Heaven? Maybe Later

You were a judge in life. Death did not take the job away. After a fatal accident you wake up in Purgatory, behind a desk, in a marble office. A demon statue stands on your left. An angel statue stands on your right. Between them there is an arch of light, and souls keep walking out of it. There is a terminal, a rulebook, a printer, a telephone and two seals. There is no manager, no training, and no announced end of shift. The queue simply continues. Your own case is still open. Nobody has told you what it takes to close it. READ THE FILE Every soul arrives with a record. Name, age, religion, species, and a list of what they did with their life. The entries are short, official, and completely without sympathy. A moral philosophy professor who failed 87% of his students for character development. A man who died in a fire doing something he still believes was a good idea. A billionaire whose file says he loves children, and says nothing after that. Records go missing more often than they go wrong. A blank field is not always an accident, and the person standing in front of your desk usually knows which line is missing. The records were not written to make your job easier. ASK WHAT YOU WANT TO ASK You choose the questions. Answers open new questions, and the ones you never ask stay unasked. Nothing tells you when you have asked enough. Some souls lie. Some tell you the truth in a way that makes the decision harder than a lie would have. A few are still defending a position they held their entire life, and they are not going to drop it now that it costs them everything. You can send someone on their way in thirty seconds. You can also spend the whole conversation looking for the one sentence that changes your mind. CHECK TODAY'S DIRECTIVE The Hobble Book holds the rules for the day. They come from above and they are binding. They are also not always reasonable. Today the book may inform you that blue eyed souls belong in Hell. It does not explain why. It is not required to. Yesterday's rule does not carry over. A soul you would have cleared last week is a violation this morning. You still have to apply the rule, or decide not to, in writing, with your name at the bottom of the page. DO THE PAPERWORK Once you have decided, you file it properly. Pick the correct form from the terminal. Soul Judgment Form, Reincarnation Request, Verdict Appeal, Record Amendment, Earth Return Permit. Print it. Sign it in your own hand. Press the seal into the paper. Gold for Heaven, cracked stone for Hell. The form matters as much as the verdict. The right decision on the wrong document is still a filing error, and the office keeps a copy of both. Then hand it over. ANSWER THE PHONE You are not the only one working in this building. Sometimes the phone rings about the file that is already open on your desk, and the caller has an opinion about it. They are polite. They are patient. They will call again about the next one. Nothing forces you to agree with them. Nothing protects you either. YOUR FILE IS OPEN TOO Every verdict you sign goes on the record. Following the rulebook is on the record. Ignoring it is also on the record. The office never tells you which of the two it is counting. There is no score on the desk, no standard posted on the wall, and no calendar. At some point somebody reads your file the way you have been reading everyone else's. NOTICE TO ALL DEPARTED SOULS Keep this document with you at all times. Follow the instructions given by the desk clerk. Do not press suspicious red buttons. Do not attempt to bribe staff, angels, or demons. Complaining will not change your destination. Unscheduled resurrection requests will not be accepted. Personal grudges must be declared at the counter. Every time someone says "There must be a mistake," the waiting line gets a little longer. WHAT THIS GAME IS - A single player game about reading files, asking questions, and signing documents. - You stay at one desk. There is no combat and nothing to run from. - Text heavy. If you do not like reading, this is not for you. - Every rule you follow and every rule you break is recorded. - Multiple endings depending on how you worked.