Post by The Pilot on Sept 14, 2007 11:00:55 GMT -5
| Written 4 years ago.|
Frankly, the room was too stark for her liking. The walls were white, the floor and ceiling were white, even those who were sitting in white chairs, waiting patiently to be called up by the man dressed in white at the white desk in front of the white door, were dressed in white. The only variation in color and value at all in the irritating room was the exposed skin of the people, and soft shadows cast by unseen lights. She glanced about the room and saw a familiar face.
"Nicole!" she called in a high-pitched voice, as her friend (who was also clothed in white) rushed over to deliver a hug. "You're dead too?"
"Yea, I guess so," she said, smiling.
"Don't tell me it was suicide," Lauren said flatly.
"God, Lauren, even in death you won't leave me alone about that, will ya?" Nicole said, folding her arms defiantly. "And no it wasn't suicide. Car accident. Quite painless, really."
"Well that's good, " Lauren replied with an exaggerated sigh of relief.
"What about you?"
"I think I fell from someplace." She heaved a sigh and glanced around again. "What do we do? Just wait?"
Nicole glanced back at the man at the desk, who seemed to be busy with papers. "I dunno... I was hoping we'd get to go the Summerland, or maybe even be reincarnated. But it looks to me like..." she lowered her voice to a whisper. "Looks like we're going somewhere Christian. Like heaven or something."
Lauren groaned. Heaven, and especially Hell, were two places that she would prefer not to go to if she had the choice. "Are you sure? We don't get a choice or anything?"
"I don't know... the guy up front looks like an angel or something. Look, you can see his halo." She pointed to the man at the front desk. There was a soft glow of light that crowned his head.
"Well, I guess all we can do is wait. C’mon." Lauren grabbed Nicole's arm and they sat down next to each other in silence.
The man at the desk looked up from his papers. "Lauren Baker and Nicole Mitchell? You are next."
The two girls exchanged looks and walked up to the desk. He opened a folder with Nicole's name on it, and began to skim read aloud. "Twelve instances of lying... two of stealing... one cheating..." He continued to half mumble and half read, as if searching for something important on the paper. Finding what he was looking for, he looked up and smiled at Nicole. "It seems you're good to go, Ms. Mitchell." He handed her a clipboard with a cheap pen attached to it by means of rubber bands tied together. "Just fill out this form and you'll be on your way." Nicole took it and looked at it as she walked back to her chair. "And you are Lauren Baker.. Lauren Baker..." He pulled out a folder with her name on it, opened it, and read through. He made a face but then quickly recovered his composure before continuing. "You seem... cleared too. Here." He handed her another clipboard with papers to fill out. Taking her seat next to Nicole, she began to read through. Full name, age, gender, cause of death, place of death, yadda, yadda, yadda... Just then, she felt Nicole tap her on the shoulder rather spontaneously and hard.
"Ow. What," she asked.
"Dude. You'll never believe this..." she said, wide-eyed. She pointed to a particular checklist on one sheet of paper. Lauren read through.
"Heaven... Hell... Summerland... reincarnation (if so, please specify at bottom of page)... What? The Arena.. I don’t get it... are these places we can go now that we’re dead?""Read on."
"The heck... Hogsmead/Hogwarts?? Is this a game?"
"No no... read on."
Lauren stared dumbfounded at the paper. "Middle-earth...? Holy freakin' shit... we can spend the rest of eternity in Middle-earth?"
"Dude! We are so going there!" Nicole said with giddy excitement.
"Crazy-cool! I can't believe this..." And with that the both spend through the paperwork, and almost ran up to the desk, just as the man was handing someone else a clipboard. The two girls shoved their paperwork onto his desk, and he looked over it.
"You both are going to Middle-earth?"
Exuberant nods.
"Through the door behind me."
Walking behind the desk, they paused. Then opening the door, they left the white room behind.
As they looked behind them, they discovered the door in which they had just walked through had disappeared. Now they were in a larger room, probably twice the size of your average Hot Topic store. There were doors all over the place, one painted with fire, another with clouds, another with a castle. There was another counter with another guy behind it, who was taking orders and distributing coffee and other things to other other kids. Suddenly Nicole went wide-eyed.
"My god. Look who it is!" she said, her tone was showing signs of annoyance and frustration.
Lauren's eyes drifted around the room. "Look where who is?"
"It's Quinn! What is he doing here?!" her tone now sounded a little angry. "Look. He's over there."
"Quinn? You mean your old drama TA? That guy that used to think you stalked him? And then afterwards turned out to like y--"
"Shut up," Nicole snarled. "Or I'll be forced to bring up It."
"Fine! Be mean like that. Where is he again?"
Nicole pointed to the other side of the room, and Lauren saw a little older guy at one of the arcade games titled 'The Space Crusades'. Figured. "Why is he here anyways? He's not fanatical about anything, except for Christianity. He doesn't belong here."
"Exactly! I guess you could call him a Jesus freak, because, well, that's what he is." She shrugged. " I guess there's a fandom for everything." At that moment he gave a cry of frustration and defeat, searching his pockets for loose change. No luck. He turned around to go get a coffee.
"Nicole?!"
"Since when did you die, Quinn?" Nicole spat at him, arms folded.
"Since when did you care?" he retaliated.
"And shouldn't you be in heaven by now?"
"I was staying a while so I could stock up on the Starbucks before I left," he said, gesturing towards the counter.
"Oh. That excuse was almost plausible, Quinn. Very nice. You probably can't get into heaven because you don't have any wings," Lauren said. Nicole snickered.
"Shut up. I can get into heaven easier than you retards can. The reason I don't have wings, is because I haven't earned them yet. I have to perform ten random acts of kindness on the mortal plane before I get them. And what about you guys? I don't see your faces framed by the holy light of God," Quinn said sarcastically.
"We didn't die to go to heaven, asshat," Lauren said. "We're here because we're going to Middle-earth, which completely pwns heaven."
"Middle-earth? Is that some of that Lord of the Rings bullshit? Christ... I'm outta here."
And with that he walked off to the counter.
"My. You weren't kidding when you said he was arrogant and close-minded, huh," Lauren said when he was out of earshot.
"Seriously." Nicole looked around. "So where do we go now?"
Lauren shrugged. " I think we should go ask the guy at the counter."
"Yea."
The guy behind the counter looked to be about twenty two years old, but if you worked at a coffee bar in the afterlife, then most likely you're much older than that.
"Hey, excuse me, uh," Nicole glanced at the name tag. "Rob, but how do we get to Middle-earth from here?"
"Through door three on the left wall. You're in The Waypoint now, the crossroads between all the worlds and afterlives. But before you go anywhere, you have to get changed." He pointed to another room on the right.
"Oh, well thanks." Lauren turned and began walking to the doorway that had somehow eluded their vision before. Quinn had been almost patiently waiting to get his hands on the coffee, and now was his chance. All they heard was an "I'm sorry sir, but only the Middle-earthlings can get coffee." followed by some yelling and obscene language. Lauren and Nicole started laughing hysterically.
As they stepped over the threshold of the doorway, they had found themselves in another large room, but with more people in it. Those that weren't waiting in the dressing room lines were standing in front of mirrors, marveling at their brand spankin' new outfits. It was then Lauren's turn to recognize someone.
"Evelia..." Knowing Evelia, she wasn't even going to bother asking about her death.
"I fit in the outfit better than I thought I would," she said with a smirk. Her ensemble was that of a devoted Harry Potter fan and Slytherin House obsessee.
"Don't you have to get sorted or something?"
"Guess not. Where are you going? Oh wait... I shouldn't even be asking. Middle-earth, right?" She pushed her purple glasses up the bridge of her nose with a long-nailed finger.
"Gasp... how ever did you know?" Lauren put on her corniest ‘surprised' expression.
"Hm... I don't know. Maybe because you were obsessed with it all through highschool?"
She laughed. “Do the genie.”
"Wow. No. Look, I gotta get changed. So uh, maybe we'll see each other sometime."
"Yea. That would be cool. So, I guess bye for now?"
"Yea. Bye, Evleia." Lauren walked back to where Nicole was standing, who had saved a spot in line for the two of them. "So how does this work? We walk in and put on outfits that we don't have in the first place?"
Nicole shrugged. "I guess. I mean, he didn't say anything about picking out outfits and the like."
A girl ahead emerged from the dressing room in what looked to be space-age armor, with a large glowing red thing on her chest plate. In one hand she held a rather unnecessarily large gun filled with iridescent blue stuff. "I know what that is! She's going to the Quake III Arena using one of those plasma guns! Awesome...!"
Nicole walked into the seemingly empty dressing room, and closed the door. Lauren waited outside. A few minutes later the door opened and there stood Nicole. Or was it Nicole? Well, whoever it was, she had long blonde hair like Nicole, and was the same size. But her dress was rich and elegant with billowing sleeves and complex swirls that wove in and out and through each other as they traveled down from the modest neckline. Her golden hair was draped down in two small pieces in front of her ears, and two more in braids that were tied behind her head..
"Dude! I'm an Elf!" she said. It was Nicole.
"Holy shit! You're an elf! You're a freakin’ elf!" Lauren said wide-eyed.
"I know!" she grabbed Lauren's shoulders and shook her slightly, then gave her a massive hug. Nicole stepped out of the closet. Lauren's turn! She glanced at Nicole, stepped inside and closed the door.
What exactly was supposed to happen? The dressing room was about three feet wide and deep. The back wall was a mirror. Suddenly her vision went out and then came back. In no time at all, her previous clothes were gone and she was clad in the garb of an Ithilien ranger. "Jesus freaking Christ..." she whispered to herself as she looked into the mirror. How did she get changed? Lauren took one more look at herself then opened the door to see Nicole waiting outside. Her jaw dropped.
"You look so cool!"
"I know! So do you!"
"C'mon. Let's move so other people can change."
"Right."
They walked back to the main room of the Waypoint, and asked Rob if they could get some coffees. Not just any coffees, but Caramel Machiados with an extra shot of caramel.
Sipping on their freshly brewed cup of warm and sugary delight, they approached Quinn, who was still sulking around, thinking of some way to get his hands on a cup.
"Hey Quinn, what's up," Nicole said with a smirk. She sipped a cup of the caramel-y goodness.
"Is... is that..."
"Is what, what, Quinn?" Lauren took a sip.
"Is that a coffee?" Quinn's eyes were fixed on the green Starbucks logo on the java jacket.
"Why, it is indeed, Quinn. Caramel Machiados are my favorite... Mmm-mm," Nicole taunted.
"Caramel Machiado??" he whined. "But... that's my favorite...Can I pleeeaaase have a sip Nicole? Just one teeny little sip?" Quinn begged.
"But only Middle-earthlings are allowed to have them, right Nicole?" Lauren said, laying one hand conspicuously on the hilt of her new sword.
"That's right, Lauren. Well, sorry you can't have any Quinn. C'mon Lauren... Middle-earth is waiting."
"But.. But..." Quinn mumbled as they walked off to door three on the left.
Frankly, the room was too stark for her liking. The walls were white, the floor and ceiling were white, even those who were sitting in white chairs, waiting patiently to be called up by the man dressed in white at the white desk in front of the white door, were dressed in white. The only variation in color and value at all in the irritating room was the exposed skin of the people, and soft shadows cast by unseen lights. She glanced about the room and saw a familiar face.
"Nicole!" she called in a high-pitched voice, as her friend (who was also clothed in white) rushed over to deliver a hug. "You're dead too?"
"Yea, I guess so," she said, smiling.
"Don't tell me it was suicide," Lauren said flatly.
"God, Lauren, even in death you won't leave me alone about that, will ya?" Nicole said, folding her arms defiantly. "And no it wasn't suicide. Car accident. Quite painless, really."
"Well that's good, " Lauren replied with an exaggerated sigh of relief.
"What about you?"
"I think I fell from someplace." She heaved a sigh and glanced around again. "What do we do? Just wait?"
Nicole glanced back at the man at the desk, who seemed to be busy with papers. "I dunno... I was hoping we'd get to go the Summerland, or maybe even be reincarnated. But it looks to me like..." she lowered her voice to a whisper. "Looks like we're going somewhere Christian. Like heaven or something."
Lauren groaned. Heaven, and especially Hell, were two places that she would prefer not to go to if she had the choice. "Are you sure? We don't get a choice or anything?"
"I don't know... the guy up front looks like an angel or something. Look, you can see his halo." She pointed to the man at the front desk. There was a soft glow of light that crowned his head.
"Well, I guess all we can do is wait. C’mon." Lauren grabbed Nicole's arm and they sat down next to each other in silence.
The man at the desk looked up from his papers. "Lauren Baker and Nicole Mitchell? You are next."
The two girls exchanged looks and walked up to the desk. He opened a folder with Nicole's name on it, and began to skim read aloud. "Twelve instances of lying... two of stealing... one cheating..." He continued to half mumble and half read, as if searching for something important on the paper. Finding what he was looking for, he looked up and smiled at Nicole. "It seems you're good to go, Ms. Mitchell." He handed her a clipboard with a cheap pen attached to it by means of rubber bands tied together. "Just fill out this form and you'll be on your way." Nicole took it and looked at it as she walked back to her chair. "And you are Lauren Baker.. Lauren Baker..." He pulled out a folder with her name on it, opened it, and read through. He made a face but then quickly recovered his composure before continuing. "You seem... cleared too. Here." He handed her another clipboard with papers to fill out. Taking her seat next to Nicole, she began to read through. Full name, age, gender, cause of death, place of death, yadda, yadda, yadda... Just then, she felt Nicole tap her on the shoulder rather spontaneously and hard.
"Ow. What," she asked.
"Dude. You'll never believe this..." she said, wide-eyed. She pointed to a particular checklist on one sheet of paper. Lauren read through.
"Heaven... Hell... Summerland... reincarnation (if so, please specify at bottom of page)... What? The Arena.. I don’t get it... are these places we can go now that we’re dead?""Read on."
"The heck... Hogsmead/Hogwarts?? Is this a game?"
"No no... read on."
Lauren stared dumbfounded at the paper. "Middle-earth...? Holy freakin' shit... we can spend the rest of eternity in Middle-earth?"
"Dude! We are so going there!" Nicole said with giddy excitement.
"Crazy-cool! I can't believe this..." And with that the both spend through the paperwork, and almost ran up to the desk, just as the man was handing someone else a clipboard. The two girls shoved their paperwork onto his desk, and he looked over it.
"You both are going to Middle-earth?"
Exuberant nods.
"Through the door behind me."
Walking behind the desk, they paused. Then opening the door, they left the white room behind.
As they looked behind them, they discovered the door in which they had just walked through had disappeared. Now they were in a larger room, probably twice the size of your average Hot Topic store. There were doors all over the place, one painted with fire, another with clouds, another with a castle. There was another counter with another guy behind it, who was taking orders and distributing coffee and other things to other other kids. Suddenly Nicole went wide-eyed.
"My god. Look who it is!" she said, her tone was showing signs of annoyance and frustration.
Lauren's eyes drifted around the room. "Look where who is?"
"It's Quinn! What is he doing here?!" her tone now sounded a little angry. "Look. He's over there."
"Quinn? You mean your old drama TA? That guy that used to think you stalked him? And then afterwards turned out to like y--"
"Shut up," Nicole snarled. "Or I'll be forced to bring up It."
"Fine! Be mean like that. Where is he again?"
Nicole pointed to the other side of the room, and Lauren saw a little older guy at one of the arcade games titled 'The Space Crusades'. Figured. "Why is he here anyways? He's not fanatical about anything, except for Christianity. He doesn't belong here."
"Exactly! I guess you could call him a Jesus freak, because, well, that's what he is." She shrugged. " I guess there's a fandom for everything." At that moment he gave a cry of frustration and defeat, searching his pockets for loose change. No luck. He turned around to go get a coffee.
"Nicole?!"
"Since when did you die, Quinn?" Nicole spat at him, arms folded.
"Since when did you care?" he retaliated.
"And shouldn't you be in heaven by now?"
"I was staying a while so I could stock up on the Starbucks before I left," he said, gesturing towards the counter.
"Oh. That excuse was almost plausible, Quinn. Very nice. You probably can't get into heaven because you don't have any wings," Lauren said. Nicole snickered.
"Shut up. I can get into heaven easier than you retards can. The reason I don't have wings, is because I haven't earned them yet. I have to perform ten random acts of kindness on the mortal plane before I get them. And what about you guys? I don't see your faces framed by the holy light of God," Quinn said sarcastically.
"We didn't die to go to heaven, asshat," Lauren said. "We're here because we're going to Middle-earth, which completely pwns heaven."
"Middle-earth? Is that some of that Lord of the Rings bullshit? Christ... I'm outta here."
And with that he walked off to the counter.
"My. You weren't kidding when you said he was arrogant and close-minded, huh," Lauren said when he was out of earshot.
"Seriously." Nicole looked around. "So where do we go now?"
Lauren shrugged. " I think we should go ask the guy at the counter."
"Yea."
The guy behind the counter looked to be about twenty two years old, but if you worked at a coffee bar in the afterlife, then most likely you're much older than that.
"Hey, excuse me, uh," Nicole glanced at the name tag. "Rob, but how do we get to Middle-earth from here?"
"Through door three on the left wall. You're in The Waypoint now, the crossroads between all the worlds and afterlives. But before you go anywhere, you have to get changed." He pointed to another room on the right.
"Oh, well thanks." Lauren turned and began walking to the doorway that had somehow eluded their vision before. Quinn had been almost patiently waiting to get his hands on the coffee, and now was his chance. All they heard was an "I'm sorry sir, but only the Middle-earthlings can get coffee." followed by some yelling and obscene language. Lauren and Nicole started laughing hysterically.
As they stepped over the threshold of the doorway, they had found themselves in another large room, but with more people in it. Those that weren't waiting in the dressing room lines were standing in front of mirrors, marveling at their brand spankin' new outfits. It was then Lauren's turn to recognize someone.
"Evelia..." Knowing Evelia, she wasn't even going to bother asking about her death.
"I fit in the outfit better than I thought I would," she said with a smirk. Her ensemble was that of a devoted Harry Potter fan and Slytherin House obsessee.
"Don't you have to get sorted or something?"
"Guess not. Where are you going? Oh wait... I shouldn't even be asking. Middle-earth, right?" She pushed her purple glasses up the bridge of her nose with a long-nailed finger.
"Gasp... how ever did you know?" Lauren put on her corniest ‘surprised' expression.
"Hm... I don't know. Maybe because you were obsessed with it all through highschool?"
She laughed. “Do the genie.”
"Wow. No. Look, I gotta get changed. So uh, maybe we'll see each other sometime."
"Yea. That would be cool. So, I guess bye for now?"
"Yea. Bye, Evleia." Lauren walked back to where Nicole was standing, who had saved a spot in line for the two of them. "So how does this work? We walk in and put on outfits that we don't have in the first place?"
Nicole shrugged. "I guess. I mean, he didn't say anything about picking out outfits and the like."
A girl ahead emerged from the dressing room in what looked to be space-age armor, with a large glowing red thing on her chest plate. In one hand she held a rather unnecessarily large gun filled with iridescent blue stuff. "I know what that is! She's going to the Quake III Arena using one of those plasma guns! Awesome...!"
Nicole walked into the seemingly empty dressing room, and closed the door. Lauren waited outside. A few minutes later the door opened and there stood Nicole. Or was it Nicole? Well, whoever it was, she had long blonde hair like Nicole, and was the same size. But her dress was rich and elegant with billowing sleeves and complex swirls that wove in and out and through each other as they traveled down from the modest neckline. Her golden hair was draped down in two small pieces in front of her ears, and two more in braids that were tied behind her head..
"Dude! I'm an Elf!" she said. It was Nicole.
"Holy shit! You're an elf! You're a freakin’ elf!" Lauren said wide-eyed.
"I know!" she grabbed Lauren's shoulders and shook her slightly, then gave her a massive hug. Nicole stepped out of the closet. Lauren's turn! She glanced at Nicole, stepped inside and closed the door.
What exactly was supposed to happen? The dressing room was about three feet wide and deep. The back wall was a mirror. Suddenly her vision went out and then came back. In no time at all, her previous clothes were gone and she was clad in the garb of an Ithilien ranger. "Jesus freaking Christ..." she whispered to herself as she looked into the mirror. How did she get changed? Lauren took one more look at herself then opened the door to see Nicole waiting outside. Her jaw dropped.
"You look so cool!"
"I know! So do you!"
"C'mon. Let's move so other people can change."
"Right."
They walked back to the main room of the Waypoint, and asked Rob if they could get some coffees. Not just any coffees, but Caramel Machiados with an extra shot of caramel.
Sipping on their freshly brewed cup of warm and sugary delight, they approached Quinn, who was still sulking around, thinking of some way to get his hands on a cup.
"Hey Quinn, what's up," Nicole said with a smirk. She sipped a cup of the caramel-y goodness.
"Is... is that..."
"Is what, what, Quinn?" Lauren took a sip.
"Is that a coffee?" Quinn's eyes were fixed on the green Starbucks logo on the java jacket.
"Why, it is indeed, Quinn. Caramel Machiados are my favorite... Mmm-mm," Nicole taunted.
"Caramel Machiado??" he whined. "But... that's my favorite...Can I pleeeaaase have a sip Nicole? Just one teeny little sip?" Quinn begged.
"But only Middle-earthlings are allowed to have them, right Nicole?" Lauren said, laying one hand conspicuously on the hilt of her new sword.
"That's right, Lauren. Well, sorry you can't have any Quinn. C'mon Lauren... Middle-earth is waiting."
"But.. But..." Quinn mumbled as they walked off to door three on the left.
