The Consequences: Summary and reference thread

[GeneralHankerchief]

It is now February 1st, US time - one month since the game The Consequences began. While it may seem simple and meandering now, as the game progresses and new blood joins the Gameroom, they will need a point of easy access to get acquainted with the game. This thread will be designed as a resource for that purpose. I am aiming for monthly updates here on our character's progress.

The target end date of this game is New Year's on 2011, but as the game progresses this is subject to change.

[GeneralHankerchief]

January update:

Our character's story begins with him waking up in a basement in an unknown location with no memory of who he is or how he got there. The room he is in does nothing to aid him, although oddly enough it does have an mp3 player with only one song loaded on it: "Rosetta Stoned" by Tool; as well as a slip of paper containing the word "Croatoan" on it and a wallet with some cash.

The character makes an incursion into the rest of the house to try to discover anything else as well as obtain supplies, but it ends badly with the character being chased out of the house by an angry homeowner with a shotgun, minus half his cash. After going outside, he sees a downtown area in one direction and decides to head that way. Eventually, the character discovers that he is in Surprise, Arizona, and decides to take the bus to Phoenix. Unfortunately, a self-examination reveals nothing about the character other than the fact that he is male and has a ring tattoo on the back of his shoulder.

Once again the character's social skills prove to be well beyond that of most other humans, singlehandedly managing to alienate a nice old lady who was helping him out as well as half the bus. Luckily, the stop for downtown Phoenix comes quickly and he wisely decides to make his exit.

In Phoenix, desperate for cash, he decides to take part in a psychological experiment he sees in a newspaper ad (also of note in the newspaper: a $15 billion hole in the defense budget and a piece about the rise of a company known as SysTech), but first he decides to visit a police station to see if they can possibly identify him. While being attended to by a friendly Officer Purvis, the character nearly gets himself addicted to cigarettes, but the effort is ultimately in vain as Officer Purvis informs him that a fingerprint search in the database turns up absolutely nothing at all. Pondering this, the character tries to put it out of his mind as he heads off to perform the psychological experiment.

While waiting to be experimented on, he talks friendly with an older gentleman, Robert Hayes, who lost his white-collar job in the recession and is using his $50 to buy a video game for his grandson. Eventually it comes time for the experiment, which comes in two parts: Written and practical. During the written section, the character answers a series of questions, most of which are worst-case scenarios forcing the character to make a choice. During the practical section, the character is outfitted with a large metal helmet and is told nonchalantly by the experiment's overseer, Dr. Stanislaus Cole, that he is to kill Dr. Cole. The character eventually rebels, going after Dr. Cole's assistant, when he is delivered a shock. Dr. Cole explains that the experiment was designed to test what factors motivate people, and purposely made the situation feel slightly "not right".

Rewarded with the $50 and trying not to think too much about what exactly went on, the character waits for Robert Hayes and chooses to help the well-meaning but not-too-knowledgeable man with picking out a video game for his grandson. Thus we currently stand, with the character and Robert, in a Gamestop at the Metrocenter mall in Phoenix, looking over the XBox 360 games section.