Awesome, JZ!

You know I'll be nagging, lady.

I'm in, too, although be careful what you wish for...my dad called me "deathgrip" once.

Oh, foo, I'm not on LJ so it won't let me see! :(

JZ, I love that first sentence--it's a marvelous hook. That whole sequence is just so vivid and engaging.

I'm feeling like I have too many characters to keep track of, right now. But I think it'd be weird if I try to cut too many out.

Dream last night that might make a good setting for someone. Afterlife called "The Wait" which is not for everyone, but only for those who died before they got all the days they were supposed to have. Time in the "The Wait" does not give you days equal to what you would have had, just the same number. The Wait consists of a long hall, with chambers off to the side. You enter the wait riding a car like a ride in Disneyland. You get off, choosing a chamber at random with no clue as to what makes one chamber better than another. Chambers are just lounges, with chairs and couches, and tables and lamps shared by others. If you choose well you end up with compatible people you have shared conversation and amiable silence with. If you choose moderately badly you end up with bores or boors. If you choose very badly well...

You get a fixed number of days in "The Wait" before moving on to your real afterlife. While you are there you get a pale white tasteless drink called "the Sustenance" that is magically delivered to chamber you choose. If you are deprived of "The Sustenance" you don't die, but you get very very hungry - become a hungry ghost and suffer all pains live people do when starving (but without dying) until your time is up and you can move on. And the reason this is important is that if someone does not want to move on when their time is up, they can stay if they steal someone else's Sustenance. So if you choose the wrong room, you may get hit on the head, stuffed behind a couch and have your Sustenance stolen during your stay.

There is no kind of justice in all this. It is just an accounting procedure to make cosmic books balance. And as long as the right amount of Sustenance is consumed apparently the books balance, and nobody cares by whom.

If you manage to avoid being hit on the head but don't like your chamber, you can open the door walk down the hall and try your luck in another room. But walking down the hall instead being delivered in a ride is a huge risk of being mugged by overstayers.

Also there are doors you don't see during the ride that you see if you walk, but you can't open them. These are offices for Angels, Gods and Monsters from various afterlifes who are too low status to get on office in the various heavens, hells and what have yous they come from. But they completely ignore the dead. They are busy doing their work, and don't care about remedying injustice or causing injustice, or remedying or causing suffering. The dead in "The Wait" to them are just part of the machinery in the place that provides them with overflow office space.

Anyway, if you find that a useful setting for something - you are welcome to use it.

I

That is fascinting, Typo.

Confessions of a Sweet Valley High ghostwriter.

Oh, cool. She was writing them way back, too. I'm bookmarking that to read later. Thanks, Tom.