The Train to the Afterlife

[ilovesockandroll]

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.

Shamelessly lifted and barely changed from this.

Comments

[spideyguy]

"...hello?" Peter stays near the back of the train car, watching the only guy in his near vicinity carefully. He'd had to come up three cars to find somebody but - it could be that what he found wasn't something he wanted to find.

Peter didn't recognize Steve from behind, one hand on the door handle. The other pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose from where they were slipping. "Excuse me, but - do you know where we are?"

[bombrun]

...they have a drink car?

[ Color him surprised. ]

[coeurinflexible]

Absolutely. We're dead, not gone.

[Getting up and putting a hand on chuck's plated shoulder.]

C'mon, big guy.

[onewithwater]

[Of all the ways Marie could have thought both she and Umi could have left their worlds, valiantly defending it was probably not up there. Though the battle was won, the two's wounds were too much and, well... here we are.

At the moment, though, Marie decided that Umi deserved some rest, thus was busy carrying the other blue-haired girl through the train, trying to find a car not occupied.]

[bombrun]

[ Huh. Well. Imagine that. He shakes his head and gets up, trailing after Yancy like a puppy. ]

What else have they got?

[coeurinflexible]

Uuh, Dining cars, a lounge, a library.. Lots of sleepers. There's a Japanese bathhouse at the back.

[He looks over his shoulder for a moment as they move along. It's a wide train. Some care are busy, some aren't. It's luxurious, though. Some of the cars are plush and richly decorated, others are almost barren and minimalist.]

I know, trust me. It just gets weirder and weirder but you'll get used to it.

[They pass through a few more cars until they make it to the bar. It's done up like an old saloon with a self service bar you might find in an airport lounge or something. Yancy grabs two glasses and his favored bottle of scotch, holding it up to look over the label.]

What're you drinkin', kiddo?

[bombrun]

We can sleep?

[ Seems like a dumb question, but he's just shocked by the luxury of it all. He'd expected nothingness at best. This is...beyond comprehension.

Ugh it's overwhelming. ]

Uh...that works. Whatever yer having.

[coeurinflexible]

Scotch it is.

[He takes the bottle and nods him over to a little wooden table.]

From what I've figured out we can sleep but it's not exactly necessary. Some people, though... they've been here a long time and they just sit there and stare and do nothing and it's like they're not even real.

[He sits, opens the bottle and pours two healthy glasses.]

I guess I just get bored. Try to keep it normal, you know? Drink a little, read a little, watch the stops.. have a nap. Napping is my favorite.

[bombrun]

[ He shivers. Turning into a ghost of himself doesn't seem appealing at all. He vows to keep moving around, at the very least. ]

Napping is your favorite. [ Highly amused by that, Chuck flashes a smirk that almost reaches his eyes. ]

Heard that about you. That you love sleep.

[coeurinflexible]

Oh yeah? [He laughs and takes a sip, savoring the burn.] That's my legacy, huh? Here lies Yancy Becket, loved to sleep.

[bombrun]

[ He grins wickedly, dimples briefly flashing before they disappear when he takes a long drink. It burns and he likes that, the reminder of what it was like to be alive. ]

Yeah, mate. Pretty much. How's that make you feel?

[coeurinflexible]

[Oh, ho that smile. that is a dangerous smile.]

I'm not sure if I should be offended or glad I'm not remembered for my other exploits.

tia | ys seven

[tialuna]

[bombrun]

The party boy exploits, or...

[ It is a very dangerous smile. Deep and wide and full of white teeth and dimples. ]

[coeurinflexible]

Ah.. [Smiling over the rim of his glass.]

You have heard about that, have you.

[bombrun]

[ He takes another long, delicious drink, savoring the burn. He wants to remember that. Cling to the feeling of being alive. ]

With the way I followed Gipsy? I'd've had t'be blind and deaf.

[coeurinflexible]

Ooh, Herc Hansen's kid is my number one fan~~

I really shouldn't tell you about Manila, then.

[bombrun]

Shut up.

[ He slouches down a little and takes another sip. ]

Manila? Dad and Scott were there..

[coeurinflexible]

They were indeed. We dropped together.

[bombrun]

[ He nods. He'd still been too young. But he's been fighting and clawing to get into a jaeger even at thirteen, fourteen. Finally at sixteen he'd beaten everyone by miles and landed - a teenager who didn't know himself at all - in the newest multi billion dollar jaeger. He can remember it clearly, like it was yesterday. He remembers exactly how it felt to find out the news, and then feel his stomach drop when he found out who his copilot was. But even that couldn't completely dampen his excitement. He'd been like a kid. Even gone out with his dad - 'if yer old enough to pilot, yer old enough to drink'. One shot two shot three shots floor - man, what a night. ]

Bet it was a helluva time.

[coeurinflexible]

Well, [He offers another smile.]

You Hansens certainly know how to party.

[bombrun]

We sure try.

[ Tiny smile. Yeah they do. ]

[spideyguy]

Peter wakes up with a massive headache, propped up against the train window. He blinks, slowly pulling back from the window. "Hm..."

He lifts a hand to rub his eyes, pushing his glasses out of the way. There's...nothing, out that window, not even shadows of something. Did he fall asleep on the subway?

"What..." Peter turns, hoodie still up around his head, and looks around blearily. " 'scuse me, what was the last stop?"

[starmark]

...After everything we've been through, something like that might be...impossible.

[Graduate? Go to college, start a family? If he made it through this night, it was already going to be a miracle. How was he supposed to make a promise like that, knowing full well the sort of world that he'd have to be struggling to fulfill it in?

It'd only been fifty days of traveling, and yet somehow everything had changed. Sixty days ago none of these people had meant anything to him, they'd had absolutely no bearing on anything about his life — even his grandfather had been a nuisance and a non-entity, not a companion. But then the whole world had become different, become something else, something bigger, something more, and it wasn't something he could go back from now.

...But that wasn't what Kakyoin was asking for, was it. It wasn't "go back to before". It was..."don't stay trapped in these fifty days forever". Keep going forward. Keep making the world bigger.

That Kakyoin...had never wanted to be a burden and an anchor to the people around him.

Suddenly, Jotaro could see exactly why a request like this would be so important to him.]

But that's not the first time we've done the impossible, right?

[Mindful of the hands on his shoulders, he raised one of his own and brought it to rest against Kakyoin's face, thumb skimming lightly over the faint remains of the scars that still jutted down onto his cheek.]

So if I live for both of us...then you'd better be waiting for me when I'm done, to be the first to hear all about it.

eames | inception

[pokerchipped]