bakerstreet | 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

[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.

Well, now that you're dead...

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

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