THE BEGINNING:

The light flashes once, twice, you're blinded, there's nothing. A feeling of plummeting, a feeling of soaring. This is it, you're finally free!

Then phwap, you're in my arms. I give you a smile and help you to your feet, grabbing your hand and shaking it. Oops for you, you've just signed the contract.

"Sup. Ahem, here's the words straight from Grim's handbook: Congratulations, Spirit. You've just been promoted to the after-life job of reaping lost souls. I hope you enjoy the rest of your immortal life with us. Thank you and have a nice day, Grim Corporation Ltd."

Confusion on your part. That's to be expected, really. I'll try to explain things as we go. Stop floating. Alright. Let's do it. Oh. Yeah, we don't talk much here. It's hard to make the very few atoms in this realm vibrate enough to produce a reflection that is sound. Thought is the preferred medium here and it's pretty much universal. Now, time to get the nitty-gritty.

THE EXPLANATION:

Surprise, surprise. You're dead. Whoops, I suppose.

And where you've ended up isn't exactly what you were expecting. Where's the pearly gates or, in some other people's cases, the roads of flames? Where's God? The Devil? Why haven't you been reincarnated yet? Or, in fact, where's the absolute nothingness you thought was here?

Oh. Maybe all beliefs were wrong? Yes and no.

This is the Afterlife. It's exactly like life, except for two things; it goes on until you don't want to go on and you acquire some interesting jobs. Acquire may not be the best word to use. Corporations claim your spirit whilst you're dazed from the transportation of light and shove you straight into a job. (You can always quit, but I wouldn't try if I were you - you get a bad reputation and risk never being hired again. The Corporations know all.)

There is no governing body. There has never been need of one. Crimes are practically impossible. Unless you try really, really hard.

Of course, like life, there are the major corporations that control everything; the Big-Wigs.

There's:



There are more, but those are the three you've got to really think about right now. They each deal in different things, but truthfully, they all want what each other have. So, the Afterlife is pretty much your second chance at life, but actually kind of worse. How? We'll get there soon.

Grim Corporation Ltd. works with claiming souls and gathering lost ones from the light-beam that spirits travel through to get to this realm. The very nature of light makes trips from point A to point B sometimes end up at point 205Z, but no matter. That's what you're here for. It's for this same reason that some souls end up here after travelling for hundreds of years, and some get here in a matter of Planck units. It's not unusual for me to pick up a medieval soul and someone from 3149AD in the same trip. (Most people work full-time, part-time or casual here, regardless if they have other jobs. You can have more than a single job as long as you do everything adequate.)

Fun Times Inc. practically own everything you will need. Since you don't eat, drink, sleep or need to rest, what could you possibly need? You'll soon find eternity is in awfully long time to spend awake and not doing essential things. Hell, you don't even need to breath here. Which is good, considering there's no air. They own every single entertaining thing since the game of catch. Fun Times Inc. sells licenses for you to indulge in their entertainment industry. Trust me, it's worth every single soul you reap. The GCL has a very relaxed relationship with FTI and they usually benefit off each other. (I.e GCL supplies the souls that need the entertainment.)

Nevermore (c) has their greedy hands in the worst possible business: death after death. They are the only known corporation that can kill you while you're already dead. Their secrets are guarded so closely that it's said if you even think about stealing it, you're dead. If your plan is to die without paying them, then you've really just accomplished your goal - except they can extract payment from your dying spirit, so maybe try to die really quickly, if that's the case. Both the other Big-Wigs despise Nevermore, because they steal not only potential payment, but they also take the end currency from their clients.

And that brings up the question, in a world without actual physicals needs, what could currency possibly be? When all you really are is the sum of your memories and personality kept together by your own will and expectations, what else is there? The term "Food for thought" comes in here.

Currency is something that makes you think; philosophy, ideas, new concepts, forgotten ones, paradoxes, new games...

In essence, the currency of the afterlife is knowledge and thought.

Stealing becomes nigh impossible, unless you know the secrets of Nevermore (c). Only the very best employees know the recipe for theft of knowledge, but that doesn't stop people from trying.

THE PROBLEM:

The security at Nevermore (c) has failed. After a couple hundred thousand years, something had to give. Someone(s) has stolen the secret to death after death, and killed the boss of Nevermore (c). People are dropping left right and centre. Understandably, Grim Corporation Ltd. and Fun Times Inc. celebrate the loss of their rival company, but that stops when the bosses of those corporations are murdered out-right.

The balance in Afterlife has shifted. You're out of the job, for now. Well, at least, you're not getting paid anymore. But spirits are still flooding in by the bucketful and no one's doing anything about it, because of the killing spree that someone is on. People are looting the world of entertainment and culture, because they fear that this is the end of the Afterlife.

It is utter chaos and poor you just arrived a few days ago, if that.

YOUR PART IN ALL OF THIS:

There are many different paths you can take. To help, I've split the paths into 5 major sections. These aren't concrete, they're here to help guide only. (You'll find that the path you take will align you with other people along this same pathway.)

• You're a rebel. You hate the Big-Wigs and you don't see why they're in control of everything.
  Did you arrive and just hate the place? Did you immediately set on the path to help the killer(s)? Are you, in fact, one of or the killer(s) themself? Or are you a corporation hating newbie that's in it to take the Big-Wigs for everything they have?
  
• You're just trying to figure stuff out and not die in the process.
  Are you trying to salvage what's left of your broken Afterlife, which you really only just got settled in? Are you still trying to find relatives in this crazy messed-up world? Do you even understand what's happening?
  
• You're the damn pariah!
  Are you trying to save the lost souls who have no idea what's happening and are still arriving? Are you helping everyone you can to find their way around? Perhaps, you're even helping the other people in different pathways.
  
• You're part of the Corporations.
  By some mismatch of fate, have you taken up the company after the death of your former boss? In the extremely short time you have been here, have you begun working from the shadows, pulling the strings of the killer(s)? Did you find a smaller job at the less popular Corporations and are you taking advantage of the apocalypse at hand?
  
• You want to die again.
  Are you searching out the killer so that s/he can kill you? Is this Afterlife not what you wanted or expected? Want to move on already?

Of course, you can twine any of these together in numerous quantities. Feel free to go all out!

YOUR OBJECTIVE

Whatever the hell you want, depending on the path your character takes. But end-game must result in balance, of a kind, being restored to Afterlife.

P.S Feel free to include the way your character died.