a) everyone dies, everyone's conscious. angels/demons judge the worth of people, and if they're Truly Bad they get sent to the firepit to suffer since the afterlifers favor a human sort of morality. They may eventually be released, thousands of years later. most humans (and spirits/youkai/etc.) are also provided therapy. (maybe palmer wants to enact permanent punishments! "he literally killed and raped babies, cath!" "ok fair, but.") in this case, there's likely a thriving animal crossing-esque economy as people have their restaurants and stuff run by dead people. as for the people who have to do things like dish wash, magic is gr8.

b) everyone dies, not everyone's conscious and is either auto-reincarnated or stuck in a diff plane of reality that's between earth and the afterlifers. occasional stragglers are intentionally (or not) spat out into the afterlifer tier where they're offered a job. in cases like this there's probably less room for a lot of a population that isn't pushing papers, so there's a lot more only enjoying restaurants that are currently existing on earth.


addendums/musings/tea parties:
i) while the river lethe/forgetfulness likely exists, i'm not sure if it'd be favorable to use it since the individual and the identity are so heavily favored in this afterlife, and forgetting too much could be bad. on the other, it could help with stuff like ptsd because i don't think metal illness is a thing in the afterlife either.

ii) vampires are, on paper, a job interview for demon aligned people that allows them to have a test of character when they have such a large advantage physically over humans while still having to keep proximity with them. they're also a great social experiment. they're also, on the down low, a way for the afterlifers to extend pity to humans stuck in otherwise sad/boring circumstances to actually apply their potential.

iii) palmer is definitely stuck in a time loop with no clear goal. he keeps quiet for the most part, but he's tried different things in different loops, like giving up his position as satan, or running away, or losing/letting the horrorterrors consume everyone and everything. since they land him back at the start, he isn't sure whether this is sisyphian or something positive. he's also never gotten with cath. could potentially have started off as a human before getting a gig as an afterlifer and climbing up the ladder until he landed in his position and then the Memes began.

iv) if it isn't too much trouble, ev is likely a kitsune, and silkies tend to houses. palmer probably has to play mediator with the humans and the spirits and the fact that angels/demons are technically head honchos, horns and wings on the eyes and all. otherwise, ev is inhuman in origin no matter what.

v) pet heaven? a must.

vi) satan/palmer's a revolutionary through and through so to be the one in charge of the "mainstream" is a sort of weird irony. also has a weird balance of not minding atrocities while still claiming (and does) care about humanity as a whole. it's probably just appreciating free will. he does like free will.

vii) cath is probably mad at palmer bc he's terrible at romance and keeps trying to spar/fight her and she can't tell if he likes her or not because he sends mixed signals out the wazoo.

viii) cath could've been the one to actually give palmer that first taste of viva la revolution regarding some matter or another, and she might feel a little bit guilty about it but it also shows she's not All Goody Two Shoes.

ix) cath probably tries very hard to be a cool older sister to diana but she's still the neurotic obnoxious tryhard we know and love.

x) cath and palmer and co are def inhumane (as are humans that die now) and likely rebelled against something. probably not god bc that's boring (hell, maybe cath's god, get some female rep on here before tumblr skewers us) but maybe the old satan&co in charge.

xi) cath and palmer have a tender small wedding before the big formal political one bc that one is likely full of a bunch of old fuddy duddies who have a lot of Hot Takes on what the wedding should be. also probably some SUPER old guard being upset about the demon/angel thing.

xii) sin/virtuespawn (horroterrors) are definitely abominations and some may theorize that they're the end all be all of ascending but really they're just bits of dust that you need to sweep up now and then. some researchers/magical practitioners also get a little Too selfish and want to leave their "limitations" and the reason that angels/demons have to stamp them down when they get Like That is because being formless and having no boundaries creates an unfortunate paradox that tries to consume everyone that Rather Likes Themselves. ofc, the argument can still be made that it's people willfully handicapping themselves, but palmer is lowkey "jjjjust trust me."