Fanfic / Infinity Train: Seeker of Crocus

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Infinity Train: Seeker of Crocus is a Pokémon the Series and Infinity Train crossover by SpinnerNite and co-writer Green_Phantom_Queen and part of the Infinity Train: Blossomverse.

Taking place during Act 2 of Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail, Professor Augustine Sycamore is beside himself with the disappearance of his student Alain Sativus and having no clues as to where he has gone. His guilt and stress from doing everything he can to find Alain is putting a strain on his mental health even though all he wants is to figure out where Alain has gone.

And then, one night, he sees a strange Train in his laboratory with a green glow.

Knowing this might be his only chance, Professor Sycamore prepares a briefcase and brings Garchomp on him for his journey to find his friend...and perhaps change a few things in regards to one Lady Destiny.

There are multiple side-stories, Infinity Train: Orchid Observer and Rey Mysterio vs. The Cosmos written by co-author Green Phantom Queen. The first story takes place some time after the events of Book 2, Jesse Cosay decides he wants to inform the loved ones of the Apex about the Train, unaware how people want to make sure that information never leaks out. The second story is based off Rey Mysterio Versus La Oscuridad and acts as a prequel in regards to how Aerostar got onto the Infinity Train in the first place. crossoverpairinglover also wrote his one one-shot Infinity Train: Oak Lore that depicts Ash meeting Gary for a Project Mew Mission set during Act 2.

Aside from these two side-stories, there are a collection of one-shots that end with Road to Platanus Crocus that connects Crocus to the original Blossomverse trilogy. This includes:

• Infinity Train: Knight of the Orange Lily - Another Epilogue that has Gladion getting thrown back into the Train in order for him to "restart" his journey.
• Infinity Train: Unfinished Bloom that takes place during the final part of Infinity Train: Voyage of Wisteria but helps to bridge that story to that of Seeker of Crocus.

For another work by the author with similar themes and staring Professor Sycamore, see The World Ends With You: Espoir De Vie.

The sequel to the story, Infinity Train: Shadows of Crocus was uploaded on November 1st, 2025 while a Spin-Off of Seeker of Crocus, Infinity Train: Fleurs du Mal was uploaded on December 17th, 2025.

For the sake of simplicity, this page covers tropes from all stories.

Tropes found in the fanfic include:

• Action Survivor: Sycamore makes it no secret he's not much of a fighter, but he still accompanies Rimuru's squad to save the werewolf village.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Sycamore was your normal Pokémon Professor with a Garchomp. This Sycamore ends up becoming a hero with a sword and a Persona.
  • Chloe was one of these in Blossoming Trail, but she gains even more firepower with the Cloak of Marchosias giving her the ability to fully transform into a wolf and using the power of the demon and god infused with it to convert a Mirage Army into denizens.
  • Rey Mysterio in real-life is a top-tier wrestler. But since this is using his Rey Mysterio vs La Oscuridad incarnation, he has powers akin to that of a superhero.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Amelia doesn't properly debut in Blossoming Trail until the Cyan Desert Car, which was in the middle of Act 2. She appears halfway into Act 1 during the Ninjala Car.
  • Paul and Hop weren't revealed until Act 2, again during the Cyan Desert Car. They both appear before the penultimate arc of Act 1 and the Cyan Desert Car is the last act.
  • Yamper doesn't evolve into Boltund until Voyage of Wisteria; here, he evolves during the Cyan Desert Arc.
• Adaptational Explanation:
  • In Knight of the Orange Lily, Mallow kept quiet about her train trip to her friends because she thought they wouldn't believe her. While the same applies here, she also did it because she thought there were no trains in Alola as a result of Elipzo brainwashing her when she was younger.
  • Trip didn't have a backstory as to why he acted like an asshole towards the Cerise laboratory for how they didn't care for Chloe. It's explained here that his parents had no idea that he wasn't even in the Pokémon World for a year at most and it hurt him to no end that his parents weren't that concerned at how he was struggling for his life.
  • In Blossoming Trail, Chloe's classmates bullied her because they could. In here, they had the slightly more understandable reason of Chloe constantly pestering them with her love for demons, and they just wanted to give her a taste of her own medicine before Sara stepped in and twisted that into something more sinister.
  • Why did Cerise go "Chloe, don't forget Tackle doesn't work on a Ghost" in the original Blossoming Trail? Because in this story, Chloe was confused when Yamper's Tackle didn't work on a Gourgeist, and he explained this to her. He was only trying to jog her memory, not being insensitive or forgetful that Chloe has no battle experience.
  • Why did Goh never tell Chloe about Tokio in the first place? Because, as "The Firefly Funhouse Car" reveals, he told Chloe to shut up and never ask him about it ever again so that he never had to dredge up that painful memory.
• Adaptational Weapon Swap:
  • Amelia is usually seen with pistols, shotguns, and a sniper rifle in Blossoming Trail. While she still uses firearms, she later gets a hold on an electric croquet mallet and an Ice Wand.
  • Gladion and Specter used toy brick shields and Tokio had the Gale Boomerang. For their return trip, as their weapons are now Apex property, London gifts Gladion a kusarigama, Specter gets a size-shifting metal staff that he can separate into escrima sticks and Tokio has a deck of throwing cards that double as bombs.
  • In Blossoming Trail and Boiling Point, Chloe keeps her donut holer from the beginning to the end of her story. In the second Intermission, she swaps the donut holer for a parrying dagger and matching shield.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • The story expands on the references of demons from Blossoming Trail by revealing that they're denizens on the Train, along with the gods themselves. The Cloak of Marchosias and Wepwawet is imbued with the powers of said demon and god, with Wepwawet making numerous other artifacts in the hopes of combining god and demon magic together. The Cage of Flauros that will be used to stop the Apex? It's actually based on a Noodle Incident from the original Flauros getting drunk and entrapping lesser demons who got annoyed by his partying. Wyn tells Tony that the Numine and Goeties are long-lived denizens that have helped humankind when they got on the Train and Lexi assumes that the myths based off of them were from various passengers that entered the Train in the past.
  • Chloe's relation to her father is barely pressed upon either in the anime or in the original Blossomverse trilogy unless it comes to how her father can be insensitive to his daughter's feelings of whether or not she's into Pokémon. Starting with the Ninjala Car, there is focus on how much that both father and daughter truly care for one another to the point that when Professor Cerise gets sent on the Train, Chloe decides that she'll go search for him to ensure he's safe.
  • The Cyan Desert Car expands on a few things, ranging from Sara's relationship to her mother to explaining that Chloe is practically the only person in their class willing to give Goh his homework. "Firefly Funhouse Car" is all about expanding more of Chloe and Goh's past together, and showing how Goh's actions contributed to Chloe's mental instability.
  • In Orchid Observer, the world that the original Infinity Train protagonists come from reveals that there are government sponsored programs for former passengers to recover, obtain therapy, and catch up on tutoring if need be. Moreover, Jesse's old "friends" were revealed to have been punished for what happened to Nate and being somewhat the fault for Jesse's disappearance.
  • Simon's story pre-Train was never explored barring a few hints that he has Parental Abandonment and something relating to funerals. In this story, it combines Owen Dennis' joke of how his Train entry was based on a spelling bee and he was neighbors with someone named Edith Finch^ExplanationFor those who don't know, Edith comes from What Remains of Edith Finch, a game where the titular character chronicles the deaths of all who came before her.
  • "Wonderland Cookoff Car" is focused on Specter's past prior to meeting Gladion, including how he got his name and the misadventures he had with Lampetia.
  • The rewrite for Act 1 and Act 2 in general starts expanding more on what's going on Vermillion City. Particularly an underground community of non-humans who the Cerise family are in close connection to and is implied that these non-humans live in other areas. Like in the Kalos region, when it's revealed that Augustine's only half-human.
• Adaptational Seriousness:
  • In the anime, Goh jumping off onto Lugia was a triumphant moment with a bit of comedy sprinkled in over how he and Ash wonder what they're doing when they noticed that they were both on Lugia. In the story, once she hears about it, Tomie points out how dangerous such a stunt actually was, and how Goh could've been hurt as a result of it and how no one was even aware he was out doing something so reckless. The rewrite also reveals that Goh did this in order to feel "alive".
  • In the anime, Goh's remark of "I don't need these homework sheets" is meant to be humorous and establish that he's Brilliant, but Lazy. The fic shows the events on Chloe's side, in how she's bullied and teased because she's the only person who goes out to get the sheets and Goh's remark now shows how ungrateful he is for Chloe waiting for him and shows little to no concern over the Lugia stunt severely hurting him.
  • While Goh being "abandoned" by Tokio was played for seriousness, Crocus ramps it up even more. His parents grew heavily concerned for his well-being because he got sick from waiting in the rain so long, and this betrayal impacted his friendship with Chloe, who couldn't figure out what was wrong with him since he never expressed his pains.
• Adaptational Sexuality: While this was prominent in the original Blossomverse, more characters are given this treatment.
  • Specter went from having no romantic interest from the original trilogy (moments with London aside) to be confirmed as demiromantic for Ryoken. Meanwhile, it's hinted Ryoken is also gay for Specter but is in denial of it.
  • Ryan and Min-Gi are married, thus turning Ryan from straight to bisexual (he dated three girls in the original series) and Min-Gi as gay.
  • Jesse and Lake had Ship Tease moments throughout Infinity Train, but Orchid Observer changes it so that the former is asexual and the latter is aromantic.
  • In the anime, Chloe had Ship Tease for Goh as revealed in one of the recap episodes. She vehemently states that she doesn't like guys romantically — she does date Tony Clark and while Tony crushes on her, she doesn't crush on him back due to other things on her mind — but doesn't elaborate on whether she likes girls like her Alternate Self Colette.
  • In the original series, it was hinted by Owen Dennis that Simon Laurent had feelings for Grace. In the stinger for Rose Courtyard Car, Simon admits that they're just friends, as they tried kissing under mistletoe once and found it to be disgusting.
• Adapted Out:
  • Akemi Tsutsuji — the girl whose actions caused Blossoming Trail to happen — isn't seen or referenced at all.
  • Serena is nowhere to be seen in this iteration with Gloria replacing her. To take it a step further, a later author's notes after Act 1 confirmed that she's indeed not going to appear.
  • The Cyan Desert Arc doesn't have the heroes traveling with Rashid nor Azam like in Blossoming Trail, with both Specter and Easter replacing them.
  • Because Parker isn't the one to wield the Unown but Sara, Zeno never gets created. This is subverted with UnChloe, who still gets to be created, but this time on the hero's side.
• Adaptational Context Change:
  • In Blossoming Trail, Chloe cut her hair in order to save herself from the Organ Man (grabbing her hair at the time) from being thrown off a zeppelin with Lexi's papers shaving it. In this story, Chloe cuts her hair at the Fashion Runway Car in order to Screw Destiny and take the step forward to be a better person.
  • Sara manipulated Chloe's classmates to bully her on the rounds that she's an evil witch, a weirdo and that she's supposedly "better" than everyone else. While this does come up in this story, the other reason is because Sara "convinced" everyone that if they bullied Chloe enough, she'd be "persudaded" to get them Pokémon from her father's institute in order to make it all stop. Moreover, instead of rejecting the Hi-Skitty doll her father bought her on the grounds not being "cute" enough, she rejected it because she wanted a real Pokémon.
  • In Knight of the Orange Lily, there's no backstory about what Lampetia was doing before she found Specter unconscious in the Living Lightning Car. The story reveals that Lampetia was on her own personal journey before she met up with Specter.
  • When The Cat gave Simon the nanobots back in Infinity Train, it was because he begged her for help to figure out why Grace was closing herself away from him. In here the Cat secretly gives it to him in case of emergencies as Grace is going full on Sanity Slippage.
  • Goh has a different reason to go back to school outside wanting to get a break — he wants to go back to return the favor of Chloe always delivering his homework for him. In the same token, Goh's chewing out on Chloe is different than it was in Voyage of Wisteria. In Wisteria, he asks Chloe if he was that big of an a-hole to be tortured. In Crocus, he asks if Chloe truly saw him as an apathetic a-hole who wouldn't care if she ended her life.
  • In Blossoming Trail, Goh's parents hated Chloe for how she indirectly corrupted her brother which would in turn lead to Goh suffering Mind Rape and ultimately ending up on the Infinity Train. In Crocus, because Parker stays his normal kid self, they instead hate her for endangering their son during a camping incident without learning that Chloe saved Goh from drowning because of Chloe's indifference to Goh's near-death experience rubbing them the wrong way.
• Adaptation Name Change: Moonlight Passengers are a different name for Golden Letters, a concept that appeared in several expanded universe stories where those who came to the Infinity Train on their own power to find or save someone with a distinct symbol on their hands. The main difference being what that symbol is (golden letters that spell 'Visitor' instead of a blue moon as in Crocus.)
• Adults Are Useless: A recurring theme in the story, though how "useless" they are depends on the situation.
  • It's both Discussed and Defied in regards to Professor Sycamore. Because Alain disappeared under his tutelage, and his lack of combat experience, outside of having a Garchomp, he thinks of himself as The Load when the Train picks him up. Not only does Rimuru rebuff this claim, as giving into it would make his number rise, but the professor plays a key role in saving the wolf village. He also feels like he didn't do enough to stop Chloe have a meltdown over Sara using the Unown, but it's later revealed that his presence is enough for Chloe to start changing for the better to the point that by the second Intermission, she's just a few revelations from leaving before ever setting foot in the Fog Car.
  • Downplayed and Justified with Meyer/Blaziken Mask. Being the vigilante, he does do more to help the world with crime than the professor, but because he's completely caught off-guard when the Train enters the picture, there's little he can do besides give moral support.
  • Augustine is horrified and shocked to learn how Chloe went through so much bullying and not a single adult (including her own parents) helped her. Even Gloria notes how the teachers at her school just "promised" things would get better yet never followed up on it. Miss April tells Talia that the mother was basically a Useless Bystander Parent who had many opportunities to get Chloe her therapy but chose not to lift a finger, the same with Professor Cerise admitting he willingly chose not to send his daughter to a therapist even when given a business card to make a call.
  • Professor Kukui averts this; once he understand what's going on, he's on the ball and helps stop any Blame Game that might be played when Mallow tries to find a reason why she never explained about the Infinity Train before. In regards to the Nihilego incident, while blame is pointed on Lusamine (for being a workaholic who paid no attention to her children's suffering), Chloe points out that it's both the fault of Lillie and Gladion for not telling her this sooner since Faba (aka Mr. "I plan to use a Hypno on my boss's daughter") was going to purposefully be a useless adult to cover his tracks.
  • This is zigzagged in Den City. The Knights of Hanoi followed Ryoken's suggestion to put Specter into isolation whereas Ghost Gal was willing to look into the Train herself and vows to get him help. London even states that the Hanoi scientists are being bystanders again to Specter, due to their history of allowing Dr. Kougami enact the Lost Incident on six kids (read: force them to duel in isolation and be electrocuted when they lose in order to create the perfect AI, only stopped when Ryoken called the cops). Upon realizing how they have done wrong, the Knights of Hanoi stand up in Specter's defense and help prepare him for the journey back.
  • Kurune and Ikuo easily dismiss any ideas of how their son is currently trapped in the Cerise Institute by one of his former classmates going crazy with the Unown. Tomie, however, is on the ball since Sara tried to dissuade any concerns by imitating Goh's voice and stating that she's not into stew with star-shaped carrots...even though Tomie knows her grandson loves star-shaped carrots. Thankfully, the two realize something is wrong and try to help. However, they also knew very well about Chloe wanting to hang out with Goh, but due to a camping incident where Goh nearly drowned, they lied to him to believe her requests were nothing and thus intentionally drove a wedge between the two, and even state that Chloe should've been the one drowning just to drive it home.
  • The wrestlers also avert this. Rey saves Oscar from Team Flare and Aerostar comes to Lio's rescue, along with his ability to see the future giving everyone a head's-up to what will happen. While Matt Hardy initially dithers on trying to help the Apex, he eventually gives in and tells them that the Train is all about helping them with their problems.
  • In the Cyan Desert Car, Parker (who is now stuck in a wheelchair and cast thanks to Sara and is pissed off to no end about being told he's Just a Kid) states this trope by name during the climax of the Cyan Desert Car. The adults — parents of Chloe's former classmates — around him scream like headless Combuskens literally afraid of their own shadows and he points out that the reason why things to to hell is because adults don't listen to children until it's far too late.
• Alliterative Title: The side-story, Orchid Observer.
• All Myths Are True: Upon meeting Anubis in the Cyan Desert Car, Lexi gushes on how the mythologies created by humankind were probably based off of passengers actually seeing Gods and Demons up close and personal. Wyn later reveals that there gods and demons are divided into two camps: the Numine and Goetias. To quote a line from Gargoyles, "All things are true...few things are accurate."
• All-Powerful Bystander: The Numinae and Goetias are denizens that are revered as gods and demons to passengers. So with all that power in their hands, why not just stop the Apex or the Cage of Flauros? Anubis explains that the Fog Car just doesn't want gods or demons to get involved and Marchosias tells Titus in Rey Mysterio vs the Cosmos that they have "honor" and pride to consider, not to mention that if they do intervene, it makes them bull's-eyes for Elipzo.
• Alternate History:
  • In the Infinity Train Earth, COVID-19 never happened given how Jesse is able to walk around in school and a mall without social distancing or facial masks.^note According to Owen Dennis, Tulip left for the Infinity Train in November 2019 and returned five months later.
  • In the Pokémon world, a large earthquake (based off of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923) struck Vermillion City which brought the Infinity Train.
• Amnesia Danger: Downplayed. One-One had the exiled members of White Gestalt get amnesia to forget about what they did on the Train, and while they're technically not in any real danger at the moment, the situation with Sycamore and their own underlying feeling that something is amiss makes them tense.
• Amnesia Missed a Spot: Gladion, Specter, and Tokio had their memories of how they nearly destroyed the Train as White Gestalt erased, but while the events are forgotten, the feelings aren't, and this causes them to grow tense. And that's before the memories return...
• Anachronism Stew:
  • Chloe is said to have played all four games of No More Heroes, with the most focus being on No More Heroes III...except Crocus/Book 3 of Infinity Train takes place in late 2020, and NMH 3 wouldn't be released until the following year.
  • Tony Clark references how he wants to be like Magnus Chase. The thing is, Tony's show aired between 2007-09, whereas Magnus Chase wouldn't appear until 2015.
• Anger Born of Worry: Discussed in the Cyan Desert Car. Chloe's classmates are being chewed out by their very pissed off parents for a number of reasons, but the anger comes from concerns that they didn't do enough for their children to make them realize that their futures are in jeopardy at the moment and that they almost crossed a line of allowing a fellow student to kill themselves.
• The Anti-Nihilist: As Arc 2 goes on, many characters start adapting this mindset. The world sucks, and the Train is infinite and filled with life-ending hazards and people who only care for themselves, but our heroes can still decide what to do with their lives by being kind and helping others.
• Arc Symbol: A blue moon, full or otherwise, starts popping up a lot in Act 2, specifically towards Tres and Colette. This is to symbolize that they come from the alternate world of Arcanum and denotes them as travelers who are there to help the Crocus cast get back on their feet or to unravel more mysteries on the Train. The Act 1 rewrite also has them more prominently shown because they're the symbol of a hidden community in Vermillion City.
• Arc Words:
  • "So what?" is usually associated with someone with a severe Lack of Empathy: Grace stated this when she was reminded on how she killed Utahoshi, Tokio's Rage Breaking Point came from a teenager (later revealed to be Bede) not caring on making a young trainer cry, and Sara states this when she doesn't realize how she's ruined the lives of her classmates or how Chloe is a broken wreck thanks to her bullying. Later on, it's a common phrase to say in defiance to someone's accusations (like when Lampetia uses it to tell Ai that she's not gonna give up despite having lost half of her face to one of his monsters.
  • "Road to Platanus Crocus" usually ends a non-related Crocus story to the main universe where the stories are taking place.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • Gloria breaks through Goh's rose-tinted glasses by asking him two of these: one of them in regards to if he'll only care for Chloe if she jumped off a roof and when was the last time he listened to what she wanted.
  • Gloria and Goh later throw several of these at Trip, not only breaking through his idea that his Brutal Honesty was the best course of action, but that for as much good as he did before, he's not only making the situation worse for everybody.
  • In the Cyan Desert Car, Patricia notes that her grandfather asked her one — in regards to how she'd bully the weak like Chloe and Parker — that made her realize that she's becoming a monster. Patricia then asks if Chloe hated the entire class or if she hated Sara in particular.
  • Grace gets asked these by her Mirror Self in the Chrome Car and by Queen Cutie. Will she sacrifice everyone, including herself, if it gets her to the top?
  • Amelia warns Sara that she's not going to find happiness with the Unown and will end up becoming addicted to the power. Sara states that she has all she ever needs. Amelia (who has been in Sara's position before) calmly asks, "Do you really?"
  • When Chloe's classmates admit that they should've been thinking on who they bullied, Chloe asks would it have mattered if she wasn't a professor's daughter. The looks on their faces prove that it wouldn't.
  • Specter, thoroughly sick of Tokio whining about a broken promise with Goh he made at age 7, asks if Goh is acting like a whiny brat even though the latter never received any sort of therapy.
• Artistic License – Education: It’s safe to say that the writers didn’t do their homework regarding the school’s situation and how it operates.
  • For starters, bullying is treated as a "one strike and you're expelled" kind of a deal. While certainly an issue that schools do take seriously, it isn’t something that a student would face immediate expulsion for. At most, the vast majority of students would probably only end up being suspended and/or face loss of privileges such as school dances and field trips. ^note Sara, who had a prior severe incident as the lead instigator of the paint can incident, would have a higher risk of being expelled as in story, one of the other students who would be high on the chopping block for expulsion would be Chloe herself, as she had in fact attacked another student (Goh) and would be a more clear cut problem student than many of her lesser bullies and tormentors, who would only be on the same rung of punishment that Sara and Chloe were after the paint can incident at most. That being said, the students who would be at risk of being expelled would also have a right to dispute their expulsion legally, which is not apparent in story despite it being a valid path for those in 5-E who had only verbally harassed Chloe or otherwise not been shown as repeat offenders.
    • Related, by the time Professor Sycamore showed up on the Train, Chloe had been missing for months, but nothing had been done by the school about it. A student being absent from class for that long would've, at worst, be dropped from the school for lengthy truancy.
    • Similarly, while teachers can in fact be fired for persistent bullying problems under their watch, especially if they lack tenure, this is required to be a persistent problem that can tied entirely to them and, like students, have multiple strikes without a massive incident to bypass such a requirement.
    • Class 5-E is treated as individuals that no school not just in Vermillion, but the entire country of Kanto wouldn't want to take in. Ignoring the fact that it would be very odd for schools in fairly distant cities like Celadon to comment on something like that, but alternate schools do exist for expelled students of various types and, perhaps more importantly, the crimes of the students do not warner that level of backlash, which would be more appropriate for something like a violent hate crime or murder, which Class 5-E is not guilty of. If anything, much like the strike rule, Chloe would be more at risk for that for assaulting a neurodivergent student who, by the school's point of view, had done nothing to deserve it instead of her classmates. The rewrite would later give a reason why the classmates deserve backlash: making a blackmail video of crippling a kindergartener in order to force Professor Cerise to give them Pokémon.
  • Should a student have their arm broken, as is said to have happened to Chloe while on school grounds, there would be an investigation about what happened pretty quickly. While it is not an immediate guarantee that someone would lose their job over it, as genuine accidents can happen, legal litigation would almost certainly happen, either from the parents of the injured child or the school trying to cover for itself.
  • One of the subplots that follows the events of Cyan Desert Car is the collapse of Goh's special set up at school via the firing of Ms. April and the transfer of him to a new class that puts him at risk for serious consequences grade-wise and continued enrollment wise. In truth, as Goh has been set up to be a student with special needs, in reality a situation where this sort of thing would happen would not occur for a number of reasons ^note  1: the school would not have this be limited to a single teacher, as one does not control matters of such things as attendance and grades in other subjects but their own, meaning the other teachers, such as Ms. Valente, would have to follow this system as well. 2: with Chloe having been gone for so long, some alternative means of ensuring Goh continues to receive communications would be done. Months would not go by without it being addressed in some way. 3: if a student were to have a breakdown in communications in such a situation, the next step would be not to punish the student but to investigate those involved, such as the parents, to ensure the student is being treated fairly and to intervene if necessary. This is in fact shown to have the start of something happening with Chloe and Mr. Bradbury in Firefly, and Mrs. Borage, the mother of an autistic student named Franklin is also shown doing so in later Crocus chapters when Sara's actions, unchecked, put her son at risk. The means of which education systems, especially western ones as Spinner and Green write the Japanese-set school as following operate, would not be used to cause Goh the drama it does in story or even be capable of doing so without opening itself to far worse problems than a severe issue with bullying within its walls, as it would open the school up to a lawsuit, and not just from Goh's parents the way that Chloe's own mistreatment got one set up for by the Professor. ^note  While the Borage lawsuit is about creating an unsafe environment, the school would almost certainly be taking extra steps to not make it worse by doing something that would come off as ableist and not only give them a second lawsuit to deal with, but fuel the first one with the school actively doing wrong by another special needs student.
    • When informed about Miss Valente, the narrative all but states that she plans to force the special needs-coded Goh to study the same way as everyone else. This would constitute a blatant case of ableism and overstepping her authority as a teacher as, just as Ms. April wouldn't be alone in establishing something for a special needs, Ms. Valente can't be alone in ignoring it, and would result in Valente, at best, being scolded by her superiors and told to keep Goh's situation in mind, or at worst, be fired and backlisted from teaching.
  • Related, while many western special needs programs do use 'inclusion' based models for many types of special needs, including many of those that Goh is written with, this is not the same as complete inclusion. Many programs will adjust the special need student's course load or pattern for both the benefit of the student in question and other students. While it is true that Goh would still attend tests in the same setting as the other students in 5-E, the courses that he and the others are involved in would be altered accordingly. Incidents like group projects that become near prohibitable in their problematic nature with Goh's special accommodation, as Chloe recounts at several points, should not have happened in any degree but a computer programming error that would be manually adjusted for, not left be in a way that causes undue stress on both Goh and the other students of 5-E.
  • The primary reason that Goh's setup with school ends up falling apart is that the system required Chloe to deliver him his homework, and with her gone, nobody's there to replace her. Even if the school decided having one student be the intermediary was a good idea, they'd still be required to implement a back-up plan in case said student wasn't able to fulfill their duty. And even if the other students didn't want to do it, as the narrative claims, it would then fall on to the teachers to either A) Find an alternative method to keep Goh's system operational, or B) Talk with Goh's parents/caretakers in order to find a different system that could still work for him.
  • The main reason why communication about the class swap didn't get through was because the school sent emails to Goh's parents, but they never responded. Since Goh primarily lives with his grandmother and his parents are known workaholics, the school should've informed Tomie about the swap in a situation where his parents weren't available or attempted additional communications methods, up to and including talking to Goh himself on test days.
  • The ones who inform Goh about the change in classes are upperclassmen. Such changes are typically relegated to teachers and students only learn about it if it directly involves them.
  • In the second Fake Moon Car chapter, Ms. April tells Talia that Goh is neurodivergent. While Ms. April is fired from her teaching job, she would be well aware that divulging this information to Talia is illegal as a teacher. Goh's neurodivergence is something that, in many western countries, can only be shared with the consent of Goh or his parents, which April does not have, and Talia has no right or need to know about it, nor does Chloe. Doing this is something that would make it far harder for Ms. April to keep her teaching license, let alone get another job if it came up. The only reason she would have to disclose this information without permission involves specific legal or medical situations that do not apply to a topic as legally unimportant as Goh and Chloe's friendship. ^note  Goh is implied by author notes to be meant to be autistic, and the autistic do not have any specific medical needs. While some autistic individuals would have issues with intense sounds, which could perhaps count in some very specific scenarios, it is not universal due to autism being a spectrum and Goh has not shown a specific sensitivity to sound. As Goh is also a high functioning autistic by all accounts, he would not require any disclosure about some of the more severe traits of autism, such as non-verbalism as they are not a factor with him. As Goh also has had no hint of having a problem with meltdowns, that's another reason that Miss April does not have to disclose this information legally.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Sycamore went from a minor character — as in so minor he doesn't have his own folder in Blossoming Trail — asking Ash if he's heard about Alain to the hero of the story searching for Alain.
  • In a weird sense, Chloe's cloak is becoming an important part of the story. In Blossoming Trail, Olmec gave the cloak as it is, no questions asked. Here, there are numerous powers stored within and there's a bigger mystery as to why Olmec would even keep something so powerful within him not to mention that someone's talking to Chloe and nudging her on how to properly use it. It's later revealed that the demon and god whose powers she uses actually exist on the Train.
  • Characters in Den City were mostly there to either put in more information on Specter's problems or were to listen about what the hell he's been doing on the Train. They now have a much more active role in getting Specter to return to the Train and learning how Queen has been murdered.
  • While Professor Cerise became this in Blossoming Trail, he gains more of an ascension by the end of Act 1 since he's now taken onto the Train.
  • Goh's family were bit characters in the anime (for reference, his grandma only appears twice, his parents thrice) and in Blossomverse, but Act 2 gives the parents a very important role. Specifically, the role of being the reason why Chloe and Goh's friendship fractured.
• Author Appeal:
  • Green Phantom Queen brings back her love of wrestlers, nightmares, food, music, and Specter for the story.
  • SpinnerNite is a fan of mind control and duality, specifically mentioning a love of Literature/The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in Act 2.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • Rimuru is horrified when he learns that Shion is cooking for Professor Sycamore and Garchomp and races off to stop them. Too late, the food is already eaten...and Professor Sycamore states it's delicious! Unfortunately, Garchomp got food poisoning...
  • The entirety of the Harvest Moon Car seems like a Folk Horror akin to Scooby Doo on Zombie Island...it's actually that the denizens are preparing for a Dias de los Muertes holiday where the dead come back for a celebration.
• Been There, Shaped History:
  • The Train hosts denizens that would become the basis of numerous myths through the revelation that gods and demons exist. Rey Mysterio vs the Cosmos also reveals that the Roanoke incident happened because the passengers got picked up by the Train and assumed they were going to Croatoan Island instead.
  • The Cyan Desert Car reveals that the traveler Ibn Battuta got stranded on the Train for quite some time, as Gremory gushes over Yuri's Persona also having the same name. Moreover, there are denizens who will eventually be the basis of numerous myths and the demons of the Ars Goetia.
• Big "NO!":
  • One of Calem's friends texts this when Calem reveals that their former theory of "The Infinity Train only picks up kids" is debunked.
  • Tony Clark screams this when he can't use his MPCOM to contact his siblings.
• Big "WHAT?!":
  • Played for Drama. When Professor Sycamore screams this at Calem and Meyer when Officer Jenny wants to stop the search for Alain due to lack of clues. It's at this point he realizes the stress of searching for Alain is getting to him.
  • Also Played for Drama in the Ninjala Car. After Parker reveals that Alex Shepherd can become Pyramid Head — he tried mentioning this earlier but was told to be quiet — everyone reacts in shock because they assumed that Sycamore can trust Alex to protect him from Pyramid Head and Gloria and Goh told him to shut up his face when he tried to warn them about that little factoid.
  • The last word of the Cyan Desert Car Part 5 is this in response to Sycamore revealing that he's canceling the plans to stop the Apex and Cage of Flauros.
  • Talia screams this at Kaito when she learns that the Infinity Train is actually the basis of a scientific report that could've been discovered sooner if someone actually did research on it.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: In Vermillion City, you have Chloe Cerise who comes off as judgmental and abusive towards her neurodivergent best friend, unwilling to truly admit fault in anything she does in a meaningful way, and is an all-around rather unpleasant girl. She's only seen as a hero because the writing portrays her bullies and enemies in the Apex as even worse, to a point that her main bully has to end up talking like a Nazi in order to have Chloe seem sympathetic compared to her. At the same time, we also have the main villains between the Apex, Walter and Henry, and Elipzo: the Apex murder everyone in a twisted bid to survive, Walter and Henry are unleashing a ritual to end the cult, and Elipzo is causing chaos for their own specific ends.
• Bland-Name Product:
  • In a flashback in Orchid Observer, there's a reference to Samsara Tea Shop, the equivalent of the real-life Nirvana Tea.
  • Yuri mentions the "Dittoo" search engine ala Google.
• Bloodless Carnage:
  • In the Diorama Car, Sycamore sees a soldier that's missing a leg, but there's no blood or gore to be seen. This is justified since it turns out the soldier is made of plastic.
  • The original version of Ninjala Car had Chloe not suffering from any injuries when she was thrown out of a window.
• Blue Is Heroic: Blue is seen as the signature color of the story, usually reflecting someone who is on the side of good.
  • The Windchasers are associated with the color blue. Augustine wears a blue coat and in the character art for Yuri, he's wearing a blue hoodie (and also has blue hair).
  • Rey Mysterio is frequently associated with blue: his wrestling attire (mask and pants) are blue, he has glowing blue eyes and highlights when he uses his powers and he unleashes fire attacks against Team Flare with are also bright blue. Moreover, Oscar's alter ego as Enygma made him wear a blue wrestling mask and suit, and his last name — "Aciano" — means "Blue botle flower". Oscar's friend, Lio, is depicted as wearing a blue cap and a shirt with blue sleeves. Aerostar is also specifically described as wearing blue wrestling gear as well.
  • Jesse Cosay is usually depicted in his blue Arizona jacket.
  • Those who have a blue moon symbol on their hands, or wearing clothes with a blue moon on them, are travelers who visit other worlds to help those in danger. Tres is one of those people the same goes for Colette.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl:
  • This becomes the dynamic between Goh and Gloria when they meet, since Goh's currently in a Heroic BSoD after Chloe's message and Gloria, being a former Passenger, gives him In-Universe Catharsis to at least help his mental problems somewhat. This later becomes reversed during the second half of Act 1, with Goh and Victor hoping to console Gloria after her honesty caused Professor Cerise to snap. In Act 2, this is reversed with Chloe the brooding girl ready to end her life while Goh is the Tough Love gentle boy who convinces her to change her act and find a reason to live again.
  • In the past, Goh was the brooding boy angsting about Tokio while Chloe was the gentle girl who tried to support him. Unfortunately, Goh refused to move on from Tokio and Chloe's impatience grew because she couldn't understand what she was doing wrong and she leaves him because she can't be of any help.
• Call-Forward: The attire UnChloe wears — a white coat, purple leggings and a white top hat — will be what the real Chloe will wear in Journeys episode 98.
• Cast Full of Gay: Starting at the end of Act 1/beginning of Act 2, and in a few side stories, there are more and more characters under the LGBTQA+ spectrum, mostly among the non-Pokémon cast members: Specter is demiromantic, Indigo and November are bisexual, Casimira is lesbian, Tres is a transman, and Ryan and Min-Gi are a couple (meaning Ryan is bi compared to his straight in the original show). Team Riconnetersi consists of asexual Jesse Cosay, female non-binary aromantic Lake, and gay Spencer. Among the other half of the series, such characters are limited to Ash and Trip (and and bi-curious Colette who is actually an alternate Chloe.)
• Cell Phones Are Useless: Played With in regards to the Infinity Train and the multiverse. On the one hand, its internal network, the Infinet, allows the Passengers' phones to work and lets them contact their relatives and friends from back in their home dimension. On the other hand, this doesn't really do anything to get the passenger's number lowered, which is the main objective of everybody inside.
• Central Theme:
  • Hope. The Crocus flower is a symbol for hope, reflecting the hope Sycamore has in order to find Alain and his status as a Hope Bringer. Chloe herself has lost all hope of ever getting help, the same with Sycamore's Persona Asher. However, as time goes on, the story begins to question what it means to have hope.
  • Promises. If Sycamore makes a promise, he will do all he can to keep it. Chloe herself has been broken time and time again by people who break their promises so easily and Goh's backstory as to why he can't make friends is because he mistook Tokio getting sick as intentionally breaking a promise they made. The focus is all about building promises and making sure to keep them or at least show the consequences of when you make an empty or false promise. And that both sides need to work together to keep the promise.
  • Like the original Book 3 of Infinity Train, empathy is an important focus. While most attempts to help others are nice, it's Not Quite the Right Thing. What's needed for people to heal is people actively talking and comforting the ones going through a mental health crisis instead of leaving them to stew over their problems and thus aggravating them. Whether it's Professor Cerise assuming that leaving his daughter in the Institute substitutes as therapy, the Hanoi shoving Specter into his room in an attempt to keep him from running away, or Chloe being too wrapped up in her own problems to to try and understand others, these attempts don't actively fix the problems as they are just masking them over. Act 2 focuses on these people seeking help and shoulders to cry on when therapy is not in anyone's dictionary. Moreover, kindness is a recurring theme and how even the smallest acts can hold such a big impact onto others.
  • By the same token, Self-Awareness. There's no shortage of characters who like to claim that their lives are worse than what people see on the surface level. However, nine times out of ten, these turn out to be either the result of the person blowing things out of proportion, misremembering things in a way that makes them look like the victim, or even straight up lies that the person honestly believes as a way to cope with their own narrative. Only those who actually drop these superstitions and become aware of the real situation are ever shown to change for the better, with those who don't become self-aware doubling down and spiraling into their own graves. It's also noted that many characters are shown to be hypocrites and only those who take a good look at themselves can grow.
  • Reconciliation: While Blossomverse was focused on spite and blaming, Crocus focuses on people trying to mend their fences with one another. Sycamore and Chloe decide to forgive one another after the fallout of the Cyan Desert Car, Goh and Chloe learn to admit how they both were at fault for their friendship failing, Tokio's biggest lesson is to forgive himself for the Ilex Forest incident, and Specter's biggest wish is to make amends with London for how he treated the wrestler. Reconciliation is not easy or quick, but through admission of one's flaws, it is feasible.
  • Sometimes, we are our worst enemies. Many characters are trying to blame someone else or ignore how they're the ones who are digging themselves into a deeper ditch, but only when they confront their flaws can they make it out. Chloe has to fight off the depression and voices in her head pushing her to suicide, Tokio has a haunted mask reveal his darker self that can only be let go once he finally forgives himself, Goh ends up tripping and failing to see connections with Chloe because he's always so focused on himself that he never notices the world around him, Grace refuses to believe that she is in the wrong even though she's responsible for the Apex chaos for over a decade. It also shows what happens if we don't confront our flaws as shown with Alain refusing to wake up from his blissful hypnosis over the guilt in regards to Team Flare's assault in Lumiose City.
  • Don't make assumptions based on what little facts you know. Do your own research first by asking questions. Many people jump to conclusions and feel like they know how things work, only to face harsh reality when they learn that they aren't the smartest people in the universe. The entire story starts because Augustine refused to ask Ash on whether he knew anything about Alain's disappearance. Gloria, Goh, and Yuri shut people off from warning them about Alex Shepherd under the basis that they know all about Silent Hill (they only know Pyramid Head's debut). Grace lied to the Apex over being the expert on the Train. Kurune and Ikuo made irrational misjudgments on Chloe without letting the girl speak. Goh refused to search for Tokio for three years and instead waited for a convenient letter to explain the backstory. A lot of the PCK that gets thrown around because no one bothers to use two brain cells to go, "Why don't we look it up online or ask someone if this is the right thing to do?" Baphomet even lampshades this, stating that he deliberately kept quiet on a lot of information for Chloe because not only was she not ready for it, but because he wants the heroes to start actively asking, not passively listening.
• Color Motif:
  • The author notes for the Night Garden Car has the co-author reveal that each of the heroic groups have a color based off of the colors of the French flag. Windchasers are associated with blue, the Red Lotus Uprising (obviously) have red and White Gestalt (again) has white. And as a whole, blue is the signature color of the story since numerous colors associated with blue tend to be associated with good.
  • Variants of Chloe will usually wear white as a symbol of clarity and moving forward. In Act 2, Chloe ditches her black attire to make her look more like Heather Vason (who famously wore a white vest). Colette appears in a white tee, and UnChloe has white stage magician attire.
  • Augustine and Chloe wear black and white to represent the clashing of light and dark and order and chaos that they represent. Both of them are needed to balance everything out.
• Continuity Cavalcade:
  • In Chapter 5, Sycamore makes notes on numerous cars that were seen in Infinity Train Book 1. In the Graph Car, Sycamore even shouts "I DECLARE BANKRUPTCY!" like Tulip did in the beginning of "The Ball Pit Car".
  • The Skill Crane Car has a references to numerous cars and incidents in the original Blossomverse.
  • The Ninjala Car Part 1 references numerous cars and events from Knight of the Orange Lily and Blossoming Trail.
• Continuity Snarl:
  • Several that came about as a result of how Oak Lore was written by Cross versus the chapters and authors note written by Green and Spinnerite. Oak Lore itself implies that Ash took an airplane to Galar with tickets bought by Gary and went alone, while Crocus proper implies he took the airship and was with at least Goh, who had his own adventure with some Impidimp while Ash and Gary were looking for a Galarian Rapidash, and Gary seemed unware of how Ash got to Galar.
  • In a segment featuring Goh in a segment Cross wrote for the main story, Goh accepted that his team was not happy with Chloe, were going to attack her for her crimes and he'd let them do so, and knew that Golurk gave his punch spot to Ash's Gengar to let him punch Chloe twice. In a segment in the following chapter written by Green and Spinner, Goh was very much against them doing so or having issues with Chloe at all, seemed to have forgotten that Ash's Gengar was also interested in punching Chloe, and had Golurk punching Chloe twice instead of Gengar doing the double punching after being given Golurk's lot for the Chloe punching line. To reconcile this, Goh decides that he'll allow the Pokémon to beat up Chloe but he has to be on guard so they don't go overboard.
  • Ash's Rotomphone (and Rotomdex, which does make sense) can't identify a Clodsire, despite the fact that the Rotomphone Pokedex is a worldwide product and would lack the regional limitations of a region-exclusive Pokedex. The co-author admits that she made a mistake in writing the scene.
  • Tomie is presented as Ikuo's father and thus Goh's paternal grandparent. In canon she's Kurune's mother and thus Goh's maternal grandparent.
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • he second chapter of Rey Mysterio vs the Cosmos is based on this trope alone. Oscar bumps into Kaito Goshikida and his notebook falls. Kaito sees the drawing of an infinity symbol in Oscar's notebook before revealing to Zocks that he was a Train passenger once. Then, Zocks finds out that the next Rey Mysterio vs the Infinity comic will have Rey encounter a three-headed dragon who just so happens to be Kaito's denizen partner, Au-san. And then the final line of the chapter reveals that the same dragon — who also moonlights as a barista — is actually Asher's mentor! Lio lampshades this a few chapters later in regards to learning about the Fifth Sun and Team Flare's involvement:
  Lio: I mean, what are the chances Team Flare was coming to our city, and we took their phone of super secret files for an ancient megaweapon that was conveniently in our city?
  • Chloe Cerise is a red haired girl with flower highlights, a surname of "Cerise", loves mint chocolate desserts and is a lover of demons to the point her title is "Demon Lord of the Vermillion". Ergo, she's the descendant of the legendary Alec Cerise, the "Demon Researcher". At least this is what Tokio assumes in the Horrorland Car as to why the Goetias are looking after her. Spoilers, she's not.
  • In "Firefly Funhouse Car", Goh lampshades the coincidence of returning to Ilex Forest and finding a letter in Celebi's shrine that oh so conveniently drops exposition as to why Tokio didn't arrive when he was supposed to.
• Cosmic Motif: Moon imagery becomes a major focus of the story. From Tres having a blue moon mark and him being a "Moolight Passenger" to Chloe getting a tattoo of a crescent moon in the arc called "Harvest Moon Car" — which in and of itself is the first of three cars known as the Lunar Arc.
• Creation/Destruction Juxtaposition:
  • Chloe Cerise and Grace Monroe are Creation and Destruction in chaotic feminine form. Chloe brings life and hope back to the Infinity Train by gathering denizens and passengers into her wild and chaotic adventures and performances to the point that there's constant references to cosplays and even Red Lotus merchandise, and her main goal on the Train is to reforge new bonds with those she hurt on and off the Train, and she's a very creative person outside of it with her costume making, her love of stage production, and being able to make plans on the fly. Meanwhile, Grace is a harbinger of destruction by destroying lives and killing denizens for her own amusement and ropes the Apex to join in on the "fun", but mostly to keep herself entertained and is on the path of burning bridges with everyone, be it her parents, the Apex, and Simon himself, and all she knows how to do is lie, manipulate, and murder. Fittingly, Malphas reveals that these two are the next competitors in the Forever War on the Train.
  • In the Rose Courtyard Car, the Apex leaders are these once more after making covenants with Goetias. Simon is Creation as his covenant is with Malphas, whose main ability is to create buildings to his liking, granted to him by a passenger named Milton Finch with a huge artistic streak who wanted to build a car that would remain permanent, and must give up his all of his story ideas in exchange (which Simon agrees to, as he'll find more inspiration in the future). Meanwhile, Grace is destruction as she teams with Glasyas-Labolas, whose powers is about allowing the summoner to kill people and Grace is known for creating the cult that destroys lives for her own benefit and destroys the car she called home as sufficient payment for her revenge.
• Creator Thumbprint: What do psychological horror and food have in common? Green Phantom Queen, of course.
• Crossover Cosmology: The Infinity Train hosts denizens that would essentially be seen as deities throughout human history. Deities, or Numinae, that have been referenced throughout the stories include Zeus, Aphrodite, Hestia, Wepwawet, Anubis, Quetzalcoatl, Inari, and Lugh.
• Dark Is Not Evil: One of the recurring themes is that darkness is scary and terrifying, but it can also be used for good.
  • Asher is Sycamore's Shadow and Chloe gives him an outfit that consists of a black suit and black bird wings (based off the Ars Goetia demon Caim), not to mention that he has Mind Manipulation powers. However, he's an ally to the Windchasers.
  • By the end of Act 1, Chloe's now dressing in a black suit, leggings and hat, along with having the power to summon a demon if she wants to. Yet she's the sweet, cheerful leader of the Red Lotus Uprising.
  • Both Asher and Chloe gain Mirage Pokémon in Murky the Murkrow and Hewie the Houdnoom. Both of them are Dark-types (and both are called "The Dark Pokémon") but function more as pets and loyal allies.
  • Au-san/Auric is usually seen as a black haired barista, but his real form is a massive three-headed black dragon. He was the one who helped Kaito Goshikia tackle the Infinity Train, he has a soft spot for kitties and he ends up being the one who ultimately lets Sara move on from her anger. Not to mention that it's later revealed he's a member of the Goetias.
  • The denizens of the Horrorland Car are frightening but they love having parties and are willing to have White Gestalt feast with them. The terrors that the group go through are essentially harmless pranks that they're willing to reverse.
• A Day in the Limelight: While Sycamore and Chloe are the two protagonists of the Train-side of the story, Act 2 (and other fics in general) focuses on other characters.
  • The Palimpsest Car is focused on Amelia reuniting with a copy of Alrich and whether she wants to stay or continue her journey.
  • The B-plot of The Harvest Moon Car is all about Goh finally realizing how lost he's been without Chloe in his life and highlights the actions of his parents did to separate the two. The Firefly Funhouse Car also focuses on Goh as he recalls his past with Chloe.
  • The Horrorland Car puts emphasis on Gladion when he ends up as the only member of White Gestalt not traumatized by Jonathan Chiller's mind games, and whether he wants to get revenge or move forward. The B-plot of that car is focused on Aoi deciding to search for the revived Ignis.
  • The Wonderland Cookoff Car focuses on Specter and Lampetia before they meet with Gladion.
  • The Fake Moon Car's B-plot is on Talia learning both about how Chloe's school was fully aware of the Infinity Train and that Goh's parents wish that she drowned years ago. The main plot is focused more on Professor Cerise himself.
  • Yuri gets to take center stage during the first part of the second intermission, as he bonds with Chloe and unleashes his stress and worries on Augustine.
  • Grace's past is examined in the Rose Courtyard Car as it expands more on her life before she got on the Train and deals with how the Apex have turned their backs on her.
• Deconstruction Crossover: Fake Moon Car reveals that the people crossing over into the Pokémon world is actually going to lead to instability in the future. The Alola region (where Rey Mysterio, Oscar, Jesse Cosay, Lake, Colette, and Spencer are stationed at) and Vermillion City (where the Zenkaigers are staying) are actually hotspots for dimensional activity, which is why they have the most focus (The former due to the Ultra Wormholes the latter because of a mass Exodus by the Train and a supernatural community named Noir Rest residing there for a century). But this is also weakening the veil between worlds and just one more push could spell cataclysmic trouble.
• Deconstruction Fic:
  • The status of the Apex is examined here. Grace is annoyed at how she's seen as some monster for murdering Utahoshi and can't stand how people are spiting her without hearing her side of the story in that she's a broken girl who has no clue as to what is going on, and the Apex are little kids struggling to survive a cruel Train that could care less if they live or die. This culminates in her parents disowning her and wanting to burn everything to the ground by getting to Silent Hill.
  • Chloe being the focus throughout Act 1. As she is the poster child of the original trilogy, and Augustine is working on protecting her from the madness that is the Infinity Train, the Apex and the Fog Car this also means that he deliberately witholds well-needed self-help on himself until he eventually snaps, as he puts his own self-worth into making sure she is okay over his own sanity. This is also because multiple parties are expecting her to be the keystone to their plans, and they aren't happy when Augustine's presence swiftly derails it.
  • Most children in the Pokémon world want to be Trainers. Class 5-E all dream of having a Pokémon but they don't have the work ethics or attitudes to work with them. They see Professor Cerise as a meal ticket to adventure and glory and excitement, yet they bully his daughter so that she can give them the Pokémon they want instead of actually confronting them. And Pokémon aren't living beings to them; they're just some shiny toy or fad that will make them blend in with the cool kids. Being a Trainer isn't something you demand to be, but rather a privilege, something they never considered until they lost their rights to be a Trainer.
• Decon-Recon Switch:
  • Goh and Chloe's talk during the Harvest Moon Car does this with the Fair-Weather Friend. Both of them claimed to be each other's friends, but thanks to a variety of factors, including Chloe and Goh's own issues, they barely even qualify as acquaintances by the time the story began, with Chloe's power trip-fueled spite and Goh's spiraling inability to keep his mouth shut not helping things. However, once the two eventually get enough development to break away from their black-and-white mentality, and learn to stop talking and listen to each other for once, they manage to convince each other that they can still make the friendship work.
  • Speaking of which, both Goh and Chloe do this with Odd Friendship. Both of them are not compatible due to their opposite natures, hobbies, and flaws heavily clashing one another, making it hard to understand why the two were ever friends to begin with. Goh even forced Chloe to be his friend solely so he never had to think about Tokio betraying him, which flips their friendship as one out of "convenience" than connectivity. Chloe eventually concludes that there shouldn't be any definitive answer that will magically reveal the truth; they're friends because they're friends. Simple as that.
• Designated Girl Fight: The final battle of Act 1 is this, since out of both teams, there's only one other girl in Red Lotus Uprising besides Chloe, Amelia, who's busy elsewhere, while Sara's side has only Unown and Shadows, who have No Biological Sex. According to Malphas, this is to happen again between Chloe and Grace, as they are chosen as avatars of "Feminine Chaos".
• Devil, but No God: Demons play a huge role in the verse and the likes of Lucifer, Satan, and Baphomet are as presumed denizens, but the capital God is never mentioned at all. At one point, Asher is given the nickname of "Bird Jesus" but it's never clarified if Jesus himself is a denizen/passenger/myth or simply just a Shout-Out.
• Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: The story reveals that beings who are known as gods and demons in other worlds are actually denizens created by the Train. Thus there are times when the heroes literally have snacks with the Goetias like it's no big deal.
• Diligent Hero, Slothful Villain: On the Infinity Train, Chloe Cerise busts her ass off to become a hero to the denizens, building her skills from the bottom up with nothing but a donut holer and a fire casting cloak to her name, along with producing videos, photos, and stage productions that rally hope against the darkness of the Apex. In contrast, her bully doesn't even bother to work her butt off and instead manipulates their classmates to bully Chloe so she has no choice but to give everyone a Pokémon instead of actually going to Professor Cerise's Institute to get one for herself. This ends up playing out during the final battle of Act 1, with Chloe's skills completely decimating Sara due to the hard work she put into it.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: Both Chloe and Goh are confirmed to be neurodivergent in the story, the former being undiagnosed with ADHD and the latter with autism.
• Doppelmerger: Once Specter reunites with his partner Easter — essentially a copy of Specter himself made from a lightning bolt — their forgiveness and willing to try again makes a new fusion called Harmonious Storm.
• Double Standard: As with Blossoming Trail, this trope is in play yet again with Chloe and others being treated in very different ways from others who do the same things. Also as in Blossoming Trail, the issues would be occasionally, but not always, addressed.
  • While recounting the aftermath of the fight against Dr. Yung in the Ninjala Car, the group concludes that Chloe handled the situation better than Ash did, despite both of them having done relatively the same in dealing with it (Fighting the Mirage Pokémon to the best of their ability until an intervention of a third party (Mirage Mew for Ash, the Cloak of Wepwawet for Chloe) helped them save the day). When this is brought up between the two, Ash admits that they're pretty much even and Chloe agrees.
  • Amelia was the reason why passengers were in the dark about the Train and caused the Apex. But she gets to stay and get her number down while three members of the mostly male White Gestalt are kicked out because of Gladion's mistake to stop the Apex from destroying the Tape Car even though White Gestalt were doing all they can to stop the Apex. For Amelia's part, even she admits that it's unfair. Speaking of the above, Amelia has been on the Train for over thirty years, and has brought complete and utter chaos and hurt who knows how many Denizens and Passengers along the way... and yet people would rather point fingers at Grace, who hasn't even been there for a decade and had no real idea what she was doing, compared to Amelia being very aware but not really caring about it. Moreover, White Gestalt had three of its members kicked out for the plot that almost caused the train to stop due to a fight with the Apex and yet Amelia, once again, has not been punished for creating the Apex and not even lifting a finger to stop them except for the large number on her body. Palimpsest Car has Augustine rip her to shreds over this because Amelia is fully responsible for everything she did and she is nothing but a coward who runs away from her problems.
  • If Professor Sycamore and Chloe appear together to people who know they went missing, the latter must be focused on over the former; the Alolan students gets scolded by Goh when they focus on if Professor Sycamore is doing okay on his trip over Chloe, because an entire city and hashtag focusing on her going missing apparently isn't enough. This begins to die down during Act 2, when Looker asks the Team Rocket trio if they've seen him, implying that his disappearance is being investigated and Augustine's father is shocked to learn that his son is gone.
  • When Chloe and Parker are revealed to have some serious revenge fantasies, from Chloe writing stories that has her torture her classmates to Parker wishing to make everybody pay for hurting his sister, the characters act like this is a result of their own incompetence and neglect and that, while the two are wrong, they have a reason to feel that way. When Goh's Pokémon allegedly grab tickets as to who gets to beat up Chloe when she returns for everything their trainer has suffered over indirectly or directly because of her, they get called out and made out as monsters; first by Parker guilt tripping them without meaning to, then by Goh reading them the riot act, all while putting Chloe on a pedestal and tearing himself down. However, Chloe later admits that she deserves this punishment and agrees to it, with Goh supervising it.
  • When Goh chooses to focus on friendship with Pokémon who truly understand and support him, it's treated as him willingly closing himself off from true social interaction, and something that needs to be called out on. When Chloe focuses more on her friendships with Denizens, it's portrayed as her just enjoying time with people who truly understand and support her, which is perfectly fine. Act 2 has Chloe acknowledging how she was wrong and begins to see Goh's friendship with Pokémon in a more positive light, though this still does not stop other characters from acting as if Goh "wasted" his time with non-human friendships over his relationship with Chloe.
  • Both Chloe and her mother have their art derided over the course of the story, but while Chloe is given the support she needs to see it's not so bad and that it doesn't make her a monster, Talia is treated like a terrible mother for it, and gets only mockery from it as shown when she talks to Ms. April. However, Chloe admits that she actually does admire Talia for putting out her drawings and not afraid of what others think of her. What she hates is that the drawings are all cutesy versions of her because she feels like she can never be exactly like those images.
  • In the VRAINS world, George Gore points out the hypocrisy that he gets demeaned and blasted over becoming a bounty hunter for SOLTech, worked for Queen, captured the Earth Ignis who got vivisected (and later had a data chip implanted to his brain) solely to get revenge on Playmaker even though he's one of the heroes who tried stopping the Tower of Hanoi. Whereas Specter, who is part of the Hanoi, has actively manipulated and brainwashed Aoi, sent her and her brother to become part of the Tower of Hanoi and is still part of what is essentially a dark hacker group who is pitied by everyone, including Aoi. Specter internally notes that George is right over how he's basically getting away scot-free (disregarding how he's being sent on the Train and his previous go-around had him see his partner die twice, his other partner torture him, seeing the closest thing he had to a friend skewered by Pyramid Head, etc.). It's also noted that it's the dark-skinned George Gore who gets punished while the paled skin Specter gets a second chance.
  • Mallow chews out her friends for not caring for Gladion going missing despite them all working their darndest to save his mom from the Ultra Beasts, stating that it doesn't matter the gender. Missing is missing.^note In the original Orange Lily, this was noted to be for a fairly simple reason, they didn't really know Gladion that well and had no reason to think that him not appearing again after frequently popping in and out was irregular, while Lusamine's abduction was seen by others and thus known to be a abduction. Mallow meanwhile only suspected something happened to Gladion. Meanwhile, between Faba and Gladion in regards to the Nihilego incident, Faba is forgiven despite being the cause of this entire mess whereas Gladion, while he also has his own faults for keeping things quiet, is blamed and despised despite being the reason Lillie fully remembers what happened that night.
• Doublethink: One problem that seems to be prominent in the story is people having conflicting opinions about things, specifically people blaming Goh for Chloe’s problems while at the same time reassuring him that Chloe brought all her problems upon herself.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • One of the things that Professor Sycamore is worried about is if Alain is brainwashed. The reader knows by now that yes, Alain's been brainwashed, and it's been going on for a while...
  • Professor Sycamore decides to not tell Ash about Alain's disappearance... but if he did, he would've learned where Alain would've gone since Trip has arrived at that time with knowledge of the Infinity Train.
  • After talking with his friends, Calem decides to not enter the Sycamore Lab to give the Professor his space...oh he has space all right.
  • Rimuru thinks that Alain's disappearance is based on the Apex. Readers know that the Apex are just a bit player compared to Walter and Henry's schemes to keep Alain with them forever.
  • The Ninjala Car has numerous instances of this, with one of them having Ash question who else is in the Fog Car and shouts "Paul" or how Sycamore states that Alex Shepherd can be trustworthy when readers would already know that he's Pyramid Head.
  • In the Routine Arc, Chloe thinks that the "Paulie" Walter was talking about this prisoner is Paul London both on the basis in that London has actually entered the Fog Car and she assumes prisoner was metaphorical, not literal. Readers will know that it's the trainer Paul, not the wrestler, who is Despair.
  • Due to similarities, particularly in surname and love of demons, some denizens think that Chloe Cerise is a descendant of a passenger named Alec Cerise. Turns out the Chloe on the Train isn't related to him at all. Alec's actual descendant appears in Chloe's world in Act 2 and is shown to have little to no knowledge of demons in the slightest with another reveal being Crocus Chloe's great-grandfather, Calyx, entered the Train after Alec did.
  • Chloe thinks that she is such a loser to her school because she was defeated by Ash. The school thinks the opposite; she's so cool to challenge Ash.
• Driven to Suicide:
  • The beginning of Act 2 has Chloe reeling through this, highlighting her depression from everything she's going through before she almost takes her life at the end of the Harvest Moon Car by asking a dragon demon to behead her. It's only thanks to Goh and Buné that she snaps out of it.
  • Augustine himself almost goes through with it in the Palimpsest Car, but it's only through Pescia Alrich and Tres that he's also managed to be talked down.
• Driving Question:
  • "The Firefly Funhouse Car": "Who is Alec Cerise and how does his actions affect Chloe?", "What did Chloe do that will cement herself as Chloe of the Vermillion" and "What happened that made Chloe (temporarily) cut off communication with Goh?"
  • Act 2 starts piling on more and more questions which include: "Who is Armand and why is he so important on the Infinity Train?", "How is Armand connected to both Augustine and Asher?" and more importantly, "What's going on in Vermillion City that is connected to the Train?"
• Duality Motif: A recurring theme in the story, There are alternate selves of many characters, denizens taking on the appearance of other people, mirrors and reflections, character clothing that seem to host two colors at once, etc., etc.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • There is a noticeable difference in chapters before Green Phantom Queen became more involved as co-writer than before this occured. The balance between Pokemon and Infinity Train portions on chapters were even, the blame game was reduced, crossover elements were far less prominent on the Pokemon world side, and several elements that would become prominent after Green became more part of the story, like Chloe and Goh's past, school drama, and Chloe herself, were present but in far less focus than they'd later become. On another note, the first few cars up to "Twisted Lab Car" had at most 3k-5k words per chapter. After that, it's common to find a chapter having 20k at minimum.
  • Related to the above, but the story seems to be an original adventure that copies some beats of Blossoming Trail. Come the end of Act 1 and beginning of Act 2 and the story has outright expanded to a longer affair of multiple dimensions and gods and demons deciding to get involved before revealing that there's something deeper going on with alternate selves and adventures of a previous set of passengers unearthing a conspiracy that rocked the Train decades ago.
• Embarrassment Plot:
  • Like in Blossomverse, Chloe's initial problem is to get rid of the embarrassment of losing to Ash in a battle she had no way of winning, especially when Goh decided to not only record the video without her permission, but planned to upload it online where everyone, particularly her peers, will make sure she NEVER forgets this. It also stems over how she's not the "perfect badass Professor's daughter" she's expected to be and the shame she feels she'll bring to the Cerise name also triggering her self-worth issues given how people love and fawn over Alola Champion Ash and her friend being praised for his goal of catching Mew since she was 6. Most of the first act after she appears is to tell Chloe that yes, it is embarrassing, but it should also be worn as a badge of pride for getting out of her comfort zone and that she'll ultimately suffer more in the long run if she runs away from it because she'll deprive herself of Character Development. By the second intermission, she's come to terms with herself (and it does help that when Goh finally uploaded the video, he actually put a description for the context because if not, people will assume it's a video of Alola League Champion Ash Ketchum whomping a newbie).
  • While not as obvious, Goh admits that the reason he never mentioned anything about Tokio and Ilex Forest is because he felt it was so embarassing to be a friendless loser whining over a boy who ditched him after one day, which is why he drove Chloe to promise him not to abandon him. Unfortunately, refusing to confront his issues leads to a deepening divide with him and Chloe to the point that once the truth is aired out, Chloe is furious over being lied to because embarassment or no, that's no excuse for treating her so harshly when she was keeping her word to be a friend.
• Exact Words: The authors really love playing around with words, to the point Amelia asks Baphomet if they'll have to deal with someone dealing with the letter of the law instead of the spirit of the law. Notable examples include:
  • In the rewrite, one of the rules Yuri gives One is that in order for White Gestalt to get back on the Train, they cannot deal with the Apex. In Act 2, they end up fighting off against Ai who has the heart of Lampetia (last stolen by Apex member, Tiffany), being blackmailed by the leader of Elipzo. Later in the same act, both White Gestalt and Apex have changed their names (Shiro Shinobi for the former, Jericho for the latter), meaning that Yuri's contract is officially null and void.
  • When Chloe tries to ask One to allow Gladion back onto the Train, One points that any question she asks of him will fall on deaf ears. So she tries to ask another question, but is repeatedly told by three men to shut up, before she snaps that she's trying to ask Faba a question (about whether or not he did plan on hypnotizing Lillie to cover his tracks).
  • Chloe, upon learning how the Halo of Valac makes someone a vessel for the soul of a Goetia, requests that Buné's soul frees itself from Augustine. What she was implying was that Buné — having transformed Augustine into a dragon-demon hybrid — also remove the transformation off of him. Buné replied she only asked him to leave the body, nothing more.
  • Renji tries to get answers from Looker but expresses annoyance over Looker getting the better of him. For example, upon asking for Looker's true name, he gives up his true codename for the organization he works for.
  • It's repeatedly said that Chloe is a descendant of Alec Cerise....except it's not Crocus Chloe, but rather an alternative one.
  • The Elephant Teapot Car's rewrite has Amelia try to get Chloe to talk about the elephant in the room. Chloe tries to deflect this by talking about literal elephant shaped chocolates in her hotel room, before Amelia stops her.
  • In the Rose Courtyard Car, Grace wishes to be teleported to where the heroes are at so she can get a crack at Chloe of the Vermillion. Here's the catch: Chloe already left the group to properly heal and restart her journey as Chloe Cerise. Moreover, Grace insists to be teleported to where Chloe of the Vermillion is at, but Chloe gave up the title as payment for a contract with Wepwawet. Then Grace asks to be teleported to where Chloe is, but she doesn't know Chloe's surname, so Gaap asks if Grace means Chloe Carmichael, Bougeois, or Price.
• The Exile: Most of the White Gestalt (Specifically Gladion, Specter, and Tokio) were kicked out from the Train by One-One and banned from returning after their actions nearly destroyed the train. It's only after a quick string of Freak Out after Freak Out and Sycamore threatening to crush the little bowling ball that he relents.
• Face/Heel Double-Turn: In Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS, Ai was the good guy and Specter was the bad guy before Season 3 made Ai the bad guy and Specter is only a "hero" in name due to being Demoted to Extra. In the Palimpsest Car, Ai cements himself as the enemy while Specter vows to save the Ignis, truly cementing that he's working on bettering himself this time around. Fittingly, there's a wrestler involved between these two. Fake Moon Car Pt 2 has Green Phantom Queen state the trope by name in the author's notes in how she sees the dynamic between Yusaku and Specter play out in the story, even bringing up the famous example of Bret Hart and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin from WrestleMania 13 as reference.
• Faints in Shock:
  • Sycamore does this after a goblin saves him from a Black Centipede and again when he learns out that the Demon Lord is a blue slime monster. Chapters later, 3/5 of White Gestalt do this when Rimuru turns from slime form to human form.
  • Yuri repeatedly does this when he learns that gods and demons exit, and later when meeting Paimon who states how Lucifer is also traveling the train. He then faints multiple times when Augustine makes a covenant with Buné.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: While you can probably say this about the Blossomverse in general, this one takes the cake in terms of fantasical fusion.
  • Aside from the usual stuff that was found in the original trilogy, we now can things as grandiose as gods (but not God), demons (Lucifer and Satan are namedropped) a sentient city with a train that has cars based off Japanese mythology, talking cats, a car where you face your shadow, a model diorama car home to a space war, to something mundane as talking bears who perform rimshots en masse. Lexi mentions elven princes, vampires, unicorns, and mermaids in "Firefly Funhouse Car". And that's on the Train side.
  • On the other side, the allies now include talking androids, a supernaturally empowered wrestler, another wrestler who travels through time, a third wrestler who gets premonitions, a metal girl (who was originally from the Train), the power of imagination that can be harnessed by those with high levels of creativity/those who survived the Train itself, an agent from a secret organization so secret not even the secret organizations know about them, digital monsters, and secret agents with familiar faces who fight via video game power.
  • The non fantastical passengers this time around include a kid spy, a CEO of a company that specializes in trading cards, a Collector of the Strange holed up in a creepy amusement park, a Rail Enthusiast, a woman obsessed with lists and bees, a high-school student who is essentially the #1 duelist in a virtual world plus his AI partner, a therapist who can enter the Train without having a number tattooed to his palm, to two immortals (one a juggler and one a boat boy).
  • And finally, Act 2 seems to note that there are unique citizens in the Pokémon world. Yuri's family talk about children with claws and fangs, a teacher whose voice makes plants livelier, or the possibility that a cooking channel actually has a robot actually cooking curry and not someone in a costume. The Act 1 rewrite reveals that Vermillion City hosts an underground society that consists of beast-people, elves, and living shadows and that witches walk among the populace with Talia being one and Chloe hoping to train under her.
• Felony Misdemeanor:
  • Goh got denounced by his childhood friend over "broken promises", and labeled as a Hypocrite by a five-year-old simply for not being best friends with his older sister and purposefully shutting up about Tokio when it would be more convenient to just tell the truth. This gets subverted later on as Goh starts standing up for himself and Chloe and Parker apologize for slandering Goh without getting the facts straight.
  • At the same time, Tokio fell ill through no fault of his own, and ended up being labeled as a backstabber simply because he couldn't meet up with Goh when he wanted. Also subverted when Goh learns about Tokio's illness and regrets being angry with him in the first place. When Chloe learns of this, she's more frustrated over how Goh made such a huge deal over it and forced her to shut up without even trying to contact Tokio, not the fact that Tokio got sick.
• Females Are More Innocent: While this was played with in the original Blossoming Trail, there are a lot more female characters who are guilty of things getting out of control just as bad as the men. The Palimpsest Car has the most female characters involved and, in one way or the other, nearly all of them are at fault for what happened.
• Feminist Fantasy: Continuing a recurring theme in many Blossomverse stories, and quite ironic given the male lead in this story and for two of its side stories, females are always on the forefront and have many roles to play, human or otherwise. They are complicated, they are kind, they are caring, they are determined, they can be violent, and they all have their own goals in mind. Green Phantom Queen declares that Crocus is a story about the balance between "male order" and "female chaos", and even notes that Infinity Train itself was as Feminist Fantasy since three books had females as the protagonist/antagonist— Tulip and Amelia for Book 1, Lake for Book 2, and then Grace, Hazel, and Tuba for Book 3 — and assumed that Owen Dennis unintentionally had a feminist outlook in mind when writing the show. It's also quite notable that most of the villains and foils Chloe face just so happen to be female like Roquelle, Sara, Grace, and Casimira. It's also poignant that in the Fog Car, the biggest threat isn't the Silent Hill Trio or the Flauros, but the destined clash between Chloe and Grace as the current avatars of Female Chaos. Moreover, while love plays a big factor for most females, the love ends up either as platonic or familial. Lake is described as aromantic and ends up being a Sour Supporter for Jesse. Chloe wants to rebuild her friendships with Goh and Ash and her relationship with Augustine is teacher and student. Meanwhile, Amelia struggles to either stay in Palmipsest with a copy of Alrich before leaving to protect Chloe and search for Hazel's whereabouts, as she understands that she must live her life in the present. Lampetia acts more as a Morality Pet for Specter and his love for her stems from the guilt of having to watch her die just to get his ass in gear. Simon only moves on thanks to the love from his mother, sister, and childhood crush Edith. And last, while the male One-One is Conductor, it turns out the embodiment of the Train's choosing system is described as "feminine" and has a bigger role in how the game plays out between all parties.
• Filibuster Freefall: The beginning parts of Act 1 actually do a decent job avoiding or subverting the many pitfalls common in most Blossomverse stories, principally how Adults Are Useless and the Blame Game being played far more than it should, all the while providing more nuance to a story that was heavily black and white. However, once the second half of Act 1, especially the Cyan Desert Car, comes to a close, these same things end up being added to the front and center once more, with emphasis on how the adults of Vermillion City were useless and just about everyone winding up either blaming somebody or being blame themselves regardless of how much fault they have. Harvest Moon Car has Goh and Chloe vowing to stop this blame game once and for all, with Goh specifically demanding his parents and grandma to stop before things get worse.
• Five-Token Band: Team Ricconettersi consists of Native American Jesse Cosay, female non-binary and non-human Lake, Japanese Spencer (aka alternate Specter) and Colette in her dedicated side story declares she's half Galarian/half Kalosian aka half British/half French. They're also part of the LGBT+ spectrum.
• Fix Fic: A small part of Act 1 is dedicated to retreading and trying to fix many issues Blossoming Trail had in its own first act. While the execution is ultimately hit or miss, several key disasters (Goh being sent to a suicide ward, Parker going insane with the Unown, Ash developing a Guilt Complex, etc.) are successfully averted or at least temporarily halted. In 2025, the story would undergo a rewrite to better rerail the characters to fit their canon counterparts and reducing the accusation and spite plaguing the story.
• Flower Motifs:
  • Crocus flowers represent "Hope" which is what Professor Sycamore will bring when he enters. It also relates to Alain's own flower motif being the crocus combined with his last name being related to the plant that creates "saffron".
  • Orchid Observer has Jesse wear an apron with a white orchid on it. White orchids mean "sincerity" and "forgiveness".
• Food Porn: Like in the original Blossomverse, there are plenty of scenes that mostly depict characters eating. Justified because this is one of Green Phantom Queen's staples.
• Foregone Conclusion:
  • Since Aerostar is revealed to be on the Train by the time the Cyan Desert Car is going on, he's going to survive the events of Rey Mysterio vs the Cosmos (which takes place at the halfway point of Act 1). Moreover, in that same arc, Rey texts Tony to do research and Kaito appears at the Cerise Institute at the end of Part 6.
  • Jesse Cosay from Orchid Observer has to survive for him and his team to appear in Act 2 of Crocus.
• Forgets to Eat: In the prologue, Sycamore hasn't had a proper dinner barring some biscuits and cold tea.
• The Four Loves: Crocus focuses on different types of love.
  • Storge: Yuri's talk with his parents, Chloe learning to forgive her father, and Simon finally talking to his mother and how she and his little sister wish him the best.
  • Philia: Chloe and Goh's friendship, Specter and London's bromance, White Gestalt still staying with Gladion despite their original quest being over.
  • Eros: Amelia letting go of her feelings for Alrick, Specter coming to terms with his feelings for Ryoken.
  • Agape: Augustine's determination to save Alain and how he tends to care for the likes of Yuri, Vaillant, and Chloe. Easter/Specter/Lampetia vowing to protect one another. Chloe's love for Yamper being shared to the mirage Pokémon.
• Friendship Favoritism: One of the biggest lessons Chloe must accept in the story is that Goh will always favor Ash, Pokémon and Tokio than her even though they consider each other as friends. Knowing that no matter what she'll do, whether it's be supportive or give him gifts and homework, will never be as important as Mew or his adventures, Chloe decides to put their friendship on hold/cut ties and move on with figuring out who she is meant to be...while Goh finally realized how much he abandoned Chloe and is about to go into a mental spiral.
• Fun with Acronyms: In Orchid Observer, Jesse and Lake attend meetings at what is known as the Infinity Train Community House or ITCH.
• Get Out!:
  • After the stress of not having clues to Alain and Officer Jenny stopping the search, Sycamore shouts this to everyone in the lab. It's one of the first signs the professor gets that Alain's disappearance is starting to affect him.
  Sycamore: I SAID TO LEAVE HERE AT ONCE!!! JUST GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!!!
  • Tokio says this to the Nurse Joy who arrives at the cabin he's resting in Ilex Forest, after she reveals that she knows way too much about his Infinity Train trip and she mockingly tells him that he makes too many excuses.
  • A couple of frogs state this to Grace and Simon in the Pond Car.
• Golem: Creatures similar to these, known as Rock Crushers, serve as the very first obstacle that Sycamore faces on the Train.
• Good Is a Choice: A recurring theme for many of the characters. Good is always difficult and leaves you with nothing but hatred and emptiness, but people choose it because it's the right thing to do. Those who don't and subscribe to Evil Is Easy may get away with it for the short term, but they pay for it in the long term.
  • Chloe was always doing her best to be Goh's friend because of a promise he forced on her. So she stays with him, tries getting into Pokémon, gets his homework, made him sweets for the holidays and a last-minute birthday gift...and Goh whines and complains and moans because she's not Tokio. Despite this, Chloe still makes the conscious choice to be Goh's friend because she feels sorry for the boy who was so traumatized by Ilex Forest that he just wanted to make him happy, even stopping Goh from murdering Sara in the rewrite despite all of the torture Sara placed on her earlier. However, she ultimately makes the decision to leave him when she realizes how toxic their friendship has become and wants Goh to be happy with Ash while she learns to find herself...just as Goh has finally realized how he screwed up.
  • Augustine didn't have to find Chloe and help her and could've gone straight to the Fog Car. He starts lashing out at Chloe when she has her meltdown in the Cyan Desert Car, yet still tries his best to bury the hatchet. This ends up being the right choice in the end, as it spurs Chloe to let go of her angers and grant him the role of protagonist while she leaves to find herself.
  • Chloe's classmates subvert it; after they were suspended from their little prank on her, they could have gone the straight path and acknowledge that the suspension was a warning to not do it again. They choose to go back to their evil ways and ends with them being berated on the Internet, their parents fired, and their families angry at how they screwed up their futures for nothing. But in the Cyan Desert Car, they bravely save Talia from being killed by UnCerise and Patricia finally stands up to Sara over how the bully made them fuck around and find out the hard way.
  Chloe: [Sara] didn’t push a gun to your head when [Goh] went to talk to the classmates. She didn’t push a gun to the heads of our classmates when they decided to bully me or cripple my brother. All of it was you. Because you thought that once Sara praised you and gave you pats on the head, you were all so special. That you could do whatever you want and Sara had all the clout and power to bend reality to her liking.
  • Goh always chooses Ash, Sara, Pokémon, and Tokio over Chloe even when she's asking him to come back. In the rewrite, he chooses to finally save Chloe from being murdered by Sara and the Harvest Moon Car has him say that he'd give up a research fellow expedition in order to be with her if he happens to learn she's about to throw herself off a rooftop.
• Gratuitous Spanish: Frequently used in Rey Mysterio vs The Cosmos. Justified because Rey, Aerostar, and Oscar are Spanish and the show that the story is based off of is a Mexican cartoon.
• Guilt Complex:
  • This was Alain's Fatal Flaw in Blossoming Trail but this now affects Professor Sycamore also, believing that he didn't pursue Alain's problems more or didn't come to stop Alain before Lysandre reared his ugly head.
  • Tokio also has one of these, despite his claims otherwise. While what happened to him wasn't his fault, he seems to have a pathological need to pin the blame on himself regardless of context. Specter asking him if Goh is acting like the whiney mopey boy he is makes him snap out of it.
  • Chloe herself develops one of these as Act 2 has her come to realize not only how badly she treated everyone back home, but the sheer lengths of depravity found within the Train that she could fall into if she doesn't work on herself like she's supposed to. She bounces back thanks to Goh and Buné telling her to finally start fixing herself and giving her the love needed to try again.
• Halfway Plot Switch:
  • The beginning of the story initially deals with Sycamore entering the Infinity Train and going to look for Alain after learning he might be in danger. Later down Act 1, however, Sycamore ends up breaking mentally and becomes unavailable for the rest of the Act, which deals with Chloe going back home and facing off against the bully who made her life a living hell.
  • As a whole, the story seems like a rewrite of the original Blossoming Trail, but by Cyan Desert Car's end, it's revealed there are a lot more players at hand and a bigger conspiracy than just trying to stop a few kids from entering Silent Hill.
• Healing Potion: Sycamore is given possession of a Full Potion when he accompanies Rimuru to the werewolf village, and is told to use it if he sees someone who desperately needs it, like the village chief. He is later given numerous potions for his travels courtesy of Rimuru which the heroes frequently use for healing wounds.
• Heinous Villainy Needed:
  • Lexi is not amused to learn that the queen bitch of the Apex, Grace Monroe, the one who ripped him apart and buried him in his own car, is a sad girl who wants love from neglectful parents. However, he also notes that no child deserves emotionally distant parents while Chloe tries to reach out to her and tells her she can change.
  Lexi: Wait, that’s why Grace made a cult?! Abusive parents? So she can ruin all our lives because mommy and daddy don’t care for her?!
  • Chloe is furious over Goh for being a jerk who is completely ungrateful for all she does, obsesses over Pokémon (and Ash) to the point he can never keep promises with her, and seems to not get the point that she's not a smarty-pants boy like him because he never stops to listen to what she wants to do and always keeps pushing her to do things he likes. It takes a lot of back and forth to help her understand that Goh isn't an asshole of the highest order and he's more of a broken and scared (and autistic) boy who refuses to confront his own Tokio angsts that what he thought was a boy standing up to him was just him sick at the worst possible moment and he'd rather die than admit he's scared. While Chloe learns to forgive him and not hold his autism against him, she sadly admits that the damage both of them inflicted on each other won't be healed so easily and she needs to leave him behind (for now) so she can work on herself.
  • In the rewrite, when Chloe learns about Tiffany Rose (a member of the Apex who, in the original trilogy, spoke ill about Chloe dying cause it ruined [the Apex's] fun), she's not shocked that she's a monster but rather comes to bond with how they have many similarities (running away after losing a Pokémon battle against someone of high praise — Ash for Chloe, Kabu for Tiffany — and feeling pressure for their connections to their fathers) and hopes that the two can become friends in the future.
• Hero of Another Story:
  • Victor and Gloria were once Train passengers whose Denizen partner happens to be the Gentleman Thief Kyler/Indigo.
  • Rey Mysterio was apparently a former Train passenger. Kaito Goshikida is also a previous passenger who met up with the barista/"Au-san"/Auric/Asher's mentor.
  • Omar in the Cyan Desert Car talks about Ryan and Min-Gi, who were on the Train decades ago. They're now retired musicians and married with their first album "Train to Nowhere" having saved the lives of numerous passengers when they entered.
  • Both Colette and Spencer have had plenty of adventures, one being a Cyber Warrior and the other a Tuner, who team up with Jesse and Lake, the protagonists of Infinity Train Book 2.
  • Act 2 has two groups in Armand and Nal and Alec Cerise, both of them having adventures on the Train that laid the foundation for Augustine and Chloe's trips down the line. Then there's Calyx Cerise, who went missing for a year and also encountered the Goetias.
• History Repeats:
  • Once upon a time, a man with flower highlights in his red hair, a love of monsters, a demonic title, and the surname of Cerise adventured on the Train. Decades later, a girl with flower highlights in her red hair, a love of monsters, a demonic title, and the surname of Cerise is having adventures on the Train. They're not related in any way whatsoever. The Chloe of the Crocus verse has a great-grandfather named Calyx Cerise.
  • Another tale of a man curly black hair and a shadowy figure have ventured on the Train who looks eerily similar to Professor Sycamore. What connections they have is unknown as of late except that same person reincarnated into an alternate Augustine Sycamore.
• Hourglass Plot: Chloe and Goh's friendship in a nutshell. When they were younger, Chloe tried to reach out to Goh but he refused her. In the present, Goh wants to reach out to Chloe, but she refuses. Chloe was the one giving him the homework to which Goh could care less about since he's too focused on his dreams. Now Goh is going to get the sheets while Chloe is too lost in her suicidal thoughts to even care and is on the verge of expulsion, so the gesture is pointless. Finally, their friendship started to fray when Goh jumped across a river to catch a Vivillon while Chloe has to fish him out. Their friendship starts repairing when Goh vowed that he would stop Chloe from jumping off a rooftop. Chloe hated waiting for Goh while he was off doing whatever he wanted and thought little of her, whereas Crocus is all about Goh waiting for Chloe while she's working on herself.
• Identical Stranger: A recurring motif is that there are people who look similar to one another, befitting the duality motif.
  • Calem's attire of a red cap and blue jacket makes Professor Sycamore assume this is Ash, due to the stress and worry over looking for Alain.
  • Lexi's form as Specter makes Shockro terrified in a video the Windchasers watch — because Shockro is mistaking Lexi for the real Specter/Easter who entered the Shock Street Car in the past. In fact, it gets so confusing, that Lexi is forced to change his attire to make it easier to differentiate the two.
  • Lampetia keeps seeing visions of a person who looks similar to Augustine, later revealed to be named Armand. Then Armand was reincarnated into another Augustine.
  • A portrait of Alec Cerise has him briefly mistaken for Professor Cerise even though the latter is actually an alternate Professor Cerise's great-grandfather. And then it turns out there's Calyx Cerise, who also looks like Alec.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming:
  • The first part of the chapter titles are named after Zedd's songs. If any of the song has (Remix) in front of it, it symbolizes how it's adding references to the original trilogy in a way.
  • Rey Mysterio vs. The Cosmos has the titles derived from various Spanish idioms.
  • Orchid Observer has titles named after songs by Italian electronic band Planet Funk. Green Phantom Queen explains that this is to connect with Seeker of Crocus since it's revealed that Augustine is an EDM fan.
• Inexplicable Language Fluency: Kaito is somehow able to read Aztec glyphs just by looking at it. This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.
• I Just Want to Be You:
  • This turns out to be one of Sara's true motives for bullying Chloe; she wanted to have her life.
  • Harvest Moon Car reveals that Chloe started acting more like Goh because she believed it would make him acknowledge her as his friend for once in his life. Goh admits that he doesn't want that anymore and he should've been clear about that from the start.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Ash and Trip still get together (albeit Trip leaves the Institute for some soul searching) and Goh still gets called out over his insensitivity to Chloe... And him not going to school...
  • Amelia still figures out how Hazel is with the Apex via looking it up on her phone and noticing Hazel's "number".
  • Despite the changes, the Unown act still plays out but with Sara as the catalyst, not Parker (although he does get to create an UnChloe like in Blossoming Trail).
  • Chloe comes to the conclusion that even if she was told about Tokio by Goh's parents, it wouldn't have change anything because Goh had to be the one to move forward in the end.
  • Even though this an alternate version of Blossoming Trail, it still follows the beats of Books 1-2 of Infinity Train.
• In-Universe Catharsis: Gloria has Goh play a game of Smash Bros. Ultimate to vent out his frustrations, with her even going out of her way to make a custom Chloe enemy to further help him, only to join him with a Conductor custom enemy when she's given the bad news.
• It's All My Fault: Self-blame is a focus in Act 1.
  • Sycamore and Mairin both blame themselves for being the reason for Alain's disappearance, but everyone reassures them that's not the case. Sycamore also blames himself for not helping Chloe's problems much later on during the Cyan Desert Car.
  • Goh also blames himself for not seeing Chloe's problems sooner because of his obsession with Mew and his bad habit of making empty promises, but Gloria and Victor tell him there's still a chance to make things right. He ultimately learns that even if his social skills were better, Tokio and Chloe had to make the decision to let go of their faults on their own.
  • Ash, like in the original story, briefly falls into this thanks to the negativity regarding Chloe. Fortunately, he gets over it rather quickly.
  • The entire Cerise Institute (Parker and Chloe included) falls into this when they note how they're all to blame for why Chloe ran away from home since they had every chance to talk things out, but didn't.
  • Once he gets his memories back, Gladion repeatedly states this over how his actions nearly destroyed the Infinity Train. In the same vein, Lillie blames herself for Gladion's state because she decided giving him a bouquet of orange lilies was better than just admitting her feelings to him and also states that everything in regard to her trauma and Lusamine not knowing about it is because she never said anything and has no excuse for keeping this quiet for years.
  • Chloe's classmates are beating themselves up for not stopping their actions sooner as it resulted in their lives ruined, their parents ashamed and an unknown future. Parker even wishes that the parents hear their thoughts to help them understand that the children are scared of moving forward.
  • As Chloe is about to end it all, she blames herself for her mistakes in Cyan Desert Car, Palimpsest, and Harvest Moon Car, thinking that she was never good for anything except being a punching bag or ignored for not conforming to others' wishes. Buné and Goh help her break out of this mindset and to focus on the progress she made, not the mistakes.
• I Will Find You: A recurring reason for why numerous characters go on their quests on the Train.
  • Professor Sycamore's last words of the first chapter before he enters the Train and his main quest is to find Alain's whereabouts.
  • Specter vows to get back on the Train if it means he'll see Lampetia — who was last reduced to rubble and her heart snatched by an Apex brat — once more. They finally reunite at the beginning of Act 2.
  • By the end of Act 1, Chloe hopes to find her father once she learns that he's on the Train but Act 2's intermission has her deciding to take a break from everything.
  • The Apex leave the Mall Car when they learn that one of their own, Sean, is in the Fog Car.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Many people are varying shades of jerkass, but all of them have valid points.
  • After getting info at the Cerise Lab, Gloria concludes that Chloe is an abuse victim at home, the Institute at school. But she says in such a blunt manner that pisses off Professor Cerise before he breaks down in tears at how he's a horrible person who was only trying to do right and Gloria realizes that she was horrible to call him abusive. Chapters later, Goh concludes that while the analogy was wrong, the basis that no one (not even Goh himself) took the time to see what was going on with Chloe was right.
  • The Nurse Joy who visits Tokio is very smug about what he's gone through, but she makes a valid point that Tokio keeps making excuses for himself even when people tell him how he could've done things differently and refuses to change despite having so much help (for context, Tokio has been taking to therapy whereas Cerise refused it for his daughter in fear of being scammed).
  • Sara spits out a lot of valid points towards her classmates. At any point after the suspension, they could've stopped being assholes to Chloe and make amends with her. Instead, they continued the bullying anyway, so it's all their fault that they got expelled. And she tells Chloe that the reason she hates her is because she is ignorant, obsessed with her hobbies, and so annoying.
  • Alighieri is a humongous asshole whom no one, not even his own boss, likes. But the heroes ultimately admit that many of his critiques about Chloe are accurate.
  • Chloe shouldn't have thrown a plate of curry at Goh's face to express her anger at his recording of her losing to Ash, as Professor Sycamore admits, but she is right to be angry because the recording was an invasion of her privacy and Goh never thought to ask permission to record her first.
  • Tiffany is a Rich Bitch and more aggravating than Grace, and a brainwashed agent of Elipzo at this time, but in Rose Courtyard Car, she makes a solid point that Grace shows no concern over one of their kind having been missing for months (later revealed to have been dead) and is focusing on getting revenge on Chloe (who doesn't even see Grace as a rival) just cause she's more popular.
• Kid Hero: At least one kid hero is seen per group: Yuri (age 11), Chloe (age 10) and Tokio (age 10). While Gladion and Specter could theoretically fit into this as well, (with Gladion around age 14 and Specter 16), they fit more into the "teenager" category. Tony Clark (age 11) and Oscar (unrevealed but presumably 10-11) also fit in the category.
• Kudzu Plot: The plot was already fairly complicated, trying to weave all three original trilogy stories into a single alternate universe remake slash sequel, but once Act 1 gets into overdrive, the sidestories also end up being added to the main story, meaning the plot includes: Professor Sycamore's train trip, White Gestalt's original trip and return to the Train, whatever Elipzo is trying to do, a repeat of Blossoming Trail's Act 1 for this story's Act 1 in the Pokemon World, the backstory of Rey Mysterio and unsolved conflict with Team Flare, The Apex's slowly being led to Elipzo's hands and trying to find Sean at The Fog Car, Grace slowly being driven insane until she and Simon head to The Fog Car on their own, Chloe flip-flopping between learning her lesson and letting spite and wrath govern her, Rainbow Rocket making an invasion on Alola, events in the Vrains world, other Infinity Train characters getting involved, and Ash Ketchum having a holiday in Galar. Naturally this makes it hard for any plot to get elaborated on in any expedient manner.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler:
  • The reader should already know that Alain's been on the Train for some time — Knight of the Orange Lily reveals he's been around before Gladion entered — and about the events that caused Chloe's class to be outed as bullies that caused her to run away. Moreover, it also brings up hints about the Cage of Flauros that Alain is in and his role as Dreams.
  • Goh drops the reveal on how Tokio got on the Train to Victor and Gloria.
  • Infinity Train wise, Orchid Observer takes place after the end of Book 2, spoiling how Jesse made it out alive and MT also escaped to the real world with a new name: Lake.
  • The story assumes that one is familiar with VRAINS as it brings up late Season 2 and Season 3 spoilers without warning.
  • Simon's neighbor, Edith Finch, died at childbirth which is what happened in her game. It also hints that Milton Finch, her older brother, may or may not be the same king from The Unfinished Swan.
• Later-Installment Weirdness:
  • The Blossomverse is no stranger to LGBTQ themes, but these were fairly minor, with only a few characters like Ash and Trip playing a major role in the story. Crocus goes all out in adding as much representation as possible, with several characters having their orientation changed from whatever it was before to something befitting the group; Specter is now demiromantic, several Denizens identity as non-binary, one character is trans (although author notes originally revealed they were going to be cisgender), one character has two moms, etc.
  • While Chloe was associated with demons, the most representation they got was Chloe's cloak and her ability to summon figments of them in Blossoming Trail. Crocus reveals that the Goetias she loves so much are actual denizens on the Train who shaped history when previous passengers met with them.
• The Law of Conservation of Detail: Green Phantom Queen is known for worldbuilding, motifs of color, flowers, letters, symbolism through clothing and numbers, and leaving hints about characters here and there that don't make sense at first but later pay off in dividends. For example, two of the demons whom Chloe has the Red Lotus Uprising "cosplay" as are Glasyas-Labolas and Malphas, who play very important roles in the second act. The rewrites for the story also add more details and Foreshadowing, with the first chapter having Chloe enjoying a mukbang in a car that has a blue moon and a statue of a black dragon, which are, again, recurring motifs for the story.
• Lethal Chef:
  • Shion, even with her [Chef] ability is a horrible cook. However, Professor Sycamore stated her "soup" was delicious while Garchomp was knocked unconscious. When she cooks again for White Gestalt, the same thing happens except the Pokémon end up dizzy. Specter himself has to fight with her so she doesn't accidentally poison them.
  • Simon makes an offhand comment that he can't even cook instant ramen correctly, with Grace adding that Lucy (the girl with an eyepatch) is better than him than doing so.
• Loss of Identity:
  • As the intro to the story states, Alain's cost for a perpetual slumber via hypnosis has made him lose everything about himself; his name, his Pokémon, thoughts, goals...all that's left is a slumbering shell ready to unleash hell on the Apex.
  • The story eventually deconstructs Chloe's "Chloe of the Vermillion" person as a case of this: before she got on the Train, Chloe an antisocial girl who closed herself off from bullying and perceived insensitivity to her problems. Once she gets on the train, she adopts the persona in order to reinvent herself as a strong, independent woman who wouldn't let people disrespect her again and make Goh notice her... only to get utterly lost in the idea and drive herself further and further away from a trip home. The Harvest Moon Car primarily involves her learning about this and deciding to ditch this false interpretation for her real self and her payment for a contract with Wepwawet is to give up her persona.
• The Lost Colony of Roanoke: According to Rey Mysterio vs the Cosmos, the colony of Roanoke got onto the Train to explain how they vanished without a trace.
• Masked Luchador: Rey Mysterio and Aerostar are the more prominent ones with Rey Mysterio vs the Cosmos also bringing up others like Dragon Azteca Jr. and Nightclaw.
• Men Use Violence, Women Use Communication:
  • Played straight and zig-zagged for the Cerises. The Cerise parents have different ways to interact with Chloe and her problems: Professor Cerise cuts the knot by having her go to the Institute as a means to escape her peers' bullying by giving her a place to breathe. Meanwhile, Talia's only contribution is talking to Chloe about "finding something you love and not pushing it". However, the problem comes from that each parent only contributes to one side of what is needed: Professor Cerise is tough but concerned for his daughter yet never seems to talk to her about what's going on, with him admitting that therapy was out of the question. Meanwhile, Talia gives advice but fails to actually do more like go to her husband about her concerns or even get involved in Chloe's interests, focusing on making her daughter smile through illustrations. In the Cyan Desert Car, the roles are reversed: Cerise and Parker use words — the former telling Sara she's not getting a Pokémon because of how she hurt his children and Parker calls out the idiot adults for being cowards who are afraid of their own shadows — while Talia and Chloe fight back with whatever they can whether it's Talia having to use Yamper to aid her or kicking the face of the Unown construct taking over her husband's body and Chloe faces Sara in a brutal Cat Fight. And then this is played straight once more in the rewrite: Chloe uses communication to goad her bully to put so much focus onto her that she can't think straight while Goh brutally uses the donut holer to make Sara cry uncle.
  • In the Chocolate Car (and its rewrite), Augustine violently threatens to kill One-One and take over the Train if he doesn't get the White Gestalt back on it. While this frightens the Conductor, it's Chloe who drives the nail into the coffin. Not only does she show compassion by stopping Augustine from doing something he'll regret, she quickly twists One-One's words of "Nothing you tell me will convince me to allow Gladion back on" by stating she'll ask Faba a question in regards to using a Hypno on Lillie, and then pushing the Double Standard over Lillie forgiving the asshole who caused her trauma instead of her brother who, yes did screw up in not communicating this with her, was also the only person who was actively doing something to help her. Their ensuing argument is all that is needed for One-One to accept Chloe's please to get Gladion back in.
• Missing White Woman Syndrome: Carried over from Blossoming Trail, but to a lesser extent in the original version; Chloe's disappearance brings the same attention and upheaval as it did in the original story, but Crocus gives people at least something to do other than worry about her all the time, especially when Professor Sycamore agrees to keep her safe. However, this doesn't keep the narrative from chiding people who don't notice Chloe over everything else, like when the Alolan students ask Professor Sycamore if he's okay when they meet at the conference, only for Goh to snap at them that they're being insensitive to Chloe.
• Motifs: Isolation, especially if people are left in empty buildings or with little contact with others. Specter was left in his room without anyone to help him go through his geass-amnesia, Goh was always stuck in his room searching for Mew before he became a research fellow, and while Chloe had a loving family, along with a safe haven in the Cerise Institute, she was still alone because she refused to talk about her problems. Paul is stuck in the Fog Car in an empty room to be tortured. Grace gets herself captured in the Harvest Moon Car, Hazel and Tuba are in a playroom isolated from everything else. The Apex are isolated in the Mall Car and don't know anything outside "survival" since they never bothered to improve themselves and Grace refused to see that her worldview was wrong. This highlights how isolation doesn't necessarily help problems and it's only when there are people who reach out to make connections that they can be better. And those that enforce the isolation are shown to either be flawed or apathetic.
• The Multiverse: While this is explored in other stories in the Blossomverse, this is the first time that different trains are brought up as Augustine gets nightmares of someone murdering the protagonists of the original Blossomverse trilogy and he even ends up during the Darkest Day fiasco of Voyage of Wisteria. Rey Mysterio vs the Cosmos also focuses on the Zenkaigers, who deal with monsters that are based off of different worlds and the Goldtsuiker family comes from a parallel world where everyone is a pirate. In Orchid Observer it's specifically stated that Spencer and Colette are from different worlds more specifically Spencer is an alternate Specter and Colette is an alternate Chloe coming into the Infinity Train World for a certain mission.
• Mundane Solution: The Train was created to make people face their traumas through trapping them in another dimension without any hope of getting back unless that number goes down to 0 and having limited instructions on how to survive the damned thing. What do the protagonists have? Loved ones, and a therapist, talking to them with compassion and empathy. These talks have done a much better job than the Train has done to confront their issues.
• "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer:
  • The author is not lying when she states that there's a Zedd song called "Shave It" in the Monster City Car Part 3.
  • Green Phantom Queen's notes for Fake Moon Car Part 1 has her state that everything in regards to the wrestlers referenced — Matt Hardy faking a suicide note and how The Iron Claw removed one member of the Von Erich family because it would've made a depressing wrestling biopic even more depressing — is 100% accurate.
• Not Quite the Right Thing: How are many of these troubled people getting help for their problems? Through isolation and barely doing anything that will give them social lives. While it "protects" them from outside forces, it's not actually focusing on the root of their problems. Specter, Chloe, and Goh all have mental issues that are never addressed because people around them consider shielding them as a good therapy substitute, and because they themselves refuse to properly talk to them about what's going on, and thus aggravates their problems.
• One Myth to Explain Them All: Gods and Demons — or the Numinae and Goetias as they are called — are denizens created by the Train with human mythology and stories about them based on passengers who met them in person, presumably explaining why their interpretations varied throughout the years.
• Order Versus Chaos: The pairings of Augustine/Chloe and Grace/Simon can be seen as male order (Augustine and Simon) trying to tame feminine chaos (Chloe and Grace) and how their attempts succeed or fail. Augustine wishes to guide the directionless Chaotic Good Chloe to help her regulate her volatile emotions whereas Simon is trying to instill order in a Chaotic Evil cult leader's mind before things go out of hand. At the same time, Chloe's moods fluctuate from suicidal to having lots of fun getting everyone to party with her while Grace's chaos is causing her and Simon's friendship to fracture because she's stuck in a sunk cost situation and sees no other outlet than to destroy and hurt others. However, Augustine's loyalty to Chloe pays off in dividends when she recognizes how much she hurt him and works to make amends, Grace keeps going deeper down the rabbit hole of her own delusions and Simon has no choice but to flee the sinking ship when she becomes too unstable. According to Green Phantom Queen, this is intentional since the battle in Crocus isn't just who is good and who is bad, but rather how much order/chaos is necessary to change things on a Train going on for infinity. By the end of Rose Courtyard Car, Malphas tells Simon that Chloe and Grace are designated as the current avatars of Feminine Chaos who will fight one another to determine whose views reigns supreme, with it heavily implying that the Goetias are hyping her up because they want her to win the bout.
  Author Notes for Firefly Funhouse Car: It's unique to see it as feminine chaos against male order, that while females shake the system, it's men who help them keep focus on what they should be doing and WHY.
• Orwellian Retcon: The 2025 rewrites add a vast amount of stuff to the story, ranging from entirely new subplots involving order and chaos, fixing relationships and worldbuilding to add the 9th generation into the mix and a hidden society hiding out in the Pokemon World that Chloe is aware of and also hinting that there's more than meets the eyes to how the Fujihachis may be connected to it.
• Our Demons Are Different: Demons, or the Goetias, are revealed to be denizens on the Train as Anubis reveals that the Goetia family have been observing Chloe's exploits and that his brother, Wepwawet, is currently married to Marchosias. And then there's the reveal of Asher being part shadow-demon, alongside Augustine.
• Our Gods Are Different: In the Cyan Desert Car, Chloe encounters Anubis, Egyptian God of the Dead, revealing that numerous gods on the Train are actually denizens with Wyn saying that they're collectively called the Numinae. Lexi points out that this means that the Train has been around for thousands of years and passengers who were picked up from that time probably based off their mythos from seeing these deities up close and personal.
• Our Werewolves Are Different:
  • A village full of them is featured during the Monster City Car, and Sycamore's first Denizen partner is from this village. They resemble bipedal wolves, but as shown with Vaillant, they turned into Little Bit Beastly wolf humanoids when named.
  • Chloe later gets the ability to turn into a werewolf once her heart is opened up to hope and love. She can either turn her whole body into a wolf or she does an astral projection while her real body sleeps.
• Outside-Context Problem: While the Train is the traditionial OCP in many Blossomverse stories, the Train itself has to deal with invaders who can enter the Train without being called by them, causing chaos by helping passengers instead of letting denizens perform their duty. The rewrite has One talk about superheroes and magical girls to be wary of while Act 2 reveals the beings known as "Moonlight Passengers" who entered the Train in the past with blue moon markings on their hands, Tres being one of them. And then there's the hidden society from alternate world who mingles with the likes of those from Vermillion City, Celadon City, and even Lumiose City.
• Platonic Boy/Girl Heroes: Yuri Ichiro of the Windchasers and Chloe Cerise of the Red Lotus Uprising. When paired together, neither of them show any signs of crushes or Ship Tease. Amusingly, Chloe actually had a date with another boy (Tony Clark).
• Police Are Useless: Downplayed. The story begins because one Officer Jenny tells Professor Sycamore the search for Alain will have to be stopped due to Absence of Evidence regarding where he went, but it's implied she and her unit did everything they could until they were told to call it off. Later, while the police do arrive late to the Unown incident, there was little they could do to actually stop it, but they do a decent job detaining Sara and her mother once the Unown are dealt with.
• Public Secret Message:
  • Ryan and Min-Gi's first album, Train to Nowhere, became one in regards to connecting to people who might've entered the Train and also acted as a guide for those who accidentally entered it.
  • Rey Mysterio's comic series Rey Mysterio vs the Infinity retraces his own trip during the Infinity Train.
  • In the rewrite, Chloe mentions how her great-grandfather had an autobiographic comic about his adventures called Calyx's Cooking Chronicles, which is about the one year he got spent on the Infinity Train.
• Pun-Based Creature: In the Red Lotus Trio's flashback, the Nightmares Car is shown to be home to ghoulish-looking horses.
• The Quest: Most of the plotlines on the Train are based around this.
  • The end of the Monster City Car has Sycamore decide to find info on Alain and give support to the Red Lotus Trio.
  • The Red Lotus Trio (later Uprising) also want to end the Apex, and almost every member has their own quest. Atticus wants to know what happened to Aloysius, Lexi wants revenge on Grace and Simon, while Amelia wants to ensure Hazel's safety. The end of Act 1 has another one tacked to Chloe; find her father before changing it in the second Intermission to train her new powers and do research on her family's history with the Train.
  • White Gestalt's quest is to get back on their feet and properly heal, leaving the Apex threat to the Sycamore and Chloe's groups, before trying to figure out Ai's connections to Elipzo.
  • The Apex kids are off to save their friend Sean (and to later go home after Matt Hardy tells them the truth) while Grace and Simon decide to go to the Fog Car to spite the heroes. Then the Apex change their mission to snatch the Ninja Gum from the heroes to teleport to the Ninjala Car to obtain Mirage Pokémon under the belief they can use Teleport to get whatever they want without having to enter any car manually. Meanwhile, Lucy, having been kicked out, joins forces with Lantern to find the location of Flux, the avatar who chooses who gets to enter the Train.
  • Lampetia is off to find the location of a mysterious black and white beach and a lighthouse in which a passenger similar to Augustine has visited before.
• Real After All: Lampetia's quest is to find a car of a black beach with a white lighthouse which Ai states that he has found it in a children's book. Instead of being discouraged, Lampetia sees it as more determination to find the book — after all, if the author of the book described the beach like she's seen in, then it has to be real somewhere. It's hinted that it exists although it leads into another question — who's this Armand character she keeps seeing? And why does he look like Augustine?
• Relationship Compression: The relationship between Goh and Chloe develops much faster than in the original trilogy. While Blossoming Trail had it in shambles until the near end, and then it took the entirety of Voyage of Wisteria for the two of them to make up and become friends again, Act 1 of Crocus has the two talk and come to the realization they were both at fault over their friendship becoming strained, while Act 2 has the two decide to bury the hatchet and become friends for good after Goh calms down Chloe as she has an episode and she's going to kill herself at the Harvest Moon Car, though Chloe decides to put their friendship on hold so she can discover herself.
• Regained Memories Sequence: White Gestalt go through one of these once their ban on the Train is lifted and their memories get restored thanks to the Windchasers and Red Lotus Uprising.
• Retcon: Originally Goh's backstory and history with Chloe was treated very much like in the anime and the original Blossoming Trail, establishing issues with school focus between him and Chloe and greater issues with Tokio than in canon, but otherwise keeping him fairly neutral and simple with Goh having made mistakes but not malicious ones. Act 2 greatly expands on it with things that were never even hinted originally, and adding further flashbacks that paint the same picture to serve a very clear purpose of making Goh come off as far worse than he was originally shown being towards Chloe and other students, but especially Chloe. However it starts becoming more muddled that something seems off about his personality...
• Running Gag:
  • The Windchasers keep commenting that Lexi looks way too similar to Easter/Specter or people in the Pokémon world say that Specter looks like "Chloe's OC".
  • In Rey Mysterio vs the Cosmos, every time Rey is about to explain how he knows Auric, he gets interrupted.
  • The concept of fans in sporting events showing off signs that passive-aggressively talk about their favorite games.
  • In Orchid Observer, Jesse keeps asking Colette if her job of fighting video game viruses makes her like a Glitch Tech.
  • If someone happens to comment on the closeness between Specter and London, London will make a quip that this can't happen because of the age gap. To note, Specter is around 16 while London is 39.
  • Whenever there's a big performance or public exhibition, there's mentioning of Red Lotus Uprising/Windchasers merchandise and the narration lampshading how the Train manage to produce them so quickly.
  • Amelia or someone else remarking that Chloe will grow up to be an occultist due to her love of demons.
  • Yuri will cuddle anything that's small and squishy.
• Sadly Mythtaken: Chloe tries to use the Icarus Allusion as an analogy for both herself and for Goh, detailing how she wants to fly high before plummeting to her death to escape her troubles and how he jumped onto a Lugia mid-flight without thinking of the consequences. Anybody who's read the original myth knows that Icarus fell to his death because he ignored his father's warnings not to fly too close to the sun, causing the wax holding his wings together to melt and send him falling into the ocean. The Ninjala Car rewrite lampshades this by Parker admitting that his sister put artistic liberties when writing the poem.
• Sanity Strengthening: Act 2 is dedicated to people becoming mentally healthier by confronting their frustrations, anger, and troubles and to better communicate with others. Augustine and Chloe learn to talk things over thanks to Tres. Goh learns to be kind and learn how his No Listening Skills and Leeroy Jenkins attitude has made his parents go overboard in protecting him and turned his friend into a monster because he was he coward who couldn't confess his problems. Chloe learns to connect with her grief hidden beneath her layers of rage to escape her suicidal thoughts. Amelia lets go of Alrich, refusing to live happily ever after with a clone of his when she has work to do. Tokio confronts how his Guilt Complex isn't fixing himself. Simon realizes he has been chasing a lie for years.
• Saying Too Much: While staying over at the Pokemon Center, the Nurse Joy taking care of Tokio ends up revealing she knews a little too much about the Infinity Train to a startled Tokio. It's later revealed that this is because she's a member of Elipzo.
• School Is for Losers: This is Goh's opinion of Vermillion School at least, and the story does little to give him a counterargument; those who attend the school are always shown to be miserable, and would rather be out being Pokémon Trainers than stay any second longer there. However, Act 2 reveals that there are a few students who are okay with going to school and Goh slowly learns that he could've had a better experience if he didn't take it for granted. No one cared enough about him to deliver his worksheets after Chloe left because he's scarcely around for anyone to get to know him better and he never made friends so now he doesn't know the names of anyone whom he could connect with.
• Serious Business:
  • According to Lio, wrestling fans are very passionate about their JRPGs as they like to bring signs to shows and debate about their favorite games in a passive-aggressive manner. This is brought up in Orchid Observer when Spencer and Colette remark that no one has ever talked smack about Bust a Groove yet.
  • Chloe makes a remark that a boy band named Berry Boy Scouts have serious debates over the existence of mint chocolate chip ice cream.^note This is actually Truth in Television; BTS really does have debates over this.
  • The Train takes concerts and performances made by Chloe very seriously. By the time Augustine is performing for the Cyan Desert Car's story festival, there is a crowd that's equivalent to that of a BTS concert!
• Shout-Out Theme Naming: Jesse's classmates that he greets in Orchid Observer are all named after characters from Silent Hill 2: there's Angela who has a better relationship with her father, Mary and Laura in a relationship, and Eddie with his pet dog. Meanwhile, his former bullies are named after characters from Resident Evil: Ethan (Winters), Leon (Scott Kennedy), Piers (Nivans) and Lucas (Sera).
• Schrödinger's Canon: Due to the Broad Strokes nature of Crocus's relationship with the original trilogy, particularly Orange Lily and early Blossoming Trail, the general assumption is that the events of the those stories occurred in Crocus until said one way or another.
• Simultaneous Arcs:
  • Rey Mysterio vs the Cosmos starts at the same time as the Poring Village Car in Seeker of Crocus by virtue of the barista/Auric noting that his apprentice's new name of "Asher".
  • Orchid Observer is set to take place during the Routine arc.
  • The Cyan Desert Arc of Seeker of Crocus takes place during the same time as the Darkest Day arc of Infinity Train: Voyage of Wisteria given that Augustine appears in the Pirate Car and comforts Oleana during her Heroic BSoD.
  • The three cars of the Lunar Arc roughly happen at the same time. For example: at the time Chloe is calling Parker in the Harvest Moon Car, it changes to a Sneeze Cut of Specter of him sneezing over his ramen, which plays out during the events of Horrorland Car Part 1. There's also a reference to a festival going on, which is the setting of the Fake Moon Car. Fake Moon Car Pt 2 takes place around the time of Harvest Moon Car Pt 3 by virtue of Magine revealing that she saw the image of someone (Chloe) clawing at their throat, something Goh would bring up in Harvest Moon Pt 4.
• Speculative Fiction LGBT: While there were signs of this in previous Blossomverse stories, this one tends to dip more into LGBT themes than ever before. The more prominent examples include:
  • Specter is gay in this adaptation who crushes on Ryoken whereas everyone thinks that he's crushing on Paul London instead (London has to continuously point out that he's nearing 40 and heterosexual). Green Phantom Queen revealed that Specter is demiromantic.
  • It's implied that Indigo/Kyler Wilton is homosexual as a brief scene of him has him observing a male denizen with interest. It's later revealed that he's bisexual.
  • Marchosias is androsexual — attracted to males and masculinity in general — and bisexual as she's married to Wepwawet but she once dated non-binary yet masculine looking Inari.
  • One of the passengers on the Train is Tres who is a trans man (indicated by the earring and bracelet that has the colors of the transgender flag).
  • Ryan and Min-Gi are revealed to be married, with Ryan turning from straight (as he dated three girls in canon) to bisexual as a result. Orchid Observer, which Ryan and Min-Gi appear in, has its main quartet falling under the spectrum: Asexual Jesse, Non-binary Aromantic Lake, Gay Spencer and "Bi-Curious" Colette.
  • Lucy of the Apex has two mothers and her sister is bi-sexual.
• Stealth Pun: Strange things start occurring when people start appearing with blue moon imagery on them. You can say such events happen once in a blue moon.
• The Stinger: Starting in Act 2, the end of each car has an additional scene after its ending.
  • The Palimpsest Car: Ash, motivated by Goh's pep talk, decides he's going to travel to the Alola Region to see if he can aid in stopping Rainbow Rocket.
  • The Harvest Moon Car: Grace is found in the hands of Elipzo and is ready to bust out when it's time.
  • The Horrorland Car: Aoi Zaisen (as Blue Angel) starts searching for the Ignis only to be met with George Gore demanding she stop.
  • The Fake Moon Car: Tiffany and Ryu convince the Apex to gang-rush the heroes in the Fog Car to steal their Ninja Gum so that they can use it to teleport the Ninjala Car and steal Mirage Pokémon for themselves. But when Lucy objects she's promptly kicked out. However, she meets with Lantern, who asks her to join her on a hunt to hunt the humanoid avatar of the Train itself, Flux.
  • Act 2 Intermission: Marin reads up upon the AZ and the Ultimate Weapon which revealed that the Train picked up survivors before they died and when they returned, there were immigrants known as "Fanged Shadows" who greeted them. Then there's Augustine's father, Aurele arriving...who may or may not be a Fanged Shadow.
  • The Rose Courtyard Car: Simon finally meets Milton Finch and reveals the truth, then makes a covenant with Malphas in order to save Grace from the aftermath of her and Chloe's fight in the Fog Car in their clash as the embodiments of Female Chaos.
• Supernatural Hotspot Town: Act 2 suggests that there's something afoot with Vermillion City with Morephus (the alias of an alternate Augustine) researching that it's a designation in the "Sea of Infinity" alongside the Alola region as it has become a beacon for non-human entities. In the Act 1 rewrite, Chloe reveals that this is true. There's a hidden society known as Noir Rest that is home to three types of non-human races: Umbra, Bestia, and Mystica.
• Talented Princess, Regular Guy: Zigzagged with Chloe and Goh. Chloe Cerise isn't a princess (in fact she hates the term) but instead she's the daughter of a Pokémon Professor who also is a descendant of Johtonian nobility. She has many talents due to her having so much time cooped up in her father's office — from art, managing stage shows and research on monsters and demons — though cooking comes from her spending time with her mom. Goh's talents are mostly associated with Pokémon, ranging from his information on them to being able to catch most with a single Poké ball. However, Chloe's skillset is mocked for not being important or useful in her world while Goh's skillset lets him land a job as a research fellow. Inversely, Chloe's talents make her a godsend on the Infinity Train due to boosting morale and communicating towards the Goetias who inhabit the land, whereas Goh is unable to do much else due to his life revolving around Pokémon and little else.
• There Are No Therapists: Played With. Like in the Blossomverse, many of the problems people have could be solved had they sought professional help, but this time there are actual therapists and discussions on this trope brought up. Tres is a licensed therapist who helps Augustine and Chloe talk about their issues before handing Chloe a medical care app to help her talk with other trauma victims. Tokio mentions he went to a therapist after his initial trip, Victor makes remarks that Gloria took therapy to combat how she lost her reflection and Yuri even suggests that One-One creates a therapy program with the denizens since the Train's views on mental health are heavily outdated. Orchid Observer reveals that the Infinity Train Earth has government programs for returning passengers which Jesse and Lake attend. Unfortunately, getting therapy doesn't necessarily mean getting better. At one point, Specter snaps at Tokio that despite the boy actually getting therapy, he still hasn't moved on from the problems that initially got him on the Train, stating that Goh was able to move forward despite having never even seen a therapist. Act 2 Intermission has it spelled out that therapy is not a quick fix.
• Title Drop: "Seeker of Crocus" becomes Sycamore's Red Baron.
• Titled After the Song:
  • The chapters for Seeker of Crocus Act 1 come from Zedd songs.
  • The chapters of Orchid Observer come from song titles by the Italian electronic band "Planet Funk".
• Training from Hell: Both Sycamore and Vaillant engage in this with Hakurou as their master in preparation for the next raid as well for the former not to rely on his Garchomp all of the time for his journey. When White Gestalt get on the Train, they end up being trained under Hakurou as well.
• Three Wishes: The climax of the Cyan Deser Car involves Asher turning into an Unown version of Sycamore that Sara intends to use to try get some sort of compensation for all her plans falling apart. The first two wishes he grants as a Literal Genie, while he's a complete jackass for the third.
• Ultimate Universe: While the story takes place during Blossoming Trail it combines aspects and characters from its prequel and sequel.
• United Heroes, Divided Villains: Once again, the Apex is completely divided and Grace and Simon butt heads with one another but Simon is the one trying to get the Apex out of the Train while Grace wants nothing but to murder Chloe Cerise. Thanks to Ryu, who works for Elipzo and is The Mole hiding in the Apex, the Apex cult dissolves as they leave to get their numbers down and rename themselves as Jericho.
• Voodoo Shark: In response to the controversial revelation that Lexi was "20 in book years" in Voyage of Wisteria, this story explains that while this is true, the way Lexi ages means he's 10 in human years. However, not only does this explanation make the way Denizens age even more convoluted than it already was, but Lexi being a 20 year old man idolizing a 10 year old girl, which was the main source of the controversy, is still the same as in canon due to retaining his book age, defeating the purpose of the change in the first place. The rewrite would simply change it to reveal that Lexi is actually 14 without any convoluted age rates.
• Weapons Kitchen Sink: Anything and everything is considered a weapon on the Train. Normal swords, crystal swords, electric croquet mallets, lead pipes, kursarigama, exploding cards, etc. At least the weapons in Ninjala Car — which includes hammers that look like drums, yo-yos and skateboards — are justified since they're lifted directly from the source material.
• Weird Crossover: Rey Mysterio vs The Cosmos is the weirdest crossover from the Blossomverse yet, combining wrestling — Lucha Underground and Rey Mysterio Versus La Oscuridad (which only had its pilot episode available at the time of writing) — with a Super Sentai — Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger — and Pokémon. The Train is also there as a mention, but given everything else, it's relatively lowkey.
• Wham Episode:
  • The Skill Crane Car, while mostly a breather that has Yuri obtain his two denizen partners, ends with someone murdering Ogami, the Big Bad of Voyage of Wisteria by incinerating his soul.
  • The Twisted Lab Car has Sycamore and Yuri having to confront their shadows along with them confronting London about his own experiences.
  • Practically every part of the Ninjala Car is this. Highlights including Goh getting to chew out Chloe for how she's responsible for their friendship falling apart (thus facilitating her Character Development sooner), the Windchasers and Red Lotus Trio meeting one another, and the reveal of Dr. Yung on the Train.
  • The Routine arc brings up the rise of a new villain faction called Elipzo, and that they have agents on and off the Train.
  • The Cyan Desert Car, like in Blossoming Trail, is the arc that changes the story. But it has a big one in part 4. Augustine is taken onto the Infinity Train of the original Blossomverse trilogy during the Darkest Day arc of Voyage of Wisteria, bringing in a multiverse setting that will affect the story.
• Wham Line: After everything that happened in the Cyan Desert Car and Unown attack, everyone can relax right? Well, that's until Augustine reveals:
  Augustine: We're...canceling our plans to stop the Cage of Flauros and the Apex.
• Wham Shot:
  • The end of The Monster City Car Pt 3 reveals that Alain Sativus passed by the car.
  • After everything that happened in the Cyan Desert Arc, a stranger arrives to read a letter at the Cerise Institute. It's Kaito Goshikida, who was last seen in Rey Mysterio vs the Cosmos.
• What If?: "What if Professor Sycamore got sent onto the Train while Chloe Cerise was on her quest to stop the Apex?"
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: A recurring theme in the story.
  • Like with the original Infinity Train, the Apex sees the denizens as playthings and lesser beings that are meant for them to wreak havoc. One member of the Apex, stole the heart of Specter's denizen partner and sees it as a battle trophy — despite the fact Lampetia saved her from dying. Cutie asks Grace how fair it is if that she can use the Killing in Self-Defense excuse to protect the Apex but if a denizen does the same thing, then it's all th e more reason to kill them.
  • Chloe feels horrible about wanting to kill the Mirage Army in the Ninjala Car because they are programmed by Dr. Yung to be evil. She gets her wish to turn them into denizens thanks to her cloak.
  • Oscar has to stop Kaito and Zocks from using their weapons — which are essentially guns — to fight Team Flare's Pokémon because they're essentially animals. So Zocks asks for his little brothers (who are super-deformed robots, it makes context in Zenkaiger) to take their place.
  • A case can be made for the train itself. Despite the hundreds of denizens that have been killed and tortured by the Apex, it never seems to mourn them at all and doesn't show empathy as to how they were squished by the wheels. Titus notes that it's unfair that the "creator" of so many worlds and denizens just doesn't care.
  Marchosias: The Train is there to help passengers at their crossroads, but it has no defenses for all of the denizens crying out for a mechanical abomination that will just ‘replace’ them. After all, if I lose a few strands of fur, do I shed tears over them?
  • Ai wants to live amongst humanity, but Ryoken and the Knights of Hanoi are incense to make sure every Ignis is killed to the point that Ryoken only calls him "Dark Ignis"^note Ryoken did call Ai by his real name in Episode 99 but then reveted back to Dark Ignis at the start of Season 3. Ai himself can't comprehend how Specter gets to have two partners in a living lightning bolt and statue lady despite how he worked for a man who wanted to destroy all of VRAINS for six Ignis. He also has to point out that Specter's wish for a bond with is own Ignis is very shallow since, after all, Specter never even knew he had an Ignis whereas Ai had years to form a bond with his brother.
  • Speaking of Specter, one of the reasons he goes back on the Train is because he wants to see three important people again — London, Easter, and especially Lampetia. Ai doesn't understand how Lampetia is so important to Specter and could care less when she gets injured. White Gestalt begs to differ as all of them get pissed off when Ai mocks Lampetia losing half of her face.
• Worldbuilding: Crocus takes a lot of time and effort to detail not only the numerous cars that the passengers face, but also interweaves numerous aspects of mythology, demonlogy, supernatural lore and alternate worlds that hint that something greater is at play than just a train to nowhere run by a bowling ball.
• Yo-Yo Plot Point: Chloe's character development. At first, it seems as if talking with Sycamore helps her open up a little, but she falls back almost immediately when Dr. Yung tempts her with an offer of a Mirage Pokemon to shut up the naysayers back home, which she nearly takes before the Windchasers and her team snap her out of it by talking things out. Then comes a long stretch where it seems that Chloe will learn her lesson, only for her to fall back again as a result of Sara mocking her with a message about her having the power of the Unown, with Chloe's reaction striking Sycamore so badly that he nearly restarts the world out of spite and has to be reset. Then, after that incident is dealt with, it seems like Chloe's lesson will finally stick, but then her phone call with Ash reveals that no, she still believes she's the sole victim and that everybody else is out to hurt her, as she snaps at Ash over how he never cared for her despite it having been made clear that he does. It takes the events of the Palimpsest Car and getting near beaten to death by street cleaners and talking to an actual therapist before Chloe properly apologizes to Sycamore and seemingly learns her lesson. By the end of the Harvest Moon Car, after a near suicide attempt that is only stopped by Goh being both blunt and reassuring that he always saw her as a friend, she fully resolves to make proper amends.
• You Remind Me of X:
  • Sycamore tells Rimuru that Shion reminds him of Ash Ketchum.
  • In the prequel, Chloe is told that she is quite similar to a previous passenger named Alec Cerise to the point that some denizens thinks they're related. They're not.

"I'm coming to get you, Alain."