Protagonist (Menagerie I: Exoptable Money)

### Position in Story

A person who creates money via a magical box, and later a cat fur and organ seller

## Biographical information

### Place of death

Unknown

Once, on a quiet Sunday evening, the protagonist finds a magical "The Money Machine" and decide to take it home. You also have access to a store and a mailbox through which you meet two other characters - Madame Sinclaire and Doctor Money. You can never reply to the messages that you are sent, which grows increasingly more and more worrying, and you never eat, drink or sleep. You also never see Madame Sinclair or Doctor Money, and you remain trapped in the room that you're in. The only thing the protagonist is capable of doing is make money. And every time you buy items or upgrades from the store, you progress the story.

### The Story

At the beginning of the game, you are first contacted by Madame Sinclaire, presumably a wealthy upper-class woman, who notices the amount of money you are making with the machine. She happens to know a way you can get more money, but you must first buy a kitten.

This adorable creature will be your only sole companion for a short time, and it has the unusual talent of bringing in large amounts of money for you. Each time you send the kitten out, it will bring in larger amounts of money, but on its fourth trip, it disappears.

Beware. Madame Sinclair's messages will grow more sinister, until you receive one that states she's found a cat coincidentally. Prepare yourself for the next message:

"Fur is expensive." And with it, the head of your kitten with its eyes gouged out.

From Sinclair's letters, you find that the mysterious Money Machine doesn't just copy money, coins and topaz, but other things as well. She tells you to put your cat inside, and then sell the continuous stream of fur. You do it, of course, and begin to make more money.

Later on, Doctor Money and his corporation will send you a message stating that they need money to help with the East-West conflict. It is unclear whether or not this is a trick, considering you cannot leave the room and Madame Sinclair does not mention it in her letters. However, after refusing to send money (you actually can't, there's no option to), Doctor Money informs you that the East-West conflict ended due to heavy casualties on both sides, resulting in a near genocide. Vengefully, Doctor Money sends you his next letter with a present: a deadly virus.

An antidote appears in the store around this time, and Doctor Money urges you to buy it, but the price is just the same that you have at present + 1 point.

The story will not progress until you buy the antidote, but once you do, Doctor Money will thank you for your business. At this point in time, Madame Sinclair will confirm that the virus is real, as there are people dying from it, and she herself has been infected.

However, the antidote is not a complete cure, and people must continually buy it at high cost to keep from dying. Which is unfortunate, considering the antidote also causes peoples' organs to fail. Doctor Money lowers the price regretfully by 1000 money - which means the price still matches whatever you make, but it's 1000 money less now.

Afterwards, Doctor Money will contact you again, but this time for your mysterious Money Machine. As demonstrated by your kitten's sacrifice, the Money Machine has the ability to duplicate just about anything - and the current market calls for organs. After Doctor Money sends you vital organs you begin to churn out organs at maximum production to fuel the market, along with regular money, coins, topaz, and your dead kitten's fur.

You seem to have become either Doctor Money's supplier or employee now. But you do get loads more money than before. And you can buy a tin can from the store now - which Doctor Money compliments you on.

Unfortunately, as your Money Machine continues to pump out more and more revenue, Doctor Money and Madame Sinclair write to inform you that your copied organs are not perfect - they don't last very long and there are less and less healthy people from which to harvest regular organs from.

As the virus rampages, and the end of your road to monetary success nears, Doctor Money decides to reward you for your efforts (subtly blaming you for the entire virus-antidote-organs debacle) and suggests you finish maxing out the production of money, coins, topaz, fur, and organs.

Which breaks your machine.

You should have over 1 billion money, which you can use to buy the last item in the store - a simple can opener.

Doctor Money and Madame Sinclair both write you their last message - to say goodbye. It is assumed Madame Sinclair perishes from the virus, as she ran out of money to buy the dwindling supply of increasingly-expensive original organs and had to resort to your cheap proxies. And due to your compliance and assistance, Doctor Money becomes the richest man in the world until his death at the hands of his own virus.

You end your adventure with a can opener and a can... of beans.

You never ate, slept or drank anything from the beginning of the game to the end. Perhaps you started this endeavor to generate enough money to buy food, and you were starving. And now, you have a can opener and a can of beans.

You used that antidote after all. You were probably never infected. (The virus somehow made it to the outside world, even though you never left the room. And the virus only started to wreak havoc after you paid Doctor Money for that antidote, enough money to make the virus a reality).

But whether or not you were or weren't, you drank that antidote.

And as you open that can, your organs begin to fail. And you die. The End

### Unanswered Questions

There are several of these in the game that have yet to be explained, and are not questioned.

* Where is the protagonist exactly? Why are they there, and who are they?
* Why is the protagonist's objective to make money?
* Are they trapped in that room?
* How did they come by the Money Machine?
* How did Madame Sinclair and Doctor Money know where to send the letters to reach the Protagonist?
* Was the Protagonist really infected with the virus before they took the antidote?
* Why was the Protagonist so happy about having a can of beans at the end of the game?