A story detailing the origin of Chloe of the Vermillion in the Infinity Train: Boiling Point 'verse. It can be read here
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Tropes:
- Adaptation Expansion:
- Azada is described in more detail than in Blossoming Trail.
- We see more of Chloe getting into her own adventures than what was seen in the anime (between Episodes 32 and 37 as the author says she entered the Train before Episode 38)
- Armor-Piercing Question:
- When Chloe asks question after question about why she can't do research like Ash and Goh, her father can't find a decent answer, mostly because of the fact the question comes out of nowhere.
- She tries again when she tries to tell Specter that killing the Spearows wasn't what she wanted, but his Blue-and-Orange Morality causes it to go right over his head.
- A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: The Spearow incident in a nutshell; instead of waiting for Goh and Ash to come back, or try to bring a Trainer with combat experience with her, Chloe straight up goes off on her own and tries to capture a Pokémon, and in the process, gets attacked by Spearows.
- As You Know: Titus explains not only how the Train works, being connected to a Passenger's needs and only sending a Denizen back home, but also what a Static Passenger is once he sees Chloe's one of them.
- The Bet: Lexi makes one with Chloe regarding if she can make a story so interesting that she'll make his human form for him. Chloe eventually wins the bet, naturally.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: As Sylvio and Specter explain, if a youkai likes someone, they love them and treasure them, doing all they can to make them happy. So if that action also includes murdering a bunch of Spearows so what? It's all for the sake of "love".
- Both Sides Have a Point:
- While Chloe is mad for how Goh, Ash and her father were either ignorant or insensitive to her desires to get into Pokémon, the boys and Professor Cerise point out that she really wasn't ready to go out on her own and that it was reckless of her to fight off the Spearows without a Pokémon or a Trainer.
- During Chapter 6, Chloe and the professor eventually come to an understanding regarding this: while the professor should've made more of an effort to get his daughter into research duty, Chloe admits she should've been more proactive in getting this idea through to him, rather than impulsively try to catch a Pidgey just to prove a point.
- Catch-22 Dilemma: Chloe wants to become a Pokémon Trainer, but she needs a Pokémon for that, but she can't get it if her father won't allow her to be a Trainer or be like Ash and Goh when she needs a Pokémon. This dilemma kickstarts The Spearow Incident.
- Speaking of which, the Spearow Incident wouldn't have happened — or at least, it wouldn't have been as severe — if Chloe had a Pokémon, but she doesn't have one because a certain father didn't get her one, which she could've gotten if she went on a journey with Ash and Goh, but her father refuses to let her go for unspecified reasons...
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: Downplayed with Yeardley. The reason he threw paper balls at Chloe was because this is how people got his attention in both school and back at home, so he simply figured that's the way things worked.
- A Day in the Limelight: This story focuses on this story's version of Chloe Cerise/Koharu Sakuragi and the details of The "Spearow Incident".
- Deconstruction Fic:
- Chloe questions her role in the Institute if she's not going on research assignments or actually doing anything involving Pokémon with the only "excuse" her father gives her is that she's "not ready"...when it has been shown in the anime that he never gives her anything to do for 31 episodes.
- Free-Range Children is also deconstructed: just because Chloe runs off on her own doesn't mean she can handle Pokémon on her own, and since she runs off without catching anybody's attention, she's totally messed up when she's found.
- The Spearow incident shows what happens when Love Makes You Dumb, and you depend on the Power of Trust: After being treated somewhat nicely by Specter, Chloe gains a crush on him, and decides to put her trust on him. So, when he gives her a Trainer starter kit and convinces her to go catch a Pokémon, Chloe blindly trusts him... while either unaware or ignorant about the fact she doesn't have a Pokémon or other way to defend herself. As such, the Spearow incident happens, and when Chloe tries to call Specter for help, he fails to show up.note
- Crazy-Prepared is deconstructed by quite simply making it clear being ''Crazy'' prepared isn't the same as ''Completely'' prepared: the kit Specter gifts Chloe is nice and all, but it means jack against Pokémon who are highly violent and territorial.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: A young girl wanders on her own, meets up with someone shady who doesn't like it when the girl isn't a pushover, decides to call his buddies and then assault her, leaving her heavily traumatized and them getting away with it. Two words: gang rape.
- Double Standard:
- Chapter 4 has Chloe question why she never gets to go to serious research expeditions yet Ash and Goh get to, addressing what qualifications she needs to give to her father in order to do so. She also questions how Goh gets it so easy to capture a Pokémon while Chloe can't. The fact her dad can't give her a precise answer doesn't help.
- Specter completely failed to provide Chloe with a Pokémon, something which she could've used to repel the Spearows, and fails to protect her when she tries to summon him, and yet her vitriol is directed at Ash, Goh, and her father instead, who were worried sick about her. It's later revealed that Chloe got angry at him for not giving her enough protection, but her vitriol against Ash, Goh, and the professor is still more notable.
- As revealed by Yeardley, people constantly threw paper balls at him to get his attention, both at home and in school, and nobody did anything about it or tell him that it was wrong. By contrast, when Yeardley tries the same with Chloe, not only does he get the tar beaten out of him, but he's finally told that it's wrong long after the damage is done. Although to be fair, none of the previous attempts of paper ball throwing somehow led to someone disappearing...
- Exact Words: Chloe is hoping to return home to make amends with a friend. The story never said her friend was Goh.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!:
- When Chloe asked how much Ash knew about her, he states that all he knows is what Goh told him, — "Chloe isn't interested in Pokémon anymore" — before realizing how horrible that sounds to someone who really wanted to join them on expeditions. Prior to that, Goh asks why Chloe went off to chase after a Pokémon and not wait for him to help...when he realizes that she did, but he ignored her for the Alola Trip.
- A shared one between Chloe and Specter: while the latter fulfills the first half by explaining the youkai's Blue-and-Orange Morality, Chloe fulfills the second half by realizing how dangerous Specter and the youkai truly are.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Lexi is quite vocal in his desire to topple the Apex. However, since Boscha's the one who ultimately destroys the Apex, even if by accident, he can't hope to do any noteworthy damage to them for now.
- Chloe is a Static Passenger meaning that even if she gains a more positive outlook, her number still won't drop.
- Feathered Fiend: An entire pack of Spearows attack Chloe in what is now know as "the Spearow incident".
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Chloe's number glitches moments before Titus reveals she's a Static Passenger.
- Foregone Conclusion: Given that this is a prequel, the Red Lotus Trio will be fine and dandy by the time the main story takes place, and the Apex won't be taken out by them.
- Chloe will win The Bet with Lexi, since it's stated that she picked his form in Boiling Point.
- Any bad blood Chloe has with Specter will be gone since she mentions how she wants to go back to her "perfect date with Specter" in Boiling Point.
- Chloe will remain Innocently Insensitive and have No Listening Skills and trust issues through the story, since it takes Boa's blunt assessment in Boiling Point to get her to realize it.
- Foreshadowing: Chloe is working on fulfilling a promise with someone, so it's assumed that the friend is Goh. Then it's revealed that Goh was never there during the Spearow Incident...
- For Want Of A Nail:
- Discussed. Atticus points out that by Randall helping Tulip back in "The Beach Car", he would've eventually help One-One get back to becoming the true Conductor of the Train.
- Chloe didn't take her backpack on her when she got on the Train, which also included her phone, so now she has no one to contact to tell about her whereabouts.
- Yeardley asks himself if he had just got up from his seat to talk to Chloe instead of hitting her with paper balls, then maybe Chloe would still be around. He's not entirely to blame, though, since if anybody had bothered to explain him that throwing paper balls at people wasn't a good way to get their attention, none of this would've happened.
- On the same vein, had Mrs. Asphodel also told Yeardley to go to the Principal's office, while Chloe was still around, then there would've been little to no chance for the Train to pick up Chloe because Yeardley could've kept an eye on her.
- Chapter 4 shows that if the boys in Chloe's life either 1) listened to Chloe's requests or 2) actually decided to pay more attention to her, the Spearow Incident wouldn't have been this serious, Chloe would've been more trained or at least she wouldn't be so bitter with them. Moreover, had Ash not mention the Alolan Exeggutors that prompted the Alola Trip, or Goh took the time to listen to Chloe, things wouldn've have blown up like it did.
- On the flip side, had Chloe either gotten a Pokémon with her, or looked for a Trainer with experience in combat, the Spearow incident would've been less damaging.
- Chapter 4 and 5 points out all the times the Professor could've gotten his daughter into research and especially pointed out that he could've let Chloe go to the Alola region also. If he put more effort into getting her to try more or gave her a starting point, they'd have a better relationship. But on the flip side, had Chloe at least vocalize her desire to go any day before the exact same day Goh and Ash were gonna leave, she raised her voice so she'd be heard or Ash and Goh just waited a little bit longer to let her speak her mind, she wouldn't have been left behind. Chapter 5 points out that the Professor never brought up the Alola Trip to her and both Ash and Goh assumed the Professor told Chloe about it.
- If Ash and Goh didn't barge in during the end of the Professor and Chloe's phone call, then Chloe would've been able to leave earlier since she'd have no static.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: When trying to save a Pidgey, Chloe has to decide whether to let it go or capture it. She tells the Pidgey to get to safety while she gets the Spearows on her tail. It's implied that the Pidgey messaged Ash's Pidgeot to protect her as thanks.
- Gaslighting: Intentionally or not, this is what Specter does to Chloe after her phone call with the Professor goes sideways, saying she's better on the Train and that the people back at Vermillion City never loved her.
- Get Out!: Chloe screams this when she learns from Ash that all he knows about her is from Goh saying "She's not interested in Pokémon anymore".
- Great Big Library of Everything: Chloe visits one of these in Azada, which is where she meets Titus and Lexi like in Blossoming Trail.
- Hope Spot: Chloe talks to her father in Chapter 6 and they get an understanding about what they can do so Chloe can do research. But just as things are about to be finalized, Ash and Goh enter the Institute and Professor Sakuragi hangs up just as Chloe begs him not to. Him hanging up is enough for Chloe to convince herself to not trust him to be there when she needs it and she decides to focus on slaying the Apex and adventuring onto the Train.
- Irony: Specter was one of the few people who treated Chloe nicely without a hint of insensitivity, and yet he's the one who ultimately causes the Spearow incident to happen, since he not only gave Chloe a Trainer kit without a Pokémon to protect her, but then convinced her to keep quiet about his existence, making Chloe come across as an idiot who tried to fight an entire pack of Spearows by herself.
- Ignored Epiphany: Just as Chloe and Professor Sakuragi are about to come to an agreement, Ash and Goh arrive just in time to disrupt everything, leading Chloe to fall into a self-loathing-filled Moment of Weakness that Specter then uses to gaslight her.
- Innocently Insensitive: Professor Cerise, Goh and Ash didn't mean to ignore Chloe and her requests, but the fact that they ignored her or couldn't give a proper answer to her questions means to Chloe that they don't give a give a damn about her at all.
- Yeardley, in turn, legitimately didn't know any better about the paper balls: people always did the same thing to him, so he figured there was no problem if he did it as well. He learns his lesson when Goh points out he could just ask Raboot to throw something at his face and how that would feel.
- In Spite of a Nail: Despite the changes in canon, Chloe still arrives in Corginia, joins up with Atticus, gains a donut holer as a weapon, and meets up with Lexi and Titus in the library of Azada.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler:
- The Spearow incident was a plot twist only mentioned in the end of Act 1 of Boiling Point, and it was a shocking revelation there. In here, not only is the incident shown in full, but the ramifications are also explored.
- One of the passengers who visited Azada is called Francis York (Zach?) Morgan and Lexi's entry on them says he sees them differently. Fans would know this because York is actually the Imaginary Friend and Zach is the real personality; Zach sees himself as York talking to him whereas everyone was always seeing Zach the entire time.
- Moment of Weakness: Right after her Ignored Epiphany, Chloe goes into self-loathing about how she's never paid attention to by the people who care about her. Specter doesn't do her any good when he then promptly gaslights her into thinking this was always the case, and that she's better on the Train.
- Mythology Gag:
- Chloe getting her donut holer from Randall while visiting the Beach Car; in Blossoming Trail, it was a bonus from when Atticus sent some corgis to trade for items for the trip and she dreamed of actually visiting said car.
- Chloe fought Ash's Gengar with Yamper and it failed. In canon, she was pressured to fight Ash and lost, which contributed to one of the triggers that send her on the Train.
- Not Helping Your Case: Chloe wanted to prove to her father that she was ready to go on expeditions with Ash and Goh. She instead proves him right when she not only wanders off away from her class picnic to try catch a Pokémon, with neither a Pokémon of her own or experienced Trainer for help, but fight a pack of angry Spearows all by herself to protect a Pidgey.
- Origins Episode: Serves as this for Chloe, detailing not only how she met Lexi, but also how she and the Red Lotus Trio became
Household Names. - Ominous Visual Glitch: Chloe's number has this, being a Static Passenger and all.
- Paper People: Titus and Lexi, as well as the Flying Books surrounding the Azada library.
- Poor Communication Kills: The events that lead to the Spearow Incident is on everyone: Goh for not listening to Chloe's request to join on an expedition or not telling her about the Alola trip until the last minute, Ash never attempting to know her better or telling Goh to listen, Professor Sakuragi being startled and unable to come up with a "proper" excuse as to why Chloe isn't doing research (or even letting Chloe even go do research) and not even bringing up said Alola Trip/not buying a ticket for his daughter to enjoy, and Chloe going ahead to capture a Pidgey and being defenseless against the Spearows and being too impatient for Goh and Ash to return from Alola. All in all, if the four just took the time to sit down and talk, Chloe would've never entered the Train in the first place.
- If Yeardley told Chloe about the Safari Zone trip without hitting her with paper balls first — or realized you don't throw paper balls on someone to get their attention — she would've been more inclined to listen to him.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: Chloe still encounters Atticus first, but since their meeting would be the same as in Blossoming Trail, the story quickly skims through it.
- Prequel: The story takes place before the main story, when Chloe was still new to the Infinity Train.
- The Promise: Chloe is hoping to get back to meet up with a friend.
- Shout-Out: The donut holer "as long as a softball" is called the Onett Special.
- Something about a Rose: Specter has a bouquet of white roses for Chloe, which is said to be her favorite.
- Titled After the Song: The author reveals that the title is a mash of two songs: "On Melancholy Hill" and Ingrid Michaelson's "Afterlife".
- Trauma Button: Trauma doesn't go away that easily and it's not easy for someone to help themselves with therapy. According to Exotos, Chloe got on the Train three weeks after the Spearow Incident so she's still feeling raw and angry from the experience.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- Discussed; Yeardley blames himself for annoying Chloe with paper balls behind her head in regards to the Safari Zone trip — when he sits directly behind her — that caused her to run away and disappear. In the same vein, Mrs. Asphodel only telling Chloe to go the Principal instead of both her and Yeardley aggravated it as Chloe assumes that Yeardley was "proudly boasting on making Chloe look like a fool". Yeardley even points out that Mrs. Asphodel is in loads of trouble for Chloe vanishing.
- Professor Cerise, Goh and Ash are all responsible for Chloe's problems in some way shape or form due to them either giving lame excuses as to why Chloe can't be into research or downright not even listening to her requests and heading off to their own dreams.
- Wham Episode:
- Chapter 4, revealing what caused "The Spearow Incident" and ending with Specter, a youkai, somehow on the Train.
- The end of Chapter 5 reveals that all the Spearows that caused Chloe's pain are dead by the hands of another youkai.
- Wham Line: The last line of Chapter 4.Chloe: Specter...why do you have a number?
- What Were You Thinking?: Chloe gets asked what she was doing going out all alone in the routes without a Pokémon.
- What You Are in the Dark: By all rights, Chloe had the chance to capture that Pidgey...instead, she lets him go and tells it to get to safety before running off to have the Spearow chase after her.
- Youkai: Specter is a youkai — more specifically, an ungaikyo — and the place he lives in is also populated with them. Chloe admits that she's interested in youkai and the Daiki residence has numerous residence like a nekomata, a kitsune and a kamatachi.
