Avi Gustin-Heaver

**Avriel "Avi" Gustin-Heaver** is a main character in *Episodes on the Disni Channel*, and a recurring character in *Stories on the Subjugated Straits.* They are a member of the Disni Party, and a multi-class **Rogue** and **Warlock** of Phoenta.

## Biography

### Pre-series

Avi is the adopted only child of Stephanie Gustin ("Mom") and Stefani Heaver ("Mama"), growing up on the Isle of Disni in the city of Trowell. Throughout their childhood, Avi displayed brief interests in various different fields and activities, all of which they were encouraged to pursue by their mothers, who firmly believed they could succeed at all of them if they tried. However, Avi put pressure on themself to live up to those beliefs, and felt guilty for never finding a true passion in any of their interests.

After graduating high school, Avi moved to continental Disni to attend the Bard College in Houndgulch. However, they found it overwhelming, and dropped out after a year. Not wanting to return home and expose the truth to their mothers, they stayed on the mainland and became a traveling musician, performing on street corners for the next six years. However, they often found it hard to get by off just tips, so they learned to pickpocket to make ends meet.

By October 698, Avi had spent time living in nearly every city in continental Disni, and left each one, either out of boredom, after getting caught pickpocketing, or in Zalonacrest specifically, after the "squirrel incident" that they refuse to elaborate on. Rimebrook was the final city Avi visited on these travels; they resolved to either figure themselves out there, or finally go home and face the music.

### *Episodes on the Disni Channel*

#### Book 1

Avi was present in Rimebrook's tavern when the tavernkeep fielded volunteers to investigate a mass disappearance in the nearby Grimmingmire. They joined up with the other volunteers; Baka, Rah'Mee, Redryn, Rey, and Vivian; and solved the disappearance. The six adventurers decided to stick together, and formed what would become known as the Disni Party.

Together with the Disni Party, Avi helped rescue Milo, the missing child of the noble Madame Dean. They also served as the pan flute/vocalist in their party's traveling band, which recorded a demo in Houndgulch using new crystal technology; and successfully pickpocketed a small fortune from the city's wealthy inhabitants while the others distracted them with a performance. They and the party traveled up the Rimebrook mountain and dispelled the curse causing a perpetual snowstorm. At the peak, they also found a scimitar that they would ultimately fail to give a name other than the Nameless Blade.

#### Book 2

Informed of a minotaur scaring travelers at a nearby crossroads, Avi and the party met Asteron, who accompanied them to the Pillar of Feeble Loops to get his memories back from the wizard Ago. At the pillar, the party was transported to a future-fanfic-fever dream in which Avi was a successful recording artist; initially content, they broke free from the illusion after finding that this version of themself wasn't even the most famous musician in Disni.

While waiting for each of Asteron's party members to have their minds restored, Avi went with Rey to Ago's library and researched their heritage as an air genasi for the first time. Later, with the wish crystal the party used to wish to become stronger, Avi wished to become more versatile. The next day, they received a nightmare from the old god Phoenta, and discovered they could now draw from their connection to cast spells.

Avi became separated from the rest of the party upon infiltrating the walled city of Ingmarch. Gathering intel while sneaking around invisible, they helped the party kidnap the General of Ingmarch's Pink faction and bring him back to the Green side, earning a modest reward. They were swept away to the Gingery plane with the rest of the party, and after completing the holiday-themed dungeon, helped defeat a white dragon.

#### Book 3

With Vivian's help, Avi composed a song to Phoenta that quelled the nightmares she'd given them, and found out that they must help restore Phoenta to her original glory. They and the party stumbled upon the elevator to the Pantheon, and Avi grappled with the planet and new gods' true nature when Leo revealed it to the group. Though unnerved, they managed to cope with the revelation and keep their faith in "reality."

On the road to Sargos, Phoenta sent Avi a dream of a Phoentian warrior punching out a mustached military officer. Upon reaching the city, they realized it represented the bishop of the Church of Eher, a human-supremacist religious organization. After spending the next day gathering intel on the Church, the party infiltrated it and battled the bishop and his Nazi henchmen. The party was victorious, and just like their dream dictated, Avi landed the finishing blow on the bishop with a punch to the face.

#### Book 4

Tasked by agents of Oyja with following an aerial shipwreck, the party headed south through the elven forests. Avi nearly succumbed to an illusion of their mothers in trouble, but Baka dispelled it before they could. Soon after, they met Paz, an elven girl with ties to the local Chorjunite church; Avi mildly impressed with their passing knowledge of Elvish. The party infiltrated the site of the Rorisian shipwreck, killing most of the Rorisians and securing the advanced technology they carried.

Proceeding to Gallirol, the party officially added Paz to their ranks; she aimed to help save Gallirol's abbott, her surrogate father, from becoming corrupted by the new god Chorjun. They also met Rey's four-year-old sister-in-law, Laerta, and since Paz was her de facto caretaker, they brought her along as well. Avi quickly developed parental instincts toward Laerta, declaring themself her "ankle" and affectionately nicknaming her "Larry". The group was then summoned to the Isle, in the capital of Onlorad, where the Emperor of Disni informed them about a powerful scepter that all of the new gods coveted, as it would allow them to call their armies from space down to the planet.

In the castle's armory, Avi found a Fingerless Glove of Knives and Boomerangs, and using a Deck of Many Things, summoned an air genasi servant named Claude; both disappeared after unfortunate draws from the Deck. That night, Avi used the castle's temporal dinner platters to retrieve the Fgokab from a time before it was destroyed, along with a note that warned them they must eventually return the glove to its original time. The party then left Laerta in the care of the palace and sailed to visit famed adventurer Cole McIntyre, seeking the location of the scepter. After entertaining him in battle, he sent them away with a map, and gave Avi a pendant that could take them back in time to prevent Phoenta's corruption.

#### Book 5

As armies of new gods' followers everywhere mobilized, Avi and the party hurried to the Pantheon to rescue Phoenta. They were intercepted by Sheriff Diego Delay of the Time Travel Regulation Department, who forbade them from changing the present. This finally incurred a mental breakdown from Avi, as they were unable to accept that an organization could usurp even the gods. Thanks to Rah'Mee's quick thinking, however, they were able to reach a compromise with Diego, and successfully brought a copy of a healthy Phoenta to the present to be uploaded. She gifted Avi a bazooka, and after awakening the remaining old gods, the party set out toward the scepter.

The party took Vivian to meet an undercover Leo in Sargos; there, they were ambushed by an army of Onkeran soldiers, but proved victorious. Moving on through the desert, the party was attacked by a massive sandworm, which Avi helped defeat after Vivian polymorphed them into a massive T-rex. However, remaining members of the Church of Eher cornered the party and forced them to traverse the Dungeon of the Scepter to retrieve its eponymous artifact. Left with no choice but to proceed and defeat them later, Avi helped the party traverse the dungeon and slay the dracolich at its basement, only for the scepter to be stolen by Paz for the Chorjunite army.

#### Book 6

Avi and the party attempted to use the wish crystal they got from the Deck to thwart Paz, but failed, leaving them powerless to stop Chorjun from invading the planet. Whisked away to Oyja's lunar base, Avi joined the party in wallowing in depression and alcohol. But when they entered Laerta's dream and found her kidnapped by Chorjun, Avi assured her that everything would be all right, and found renewed motivation to fulfill that promise. Returning to the waking world, they gave a rousing speech that - despite a disinterested reception from their inebriated party - successfully rallied them to repel the Chorjunite invasion.

The next day, while gathering allies, Avi returned home to Trowell to deliver a letter. Unexpectedly reuniting with their Mom, they admitted the truth to her, and she assured them of her love, regardless of if they had everything about themself figured out or not. After securing their reinforcements, Avi went with Rey and Vivian to infiltrate the abbey of Gallirol in search of Laerta. While there, they rejected a written apology from an apparently-remorseful Paz. Continuing with their search, they were shocked when Paz began the Battle of Gallirol by delivering a headshot straight to a Chorjunite officer.

During the battle, Avi was tasked with calling down the reinforcements, which they successfully did halfway through the battle. On their own, they found themselves unable to seriously harm the Chorjunites' full-body armor, until they remembered the bazooka from Phoenta that they were stealthy enough to sneak this whole way without so much as remembering it. With the bazooka, and help from a Haste from Rey, they delivered a final, non-lethal blow to the abbott, freeing him from Chorjun's control with the party's victory.

Following the victory in the Battle of Gallirol, the party disbanded for a brief time. During these few weeks, Avi and Baka went to meet with the Duchess of Houndgulch to confirm the populace's mental well-being after the invasion. Going their separate ways, Avi then rescued the party's horse, Jammer, from the desert where the Eherites had left him, and purchased a small mobile home carriage to call home. Reuniting with the party at Vivian and Leo's wedding, where Avi was the former's maid of honor, they regaled the party guests with the tales they'd transcribed from the party's adventures.

### Post-*Disni*

Avi was the only one of the party to follow up on their recording back in Houndgulch; based out of their mobile carriage, they became a traveling musician and recording artist. They also began pursuing a passion they'd found while adventuring: the science of time travel, and more specifically, how to harness it and evade the rules imposed by Diego and the TTRD. Finding sporadic evidence of their future self visiting their current time, they spent the next year juggling the study of time travel with their budding music career, as well as their increasingly frequent stretches of babysitting Laerta for Rey.

Over the next year, Avi also tried to hang out with their party members as often as they could, but rarely got everyone together due to everyone's busy schedules. Among their most frequently seen friends was Redryn, who would visit them in their dreams. During one such visit, Redryn, concerned over Idia's silence, sent Avi to check on Phoenta. Avi returned with news of the old gods' war against their regent, and passed it along to the rest of the party.

In early January 700, Avi attended Kaseos's birthday party. Though they didn't yet know him very well, and as such forgot to get him a gift, they were bailed out when their future self silently dropped off a present to pass along. At the party, Rey effectively renounced her parenthood of Laerta and entrusted her to a startled Avi full-time, forcing them to figure out how to balance a touring schedule with life as a single parent. Despite some apprehension, they declined offers from Vivian to take her in, assuring her they'd figure out how to raise Laerta.

### *Stories on the Subjugated Straits*

#### Book 1

Avi was mentioned, though not by name, when Voy and Lynx asked Kaseos about the origin of his high-tech camera phone. Kas told them it was a gift from their ankle, an adventurer, though he didn't know how they came across it.

#### Book 2

During a later conversation, Kaseos expounded upon Avi's identity, giving Voy their name (as Avriel) and mentioning their investigation of time travel. Voy was immediately interested, mentioning the potential for historical research that time travel would afford. He asked Kas to arrange a meeting between him and Avriel, to which Kas agreed.

Avi made their first on-screen appearance while they and Laerta were on the road to Zalonacrest. Hearing a knock on the door of their moving carriage, they answered it to find a sharply dressed man riding a swirling cloud of dust. Upon confirming Avi's identity, the man paralyzed them, promised to introduce them to the "true queen of the hells," and rendered them unconscious. Shortly after, Kaseos received a text from Leo, informing him that Avi had been kidnapped, and located in the Wornorian town of Delmarva; Kas subsequently took Voy and Lynx to Delmarva to rescue them.

#### Book 3

Kaseos, Voy, and Lynx discovered Avi imprisoned in Castle Delmarva, with two illrigger captors demanding to know the whereabouts of Phoenta. With the others' help, Avi broke free and helped defeat the illriggers, who promised revenge from Roxy before disappearing. Avi happily reunited with Kaseos, and quickly bonded with Lynx over her mastery of daggers.

Later that night, Avi met with Voy, who urged them to take him back in time, and eventually admitted that he was from the past and wished to return home. In turn, Avi admitted that the Time Travel Regulation Department, which they had thus far made no progress in overcoming, made it impossible for them to do so. Avi spent the rest of the night with Lynx, with whom they continued to get closer; alternating between trading adventuring stories, sharing trauma, and making out.

Avi went with their rescuers back to Elmore, where they met the rest of Kaseos's party, and in a war meeting, informed them of the old gods' reawakening. After spending a bit more time with Lynx, promising to write her letters and return to visit someday, they boarded a boat back to Disni to reunite with Laerta. On the long boat ride back, they were visited by Paz, who herself was on a journey the other way to surveil their kidnappers.

## Personality

Avi is a wise-cracker who's neurotic and easily overwhelmed. Humor is their main tool for dealing with anything, from establishing themselves in social situations to anxiously coping with life-threatening ones. However, at their core, they are honest and intensely caring of those close to them; they're often the first to help someone they think is in need, such as when they comforted Rey over her feeling disconnected from her family, or their parental instincts kicking in immediately upon meeting Laerta.

Avi is more than a little insecure, placing great importance on making sure those around them take them seriously, and therefore projecting more confidence than they really have. This makes them easy and entertaining to make fun of, since they're so preoccupied with their image that they take every insult equally seriously, no matter how absurd. However, Avi's true opinion of themself is likewise unreasonably low; though they focus on their failures, they have moments of ingenuity, and are peerless in skills they've trained in, such as stealth and acrobatic maneuvers.

Overall, Avi is a chameleon of sorts, whose desire to fit in leads to them taking on roles they believe the situation at hand calls for. For example, despite their wisecracking and half-true thembo persona, they'll act as the voice of reason when someone like Rah'Mee or Baka has gone off the rails. In addition, they are able to overcome their anxiety in critical moments, such as to rally their party in the face of certain failure against the Chorjunite invasion. They're also eager to take on any challenge they feel they're "meant" to, such as their mission to save Phoenta, or when their fascination with cracking time travel.

Avi's passions have come and gone throughout their life, but they've retained one for creating music; they have ideas in their head for new genres like "dubstep," though they struggle to bring to life the sounds they imagine. They love the color orange, and have displayed an unusually strong affinity for oranges, including eating one with the rind on, drinking orange juice off the floor, or ordering a "virgin screwdriver" at a bar. Through their connection to Phoenta, they've also developed a fondness for apple and apple-based dishes.