Games Help me write a story! It's about a button that ceases your existance

[Deleted member 14386]

https://sanctioned-suicide.net/thre...d-you-just-disappear.42738/page-2#post-779939

The idea(s) from that thread. So the rules for the button I have so far are:
1- You can access it anywhere
2- You can trick other people into pressing it
3- The person behind the button is unknown (for now)
4- The main character is maybe a police officer?
4b- When someone presses the button, every person they have ever interacted with has their memories changed to another person. This could be a bot (like Agent Smith) or just a swap from someone who is a good person, doesn't want to die but dies anyway (then I guess their soul mingles or something idk how the button works yet)
5- Help I need ideas! I'm not a bad writer if I can get into it.

All open to discussion, I want to have a structure to the story before starting it, anyone can start it too if you wanna

 

[Giraffey]

I would start by making it something a little less obvious and stiffly mechanical than a button. You're invoking magic so perhaps a crystal or an ancient carving with mysterious symbols etc.

Perhaps there is some mileage in switching the point of view, so instead of beginning with some person pressing the button and dying, perhaps begin from the point of view of somebody who has had their memories changed and has these fuzzy and misty memories of a mysterious character that they're sure they've met and know intimately but couldn't possibly have ever met in real life - maybe they interpret this to be someone important to them from a past life, or their soul-mate or spirit guide and embark upon a quest to discover who they truly are and meet them.

When they ultimately meet you can fork the story into a romance where they actually do fall in love (for real, not just in their memories) or take it darker whereby the person who has been snipped into our protagonist's memory is actually evil. At some point in the process, either trying to discover the meaning of their relationship and what brought them together or trying to exorcise the 'evil' memories from their brain, our protagonist discovered that they were married and it was their spouse that did this using the mysterious memory device - ostensibly to spare our protagonist from the pain of having to live with their spouse's depression but (in a metaphor for part of the suicide debate) that well-meaning action has actually either brought them great happiness (or other mixed emotions) or pain - blessed or cursed them. Armed with the magic box our protagonist must now decide what to do, or somehow make sense of what their spouse did.

Just some ideas for you (very poorly articulated) straight off the top of my head.

 

[Deleted member 14386]

I would start by making it something a little less obvious and stiffly mechanical than a button. You're invoking magic so perhaps a crystal or an ancient carving with mysterious symbols etc.

Perhaps there is some mileage in switching the point of view, so instead of beginning with some person pressing the button and dying, perhaps begin from the point of view of somebody who has had their memories changed and has these fuzzy and misty memories of a mysterious character that they're sure they've met and know intimately but couldn't possibly have ever met in real life - maybe they interpret this to be someone important to them from a past life, or their soul-mate or spirit guide and embark upon a quest to discover who they truly are and meet them.

When they ultimately meet you can fork the story into a romance where they actually do fall in love (for real, not just in their memories) or take it darker whereby the person who has been snipped into our protagonist's memory is actually evil. At some point in the process, either trying to discover the meaning of their relationship and what brought them together or trying to exorcise the 'evil' memories from their brain, our protagonist discovered that they were married and it was their spouse that did this using the mysterious memory device - ostensibly to spare our protagonist from the pain of having to live with their spouse's depression but (in a metaphor for part of the suicide debate) that well-meaning action has actually either brought them great happiness (or other mixed emotions) or pain - blessed or cursed them. Armed with the magic box our protagonist must now decide what to do, or somehow make sense of what their spouse did.

Just some ideas for you (very poorly articulated) straight off the top of my head.

I like these ideas. I was thinking of it switching viewpoints, like from the guy who made the button (gonna call it a magic-stone now lol). It is magic, so I gotta find a way for the email or whatever to interact with the magic-stone. I was planning on starting out with someone who's switched via the stone. So it starts out nice and wholesome then he dies and his soul has replaced the person pressing the button/stone. But I'd like if the story switches viewpoints.

It'd be interesting if he maintained the memories, maybe there could be a "God" that explains what's going on when he dies.

Your a lot better at writing than me! I didn't even think of any twists yet, but that evil guy having sparse memories is a real good one.
Or it could go around and around, like the guy has the stone, uses it, finds his previous lover and they use the stone. Then in an attempt to get back together he uses the stone, separating them.
.........this is getting confusing haha

 

[draw a circle]

For me, I'd start by thinking what exactly this button is. Like is it something widely known, or is it a mysterious thing where only a few people stumbled upon it? Is it magic, or man-made? Also, is there a general rule of how to use the button? Limitations or conditions? How does it kill a person?

When you got the button covered, then you can decide what will happen once you press the button. I don't really get the memory thing, but if it's some sort of guide, what kinda person is the guide? Maybe only people who used the button to die, or just random dead person, or bot, like you said. I don't know, I like to build the world along with the story, but because this is an unusual story (the suicide button idea) I'm kinda intrigued about it.

About the character, well, you need to know what they're doing with the button. What are their intentions? Suicide, or investigation, maybe? Explore that motive.

I'm an amateur myself so I can't give you much advice/idea, but these are the things that popped up in my head. Wishing you luck for the story!

 

[Deleted member 14386]

I think the main character will be a side-character at first, but eventually enough weird things happen (maybe he's immune to the magic-button?) that he starts investigating.

The other ideas are great, I need all of this for the structure so thanks!
edit: alright this is today's project! I'll post back soon, keep giving me ideas!
edit2 Just so i don't forget
magic stone story

accesible by anyone with the email address or physical location.
(how does it work?)

magic, disintergrates the person but consumes the memories, the stone lives off memories so some are missing. Also the carbon etc, it's not so much a stone as a flame, it needs nourishment and if no-one is 'sacrificed' (maybe this could be the original intention?) the flame grows bigger until it finds souls and memories.

The person pressing/using the stone go to their own heaven.

The stone absorbs the blood of the person using it and grabs the memories and puts the soul in a 'pool' filled with souls. Each soul has their own heaven, they are not really in heaven it's a matrix-like setup the stonemaker created.

To replace the memories of people who interacted with the person who used the stone, the stone takes a soul out of the pool and replaces the user of the stone. The stone takes everyones soul when they die, and memories, it's a god of sorts.The stone creator was a shinigami, they raped a human and the bloodline continued until our main character arrives (part god/magician)

The stone-maker was a true magician/god (like Neo or Beranabus from the demonata series), the main character is a decendant and immune to the magic that causes memories to change. MC is capable of small bits of magic. MC sees weird stuff going on, questions his friends family but they think of a different person. MC think's he's going mad.