No narration. Just speech.
"Whoa. Hello? This is strange. Where am I? Is anyone here?"
"Hey, what's up?"
"What is this place?"
"It's hard to explain. What do you see?"
"The sky is a bunch of swirling colours, and the grass is purple."
"Good. What else?"
"I can't tell where the horizon is."
"That's because you're new here. Your eyes will adjust."
"Adjust to what? Where am I? And who are you?"
"My name is Elswin. You can think of me as a guide."
"Okay, Elswin. A guide to what? Where am I?"
"This is the afterlife."
"...The afterlife."
"Yes."
"There's no such thing as an afterlife."
"Because dead is dead."
"That's right."
"Clearly it's not."
"But it is. When you die, you cease to be."
"And yet here you are."
"It's not an afterlife, it's something else."
"While you chew on that, do me a favour and try to make the sky a uniform green colour."
"That's not a thing that's possible."
"Humour me. Just focus on the sky being green."
"Fine. Focusing on green."
"And give it a minute..."
"Well what do you know?"
"So tell me, Sarah-"
"How do you know my name?"
"Because I'm the guide here. I know everyone. So tell me: where else would you have the power to defy physics and do something as dramatic as changing the colour of the sky?"
"There's an explanation for this."
"What's the last thing you remember before you were here?"
"I was driving on the highway, and then a truck hit me and my car rolled. It was loud. Glass was shattering, horns were blaring... it sounded like metal was bending. It smelled like lighter fluid."
"You died in that crash. The driver side of your car was caved in, and then you spun off the road into a tree. You were unconscious before the car stopped moving, and you bled out before the paramedics reached you. That's why you're here."
"Except 'here' can't exist. There is no life without the body. There is no soul that goes on after you die. When you're gone, that's it."
"Then what's your explanation for being here?"
"I'm still working on it."
"While you do that, let's walk down this path."
"What path? That wasn't there before."
"You're not the only one who can change things around here. If you ever want to sit down, you can conjure a bench."
"How exciting."
"Walk with me. Most people envision the afterlife as one of three things. The names vary, but they can be summed up as Heaven, Hell, and a waiting room."
"A waiting room?"
"The place where you wait for judgment on whether you'll go up or down. The idea is that God, or the cosmos, or whatever else you may think is in charge of maintaining the karmic balance, weighs each soul to determine whether you go to a good place or a bad place."
"The Pearly Gates."
"Indeed. It's a nice thought for people who think they've been good people. Most of those folks would be weighed poorly, though. They tend to be selfish. It's the ones who always try to be good but don't feel like they've done enough that would be weighed favorably in that situation."
"Sure."
"It doesn't matter, though, because that's not what happens."
"You don't say."
"You view your body as the essence of what makes you alive. The truth, however, is that your physical body is a restrictive shell that keeps you from reaching your full potential. When the body dies, your essence is freed; unconstrained by physical limitations, and released to limitless possibilities."
"So you're saying this is limitless possibilities?"
"This is your consciousness adjusting to being unfettered. Your body here isn't real, it's a projection of how you're accustomed to seeing yourself. Over time, as you grow more comfortable in your current situation, your body will fade, and you will exist as pure - as you put it - soul."
"For how long?"
"For eternity, if you like. Or until you decide you're done, at which point you will fade from existence entirely."
"And what happens then?"
"Then you're gone. As you said you expected would happen."
"So according to you, when you die you become a being of pure energy, floating around in, presumably, some kind of aether, until you get bored, at which time you stop existing."
"It's a crude description, but generally correct."
"Well, that's a nice story and all, but I've figured out what's really going on here."
"Please tell?"
"I'm not dead, I'm dying. This whole situation here is my brain firing random neurons as it shuts down."
"And what does that mean for you?"
"It means that this isn't real, and I'll eventually die when my brain finally shuts off."
"And being able to change the colour of the sky?"
"Everything's happening in my mind. It's all subjective."
"So then if I understand you correctly, you're describing basically what I did, except you don't have any control over when it ends."
"No, I... actually, I suppose so."
"And you're still here either way, right?"
"I... yes."
"Well, then I suppose you may as well make the most of your time here. Don't you think?"
"I'm... I'm going to go say goodbye to some people."
"I think that's a very good idea."
2020-06-22 · Boss Music Intensifies
2020-06-15 · Accept the Unexpected
2020-06-08 · Failing The Test
2020-06-01 · Best Laid Plans
2020-05-25 · The End?
2020-05-18 · The Only Explanation
2020-05-11 · Personal Victory
2020-05-04 · Six Questions
2020-04-27 · It's A Team Effort
2020-04-20 · The More Things Change
2020-04-13 · It's All About Perspective
2020-04-06 · Fake It 'Til You Make It
2020-03-30 · Keeping It Clean
2020-03-23 · How To Save The World
2020-03-16 · Time For A Change
2020-03-09 · Music To My Ears
2020-03-02 · Unfamiliar Territory
2020-02-24 · Something From Nothing
2020-02-17 · The Times Are Changing
2020-02-10 · The Missing Piece
2020-02-03 · Wrong Place, Wrong Time
2020-01-27 · Overexposure
2020-01-20 · As Seen On TV
2020-01-13 · Written By A.I.
2020-01-06 · Promises Kept
2019-12-30 · Ringing It In
2019-12-23 · Happy Unspecified Seasonal Holiday!
2019-12-16 · The Lair
2019-12-09 · Time To Get Cracking
2019-12-02 · Not A Suicide
2019-11-25 · The One That Knows What Number It Is
2019-11-18 · Venting Frustrations
2019-11-11 · The Test Takers
2019-11-04 · Make Your Play
2019-10-28 · Horror With Smart People
2019-10-21 · The Interview
2019-10-14 · It Must Have Happened At Some Point
2019-10-07 · Work The Problem
2019-09-30 · Cogs in the Machine
2019-09-23 · First of One
2019-09-16 · Curse Your Inevitable Betrayal!
2019-09-09 · Be Brief
2019-09-02 · Changing Channels
2019-08-26 · It's A Process
2019-08-19 · Armed And Dangerous
2019-08-12 · Good Intentions
2019-08-05 · A Simple Procedure
2019-07-29 · Finale Feelings
2019-07-22 · Fun And Profit
2019-07-15 · It Builds Character
2019-07-08 · Aviator Safety
2019-06-24 · Something's Been Bugging Me
2019-06-17 · It's All About You
2019-05-27 · Rough Encounters
2019-05-20 · Wishes Three
2019-05-13 · A Gentle Nudge
2019-05-06 · A Simple Misunderstanding?
2019-04-29 · Don't Spoil It
2019-04-22 · Under Scrutiny
2019-04-15 · Prepare To Resist
2019-04-08 · Making Small Talk
2019-04-01 · The Crisis
2019-03-25 · Just Kidding
2019-03-18 · How About That Local Sports Team?
2019-03-11 · Public Engagement
2019-03-04 · The Hero We Need
2019-02-25 · The Negotiation
2019-02-18 · Executive Orders
2019-02-11 · The Talk
2019-02-04 · The Big Game
2019-01-28 · If It's A Girl...
2019-01-21 · The Nature Of Picasso
2019-01-14 · I'm Sorry, Ms. Jackson
2019-01-07 · Never Saw It Coming
2018-12-31 · Duelling ...Holidays?
2018-12-24 · Too Much Cheer
2018-12-17 · Taking Out The Trash
2018-12-10 · Let's Go To The Movies
2018-12-03 · Not For Donuts
2018-11-26 · Horizons Made Broad
2018-11-19 · It's The Journey That Matters
2018-11-12 · Anthing You Can Do...
2018-11-05 · Let's Call It "Laundry"
2018-10-29 · Unfriended
2018-10-22 · A Conversation About "Tacos"
2018-10-15 · Changes
2018-10-08 · An Adult-Sized Secret
2018-10-01 · Street War
2018-09-24 · Whither Whether Why
2018-09-17 · The Pitch
2018-09-10 · The One That's Meta
2018-09-03 · A Night At The Movies
2018-08-27 · We're Vampires
2018-08-20 · The Final Showdown
2018-08-13 · The End Of The World
2018-08-06 · A More Rational Kind Of Love
2018-07-30 · Death Troubles
2018-07-23 · True Love
2018-07-18 · At Least It's Not Des Moines