bakerstreet | Train to the Afterlife Meme

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.

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[He takes a sip of his own and then smiles.]

Which is why, Ms. Adler, I choose to accept that this train is the final destination, until proven otherwise.

[Logical, if unsatisfying.]

It could be a long time. We'll have to find a way to occupy ourselves. [Exactly how much cat and mouse can be managed on a single train, she wonders.]

Something tells me that's never an issue for you...

[Sherlock, on the other hand, is partly ready to jump out of his skin - or at least the train.]

Normally I'm not limited to a train and the ranks of the dead.

[Not that she minds the challenge. In fact, she's sure it'll be quite interesting.]

Oh? I would think you've gotten in plenty of practice being dead.

[Sherlock doesn't back down from a challenge, but then... death isn't something he considers a challenge.]

[She laughs quietly.]

A trial run never quite matches up to the real thing.

[He runs his hands through his hair, anxious and frustrated.]

Clearly.

[He stands suddenly and approaches the window, trying to jiggle it open.]

[She watches, swirling the remaining scotch round and round her glass.]

Going somewhere?

Conducting an experiment...

[He finally gets the window open and smiles back at Irene.]

Coming?

Someone has to bear witness. [Take that as a yes. After setting the glass on an armrest, she's up and crossing the aisle.]

[He grins and jumps through the window. A moment later he falls back into the cabin from the doorway.]

Well... that was disappointing.

[He picks himself off the ground and dusts himself off.]

[She hardly has time to reach the window before he makes his inelegant return.]

Well, we've learned we don't make the stops. Maybe we should see who's driving.

That would be the thing you think about... Because it's clearly not you.

[He can't help himself. He's embarrassed, so he's lashing out on others.]

[The look that gets him is rather unimpressed. In a series of crisp steps, she's on her way to the door leading to the next car and hopefully, at some point, the front of the train.

She glances back briefly, echoing his earlier question.]

Coming?

[He really hates it when she does that. But follows after her, because he can't resist.]

You think this will work?

Does it matter? It's more interesting than sitting around.

[The next car is full of unfamiliar faces, all in their own stages of coming to grips with the situation. She breezes past.]

[And here comes the sarcasm.]

Oh yes, because wandering a train aimlessly is so much fun!

You could always amuse yourself by jumping out the window again.

[He's not bothered.]

There may not be a 'front of the train' you know.

[Opening the door to the next car,]

If there isn't, then that's one more thing we know about our situation.

Yes... and we learn that you are an idiot.

[He only insults those he likes, right?]

[She wonders if this is what John put up with every day.]

Go on, then. Tell me what the clever move is since you're such an authority. [Normally she would defer to his expertise, but this is an entirely new area — one in which he has no more experience than she. Also, he's being a child.]

[Pretty much, yes, John did. And when isn't Sherlock a child?]

As your masthead remarked: Know when you are beaten.

It's a good thing I haven't been.

[Continuing on whether he follows or not.]

[He'll follow, but will mock her as they go.]

You do know the definition of crazy, yes?

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whatyoulike - 2012-02-15 02:39 (UTC) - Expand

highfunctioning_sociopath - 2012-02-15 03:39 (UTC) - Expand

whatyoulike - 2012-02-15 11:16 (UTC) - Expand

highfunctioning_sociopath - 2012-02-15 13:12 (UTC) - Expand