History Literature / LifesLottery

Your answer will shape the course of your life, and send you down any number of paths: depending on the choices you make, you might become rich and successful, or you might become a criminal doomed to a life sentence; you may fall in love with any one of a dozen people, or you can spend your days womanizing; you can live an ordinary, unassuming life, or you can become an adventurer and a rebel; you can date Rowena, with her legendary bosom, you can date "Scary Mary", the terror of your school, or you can date Victoria Coyer, the glamorous rockstar-to-be; you can even die young - or find yourself dying unpleasantly after a lifetime of regret - in which case, '''Go to 0.'''

!! ''Life's Lottery'' provides examples of:
* AdventuresInComaLand: [[spoiler: Chapters occurring outside the narrative reveal that the story takes place entirely in Keith Marion's comatose dreams; having fallen victim to a mysterious syndrome plaguing the world in the wake of the Spiders' invasion, you're stuck mentally exploring the various possibilities of your life - and possibly the multiverse itself - until you finally awaken.]]

'''And so on.'''

* BuxomIsBetter: Rowena becomes legendary among her colleagues for her enormous breasts, especially in college.

* BittersweetEnding: ''Several.''

You are Keith Marion, a rather unassuming young man born in the 1950s to middle-class parents, growing up in the small English village of Sedgwater . You enjoy a happy childhood full of pirate fantasies in the company of your big sister Laraine and your baby brother James, and for the most part, there doesn't seem to be anything unusual on the cards for you... up until the age of six, whereupon one of the school bullies asks you a fateful question: who do you prefer - [[Series/TheManFromUNCLE Napoleon Solo or Ilya Kuryakin?]]

* AdventuresInComaLand: [[spoiler: Chapters occurring outside the narrative reveal that the narrative apparently takes place entirely in Keith Marion's comatose dreams; having fallen victim to a mysterious syndrome plaguing the world in the wake of the Spiders' invasion, you're stuck mentally exploring the various possibilities of your life - and possibly the multiverse itself - until you finally awaken.]]

** You marriage to Vanda in the bank plotline is frequently cold and emotionally abusive, to the point that she leaves you for Sean - and actually tries to come crawling back when Sean flees with his ill-gotten gains. If you take her back, it gets even ''worse.''

** Should you end up going insane and sending your fingers to the overdraft officer as a pound of flesh, the otherwise deadly serious chapter is broken up by the realization that you can't get the package of severed fingers to fit in the mail slot.
** If you and Larraine decide to murder Sean and frame Hackwill for it, you have to steal a shotgun and ammo from his collection... but you also have to cuddle Hackwill's baby daughter Samantha so she doesn't cry and alert the whole household to the theft. What follows is an incredibly tense yet ridiculously funny scene as the baby finds the shotgun shell you've stashed in your jacket pocket, thinks it's a toy and steals it - leaving you and Larraine paralyzed with horror as ''' '' baby Samantha starts chewing on the shotgun shell.''' '' Thankfully, she doesn't like the taste and throws it away.

* BittersweetEnding:

** If you use MentalTimeTravel to revisit your past and accidentally ruin your present-day life in the process, it's possible to use your knowledge to gradually improve things until you're rich, successful, and happy... though, in moments of introspection, you reflect that you've only ended up replicating the life that drove you to start travelling through time in the first place.

** Yet another training camp ending: Mary takes the blame for the murders, and is sentenced to life imprisonment, eventually being killed in a prison riot; James is deeply shaken by these events and soon falls out of touch with you; you become a teacher, make a semi-contented life for yourself, and eventually help Samantha Hackwill find closure over her father's death - though it requires you to lie and say that ''Mary'' was the kid that Robert was bullying.

** If you end up in an affair with Larraine, then decide to kill Sean and frame Hackwill for the crime, you get away with all of it. Hackwill hangs himself in his cell after his dirty dealings are discovered, Sean's insurance allows Larraine a comfortable life, you're able to finish your book and become a successful writer, and your incestuous relationship remains loving. On the downside, Sedgwater undergoes an economic crisis, you're never comfortable around Mary ever again, you're implied to be traumatized by the murder... and the novel ends with you meeting Samantha Hackwill again, and tearing up as you realize just how much her life has changed because of you.

** After discovering Sean's abuse of Larraine, you can carry on an affair with her; unlike the previous example, you're very much aware that this is in fact a Very Bad Thing and you spend a great deal of time worrying about being found out - which can lead to you attempting to ''kill'' Larraine if your paranoia gets the better of you following Sean's inevitable murder. If not, it can lead to Sean murdering you if he manages to beat an answer out of Larraine.

** And again if you visited Sutton Mallet alongside Mary: you find yourself blessed with power and drive, and use it to achieve great success in business - often using that same gift to "fuck and dump" anyone, be they lovers or business partners. For good measure, you spend this particular plot thread planning to kill Mary so she doesn't reveal any of your secrets, even though indications are that she never will.

** Fleeing from the darkness in Sutton Mallet in the "Napoleon Solo" plot and committing yourself to a long-term relationship with Rowena results in your life falling to pieces when you buy into Robert Hackwill's financial scheme in another attempt to escape "the shade": you lose all your money with the collapse of the scheme, go insane, and chop off all your fingers.

** Smoking will eventually lead to you being diagnosed with cancer at age 30; from here, your only options are to accept your fate and die with your heartbroken family at your side, or blame someone else for your nicotine addiction and die inflicting pointless revenge on them.
** The option to blackmail Sean can result in some spectacular downers: if you ask for money, you're eventually bumped off when your demands become too trying; if you try to get him to turn himself in, you end up getting killed by whoever you seek support from; if you ask for his job, for a while you prosper as a MorallyBankruptBanker... only for Black Monday to destroy your fortune and reputation, and in the chaos that followed, your financial crimes are uncovered, sending you to jail; when you get out, you're stuck in a miserable second-rate existence where your only employment doesn't even allow you to ''touch'' money.
** Working at the bank, staying legitimate, and taking Vanda back will result in you living a miserable existence where anyone with the slightest bit of power over you regards you with infinite contempt. All you can do is look back on your failures and reflect that you could have done something worthwhile if you'd tried.

* DumbMuscle: Shane Bush is popular and sporty, but eventually falls behind you in class and can only find work at a jam factory; in the "Ilya Kuryakin" he often ends up working for Robert Hackwill as TheBrute. In the mountain training camp plot, it's very easy for you to get him to turn on his boss when the pressure's on, and Mary runs rings around him whenever they're teamed up. He's not very good at following safety instructions, either - leaving you to mockingly dub him "The Man From B.U.N.G.L.E."

** The mountain training camp plotline is a brutal, terrifying slog... but if you can navigate the choices carefully, stay alive, keep James and Mary alive, and avoid getting blood on your hands, it's possible to achieve a victory even if Hackwill gets out unharmed: in this case, he might not go to jail for murder, but increased police scrutiny on his business results in him being arrested for white collar crime. Throughout all of this, Mary helps you and James through the collapse of the training camp business, eventually resulting in you starting a family with Mary.

** There's another one in the "Ilya Kuryakin" path: your little brother James is targeted by the school bully, Robert Hackwill, and you're faced with the choice between chickening out, calling for a teacher, or trying to tackle Hackwill yourself. Your decision will shape the entire plotline - and indeed, the course of James' life: chickening out and abandoning James results in him becoming a bitter, lonely SociopathicSoldier who eventually gets himself killed in the Falklands, leaving you plagued with regrets and psychological malaise; getting a teacher involved eventually results in him losing a leg in the Falklands - while buying time for a fellow soldier to call for reinforcements - and becoming a successful businessman, while you become a world-famous writer; finally, taking on Hackwill results in a lifelong vendetta ending either in an uprising against his business empire or a murder mystery plot.

* GambitPileup: The mountain training camp plot in a nutshell; having lost your house to Robert Hackwill as revenge for you and James publicly humiliating him, the two of you set him up for another round of humiliation at the training course you run... only for your revenge to get tangled up in Hackwill's own efforts to bump off his fellow conspirators, the unhappy relationships between conspirators, and Mary's own complicated allegiance.
* GoldenEnding: Though there are a handful of "happy" endings, there seems to be only one ending that could be said to bring the narrative to a decisive ending - and there's no links between each section of it, so you can only find it by hunting across all 500 pages of the novel for the lone chapters that aren't connected to any other. [[spoiler: This plotline reveals that Keith Marion's adventures are just a comatose dream in which he psychically explores all the possible outcomes of his life, and concludes with him ''finally'' awakening so he can live his life for real.]]

* HellholePrison: The prisons you're sent to in the bad endings of the "mountain training camp" plotline. The crushingly relentless discipline of the place often ends up breaking your spirit, and the prison often medicates especially dangerous inmates like you to the point that [[MindRape your mind withers under the influence]]. For good measure, riots are very common, and secretly encouraged by the wardens as a useful means of eliminating unwanted convicts: you, James, or Mary can end up falling victim to this practice.
* HonestCorporateExecutive: If you manage to ascend to a higher office within the bank without committing any dirty dealings, your reign is defined by generosity to those who have been hit hard by the recession. You even intercede on behalf of less honest bankers, earning the loyalty of Warwick when you save his boyfriend from bankruptcy. Eventually, you become the manager of the bank and becoming beloved throughout Sedgwater.

** In one ending of the mountain training camp plot, Mary advises you remain silent about the role Hackwill played in the murders lest it ruin your life, and if you agree, one of the corrupt councilor's subordinates is blamed for the crime instead. However, increased police scrutiny results in Hackwill's dirty dealings being brought to light anyway, resulting in a humiliating fall from grace.
** If you avoid bringing the "housekeeping" file to the police in the bank plot, Sean appears to get away with his illegal activities without anyone uncovering... only for Black Monday to annihilate everything he has, driving him to suicide.

* MentalTimeTravel: In certain branches of the story - most commonly the "Ilya Kuryakin" plotline - you find yourself possessed by such disappointment about your life that you find yourself drifting backwards through time, either to relive your childhood or teenage years. Be warned: this may result in you returning to a present you may not recognize, or worse still, finding yourself trapped in the past and sending yourself into a new and unpleasant future.
* MostWritersAreWriters: In the "Ilya Kuryakin" plotline, Keith often ends up becoming a writer; should you abandon James to Hackwill's bullying, you become a journalist writing of about financial and political injustice, eventually being called upon to write a book about James; on the other hand, if you chose to get a teacher to help out, you write historical fiction - drawing upon your childhood pirate fantasies to make a success of yourself.

* NeverWinTheLottery: The National Lottery is regarded as a pointless distraction for the poor that only grows more elaborate as the UK gets progressively worse, and winning rarely makes life any better for the contestants, most of whom blow all their money on unimaginative frivolities or find out that their wealth can't be used to improve anything worthwhile. In one plotline, you end up winning the lottery... only to discover that someone's stolen half your winnings and given them to charity; even though you still have millions, this can fuel an obsession that can leave you wasting all your money on a pointless vendetta or gradually descending into impoverished madness with nothing else to do but continue playing the lottery.

** As has been mentioned, your choice between Napoleon Solo or Ilya Kuryakin results in you becoming either a misfit or one of the in-crowd; becoming a misfit sends you on the path towards a devastating vendetta with Robert Hackwill and the members of his clique, while the indcrown storyline often directs you towards Sutton Mallet and increasingly nightmarish endings to your story.

** As has been mentioned, your choice between Napoleon Solo or Ilya Kuryakin results in you becoming either a misfit or one of the in-crowd; becoming a misfit sends you on the path towards a devastating vendetta with Robert Hackwill and the members of his clique, while the in-crown storyline often directs you towards Sutton Mallet and increasingly nightmarish endings to your story.

* AssholeVictim: Robert Hackwill is, not to put too fine a put on it, a rat bastard who will not be missed if and when someone murders him, and his VillainWithGoodPublicity status can't be sustained unless you ''really'' fuck up at the mountain training camp. In the aftermath of one possible murder of Hackwill (pinned on Mary and made to seem like it was revenge for him bullying her when they were kids), you actually find yourself meeting his daughter, who tearfully confesses that her father abused her too; as you comfort her, you silently reflect that you've never failed to regret Hackwill's death more than you have in this moment.

** After ruining your night out with Rowena and trying to reconcile with her upon returning to college, you find yourself experiencing ''every'' possible outcome of this encounter with no indication of which one actually happened, followed closely by '''And so on.'''

* RichReclusesRealm: In the event that Victoria Conyer becomes a rock star and you her manager following your visit to Sutton Mallet, the two of you set up permanent residence in the remote GhostTown, gradually becoming more and more reclusive until the two of you almost never leave except on business.