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[espigeonage]

The Train to STE Meme (SPOILERS for canon deaths)


You know those Train to the Afterlife memes? In STE the canon versions of all our characters are dead. What if there was a train bearing their spirits on to reincarnation here?

This is a meme where canon versions of the characters can interact. They all know they're dead. They may or may not remember just how they died, or how they got to be on this particular train. Doesn't matter if they'll be born decades apart - that just means some people disembark a little earlier than others. Go over brochures about what your new incarnation will be like, spontaneously turn or be human, try the snack cart, fail to convince the friendly but very busy conductor to give you a transfer, or simply chat.

You just can't stop the train, or leave it. Not yet.

Comments

[diamondlight]

"Once a hero, always a hero," Rikka breathes. "I should have known I'd never escape the Ministry." She pulls a shining golden pin from the blouse she'd arrived in - she was dressed for a meeting; was that a clue? - and looks at it longingly for a moment, before returning it to its place and shaking her head. "The world always needs heroes. Can I assume you were someone that fought for the world's safety, before... well, this?"

[lackinginfaith]

Pause. "You too, huh."

go busters spoilers sort of kind of

[amajin]

Me? Nah, I was way older than this when I kicked it.

[Well, technically only 14 years older, and he did look exactly the same, but... Forty's nothing to sniff at, right? Even if most of that time was lost in an alternate dimension all alone. He's long past done feeling sorry for himself, if he ever even did.]

So you read your little pamphlet? Anything interesting in there?

[alilyinthemoonslight]

Yuri eyed the pin curiously as it was examined, and her smile brightened just a tad.

"Yes, I certainly was," she murmured. Though it had been so long ago... just how long, though? This place was playing havoc on her sense of time. "I'm Yuri. Yuri Tsukikage. But at another time, I might be called 'Cure Moonlight.'"

That whole secret identity thing didn't really hold water at this point, did it?

[alilyinthemoonslight]

Yuri blinked a bit.

"'Me too?'"

[hollowleg]

"Uh, yeah. Apparently the world we're bound for only has... one sapient species. And no afterlife?" He grabs Starscream's brochure and points to it. "Lookie! Says so right here."

[diamondlight]

Ah-ha. So she'd been right. Mana had managed to get her fingers into yet another one... meh. At this point, it was less surprise and more interest in a common occupation.

"The light of wisdom, Rikka Hishikawa, Cure Diamond. At least, that's what it says on my identification card. I go by Rikka still, no matter how much everyone tries to just call me Diamond and be done with it." She grins. "I didn't think there'd be another one of us here, though, and I don't think I've heard your name. Which means you're probably not from my Japan."

No, secret identities don't really mean much at the end of the line. And they mean even less when they stopped being a secret in your teens.

[envisaging]

[ ooc: i am always okay with things! ]

[ Sneaky. The landscape outside is odd enough that Serah can easily watch it to the point of distraction. She's seen odder things, she knows, but...there's a certain strangeness to it that she can't put her finger on. She'd considered once or twice getting up and going into other cars, trying to find someone she knew - but as far as she knew everyone she'd loved who had died had died years before she had. Her father. Her mother.

She couldn't remember any of the others dying. Lightning. Snow. Noel. The other l'Cie, even those in crystal...If Serah had thought that any of them might be here with her, she would have searched. But they weren't here.

...Or so she'd thought, up until the moment she heard that voice. When was the last time...? There was the dream she'd broken out of, but actually speaking with him, and not a figment...the Sunleth Waterscape? No, longer than that, because that hadn't been the Snow from her timeline, had it?

Even knowing what that has to mean, Serah can't help the reflexive smile that comes just from hearing Snow's voice. She'd started turning the second he'd started speaking, and when he's done, Serah reaches up to hug him before even thinking of something to say.

It's just nice to see him again. Even if that means he died, too. ]

Snow! Well...I was saving it for someone special.

[ That's a lie. She hadn't given a thought to the seating arrangements until just this second. ]

...So it's taken now.

go-busters spoilers

[cava]

[Enter had already gone over the brochures, but a second look never hurt anyone.

Starting as human... that fascinated him. He cared little for the life Cain Hashimoto would lead. But a true comprehension of humans, able to work from there...

Perhaps Red Buster had been right. He needed this other perspective. He had underestimated humanity, and he had paid dearly for it. What was done was done, however, and he had accepted it. C'est la vie, after all.

Yes, he didn't care about the life Cain Hashimoto might have. But Cain Hashimoto would be a better human than Enter ever could have been. It was a second chance, regardless of how he chose to use it. But that was just the question - how.

He took a few things from the snack cart, leaning back in his seat.]

What to do, what to do... what will he do?

give me all your spoilers

[alilyinthemoonslight]

Well, small favors at least, then.

[She pauses and glances down at said pamphlet.]

...it's a little bit interesting. [She gives a light laugh, and looks back up.] At least as far as family goes.

[lackinginfaith]

"The stuff you've had to deal with."

[and_taxes]

[The Conductor looks through a stack of tickets. They're everything from plan paper to clay tablets to metal disks with holographic images floating above them, and more, but he handles them all in the same manner.]

Well, I'm very sorry to hear that, sir. If you'd like to lodge a complaint we've got a suggestion box tacked up for y'all in Car Four.

[It's difficult to describe the Conductor's voice. There was nothing, and then it became evident that he had spoken, and his voice had been... unconcerned. Folksy, maybe. Distracted.]

And I'm afraid if you'd like employment with Afterlife Unlimited you'll have to submit a resume at our main office. We're always looking for new people to work the snack cart.

[strikeraid]

Yeah, I don't think they ever felt pain now that I think about it... Except when it was important?

[ ... This apparently doesn't bother him. ]

[alilyinthemoonslight]

Yuri's eyebrows raised bit by bit as Rikka spoke, and she ended up giving her an inquisitive look. Something about the way she talked about it... no, this didn't sound like the same Precures whose power descended down from Cure Ange.

"...common knowledge, hm?" she asked, and propped her elbow on the table, then her chin upon her hand. "Yes, I'd say I'm definitely not from your Japan. We were always told we couldn't reveal ourselves, although... They were never really clear on why that I can recall."

She paused, but continued to smile just a bit. Either way, the presence of another Precure was somewhat comforting, somehow.

"Either way, it's nice to meet you, Rikka."

[youngestone]

...what?

[Seriously, what?]

Another for appropriate icon use

[icy_heavens]

[There's really not much else to do on a damn train, really. Soul Society has its faults, but at least it's open. You can move around there. This? Is cramped and it's kind of hell.

[Tea at least calms his ire for a bit. And the occasional snacking on the available fare. Whether he needs to eat now, he's not entirely certain. But he'd needed to in Soul Society and habits die harder than people sometimes.

[He's in for a bit of a longer ride than some, seeing as his future self will still be a child when this new threat surfaces. The boy is sadly rather a brat, but he still has similar qualities that can be worked with. It may not be a total disaster, so long as the kid listens. Which is unfortunately debatable.]

[amajin]

[Jin's wandering. The infinite-seeming train cars of this place were pretty interesting, full of mysterious types and odd creatures. Strangers. But this guy, he's not a stranger. At first he tenses and slaps his hip, looking for his Blaster, but of course he hasn't got it anymore.

He sidles up, injecting bravado into his steps as he does. It's not every day you get the chance to meet up with the guy you gave your life to kill, anyway.]

Hey! Long time no see. Well, it hasn't really been that long. What's the new life got in store for you? Hope I don't have to pull a fast one on you again.

[diamondlight]

"We're all the way on the opposite end of the scale, even if it took a while. Mana Aida, Cure Heart, the Prime Minister of Japan... my leader and my best friend. She's the kingpin of it all. Our team, and the handful of other Precure we know about outside it, is an autonomous unit of the Ministry of Defense, answering only to Mana herself and with broad powers to intervene. The last I'd heard, the United Nations was considering a resolution to recognize us as a peacekeeping force... ah, I'm getting ahead of myself. Sorry, Yuri."

She shakes her head, hair cascading out behind her, streaks of silver starting to interlace into the well-cared-for blue. "Have you seen the portfolio on the vessel that will receive you?" After a moment, she blinks. "Wow, that sounded really stuffy."

[vanisland]

Mir is sure she's never seen a maintenance droid that angry. Or for that matter, one that looks so... droid-like. They'd all had human faces, where she was from.

She looks to be completely dismissive of just about everything but she just can't help making the occasional off glance in the newly miniaturized Starscream's direction.

Although she still looks 15 despite being a millenium old. Technically.

[sucrosity]

It wasn't like that... [Exasperated but fond, the most she's been so far since he arrived. She remembers the conversation. It had been hard enough to have without recounting it to Jin. She hears him draw breath in, and remembers that Avatars hadn't needed to breathe, either, really. Her eyes shut as she lets him talk, her hands white-knuckled in her harness. Shakily--]

And I barely remember her.

[She hasn't felt this young in years. She hasn't been this young in years. She shouldn't feel like a child. But the part of her that remembers Jin will always been seventeen and fighting to stop the end of the world no matter how high the cost. (And high it had been.) She turns back to him, eyes wet and low in a way far too old for youthful face.]

A few months to know my father loved me would have been better than nothing. Do you really think--that not knowing until after helped? It hurt to know we--we could have made something, out of that time! Instead you made Juicy be nice to me and didn't think maybe I wanted to know about you and me.

[She reaches out to grab the shoulder of his jacket. Her grip is tight in the fabric.]

Jin! [She sniffles.] Ryuu is my big brother. He's not my dad. Even if you didn't get to be there, you...

[She trails off, miserably, and wipes at her eyes.]

It would have been better.

[diamondlight]

[Huh, this kid's pretty young to be... ah, wait, no. It took a moment, without being transformed, but Rikka can feel something under the surface. Maybe this kid wasn't a kid after all. Or if he was, he was hiding something pretty major.]

You're a little different than the average passenger aboard this express train to oblivion.

[alilyinthemoonslight]

Yuri just sort of... gazed at her for several moments. Then for another couple, she tried to imagine Tsubomi as Prime Minister.

Her composure didn't hold terribly long, and she covered her mouth, a small but polite laugh escaping her lips.

"Well, I'd say that is... quite different from how I'm used to things," she said.

'We fight desert monsters and save flowers,' sounds so much less... dynamic when compared to that.

Meanwhile, here Yuri thought she was stuffy. Maybe she had just mellowed out over the years. Regardless, she doesn't draw attention to it.

"Yes, I've taken a look at it. She... seems like a good girl, I think. She'll probably need some help, but I suppose every does sometimes."

[vanisland]

[Mir is in agreement with Rarity on one thing: there are too many humans here. Even if she looks the part herself, she is above them. In general. Which is part of why having to be one has her more than a little bit.

Unicorns not so much, even if white is overplayed as a coat color.]

Could be. There's always the chance they're lying and we're all going somewhere else.

[sucrosity]

[She wanders the train, eventually, looking for things to do. She's finally, finally read her pamphlet, knows what's in store for her.

She didn't, of course, know anything about Enter being around. Even in her peripheral. Knowing they'd be sharing another universe was more than enough. She stops a little ways ahead of him, holding tightly to the back of a seat. Flatly:]

Enter.

[There's no weapons here, she only has her powers, but--he's just sitting there. And people had tried attacking the train--hadn't worked. She doesn't think it'll work on another passenger, either.]

Of all the people they drag to another universe, it's you? [Bitterness is a good backup plan, right?]

YEAH BUT YOU'RE STILL SITTING AND SHIT

[double_edged]

Like... what, exactly? It can go many ways.