I think to myself, why is this the life we sought?


    The beauty of life is the beauty of thought.


    We hear, then we think, and we speak and we see.


    We can think of anything, and it''s all for free.


    But the best of thoughts come from people who made


    the most genius of efforts, and with results they''re paid.


    Ideas come and go, some live and most don''t.


    Will that stop me from thinking? No, it won''t.


    But a good idea is good, and we love to follow,


    while a bad idea is bad, and we''re left to wallow.


    The idea I''ve made, it was good, then became bad.


    And I wallow in shame, lost and clueless and sad.


    I will continue to think, but for now I shall sink.


    Death of an Idea,


    by Bonnie Yvette Jolivette.


    "Oh! There''s a tour going on? May I come along?"


    "Yes, please! You are welcome to come along!"


    ...


    Okay, so, Yvette is starting to regret her greatest idea ever to get out of work, and affectionately- ever so affectionately devised a poem in her head, to express the turmoil of thinking.


    The idea she planned out: take a ghost on tour, use him as an excuse to not go through random encounters with other ghosts, eat her food and do other things, then go back to her realm after a very elaborately thought out break.


    However, moments after she got off of the train, Mr. "Died in the Sand" Ghost over here is accompanied by dozens of ghosts following him. Apparently, there is a really high number of new ghosts that are also interested in a tour around Nihil Central, and the guy did a bit of kind, free word-of-mouth advertising for Yvette''s tour in particular- demand is high and now Yvette''s gaining a following.


    And it only gets bigger and bigger as they walk. The fact that Yvette has a few ghosts following her attracts attention as they travel through the station, and Sand Ghost''s very effective advertising ends up causing a few to turn to a dozen. There were now at least twelve ghosts following her, before they even leave the station.


    Not only that... Sandy Ghost is very curious! He asks questions about a lot of things, all questions centered around Nihil Central- even about the trains! The convoluted nature of all the trains operating at once, especially when they leave Nihil Central and start heading to other people''s realms, is a topic of discussion alone for him!


    "So, Miss Tour Guide Jolivette-" Sand Ghost asks, still using the full given title and asking the first of many, MANY questions in his generous helping of curiosity. "How do the trains work? Like, there aren''t any tracks for the trains to go on. Are they just flying trains?"


    "..."


    Yvette''s immediate thought: how in the depths of Nihil is SHE supposed to know how the dead people train works?!


    Her next immediate thought: this could have been a casual, question free tour if it was just her and Sandy Guy over here, probably a whole "oh, I don''t know, let''s find out together" kind of thing. Make it a sweet, easy thing. But no, the girl has a large tour group, and is now realizing that in order to be a tour guide, you have to KNOW THE THINGS YOU''RE TOUR GUIDING.


    Yvette is in too deep, though. She has a crowd of ghosts following her and cannot afford to be honest about the fact she''s not actually an informed tour guide...


    ... so, time to put her confidence face on and- go for it.


    "Well, every train in Nihil is fueled by fairy and pixie dust, you see?" Yvette lies through her teeth, making up a fake answer on the spot.


    "Fairies and pixies? They exist...?" asks Sandy Ghost.


    "Yes, they do!" Yvette continues, really selling this lie. "See, we have workers in Nihil Central who go out on daily runs to scavenge the planet for leftover dust, sweeping and mopping all of it up into buckets. After that, they then bring the dust to Nihil in order to put it in the trains."


    "Ohhhhhhh!" noises the sand-dead ghost that was eating this lie up, causing the tour group as a whole to collectively join in along with him. The group seems satisfied with this answer so far, not having much reason to doubt her- especially since they don''t have the right to say anything about things not being real, most (if not all) of them were amnesiac ghosts in some sort of bizarre black and white afterlife. All reason goes out the window!


    ... and Yvette came to a second realization: she''s really good at lying to dead people, and is actually having a lot of fun doing it!


    Once they were out of the station, the group ends up in the center of Central Nihil - not to be confused with Nihil Center, the grand four story building constructed of pure white marble that processes all the professional dead people stuff.


    No, Central Nihil consists of the entire land, including the station, the building- and everything in between the station and building.


    And what is right between the train station and this building? A large, recreational park that still follows the greyscale coloring. Black bar fences, white stone pathways, pure gray grass- and, right in the center of it, a grand water fountain that dispenses transparent... water.


    This is a grand spectacle that catches the tour group''s attention.


    "Ohhh. Miss Tour Guide Jolivette," asks the Sandy Ghost again. Seeking Yvette''s wisdom and truly believing her to be a well knowledgeable and reliable tour guide. "If you don''t mind me asking, how is all of this made? What goes into making and fixing the center of Nihil, here? Is it pure stone mined from the planet?"


    Ahhh... another thing Yvette doesn''t know...


    ... roll with it. "Well, no, we can''t use stone. To anyone unfamiliar, stone comes from the planet ''Earth'', and all of that is for the living humans to use. Limited resources and stuff. We''d cause a ton of dead people if we took any bits of Earth from there."


    "Oh. Then what do you use?" Sandy Ghost asks.


    "Well- milk." Yvette answers, coming up with something on the spot.


    "M... Milk?" The tour group blinks at this answer, confused and- staring at the white parts of the Nihilian architecture. "All of that is milk?"


    "Yes, milk," Yvette answers again, and... uhm... clears her throat. "See, Death very much enjoys milk for many reasons. One is that, given the right steps, a bottle of milk is enough to construct a wall in Nihil. Quite like how it solidifies into chunks when it goes bad on Earth, milk makes a very- very good building material in Nihil."


    "Oh... how does he, uhm, use the material?"


    Yvette nods contently at this question, and is in complete and utter disbelief that she''s getting away with this.


    "Ah, yes, good question. The process is very intricate, something only Death can achieve. See, he first lathers his bone fingers in... "solidity", a thin layer of dust that he coats his entire hands in. Then Death proceeds to run the milk through his fingers, essentially stripping it of its edibleness and turning it into a malleable clay. After that, he has about thirty minutes to shapes it accordingly with his bare hands, and... voila, building."


    Astonished, impressed looks on the ghosts'' faces at this information, just... finding it very, very hard to believe this.


    "Oh, the Grim Reaper isn''t just good at collecting souls! He is quite the visionary," Sandy Ghost responds, believing every single word that Yvette says... scratching his ghost chin. "So how does he fix it when it cracks or breaks?"


    "It''s kind of like constructing a snowman. Get more milk, go through the process, then pat the milk with his bone hands to fix it all."If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    "Ohhhhh. And where does he get the milk, Miss Tour Guide Jolivette?" Sandy Ghost then asks, speaking for the entire tour group. "If you cannot get the stone from the planet, then- I imagine you cannot get the milk from cows to do the same thing, so...?"


    A long pause as Yvette thinks on this heavily, scratching her head and pretending that she''s trying to remember the real reason...


    "... humans," Yvette eventually lies to them.


    Visible astonishment and shock from the ghosts as Yvette says this. "Humans?! You can collect milk from humans?!"


    Yvette takes a deep breath, trying her best not to lose it. "Yes. They produce a lot of it when they fall asleep."


    ... visible disgust on all of the ghosts at this explanation, all of them just staring at the building and questioning-


    "No, no, okay, I see those looks on your faces, it''s a very common misconception," Yvette immediately speaks up, not wanting a single one of them reporting or complaining about the lie she''s made up. "So you know how sometimes in cartoons, comics- whatever it is you all watched or read when you were alive, a person falls asleep and a thick white fluffy bubble appears over their head? A thought bubble to symbolize their dreams?"


    ... collective confusion as half of them didn''t understand what Yvette is talking about, while the other half of the ghosts either- know, or pretend to know.


    "Well, we collect it from there, those bubbles. You people don''t see it when you''re alive, because only a select few workers from Nihil can see them. From there, they go out in the middle of the night and collect these human dreams, which is then processed by Death himself as a- hobby," Yvette explains, having the most straight face on this entire plane of existence.


    "Oh... that''s fascinating!" Sandy Ghost speaks up, now less disgusted and more astonished and amazed.


    "Wait, excuse me, so if the white buildings are milk- what is the black made of, Miss Tour Guide Jolivette?" asks a sweet old lady ghost, joining in on the trend that Sand Ghost is starting and calling her by that full title. "What does Death use to create the black fences and all?"


    Yvette calmly, ever so calmly goes: "... nightmares. The nightmares people have make this goopy stuff that isn''t milk, but- more spoiled milk. It turns gray with the slightest bit of scary, with the most horrifying of nightmares being pitch black."


    "Ohhhh."


    The old lady seems very satisfied and happy with that answer, and Yvette is met with applause. The tour group starting to applaud and praise the architecture with their loving faces, absolutely respecting and admiring the milksmanship. Astounded and amazed that humans could contribute to construction in such a way.


    Yvette is still amazed that she''s getting away with all of this, trying her best to keep calm as she and the group walk through the park with the ghosts. The girl is taking a deep breath and pepping herself up in her head. Trying her best not to lose it, mentally preparing herself for the gauntlet of tour guide lies once they actually enter the building.


    Once they''re in Nihil Center, there''s going to be an entire building of staff there to fact check anything and everything Yvette says... so she has to walk on eggshells once inside. Not only that, she has to give a good enough tour that satisfies these ghosts and makes them believe she showed them everything public that Nihil Center has to offer.


    However... Yvette doesn''t think much about what the ghosts could ask about once they''re inside. Maybe she doesn''t have to lie about most of Nihil Center once they enter the building. The ghosts could just admire all the architecture and walk around, focused on how all of it''s made of milk.


    Yes, they... they shouldn''t be curious about anything going on in this building, right?


    Right?


    "So, Miss Tour Guide Jolivette, who are those ghosts, and what exactly are they doing?"


    ... wrong.


    Oh no. Yvette looks to the receptionist''s desks, calmly staring at the very busy staff doing things back there. Flying all around and carrying large papers all about.


    Yvette at least knows this one, and can tell the truth about it. "The Grim Reaper employs outside help to keep Nihil running. Some of them include your fellow ghosts, who have applied to work in order to give their nameless, identity-less existences meaning. Nihil Center very much depends on them to handle papers and stuff to- record all of you and keep you all content."


    "Ohhh."


    And so the questions keep coming as Yvette just goes about her merry way.


    "Why does Nihil Center have all these photos of several Greek gods and goddesses...?" a ghost asks, looking to see visual representations of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades- as well as many of hte others, to which Yvette doesn''t know anything about. "Are the Greeks right about religion?"


    "Well, not exactly. Here in Nihil, we believe that every single religion- exists, all dependent on the soul that believes in it," Yvette... tells the truth, at least in the context of Nihil. That is actually something that Nihil''s meant to do. "And we send you to the appropriate afterlife, depending on whichever one you believed in when you were alive."


    "Oh. So, then, the pictures here are specifically hung because...?"


    "These are Death''s personal hand-drawn fan art of those Greek deities," Yvette then lies. "On top of constructing buildings, he''s a very talented artist. Secretly, he has a massive crush on all of them and kind of draws- paints, so on and so forth, because it gives him a romantic thrill every time he gets to share his secret and not-to-be-revealed love for these entities. He even has a personal photograph of him and the Christian God hanging out together, taken with permission and all."


    "Ohhh."


    Then, they make it to Nihil''s food court, where Yvette gets something to eat- and also gets these ghosts stuff to eat, too. Many of the ghosts obtaining various kinds of translucent ghost food stylized to their own persona diets, while Yvette has an entire chicken burrito protein bowl (the ingredients of a burrito, all in a plastic bowl instead of a burrito) right in front of her. All of it pretty much at an employee discount.


    "What exactly is the food here made of, Miss Tour Guide Jolivette?" a ghost asks for the group, curious about what goes into food made in Nihil.


    "The cheers and emotions that comes from performances ends up reaching Nihil, to which those sounds and feelings are converted from sound to food," Yvette lies, scooping a bit of her beans and tomatoes to eat. "The laughs from a stand-up comedy show, for example."


    "Ohhhhhhh."


    Leaving the court after eating, Yvette then continues to walk along, heading to the Journal Drop-Off station on the other side of the first floor. Heading down the hallways with the tour group, all of them passing by several doors.


    "This part, we''re told about! These doors go to several private rooms to check up on how the spirit is doing," Sandy Ghost speaks up, coincidentally and happily doing Yvette''s tour for her in that moment.


    But it''s when Yvette drops her (barely even written in) journal off that they have new questions. Yvette slides her book into a hole, and needed to wait for a few minutes before she can continue walking, giving them ample opportunity for Sandy Ghost to ask:


    "Ah, so, Miss Tour Guide Jolivette, what is exactly done with what you write in your journals? Do the gods read it and decide what happens to us with their wisdom?"


    "No," Yvette tells the truth, knowing full well that Death is the only... religious force... that even cares about Nihil''s processes. Then, she lies. "The notes are taken and sent to a secret council that Death elects, not even us workers and employees have seen ourselves. Rumors say that they''re a bunch of sentient, talking animals. Death''s personal pets, all of which gain their wisdom across time and space. A dog, a cat, a gerbil, maybe even an elephant, all of them gathered up and deciding in due time when all of you are ready."


    "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"


    And after Yvette gets her book basically cleaned out and refreshed, she walks the tour back to the lobby. The place as busy as ever.


    "And- that concludes our tour, unfortunately," Yvette tells them. "You all have been wonderful."


    "Oh, the tour is ending so soon?" asks the Sandy Ghost.


    "Well, yes... there isn''t a lot that happens in Nihil to warrant anything- special, unfortunately," Yvette tells the tour group, scratching the back of her head.


    The ghosts now seem visibly disappointed, sighing audibly-


    "Wait, but Miss Tour Guide Jolivette, what about the Naming Ceremonies?" asks a ghost. "I thought we were going to, at least, see one of those..."


    Yvette then pauses, looking to the ghost that says this. Ceremonies? What? "... seeing the public ceremony?"


    "Well- yes," the ghost starts to explain to Yvette and the other tour ghosts. "The Naming Ceremonies are the biggest events in Nihil. When an amnesiac is ready to obtain a name for their soul, they''re scheduled into a show for an audience of ghosts. Then their names are announced in a grand spectacle, and they''re certified."


    "I seeeeee..." Yvette speaks with a drawn out voice, struggling to remain composed.


    But Yvette freezes as she sees the entire tour group seem to know what this ghost''s talking about, agreeing with her and also expressing confusion that- that the tour was ending here.


    The Sandy Ghost, however, didn''t know that at all! "Oh! That sounds wonderful, actually! I didn''t know about it."


    "Then you must be a new arrival, fully new and all. It''s common knowledge among us ghosts here. While the examinations and checkups are private, the Naming Ceremonies are one of the only things us ghosts can even do. The one problem is that these seats are filled up really quickly, with most of us having to schedule months in advance, so I never got to see one personally- was looking forward to seeing one today..."


    "Ohhhh!" the Sandy Ghost exclaims, looking back at Yvette. "So that''s why you were walking us around during your personal business. Were you trying to surprise us by pretending you didn''t know about it, Miss Tour Guide Jolivette?"


    Yvette has a visible poker face as this ghost explains this, having had NO INFORMATION about this, and- watches as the ghosts look to her, as she''s put under the spotlight. Her red gaze staring at all of the ghosts in silence. Unsure what her next action should be. Uncertain what she should do now after she''s come so far.


    A reasonable person would probably be honest and say they didn''t have that planned. Sure, disappointing a group of ghosts is probably going to feel bad, but it''s better to own up to it and call it a day, right? Right?


    "Well, you... you got me, I definitely knew that! And I was, like, preparing to surprise all of you...!"


    Yvette thought to herself: Yvette? Yvette, what are you doing?


    "You said it yourselves, the seats are often filled, so... you know, I... uhm... I have some seats prepared, yes!" Yvette lies through her teeth, cheerfully speaking up to the tour group with feigned glee and joy. "I just need to go pick up the tickets, just wait here! Alright?"


    And the ghosts cheer up almost immediately as she tells them this! Collectively overjoyed, excited, happy- looking very forward to the show now.


    The show that Yvette did not, in fact, know about whatsoever.


    So Yvette- smiles and nods, and walks to the receptionist''s desk. Readying to pick up the tickets and all for the Naming Ceremony, the show she did not know about, the show she doesn''t have tickets for and the show that fills its seats very quickly. Ready to pick up those tickets.


    And as Yvette walks, she is currently thinking to herself:


    FOR VOID''S SAKE, YVETTE. YOU''RE IN <u>TOO DEEP</u>, GIRL!