Yep, what some would call a "plot bunny" turned into an entirely new, irresistible idea for a story. I just couldn't help but begin writing it.
This story is loosely based on the show "The Good Place." I have not seen past the middle of season 3, so please don't spoil anything beyond that for me. In any case, this fic will not follow the exact plot of the show, and no knowledge of The Good Place is required to enjoy it.
With all of this out of the way, let's get this show on the road!
Dying at age twenty wasn't something I expected or wanted to happen. After all, nobody thinks it's going to happen to them; it's something one typically expects to happen to someone else.
Of course, the sad truth is that we are all "someone else" to someone else. Somebody has to get the short end of the stick, and as sad as it is, that somebody was me.
The moments surrounding my death were a blur to me. I didn't remember how I had lost my life, or my life flashing before my eyes. That's a myth; when you're about to die, you don't see yourself taking your first steps, or meeting people at school, or any other formative life events.
After what felt like an eternity, despite not being conscious of time passing, I opened my eyes to find myself in a rather peculiar place.
It was a simple room in what looked like an office building. It needs to be said, however, that there were no windows to be found; it was just that, a room.
I was sitting in a rather simple chair, in the middle of a row containing eight or nine identical chairs. The wall-to-wall carpeting was a nondescript shade of golden brown, and the walls themselves were a similar color.
All in all, nothing about the room was particularly notable. However, the longer I sat in the chair, the more certain I became about something.
What was that something, you might ask?
Immediately as I began focusing on the door on the other side of the room, I was able to make out the name on the plaque. Professor Samuel Oak, Judge.
The word "judge" sent a chill down my spine. Why would I be in front of a judge, presumably inside of a courthouse, if I had not done anything wrong? This question lent itself to another one: What could I have possibly done wrong?
As I continued sitting in that chair for what felt like hours (but was probably no more than ten minutes), I tried to remember how I had gotten here.
I...died? But if that's the case, how am I able to think? How can I sit in this chair?
I had never believed in any sort of afterlife. Once your life was over, it was over. Heaven was just a fairy tale for people afraid of the dark. Hell was just a story parents told their children in order to make them fall in line.
And yet, I was now questioning my assumptions. I was no longer certain that death was the end; clearly, something highly consequential was about to occur.
"Victor Chelan, you may enter the office of Professor Samuel Oak. It is time for you to be judged."
Yes, my name is Victor Chelan. At the time of my death, I was a twenty-year-old college student from somewhere in suburban America, and that was just about all there was to know about me. I was a self-proclaimed "boring person."
Something told me that my post-mortem existence would be a lot more eventful than what I'd had during my life on Earth.
By the way, Professor Oak...that name sounds familiar, doesn't it? I must have heard it somewhere, but I can't for the life of me remember where.
With a deep breath, I stood up and walked through the door on the other end of the room. Once I entered, I felt my anxiety spike.
On the surface, there was no reason for me to be anxious. Much like the waiting room had been, this office looked just like any other room of its type. There was a desk with a chair on either side, a computer on one side of it, a printer on a nearby counter, etc. There was even a cactus on the desk.
Behind the desk sat a man who looked perfectly ordinary in some regards. He was rather short, but muscular despite the fact that he couldn't be younger than forty-five.
The man looked at me through his brown eyes, his spiky white-blonde hair sticking up slightly. For a professor, let alone a judge, he sure doesn't look very official.
Even so, one look into his eyes, as kind as his expression appeared, was enough to convince me that he meant business. My fate was in his hands.
"Have a seat, Victor," the man told me.
I did as I was told, and then the professor continued. "As you've no doubt seen on the plaque outside my door, I am Professor Oak, one of the judges on the High Court around these parts."
"I think I've heard your name before" I blurted out.
Professor Oak narrowed his eyes. "I'm pretty sure that's impossible, Mr. Chelan. You won't have heard of me before, for I am not of the world."
I rolled my own eyes. "What does that even mean? You're not of the world? What are you even talking about?"
The professor put up his hands, and I realized that I was making a big mistake. If I got on this guy's bad side, I would pay the ultimate price.
"Look, Victor, I just want to cut to the chase. I have seven more cases to process before Orientation at 5:00 PM, so I'm in the home stretch. Please don't make this any harder than it needs to be."
"What's going on, though?" I asked. Then, realizing that I should be more tactful: "If you don't mind me asking, of course."
Professor Oak cleared his throat before answering.
"Well, you, Victor Chelan, are dead. There's no more polite way of saying it; you're just not among the living any longer. It's just the way it works on Earth."
Those words told me nothing that I didn't already know, and yet it was still jarring to hear them actually being said to me. If the moments surrounding my untimely demise weren't starting to come back, I might not have believed the professor.
"Do you remember how you died, Mr. Chelan?"
I gulped as the memory re-established itself in my mind. Seeing the man far adrift at sea, off of the sandy beach my family loved to visit in the summer. He was struggling to stay afloat, holding his arm above water like a periscope.
A less foolhardy person might have left the person to drown or, more likely, hope that a lifeguard came in to save them. But I couldn't just sit there on the beach towel and do nothing.
So I ran into the surf and swam out to the man. Paddling as quickly as I could being a pretty-good-but-not-amazing swimmer, I made it to the man just as his arm slipped underwater.
I was not a certified lifeguard; I had simply taken matters into my own hands. How ironic and tragic would it be that in my effort to rescue a stranger, I'd end up adding another person to the rescue instead?
As the memories came rushing into my brain once more, I remembered the utter feeling of helplessness, desperately wishing to take a breath but knowing there was only water around me. It's not something anybody wants to relive.
Welp, that's it, I'd thought to myself. This is the end. And to think it would end like this!
After a full minute of silence, I realized that Professor Oak still expected me to answer his question. So I did.
"Yeah. Drowned at sea while trying to save another swimmer from the same fate. It doesn't seem like I was successful."
Professor Oak shook his head. "Yes, despite one's best efforts, sometimes tragedies still happen. The man you tried to save drowned with you; it was all over by the time the lifeguards recovered your bodies."
I grimaced at the mental image. "Could we please stop talking about my death? It makes me rather uncomfortable."
"Ah, yes, sorry about that. I'm sure you don't want to remember all of those events, so I will instead move on to what's truly important, which brings me to the next topic.
"As we have already established, you are dead. And as you can probably guess, you have arrived at the portal to the afterlife."
"Uh...which religion was right?" I asked Professor Oak. If it's one of the ones where all the nonbelievers go to hell, I'm screwed.
The professor shook his head. "None of them. It had been said that not all religions could be right, but they could all be wrong; well, even many of those who said that were wrong!"
Okay, so the true religion is the one I never heard of. What are the odds?
"So," I said eventually, "am I up here or down here?" For those two italicized phrases, I gave a thumbs-up and thumbs-down respectively.
Professor Oak smiled. "I want you to be proud of yourself, Victor. You were determined to be sufficiently virtuous in life, and as such, you have made it into...well, it's not really heaven."
Even though he'd just said I wasn't in heaven, I couldn't help but be ecstatic at the news. A smile formed on my face, nearly a Cheshire grin, but I didn't care how silly I looked.
I'd achieved the ultimate goal of life, one I hadn't even thought possible. I had gotten into what some would call "the good place!"
"Calm down, Victor, I didn't say you were in heaven; indeed, I told you that you weren't. However, you will live on Paradise Island for your afterlife, so you should be very happy with how things turned out."
Paradise Island. Isn't that a massive resort in the Bahamas or something?
Professor Oak scratched his chin. "I wish to congratulate you once more. Not a lot of people make it to paradise; it's really disheartening that so few people do good in the world.
"Anyway, before I take you to your new home on Paradise Island, there are a few other matters we need to take care of. I promise you, you'll be settled in before you know it; these won't take very long."
My initial jubilation at having been accepted into the good place was beginning to fade, to be replaced with a trace amount of impatience. Still, compared to living a virtuous life, this was next to nothing, just a minor inconvenience.
"First of all, as a resident of Paradise Island, you will be required to attend the occasional meeting. The first one will be Orientation at five in the afternoon, where you and all the other new initiates will be given more instructions. Attendance is mandatory, like I said."
I had an irresistible impulse to ask the next question.
"What happens if I don't come to Orientation?" I wasn't actively considering skipping it, but my curiosity had gotten the better of me.
Professor Oak grimaced, as though the answer was something I wouldn't want to hear. While he didn't exactly answer the question, his expression was enough to make me even more committed to attending the event.
"Just come, please," the professor replied. "It'll be a good place for you to make new friends and meet others who were good enough people in life to be here."
Well, I suppose that's as good a reason as any.
"The next matter is that you will be matched up with a soulmate, someone you will live with on this island during your afterlife."
"A soulmate? I've never been in love before" I replied. It was true; during my time on Earth, I had never entered into a romantic relationship, reasoning that I had other things to worry about.
Professor Oak ignored that statement and opened one of the drawers in his desk. He then handed me an official-looking form to fill out.
"Please, for the love of Arceus, fill out this form with complete honesty. Once you have been assigned a soulmate, the process of getting a new one is very long and complicated, and you don't want to have to go through it."
"What does that entail?" I blurted out.
The professor looked taken aback. "Victor, with all due respect, you are asking too many questions. Just trust me on this, okay? And please, fill out the form. The sooner you complete it, the sooner you can begin your afterlife."
Well, that's one incentive.
Professor Oak handed me a mechanical pencil to fill out the sheet of paper, and I turned my attention to the first question.
Question 1: What is your favorite type of Pokemon? Choose up to two.
"Why is that relevant?" I asked the professor. "Why does my favorite category of fictional creature matter when it comes to my afterlife?"
"Pokemon aren't fictional, Victor. They're very much real in this world."
Okay. So it's not crazy enough already that there's an afterlife run by Professor Samuel Oak, but Pokemon have to be real too. Got it.
"That really surprises me," I replied. "Because on Earth, where I came from, Pokemon are just figments of the human imagination. They never existed in any real capacity."
"Honestly," the professor continued, "the status of Pokemon on Earth is rather insulting to me. They're such an integral part of this dimension, but to mortals, they are simply fictional creatures. How offensive is that?"
Truth be told, if my very existence was doubted, I'd feel pretty offended as well. I couldn't blame Professor Oak.
"Anyway, for the love of Arceus, fill out the damn form."
I thought for a few moments as to what Pokemon types I preferred; I was allowed two choices, and I had to fill in the oval next to my preferences.
Fire sounds nice in a poetic manner. If I'm spending eternity here, I'd better pick that. And then Flying...I'd love to be able to fly, feel the wind in my face and against my wings.
After deliberating for about fifteen seconds, just to make sure I was happy with my decisions, I filled in the ovals next to Fire and Flying types.
Question 2: Describe your dream home.
That one would take some effort to answer. I had never been much of an architect, and so hadn't given much thought to my ideal house.
I knew that I should be careful about what I wrote here, to make sure that it was precisely what my heart desired. I wouldn't get another chance.
In the end, I wrote down something about a modern, furnished log cabin next to the sea. A place where I could bring a picnic blanket down to the beach with my soulmate and eat dinner while watching seagulls fly by.
Don't get sentimental, Victor. Being poetic about your answers is really cringe-worthy.
Well, to put it one way, I had made my bed and would now have to lie in it. I turned my attention to the next question, all the while being aware of Professor Oak staring me down.
Question 3: What is your favorite food?
That was another difficult question. There were so many that I could have chosen from, but in the end I made my decision after two minutes of deliberation. It wasn't like whatever I chose would be the only thing I ate for the rest of time.
Do I even have to eat here, though? I'm already dead!
After I had written down my favorite food, there were five more questions to answer. I would like to say that I took great care in my responses, pondering the pros and cons of whatever answers I was considering, knowing just how impactful they would be.
However, I can't, because I didn't. The first things that came into my mind, I wrote down. I trusted my own intuition, and besides, this place was supposed to be paradise, so wouldn't it be amazing?
Once I had completely filled out the form, I gave it back to Professor Oak, who read it over with a smile.
"Okay. I will send this form over to the computer, which will process your profile and determine which home, and which potential soulmate, is the best fit for you."
My heart began beating rapidly, and it was the first time since waking up in the waiting room that I even noticed it. This shouldn't have been that surprising, but it was yet another piece of confirmation that this was real.
"Those are the only things we have to get through. I would like to thank you for your life, and once again welcome you to Paradise Island."
"Uh, sir…" I spoke up.
Professor Oak looked back at me incredulously. "Yes?"
"Where exactly is Paradise Island? The Caribbean? The South Pacific? Or is it somewhere else?"
"Once again, Mr. Chelan, Paradise Island isn't near anything on Earth. But to answer your question more specifically, it's one of the Alolan Islands."
"Oh wow", I replied with surprise in my voice, "the regions are real too!"
The professor nodded. "Yes, Alola is a real place. As soon as your survey is processed, you will walk through that door to your right."
"What door?"
Professor Oak typed a few commands into his computer and, out of nowhere, there appeared an elaborate doorway with a golden yellow frame, with the actual door being crimson red in color.
"And where does that door lead?" I asked him, still in disbelief. I could hardly believe that I was about to step into heaven.
"It will take you to the capital of Paradise Island, Enil Edam. From there, my assistant Lauren will show you to your new home."
"Uh-huh" I responded. "Sorry, it's just a lot of information to take in."
"I get it" the professor replied. "A lot of people have a hard time processing that they've made it here, or even that heaven is for real. But we'll do everything we can to make your transition as smooth as it can possibly be. Right, Lauren?"
Out of nowhere, a skinny woman who looked about thirty appeared just in front of the door. Her long, flowing hair was the color of chocolate, and she looked very pleased to see me.
"Hi, I'm Lauren!" the woman announced proudly.
"Victor, meet Lauren, my assistant. If you ever need anything here on Paradise Island, just say the word and she will give it to you."
"That's right!" Lauren exclaimed, showing off two rows of perfectly white teeth. They were so white that it couldn't be natural.
"In any case," Professor Oak continued, "you have now been assigned a dwelling, as well as a soulmate who already lives there. You are going to be moving in with her."
Before I had time to process what the professor was telling me, Lauren pointed to the door. "It's time, Victor, unless you want to linger here any longer."
"Nah, I'm good," I replied, remembering what Professor Oak had told me about having other peoples' cases to process. "Let's go."
I stood up from my chair and headed through the door with Lauren. I was not prepared for what lay on the other side.
I found myself standing beside Lauren in a town square. The midday sun shone brightly against the pavement, but I felt no urge to cover my eyes. I didn't even need sunglasses.
The square itself contained buildings made of stone, except that this wasn't your ordinary stone that you would see in medieval Europe, for instance. No, this stone looked a lot fancier, having been painted over in various colors; amber, ochre, aquamarine, scarlet, lime green, sky blue...the list was nearly endless.
In the middle of the square stood a small common green, the grass perfectly manicured. There was a fountain in the middle with a twenty-foot statue of a deerlike creature.
"Is that statue of...what was the name of that Pokemon, again? The one who created the universe?"
Lauren gave me a weird look, but there didn't seem to be any ill intent present.
"That's Arceus, and yes, he is the Creator of all things. He's honored in numerous places on Paradise Island, including here in Enil Edam."
I nodded to show that I'd understood. I hadn't done too much traveling before; I certainly had never seen a city as beautiful as this one.
"Oh! I almost forgot!" Lauren exclaimed. She reached into her handbag (which I hadn't noticed being there before) and handed me a roll of parchment. "Here is a map to your new home. Good luck, and enjoy your afterlife."
With that, Lauren snapped her fingers and vanished.
Well, great. I have to find my home now. On the bright side, I do have the map, and all the time in the world.
I unrolled the parchment and saw that Enil Edam was actually a rather small city, located at the crest of a hill overlooking the rest of Paradise Island. The island contained some hills, a tropical rainforest, and several beaches, including the one my new address was situated next to.
Okay...I need to find my way to 1109 Palm Drive. This map is going to be a big help; I don't have a very good sense of direction.
As it turned out, the city of Enil Edam was very easy to navigate. It was basically just a grid, with the streets at perfect ninety-degree angles to one another. All I needed to do was find the way out.
My trip through the capital felt simultaneously like a daze and like the most vivid experience of my entire existence. The smells of freshly baked bread, flowers blooming near windows, and more pleasing scents wafted around the place, without any vehicle noise to distract me from them.
Along the way, I passed various humans and Pokemon. They were walking down the avenues lined with palm trees, hanging out at small sidewalk restaurants, or eating ice cream in the parks. I definitely approve of this city's large amount of green space.
Additionally, every time I saw Pokemon, whether they be Ivysaur, Squirtle, Chamander, or any other species, I had to pinch myself to make sure they were real. That I wasn't dreaming.
Once I was out of Enil Edam, I was able to get a better view of my surroundings. Just like the map had shown, the city was very close to the ocean, with tropical grasslands covering the area between the city and a small seaside village.
Consulting my map, I saw that the village in question was where my new address was located. It was probably about three miles away from the city's outskirts, a distance that might have tired me had it been flat. However, it was all downhill from here, quite literally.
I hope the phrase, "all downhill from here" doesn't describe my overall existence on Paradise Island.
As I passed by pineapple fields, palm groves, and several flower gardens, I became aware of a light sea breeze against my back. The ocean was one of my favorite smells, and it was reminiscent of days spent at the beach, before the unfortunate incident leading to my death.
The cobblestone path turned to gravel beneath my sneakers, and I soon realized that I had entered the village.
There couldn't have been more than fifty dwellings or so in the area, but all of them were larger than my house had been in my previous life. Each of them had expansive gardens, with flowers blooming every color in the rainbow save for green. And who needed green flowers when the emerald fields glimmered in the sun?
Palm Drive, the street Lauren had told me to seek out, was the closest one to the ocean. True to its name, the gravel path, not nearly wide enough for a car, was lined with more coconut palms. The trees were gently swaying in the wind, but no coconuts were falling, thankfully.
If one lands on my head, can I die again? Not that I want to, of course!
Number 1109 was a three-story log cabin with a balcony on the third floor. It was situated on a peninsula overlooking the water, with a small field of pineapple plants next to the cliff.
The home itself was just as large as the others, but didn't look nearly as opulent as the others.
I'm sure it's fine enough, though, since it was literally designed with me in mind. I think I'm gonna like it here!
I walked up the stairs, realizing that this was it. As soon as I opened that door, I'd be thrust headlong into life with a soulmate, with all of its perks and pitfalls. I would get a clear glance of where I'd be living forever.
And yes, I am going to live forever. Everyone here is. What a sweet deal!
Still, I was quite nervous. Even though I wasn't winded from the trek here, I found myself breathing heavily as I lifted the golden gargoyle to knock on the door.
At first, there was no answer. But then I knocked again, and the door opened outward.
I was not prepared for what I saw on the other side.
If you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, I would love if you would be so kind as to leave a review. Feedback and constructive criticism help out a lot, and will help me make this the best story it can be.
And if you want to contact me on Discord to talk about anything, I can be reached at "Lucas Whitefur#7822", leaving out the quotation marks. I hope you all stay safe, and I'll see you guys next time!