the train to the afterlife meme.

[bottecellie]

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.

Comments

[puppy_lancer]

Not completely. You're all gonna end up in the same place, right?

[vermicompost]

I just don't know what's going to happen. I don't know where I'm going.

If I'm punished, then maybe I won't be able to see them.

[And this makes him sadder than dying does.]

...And the return of the "great" ideas

[puppy_lancer]

Well...if they forgive you, you won't need to be punished anymore, right?

He has so many of them!

[vermicompost]

Maybe? I don't know. No one's told me how it works.

[Part of him doesn't want to risk hoping.]

How could they forgive me? After what I've done. I failed them. I don't even know where they are.

[puppy_lancer]

Well, maybe they hopped this train too? And, you know, friends forgive. Not like they can hate you forever, right?

[vermicompost]

[Kariya looks down, sadly.]

I don't like to think of them being dead, but if time doesn't matter here...

[No, he can't let himself believe that that could happen.]

But--I killed her. [Or so he thinks.] I don't know if she'll ever forgive me. Maybe I don't deserve to be forgiven.

[puppy_lancer]

I would forgive Ferdiad if he killed me. So come on, what do you have to lose?

[vermicompost]

I'd do anything, to get them to forgive me...

But I don't know how.

[puppy_lancer]

Buy them a beer?

[vermicompost]

I don't think that's going to work for them.

I don't even know how old Sakura and Rin will be... Maybe they'll have forgotten their Uncle Kariya.

[puppy_lancer]

Oh come on, what do they want? High class wine?

I don't think any kid would forget someone who used to be nice to them. At worst, probably remember them as being a little weird.

[vermicompost]

I mean, I don't know if a drink is the right idea.

You think so? I don't care if they thought I was a little weird. I hope they remember that I cared about them.

[puppy_lancer]

I think it's more the other way around. When I was little, I had a lot of aunts and uncles who would come over. And I always thought they were weird and I hated when they would coo over me or squeeze my cheeks. But after I grew up? I think they really did care about me, even if I was a bratty kid.

[vermicompost]

I'm sure your relatives did care a lot. That's good. I'd like the girls to have good memories. We always had fun playing together.

[He smiles. That's one of his happiest memories, but the smile's brief.]

I just don't know what happened to Sakura. She wouldn't be wrong to blame me. For not saving her. And Aoi...

[puppy_lancer]

You tried, didn't you?

[Whereas Lancer didn't even try until the end. At least, he had never tried the right thing.]

She'd thank you for trying, I guess. Either that or split your head with rocks. It can go either way.

[vermicompost]

I did try. I did everything I could, but it wasn't enough.

She might not know that. I wouldn't blame her, either way.

I'm sure that your Master would forgive you. Even if she was angry.

[puppy_lancer]

Would she? She holds mile long grudges.

[vermicompost]

I don't know her, but it sounds like you tried your best for her, and it sounds like she has a good heart, even if she gets angry. Maybe she's on this train, too.

My Servant was Berserker, so I didn't get to know him well. We might have worked together better if I had been able to. We weren't really partners.

[puppy_lancer]

[He gives Kariya a blank look.]

No way. Berserker's Master was a little girl.

[vermicompost]

[Kariya's look is almost equally blank for a moment.]

No, I was Berserker's Master.

[But fortunately, he's thinking more clearly than he was when he was full of worms.]

But--I saw Lancer, and he wasn't you. Time might not matter here, right? If we're dead.

[puppy_lancer]

Yeah...what Grail War were you from again?

[vermicompost]

The fourth.

[puppy_lancer]

Fifth.

[vermicompost]

That explains it. Different wars. You must be from my future. [Or something like that...]

There was no one from the Matou family, in your war?

[Maybe that's a good thing.]

[puppy_lancer]

Not a single one. Never even heard Misaya mention that name.