An anthology of stories where somebody uses logic and reasoning, instead of devolving into angry blame spitting as a tribute to the one-year anniversary of Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail. Read the story here
. Written by Green_Phantom_Queen.
Infinity Train: Branching Paths contains examples of:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Inverted. Whether by averting Poor Communication Kills or actually using their heads, moments where characters would get a heap of angst never come to fruition.
- Adaptational Intelligence: Quite a few examples of people being overall smarter than in canon...
- Adaptational Nice Guy: As well as kinder. The most noticeable is UnChloe in one of Parker's stories, who manages to talk him down from his vengeance, the exact opposite of her canon self.
- Adaptational Sympathy: While it varies depending on the story, the characters are less tolerant of Chloe and Parker's self-indulgent speeches and the general Blame Game everybody plays.
- Adapted Out: Trip is noticeably absent in Ash V, with Ash noting his lack of a W.C.S seating but otherwise never meeting him. This turns out to create a major divergence as no one involved knew of the Infinity Train.
- Armor-Piercing Question:Overlapping with Armor-Piercing Response. Let's just say they're a frequent occurrence. Usually to prevent the escalations in the main story that led to many bad ends.
- One notable example in Chloe II is when Ash is able to get Chloe to accept his help by asking her how she can expect people to give her a chance if she keeps assuming the worst of everyone.
- Also in Ash V, Ash asks Parker point-blank whether or not he'd have actually helped him connect with Chloe if he had approached him first instead of Goh.
- Alternate Universe Fic: Each of the segments of the chapters takes place in a different take on the story of Blossoming Trail, those how much they differ depends on the specific story.
- Be as Unhelpful as Possible: Implied in Ash V. When Parker tries to snap at Ash and call him out over how he didn't ask him anything about Chloe, Ash responds by asking if Parker would've actually helped had he done so. Parker's ensuing silence gives the implication he would've invoked this trope, even if he wants to say otherwise.
- Blame Game: It's still present, even if it isn't as prominent as in Blossoming Trail. However, in Ash V, it’s just as bad, if not worse. It actually gets to the point where Ash is happier outside of the lab, and then ultimately quits working there after Parker assaults Maple and has a screaming fit at him about Chloe's disappearance.
- Blatant Lies: In Ash V, Parker insists he would've told Ash what he needed to know about Chloe if he had come to him first, but his hesitation before answering all but confirms in Ash's mind that he would not have.
- Blunt "Yes": One of Chloe's stories, Chloe II, has her state "Actually, yes" to Goh's question of if it'd kill her to actually accept an invitation to explore with Goh and Ash.
- In the 'Pallet Party' bonus story, Chloe receives several of these when she asks whether Ash would've actually helped her if she asked.
- Brutal Honesty: In Ash V, Ash doesn't sugarcoat to Parker the fact that out of all the people who hurt his sister, he hurt her the most due to knowing about the bullying she faced and keeping quiet about it.
- Canon Foreigner: Maple, a student in Chloe's school but outside her homeroom and most of her classes, has a supporting role in Ash V and nowhere in Blossoming Trail, Wisteria, or Orange Lily.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Ash all but calls Parker this in Ash V, saying that he basically lives in his own reality where Professor Cerise sees him and Goh as better children and what not.
- Comic-Book Time: While most of the stories, like Blossoming Trail itself, avert this, Ash V very clearly implies that time is moving weirdly. It's an early hint of exactly what Ash V really is.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Goh demands to know if it would kill Chloe to actually say 'yes' to one of Ash's invitations for once, Chloe snarks 'Actually, yes.' Goh gapes at her before wondering if this makes her a zombie now.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: The stories are more or less examples of how to apply this trope.
- Death by Adaptation: Ash V, while using Never Say "Die", is pretty clearly a timeline where Chloe died on the Infinity Train, which Cherry Bloodlines says clearly. While unmentioned in story, Cherry would also confirm Hop's death in the same scenario.
- Did Not Think This Through: Ash IV has Chloe point out that her classmates are bullying the daughter of a Pokémon Professor, and he was not happy to learn that his daughter was being attacked. Chloe then goes on to add that Professor Oak is also in the know of their bullying and both Professors are ready to ban them from getting a starter. The looks on their faces cement it while Chloe states that it can be alleviated if they start acting nice.
- Expecting Someone Taller: In Pallet Town Party Chloe is surprised that Delia Ketchum looks like a regular mom and not 'someone who could feisalbe give birth to the Alola Champion'.
- Fallen Hero: In Ash V, Chloe became Lady Destiny as was intended by Walter and Henry.
- Greater-Scope Villain: While he is not mentioned in story by name, Cyrus is the one causing the time anomalies in Ash V that eventually destroy reality, just like in Pokémon Reset Bloodlines and Cherry Bloodlines.
- Hero of Another Story: In Pallet Town Party Ash's unnamed Grandmother (Delia's mom) apparently had her own list of cray adventures to match her grandson and daughter (she apparently championed women's wrestling among other feets).
- Heroic Sacrifice: A somewhat silly take on the idea, but in Pallet Town Party Goh 'sacrifices' himself to a crazed Kiawe to spare Chloe.
- Hidden Depths: What is Ash's favorite series outside of battling in Pallet Town Party? Of all things, Star Trek
- Homosexual Reproduction: Not in universe, but Chloe in Pallet Town Party pretty quickly defaults to this mental image when she finds out her mom and Delia had dated at one point.
- Innocently Insensitive: Goh and Ash IV reveals that the reason why Goh even recorded the Yamper vs Gengar battle that would cause the entire Blossoming Trail story to happen was because he only wanted to commemorate Chloe's first step towards becoming a Trainer. He (and Ash) realize from her reactions that it really crushed her self-esteem since she lost to the Alola League Champion and her classmates will just laugh at her. Goh quickly deletes the video in both instances, sparing her the humiliation.
- In Spite of a Nail: Despite changes, a few things remain consistent. The most prominent example is Ash V, where Ash leaving the toxic atmosphere around the Cerises doesn't change much going on there in the grand scheme of things. Ash can only diverge events for himself and not others.
- Irony: As Ash dryly notes, for all of Chloe's love for horror stories that she treats as something that make her more mature than Ash, a great deal of his own adventures and encounters with Pokemon and supernatural would leave her terrified. Considering just naming a few of them leaves Chloe utterly thunderstruck, he's not wrong in any way.
- Morton's Fork: Ash in Ash V hits this with Parker with Maple: helping Maple as he does means that Parker can accuse him of having a Double Standard because Maple likes 'the right things', but if he didn't help Maple he 'would have not learned anything from Chloe' as Maple puts it. Either way makes Parker furious.
- Only Friend: Discussed and Defied in Chloe 1; when Sara declares that 'No-Show Goh' isn't there and she has no friends, Akemi stands up and firmly declares that she's her friend, ordering Sara to leave.
- Parental Abandonment: In Pallet Town Party between Ash and a group of his friends (May, Dawn, Iris, Misty, Serena, plus Brock who is not present) only May isn't missing or has missed a parent. Dawn's dad is dead, Iris is an orphan, Serena and Ash's dad skipped out, Brock's parents canonically left for a long period of time, and Misty's parents skipped out and are recently confirmed dead.
- Parental Sexuality Squick: Chloe is a lot more bothered by her mom having dated Ash's mom/had a torrid teenage affair between with each other (and the two remembering the time quite fondly) than her father is.
- Parental Substitute: Noted in Ash V, but as Ash puts it it isn't Professor Cerise. It's Professor Kukui.
- Poor Communication Kills:
- Averting this trope is practically one of the main reasons for this story's existence. However in one story a lack of communication of any kind ultimately does kill: Ash V.
- There is never any communication between Chloe and everyone else in the story while she is on the Train, so Chloe never gets called out for her bitchy attitude by Talia, nor does she threaten Parker that she will run away again unless everyone apologizes. Without those things causing her to become a much kinder girl, she goes into the Fog Car still a bitter spoiled brat..and ends up becoming Lady Destiny, and then killed as a result of it.
- Rejected Apology:
- In Parker II Parker doesn't buy Yeardley's apology since, in his mind, if he was sorry he wouldn't have done all that bullying to his sister in the first place. UnChloe points out the flaw in that logic by asking Parker if his revenge on Yeardley ended up killing him by accident, would he be sorry then?
- Downplayed in Ash V: while Ash never outright rejects Parker's apologies, his incredibly volatile temper, as well as the toxic environment around him, convince him to leave once and for all.
- Precision F-Strike: Serena, after telling Misty not to use bad language in Ash V, calls Chloe/Lady Destiny a bitch after hearing her rant for a few minutes.
- Reset Button Ending: Ash V ends with Ash waking up in his bed before the whole fiasco with Chloe starts, all the way at the start of his adventures, due to Cyrus destroying the old reality which had Chloe become Lady Destiny and die and Parker and Goh unleashing the Unown after her body is found.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- In a positive twist of this, Ash does this gradually during Ash V: At first by staying out of the lab itself to avoid the toxicity and the blame game (which also has Parker and Goh blaming him for what happened). After Parker accuses him of being a black hole, gets on his case for helping another girl, and then attempts to assault said girl (Maple), he flat out quits working at the lab and goes back to traveling the world. Then again, things quickly go to hell in Vermillion when Lady Destiny shows up...
- Another example is in the Pallet Party, where the Cerise family ultimately decide to move to Laverre City on realizing that Vermillion has nothing for them anymore.
- Stealth Prequel: The Ash chapter, specifically Ash V, turns out to be this to Infinity Train: Cherry Bloodlines, as the end of that chapter, showcases the line of events that created that universe.
- That Man Is Dead: Twice in Ash V.
- Chloe's last words during the phone call with Ash and his friends is to declare her old identity dead and rename herself "Lady Destiny" before the line goes dead.
- After Chloe's death and the fallout regarding that, Ash considers his friend Goh (the one who went on adventures with him) dead. The angry, spiteful version that was running around in the equivalent of Blossoming Trail is someone else using Goh's body.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: The Goh chapter is considered this to the authors who really felt like Goh did not deserve the shit he got (including the main author herself).
- Tough Love: At times the divergence comes from a more harsh approach to the problem versus kind, but it works regardless.
- The Unapologetic: Sara, again, is this, storming out while giving the middle finger. Then again, that's a much nicer ending than what UnChloe gave her.
- Uncertain Doom:
- In Ash V, the fates of Atticus, Lexi, Amelia, Hazel, Tuba, Grace, the Apex, and the other ritual components are not revealed after Chloe becomes Lady Destiny and killed, though considering what the Fog Car is based off of, it doesn’t look too good for them.
- Cherry Bloodlines, which Ash V is a Stealth Prequel to, reveals that Hop is dead as well, and that both he and Chloe were killed by Grace after their corruption. And in Court of Cyclamen, it’s revealed that the surviving Quattro members went on a killing spree, killing all of the members except Hazel (who was taken away by Lexi) and Grace herself, though Cross had quickly labeled the Cyclamen scene discontinuity and it is unknown if any version of that is considered canon.
- Vague Age: Used as a Running Gag throughout Ash V. After his mother reminds him not to stay out too late, he thinks that he's not 10 anymore, but ##. The idea that he keeps being mistaken for a 10-year old is repeatedly referenced, with Dawn herself getting a chance to point out that they met when she was 10, and he's older than her.
- Wham Line: In Ash V:There is no more Chloe Cerise, I am Lady Destiny of... (phone suddenly disconnects).
- What If?: Generally takes the form of "what if "X" acted rationally instead of letting their anger and spite get the better of them?" Each story shows how things could have been vastly different with one single word or action. The nails mostly involve various characters (usually Goh and Ash) calling out Chloe on her Jerkass behavior and telling her the truth about her misconceptions.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Many segments are devoted to Chloe and Parker being chewed out by various characters for their actions - the former for being a self-pitying, entitled Jerkass who blames people for her problems, and the latter who worships his older sister so much that he ends up hurting others with his delusions of said sister being a tortured victim. Most of the calling-outs come from Goh and Ash, who in Blossoming Trail were the most deeply affected by Chloe and Parker's behavior.
- Would Hit a Girl:
- Pikachu in Chloe II has no issue electrocuting Chloe to make her stop ranting about Ash and Goh supposedly being completely at fault for all the problems she went through. It's rather telling when only Yamper reacts angrily to it.
- Though he's only five, Parker snaps and tries assaulting Maple in a rage over Chloe's disappearance. Officer Jenny intervenes and detains him before he could draw blood.
