobody.
Stations of Canon Set in Stone: The plot continuing regardless of my own interference seems natural.
Entertain Me!: Manifests as the Sic ‘Em Conduct

>>Conducts<<
Coward: Avoid direct confrontation where possible. Run, Retreat, Ambush where talking won’t work.
Expandible: Expansions and Supplements don’t count as liberties.
Not Entirely Willing: The Jumper may have a choice of where they jump and how they spend their CP for each jump, but they have no choice other than to continue jumping until they reach an End jump or Die and get sent back. Suicide means a true death, rather than being sent back home.
Sic ‘Em: Must take at least 1 drawback in each jump that give you an antagonist.


>>Story<<
“Hello Anon.”
I appeared in a room suddenly...as suddenly as I had disappeared from my own bedroom. Instead of my familiar computer screen in front of me with whatever game I was playing or video I was watching, there was a decidedly fancy desk with a feminine figure sitting in an equally fancy chair on the opposite side. Everything besides the chairs, desk, and us was a starfield flying past, like we were sitting in an older screensaver.

The feminine figure was just that, a white silhouette, although she was wearing a fairly nice dress. What I assumed to be her eyes seemed to trained on me, and it took until I noticed her close approximation of eyes that I realized that she had spoken to me.

“Uh...Hi?” I muttered while glancing around the...starfield, “Am I, uh, dead?”

“Dead?” She answered with a soft giggle, “No, no, you aren’t dead. I’ve just pulled you from your own reality for my own entertainment.”

I gave a relieved sigh before the ‘Entertainment’ part hit. “Wait, what do you mean by ‘Entertainment?”

“Your life has been pretty boring, and you don’t seem to keen on changing that. Not to mention the fact that Earth hasn’t had a lot of exciting events for a while. Even your wars are starting to get samey. So I decided to pull one of the most boring schlubs I could find and throw them into a different universe just to see what happens.” She spoke with a certain exasperation, as if truly bored. “Oh, and my name is Jump-Chan, but you should just call me ‘Miss J’.”

I sat there for a minute or two processing the new information. “So, Jum-...uh, Miss J. Do I have any choice in this?”

“Nope.” Stated Jump-Chan, with a hint of glee. “Well, kind of. While the more eager folks that I toss around get the choice to return, stay, or continue at the end of each Jump, Your only choice will be to continue. Beyond that, You will get a choice of your next Jump after the first two or three, assuming that you survive, and you get to choose a certain amount of supplies and power at the start of each jump, as normal”

Another infodump, another minute of processing. “...Jump? What is a Jump?”

Jump-Chan sighed, “Right, I didn’t explain how this works. So I will be tossing you into alternate realities for a decade at a time. That is a ‘Jump’. For each Jump, I will give you a budget of points and a list of choices to spend them on before dropping you in. Powers, abilities, items, and other stuff you choose will follow you through your Jumpchain, which is the name given to your continued adventure through the multiverse. Under normal circumstances, a Jumper, that is the name for my “chosen”, will get the option to Return to wherever I picked them up from with all of their accumulated junk and abilities, to Stay in their current universe, or to Continue their adventure. I am not giving you that choice because you are too damned boring to just leave wherever. Also, Death acts like a Return, dropping you back where you started, just with all of your accumulated crap. Again, things are different for you, since you are such a downer: Suicide will mean permanent death for you. If you don’t die fighting for your life in circumstances outside of your control, you will be permanently dead, so don’t try to arrange for a hitman to take your life or put yourself in a deadly situation with the intention to die just to get out of this exciting opportunity I am forced you through.”

“Well shit...What other shit are you forcing on me…?” I worried.

Jump-Chan stated with the now-expected edge of glee, “To start, You will never be able to start as a part of the universe. Normal Jumpers can choose backgrounds that give them helpful memories and established lives, but you will always have to choose background options without a history.” She paused for a moment to gauge my reaction.

I thought it through for a moment. My expression showed mixed feelings. “I...don’t know how to feel about that. No history or workable memory will make it difficult to establish myself, but I guess I won’t need to deal with the influence on my personality……”

Jump-Chan continued, “Next, you will not be able to influence the narrative. Any ongoing storyline during your stay will happen as it happened in the source work.” She paused again.

“Wait, Source work? Are you sending me into fictional universes?!”

“Did you not get that already? I thought you were genre savvy.” Retorted Jump-Chan, “Anyway, the last difference is that you must always take at least one drawback that gives you an antagonist. Whether it is a single rival, or the entire planet, SOMETHING will be on your ass.”

I was getting a knot of concern in my guts. “Shit…”

“BUT! You will always have any items you pay points for, they will even be repaired when broken and returned if lost, you will be able to transform into any forms you picked up on your journey, and even mix and match as you see fit, AND all your innate and magical powers will share the same power source.”

“Yay, I guess?” said a glum Anon. “Shall we just get on with it?”

Jump-Chan stopped for a moment, counting something out on her pale fingers before straightening herself out and continuing,”I’ve covered most of it, so sure.”

She made a motion with her hand and a tablet appeared in my lap. I felt the knot grow until I looked down and saw a word at the top of the screen: POKEMON

“What?”