[[Stolen Valor|Play Game]]
By Ben UrlikThe owner of the show Justin invites you to dinner with your friend and you go along with the invitation.
After some light conversation you begin to wonder what the show is about and ask Justin.
Justin gives you a simple card with the following description:
- Live in a house for a week
- Everyone in the house is a veteran except for one person
- The goal is to figure out the person who is not a veteran and regularly acts like a veteran because they like praise.
You initially don't take interest but your friend convinces you to join because there is a huge reward of $100,000 - if you win. Unfortunately, your friend will be in a different season of the show but to make things interesting he recommended you to the owner of the show.
After some hesitation you [[accept|characters]].The following week passes by and you hop onto a flight to Hawaii where the gameshow is taking place. You get to live in a luxurious beach mansion with a pool, gym, movie theater, and large living quarters.
The first part of the show is introducing yourself to others. After looking at the other contestants you decide to meet:
[[Smith|Smith]]
[[Ronan|Ronan]]
[[Ramsey|Ramsey]]
[[Raelene|Rae]]You see a tall skinny dude approaching you. He comes up to you and starts a conversation...
Dude: "Hi, I'm Ronan nice to meet you. Do you know what time it is?"
You: "Hi! Uh no, why?"
Ronan: "I don't own a watch."
*Thinking to yourself you find it a little weird because a watch is a key item for a military uniform.*
You: "Haha, I guess its time for you to get one."
Ronan: "That's funny, maybe its time to get a better joke. I was just kidding about the watch. I just wanted to talk to you."
*At this point you cant tell if Ronan is trying to play off not having a watch or testing you*
Ronan: "Anyway, I'm hungry since I didn't eat on the flight."
Ronan: "Hey before I go, if it's alright do you want to do something later?"
You: "Uh ill see what I have planned. Give me your number and ill text you later."
*You get Ronans number*
Ronan: "Alright, catch you later."
You: "Yeah, see you around."
[[Keep enemies close|Friend Ronan]]
[[talk to another person|Smith]]You hear one of the producers calling out for some dude named Ramsey. A couple of minutes later you see a dude walking by and ask him if his name is Ramsey.
You: "Hey is your name Ramsey?"
Ramsey: "Yeah, what's up?"
*You introduce yourself*
You: "Hey I think I hear some producers calling for you earlier."
Ramsey: "Oh thanks man. Yo if you need anything let me know I gotta run."
[[follow him|follow ramsey]]
[[Meet anothet person|Rae]]You see the only girl on the gameshow. She is pretty tall and fit enough to be in the military. She doesn't meet your typical expectations but you decide to talk to her to see what she is like.
You: "Hey how has it been since you got here? Hawaii has been terrible..."
Her: "What? Hawaii is amazing. I can't wait to suntan."
You: "I mean terribly good. Hahaha!"
Her: *doesn't laugh*
You: "Anyway, what's your name?"
Rae: "I'm Rae."
*You introduce yourself and the conversation ends. As she is leaving, you notice a large scar on her leg. It's not uncommon to get injuries on the job but being fit for service requires good health. You note this and move on.*
You decide that you need to [[workout|workout]] after that long flight. You were reminded that you should stay in good health.You accidentally bump into a dude on your way to the bathroom. You think to yourself that he is kind of short but works out.
You begin to apologize:
You: "Sorry dude. You were in my blind spot."
Him: "It's ok I probably should have realized."
You: "You heading to the bathroom right now?"
Him: "Yeah I was going to fix my hair."
*At this point, you notice that his hair is within military regulations. Its 1.25 inches on the top and the sides aren't touching his ears. However, its kind of weird to have it in regs on a vacation.*
You: "It looks fine in my opinion. By the way what is your name again?"
Smith: "I'm Smith. I love to workout and I am extremely competitive."
You tease him:
You: "Sounds like something a short person would say."
Smith: "Haha very funny. I think I'm going to go now but we should hang out later."
You: "Yeah for sure."
*At this point, you notice that he left his bag outside the door*
[[Search bag|search bag]]
[[Talk to another person|Rae]]You go to workout and see this guy name Ronan working out. He doesn't look very fit and seems to be struggling with push-ups.
*You think to yourself have I meet Ronan? [[No, maybe I should talk to him.|Ronan]] Wait no I have. [[Decide to take Ronan's offer and hang out later|Friend Ronan]]*
You also see Rae working out and can tell that the scar on her leg is reducing the squatting power she has. You decide that investigating her further would look bad while your wife is watching the show so you decide to look at the last person in the gym.
*You see another guy named Smith. You think to yourself have I met Smith? [[No, maybe I should talk to him.|Smith]] Wait no I have. [[You decide to follow him after his workout|follow Smith]]*
[[You are tired and decide to follow some guy named Ramsey and get water.|follow ramsey]]You become friends with Ronan later than night and are invited over to his room. You accept hoping to find out more about Ronan since he was acting suspiciously earlier.
*You enter his room*
He is a pretty chill dude that loves to play Super Smash Ultimate. He kicks your ass at the game. Both of you begin to feel thirsty so Ronan goes and gets some drinks.
*the room is empty*
[[Search the room|Search Ronans Room]]
[[Walk after him|follow ramsey]]You search Ronans room while he is gone. You go through lots of drawers and find a drawer full of military coins and ranks. You are not sure if they belong to him or if he is collecting them. They seem to be legit but you are not sure the level of fakeness the non-ex-military member has gone to fool others. You check everywhere but realize he doesn't have a watch. Then you back off and spend the rest of the time with Ronan until you go to sleep and [[prepare for tomorrow.|prepare for tomorrow]]You pack your things and get ready to do some PT (Physical training). Everything is going fine and dandy until you see Ronan acting kind of weird. He is folding a flag but he doesn't fix it at the end. You know that no red part of the flag should be showing on the flag once all the folding is done but Ronan folds it with tons of red showing. You think that there is no way this guy is ex-military by making a mistake like that. You also think that he might just be bad at folding flags and is practicing.
[[You decide to contemplate this late and go PT|PT]]You find out that Ramsey and the producers are getting water. But they end up walking into a secret room with the other producers and come out 5 minutes later. You head back to the room before Ramsey sees you.
You think Ramsey is the non-legit ex-military because of his ties with the producers. [[You decide to have fun for a week and then guess Ramsey|hasty ending]]
[[You decide to also follow smith|follow Smith]]
[[You decide to go to sleep and prepare for tomorrow|prepare for tomorrow]]You do some intensive training and get the GAINS. You feel frustrated because you think that your friend Ronan on the show might be the person who is it. Surely, you could have looked into other people but you didn't have significant leads on the others.
If Ronan is the person then your relationship with Ronan is based on a lie and you are pretty sure you guys wouldn't be friends anymore.
What should you do?
[[confront Ronan|Best ending]]
[[wait till the end of the week and claim Ronan is the person who is it|less valuable win]]
[[You see Smith and decide to follow him|follow Smith]]After following Smith you notice that he goes to Rae's room. After a while, you hear some noises but can't be sure whats going on.
- [[Think you haven't meet Rae so back off and meet her later|Rae]]
- [[You decide this is too weird and backoff|backoff]]
- [[You continue watching the room|continue watching]]
- [[Go to Smiths room and search it|Search Smiths room]]You decide that watching the room was a little bit too invasive and that backing off was the right decision.
You think that continuing to watch the room was not the right choice because they were talking about something secretive and trying to set up a trap for anyone that was listening. You caught on afterward because you overheard Rae's conversation that they failed to catch someone.
The rest of the week goes by and you can't think of anyone else that would be the fake except for Rae or Smith. You decide:
[[Rae is the fake|Another bad ending]]
[[Smith is the fake|Another bad ending again]]The two find out that you were watching the room. They tell Ronan and Ramsey. Nobody wants to do anything with you anymore because they know you are constantly watching. You spend the rest of the week trying to talk to others but nothing eventful occurs
[[Guess Rae|lose]]
[[Guess Ramsey|lose]]
[[Guess Smith|lose]]
[[Guess Ronan|lucky rng win]]You look through Smith's room but it looks spotless. You check is bag one last time and see that he had a hidden compartment with info on the other contestants. It discloses that Smith is a fake military member.
You think very carefully and can't decide if he planted these papers to fake other people out and guess the wrong person. Or if he is the culprit. He is blatantly acting like he isn't but then again he acts like a real military professional.
[[Wait the rest of the week out and guess Smith|guess Smith]]
[[Go back to monitoring the room|follow Smith]]Your guess was incorrect and you lost the show. Unfortunately, continuing to watch other players backfired and lost you the game. A year ago:
After a long day at the base you come home.
"Suprise!" You hear after turning on the lights.
Your family has congratulated you for your four years of service in the United States Air Force.
Happy to start your civilian life you enjoy your cake with your wife and 2 kids.
2 months ago:
You realize that you are bored but happy that you are now less stressed.
But something is missing. You are tired of working in finances and nothing seems quite right anymore. You are getting pretty old and want to spice things up in your life before you end up at home all day.
Last Month:
A buddy of yours from the same squadron invites you to dinner talking something about a game show. You hesitate but realize that you have nothing to do and ask what the show is about. [[Gameshow?|Gameshow]]You notice that everything is a mess and that he packed a lot of things.
You pull out a notebook and notice that some of the information on marching and verbiage (Specific word for word phrases used in the military) is wrong. You don't think too much of this since training is different because each base has its own culture. While it is somewhat suspicious you decide to put the notebook back.
You can seem to decide what to do next. [[Meet another person|Ramsey]] or [[workout|workout]] or [[follow Smith|follow Smith]]You have fun for the rest of the week. Nobody suspected you and you guessed Ramsey is the person that is the fake. After rerolling the footage it was clear that you misinterpreted the secret room as the video surveillance room that was talking to Ramsey about the footage they could use.
*You didn't win the game show.*You guess Smith.
The TV show rolls back the footage and your guess was correct. He planted those papers and made 2 people guess the wrong person. You knew your decision was hasty but couldn't find much fault because you didn't have any other big leads. You lose and return home.By a miracle guess you guessed the right person. You were probably thinking that by choosing the person who you interacted with the least that they must be the person that is it. Or maybe you just won by the luck of the draw. In any case you take your $100,000 and some satisfaction. You confront Ronan asking him if he is the person that is it.
He asks why you would think such a thing and you begin to tell him all the things you noticed from the weak physical fitness to the terrible flag folding. Under the pressure he cracks and admits to being the fake. You tell him that what he is doing is unacceptable and that stealing valor from military soldiers for pleasure is disgusting. He makes the excuse that he only does it when he feels down to make himself feel better but you can't believe that your whole friendship with this person is a lie.
You tell him that people die for the honor that soldiers get and that he is stomping on the graves of those who have died for the Country. At the end of the week you guess the wrong person on purpose to avoid Ronan being called out since you already lectured him. Ronan ends up winning the show and giving you the prize money hoping to continue your friendship.
[[accept|accept]]
OR
[[decline|decline]]You win the show but at the cost of your friendship with Ronan. It was a good run you repeat to yourself but you realize that maybe confronting him would have been the better choice. You live a long life with the prize money but died feeling guilty that Ronan got called out after the show and probably made his life even worse.
[[Continue|twister]]You continue your friendship with Ronan and put the money to good use. Investing it in stocks and bonds to create a business all to earn money and donate it to veterans. Ronan never committed such an act again and you had a best friend for life that did everything crazy with you.
Congrats!You decline but you still end up communicating with Ronan. After a while you guys make-up and he tells you that he never used the money but instead uses it as a reminder. He explains that he uses it as a reminder to never do what he did in the past and will donate the money to veterans when he dies putting the instructions in his will. You guess Rae presumably because she didn't look in good health and was doing some shady things with Smith. It turns out that Rae and Smith formed an alliance and strategized a plan to throw people off the trail of the real fake. At the end of the show Rae proclaims, "Congratulations, you played yourself". You lose and go back home.You chose Smith which looked like an unlikely suspect. Maybe you chose him because he was the least likely suspect. Or maybe you chose him because he looked like he was doing some shady things. Well it turns out that Rae and Smith formed an alliance and strategized a plan to throw people off the trail of the real fake. At the end of the show Smith says, "Wrong path mate". You lose the show and go home.You eventually die with regrets because the rest of your life was boring. Ronan shows up to your funeral and makes a heartwarming speech he was redeemed by all. Afterward, Ronan ends up taking care of your family and ends up marrying your wife. Although, you aren't necessarily happy with it you can't think of any other trustworthy person in your life that could take care of your family.