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"Blessed art thou flames of my euphoria, Begone with ye"

You begin to feel the onset of anxiety. How many caps had it been...?
Clumsily you try to count with your fingers, but three looks like seven for some reason, and it really doesn't make a difference... does it...

"Hoooo...."

Will mumbles something and razzes. Somehow you throw it off.

The tree is pretty interesting now. You're up in the branches, and the scene is hazy enough for you to feel comfortable. It's iridescent.

Kaci, you see blue flame surrounding the tree.
Alex, there's a tune coming from around the leaves.
Elliot, for some reason, this reminds you of a symbol you saw once... and you can't really remember where you saw it.
Ted, you feel a steel surety about this vision.
Will, there's a great magnificence that washes over you.

You sit down in the chairs provided for you.

"Coffee?"

"No thanks." You all collectively reply.

"I'll have tea," Will says.
"Bacon." Elliot deadpans.
"Actually, coffee doesn't sound so bad," Ted replies.
"Water," Kaci says.
"Oh, uhh... do you have lemonade?" Alex asks hopefully.

"WOW, what the ******** are we doing," Will says after a moment.
"Shrooms, you tweak, chill out," Elliot quipped.
"Uh ehe heheh uh huhuhuuuhhhhh..." Alex laughs.

SIGH.


"Give us a minute, we'll be right with you," Kaci says laughing.

I HAVE ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD.

You reclothe yourselves.

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

I am the glory, and the brilliance undiminished. Behold me. Behold the grace that was before the beginning.

Elliot's white robes somehow start growing roots. His chair sinks, and the bacon/shrooms he ate make the flames above his head shiver in consternation.

The bell strikes half past 1, and there is a fleeting glimpse of the incense burner getting tipped over, before the scene disappears into the world around you. Somehow, you fail to care.

THESE DISTORTIONS ARE A PAIN IN THE a**, BUT I'LL BE RIGHT *pop* with you.

The scene changed.
You're all seated in what appears to be a lobby.There's an old bearded homeless guy in the corner reading a newspaper. Light spills in from a skylight. And the wall is semitransparent, though you cannot see outside of it.
There are other people in the lobby, but all of them are preoccupied.
A half-naked man in the corner fiddling with a piece of what seems to be the biggest hunk of chocolate stares at Ted.
Some kid walks out of the door beside the secretary, shakes his head, and walks out through the wall. You stare at him as he passes.

The man you realize is actually standing before you shook his head.

"Sorry that took a while. But while the retrieval mechanism inherent in that particular device is still state of the art, we seem to have great difficulty with it sometimes. Functionally, it's quite sound. Irritating.
Well, here you are."

He sits down in the chair provided for him.

"And before you ask, yes.

You're all very much out of your minds."

"No," he says to Will in the next second, "I'll explain that in a moment."

"And I'm afraid that the answer to that is yes. You're all very dead."

"Pipe down." The man says distractedly. "You're not as high as you think you are right now. And I meant the last part literally..."

He gathered in the group's stares and his voice became relaxed, and about as easy as one could make it, considering.

"You've left your bodies and have come here to where all people do, as a result of your recreational activities. Now don't panic, this happens sometimes. I'm sorry it happened, and I know that you're feeling very confused right now." He smiled a little sadly, a little happily. And the mood is, somehow, catching.
"It's alright. You're here, you haven't ceased to exist, you still retain consciousness. You aren't high still and in a broader sense, you're inbetween states - this is more of a convenient waypoint."

"And yes exactly," he says sidelong at Kaci, "That's what's happening."

"Now, I'd like to give you a proposition. There just so happens to be a bit of a scheduling mishap of sorts, and that you may return to your lives. However, there are going to be a number of conditions attached I'm afraid. It's quite technical."

"...you really don't get it huh...."

He stares at Elliot for a moment.

"Fine. Now this may be a bit of a shock..."

The ma rises from his chair and draws out something in the space before you.
A window appears, and as you look into it, you recognize the place... It's Will's apartment... except there's crumpled forms, unmoving...

You are dead.

"I'm not sure... people just die..."

You can't tell if he's being sarcastic, but you catch that faint laugh in his voice.
And he's serious again.

"Look at yourself and come to grips with this, because like Elvis: you've left the building for good.

...unless you want to take the other choice I'm offering you."

"This is why people keep dying!"