Key & Compass presents:
Mental Entertainment
by Thomas Hvizdos

• Map
• Walkthrough
• Extras
  • Characters, Inventory
• Thank You to my Patreon supporters
• External links:
  • This story at IFDB, and IFWiki.
  • Tweet about this walkthrough on Twitter.

Map

Walkthrough

Your Office

Get some background info about your job.

> help.

> x desk. x red bin. x green bin.

> x license. x bookshelf.

> x Manning. read Manning.

> x Worlds. read Worlds.

> x Addiction. read Addiction.

Let's get to work. It doesn't matter which file you start with.

> x Barry's file. read Barry's.

A door to Frontier Justice opens to the north.

> n.

Main Street

> x men. x women.

> e.

Store

> x man. x mustache. x register. x counter.

> x sacks. x guns. x ammo. x candies.

> x goods. x sundries. x grains. x barrels. x sodas. x whiskey.

> w. w.

Saloon

> x men. x bartender. x man. (likely the villain)

> x doors. e. nw.

Sheriff's Office

> x Barry. x desk. x gun. x cells.

> ask Barry about VR. ask him about addiction.

> ask him about leaving. ask him about models.

> ask him about force (or frustrations).

> ask him about dates. ask him about Cindy.

> ask him about gun. ask him about privsec.

> ask him about Meradine. ask him about stories.

> ask him about drugs. ask him about scientists.

> ask him about tanks. ask him about money.

> ask him about prestige. ask him about sheriff.

> ask him about real world. ask him about 30s.

> ask him about rioting. ask him about peace.

> ask him about promotion. ask him about company.

> ask him about AI. ask him about coroner.

> ask him about boss. ask him about funding.

> ask him about hoops. ask him about jail.

> ask him about laws.

Return to your office:

> se. s.

Your Office

> read Brigid's.

A door to Muir's Woods opens to the east.

> e.

High Pass

> x lichen. x rocks. x boulders. x trail. x switchbacks.

> nw.

Stream

> x grass.

> ne.

River Overlook

> x river. x shrubs. x wildflowers. x bees. x dragonflies.

> nw.

Clearing

> x Brigid. x bushes. x berries.

> ask Brigid about VR. ask her about addiction.

> ask her about leaving. ask her about models.

> ask her about apartment. ask her about mattress (or sleep).

> ask her about sink. ask her about money.

> ask her about wilderness (or nature). ask her about blueberries.

> ask her about soy (or food or crop).

> ask her about vanilla. ask her about vitamins.

> ask her about chemicals.

> ask her about pests (or parasites or algae or fungus).

> ask her about streets. ask her about cars.

> ask her about TV (or show).

> ask her about books (or cabin). ask her about Walden.

> ask her about poison (or herbicide or pesticide).

> ask her about air. ask her about cough.

> ask her about park. ask her about grass. ask her about water.

> ask her about farms.

> ask her about agricorps (or companies or rich people).

> ask her about bees (or drones).

> ask her about trees. (or about the diseases she mentioned)

> ask her about canyons. ask her about kids (or pets).

> ask her about world (or planet). ask her about decay (or rot or death).

> ask her about cities. ask her about dirge. ask her about chaos.

> ask her about solace. ask her about hammock.

> ask her about birds. ask her about fantasy.

> ask her about government. ask her about pipelines.

> ask her about taxes (or Samuel Arren).

Return to your office:

> se. sw. se. w.

Your Office

> read Brian's file.

A doorway to Read Mars opens to the south.

> s.

Tunnel Outskirts

> x door. x rectangle. x glyphs. x vehicle. x gizmos.

> e. e.

Geyser Room

> x Brian. x hole.

> ask Brian about VR. ask him about itch.

> ask him about addiction. ask him about leaving.

> ask him about models. ask him about software.

> ask him about algorithms. ask him about glyphs.

> ask him about hole. ask him about ecosystem.

> ask him about archaeology. ask him about notebook.

> ask him about world. ask him about basic income.

> ask him about riots.

Return to your office:

> w. w. n.

Your Office

It's up to you how to assess Barry, Brigid, and Brian.

> take all file.

> put Barry's in green —or— put Barry's in red.

> put Brigid's in green —or— put Brigid's in red.

> put Brian's in green —or— put Brian's in red.

When you've placed all three files into bins, the exit door opens to the west.

> w.

Real World

> go home. (You hope you did some good.)

*** The End. Thank you for playing! Final plug: I want to talk more to other people doing IF! If you have thoughts about the game, or anything else writing related, please email me at email redacted! ***

The story makes no judgments based on your assessments. You learn nothing further about the fate of anyone involved once you return to the real world, regardless of which bins you put the files in.

Extras

Characters

Actual people:

• Barry Pulaski is a police officer. Dissatisfied with his real world job, he's finding fulfilment as a VR sheriff in a wild west town where everything's simpler and where he feels he can make a difference. He's also a drinking buddy of yours.
• Brigid McCarthy is unemployed and spends most of her basic income on VR. She enjoys nature and reading, but the real world is so poisoned and dead and artificial, she can only enjoy life in a VR wilderness setting.
• Brian Cooper is a software engineer who enjoys solving puzzles. He'd rather be an archaeologist, but economic necessity forced him into software jobs, and then later, he found the entire field of archaeology had decayed badly. So now he satifies his "itch" by exploring VR civilizations instead.

Virtual people and creatures:

• Men and women go about their business on Main Street.
• The bartender, the rough men, and the villain occupy their spots in the saloon.
• A thin man mans the general store. He looks nervous and has an enormous waxed mustache.
• Bees and dragonflies fly near the river in the Muir's Woods setting. Real bees went extinct during your childhood and have been replaced with mechanical drones.

Mentioned:

• Richard Manning was a 25-year-old man who suicided when deprived of VR services. His shocking case of VR addiction was the catalyst behind the creation of your dependency assessment job.
• Cindy is Barry's girlfriend. She's a genius with AI and makes four times as much money as Barry does.
• Barry's boss is an okay guy but doesn't have the resources to really change anything.
• Ed is a coroner who works at the hospital. Barry says he's a good guy.
• Samuel Arren is someone rich who pays his taxes. According to Brigid, his daddy helped destroy the world.
• Private security (aka privsec) is supplanting the police for rich folk and they're known to shoot first and ask questions later.
• Rich people paying their taxes is what makes VR possible and for the government to avoid responsibilities. The rich are more likely to hire private security too.
• Poor people don't trust the police.
• Professors are now just squabbling against each other instead of making discoveries, according to Brian.
• Scientists can use a drug called Meradine to make themselves more curious.
• Agricorps grow almost nothing but soy now, and their pesticides and herbicides are killing everything else, according to Brigid.
• Government have abandoned their responsibilities according to both Brigid and Brian.
• Birds may be mostly extinct if Brigid can only hear birdsong in VR.
• Giraffes have been extinct for less than five years, according to Brigid.
• You and your fellow dependency assessors share a room with the VR pods that let you and them enter VR.

Mentioned virtual characters:

• The aliens that Brian is studying used a language identical to English except their glyphs correspond to pairs of English letters. The aliens also considered water and rebirth as particularly holy.

Inventory

There's only three inventory items: the files that are on your desk.

• You need to put each file into either the red bin or the green bin.
• Put a file into the red bin if you think that person is addicted to VR.
• Put a file into the green bin if you think that person is not addicted to VR.
• You'll be unwilling to put a person's file into a bin if you haven't spoken to them yet.
• When all three files are in bins, then the west exit opens.

The files are:

• Barry's file. Read it: a doorway to the north will appear, leading to the Frontier Justice setting.
• Brigid's file. Read it: a doorway to the east will appear, leading to the Muir's Woods setting.
• Brian's file. Read it: a doorway to the south will appear, leading to the Read Mars setting.

Thank You to my Patreon supporters

This walkthrough is provided free of charge since the work it's based on has less than fifteen locations. Please consider it a thank you for your support!

I create larger walkthroughs too! Please visit my Patreon account if you're interested in helping me create more interactive fiction walkthroughs. I appreciate all the help I can get! Thanks again.