People vanished…
Not all at once.
Singular events, of people just somehow no longer being where they once were. There were just these odd ‘random’ disappearances that tended to have a few common themes about them if looked at carefully (though few ever did.) Soon, a substantial number would be taken that will show the connection.
When investigated, the victims just seemed to suddenly ‘disappear’ with no trace. In smaller countries, the authorities noted this as a person running away or an unexplained event. It was unfortunate that people vanish after all. In more advanced countries an investigation would yield little to no results. Inevitably people simply moved on, though the police continued the investigations as best they could.
As far as the police could tell it was just one or two over a period of years in the entire world, so it was easy to miss the singular link between them all… yet that link existed. A tiny- and perhaps very unusual link that if anyone ever took the pains to investigate their entire history… would certainly be alarmed.
It was …a single internet-link that put all the victims together, a peculiar interaction with one individual that only had to happen ‘once’ in their lifetime. It didn’t matter if it was thirty years ago or a week ago… this interaction appeared to be a consistent theme.
He or she went by many names on the internet, but the most prevalent in the last ten years was the name ‘Mitch Drake.’ As innocuous a name as the billions on the internet. He had existed in some form since its inception in the early 1980’s, posting to invite people to role play in his world. Nothing was particularly strange about that of course… many people created strange new worlds to explore.
People had fun through the decades, adding to the world with their creative characters. This anonymous GM never seemed to run out of energy and always ran a campaign for either one person or a group with highly customised rules to create a character based on a ‘point’ system. As long as the rules were followed, the character was accepted and… the game started. This took the form of mostly text based with little more than a brief correspondence, though inevitably some became bored and left… yet the GM always gave the last word… usually ending in ‘What do you do?’ Even if years later, he would respond should a player return as if nothing had happened. He or She gave very little about their personal self or nature… simply providing a unique interaction with their contact.
Such was the nature of this game that there were many people and Time seemed to mean very little… the world seemed to exist in a perpetual presence made up of people from the past and present.
Then suddenly…
…everyone who played this game, the young or old... even if it was just once… vanished.
