bakerstreet | Well, now that you're dead...

Well, now that you're dead...

The Train to the Afterlife Meme

Congratulations: You are dead.

Maybe you know how, maybe you don't. Perhaps the memory is fuzzy, or perhaps it's crystal clear down to the look in your comrades' eyes. Maybe it was your time; you've done all you wanted to. Or maybe you weren't at all ready to go, maybe you went out kicking and screaming - but none of it matters. You know you're dead, and the train is taking you to an afterlife. Perhaps an afterlife of your choice; you might've earned that heaven. Or perhaps you've earned something else entirely.

It'll be a bit of a journey, though, so you might as well take your time and talk to the other people in your coach. Death knows no place: most of them are strangers, even from faraway worlds. But death knows no time either, so who knows, some of them may be people you know, even if last you knew, they were alive - or long gone.

Oh look, here comes the snack cart.

All the usual:

Post with your character's name and canon in the subject line.
Said character is now dead for whatever reason - canon, AU, what have you. They are on a train with other dead people from many other times, places and worlds.
Characters don't know for a fact where they're headed - just a general awareness that they're going to some kind of afterlife. Whatever they think it is is up to the player.
This meme is built especially for cross-canon interaction, and potentially for threadjacking and group threading - if you're interested, may be a good idea to state as much in your subject line.
Tag around and play nice!
TRIGGER WARNING: Meme obviously deals with death and may deal with other unpleasant themes as a result. Please be cautious.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[A voice test...]

[He's been waiting. Shiro's been told he can wait for his team and he's stuck stubbornly to it, pacing the hallways of the train car at each stop, relaxing when he finds all of the seats occupied by shadowy faces he doesn't recognize. Up and down, up and down the aisles until he can finally reassure himself and find a seat until the next stop.

He has no idea how long he's been holding the pattern. Waiting and hoping he never finds anyone he's looking for.

And he still feels the shock, eyes going wide, when he finally does recognize a voice, just as the snack cart goes past. Three long strides up the aisle and -

quiznak.]

Lance?

[Yeah, things were never quite the same after they lost Shiro. Those brief few days or weeks when the five of them had been flying by the seat of their pants but still having the time to laugh were definitely behind them. Sure, that didn't mean Lance hadn't tried to help lighten the mood with pranks and jokes but everything fell just a little more empty with Shiro not there.]

[Stakes were raised and the war was constantly breathing down their necks. Keith had taken over and he'll admit he wasn't very kind to him at the start but... there had been more important things to worry about, once their arguing nearly got someone else killed.]

[Lance piloted a leg, but he did his best after that to be Keith's right hand. They did okay, he thinks.]

[That doesn't stop the sinking feeling when he wakes up on the train. When he realizes he fucked up and took a risk too big, wrote a check his ass couldn't cash, and left the team without another paladin.]

[That commotion is Lance trying to argue with the attendant with the cart about turning the train around.]

Look, this train, if it's even really a train, already exists outside of reality, right? You have to be able to turn it around. I've got important stuff to do! I'm a paladin of-

[He goes awfully still at hearing his name. He turns and oh boy. His eyes go wide with bewilderment and maybe Lance realizes then, that he's not going anywhere.]

Oh my god.

[Shiro has no idea how much time has passed. Years he hopes. Decades. He'd be content with a century or two.

But no matter how much time its been... some things apparently never change.

It would be reassuring, he'd even smile about it but - not finding out this way. Not if Lance is arguing that things were left undone.

Shiro himself looks exactly the way he last did and he holds both of his arms out from his sides.

No, Lance. You only get off this train one way. And its not backward.]

Long time no see.

[Yeah. That pretty much takes the fight out of him. Shiro was here, which means he really was deader than a door nail, which meant he wasn't going back and he couldn't-]

[This wasn't the way it was supposed to go.]

Holy shit.

[He swallows. How the hell could he face Shiro like this.]

Shiro, tell them to turn the train around. I-I have to go back. I fucked up.

[ah. He feels it in his chest when he sees the look on Lance's face. You can still hurt, on this train, and Shiro feels it.

But this is what he's here for. It's what he's stayed behind for. And so he walks over and rests his hands on Lance's shoulders, grip gentle but firm. Like his voice and the look in his eyes.]

What happened?

[There's something grounding about that look coupled in with his hands on his shoulders. It's painfully nostalgic and it makes his chest feel tight, but he holds it together. Don't fall apart in front of Shiro, Lance, you're not a little kid anymore.]

[He closes his eyes and tries to think back.]

We were taking down ship- a big one. It had a lot of important plans and blue prints and we'd ...manage to get them but I had the bright idea to overload the ships power source and blow it apart to make sure no one could get in behind us. I ...I don't think I cleared the blast.

[Shiro listens solemnly. So, they're still fighting. He'd hoped they wouldn't be, by the time he finally started meeting them here but - he knew, even back when he'd first agreed to wait, that the odds weren't in their favor. That the chances were higher he'd meet them after battle than old age.

He still wishes it could have been something else. His voice is gentle and he lifts one hand to rest it on the back of Lance's head. Sorry.]

No. Looks like you didn't.

[He looks back at him with wide eyes. It really sets in then. It drops like a weight, heavy and icy cold.]

Fuck.

[And the panic sets in. He couldn't leave the fight yet, they were finally getting momentum. They were fighting back. Someone had to be there to keep Keith grounded, that's what he'd promised. Holy shit he never made it back to earth- his fucking family--]

Fuck!

[He pulls away from Shiro and starts to head very quickly, desperately to the front of the car. He had to turn this shitty train around. He couldn't die like this.]

[Looks like you might have to go after him, Shiro.]

[There is no front of the train. Just car after car until at some point you start back where you begin. The only time it changes -

the only time it changes is when it comes to the final stop. Shiro's watched that junction come and go more times than he can remember. There's only one exit. Shiro hasn't taken it yet. He won't until all his team are accounted for.

He doesn't try to stop Lance either though. His reaction hadn't been that different himself. He just follows, ready to be there when he's needed, letting Lance have his head as long as he needs it.

It twists in his gut. It must be bad. It must be very bad, back there, if Lance is so frantic now.]

[It's bad and Lance just doesn't know what to do with the thought of leaving everyone behind. Leaving everything behind. He runs through the train without stopping until he passes the snack cart he was originally harassing when Shiro found him. It takes him a few strides to realize it. Of course there was no way off this train. He's not sure what made him think he could actually try to turn it around other than pure desperation and the need to do something about this.]

[He slows down to a stop at the edge of that car and stares up at the ceiling. His clenched fists not doing a great job hiding the way his hands are shaking.]

[This was it. He was dead. He barks out an unsteady laugh.]

You know, it's not like I'm not glad to see you again.

[He comes to a stop behind Lance when the other paladin finally does, close enough to touch but still distant enough to give him space. He never had the relationship with Lance that he did with Keith or Pidge but there was never any doubt at all that he cared for the other man and thought highly of him, considered him a sound addition to their team and the team dynamic.

He didn't have enough time with them though. If he'd had more time...

That's not the way things work and he doesn't say anything right away when Lance finally speaks. Instead he weighs his words, deciding if this calls for balm or a quick break. In the end, he goes with a gentle but straight-forward:]

Tell me what's happened since I've been gone.

[Keith knew this was coming. Ever since they lost Shiro, he'd known it was over. To his credit, he did try his best to lead the team, but he was never meant to be a leader. He was too impulsive, too reckless and stubborn. He tried to be Shiro, but he just...wasn't, and the team was falling apart.

And now the entire universe was going to suffer for it.

He sits alone, staring blankly out the window with his legs drawn to his chest. It's over. He had imagined death would bring peace, some quiet, but that same anger still burns in his heart. He's still a failure.]

[To his credit maybe half the problem was Keith trying too hard to be Shiro. Something Lance probably should have voiced sooner. There wasn't much he could do about it now. Things really had gone to shit and not just because they lost Shiro. However Keith went out, Lance hadn't been far behind. Maybe they'd tried to stage a coup.]

[Lance could only hope he wouldn't see the others on this train.]

[For now, though. He had a shitty mullet to find. He hadn't exactly gotten a chance to really speak his mind before the other paladin went out. Now it was likely they had all the time in the world.]

[He storms through the train cars until he finds him.]

You! With the stupid haircut!

[The sudden yell is startling, shattering the oppressive silence, and Keith jumps slightly, glancing back with a frown. It only deepens when he sees Lance - add another fuck up to the list.

He never wanted anyone to die. Sacrifices were going to be necessary, but now the team is down to two paladins and Keith swallows, feeling that realization hit him hard. They're all going to die now, and it's his fault.]

...Seriously? We're dead and you're still making fun of my hair?

Me being dead doesn't make your hair any less stupid!

[If he so much as whiffs Keith blaming himself for Lance's death he's going to fucking deck him. He might still deck him. He stomps right up to him and grabs him by his stupid crop jacket/armor handle whichever Keith might be wearing in this purgatory.]

Who the hell do you think you are pulling a stunt like that!?

Edited (WRONG ICON) 2016-10-05 19:09 (UTC)

[Just the jacket, thankfully. Much more comfortable.

He was perfectly content sitting, thank you, Lance. Keith glares at him, but the fight in him seems to have dimmed a bit, thanks to the realization that he's single-handedly doomed the entire universe. Sort of a mood killer.]

Fuck off, Lance! [He brushes Lance's hands away, turning away from him and folding his arms over his chest.] I'm a shit leader, I already know.

[Somehow that makes him even angrier. He grabs him by the shoulder to try and turn him back around, don't you turn away from him when he's throwing a fit.]

No, you dumbass! You're a shit friend for pulling this self-sacrifice garbage and getting yourself killed!

[Keith jerks back, glaring at his former teammate. But it's less irritation at Lance and more...anger at himself. Self-loathing for what he did to Team Voltron.]

Of course I'm a shit friend, I don't know how to be anything else, Lance! I tried, okay? I tried. And I failed and now we're all dead. Is that what you want to hear?

[It looks like he's going to yell at him again but then he just deflates instead. Most of the anger washes out of him leaving just dull bitterness and a bad taste in his mouth. Screaming at Keith wasn't going to do him any good. He hated this self piting bullshit of his but he guessed of all of them, Lance had been the hardest on him.]

No.

[He feels a hitch in his chest but he forces it back down again.]

No, and stop talking like that. We're the ones that failed you, okay?

[Lance's sudden change of mood has Keith wary; that can't bode well. He frowns slightly, watching the other paladin quietly.]

What are you-- No, you didn't, Lance. You gave me your best. Guess it turns out that without Shiro that just...isn't enough.

No, we did if you're still saying that.

[He looks up at him. His expression is stil somber but it's more serious.]

We didn't give you a chance. You're not Shiro and maybe if we weren't trying so hard to make you Shiro, maybe you wouldn't have done something like that. It's not worth much now but-

[He looks off to the side, frown wan and eyes contrite.]

I'm sorry.

[An actual, sincere apology is almost as rare from Lance as it is from Keith, and the former team leader blinks, staring at him mutely. Lance had put...a lot of pressure on Keith's shoulders, and while he knew he could trust the blue paladin to be his right hand man, there was a part of him that had resented it.

Not that he and Lance have ever really seen eye to eye, but it was hard. Keith had never felt like he was a good enough leader on his own, so he'd done his best to imitate the style that Shiro had used. Only...well...he just wasn't that patient.

Keith is quiet for a long moment before he finally finds his voice again.]

...Yeah. Me too.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, now that you're dead...

Lance | Voltron: Legendary Defenders

lol what a meme to voice test on

what can i say i'm a terrible person

https://youtu.be/1g6QJ5TfA7w you are. But why else would we be here?

THAT WAS RUDE

I'm glad you appreciate the effort

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

hehehe

rude af

/tips fedora

no subject

no subject

the curse of 15 icons

ah yes, i know it

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject