"What time is it?"

"It's Adventure Time!"

"Haha, man that show was awesome and nothing is better than thinking about cartoons to pass the time."

"Luckily, I've watched just about every cartoon under the sun and know all of them like the back of my hand. "

"Otherwise, waiting in this line would be utter torture."

Dean glanced at the back of his hand, both out of pure boredom and to prove his point.

After all, it would be embarrassing to say he knew cartoons like the back of his hand only to discover a new mole that he'd never known was there.

Dean glanced at his hand and saw that it was nearly... translucent.

'Translucent, wa-wasn't it nearly solid the last time I looked at it.'

His mind began to spin as he stared at his hand in a daze.

'Let me think about what I've done since I've been here?'

'First, I meekly accepted the fact that I'm dead. Second, I unquestionably accepted my fate of becoming nothing more than a soul. Third, I obediently stood in line like a retard. Fourth, I... .'

With every sentence, Dean felt more and more like a clown and the somewhat translucent veins on his forehead began to throb because of his frustration at himself.

'What the hell have I been doing since I got here?'

'I find out that I'm dead, trapped in a line filled with ghosts, and seem to be losing my essence and all I can think to do is stand in line like everyone else here?'

'Th-this isn't how I'd normally react in a situation like this. My actions are very inconsistent with how I usually do things.'

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'Sure, I wasn't enthused with my life, but I never had any blatant suicidal tendencies. The worst I've done is actively neglect my health and leave my door unlocked at night when I went to sleep.'

'After all, even a pig knows how to lust afterlife.'

'So, why are my thoughts and actions so weird and submissive.'

Dean's face was scrunched in concentration when a blue 'fleck' of light drifted by his face. It twisted and fluttered as if carried by some invisible wind before dissipating in the void a short distance away.

'That's it!'

The confusion in Dean's mind was toppled aside like a trashcan on a windy day and his understanding of the void around him deepened by another level.

'It's-it's this place. It has to be!'

'Everyone here are spirits, ghosts, souls, or whatever you wish to call them. Right now, all we have is our essence which is comprised of our memories, experiences, and who we are as a person.'

'Following this train of thought, the blue substance that's slowly leaving us is our essence while the white orb that floats in our chest must be our souls.'

'It seems that this place slowly but surely robs us of this essence until all we're left with is the pure and untainted soul that we all have.'

'Previously, I guessed that this place was the afterlife that would lead us to heaven, hell, or even reincarnation but it seems that I was too naive.'

This was an old habit of Dean's when he was trying to unravel a difficult problem. He'd recap the things that he already knew before transitioning to the next logical train of thought.

'I childishly believed that everything would be okay because of the sheer number of other people here with me. I'd hoped that whatever force capable enough to gather us all here wouldn't have any malicious motives, but I was wrong.'

"We're nothing more than sheep being led to the slaughter'' Dean gave a rueful chuckle at the grim reality of things.

All of a sudden the seemingly empty darkness around him seemed to have come alive.

It was as if he was being stared at by a hungry, stealthy predator and at any moment he would be knocked unconscious and dragged into the darkness. When he came to he'd find himself being boiled in a pot.

"Even if that is the case what can I do about it?" Dean gave a dark chuckle at the absurdity of the situation.

Who cares if he knew what was going on? Who cares if he had any grievances about being robbed of his very existence?

In the face of overwhelming force, the weak can only accept their fate!

Right on cue, the figure in front of him who was practically nothing more than a floating white orb finally lost the last vestiges of their essence.

The last remnants of blue drifted away from their figure leaving behind nothing more than a white orb that silently floated in place.

Dean sadly shook his head feeling empathy for that poor soul and sadness at knowing that he too would soon meet the same fate

Dean released a heartfelt sigh and summarized what was going on with one simple, but profound truth "There are some things in this world you just can't fight against."

'Sigh, Zeref said the same thing in the... in the... um, what anime was that in?'

'Wait... what is anime again? I feel like it's somewhat similar to cart... to carto...'

"Hehe. I seem to have forgotten several things" Dean who had never stopped laughing from earlier began to laugh even harder.

"Now that I think about it, general knowledge and bits and pieces of my memories are all that I seem to be able to remember" Dean began to laugh even harder cackling with a force he never knew he had.

"So that's it huh!? This place will slowly whittle me away until all that remains is my soul."

"However, it'll no longer be me. It'll be nothing more than a soul bereft of any essence."

"Perhaps at that point, this place will simply recycle my soul via reincarnation to slowly accumulate essence throughout its next life."

It was then that the soul from the individual in front of him slowly began to move. It wavered in place for a bit before diagonally ascending coincidentally passing right by Dean's face.

He blankly stared at the orb for a split second before a vicious gleam flashed through his eyes "Get over here!"