Characters / Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail: The Apex

Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail Main Character Page
Red Lotus Trio (Chloe Cerise) | Infinity Train (Passengers [The Apex, Grace Monroe], Cage of Flauros, The Unsub's Crew) | Pokémon World (Vermillion City [Goh Fujihachi, Parker Cerise]), The Ketchum Family, Pokémon Trainers)

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The Apex

A group of passengers who've been convinced that their numbers need to go up rather than down, and who serve as the main antagonists of the Infinity Train side of the story by rampaging and terrorizing the Train's peaceful denizens and passengers who are trying to figure out their life problems.

The Red Lotus Trio have been tasked with taking them down by One-One and it seems as if there is an internal debate as to how to do so.

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In General

• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Blossoming Trail basically piles down an avalanche on angst to this haughty cult as a result of them having to learn the reprecussions of their actions the hard way: Grace has to deal with the reveal the Apex's quest has been rendered All for Nothing thanks to her boast of "knowing" how the train works, the children realize they were not only serial killers but they're stuck on the Train for a year at least, with thousands of denizens hating them, the realization that they considered their fun more important than their families back home, and the fact that they might've been killing former humans in those denizens, and Simon... is Simon.
• Adaptational Sympathy: Downplayed and Inverted. As a whole, the Apex is treated with less sympathy in this story than in canon because of the scope of their crimes, and the traumas they cause are shown here where it was only implied in the show. While Voyage of Wisteria does show them in a sympathetic light because they have realized what they've done, it also shows that they have a long way to go before they can be forgiven and make up for what they done, if they ever get that chance considering how many denizens hate their guts .
• Adaptational Villainy: They're much more of a malicious group here than in canon, where they were more along the lines of brutal scavengers, going as far as to injure other passengers and stating that a girl dying in front of them — said girl who was trying to save them, by the way! — deserved it. Voyage of Wisteria would eventually put a twist in that, while they are malicious, most of their evil actions are the result of heavily biased viewpoints and people using them as either cover for their own crimes or to make themselves feel better.
• All for Nothing: Near the end of the Fog Car saga, they come to realize their quest for strength was all for naught due to Grace's lies and inability to accept her backwards thinking was wrong, and all they got out of it is an extended Train trip, thousands of people hurt and traumatized along with them spiting the girl who was trying to save them, and probably being forgotten by everyone they ever loved with little chance of getting back to them, assuming they don't get killed by the Denizens they hurt.
• Ambiguous Criminal History: The Apex are infamous on the Infinity Train as a bunch of Denizen-slaying serial killers who'll kill anything that stands on their way. However, how much of this is actually true and how much of it is just slander brought on by the Denizens and Passengers isn't made clear until Voyage of Wisteria has Vaggie and Charlie investigate their kills, and find out their numbers were not only exageratted, but a good deal of them were made in self defense.
• Better the Devil You Know: The Apex are horrible, that can't be denied, but they have a specific strategy to them that makes them a little easier to handle, alongside being composed of mostly pre-pubescent Passengers with no superpowers. Compare this to the Cage of Flauros, composed mostly of Denizens or Passengers with weird powers, and the Unsub's Crew, led by an utter sociopath who wants to topple the Train for paradise, and it becomes clear that while The Apex are bad, they're far from the absolute worst the Train can give.
• Beyond Redemption: It'd be easier to count who doesn't see the Apex in this light due to their all their crimes. The only one who is willing to help them rehabilite is Charlie, the daughter of Lucifer.
• Breaking the Fellowship: After the penultimate chapter of Blossoming Trail's Fog Car saga, the remaining Apex children decide to splinter away from Grace upon learning all of the shit they've done, the fact that they basically spat in the face of the heroine who was trying to save their sorry asses, saw Simon die and learn what happens if they died on the Train and everything Grace told them being big fat lies. And with her unwilling to lead them anymore, and Simon having met his canon-ish fate, it's safe to say the Apex no longer exists.
• The Bully: They trample anybody on their part during their raids, human or otherwise, and they do this even when they have no reason to because they find it funny. It can even go as far as insulting those who have died be it denizen or passenger.
• Character Exaggeration: Their tendency to ransack Cars and general malice are blown way out of proportion in the Blossomverse; with them being constantly depicted as ransacking Cars just for the fun of it, while they have an absolute blast killing "Nulls" in order to get their numbers up and are willing to say Chloe deserved to die. In canon, while they did ransack Cars, fun wasn't the only reason for it, the other being trying to get resources in order to live another day. And yes, they could be malicious, but even they had their own standards regarding how far they were willing to go, and this was exclusively towards Nulls; Passengers at least got the choice to join them before being taken away.
• Cult: This is essentially what they are as they worship the "true" Conductor and disregard One-One as a fake (Bonus points that Infinity Train Book 3's subtitle was called "Cult of the Conductor").
• Deconstruction: The trilogy, particularly Blossoming Trail spares no expense in deconstructing the Apex and their so-called "philosophy" into rubble.
  • The only reason the Apex gets away with their crimes is that they arrive so unexpectedly and have the numbers game. Once the Infinet is up and running, it's easy for everyone to alert to where they are and hide before they cause too much damage.
  • The Apex hype themselves as the biggest baddies on the Train and while they have killed and torn apart cars and families, they also have made a lot of denizens wanting to do the same to them in retaliation. They also are only capable of killing those who have no defenses against them or they have their backs turned like Utahoshi.
  • Most of the Apex are a bunch of kids, so without Grace and Simon to supervise them during the story's events, that means they aren't capable of cooking food for themselves and have to settle with sandwiches and instant ramen. They're also known to be very gullible because they never developed critical thinking skills due to not having an education for years and whole-heartedly believe Grace's words without a second thought.
  • At the end of the day, despite the hype, the numbers game and their signature lipstick mark, they're nothing but a bunch of children. There are more powerful beings on the Train and some don't have qualms on murdering them just as the Apex themselves don't have qualms in wanting to kill and injure other denizens.
• Decapitated Army: Double Subverted. During the final battle of the Fog Car saga, Simon as Destruction ends up kicking the bucket, which would normally hit morale pretty hard since he's one of the Leaders, but the Apex members show no sign of deserting until Grace reveals the truth about their purpose, which proves to be too much for them, at which point they leave in droves.
• Dirty Coward: To Guzma levels. They only kill or hurt anything that they can. Anything they can't has them retreat to safety. Tokio even calls them out on this; they only will attack something they think they have an advantage over whether it be a kind rabbit to a child marble statue.
• The Dreaded: They're positively feared by the denizens of the Train, to the point that just one of them appearing is enough to cause a mass panic. Deconstructed in Voyage of Wisteria: it turns out a good chunk of their reputation is due to exaggeration at best and other denizens Framing the Guilty Party at worst.
• Everyone Has Standards: When Oleana — using Chairman Rose's portal — reveals that she'll blow up the Train with a bomb in order to avenge her sister's death — the Apex kids in the Hazbin Hotel are horrified since not even they ever thought of that.
• Facial Markings: They all wear the red wavelength mark of the Conductor on their faces.
• Famed In-Story: In this case, infamy. The Apex are well known to raid any Car that they see fit, even if they don't need anything from it, and if any "Null" gets in their way, they get rid of them permanently. This means that they're very easy to use as a cover for anyone who needs it.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • If you're not human, you're a null. And even if you do have a number and you're not human, you still are looked down in utter disgust.
  • By the time of sequel, and even some parts of the original story and prequel, The Apex themselves are subjected to this; those who aren't afraid of them will never waste a chance to express their disapproval of them, and those who don't bother to get to know them beyond what they're known for — which is the majority of the Passengers and Denizens — immediately label them as utterly evil monsters that need to be stopped if the Infinity Train is to ever regain a sense of peace and quiet.
• Fantastic Slur: They call denizens (and Pokémon) "nulls" since they don't have numbers on them. After they're disbanded, the term is never brought up again.
• Fantastic Terrorists: They're a bunch of Passengers whose primary means of destroying Denizens is by shoving them into the train's wheels. Those wheels are giant.
• Foregone Conclusion: Considering this takes place during Book 3:
  • Grace and Simon: The former will lose everyone she loves, and have a Heel–Face Turn after almost losing her life. The latter will lose his life after going pass the MEH.
  • The Apex: They will learn the truth about the Train and decide to get their numbers down after being traumatized for life.
• Framing the Guilty Party: In Knight of the Orange Lily, Aaron Hotchner speculates that the Unsub would use Apex iconography as a forensic countermeasure. And when Charlie and Vaggie sit down and count their actual victims in Voyage of Wisteria, it turns out there might be more than just the Unsub using them to cover up their crimes.
• Hated by All: It'd be a miracle to actually find someone who actually likes the Apex. To put it this way, no one likes them for all of their crimes — ranging from destroying homes, injuring denizens and for spitefully telling their heroine of the Train she deserved her death — and are willing to murder or injure them as karma. The closest of anyone actually giving a damn is The Cat, but only because it's her fault that Simon became who he is today and she never even came back to him to apologize. By Voyage of Wisteria, Paul London (from the White Gestalt, who has serious beef with Grace) has issued a challenge to drag what's left of the Apex into the Hazbin Car and it seems like a lot of denizens are going to enjoy this...
• Hufflepuff House: Despite being the ultimate threat of the Infinity Train side of things, the number of members we know even a little bit about can be counted on one hand. Voyage of Wisteria starts focusing on individual Apex members, but the numbers are still pretty low.
• Humans Are Bastards: It really says something if the denizens in Silent Hill are much nicer than these guys are, willing to raid innocent cars, kill/traumatize denizens and injure other passengers (some of them their age) and show such callousness over someone falling to their death except that she deserved it that it makes you wonder what if it would be like if these were adult soldiers running around for the sake of power and greed instead of stubborn little brats following a woman who can't be reasoned with and deliberately kept the truth hidden just to feel special. Or, at least, that's what said Silent Hill Denizens like to claim. Really, Walter and Henry just think that an eternity torturing people would be the best honeymoon ever, and choosing The Apex as their first targets allows them to kid themselves about that being for the greater good. A lot of trouble in the Blossomverse could have been avoided if people- including the White Gestalt and Red Lotus Quarto- weren't fooled by hearsay and doctored footage to believe that The Apex, a couple dozen children with Improvised Weapons - were the Train's ultimate evil, and worth going to any lengths to crush.
• Humans Are Flawed: They're initially depicted as pure evil throughout the trilogy, but in reality, they're just humans who have spent most of their time on the Train without a clue as to how it's supposed to work, and nobody bothering to tell them how things are supposed to go; especially Amelia, aka The Conductor they worship, who'd rather use them as scapegoats to avoid confronting the fact that she's worse than them than tell them the truth. Or even if, they were told, like with White Gesalt throughout Knight of the Orange Lily, they just refuse to listen because it ruins their fun.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Subverted... sorta. They hurt denizens and other passengers because they don't like anyone getting in their way of their fun or survival. They don't care if denizens are hurt or killed or if a girl trying to save them dies for that matter cause they're not human, but there are just as many Denizens who are the same way even without considering The Apex's reputation. And as Voyage of Wisteria would eventually reveal, they're not even guilty of as many things as they're accused of, instead being used as scapegoats to hide even worse monsters.
• Humans Are Morons: The fact that they act like they're superior to everybody else in a Car with superpowered beings paints them as incredibly foolish and naive, though most of it is allegedly because they don't know any better, they refuse to listen to anyone telling them the truth, and Grace refuse to consider that maybe, just maybe, she's not "Miss Total Train Expert" like she wishes she was. Doesn't help that Grace knew the truth the entire time and refused to admit it out of selfishness and a desire to be the smartest guy in the room.
• Humans Are Survivors: They're essentially scavengers in an infinite assortment of worlds who ravage cars primarily to gather resources in order to be able to live another day. You wouldn't believe this from the slander and propaganda depicting them as utter monsters, however.
• Humanity Is Superior: The Apex believe themselves to be the rulers of the Infinity Train, with other Passengers being people to convert to their cause and Denizens being nothing more than foot stones to gather points. This isn't born entirely out of arrogance, however; as a good deal of this belief comes from them honestly knowing no better because their leader isn't sure herself until Wisteria proves that she knew all along and withheld this knowledge both out of trauma and wanting to feel superior to others, and everybody else would rather kill them than give them the harsh truth instead (or kill them after they tell them the hard truth and they refuse to accept it).
• Humans Kill Wantonly: Played With. On the one hand, The Apex are infamous for wheeling Denizens that they don't like, which is just about anybody, and celebrating it, with them doing it to Denizens who already have Passenger partners even. On the other hans, most of their supposed kills are slander and hearsay; The Apex are barely shown killing anything over the course of the trilogy that actually has a decent chance to fight back, and even if they did, they're slightly justified given that even if they weren't the Denizen-killing cult that they were, the Train is perfectly willing to kill them just to have them learn a stupid lesson.
• I Choose to Stay: The reason they're doing the atrocities they do on a daily basis, barring their survival on this crazy train, is to ensure that they're numbers go up as much as possible as a sign of strength and also because they have no idea on how the train works due to Grace running her big mouth. By the end of Blossoming Trail, they come to realize that they no longer want to stay in Neverland and just want to be home to their families after learning how many sins they've committed for a "glow in the dark number".
• Intergenerational Rivalry: It doesn't matter how old you are; if you oppose the Apex (which has young kids and the oldest members being 18 year olds Grace and Simon), you're pretty much on their shit list. This is particularly noticeable with the late 30s Paul London of the White Gestalt and the 60+ Amelia Hughes of the Red Lotus Quarto.
• It Amused Me: If they're not raiding cars because they need something from them, it's because they either want to or are bored. Blossoming Trail, they're still on it but are separated and want nothing to do with each other.
• I Reject Your Reality: The train is for them, numbers are meant to go up, who the fuck cares for Nulls so kill them on sight. Those are the three rules in place for the Apex.
• Justified Criminal: Downplayed. While their actions are always portrayed as terrible, The Apex themselves have been led to believe there's no other choice; nobody on the Infinity Train has ever bothered to tell them how the locomotive is supposed to work, with some outright justifying themselves by claiming they wouldn't believe them anyway, not to mention the literal infinite number of worlds filled with things perfectly willing to kill them regardless of whether it'll help them get home or not.
• Karmic Shunning: The end of the Fog Car and the first two acts of Voyage of Wisteria has the Apex shunned by the denizens for their crimes, a Cruel Mercy given everything the Apex did to them.
• Knight of Cerebus: Whether it's their leaders Simon and Grace, or one of the children who follow them, the Infinity Train section of the story quickly gets darker every time they show up until The Fog Car in Blossoming Trail and The Unsub in Voyage of Wisteria makes them look harmless.
• Lack of Empathy: Grace's lies and the brutal "figure it out yourself" worlds of the Infinity Train have made them grow to believe they should prioritize themselves above everybody else, human or denizen alike. None of them seem to understand why Grace killing Utahoshi is a bad thing (especially when his last action was to help coax a scared Tokio — who had hot sauce sprayed into his eyes by Kenny — to trust him). When Lampetia gets killed by shrapnel after saving Tiffany, their first thoughts are "What the hell is that guy's [Specter] problem?" and "Why does he want that battle trophy [Lampetia's heart] so badly?". When Chloe dies after dropping from Simon's claws, Tiffany says she deserved it when Chloe was trying to dismantle the ritual that was going to slaughter them. When Tuba is also killed, Toby tells Hazel she can get better friends than a "stupid Null". When Hazel turns into a denizen form because of Toby's insensitive mouth, the Apex immediately scream "LET'S F*CKING KILL THE NULL!" and throw a brick at her face (which Grace takes).
• Locked Out of the Loop: It's almost depressing how little they actually know about how the Train works either because they don't know of One-One's videos, because Grace is too goddamn stubborn and haughty to think otherwise or they're so indoctrinated by her lies.
  • The Apex assume that Sean (who was lost in the Fog Car) is still alive. They learned the truth that he's dead in the worst way possible.
  • None of them know that passengers who die on the train become reincarnated as denizens. When Grace and Simon realizes it, the former is mortified and the latter simply doesn't care. And when the Apex realize it, it's horrifying to learn that they have been murdering people all this time. As revealed in Voyage of Wisteria, Grace knew this the entire time and lied to "protect" everyone from the "truth".
• Might Makes Right: They believe that they're the ultimate stars of the Train, and they're not afraid to get violent if necessary. Especially if it helps raise their numbers.
• Moral Myopia: They don't see anything wrong with injuring or killing denizens and if a passenger gets in their way, cripple them and laugh at their misery or say they deserved to die just to be even more spiteful. But if denizens or other passengers put them to task, they bleat and whine at how unfair this is.
• No Listening Skills: No matter how many times you have to tell them to stop their ways, words go in one ear and out the other. It isn't until they see Chloe dead, Simon turned into a dragon that was set to Toluca Lake to drown by Sean (and even learning that Sean is dead in the first place) and Grace finally admits that everything is downright her fault before they realize that they have messed up spectacularly and have been doing the opposite of what they were supposed to.
• Not Me This Time: In Voyage of Wisteria, an actual count of their victims indicates that their reputation might exceed them, with several bloody rampages having nothing to do with them.
• Not Quite the Right Thing: They believe that, as passengers, they deserve only the best and that they're worth more than the "Nulls" everywhere else. While the Train does put more value in the passengers than the denizens, it's so they can work out their issues and leave it.
• Obliviously Evil: None of them have any idea how the Train is supposed to work; from how their numbers are meant to go down, how the "Nulls" are supposed to help them, and even that their trips are meant to be temporary. Of course, part of the reason is just as much that they refuse to listen to those who would tell them about it as it is the Train and Denizens themselves not giving them a straight answer and Grace deliberately keeping mum about it so she can be loved and worshipped like the queen of the Train that she thinks she is.
• Older Hero Versus Younger Villain: As a whole, the Apex are the younger villains to Paul London (close to 40 by Voyage of Wisteria) and Amelia (who is already in her 60s).
• Paper Tiger: Throughout the whole of Blossoming Trail, the Apex are hyped up as the biggest threat that the Train has ever faced. But whenever the Apex is actually shown to fight on-screen, they don't exactly live up to the hype. They certainly are dangerous since the group is composed of murderers, but the main body of the Apex is composed of children. They aren't all that much of a threat individually (sans Grace and Simon, but even they aren't much more dangerous than an average adult) and only really pose a threat through sheer force of numbers because they're savage enough that no one expects the peaceful denizens to fight back. The Apex's reputation prevented most people from trying to oppose them and ending them years ago. Case in point, when Grace and Simon go into battle with White Gestalt in Knight of the Orange Lily, they lose. London can use his levitation to let them float into the air then drops them over numerous sharp objects. In the Final Battle, the Apex barely gets a hit on them — the one who gets injured the worst is Specter being tackled by Simon — and the only one that does get killed by them (Lampetia) is due to shrapnel and not a direct hit from the Apex themselves.
• Puny Earthlings: The Apex is composed entirely of humans that, to those who aren't utterly terrified of them, come across as utterly pathetic and not worth their time unless they provoke them or if someone thinks that One-One isn't doing enough to stop them.
• Pyrrhic Victory: The Apex did everything for high numbers but with high price tags attached to them.
  • In general, their reputation is forever up in flames and all of the Train is nothing but relieved to see this cult gone. And the little princess they assumed was a big thorn in their side is now a heroine who bravely dismantled them.
  • Grace: She got what she wanted in the Apex: a sense of authority, to be noticed and a high number. By the end of the Fog Car, she has no one left in the Apex to follow her, her deeds are forever remembered by the denizens she injured, her reputation shot and she dies in the sequel, dropped off at the mall where she was once picked up. The only positive is that her soul was reincarnated as Warbler, who will get a better chance to redeem herself.
  • Simon: Became the True Apex by becoming Destruction, killed Chloe and Tuba, and boasted that he didn't need anyone. However, Chloe gets revived by Atticus, Tuba's sacrifice opened Hazel and Grace's eyes to the truth and he dies alone — like Chloe spat in his face — by Sean, who he mocked as weak for dying.
  • The Apex: Happily followed along Grace and Simon and killed denizens for strength and to ensure no one could get in the way of their fun. But this costs their innocence, the fact that they might have killed former passengers, and that they forgot about their parents and loved ones for a number that's supposed to guide them to go home. And their reputation has been shot down in flames as everyone will remind them that they were mindless sheep to a Know-Nothing Know-It-All and still inflicted trauma on everyone they came across regardless of any excuse they can make and there is no way in Hell that their loved ones are going to believe a single word they say about what happened, so they will live with their sins for the rest of their lives...if they ever make it back home anyhow.
• "Ray of Hope" Ending: The end of Voyage of Wisteria has them happily helping Charlie — who opened the Hazbin Hotel to rehabilitate them — in cleaning up the mess of the 400 Rabbits Car, suggesting that they're capable of turning over a new leaf. By the epilogue, every single (living) Apex member has returned home.
• Serial Killer: The group is a collection of these... supposedly. On the one hand, The Apex are well known for wheeling Denizens and celebrating their deaths. On the other hand, though, most of this is just hearsay and slander; in terms of what they actually accomplish, they only ever get to kill something that doesn't fight back or is explicitly weaker than them. Every other time, they generally accept they can't win and run away.
• Social Darwinist: They believe in strength above anything else and equate their numbers as symbols of pride. If your number is small, you're as weak as a Null that should be squashed under their feet.
• They Just Dont Get It: Grace's indoctrinations make it very difficult to tell them to cut out their actions right now. Knight of the Orange Lily has Gladion note that no matter what they do, whether combat or diplomacy, they're so warped in their own narratives that nothing can tell them to just leave the denizens alone. It takes Chloe dying right in front of them and the Red Lotus Quarto telling it to their faces just what is going on, seeing Simon killed by Sean who will have no choice but to be reincarnated and will never see his mother again, combined with Grace finally admitting how much she lied to save her own ass and Amelia noting how they've forgotten their families do they realize that this isn't a game or fantasy land. You either figure out your problems or die trying.
• Underestimating Badassery: Their biggest Fatal Flaw. The group thinks very little of Chloe of the Vermillion, just seeing her as a princess playing pretend with her puppy pal and her prince. Meanwhile, Chloe is training, pushing forward and getting the entire Train by her side to take them down, racking up victory after victory, going to town against the juggernauts of the Cage of Flauros with nothing more than some fire and her donut holer. She ultimately ends up defeating Walter, the mastermind of the plan that would've killed the Apex, heralded as a hero who saved them from the Apex's wrath while no one will ever forgive them for their atrocities as shown in Voyage of Wisteria.
• Villainous Underdog: What they actually are, despite what everyone else says. In a world where everybody has either some sort of superpower or weapon that lets them get by, The Apex are left to use whatever scrap they can get in order to survive for the next day, in an endless realm that throws a monster that could easily kill them every other day.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: When it comes to Denizens, or "Nulls" as they call them, The Apex generally have no issue wheeling them if they get in their way. Though to be fair to them, the Train has more than its fair share of Denizens perfectly willing to murder them even without knowing anything about them.

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The Leaders

Both of Them

The leaders of the cult known as "The Apex" in which they wish to make their numbers higher while showing dominance against all denizens ("Nulls"), wanting nothing to do to improve themselves and worshipped Amelia back when she was the Conductor. Unbeknownst to them though, a lot of denizens on the Train want them gone by any means necessary.

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• 0% Approval Rating: Out of the Apex as a whole, the leaders are positively loathed for their cruelty and sadism in torturing and killing denizens. It even gets to the point where the reason Henry and Walter want to perform a sacrificial ritual is to get revenge on them and the Apex. And for bonus points, they want to use Simon as one of the sacrifices due to his destructive behavior so Grace knows the type of monster she created.
• Always a Bigger Fish: For all the talk they have, and legitimate success, there are some beings on the Infinity Train they can't do anything against but run from. Along with Silent Hill, this includes The giant robot (Also known as the Transformers: Prime Megatron), and a shapeshifter with an Australian accent revealed to be Mad Ben, one of the evil alternate universe Ben Tennysons. In fact, Simon's death is caused by this. He killed off Chloe of the Vermillion by turning into a dragon. He dies from the monster known as the Phantom who is bigger and meaner and was also an Apex kid whom Simon mocked was weak for dying.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: It doesn't matter if a Denizen looks like an animal, they'll still be identified as Nulls.
  • Grace stabbed Utahoshi, a kind rabbit, in the head because she tried to "save" Tokio.
  • Simon has the idea that he wants to kick Atticus off the Train to wheel him. He also is more violent around The Cat this time around when he chews her out for abandoning him. And like in canon, he murders Tuba and wanted to kill Hazel (a human with a turtle form)
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • Both: The two wanted to stay on the train forever and not give a damn about anything except having high numbers. The two of them will stay on the train forever because they died and reincarnated as denizens.
  • Grace only wanted to be noticed, which is what caused her to be dragged onto the Train. Bad news? She has a lot of children and Simon, who rely on her (misguided but still dangerous) judgment. Good news? Turns out she's now on One-One's radar and he and a lot of the denizens on the Train are not happy with what she's created. By the end of it all, she is forever remembered as a monster, so now everyone knows who she is just as she realized that all she wanted to do was go home.
• Beyond Redemption: They've been ruling The Apex and making the cars a living hell for everybody that most denizens believe they need to be stopped one way or another. By the end of the Fog Car, only Simon fits this trope as everyone else has decided to atone for their sins although Grace admits that she deserves to not have anyone feel sorry for her. She also never gets to redeem herself as Ogami murders her and a lot of denizens don't show any sympathy for it.
• Combat Pragmatist: They don't care about fighting with honor, given how they decided to not go after Trip's Pokémon and went after the boy himself or Grace stabbed her knife in the back of someone's head cause she's too much of a coward to fight fair.
• The Corrupter: They subtly influence children under their care to unleash their inhibitions and sews a sense of entitlement. They would encourage people to act as cruelly as they can to raise their numbers. Grace and Simon turned a bunch of children into a band of roaming murderous marauders who see anyone that's not human as lesser to them and in turn, they also influence each other to act on their personal vices. All because Grace is too haughty to admit she's not the expert she claims she is.
• Create Your Own Hero: Twice-over in fact. The two indirectly created the Red Lotus Trio and White Gestalt with their actions.
  • For the Red Lotus Trio: Lexi probably would've remained a normal Yu-Gi-Oh cosplaying book if Grace and Simon hadn't taken the time to bury him in Azada or at least let him join on their adventures. Atticus would've been ruling Corginia had he not become paranoid over why he hadn't heard word from King Aloysius for a while. Chloe would just be exploring with Atticus trying to find herself and not be tasked to topple them down if they weren't just assholes from the start and she didn't coincidentally unearth Lexi in Azada.
  • White Gestalt: Grace murdering Utahoshi led to Tokio being brainwashed and Kisaragi planning Project Solitaire. Then when Gladion, Specter and London learn of this story and plan more than a year later, they convince Kisaragi to let Tokio go and plan a trap via the memory tapes.
• Create Your Own Villain: For just as much as they create heroes, they also create bad guys who cause even more destruction in their paths and then use the apex to cover up their crimes.
  • The Cage of Flauros wouldn't be on its current state, or possibly even exist, if the Apex hadn't done so many terrible things that Henry and Walter were left to believe somebody had to do something.
  • Grace created Simon into a violent psychopath who transforms into the aspect of Destruction because of how she manipulated him with her lies and pride and egged him to kill Denizens.
  • Grace's wise decision to murder Utahoshi in Knight of the Orange Lily led to Tokio's brainwashing into the White Rabbit and starting Kisaragi's Project Solitaire.
• Doomed by Canon: The story is following the events of Book 3, so Simon is doomed to die and Grace loses everyone she loved because of her inability to realize that she's wrong and trying to appease everyone so as to not be alone.
• The Dreaded: While the entire Apex is feared, the leaders especially cause terror. When characters hear of a denizen crossing the Apex's path, there's a high chance of the denizen being mutilated or dead.
• Dying Alone: Their fates in this universe.
  • Grace: She survives the events of Blossoming Trail but not the sequel, as she is repeatedly stabbed by Ogami and cries out how she only wanted to be noticed after she disbanded the Apex.
  • Simon: As Chloe stated before he kills her, he will die without anyone to mourn him. Sure enough, he dies by being dragged into Toluca Lake via Sean/"The Phantom" with no one able to save him or by his side, terrified out of his wits, along with his body unceremoniously dropped off where the train first picked him up — at an elementary school bathroom. To emphasize this, when Chloe dies, she is surrounded by her friends and the Pokémon trainers she was off to rescue. When Simon dies, Grace and the Apex can only watch from afar.
• Everyone Has Standards: Neither of them are happy upon learning how Sean drowned in the lake of The Fog Car...until Simon decides to screw everything and become Destruction.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • Chloe: Grace ran away onto the Train after getting into petty larceny with the desire to be noticed by her distant and emotionally abusive parents. But on the Train, she forgoes character growth for "strength" and has corrupted other children to follow her path because she can't accept the idea of being wrong combined with the desire to be "noticed" by gullible kids who have no concept of right or wrong.
  • Lexi: Simon clung onto Grace's words of being the best and went out to destroy other denizens' lives because of his trauma with The Cat. He also refuses to accept new information and sticks to that he is always in the right and that those who don't fit with it are to be destroyed.
  • London: Both Grace and Simon are delusional to believe that their sacrifices and numbers will get the Conductor's favor, like how his murders of the Rabbit Tribe members were in the hope of "guidance" by the White Rabbit. The main difference is that London realized his actions and is horrified in killing Lampetia, Grace and Simon don't care on who they hurt, human or otherwise. Moreover, London never corrupts kids and is the one who helps Tokio move on from his trauma, while Grace will corrupt any child and spin lies into their little heads because it satisfies her wants, not their needs. And unlike London, who admitted that he's killed others, Grace heavily denies that she's hurting people even though Voyage of Wisteria establishes that she's seen the fate of passengers who die on the Train.
• Evil Duo: Grace is the one who leads the Apex into a crusade of destruction and fire, while Simon is her right-hand man. However Grace is later horrified to learn that she was essentially murdering real people; Simon doesn't care.
• Eviler than Thou: To give you an explanation on how vile they are...
  • Zack — a former Serial Killer — thinks lowly of them since at least he's honest about who he is, never ever lies about what he's going to do, doesn't drag others down with him, and is shown to be very protective of Ray. Zack has killed a child (Eddie) but that's more the exception to the rule.
  • Henry and Walter of The Fog Car are ready to conduct some dark ritual just to enact revenge on them and it is confirmed in Chapter 17 that the "Destruction" aspect is going to be Simon. Then again even after Grace and the Apex have decided to stop their ways, they're still willing to murder them...
  • Amelia, the former Conductor and the reason why the Apex was created in the first place, finds nothing amusing about them. This is later deconstructed; Amelia just wanted to deny that she was the more evil one out of the groups, and allowed them to run amok so she could be seen as the lesser of two evils.
  • Specter in Knight of the Orange Lily, who has done a lot of nasty things in his show, state that they have no class. London is disgusted in how they claim that they're not really "killing people", compared to how he's murdered numerous people in his world, and had to kill Lampetia, and is horrified to learn what he's done. To give an example on how much London hates them, when Grace says that killing denizens doesn't really count since they're "not real people", London immediately screams "FUCK YOU!" in utter disgust.
• Expy: Both of them have traits similar to the characters of Silent Hill 2 to coincide with the Silent Hill influences in Arcs 2 and 3 of Blossoming Trail.
  • Grace is one to Angela Orosco as they're both women in their teens (Grace is 18, Angela is 19) who have gone through abusive parents and both their stories end with them walking into Hell, feeling like they don't deserve to be redeemed for their crimes. And both of them die at the end, where Angela ascends the fiery staircase and Grace is stabbed by Ogami, both of them believing that they can't be saved and that there is no happy ending awaiting them.
  • For the Silent Hill references aside from James Sunderland as shown in the Cage of Flauros subpage, Simon's the parallel to Eddie Dombrowski, a stubborn Manchild with blond hair that has friction with a blond haired child (Laura) and starts out as civil but reveals himself to be a sociopath, stating how much fun it is to just kill the denizens and never shows any signs of sympathy and remorse. The biggest difference between Eddie and Simon is that Eddie never killed anyone (the worst he did was kneecap a bully and shot a dog) whereas Simon murdered Tuba and Chloe by dropping them from the sky.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Grace Monroe
    • Her pride. Instead of swallowing it and telling Simon how she herself had no idea what the numbers meant, she lied to him about being a "master" of the Train and corrupted him and numerous children to wreak havoc for a number that's indicating your progress on when you can go home all so she could feel loved and adored and looked up to. She always has to see herself in the right, even when others tell her that she could possibly be wrong. The Cat even notes that "Little Miss Gracie" never believed she was wrong about anything. The author's notes of one chapter of Orange Lily states that Grace is such a delusional prick that she can't admit she's wrong even if you write it in all caps on her forehead.
    • Lying. The more lies she spread, the harder and harder it took to keep them going. She's horrified to learn the Awful Truth about the Train and knows that the Apex will not forgive her for drilling it into their brains that denizens were lesser beings because of her need to be right. Voyage of Wisteria reveals that she knew all along what denizens truly were and lied to others mostly to protect herself rather than accept that she needed to be fixed.
    • Apathy: She cares nothing about what denizens think or the passengers who are protecting them just so long as her needs are met before anyone else's. She killed Utahoshi? So what? Tokio tells her that her parents would be appalled? She doesn't care. The Apex are going on a rampage and ruining the denizens' hard work? Hey it's all for them, not these nulls! She's slaughtering innocent denizens? She can care less about them cause they aren't real people. She realizes way too late in the Fog Car after Chloe dies in front of her that the Apex became to blinded by their "fun" and wanted Chloe to stay dead what her apathy has converted people into.
    • Cowardice. Grace claims she's a brave, strong leader of the Apex. But really she just likes kicking people and stabbing them in the back of the head instead of a fair fight, and she's afraid to admit that she doesn't have all the answers, not to mention that these acts of not admitting the truth ultimately led to so much blood on her hands.
  • Simon Laurent
    • Stubborness; once something is in his head, he can't let it go nor change his mind. As Owen Dennis pointed out, he's a classical narcissist, incapable of growth and quick to change reality to match his mindset if it doesn't please him (or as he infamously told Grace "Why would I wanna change if I'm always right?!"). Chloe uses this against him, stating that he can't stay as Destruction outside Silent Hill. To prove him wrong, he goes to the entrance, thus activating the locks Walter put on and causing him and Henry to lose yet another Cage of Flauros component.
    • Apathy. Again like Grace, he doesn't care about anyone even though he wants Grace to understand his pain about being abandoned by the Cat.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • Grace was pushed aside by her abusive and neglectful parents to be a brilliant dancer, had no friends growing up, and even began shoplifting to get attention with her parents unwilling to admit they were wrong. As she put it, "I just wanted to be noticed".
  • Simon was abandoned The Cat while being chased by a Ghom that contributed him in hating Denizens and there were hints that he suffered from either Parental Neglect or Parental Abandonment.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Yes, Grace and Simon had horrible pasts, but does that excuse them for the near decade of slaughter, torture and mental torment they put on denizens and other passengers? Absolutely not.
  • Voyage of Wisteria has Grace admit that she severely fucked up in not admitting to everyone that she knew that numbers were meant to go down but admits that what she's done were explanations, not excuses.
• The Ghost: They don't make physical appearances in Arc 1 of Blossoming Trail, and were referenced in flashbacks or by word of mouth. They finally make an appearance in the story during The Cyan Desert Car which is halfway into Arc 2.
• Greater-Scope Villain:
  • Both of them are this for Arc 2, as the reason Henry and Walter are planning the ritual that requires Simon, Chloe, Hop, Paul, and Alain is to get revenge on them and the Apex for all the damage they had done.
  • The Red Lotus Trio and the Train is clearly preparing to confront them for their actions in Chapter 17. And it's highly implied that the reason Chloe will enter Silent Hill is to rescue Hazel from them.
• Insecure Protagonist, Arrogant Antagonist: Both are the arrogant smug and haughty bad guys to Chloe's self-deprecating good guy. Chloe ends up on the Train to escape her family after being bullied and felt unloved, starts off unsure of who she is but later gains strength and love from her friends and confidence to tackle the Train. Meanwhile, both Grace and Simon don't care for anything except their fun, wanting to stay on the train forever and have no qualms on murdering or crippling denizens (or passengers) to the point that no one outside the Apex likes them. By the story's end, Chloe has developed into an emotionally stable and mature person, while Grace has lost everything and is saddled with a bad reputation before being murdered by Ogami in the sequel and Simon drowned in Toluca Lake, and found in the bathroom he was picked up in.
• Ironic Hell: Both of them ended up in this.
  • Grace Monroe
    • The Train picked up ten-year-old Grace after she wished that she was noticed. Years later, she is noticed as the leader of the murderous cult that ruins lives on the Train and doesn't give a fuck about what she does as long as she's on top. By the time Blossoming Trail ends, and Grace has realized what she's created, practically everyone knows who she is and hates her. REALLY hates her.
    • Fittingly in the Fog Car, no one cares about her barring Hazel (and even then it pretty much evaporated when Tuba died and the Apex revealed their true colors) and knock her down several pegs for her selfishness and cowardice. It's only when she admits her mistakes can she make progress.
    • As a person, she made everyone's life hell. Now as a denizen, she makes things better.
    • She ran her big fat mouth which ruined so many lives. When she's reincarnated, she ends up as a tiny mute music note that's helped Goh become a better person.
    • She never wanted to return home and wanted to stay on the train forever. Before she died, all she wanted was to go home and now she's stuck on the train as a denizen.
  • Simon Laurent
    • Since he died, he will be reincarnated as a denizen. So he'll never leave the Train but he'll become the last thing he ever wanted and live multiple lives on the train without ever realizing he was human.
• Karmic Death:
  • Grace: She stabbed Utahoshi with a knife, she gets stabbed in the stomach by Ogami. Moreover, she made the Apex so she would be showered with love. Her actions means that she dies alone and laments how she only wanted to be noticed.
  • Simon: He transformed into Destruction after mocking Sean's death. He ends up dying by the monster called The Phantom, which is Sean's soul reincarnated. Moreover, his death and actions bring about the destruction of the Apex.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Since Book 3 is going to happen as planned, Grace and Simon are going to get what's coming to them. This is noted by Trip himself. But the question is how are they going to get their just desserts? Answer: Simon gets killed by Sean dragging him into Toluca Lake while Grace has to live with her reputation in shambles and forever posted online on the Infinet, that her actions lead to a lot of deaths and the Apex no longer wants to deal with her before she gets murdered in Voyage of Wisteria, turning into the denizen partner for Goh, the Childhood Friend of Chloe of the Vermillion and the friend of Tokio Chisou, whom Grace traumatized by murdering Utahoshi in front of him.
• Kick the Dog: They will kick a puppy onto the wheels if it means getting a bigger number.
  • Grace Monroe
    • Knight of the Orange Lily had her stab Utahoshi in the head just as he was reaching out to comfort Tokio and non-chalantly wiping the blood off her blade before telling Tokio that he was better off without the rabbits. And when she's reminded of it years later, all she can do is say shrug her shoulders and say, "So what?" What a bitch! The author says that this was added to remind the readers that for everything Grace became in Book 3, she still did a lot of horrible things without remorse and got off way too easy in the show.
  • Simon Laurent
    • Simon with Grace's urging tore Lexi's pages apart and then buried him underground just to spite Titus, laughing about the Dramatic Irony of him never leaving the Library of Flying Books Car.
    • In The Cyan Desert Car, Simon wants to literally do this to Atticus off of the Train so that he gets wheeled, but not before taking Atticus' crown for his own.
    • In the final battle in Knight of the Orange Lily, he covers Specter's mouth and pins him to the ground so Specter can't take back Lampetia's heart — Lampetia poofed into one after shrapnel fell on her head while saving Tiffany all so the Knight of Hanoi can only watch as an Apex brat swipe something important for him and call it a battle trophy.
• Knight of Cerebus: If there's a flashback involving them in the story, then you know things are going to get dark.
• Lack of Empathy: They don't care about the chaos they're causing and of the lives, they ruined just as long as they have fun and show off their strength. Grace, however, is shown to really care for Hazel and takes tallies on the Apex for those who have food allergies. Simon, on the other hand, doesn't care about The Reveal of denizens actually being humans and transforms into the aspect of Destruction and murders Tuba and Chloe without hestiation.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Got away with running the Train for years until the Red Lotus Trio came into view. At the end of Blossoming Trail, Grace has lost everything except her wish of "being noticed" and Simon lost his humanity. Both of them have also died alone and turned into denizens, whom they had fun hurting and their reputations are shot down in flames, forever to be separated from one another.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: The story assumes that the reader knows what happened in Book 3, particularly in Grace and Simon's backstories as to how they got on the Train and their fates at the end of "The New Apex".
• Lonely at the Top: Both of them wanted to get high numbers and be on the Train forever. They got it all right, but at the cost of everyone and everything else in their lives.
  • Grace: She made the Apex for the sake of having love and adoration, along with drilling it in their heads that a higher number is all that matters via hurting others who weren't human. After the end of the Fog Car, all that's left is her number that will take her years to drop to 0 since she's come to learn that everything she did was for nothing: she lost her friend, lost a little sister figure, the denizen who could've acted like a mother to her, and the children she corrupted with her ways because she never admitted that she "knew" how the Train worked. All she can do is take a walk of shame back to The Cat and lament who would be the first person on the train to forgive her. And she never gets that chance when Ogami murders her.
  • Simon: Wanted nothing more to show dominance over the denizens and anyone abnormal. Even when he became Destruction, he pushed everyone, including Grace to the side. Killing Chloe and Tuba didn't help as the former was resurrected and the latter's death made Grace and Hazel realize that the Apex are horrible horrible human beings and makes Grace decide that the Apex must be destroyed now. Moreover, his Destruction form could only be used in the Fog Car, meaning that he could never become the "True Apex" anywhere else. And then he loses his life by The Phantom (A reincarnated Sean who he dismissed as weak), who plunges him into Toluca Lake, drowning him while Grace watches on in horror. And to really rub it in, his body is found in an elementary school's bathroom with the police only identifying him as some boy who vanished from a Spelling Bee years ago.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The Red Lotus Trio coming together is their fault.
  • Simon gleefully tore Lexi apart and buried him alive to spite Titus with Grace's encouragement. Years later, Chloe unearthed him and the two teamed up to fight them and the rest of the Apex, joining with Atticus — who is another indirect victim to their raids — and given the blessing by One-One to take them down. Both Grace and Simon realized they screwed up big time when The Cat reveals that Lexi is alive in Chapter 20 as that means they have a very pissed off denizen who is willing to see them bleed to death for their crimes. Guess it would've been better to take him out of his car to wheel him instead.
  • The car Grace decided to raid that kickstarted Book 3 was the Unfinished Car, which was ruled by King Aloysius, a friend of Atticus, and had numerous delegates from the Corgi Car. Had the group left the car alone and let Amelia do her duty with the pulse, Atticus probably wouldn't have gotten concerned as to why he hadn't heard from his friend and join Chloe and Lexi in an attempt to find him nor would Grace and Simon be separated from the rest of the Apex themselves, finding Hazel and leading to the end of the Apex as a whole.
• Psychopathic Manchild: They love raising chaos and destruction wherever they go and don't care to realize how their actions are hurting others.
• Teens Are Monsters: It says something when Henry and Walter from Silent Hill are charming and nice.
  • They essentially crippled a child and left him to rot under the ground while his parent was oblivious to his whereabouts. They then beat another child with a sledgehammer and tattooed their symbol on his wrist. That's not even going to the hell they've created for years or how Simon became a real monster and killed Chloe and Tuba.
  • Knight of the Orange Lily revealed that Grace killed Utahoshi, the kind rabbit denizen in the 400 Rabbits Car, in front of Tokio and brushed it off as her "saving him". And when she's reminded of this by Simon, all she can go is "So what?"
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • Everything that is happening and will happen in the Fog Car is traced back to them, as Henry and Walter want revenge on what they did throughout the Train.
  • The minds of three Trainers have been broken because of how Henry and Walter need ritual components. Paul's is the most significant because of how Grace put it into Sean's head to wheel anything non-human which lead to his death.
• Villain of Another Story:
  • Book 3 is already taking place — the author says this is around the time frame of "The Debutante Ball Car" and "Le Chat Chalet Car" — by the time Chloe entered Azada. They finally make an appearance at the end of Chapter 19.
  • They appeared in Lexi, Trip, and Tokio's flashbacks, cementing how much pain and damage they unleashed over the years.
  • Larkspur writes to Chloe how she and Gladion fought them in their own adventure which is shown in Knight of the Orange Lily.
• Villainous Friendship: Grace and Simon have been friends for eight years. But considering how Simon separates himself from Grace by transforming into Destruction in Arc 3, this is no longer the case
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?:
  • They consider "Nulls" to be far, far beneath them to the point of injuring them beyond repair or even killing them. They, or at least Grace, might change their tune if they learned what happens to passengers who die on the train...
  • Mid-way into the Fog Car has Grace and Simon learn the horrible truth. Grace is horrified at all the blood on her hands. Simon...doesn't care.
  • Voyage of Wisteria' reveals that Grace knew about the reincarnation process the entire time but decided to default into denizens = not human because it was easier to do so, meaning she lied'' to Simon and the Apex just to save herself.
• Would Hurt a Child: Zizagged; neither of them hurt any of the Apex kids...but any child that's not on their side or a denizen is easy pickings.
  • Lexi was the equivalent of a young boy and Simon essentially crippled him, electrocuted him, and then buried him alive thanks to Grace's goading.
  • Trip's right eye is a different color from how Simon struck him with a sledgehammer and Grace also join in kicking him in the ribs.
  • Both Grace and Simon want to hurt Chloe (age 10) for trying to get in the way of their fun with Simon hoping to just crush the girl beneath his heel and cut her pretty hair off. Simon goes as far as to kill Chloe while Grace realizes how horrible this is.
  • Simon puts Paul through electric torture and repeatedly kicks and bashes the trainer's head to the wall to get answers.
  • As Destruction, Simon attempts to kill Hazel and, as stated above, he successfully murders Chloe (although she gets revived thanks to Atticus's Pendant of Life).
  • In Knight of the Orange Lily, Grace kicked Tokio in the stomach to get him off of her (as he was beating her up with a staff for having killed Utahoshi) and trauamtized him by stabbing Utahoshi in the head.

Grace Monroe

See here.

Simon Laurent

One of the leaders of the Apex, and Grace's second-in-command.

---

• Adaptational Villainy: As bad as Simon was in canon, he's even worse here were; instead of ending up as tragic villain, he becomes an even worse monster.
  • In canon, he was a proud member of the Apex, a group of passengers that was convinced that numbers mean strength, that would harm and kill denizens in their way. He got worse in season 3; at first, it appears he was changing for the better, being concern that Grace's number is becoming lower, and then it seems that he was bonding with Tuba. Then he murders Tuba in cold blood and brags about it to Grace and Hazel. Things get worse in the second half of the season, where he learns that Hazel is a denizen and Grace was keeping that a secret. When Hazel left, he turns on Grace, takes control of the Apex, and tries to wheel Grace; even when Grace saves his life, he betrays her and eventually was killed by a Ghom. Despite that, he was still sympathetic become it clear that he was still dealing with the trauma of being abandon by the Cat, and he was destroying himself. And despite himself, it is clear that Simon feels guilty for his actions and betraying Grace, and still cares for her.
  • In this story, in addition to his more despicable crimes like kicking Paul while he's down, willing making a deal Walter to become more than human, transforming into a dragon and trying to kill Grace and everyone, making it clear he does not care for her and the Apex kids anymore. Finally, after mocking Sean — one of the Apex kids for dying — and then killing Tuba and Chloe by dropping them to their deaths without a single shred of empathy pretty much proved that you could make Simon even more of an asshole. What makes Simon even worse is that in canon, it was clear that he was destroying himself and, despite himself, does feel guilty for his actions. In this story, it is clear that he has no guilt for his actions, and he is not doing this because of trauma from his past, rather with no regrets, he's embracing being a monster and is willing to destroy everyone, even the people he once loved to be right and strong.
• Alas, Poor Villain: When Warbler/Grace encounters his soul — which is the young boy who entered the Train wearing socks and sandals traumatized by a Ghom and abandoned by the Cat — he's tearfully crying and afraid of Grace leaving him again, before stating how unfair it is that they will never see each other again because of the reincarnation process and how they both messed up on what they were supposed to do on the Train. All they can do is share one last hug before he goes off to the Caboose to be reborn.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: After succumbing as Destruction, he turns into a dragon-like thing that kidnaps Chloe, and then murders her.
• Asshole Victim: Ends up dead via Sean — who he mocked for being weak — pulling him into Toluca Lake. No one, except Grace, is sad to see him go considering he just murdered Chloe and Tuba moments ago.
• Ax-Crazy: Not only does he enjoy destroying Nulls, but learning that most of them used to be humans barely even fazes him. And then he turns into Destruction...
• Bait the Dog: His desire to avenge Sean was pretty much one of the few redeeming traits he had, especially as every other good trait he had eventually withered away. However, when he finds out some of the Denizens he's killed were once passengers, meaning Sean could be part of the casualties (later revealed to be the Phantom of Toluca Lake) he can't be bothered to care.
• Beyond Redemption: While both leaders are considered this by the Denizens of the Train, Simon eventually proves himself to be well and truly deserving of this trope when he tortures Paul for information of Sean, barely even cares that many Denizens the Apex has killed were once human, and succumbs to his role as Destruction in order to become something beyond humanity. And to further cement this, he murders Chloe and Tuba.
• Catchphrase: "Ffffine" (yes the "Fs" are included) when he has no choice but to follow Grace's lead.
• Dark Is Evil: He's the less sympathetic co-leader of the Apex, and his Destruction form is a giant black dragon.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: Is turned to ash by a Ghom in canon, he drowns in Toluca Lake via a former Apex member in the story. But both times, he's all alone with Grace and the Apex unable to do anything to save him.
• Disney Villain Death: Ends up being drowned into the lake when Sean / The Phantom drags him in.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • Simon clearly embodies toxic masculinity with how he refuses to change his mind, likes to destroy and kill, and dislikes Chloe (aka the "Princess") on the account that she's a girl. The symbolism only grows stronger after he becomes Destruction and adopts the form of a dragon, commonly considered a masculine creature, with the intent to destroy everything, symbolizing how toxic masculinity eventually destroys everything the one expressing it wanted or cared about, including itself. There's also the fact that he's known to be very violent around women, being the one to kill Chloe and Tuba.
  • Much like in "the New Apex", Simon (A Caucasian male) is quick to turn on his friend Grace (a black woman) and nicknames her "Void", trying to prove dominance over her. Moreover, this is a Caucasian male who looks down on others who are lesser than him.
  • The misogynistic traits on him is overwhelming considering how little he cares about females in his life up to and including killing them.
• Dragons Are Demonic: Once he becomes Destruction, he transforms into a giant, pitch black dragon.
• Dragons Prefer Princesses: Somewhat. Once he transforms into Destruction, a pitch-black dragon, he kidnaps Chloe who he constantly calls "Princess".
• The Final Temptation: Walter presents him with an enticing offer to become "something more than human" in order to be able to do whatever he wants, and prove himself to be right. Simon takes the temptation, transforming into Destruction.
• Hate Sink: A very despicable excuse for a human being. A sociopathic and misogynistic asshole who doesn't care who he murders or injures for power. Not even his trust issues and excuse of being abandoned by the Cat can salvage him.
• He-Man Woman Hater: Hates women of all sorts: dislikes Chloe (the Princess), is absolutely annoyed at Hazel and Tuba, and refuses to listen to Grace once the Awful Truth appears and calls her "Void". And then he murders Chloe and Tuba out of spite.
• Hero Killer: He kills Chloe and Tuba as Destruction. However, Tuba had enough energy to tell Atticus to revive Chloe so his actions were for naught.
• Irony:
  • Out of all the components for the Cage of Flauros outside of Death and Desire, Simon (who refuses to actually listen to adults and denizens alike) is the one fully committed to the role.
  • His actions as Destruction, to which he calls himself the True Apex, has him killing Tuba and Chloe and end up destroying the Apex.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Dies after he murders Chloe (the annoying princess who thinks she can stop the Apex) and Tuba (the denizen who Simon doesn't trust despite Tuba being nice to him this entire time) in the hands of the Apex member (Sean) who he dismissed as weak. His actions also bring about the end of the Apex as a whole and cements Chloe as the heroine who saved the Train while Tuba's death made Grace realize how she has done so much damage.
• Meaningless Villain Victory: Sure he killed Chloe and Tuba as Destruction, but he learned the hard way that A) his Destruction form only works in the Fog Car; if he tries to leave it, he returns into a human where everyone on the Train wants his head for all of the atrocities and the audacity of killing Chloe of the Vermillion, B) Atticus resurrected Chloe with his Pendant of Life, and Tuba's death opened Hazel and Grace's eyes to the horrible truth about the Apex, C) he gets killed off shortly thereafter by the Phantom who was actually Sean, the Apex kid who he dismissed as "Weak" for dying, and drowns in Toluca Lake, alone, like Chloe predicted and off to be reincarnated into a weaker denizen form while his body returns to an elementary school bathroom and D) the act of killing Chloe and Tuba convinced Grace that the Apex has to end immediately, else they all suffer the same fate.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: As Destruction, him killing Chloe and Tuba ended up destroying the Apex and made Grace realize that what she did was horribly wrong, making her come clean about her lies.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Befitting someone with the moniker of " Destruction", Simon wants nothing more than to burn the world down once he assumes his draconic form.
• Pet the Dog: The only kind thing he has ever done in this fic is helping Tuba during The Color Clock Car.^note Which, in canon, was the episode that he murdered her.
• Prophetic Name: He's the Flauros component known as Destruction and his actions end up destroying Hazel's trust in Grace, destroys the Apex and the innocence of everyone involved and ultimate makes the Flauros crumble into nothing.
• Properly Paranoid: Zigzagged; Simon thinks that green line scanning the cars is One-One's personal attack on them. Turns out that while One-One does want them stopped, the pulse is from Amelia and it's to detect cars with corrupted code from her reign as the Conductor (although she eventually does want to take the Apex down).
• Riddle for the Ages: Whatever Simon's soul reincarnated into is not revealed as even One-One himself has no idea. The author has said that it's up to the reader to make their own conclusions. It's later revealed that Ogami has his soul but then it goes off to be reincarnated once Ogami is killed off.
• Rule of Symbolism: Grace has no choice but to watch how Simon ends up becoming a monster in the Fog Car all because of her actions.
• Shadow Archetype:
  • Simon could be a very dark version of Chloe if she let her bias and hatred of anything that's not what she wants get in the way of moving on and healing. Notably she has a talk about letting go of said bias prior to Simon murdering her.
  • He's basically a more vicious Specter - both of them did attack a Specter expy (Lexi for Simon and Easter for Specter) but Simon couldn't care less that he buried Lexi alive and spitefully stated that it would be amusing if Titus didn't know his son never left home whereas Specter learns to realize he did wrong by kicking Easter out of a window and part on (somewhat) amicable terms. Oh and there's the fact that Specter got an early leave from the Train whereas Simon is going to be stuck on there as a denizen for a long long time.
• This Cannot Be!: His last words are to express shock at something being stronger than him before drowning in Toluca Lake.
• Transhuman Treachery: His transformation into Destruction sees him drive away the last few friends he had, including Grace, in order to be able to enjoy his desire to destroy everything.
• Villainous Breakdown: Upon learning that his Destruction form is only within the Fog Car, and thus he will be vulnerable to all of the passengers and denizens who support Chloe if he ever leaves, he goes on a rampage, murders Chloe and Tuba — with Chloe being revived shortly thereafter — and then ends up dying when Sean drowns him in the lake, scared out of his wits and no one to comfort him while Chloe is surrounded by her friends when she gets revived and Tuba gets to say her farewells to Hazel before passing.
• Villain in a White Suit: He's co-leader of the Apex and wears a white hoodie, making him the Foil to Lexi who, ironically, is based off a person [Specter] who (initially) is a villain in a white suit and said person has much more virtues and good traits than Simon himself.

The Rest

The Apex

A group of kids who follow Grace and Simon's philosophies that higher numbers are a sign of dominance.

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• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: The worst that they got was from the finale of Book 3 which had, in order: Simon became a tyrant, they were forced to follow him, having to see Simon and Grace fight, Grace nearly dying when Simon attempts to wheel her and then Simon turned to ash by a Ghom. Here, they have to see Chloe die after Simon turns into Destruction (which they're very apathetic to), learn that one of their own has been killed, see Simon drown via The Phantom / Sean and then learn the horrible horrible truths about their actions that they become sobbing wrecks at the end, and then go off to separate in the smallest of chances to redeem themselves and go home.
• Adaptational Dumbass: Not only are they more gullible than in canon, but their self-preservation skills seem to have taken a nosedive, since they think it's a good idea to try attack The Bogeyman (Pyramid Head who as Knight of the Orange Lily notes absolutely hates those who violently attack denizens) who had decided to change sides. To be fair, they had been stuck in a safehouse and were slowly driven mad for a few weeks.
• Adaptational Jerkass: While antagonists in the original series, they were mostly Just Following Orders and acted more like blind followers than evil scavengers. In here, they're more outwardly malicious, with some even expressing approval of Chloe's untimely death.
• Ambiguous Innocence: They're literally just children who were corrupted by bad influences. Their only real sense of right and wrong are what Grace and Simon tells them is right and wrong. That said, the story has debates as to how much of their actions are from Grace and Simon corrupting them and how much is on them really being unforgivable brats in the first place who would've eventually devolved into this even without an outside influence.
• Ascended Extra: Kinda. The Apex only appeared in four episodes in total (The Lucky Cat Car, The Mall Car, The Musical Car and the New Apex) and had no significance in Book 3 until the finale. Here, Blossoming Trail focuses on their dynamics and how much Grace's teachings have made them despicable. In Voyage of Wisteria it focuses on how they must live with the aftermath of their actions after the Fog Car shattered their innocence.
• Break the Cutie: After they learn the truth about the Train and all of their actions, they break down at how horrible they have become and that they got separated from their families for their own fun in torturing other people. In Voyage of Wisteria, they have separated from each other and are now harassed by the denizens they had fun ruling over, miserable, alone and hating themselves.
• The Corruptible: All of them were corrupted by Grace and Simon's philosophies on being the strongest because Grace is too stubborn to admit she may be wrong about her answers. Grace sees first hand how disgusting they have become throughout the Fog Car when they don't care that Chloe has died by Simon's hand and want to steal the Pendant of Life from Atticus to resurrect Sean thus preventing her from being resurrected so she can go home, even though she's one of the few people who is trying to save them from an evil ritual, they callously tell Hazel she can get other friends aside from Tuba (who also died by Simon's hand) and are preparing to kill her when she reveals her denizen form in front of her mother who currently has a shotgun.
• Cult of Personality: The Apex is a cult in all but name, worshipping the "true" Conductor and sees One-One as the phony.
• Despair Event Horizon: Discovering the Awful Truth about their situation does not help them stay calm in the slightest.
• Did Not Think This Through: It never occurred to them that the longer they stay for their fun and slaughtering of denizens, the longer they're away from their families and that they might as well have been forgotten by them. Upon realizing that time on the train is equivalent to time in their world, they realize their situation, and that no one at home will ever believe that they are the equivalent of pubescent serial killers and begin to break down in tears. Not to mention that for all that they did, there are thousands upon thousands of denizens who would want their heads on pikes.
• The Dreaded: Denizens react with justified terror when they're near or when Chloe reveals her plan to stop them.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: After the Awful Truth comes to light, they all start crying out for their families revealing that for all that they did, they're still children who have been separated from their loved ones for a long time by a train or conductor who didn't bother to give them instruction manauls.
• Fantastic Racism: It's not overly emphasized but given how they react to Poéemon it is possible they don't particularly like clearly non-human passengers and see them as more or less Nulls.
• Foregone Conclusion: Since Blossoming Trail takes place during the events of Book 3, they're all performing a Heel–Face Turn at the end. How well it will go over is another story (literally as a sub-plot in Voyage of Wisteria is dragging the Apex into the Hazbin Car).
• Heel Realization: Near the end of the Fog Car, Grace telling them the truth of their stay on the Train has them learn the problems they caused with following Grace's philosophies and how they were separated from their families for so long to the point that they might be forgotten. Not to mention that there is a humongous train of denizens who hate them for all of the chaos they have caused over the years and that they might be stuck for another year at most trying to figure out their problems. Provided that they even surive that long.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: Their rules about how the highest number confers authority allow Amelia to control them with ease when she meets them in the Cyan Desert Car arc when she shows off her humongous number.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Were once the most feared beings on the Train, slaughtering denizens, stealing from their cars, crippling them, injuring other passengers and not giving a flying feather about anything except themselves, their survival and their "fun". Come the end of the Fog Car — which culminates in three people dying one after the other — and they're crying in fear and heavy realization as they learn the truth about the Train, Grace admits that she was in the wrong, Amelia tells them that they didn't care for their families and Henry breaks them down for being heartless juvenile terrorists. The last time Grace sees the Apex is before she must fight Walter and Henry, with none of them looking back at her (barring Lucy and even thats more bitter than sweet). By Voyage of Wisteria, the children have scattered into different cars and they can no longer talk to each other without it dissolving into a huge Blame Game and Paul London of the White Gestalt has now issued a challenge to get the denizens to drag these little brats into the Hazbin Car, making them the prey and dragging them into the hands of numerous demons without a single ounce of pity.
• Innocence Lost: If they had any innocence left after the blood they spilled, then the Fog Car saga really leaves them with basically nothing resembling a happy childhood.
• Ironic Hell: After everything they caused in the first two stories, by the time Voyage of Wisteria starts, the shoe is now on the other foot. Now they are alone and have to deal with numerous denizens chasing after them to be dragged into the Hazbin Car (situated in what looks like Hell itself)...which in even more irony, is the one car that has decided to rehabilitae them while they are face to face with a former hero in Paul London (who, by all means has killed people in his world) who hates their gus with a passion.
• I Want My Mommy!: After the Awful Truth sinks in and Amelia notes that because they're so focused on their fun, they completely forgot their loved ones, one of them starts crying for his mom and leads all the Apex to start crying out for their loved ones and to go home.
• Kids Are Cruel: Oh hell yes. Thanks again, Little Miss Gracie.
  • They have been brainwashed by Grace and Simon to believe that the lives of the denizens don't matter and that they should destroy everything they did without any shred of empathy. They don't care who they hurt and believe that it's well deserved if they hurt other children and innocent denizens since they're in the way.
  • One of the Apex kids said that Chloe — who plummeted to her death by Simon in full view of them and her head was cracked open like an egg — deserved to die for ruining their fun. Amelia was right to hit them across the head with her shotgun. They also were ready to kill Hazel had Grace not intervened.
  Dark Easter: They don't care for anything except their fun. Even throwing a dead child in their path is a cause for celebration.
• My God, What Have I Done?: They all get the epiphany of how they became monsters when Grace reveals the truth and Amelia points out that they've completely forgotten their loved ones all for those fancy tattoos and that their tattoos were really signaling how many issues they had and that it has to drop to 0 before they can go home. So now they are doomed to at most a year on the Train plus who knows how long they've been trapped there and refusing to talk to their parents about their actions with thousands of pissed off denizens sharpening their pitchforks to kill them.
• Named by the Adaptation: Only four members of the Apex had names in the show: Todd (with a red vest and yellow handkerchief) and Lucy (who had the eyepatch), Alex and Lindsay. The story names more of them.
• Never My Fault: They start blaming each other over their current situation when the Awful Truth comes to light before they separate from one another and realize they're all at fault.
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: The Apex terrorizes the various Train cars by tormenting and killing Denizens, pillage them for everything they have, and destroying everything else by setting it aflame.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Once the truth comes to light, the Apex disbands as they want nothing to do with one another or Grace. By Voyage of Wisteria, they can't talk to one another without dissolving into blaming each other.
• Shadow Archetype: To Chloe's classmates who have some standards (even though they would gleefully love to hurt Chloe until it looked like she'd commit suicide) while they don't give a flying feather that they're murdering others and stated that it was fine if Chloe was killed in front of them.
• Stupid Evil: There is a level of stupidity that results in trying to kill Hazel while there is a woman (her mother) with a shotgun next to them. And them trying to insult the girl who saved their lives while there is a vindictive Lexi and three trainers with Pokémon just proves that they're idiots.
• Super Gullible: Amelia plays them like fiddles when she gets involved. And they were all pretty gullible to Grace's words to murder denizens...(to be fair, the Train didn't start giving out instruction books until after One-One returned.)
• Throw the Dog a Bone: After the karma that piles on their backs, they get some sort of relief and hope in Voyage of Wisteria thanks to Charlie taking them in to rehabilitate them. And since Alastor is also part of the project, Sacred Hospitality is in effect. The final chapter of the story has them actually listneing to Charlie and following her orders without any signs of wanting to stab her in the back.
• Too Dumb to Live: Yes everyone, let's attack the red pyramid thing with a giant blade in his hand. And yeah let's talk smack about the little girl who died trying to save us in front of her Mama Bear and partners. We're geniuses!
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: They were brainwashed into this belief by Grace and Simon and will gleefully attack and murder "Nulls" without any guilt. Wait until they learned what the denizens were once were...
  • After Tuba dies from Simon turning into a dragon and dropping her to her death, Todd's first response to Hazel is "Hey it's okay, you'll have better friends than that Null. He gets punched in the face for it. And when Hazel turns into her turtle form, all the Apex go, "KILL THE NULL!"
  • None of them showed sympathy when Lampetia was killed and reduced to rubble. Instead, they're all more concerned at how Tiffany was going to get killed by a very irate Specter and amazed at her "battle trophy".

Sean (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

"Help! I can't swim! Grace! Simon! Mama! MAMA!!!!!"

An Apex child who provides the role of what happens if one dies on the Train and ends up as the guardian of Toluca Lake in the Fog Car.

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• And I Must Scream: His fate is to have his soul becoming trapped into a body of a denizen. While that's bad enough, he died in Silent Hill which has a track record of not being kid-friendly. Thankfully, the Train gave him a nice and loving home and a mother to take care of him.
• Body Motifs: Hands and arms. He ended up drowning in Toluca Lake by a Thunder Punch from Paul's Electivire, Paul futilely tried to grab his hand to save him, and as the Phantom he summons multiple disembodied hands to drown everyone in his path.
• Composite Character: He becomes reincarnated as the Phantom from the Silent Hill Arcade game.
• Crying Wolf: Subverted; after Electivire punched him into the lake, he starts stating that he can't swim. Paul immediately starts walking away as he assumes it's just a ploy for Sean to attack him again...but when Sean screams for his mother, that's when Paul realizes that Sean is telling the truth and goes back to save him. But by then it's too late, and Sean dies.
• Death of a Child: He drowned in the lake of Silent Hill thanks to Paul accidentally having Electivire attack him in self-defense with Thunder Punch (with implications that paralysis was also involved) and having a panic attack of being in the water (based on how he drowned years ago). All that's left of him was his harpoon-pack that Alex gives Hop.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Notes that thanks to Grace's manipulations and his attack on Paul, he's going to be reincarnating several times on the Train all because he was afraid of jumping off a high-dive.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: He cries for his mother as he drowns and tearfully notes that he'll forget all about her when he gets reincarnated.
• Fatal Flaw: Impulsiveness. As soon as he saw Electivire and confused him for a Null, he immediately attacked him without coming up with a plan or considering that maybe Electivire wasn't like the run-of-the-mill Null he was used to. He dies for it.
• Forced Transformation: Sean has no control about what kind of Denizen he transforms into, and worries that he'll end up singing off-key Christmas Carols for years on end. He ends up becoming a denizen in the Pearl Gates Car and adopted by Margaret^ExplanationFrom Knight of the Orange Lily, whose son was killed off by the Apex years ago under the name of "Shawn".
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Averted. His disappearance still weighs heavily on The Apex, especially Grace and Simon, who have made it their mission to avenge him. What happened to him is something that breaks them.
• Freudian Excuse: He hates being in water because he nearly drowned in the beach and how he got on the Train was because he was dared to jump off the highest diving board at school but was chewed out because he was too chicken to do so.
• Fury-Fueled Foolishness: He tried to attack Paul's Electivire because he thought it was a denizen. He ends up dead for his foolish mistake.
• Gender Flip: Kinda, in canon "The Phantom" is based on the female Hannah. In the fanfic, Sean is reincarnated as said monster.
• Happily Adopted: As "Shawn", he ends up in the Pearl Gates Car and adopted by Margaret.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Thought Paul's Electivire was a Null and tried to attack it; he ended losing his life for this mistake. He also trusted Grace, which was...not a good idea, something that even Grace herself acknowledges.
• Ironic Name: Sean, whose name means "God is Gracious", looked down on those who weren't human.
• I Want My Mommy!: His last words before he drowned in the Fog Car was crying out for his mother.
• Meaningful Rename: When reincarnated, he becomes "Shawn" which is quite similar to his original name. Moreover "Shawn" can also mean "Gift from God" as he is a "gift" to Margaret to have an adoptive son from the Train and a blessing for Shawn himself that his first reincarnation will be filled with love.
• Mirror Character: To Chloe. Both were pressured by their classmates to do something and both had different reactions (Chloe only accepted the battle against Ash to be left alone while Sean refused to go take the high dive because of his fears.) Chloe reacted with the "compliments and advice" with anger because she was afraid of being insulted while Sean was insulted by his classmates. And both of them die in Silent Hill, but Sean is repurposed into a monster to be used by Walter and Henry before being reincarnated, while Chloe gets revived and returns home to her family.
• Only One Name: He's only ever called "Sean" without a hint of a family name.
• Poor Communication Kills: He never stopped to ask if Paul's Electivire was a Null. It lead to him drowning.
• Present Absence: He's never seen at all but his disappearance is keenly felt from the entire Apex. Then he's revealed in a flashback of Chapter 31 when Paul sends him into the lake.
• "Ray of Hope" Ending: He becomes reincarnated as a denizen in the Pearl Gates Car and adopted by Margaret, ensuring that he'll be given a mother figure, love and comfort for his first life. In the epilogue to Wisteria, he ends up forgiving Paul for his mistake.
• Replacement Goldfish: Becomes a replacement son for Margaret in the Pearl Gates Car.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He went after Paul, assuming that his Electivire was a denizen, but got knocked into the lake by a Thunder Punch and drowned. His death serves as the reason Paul is now tortured into Despair and will make Grace and Simon more determined to enter the Fog Car so they can pay last respects and ends up being the one who kills Simon after he killed Tuba and Chloe.
• Summon Bigger Fish: He is the bigger fish that drowns Simon in the lake of the Fog Car.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Played with regarding Grace, with him remarking that he wants to forgive her, but simply can't.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: If he stopped to think that Paul's Electivire wasn't a Null like he thought it was, he'd be safe with his friends in the Mall Car. Now his water-logged body is back where the Train picked him up and his soul trapped on the Train to be reincarnated for the next few years to shave off the number on his hand. Even he admits that he should have thought more clearly.
• Uncertain Doom: Him dying has been revealed but what he's been reincarnated into isn't made clear as of late. The Fog Car reveals he's become an abomination called "The Phantom".
• Walking Spoiler: Saying what happened to the boy spoils Paul's fate and how Simon is killed off.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: A body of water "bigger than a bathtub" causes him to freeze up, due to having drowned at the beach once and his refusal to jupm off a high-dive is what caused the Train to pick him up. He ends up dying in a lake in Silent Hill, paralyzed from his fear. And even if it wasn't his fear, being paralyzed from Electivire's Thunder Punch might've prevented him from moving.

Todd and Lucy

A boy with a red vest and yellow neckerchief and a girl with a white sweater and an eyepatch.

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• Ascended Extra: They're the most focused members of the Apex in both Blossoming Trail and Voyage of Wisteria.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Todd was dropped into a metal web where a spider monster was about to eat him whole before Grace saved him.
• More Insulting than Intended: The narrator lampshades that Todd thought trying to comfort Hazel over Tuba's death was him being sympathetic. But how Todd says it was the insulting part, saying that Tuba, Hazel's mother figure, was a "stupid null".
• Only Sane Man: Between the two of them, Lucy is the one who has the brain cells.
• Speak Ill of the Dead: He tells Hazel that Tuba, who just died from Simon's claws, is a "stupid Null" and that Hazel can have cooler friends. Hazel retaliates by beating the snot out of him.
• Tempting Fate: Todd thought that a princess like Chloe couldn't topple the Apex. When Chloe died, this action is what convinces Grace that the Apex has to end now. Lucy can't help but repeat this in Voyage of Wisteria.
• Those Two Guys: They're usually seen together.
• Women Are Wiser: Lucy seems to be the one who has more common sense than Toby.

Tiffany Rose (Unmarked Spoilers)

"Ha ha! Look at my new battle trophy!"^ExplanationShe's talking about Lampetia's heart. Lampetia being the denizen who saved her.

A girl in a pink jacket and shaved hair on the sides who is found in the Bake-O-Life car, originally from the Galar region. She eventually turns out to be the missing daughter of Chairman Rose.

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• Abusive Parents: Subverted. She notes that she can't go back home because her parents won't really care for her unless it's to boost their PR, but Chairman Rose goes as far as to threaten to destabilize the Infinity Train in order to get her back.
• All for Nothing: The reason she goes to the Bake-O-Life Car is to try create a new body for Lampetia, so that she can be revived as an apology for stealing her heart and not giving it back to Specter nor actually being grateful that she didn't return to the Galar region as a corpse with a piece of shrapnel stuck to that thick skull of hers. Not only do her constant attempts to create the body fail, but Lampetia doesn't even need a new body. As a Korai, her body regenerates on its own. The only reason Lampetia never did this sooner is because she'd be surrounded by Apex kids ready to wheel her.
• The Atoner: In Wisteria, she's been trying to reconstruct the broken Lampetia as an attempt to atone for her past mistakes — especially when it was revealed that Lampetia saved her from being crushed by fallen rubble before a spike pierced through her, leaving her heart that she stole for herself instead of giving it back to Specter — as she knows that the rest of the Train is completely stubborn in what they believe The Apex are like to forgive her for anything else.
• Bait-and-Switch: In Wisteria we're made to believe that she was getting special help from her daddy to conquer the gym challenges to a certain degree. We don't learn until the Epilogue that she got stuck at Kabu — the third gym leader of Galar — who is generally considered the Wake-Up Call Boss.
• Battle Trophy: She saw Lampetia's heart as this, refusing to accept that Lampetia just sacrificed her life for the little brat and that Specter was horrified at seeing his partner crumbled into rubble again.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Two of her Pokemon are Joltik and Shelmet.
• Bitch Alert: How do the authors want to tell the readers that she's a bitch? The first words out of her mouth in regards to Chloe dying is that she deserved it.
• Chekhov's Gun: She notes that she's from the Galar region. So is Chairman Rose...
• Connected All Along: She turns out to be the daughter of Chairman Rose.
• Commonality Connection: She forms a bit of a connection with Goh over both being The Atoner who are desperately trying to make amends in a world filled with people who not only won't forgive them, but actively try to punish them for their long done deeds. Bonus points, they both connected because of what they said and did towards the same girl — Chloe Cerise.
• Daddy's Girl: She was very close to her dad, but she completely forgot about him during her time on the Train and was ashamed of contacting him after learning the truth about the Train's purpose, along with how insensitive she was about saying Chloe deserved to die.
• Deconstruction:
  • Of the Once Done, Never Forgotten trope; her remark about Chloe deserving to die was bad enough when she was Apex, but now that she realizes how horrible it sounds, she feels like no one will ever forgive her and bring it up over and over again even though she's no longer that girl from the past.
  • Of the Ungrateful Bastard trope also: she was heavily insensitive to those who risked their lives to save her and once she realizes that she was a total bitch, she feels like it's a sign that she's nothing but an insensitive asshole who doesn't deserve anyone's empathy and kindness if people assume she's not grateful for the help they give her.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Her starter Pokemon is a Cufant to match with her father's signature mon being a Copperajah.
• Foil: To Chloe. Both are girls who have fathers that have lucrative positions in the Pokémon world and were pressed by their peers because of said connections. Chloe wanted nothing to do with Pokémon (initially) whereas Tiffany was a decent trainer at that point. Both got on the Train but Chloe ended up at the time when One-One made the tapes and was able to know what she had to do, while Tiffany got sucked in by the Apex. Chloe learns to have empathy and ends up leaving the Train whereas Tiffany devolved into a monster who refused to be grateful for people who tried to help her — including Chloe, who she stated deserved to die — and is stuck on it until the epilogue of Wisteria. Chloe is a red-haired girl who initially wears white, Tiffany is a black-haired girl who wears pink. Chloe is willing to sacrifice herself to save Lexi, Tiffany was saved by Lampetia but showed no thanks for it, even going as far as to steal her heart as a trophy while Specter is pleading for her to give it back.
• Hate Sink: How she's portrayed in both Blossoming Trail and its prequel: a spiteful, haughty, apathetic bitch who shows no pity to those who died trying to save her ass.
• Hope Crusher: She somehow ends up like this to Specter. After Lampetia dies saving her, Tiffany takes only a few seconds to stare at Lampetia's heart...before she smirks and snatches it to herself and gloats to the Knight of Hanoi to say "Look at my battle trophy, sucker!"
• Jerkass: Does not even begin to describe a spiteful haughty bitch who does not feel grateful that someone risked their lives to save her. She grows out of it once she sees the consequences of her actions (and Amelia and Grace literally slap some sense into her).
• Jerkass Realization: That said, after she gets some time to reflect on her actions, she is utterly ashamed that she could care less of someone dying and how everyone else will react to her apathy.
• Kick the Dog: In Knight of the Orange Lily, she taunts Specter at how Lampetia's heart is now her battle trophy... which is coming seconds after Lampetia just sacrificed her life to save the girl.
• Lack of Empathy: You can tell that her time in the Apex really changed her.
  • It takes a certain type of person to declare that Chloe Cerise, who has been doing all she can to stop a ritual from slaughtering the Apex and has just been killed by Simon (who is now a giant dragon) with her head cracked open, that she deserved to die all because she wanted to stop the "fun" the Apex had in killing denizens and hurting others.
  • Knight of the Orange Lily reveals that she didn't care about Specter wanting Lampetia's heart back or said kore saved her life; to her, Lampetia's heart was a great battle trophy on how she "conquered" a Null.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Her name is based on the Ancient Greek word for "epiphany" both to reveal how she realizes what a horrible brat she's been and her father, Chairman Rose, realizing that his attempts to save his daughter will hurt everyone else.
  • There is such a thing called a Tiffany Rose.
• Minor Major Character: She ends up becoming this for the final act of Voyage of Wisteria because she's the reason Chairman Rose unleashed Eternatus and wants to stop the Infinity Train; she's his daughter!
• Must Make Amends:
  • In Voyage of Wisteria, she's found in the Bake-O-Life Car hoping to make a new body for Lampetia — who saved her back in Orange Lily and Tiffany returned the favor by spitefully snatching her heart instead of giving it back to Specter — as a way to atone, and also to prove that she's no longer the same ungrateful brat who said "Chloe deserved to die for ruining our fun" or the little bitch who boasted to Lampetia's partner that her heart was now her battle trophy. Deconstructed in that her method is actually hurting someone to help another and that she honestly has no idea what she's doing except the first idea that pops into her head. Not to mention that Lampetia never needed a new body to begin with.
  • When she learns just what her father has done to get her back to the Galar region, she just asks for her dad to wait until she actively works on bettering herself and to pass on a message to Chloe about how she's sorry for saying "This princess deserves to die for ruining our fun".
• Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups: She didn't have her team (Cufant, Miccino, Joltik, and Shelmet) when she was taken by the train, and any train based tools she obtained in the Apex didn't come home with her at the end.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: In Voyage of Wisteria, she realizes what a cruel and insensitive jerk she was about her remark on Chloe deserving to be killed after said girl died in the hands of a giant dragon that was once the co-leader of the idiot cult she was part of and fears that the Train and everyone in it, who sees Chloe as a literal goddess and savior against the very cult that Tiffany is associated with, and her family, will really despise her if they found out what she said. She admits to her father that there's no way she could be forgiven for her remarks, though in theory, nobody ever actually brings this up except for the heroes. Even Goh says nothing about it.
• Pink Is Feminine: Described as wearing a light pink jacket.
• Psycho Pink: Downplayed that she's not insane, but she's aligned with the Apex and she's known to say cruel things to those who died in front of her, whether they're denizen or passenger, who were trying to save her sorry ass from being killed.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Her statement that Chloe deserved to die, while horrible, aren't necessarily incorrect; at the point Chloe had actually died, she slandered everybody back at home, made her situation seem way worse than it was without ever bothering to clarify, performed several malicious acts all in order to make herself feel better, corrupted her brother and gave him the motivation enough to absolutely demolish her hometown and refused to actually change her ways unless otherwise coerced into it despite it being more beneficial in the long run, with her being far too easily convinced to backpedal on said development all in order to get her fix on telling everyone how they sucked. Coupled with her death actually making Chloe realize she actually could die and wasn't the invincible hero of the Train everybody else touted her as, and convincing Grace that things needed to stop right then and there, and Chloe dying really was deserved, if only as a necessary evil to make things better.
• Rule of Symbolism: She's described as having the sides of her hair shaved and the Apex symbol prominently displayed. This shows how despite no longer being part of the group, her actions still remain and it will take a long time for people to let it go and a long time for her to make amends with everyone, just like it will take a long time to grow her hair back.
• Shout-Out: She's named after the contestant from Hell's Kitchen Season 3 who infamously stated that Julia (the fan-favorite underdog of said season who was bullied because of her short-order cook background) "works in a fucking Waffle House", reflecting how this Tiffany made the horrible remark on Chloe deserving death by dragon.
• Speak Ill of the Dead:
  • She boasts at how she gets a cool battle trophy in the battle of the Tape Car in Knight of the Orange Lily; said trophy is the heart of the denizen who saved her.
  • The first thing that comes out of her mouth when Chloe dies is that she deserves it. She should be lucky that Amelia didn't kill her with her shotgun.
• Too Dumb to Live: What type of idiot gleefully says that a girl — who was trying to save her and her friend's sorry asses from being slaughtered, as a reminder — deserves to die within earshot of the Mama Bear who is currently wielding a shotgun?!
• Ungrateful Bitch: Twice, which she later admits to her father in Voyage of Wisteria.
  "Every time someone has tried to help me, I hurt them!"
  • When Lampetia saved her from a detached porter robot in Knight of the Orange Lily — caused by Specter's Link Arrows being summoned in the air instead of the ground because Simon tackled him, thus his aim was off — some shrapnel drops on her head and turns her into her heart. Instead of being thankful that a denizen saved her life or giving the heart back to Specter, she snatches it to herself and gloats at it being a battle trophy.
  • Instead of being sad and horrified at Chloe dying in an attempt to save her, she says that Chloe deserved to die because she's ruining their fun.
• Walking Spoiler: You can initially describe her as "ungrateful pink jacket wearing bitch who speaks ill of the dead" but it's hard to reveal the truth about her in Voyage of Wisteria Act 3 without also revealing she's both Chairman Rose's daughter and the reason he's doing Project Taillow in the first place.

Kenny

A boy with a yellow shirt and caulking gun found in the Omelas Car in an attempt to "atone" for his crimes.

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• The Atoner: He's "atoning" in the Omelas Car by plugging his finger in a hole that would suck the entire car up. Unfortunately this also means that he won't let anyone else "help" share the burden because it means he's being forgiven too easily for his atrocities, believing that atoning means to suffer.
• Chess Motif: His grandfather had a love of chess and collected anything chess related. Kenny has fond memories of making chess pieces with him and admits that he's nothing more than a pawn for Grace's desires of love and attention (and Grace herself has a queen motif).
• Combat Pragmatist: He'd spray stuff like hot sauce into someone's eyes.
• Easily Forgiven: Subverted as he'd rather not be forgiven so easily for everything he did during his time in the Apex. It takes Waspinator of all beings who helps him to let go and move on.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He's horrified to learn that he's been separated from his grandfather for a long time once Amelia bluntly tells the Apex that they prioritized fun over family.
• Eye Scream: His favorite tactic was spraying painful substances into target's eyes via the caulking gun so it's easier to injure/kill the since they'll be too busy wiping the substance off. It's revealed that he was the one who sprayed hot sauce in Tokio's eyes back in Knight of the Orange Lily.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Although it's framed as a Never My Fault situation, he points out to Amelia that the Apex wouldn't have gotten into the Fog Car if she never said anything about it.
• More Insulting than Intended: He got on the Train because his attempt at a chess joke got his grandfather mad and they had a fight. When he called his grandfather, said grandfather was the one who apologized first.

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