A hypothetical, and unlikely, situation. One would hope.

[Kaelaroth]

Tomorrow (or, put more neatly, the day after the you read this) you awaken in a ditch, in the capital city of the country or state in which you live (if you're overseas, or a student, or such like, we'll go with your native country). You are clothed in a well-made suit, and, thankfully, good shoes, and there is a substantial amount of money, in notes, in a wallet in your pocket, enough money to, no matter where you live, purchase you enough food, water, or transport, to last you at least a week. All tags and identifying markers have been cut out of your clothes.

There are no seeming visible reasons why you have arrived where you have.

As you investigate, you notice something increasingly odd. The world has shifted. Upon attempts to contact your family, your friends, you realise they have no memory of you.

Things have changed to fill your place - when posing as a bank manager, carrying out a survey, to find out what it is like where you live, your bedroom, whatever, and wherever, it is, is a spare room. Your (perhaps former) school and college lacks you in its yearbook and class photos. Your friends have memories unlike those of yours, rewritten to feature events other than those in which you made an impression. Even your worst enemies can't remember you, and, indeed, have now forged other rivalries.
The internet doesn't remember you, either - the playground has no record of your account signing up. Social networking accounts have been closed - if they were ever there. Bank accounts seem not to exist.

There is no record of you, anywhere.
Not a person on the earth recalls you ever existing.

What would you do, and why?

[Quincunx]

Blame [person]. Yes, even before mourning. More to come as I think of it, but for now let me just scream recriminations in the park like some homeless non-entity. . .

[Thatguyoverther]

It's cold outside, if I were in a ditch there's a good chance I wouldn't wake up at all.

Whoever nabbed me didn't think this thing through.

[Emperor Ing]

My old name sucked anyways, I shall now be known as Maximillian Rockefeller. :smallbiggrin:

[GolemsVoice]

I'd probably scream and ramble for a good while ( a few months, maybe) and then try to make a new impression in the world. Contact the government, tell them I have no papers, and see if they can provide some. Just let them handle the paradox, take my anger out on them. Then, provided I actually GET papers, I'd scream and ramble some more, realizing that I will NEVER have a family again.
After that, well, life goes on. Find a job. A place to stay. Get a new life, find a girlfriend, a circle of friends, quickly. Everything to keep me in the real world, to re-insert me in society. All this while trying to avoid appearing as a) a homeless person or b) a lunatic or c) both.

[Jack Squat]

I'd assume I've become a Jason Bourne-like operative, and try to make contact with whichever of the alphabet soups did this.

Alternatively - I'd realize that this is a great chance to make a new start somewhere, create an identity, and go from there.

EDIT: Better Alternative answer:

I'd go grab a sandwich - must be Monday again.

[Soterion]

Be sure you grab the mail on your front porch before leaving the house, otherwise when you get to the babel fish dispenser, the game's going to hang.

[BizzaroStormy]

Ok, so officially, I don't exist. So long as I don't give out my name, nobody knows who I am and can only give me a nickname or describe me physically. People fear a threat more when they can't put a face on it. I supposed I'd get a Rorschach-like mask, replacing the ink blot with a question mark, and act as the avatar for Anon.

[Ikialev]

Curse a bit.
Then start my life anew, which is the thing I always wanted to do. (While trying not to become One Of Those Hobos.)
And change my name to Powers Fightmaster.

[Quincunx]

. . .Homeless. That's a good word. Oscillating between 'net cafes (they still exist, even if you have to look in a phone book to find them) to get information and homeless shelters to rest my head and, hopefully, shower. They're used to dealing with folk who aren't willing to talk facts, used to nodding through the gibberish--Rosemary is dead. Rydia is dead. I am Tzimfemme and Minta will die--after all, if I am not remembered then what is the danger in speaking aloud, and the injustice of it all raises internal pressure, better to rant it out.

I won him once, I could win him again, but that will take time and another opportunity. Shove thoughts of companionship to the back of the mind for now, and wonder--begin immediately to rebuild a legal self, knowing the gaps in the system of legal identity (oh, isn't that comical, committing identity theft to make a new identity to replace a thieved one), or to use the time off-grid to take revenge on the responsible party? . . .

[Alleine]

Go mad.

I'd say my tenuous grasp on sanity is provided by all of the things that you just described me losing. So with no anchor, the mind floats free. Ultimately this would probably result in me becoming a homeless person who shanks people in the kidneys. Why? Because I'm mad, and that doesn't really need an excuse now does it?

[Kaelaroth]

I won him once, I could win him again...

Even assuming he hasn't moved on. Found someone else, in this rectified timeline. Or perhaps not.
How'd I know?


It's cold outside, if I were in a ditch there's a good chance I wouldn't wake up at all.

Whoever nabbed me didn't think this thing through.

Perhaps not. It is mighty cold, at least, well, where I am. You ought to get inside.

[Exeson]

Start again, It would be nice to have no records of me. I'd give myself a nickname such as 'Spike' or something equally cringe and 'hip' and then I'd go look up all my old connections and relations and enjoy freaking them out by knowing them when they don't know me.

I'd probably get a job or something as well, some when, when I had finished having fun messing with people's heads.

[Quincunx]

. . .Minta must die. [Person] will have no hope of children. . .

[Supagoof]

I'd look into seeing what butterfly effects my non-existance had, and try best to profit off of those. :smallamused:

But starting with my knowledge base, I'd simply go back into creating a life albeit removed similar to what I have now, for right now I am happy and if such an event happened to me, I'd like to go back to being happy. :smallsmile:

[Swordgleam]

I'm in DC in a nice suit. So far so good. The problem is, no history means no way am I getting a security clearance. So I'm pretty much screwed in terms of finding a decent job. Then again, I'm in DC in a nice suit and have no history. I guess I'll see if the NSA is hiring.

[Jack Squat]

Only problem with that is the NSA's based out of Fort Meade :smallwink:

[TSGames]

What would you do, and why?

I would report for duty, because I obviously work for CIA now.

[Quincunx]

. . .I am sated. Partially. I am unremembered, the act of revenge attributed to another enemy in my place. Unsatisfying, but it will do. I am I and only I.

Whoever that may be. No truenamer has gotten a fix on me yet. I know enough unknowable facts to be a truenamer. How long will the will to do good and be silent hold out against the cash in my pocket? The other truenamer had discovered mine, and erased it, or else how would I be in this situation? Truenamer: the word comes easier now that I've had revenge. When nouns come easily, names come next. . .

[Prime32]

What about DNA? Couldn't you prove that you're the biological child of your parents?

[Dallas-Dakota]

''Dang, that was one too many special brownies on top of all that alcohol.''

[Mystic Muse]

Well I'd Scrubbed by "the Dark Hand"

[Kaelaroth]

What about DNA? Couldn't you prove that you're the biological child of your parents?

You could indeed try.

I care not for the results of said action, but am more interested in the action itself.

[Temotei]

Cry. :smallannoyed:

I wouldn't have anyone I love anymore. :smallfrown:

[Gamerlord]

Pretty much do exactly what I did before this incident, people will simply get new memories of me.


If that fails, then what does one do when one is nameless? Make a name for oneself,do something that makes headlines. One knows the drill.

[Kallisti]

I'd do my best to find out how to get my life back. It's not a great life, but it's mine.

Or at least a life similar to mine. Reliable food, shelter, internet access, writing materials, electricity, a theatre nearby...starting over wouldn't be so bad. Maybe bribe a few officials to get some papers, become an emancipated minor.

[Mauve Shirt]

I like the idea of checking out what changes occurred in the lives of those around me who would have been affected by my presence. Then I suppose since I have no insurance or money anymore I'd have to get a job to pay for meds. I'd prefer to spend my money on a bike or something and just travel around being homeless.

[Jack Squat]

Or at least a life similar to mine. Reliable food, shelter, internet access, writing materials, electricity, a theatre nearby...starting over wouldn't be so bad. Maybe bribe a few officials to get some papers, become an emancipated minor.

You don't really go looking to officials to get you the papers. Not in the US at least.*

*No, I'm not describing the process. If you need one, you already know how to anyways.

[Ashen Lilies]

Wish I lived in a different country. Seriously. Bangkok sucks. So much. With no chance of getting to another country without a passport, no chance of owning a
home or anything without a name, and only enough money to survive a few weeks, I'd better spend those weeks learning a trade or skill. Because that's what I'm going to be doing for the forseeable future.

Oh, and secretly laugh at everyone else, for theey will have been far, far worse off for not having known me. :smalltongue:

[Quincunx]

. . .Trying to move beyond revenge, treading the same paths I did before, reading the same words, and breath cut short by the forgotten wisdom--

". . .which leads to a side thought on destruction and empathy - to truly remove a threat and destroy a person, while leaving them walking around to avoid legal problems, you become that person in the instance of destruction and destroy yourself too. Difficult to protect against, because the attack is from inside all barriers and involves identity. . ."

--is this the explanation? Nothing magical or faithful about it. Easier to justify but far worse to accept, and possible to recapitulate. Oh, I am not done destroying you, name-of-the-truenamer, bitter chi, and I have nothing of myself to obliterate. . .

[With the flow-of-consciousness writing, I won't attribute that quote out in public.]

[Ashen Lilies]

Of course, if I had my catshifty power from that other hypothetical thread, things would be a whole lot easier, provided I can find a temple, which shouldn't be too hard. :smallwink:
That way, I can still live a relatively healthy life as a cat, even after I get blinded on my fourth day. :smalltongue:

[nanobot_swarm]

I will realise that I have been imagining my past life, and that I am Mr. Smith. I will then claim I am amnesiac, and somehow become a librarian. Then I live out my days, and perhaps marry a hippie who shall become Mrs. Smith.
Also I shall investigate the probability that I am in Purgatory.

[chiasaur11]

Well, it would be less than ideal, but mourning would probably be unproductive.

So, since making family and friends remember would probably also fail...

Either find the guilty party, or enjoy life claiming to be from "That" branch of the government. "The one that, if you've been good, you'll never know exists."

[SilverSheriff]

I'd leave that lousy little city called Canberra, move all the way up to Brisbane and find out all of my friends to re-forge our friendships.

I would assume the rest of my life would be like living as a fugitive except the police aren't constantly searching for me.

[Kneenibble]

There is nobody in this world who has enough power or hatred to do this to me. The part of me, then, seeking an object of blame and revenge would go mad looking for an agent out of this world (undoubtedly the lizard people! :smalleek::smallfurious:) and probably develop a complex of terrible arch purpose.

If I could rise above the pettiness of blame, though, I would see this scenario as a true blessing. I would find a spiritual community in a beautiful place out in the country (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVWcptE6UAI), probably the Himalayas, and use the forced severing of worldly attachments to cultivate an escape from material entanglement forever.

[The Extinguisher]

Frig, I don't know. Break down, I guess. Probably try and kill myself, I guess. I have no friends, no family, no official education of any kind, so good luck finding a job, no citizenship, so good luck trying to legally exist again (and they can't even deport me)

I honestly don't think I could stand living in a world like that. As much as I would try and start over, I don't even think it's possible.

[toasty]

I'd go insane. Very quickly.

I've been to DC once in my life. I'd be completely lost. I've never even lived in the US... with no family, little money, no records of my existance, I might manage to somehow get to a homeless shelter (and I wouldn't really even know how to find one...:smalleek:) and try to somehow prove that I am in fact a US citizen and yes, I am rather smart. From there it would be a matter of putting my life back together by either trying to prove I did exist (which is likely, given my stubborn nature) or rebuild my life, probably by trying to get into the best college I could afford/get into and try to start live from there.

However, given the fact that I'm barely 18 and have no knowledge of how to "live" in my homecountry (ya... living overseas can do that to you :smallannoyed:) I'd probably go insane first.

[rewinn]

Go for a walk, get bumped by a car driven by a wealthy heiress, give vague answers (e.g. "I like to watch"), get elected president!

[reorith]

1. find my brother
2. steal his docs
3. make a new identity
4. make some distance
5. ???
6. profit.

[Soterion]

I would assume one of my myriad enemies is responsible, and set out to revenge myself upon them. To do that, I'd obviously need allies, and so I'd advertise for a group of battle-hardened warriors, mages, thieves, and scouts to storm the gates of Hell itself, killing anything that stood in our path and acquiring vast sums of treasure, in order to restore myself to my rightful position and smite my enemies.

Oh wait, that's what I'm already doing...

Let me think about this, then ask me again.

[Hawk7915]

Out of sheer morbid curiosity, I'd contact everyone I care about. Parents, brothers, roommates, ex-girlfriends, classmates, professors, friends. I'd see first of all how many of them would play along with my apparent madness in this world, and then see if this is "A Wonderful Life", and everyone I ever knew is in a grimdark reality without me, or if they are better off without me holding them back.

At any rate, either answer probably warrants death on my part (I either am living alone in a world where everyone I love is a twisted mirror of themselves, or everyone is happy and I'm a ghost)...though if it was the dark alternate reality, I'd try getting all choked up and shouting "I wanna live, Clarence!" first, just to be safe.

[skywalker]

In many ways it could be a blessing.

Regardless, I've got cash. Enough for a cheap motel, at least. Then I'll buy my way into the DC underground economy (if I'm lucky I can be moral and sell counterfeit sunglasses. Unlucky? Probably drugs). This all assumes I don't have enough cash (it was vague) to buy a social security number.

If I have enough cash for the social, I'd buy that (it's easier than you think if you know where to look) because you can go nowhere in the US without one. I'd go to wal-mart and buy some clothes, then sell the suit on craigslist via internet cafe. I'd buy a fifth of Jack Daniels. Then I'd use the SSN to apply for whatever jobs I could. I'd move the hell out of DC, that's for sure. Get to someplace warm as soon as possible. I'd probably take the opportunity to follow my dreams, since this occurrence would free me up from a lot of sunk costs.

It would be interesting.

[GolemsVoice]

I've always assumed that in the case described by the OP, I wouldn't stay anonymous forever, I just wouldn't have my old life, but could make new friends normally.

[Sneak]

Well, I pretty much live in DC already, so that wouldn't be a problem.

Clearly, I'd have no option but to become a busker in the metro by day, superhero by night.

I mean, that's pretty much what I do now, anyway.

Seriously, though, I have no idea. That would be terrible. Probably get really really depressed and...****, I dunno.

[Trog]

Pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again.

[Starfols]

Look for this guy:
http://www.gonemovies.com/www/drama/drama/WonderfulClarence2.jpg

Then, failing that; this guy: (Sanitarium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanitarium_(video_game)) spoilers)
http://i1001.photobucket.com/albums/af132/starfols/sanitariummorgan.jpg

But hey, at least I've got a nice suit.

[Quincunx]

. . .Tzimfemme has died, and lived again. Crawled out of the Nine Hells, screaming and blank and new, yet again. We who played the game treated it as a metaphor, and I who got too entangled in the play must now treat it as truth. No one could have held the power to obliterate everything. I'd kept a few facts separate from each one. Learned that much from the other truenamer, at least.

I have had no visions. I have no aftereffects of visions. Forget other people and the truenaming they will pay to receive--I have nothing with which I can pay myself. . .

[Ditto]

You mean this happens (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nowhere_Man_(TV_series))? This guy just went to the bathroom when he was out with his wife when the reboot hit him.

I would probably get in touch with some of my college friends. Assuming they're basically the same, they would probably be willing to indulge treating my scenario as true and working it out. Same sorts of people who have zombie survival plans, y'know. Suspension of Disbelief: It's bound to come in useful someday. :smallbiggrin:

[Telonius]

Tomorrow (or, put more neatly, the day after the you read this) you awaken in a ditch, in the capital city of the country or state in which you live (if you're overseas, or a student, or such like, we'll go with your native country). You are clothed in a well-made suit, and, thankfully, good shoes, and there is a substantial amount of money, in notes, in a wallet in your pocket, enough money to, no matter where you live, purchase you enough food, water, or transport, to last you at least a week. All tags and identifying markers have been cut out of your clothes.

There are no seeming visible reasons why you have arrived where you have.

As you investigate, you notice something increasingly odd. The world has shifted. Upon attempts to contact your family, your friends, you realise they have no memory of you.

Things have changed to fill your place - when posing as a bank manager, carrying out a survey, to find out what it is like where you live, your bedroom, whatever, and wherever, it is, is a spare room. Your (perhaps former) school and college lacks you in its yearbook and class photos. Your friends have memories unlike those of yours, rewritten to feature events other than those in which you made an impression. Even your worst enemies can't remember you, and, indeed, have now forged other rivalries.
The internet doesn't remember you, either - the playground has no record of your account signing up. Social networking accounts have been closed - if they were ever there. Bank accounts seem not to exist.

There is no record of you, anywhere.
Not a person on the earth recalls you ever existing.

What would you do, and why?

Option 1:
1. Feel great that I no longer have any debt.
2. Go down to the friendly neighborhood Thieves' Guild Outlet and purchase a false identity.
3. Start over.

Option 2:
1. Contact the local hospital and claim amnesia.
2. Begin my new life on the talk show- and reality-TV circuit.


What about DNA? Couldn't you prove that you're the biological child of your parents?

Since I was adopted, I'm pretty much hosed there, too.

[Phaedra]

What would you do, and why?

I would desperately try to hunt down who left me there in the hope that they could tell me where they got the well-fitting suit from because, gosh darn it, I can't find a well-fitting suit anywhere in real life.

[Pharaoh's Fist]

Using my knowledge of psychology, I go to the nearest mental hospital and claim to be affected by a dissociative fugue. This explains why I can't remember who I am, where I come from, and why I have memories of a life that does not exist.

The hospital, knowing that I am not mental, just having a loss of memory, will provide me with some sort of ID and help me get a job. Either that or house me for the immediate future.

With this short term problem solved, I then proceed to re-friend my internet friends and have a network of people to start with.

I'd probably complete college somehow, get a job, and move on with life.

[Kaelaroth]

Look for this guy:
http://www.gonemovies.com/www/drama/drama/WonderfulClarence2.jpg
A solid enough plan.


But hey, at least I've got a nice suit.

Indeed. You could perhaps pawn it for more monies, or just swagger. Whatever works.


There is nobody in this world who has enough power or hatred to do this to me. The part of me, then, seeking an object of blame and revenge would go mad looking for an agent out of this world (undoubtedly the lizard people! :smalleek::smallfurious:) and probably develop a complex of terrible arch purpose.

Lizard people are at least in this world, if not of it. Obviously. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptilians)


If I could rise above the pettiness of blame, though, I would see this scenario as a true blessing. I would find a spiritual community in a beautiful place out in the country (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVWcptE6UAI), probably the Himalayas, and use the forced severing of worldly attachments to cultivate an escape from material entanglement forever.

Really? Personally, I'd view this as taking to opportunity to remake, rebuild, or put to rest your life, by... well. Not doing any of them. But perhaps I'm far too close-minded, and, ultimately, 'tis your choice of the action that interests me.

[skywalker]

Since I was adopted, I'm pretty much hosed there, too.

You and me both. I didn't even consider that one, ouch.

[Force]

Well... I've got no ID and the entirety of my education to this point has been rendered useless. I suppose I can test for a GED, but all my college courses I have to re-take... not to mention that my savings have been deep-sixed, and everything I care about has been taken from me. That, frankly, is a pretty horrid scenario for someone like me :P

If I'm in DC... probably find the nearest government office, get re-registered with ID as best I can, explain the situation. I won't be believed but they might at least let me try to rebuild my life. After that... well... depends on how things pan out. If they pan out really well, go back 'home' and see if I can prove that I did know my parents/friends... DNA testing is probably out (the scenario sounds as if some sort of supernatural force is at work here and has probably covered everything I could do in order to screw me over) but I'd try it. It'd be interesting seeing what people would be like without me around, anyway.

Probably spend the next four years re-working my way through college (good luck getting into another nursing program, but w/e) and then going places. The world is, after all, now mine...

[AshDesert]

I would use some of the money to buy an acoustic guitar, probably trading the suit at a pawn shop for some normal clothes and the guitar. Then I'd start busking in DC, realizing that I would need a lot more money to get to Dallas, and buy some bus/Amtrak tickets. If I haven't already used a payphone to call up all of the phone numbers my parents have had from the time I was born on, then the reality of the situation would become apparent then.

The kind of people that I hang out with now would be the kind to humor my apparent insanity, so I'd probably have a place to crash while I try to sort things out with the government. If I manage to get an identity, I'd probably get an apartment in the DFW area, and start busking around Fort Worth. I'd also try and get on the talk-show circuit, and use that money to get a GED and buy my way through a local college.

If the talk-shows don't work out, I'd probably spend the rest of my life busking, probably start frequenting local music clubs, see what happens there.

[dangerprawn]

I look up and say, "Very funny Descartes. Now put it all back the way it was."

[Kneenibble]

Really? Personally, I'd view this as taking to opportunity to remake, rebuild, or put to rest your life, by... well. Not doing any of them. But perhaps I'm far too close-minded, and, ultimately, 'tis your choice of the action that interests me.
So you'd think that renouncing the world would be squandering the opportunities that the situation presents, or perhaps that it's too much like avoiding and not dealing with the problem?

[Partof1]

I would remember the episode of Twilight Zone that was exactly like this, understand they really don't know who I am, wait to wake up from the dream, and, in the meantime, start over. :smallamused:

[Alarra]

Well, first I would head home, since I don't live too far from DC. And once I find out that I no longer exist, and by extension, no longer have a son.... I would cry, a lot. Then I would sit on Zeb's porch until he believes me, agrees to help me fix things, and then proceeds to fall back in love with me and start our life over. I'd be happy about no longer being very very in debt, but sad about the years of education I'd lost, but then kind of happy to be able to start school over again and try something new.

[Syka]

Well, first I would head home, since I don't live too far from DC. And once I find out that I no longer exist, and by extension, no longer have a son.... I would cry, a lot. Then I would sit on Zeb's porch until he believes me, agrees to help me fix things, and then proceeds to fall back in love with me and start our life over. I'd be happy about no longer being very very in debt, but sad about the years of education I'd lost, but then kind of happy to be able to start school over again and try something new.

This would pretty much be what I'd do. Exceptions are it'd be harder to travel home (Florida greater distance from DC than Maryland, lol), I don't have a kid, and it's Oz rather than Zeb. Add in convincing my mom and sister, since they are also incredibly important in my life.

I dunno...I'm one of those people who, if I don't have the people who matter to me around then life just...well, it's not as good. It doesn't matter as much. I'm not dependant on an SO, but I do need people I care about around. It's one reason I don't travel alone. I'm not a people person, per se, but I am a close-friends people person. Family is my priority and losing that would devestate me. I could care less about losing my credentials and all...I'd hate to lose the people.


I'm also not worried about Oz having found someone else or whatever. When we met, we were both with others (nothing happened romantically at all until post-break ups). It'd just be a matter of waiting for the inevitable demise of his current relationship (going off his track record before us is why I say inevitable) and start from scratch on ours.

[Alarra]

I would, of course, go to South Dakota and try to convince my parents and grandmother of my identity as well, but I don't know. It's one thing to try to rebuild a romantic relationship that's only a few years old, that's doable. It's something entirely different to try to build a mother/daughter relationship with someone that believes you're a total stranger. I'd love to have her in my life, but I think the process of getting her there would be really really painful and the relationship would never be the same.

[Syka]

I know it's a lot more unlikely to work, but I'd have to try. For one, they live in the same area as Oz (yay for families living in the same town!) and for two, I don't know I could forgive myself for not making at least a good effort.

I know it'll be different for others, but I'm stubborn. Regardless of the expected chance of failure, I've gotta try. :smallwink:

[Schlega]

Skydiving sans parachute. Either I wake up or I die happy.

[Coidzor]

Hmm. Disturbingly enough, I think I might try to look up one or two of my exes to satisfy curiosity involving a what might have been.

Since I'm the last born, I'm fairly certain that my being erased from the timeline and then put back in would not noticeably change my parents' status or the condition and ordering of my siblings. Definitely would consider trying some sort of contact, but don't see anything that could be successful or more than an act of drunken stupidity and futility.

I don't really see myself as very capable of thriving though, even considering what I've gathered from seeing others' responses. In fact, I find my survival at least somewhat questionable.

[Slayn82]

After discovering that my identity disapeared, well, i would probably cry for some time.

Yes, re start anew. Obtaining documents would not be that hard here in Brazil, lots of poor people live out of the bonds, without even the most basic civil registration. I worked for some time with public registration. I would have some trouble, because im a little overweight, and not the kind of person that you look and thinks: "poor". But after ditching the suit for more plain clothes, i could probably act well enought to get a fake history about living in the Tocantins, and having come to the capital to find a job, and never having any kind of certification. I would just have to lose some weight, hurt my feets and hands, and let my hair and beard grow to convince people. But i would have to act a lot less smart than i am when obtaining those. Well, teaching has show me the exactly way to do it. Alternativelly, i could say im was a "gold miner" (unsure about that translation), had lost track of my family a long time ago, and have no documents. After spending some time in an shelter, while police tries to find my digitals, i would be cleared to obtain a new ID.

After getting a few documents, most important and easier of the Work Papers, i could get another ID and try to find a school to get the exam for suficiency on what is equivalent to high school. It would take around 2 months, or maybe one week if im at the right season.

For a job, once back to my city home, i would settle for work on the construction sector, making weldings, until moving on to the automotive mechanics. Lot less time for internet or rpgs, but survival takes precedence. There are lots of small or one room rentings in my city. I would prefer to rent something near my home, because at least i could get friendly with my own family. My younger brother is a nice guy, hope he would still be without me.

I guess i could pass easily on an University exam, and get a quote to poor people for a study assitance program. I would take a graduation on chemistry again, but in a easier institution, probably at a shorter course. Or maybe dabble on Pharmaceutics.

The hardest part would not be getting my friends back again, on time i could probably do it, it would be getting my girlfriend back again. We got to know each other by pure chance, and i had to work a lot to get her love. With a worse start, i have my doubts about my sucess. And also, there would be the temptation of going after another girl from my past, someone that still has a place in my heart.

Heck, i guess the only thing that would be important to me in that scenario would be the 2 girls, in the end.

[Flickerdart]

The only apparent answer is that I have become the next incarnation of the Nameless One in a modern version of Planescape Torment. This is, of course, awesome, because that game was awesome. There would have to be some thread to follow (otherwise it wouldn't be a very interesting story, now would it?) and so I'd follow that until something useful happened.

[dangerprawn]

If Descartes doesn't answer...

I'm Genre Savvy, so I realize I must be the main character in some story. I simply go about the day with normal activities, eating at a restaurant, perhaps going to a museum, and wait for the plot to catch up with me.

[Gitman00]

After ascertaining the facts you've presented (that no one has any recollection of me), I'd probably check myself into a hospital, questioning my own sanity. Honestly, my first assumption would be that my own memories have somehow been screwed up, as this would seem more likely than my entire existence being erased.

If the hospital could find no record of my existence but found me sane, I'd consider disappearing for a while and plotting the murder of my enemies (and I'm not exaggerating when I say that some of them truly deserve it). Since their crimes were against people I know rather than me, it's safe to say they would still be guilty in the new timeline. I'd probably think better of it after some soul-searching, however.

I'd then do a DNA test to prove that my parents are, indeed, my parents, just to mess with their heads when it came up positive. My wife would be in the desert but not married to me, but I'd start an e-mail dialogue with her and meet her when she got back. I'd tell her what happened and prove, Groundhog Day-style, the truth of my claims, by my exhaustive knowledge of her personal history and tastes. If I know her half as well as I think I do, she'd believe me. If she's single, I'd start the relationship over from scratch.

As for employment... that would be tricky. Having no education credentials or resume, I'd have to take an entry-level position somewhere. I'd start toward my life calling with renewed vigor though, having much less to hold me back.

[Keshay]

Using my knowledge of psychology, I go to the nearest mental hospital and claim to be affected by a dissociative fugue. This explains why I can't remember who I am, where I come from, and why I have memories of a life that does not exist.

The hospital, knowing that I am not mental, just having a loss of memory, will provide me with some sort of ID and help me get a job. Either that or house me for the immediate future.

This, for starters. Then after my care has been established, it would be relatively easy to determine who I was based upon the individuals I had based my fictionalized life account upon. While I may no longer be a Husband/father/son/brother I still have very accurate information regarding thier current lives, and likely thier pasts. Based upon my old acquantiances from college we'd know where I spent those years even if I didn't get a degree under my (apparently) fictional name.

Most likely I've had reconstructive surgery, and that is the reason no one recognizes me, that is the perfect place to start. I give it 1 month max to determine my true identity.

This is of course assuming a series of events that conform to the natural laws of the universe. If there is magic involved and I am somehow my parent's son but the memory of my existance has just been erased from the world, I guess I'd have to shrug my shoulders, depend on welfare to support me until I could function in society again, get a job doing any of the multitude of things I can do without benefit of my degrees, earn my degrees back easily, and reestablish my career and a new life.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Laugh.
TOLD you the world would be all right without me.

[Flarp]

I have no record of my existence, anywhere. Not even in government records. Nor do I have family to be threatened.

How could you do anything OTHER than lead a revolution to overthrow society? I mean, really, people.

[Prime32]

I have no record of my existence, anywhere. Not even in government records. Nor do I have family to be threatened.

How could you do anything OTHER than lead a revolution to overthrow society? I mean, really, people.Well, if you are no-one, nothing... what's the synonym I'm looking for?

[Gourtox]

Option 1:
Buy a bus ticket to Langley, Virginia and enter into the intelligence agency.

Option 2:
Enter the Criminal Underworld.

I'd probably go with option 1 since I want to be CIA anyway.

[Hell Puppi]

Short Answer:

Try to find the wizard that did it.
Stupid git needs to learn how to finish a job :smallannoyed:


Long answer:
-If suit is black and red, assume personality "Man of Wealth and Taste" has been put into effect. This means I've most likely done something shady and criminal and someone has tried to get me out of the way.
-I will also assume the memory wipe is of my own doing, as I did not want my family or friends involved.
-If suit is red, I will assume personality "Alucard" has been put into place and I'm a gun for hire for someone, or the person I've been hired to take out didn't finish the job of killing me.
-If suit is brown, assume personality "Darwinian Hunter" has been put into place.
-If suit if purple, then I'll have to conclude that I pretty much went insane somehow.
-Find Scott. If Scott is not involved, he may be lying.
-If suit has long jacket and shirt is white then very, very bad things may have occurred.


.....yeah my psyche is color-coded. Shush.

[MethosH]

In that situation do I exist for the govern or am I current illegal?

If the answer is "you don't exist for them" I would steal DNA sample from my parents, test them in secret to verify if I'm still their child. If "yes" I would use this to prove my relation with this country and get my documents.

I would get some job somewhere and get a scholl degree fast so I can get into a college fast and graduate fast using all the knowledge I current have.
After that I would just live my life without carrying much about why this had happend.

[RandomNPC]

go to cincinatti (sp?) and hunt down shadow fox. (google him, it's awesome) now that i have nothing else to worry about, i'll learn all i can, then have him send me to one of the five others untill i have learned everything from everyone. (thats right, there are six mask and cape wearing heroes in the USA.) From there, i will use public rescources like librarys to get info on what cities have the most crime, then I will begin cleaning up.

I will figure out a name as I go, but it's not like i'd tell anyone what it is.

[Fortuna]

I would walk to my best friend's house and inform him of any number of things which he has mentioned to me in casual conversation. Then I explain the situation, since he is much better at ideas than I am. If he fails to believe me, then I pull out more and more stuff, although it gets more difficult to find unchanged things the more he disbelieves. Knowing him, though, he would come around eventually.

[Jack Squat]

go to cincinatti (sp?) and hunt down shadow fox. (google him, it's awesome) now that i have nothing else to worry about, i'll learn all i can, then have him send me to one of the five others untill i have learned everything from everyone. (thats right, there are six mask and cape wearing heroes in the USA.) From there, i will use public rescources like librarys to get info on what cities have the most crime, then I will begin cleaning up.

I will figure out a name as I go, but it's not like i'd tell anyone what it is.

Just because you mentioned you were unsure, it's spelled Cincinnati.

Also, generally speaking, they're not really vigilantes and are still bound to act within the laws. There's also groups in other cities, but I forget the site that's set up around them, so I can't say which ones.

[ScIaDrd]

I don´t think I would feel like starting over.:smallsigh:
I would try and get myself accepted in a monastery or some other spiritual comunity and spend the rest of my life educating myself, contemplatig the greater truths of life and doing whatever good for for the comumnity I can. Which isn´t much, but still. What a blissful and exalting life it would be.

[Eldritch Knight]

In my case, I'd attempt to make contact with my Twin. Just because I ceased to be doesn't mean he would as well. For that matter, it really wouldn't be difficult at all to prove to him that I am who I say I am. Thus, after making contact with him, I'd be able to piece together the most significant details of what happened, and potentially reverse it.

[Soterion]

In my case, I'd attempt to make contact with my Twin. Just because I ceased to be doesn't mean he would as well. For that matter, it really wouldn't be difficult at all to prove to him that I am who I say I am.

I'd try and convince him I was him from the future. Then I'd try to get him to give me all his money "because the future depends on it".

[Eldritch Knight]

Unfortunatly, chances are if I'd been erased from his memory, then the identifying code word he'd have set up in that case, (Which I myself would do) would be different, because it was dependant on us knowing each other. However, it likely wouldn't have been too hard to guess.

[Mando Knight]

1.) I find a guy, pay him to let me use his phone for a single call (since I'll assume I won't find a pay phone before I find a guy who'll take a buck for using his cell) and call home.
2.) Learn that home does not recognize me.
3.) Recognize this as one of several scenarios that I should have a plan for already.
4.) Use my parents' general hospitality to gain information on my father's colleagues in the area (who, by occupation, are likewise hospitable).
5.) My old life is gone. Activate contingency plans and claw my way up.

[RandomNPC]

Just because you mentioned you were unsure, it's spelled Cincinnati.

Also, generally speaking, they're not really vigilantes and are still bound to act within the laws. There's also groups in other cities, but I forget the site that's set up around them, so I can't say which ones.

thanks for the spellcheck.

also, thats awesome to know, but is the site for them or fans? if it's for them they're traceable (hosting, billing, bank info, the like, it'd take gov. level police work to pull it off) and thus not secret. If it's fan based it'll give me city info and with a street map and list of arrests find where they usually keep watch.

Also they do act within the law, but if a criminal defence lawer said that criminal bob was illegally arrested because a masked crime fighter beat the tar out of him before turning him in, thus making the entire trial illegal (or some such, police brutality, use your imagination) I don't think the judge would care. In my hometown I've seen (bad crime) victims families beat people and a judge dismissing the beating as an unsolveable random act of violence, then give the crminal a max sentence.

my point of the above rant, kuddos for following the law on citizens arrests, but if i was a judge I'd be all for telling the above mentioned beaten criminal bob "you shouldn't have commited the crime then huh? now go to your cell."

this all being an "if" question, I'd be aiming at a Rorschach style approach, a little nicer, just incase i'm wrong about who did what. I'd find who erased me from record sooner or later, (thread is now back on track) shake hands while thanking them, and ask them if i could get a sidekick. (possibly my son depending on his age when i find the person responsible.)

[Dr.Epic]

I'd leave. I'd go somewhere new. No one remembers me so I'd have to go somewhere and make a fresh start. No idea how I'd do this. Probably leave the country and find work as an illegal immigrant in Europe. Not sure how I'd get to Europe either. Probably go to Canada. Spend a few years there. Then finally to Europe.

[Recaiden]

The capital? I really don't like Austin. Now, I don't know about my family, but there are some of my friends I know I could convince of the truth. So I'm heading back here to see them, at least.

Then I guess it's getting some papers, moving to the coast and trying to get a job.

[megabyter5]

I would have nothing to lose, and something ridiculously epic to gain. To obtain this, I would follow the following steps:

1) Obtain a sizable amount of money by any means necessary.

2) Spend as much as necessary to hire one or more brilliant scientists to perform potentially fatal experiments on me, since I have nothing left to lose.

3) Have a machine built that, when a button is pressed, will take a blood sample from my arm (where it will be attached, of course) and convert it into energy as efficiently as can be achieved.

4) Use this machine to power a series of electronic devices attached to my person designed to make me into the world's finest supersoldier.

5) Hire myself out to the US government to assassinate various targets around the globe. Although, since I am weak-willed, I must include the following two steps whether they make sense or not.

6) ???

7) Profit! ...I'm so very sorry.

[ForzaFiori]

Call parents and friends, realize they don't know me. Check into a hospital claiming amnesia. I have enough damage to my brain from previous head injuries it'll be believable. Tell them what happened since I woke up. Hopefully they can help me to get new papers. If they can't, DC has plenty of shady people, I'm sure one of them can get me papers. Then I find a way back to SC, probably Columbia or Charleston though. More people, easier to find work. I raise some money, and go back to where I was before. After my life is back to where I'm not gonna run out of money in a week, I contact people again, and this time work on proving that I know them.

[Lost Demiurge]

Wow. Moved to Washington DC, with maybe a couple hundred or so in my pockets, and my old life gone? Damn, that sucks.

But. On the other hand...

Okay. I've got no experience dealing with the real-life underworld or crime groups. So that'd be a problem... I'd need to go to them or find someone else who could get me fake ID. And I wouldn't have enough to pay for fake ID. So probably no go on that.

I think... Well. I've got a chance to try a completely different direction in life. And I'm still below the maximum age for it, so I think I'd try to join the French Foreign Legion.

It'd be rough. Stupidly rough. The physical part alone would damn near kill me. But even if I only stayed in a bit, I'd come out of it understanding at least one foreign language, and gain experience with other cultures. I'd travel outside the continent, and learn about other countries.

I'd stay in for as long as possible, and figure out what I needed to do to build an identity in a European country where the rules are a little more relaxed. I'd make contacts all over the world, and start learning every language I could. I might or might not get involved in illicit activity, depending on what it was and what risks were involved. Hell, a background like that existence-shift would be tailor-made for crime. If I liked the Legion I might make a career of it. If I couldn't stand it, then I'd use it as a necessary evil and get out when I was ready.

I'd have nothing really to lose. So I'd live life in a completely different manner. Seriously, how many people get to try it two different ways, with no guilt or regrets or ties to hold them back?

[dangerprawn]

Lost Demiurge You could try joining the Merchant Marines first, and get on a ship that would take you to France.

[Lost Demiurge]

Lost Demiurge You could try joining the Merchant Marines first, and get on a ship that would take you to France.

Do you need ID to join the merchant marines? Really, that's the sticking point.

Of course, I could just find a ship heading to France and sign up as unskilled labor. That might or might not work. Guess I could try to learn languages on the way over.

[Aedilred]

Head for Thames House and see if they're interested in the opportunity (and the SIS HQ if they're not). The main reason I wouldn't want to work for them at the moment is my "social life"; without that I have no reason not to turn myself entirely over to their disposal. Also, if something has been done to me by an earthly agent, they're my best bets for finding out what it is and putting it right.

I might also take the opportunity for a couple of "free hits"... but even then I'd probably stop myself. If it's all real, then that means that my assumptions about the natural/supernatural workings of the world were hitherto wrong, and that puts a whole new perspective on morality. I'd be bummed if I took the chance to polish off a couple of old foes only to find that it was a test by the divine power, and I'm dumped back in my old life immediately afterwards with only the promise of eternal hellfire to look forward to.

[Solaris]

Revolution starts now.