Three amnesiacs, three stories, three traumatic conclusions...

One remembered visiting his grandmother in a nursing home and becoming aware of how quickly her memory was fading. The visits soon went from awkward to painful. He felt trapped by the need to keep visiting her, and investigated the possibility of euthanasia. When this was denied, he took her on one last car trip, telling her they were going home. She no longer recognized her old house, and didn't even remember that she had a grandson. On the way back, he swerved deliberately into oncoming traffic, counting on the passenger side impact to kill her and leave him blameless.

One remembered a tacky and ill-considered 30th birthday present from her husband. They were not doing well financially, and were far worse off than the family she grew up in. He gently suggested that she should get a job, and she deflected by suggesting that they have another child instead. The baby was born with Downs syndrome, and her husband was unwilling to make the sacrifices required by a disabled child, and withdrew even further. She said nothing, and let her resentment stew. In the months that followed, she developed Munchhausen syndrome by proxy, and gradually poisoned her baby with hand sanitizer in order to bask in the concern and attention of others. Inevitably, the child died, and the EMTs arrived to find her futilely trying to induce a gag reflex in it with a spoon. In prison, she told her husband she had done it all for him, and he turned disgusted away.

One remembered a summer spent working as a dog groomer, which was good because it let her escape from herself and the chaos of her family. She joined the army on an impulse and it was more of the same- a way to get away and hide from everything. She was allowed to return stateside for her father's funeral, and found it impossible to feel like part of her hometown after the experience of combat. Everyone was full of wary respect and their condolences rang hollow. She left early, after a few sharp words to her mother. Back at the front, she snapped under pressure, and shot a fellow soldier in a moment of rage and confusion. She sought out his widow, intending to apologize, but cracked under her guilt and wound up spluttering out her whole life story. She spent the night with the widow of the man she killed, and in the morning, switched her life insurance policy to benefit said widow and then shot herself.

That's some solid tragedy right there.

Your stories all had clear underlying themes/motivations for each character. Was this by design?

Marc, I didn't start out wanting to kill my grammie, but the whole memory thing with Penny did make me think about alzheimer's. So I steered my first memory towards that. Then, I steered my second memory back towards my grandma when I blanked on the second memory trigger. It seemed obvious. During the second memory, Caroline offered me a letter in my pocket, and I thought about the Washington Death with Dignity Act and the clause about competency. After I went that route, I think we all knew what was going to happen to grammie.

I think trying to relate your three memories to a specific npc is a strong move. It wasn't too hard to make it happen when I received soft, initial-framing questions from my two companions, who then felt right where I was going and kept giving me gifts.