Fanfic / Infinity Train: Seeker of Crocus

I will be going on a trip for a while. Don't know for how long, but I'm going alone to find Alain.
Worry not, Garchomp is with me and so does her Mega Stone and my Key Stone.
Sophie and Cosette, please take care of the Pokemon in the lab while I'm gone.
Mairin, I will bring Alain back. I promise.
Meyer, tell Calem I'm sorry for yelling at him. Tell him it's not his fault
And if Ash and his friends know of my disappearance, please let him know.
I will come back soon. With Alain.
Au revoir.

— Professor Sycamore's letter, end of the prologue

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tropes found in the fanfic include:

• Action Survivor: Sycamore makes it no secret he's not much of a fighter, but he still accompanies Rimuru's squad to save the werewolf village.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Sycamore was your normal Pokémon Professor with a Garchomp. This Sycamore ends up becoming a hero with a sword and a Persona.
  • Chloe was one of these in Blossoming Trail, but she gains even more firepower with the Cloak of Marchosias giving her the ability to fully transform into a wolf and using the power of the demon and god infused with it to convert a Mirage Army into denizens.
  • Rey Mysterio in real-life is a top-tier wrestler. But since this is using his Rey Mysterio vs La Oscuridad incarnation, he has powers akin to that of a superhero.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Amelia doesn't properly debut in Blossoming Trail until the Cyan Desert Car, which was in the middle of Act 2. She appears halfway into Act 1 during the Ninjala Car.
  • Paul and Hop weren't revealed until Act 2, again during the Cyan Desert Car. They both appear before the penultimate arc of Act 1 and the Cyan Desert Car is the last act.
  • Yamper doesn't evolve into Boltund until Voyage of Wisteria; here, he evolves during the Cyan Desert Arc.
• Adaptational Explanation:
  • In Knight of the Orange Lily, Mallow kept quiet about her train trip to her friends because she thought they wouldn't believe her. While the same applies here, she also did it because she thought there were no trains in Alola as a result of Elipzo brainwashing her when she was younger.
  • Trip didn't have a backstory as to why he acted like an asshole towards the Cerise laboratory for how they didn't care for Chloe. It's explained here that his parents had no idea that he wasn't even in the Pokémon World for a year at most and it hurt him to no end that his parents weren't that concerned at how he was struggling for his life.
  • In Blossoming Trail, Chloe's classmates bullied her because they could. In here, they had the slightly more understandable reason of Chloe constantly pestering them with her love for demons, and they just wanted to give her a taste of her own medicine before Sara stepped in and twisted that into something more sinister.
  • Why did Cerise go "Chloe, don't forget Tackle doesn't work on a Ghost" in the original Blossoming Trail? Because in this story, Chloe was confused when Yamper's Tackle didn't work on a Gourgeist, and he explained this to her. He was only trying to jog her memory, not being insensitive or forgetful that Chloe has no battle experience.
  • Why did Goh never tell Chloe about Tokio in the first place? Because, as "The Firefly Funhouse Car" reveals, he told Chloe to shut up and never ask him about it ever again.
• Adaptational Weapon Swap:
  • Amelia is usually seen with pistols, shotguns, and a sniper rifle in Blossoming Trail. While she still uses firearms, she later gets a hold on an electric croquet mallet and an Ice Wand.
  • Gladion and Specter used toy brick shields and Tokio had the Gale Boomerang. For their return trip, as their weapons are now Apex property, London gifts Gladion a kusarigama, Specter gets a size-shifting metal staff that he can separate into escrima sticks and Tokio has a deck of throwing cards that double as bombs.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • The story expands on the references of demons from Blossoming Trail by revealing that they're denizens on the Train, along with the gods themselves. The Cloak of Marchosias and Wepwawet is imbued with the powers of said demon and god, with Wepwawet making numerous other artifacts in the hopes of combining god and demon magic together. The Cage of Flauros that will be used to stop the Apex? It's actually based on a Noodle Incident from the original Flauros getting drunk and entrapping lesser demons who got annoyed by his partying. Wyn tells Tony that the Numine and Goeties are long-lived denizens that have helped humankind when they got on the Train and Lexi assumes that the myths based off of them were from various passengers that entered the Train in the past.
  • Chloe's relation to her father is barely pressed upon either in the anime or in the original Blossomverse trilogy unless it comes to how her father can be insensitive to his daughter's feelings of whether or not she's into Pokémon. Starting with the Ninjala Car, there is focus on how much that both father and daughter truly care for one another to the point that when Professor Cerise gets sent on the Train, Chloe decides that she'll go search for him to ensure he's safe.
  • The Cyan Desert Car expands on a few things, ranging from Sara's relationship to her mother to explaining that Chloe is practically the only person in their class willing to give Goh his homework.
  • In Orchid Observer, the world that the original Infinity Train protagonists come from reveals that there are government sponsored programs for former passengers to recover, obtain therapy, and catch up on tutoring if need be. Moreover, Jesse's old "friends" were revealed to have been punished for what happened to Nate and being somewhat the fault for Jesse's disappearance.
  • Simon's story pre-Train was never explored barring a few hints that he has Parental Abandoment and something relating to funerals. In this story, it combines Owen Dennis' joke of how his Train entry was based on a spelling bee and that he was neighbors with someone named Edith Finch.^ExplanationFor those who don't know, Edith comes from What Remains of Edith Finch, a game where the titular character chronicles the deaths of all who came before her.
• Adaptational Seriousness:
  • In the anime, Goh jumping off onto Lugia was a triumphant moment with a bit of comedy sprinkled in over how he and Ash wonder what they're doing when they noticed that they were both on Lugia. In the story, once she hears about it, Tomie points out how dangerous such a stunt actually was, and how Goh could've been hurt as a result of it and how no one was even aware he was out doing something so reckless.
  • Goh's remark of "I don't need these homework sheets" is meant to be humorous and establish that he's Brilliant, but Lazy. The fic shows the events on Chloe's side, in how she's bullied and teased because she's the only person who goes out to get the sheets and Goh's remark now shows how ungrateful he is for Chloe waiting for him and shows little to no concern over the Lugia stunt severely hurting him.
  • While Goh being "abandoned" by Tokio was played for seriousness, Crocus ramps it up even more. His parents grew heavily concerned for his well-being because he got sick from waiting in the rain so long, and this betrayal impacted his friendship with Chloe, who couldn't figure out what was wrong with him since he was incapable of expressing his pains.
• Adaptational Sexuality: While this was prominent in the original Blossomverse, more characters are given this treatment.
  • Specter went from having no romantic interest from the original trilogy (moments with London aside) to be confirmed as demiromantic for Ryoken.
  • Ryan and Min-Gi are married, thus turning Ryan from straight to bisexual and Min-Gi as gay.
  • Jesse and Lake had Ship Tease moments throughout Infinity Train, but Orchid Observer changes it so that the former is asexual and the latter is aromantic.
• Adapted Out:
  • Akemi Tsutsuji — the girl whose actions caused Blossoming Trail to happen — isn't seen or referenced at all.
  • Serena is nowhere to be seen in this iteration with Gloria replacing her. To take it a step further, a later author's notes after Act 1 confirmed that she's indeed not going to appear.
  • The Cyan Desert Arc doesn't have the heroes traveling with Rashid nor Azam like in Blossoming Trail, with both Specter and Easter replacing them.
  • Because Parker isn't the one to wield the Unown but Sara, Zeno never gets created. This is subverted with UnChloe, who still gets to be created, but this time on the hero's side.
  • Dexio and Sina, Sycamore's assistants from the X and Y games, are nowhere to be seen.
• Adaptational Context Change:
  • In Blossoming Trail, Chloe cut her hair in order to save herself from the Organ Man (grabbing her hair at the time) from being thrown off a zeppelin with Lexi's papers shaving it. In this story, Chloe cuts her hair at the Fashion Runway Car in order to Screw Destiny and take the step forward to be a better person.
  • Sara manipulated Chloe's classmates to bully her on the rounds that she's an evil witch, a weirdo and that she's supposedly "better" than everyone else. While that's also in this story, the other reason this happened is because Sara "convinced" everyone that if they bullied Chloe to her breaking point, she'd be "persudaded" to get them a Pokémon from her father's institute in order to make it all stop. Moreover, instead of being mad that the Hi-Skitty doll her daddy bought her wasn't "cute" enough, she hated it because she wanted a real Pokémon to be used as a status symbol.
  • In Knight of the Orange Lily, there's no backstory about what Lampetia was doing before she found Specter unconscious in the Living Lightning Car. The story reveals that Lampetia was on her own personal journey before she met up with Specter.
  • When The Cat gave Simon the nanobots back in Infinity Train, it was because he begged her for help to figure out why Grace was closing herself away from him. In here the Cat secretly gives it to him in case of emergencies as Grace is going full on Sanity Slippage.
  • Goh has a different reason to go back to school outside wanting to get a break — he wants to go back to return the favor of Chloe always delivering his homework for him. In the same token, Goh's chewing out on Chloe is different than it was in Voyage of Wisteria. In Wisteria, he asks Chloe if he was that big of an a-hole to be tortured. In Crocus, he asks if Chloe truly saw him as an apathetic a-hole who wouldn't care if she ended her life.
  • In Blossoming Trail, Goh's parents hated Chloe for how she indirectly corrupted her brother. In Crocus, because Parker stays his normal kid self, they instead hate her for endangering their son during a camping incident without learning that Chloe was the only person who saved Goh from drowning.
• Adaptation Name Change: Moonlight Passengers are a different name for Golden Letters, a concept that appeared in several expanded universe stories where those who came to the Infinity Train on their own power to find or save someone with a distinct symbol on their hands. The main difference being what that symbol is (golden letters that spell 'Visitor' instead of a blue moon as in Crocus.)
• Adults Are Useless: A recurring theme in the story.
  • It's both Discussed and Defied in regards to Professor Sycamore. Because Alain disappeared under his tutelage, and his lack of combat experience, he thinks of himself as The Load when the Train picks him up. Not only does Rimuru rebuff this claim, as giving into it would make his number rise, but the professor plays a key role in saving the wolf village.
  • Downplayed and Justified with Meyer/Blaziken Mask. Being the vigilante, he does do more to help the world with crime than the professor, but because he's completely caught off-guard when the Train enters the picture, there's little he can do besides give moral support.
  • Augustine is horrified and shocked to learn how Chloe went through so much bullying and not a single adult (including her own parents) helped her. Even Gloria notes how the teachers at her school just "promised" things would get better yet never followed up on it.
  • Professor Kukui averts this; once he understand what's going on, he's on the ball and helps stop any Blame Game that might be played when Mallow tries to find a reason why she never explained about the Infinity Train before.
  • This is zigzagged in Den City. The Knights of Hanoi followed Ryoken's suggestion to put Specter into isolation whereas Ghost Gal was willing to look into the Train herself and vows to get him help. London even states that the Hanoi scientists are being bystanders again to Specter, due to their history of allowing Dr. Kougami enact the Lost Incident on six kids (read: force them to duel in isolation and be electrocuted when they lose in order to create the perfect AI). Upon realizing how they have done wrong, the Knights of Hanoi decide to stand up in Specter's defense and help prepare him for the journey back.
  • Kurune and Ikuo easily dismiss any ideas of how their son is currently trapped in the Cerise Institute by one of his former classmates going crazy with the Unown. Tomie, however, is on the ball since Sara tried to dissuade any concerns by imitating Goh's voice and stating that she's not into stew with star-shaped carrots...even though Tomie knows her grandson loves star-shaped carrots. Thankfully, the two realize something is wrong and try to help. However, they also knew very well about Chloe wanting to hang out with Goh, but due to a camping incident where Goh nearly drowned, they lied to him to believe her requests were nothing and thus intentionally drove a wedge between the two.
  • Averted with Rey Mysterio and Aerostar. The former saves Oscar from Team Flare and the latter comes to Lio's rescue, along with his ability to see the future giving everyone a head's-up to what will happen.
  • In the Cyan Desert Car, Parker (who is now stuck in a wheelchair and cast thanks to Sara and is pissed off to no end about being told he's Just a Kid) states this trope by name during the climax of the Cyan Desert Car. The adults — parents of Chloe's former classmates — around him scream like headless Combuskens literally afraid of their own shadows and he points out that the reason why things to to hell is because adults don't listen to children until it's far too late.
• An Aesop:
  • This fic really stresses the importance of keeping a promise, and how constantly breaking them can lead to being seen as untrustworthy.
    • While keeping a promise is important, some promises are more important than others.
    • Don't make promises you can't keep.
  • Don't assume someone close to you has it easy.
  • A bit of isolation is good to connect to yourself, but you shouldn't always be alone. Humans are social creatures and need to connect with others if they ever want to grow.
  • Don't assume you know everything about how a person acts. You might miss out on some vital information if you do.
  • Even as everything is going to hell, hold onto those close to you. Be kind when you have no idea what's going on.
  • In the midst of the Poor Communication Kills that goes on in the story, don't delay the passing of important messages for later, or under the belief that no one will "understand" what you're saying. The sooner you express it, the faster a solution can come to you. Just prolonging these shocking revelations will only end with people feeling betrayed and feeling like they were never trustworthy.
• Alliterative Title: The side-story, Orchid Observer.
• All Myths Are True: Upon meeting Anubis in the Cyan Desert Car, Lexi gushes on how the mythologies created by humankind were probably based off of passengers actually seeing Gods and Demons up close and personal. Wyn later reveals that there gods and demons are divided into two camps: the Numine and Goetias.
• All-Powerful Bystander: The Numinae and Goetias are denizens that are revered as gods and demons to passengers. So with all that power in their hands, why not just stop the Apex or the Cage of Flauros? Anubis explains that the Fog Car just doesn't want gods or demons to get involved and Marchosias tells Titus in Rey Mysterio vs the Cosmos that they have "honor" and pride to consider, not to mention that if they do intervene, it makes them bull's-eyes for Elipzo.
• Amnesia Danger: Downplayed. One-One had the exiled members of White Gestalt get amnesia to forget about what they did on the Train, and while they're technically not in any real danger at the moment, the situation with Sycamore and their own underlying feeling that something is amiss makes them tense.
• Amnesia Missed a Spot: Gladion, Specter, and Tokio had their memories of how they nearly destroyed the Train as White Gestalt erased, but while the events are forgotten, the feelings aren't, and this causes them to grow tense. And that's before the memories return...
• Anachronism Stew:
  • A minor case. Chloe is said to have played all four games of No More Heroes, with the most focus being on No More Heroes III...except Crocus/Book 3 of Infinity Train takes place in late 2020, and NMH 3 wouldn't be released until the following year.
  • Tony Clark references how he wants to be like Magnus Chase. The thing is, Tony's show aired between 2007-09, whereas Magnus Chase wouldn't appear until 2015.
• Anger Born of Worry: Discussed in the Cyan Desert Car. Chloe's classmates are being chewed out by their very pissed off parents for a number of reasons, but the anger comes from concerns that they didn't do enough for their children to make them realize that their futures are in jeopardy at the moment and that they almost crossed a line of allowing a fellow student to kill themselves.
• The Anti-Nihilist: As Arc 2 goes on, many characters start adapting this mindset. The world sucks, and the Train is infinite and filled with life-ending hazards and people who only care for themselves, but our heroes can still decide what to do with their lives by being kind and helping others.
• Arc Words:
  • "So what?" is usually associated with someone with a severe Lack of Empathy: Grace stated this when she was reminded on how she killed Utahoshi, Tokio's Rage Breaking Point came from a teenager (later revealed to be Bede) not caring on making a young trainer cry, and Sara states this when she doesn't realize how she's ruined the lives of her classmates or how Chloe is a broken wreck thanks to her bullying. Later on, it's a common phrase to say in defiance to someone's accusations (like when Lampetia uses it to tell Ai that she's not gonna give up despite having lost half of her face to one of his monsters.
  • "Road to Platanus Crocus" usually ends a non-related Crocus story to the main universe where the stories are taking place.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • Gloria breaks through Goh's rose-tinted glasses by asking him two of these: one of them in regards to if he'll only care for Chloe if she jumped off a roof and when was the last time he listened to what she wanted.
  • Gloria and Goh later throw several of these at Trip, not only breaking through his idea that his Brutal Honesty was the best course of action, but that for as much good as he did before, he's not only making the situation worse for everybody.
  • In the Cyan Desert Car, Patricia notes that her grandfather asked her one — in regards to how she'd bully the weak like Chloe and Parker — that made her realize that she's becoming a monster. Patricia then asks if Chloe hated the entire class or if she hated Sara in particular.
  • Grace gets asked these by her Mirror Self in the Chrome Car and by Queen Cutie. Will she sacrifice everyone, including herself, if it gets her to the top?
  • Amelia warns Sara that she's not going to find happiness with the Unown and will end up becoming addicted to the power. Sara states that she has all she ever needs. Amelia calmly asks, "Do you really?"
  • When Chloe's classmates admit that they should've been thinking on who they bullied, Chloe asks would it have mattered if she wasn't a professor's daughter. The looks on their faces prove that it wouldn't.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Sycamore went from a minor character — as in so minor he doesn't have his own folder in Blossoming Trail — asking Ash if he's heard about Alain to the hero of the story searching for Alain.
  • In a weird sense, Chloe's cloak is becoming an important part of the story. In Blossoming Trail, Olmec gave the cloak as it is, no questions asked. Here, there are numerous powers stored within and there's a bigger mystery as to why Olmec would even keep something so powerful within him not to mention that someone's talking to Chloe and nudging her on how to properly use it. It's later revealed that the demon and god whose powers she uses actually exist on the Train.
  • Characters in Den City were mostly there to either put in more information on Specter's problems or were to listen about what the hell he's been doing on the Train. They now have a much more active role in getting Specter to return to the Train and learning how Queen has been murdered.
  • While Professor Cerise became this in Blossoming Trail, he gains more of an ascension by the end of Act 1 since he's now taken onto the Train.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • Rimuru is horrified when he learns that Shion is cooking for Professor Sycamore and Garchomp and races off to stop them. Too late, the food is already eaten...and Professor Sycamore states it's delicious! Unfortunately, Garchomp got food poisoning...
  • The entirety of the Harvest Moon Car seems like a Folk Horror akin to Scooby Doo on Zombie Island...it's actually that the denizens are preparing for a Dias de los Muertes holiday where the dead come back for a celebration.
• Been There, Shaped History:
  • The Train hosts denizens that would become the basis of numerous myths through the revelation that gods and demons exist. Rey Mysterio vs the Cosmos reveals that the Roanoke incident happened because the passengers got picked up by the Train and assumed they were going to Croatoan Island instead.
  • The Cyan Desert Car reveals that the traveler Ibn Battuta got stranded on the Train for quite some time, as Gremory gushes over Yuri's Persona also having the same name.
• Big "NO!":
  • One of Calem's friends texts this when Calem reveals that their former theory of "The Infinity Train only picks up kids" is debunked.
  • Tony Clark screams this when he can't use his MPCOM to contact his siblings.
• Big "WHAT?!":
  • Played for Drama. When Professor Sycamore screams this at Calem and Meyer when Officer Jenny wants to stop the search for Alain due to lack of clues. It's at this point he realizes the stress of searching for Alain is getting to him.
  • Also Played for Drama in the Ninjala Car. After Parker reveals that Alex Shepherd can become Pyramid Head — he tried mentioning this earlier but was told to be quiet — everyone reacts in shock because they assumed that Sycamore can trust Alex to protect him from Pyramid Head and Gloria and Goh told him to shut up his face when he tried to warn them about that little factoid.
  • The last word of the Cyan Desert Car Part 5 is this in response to Sycamore revealing that he's canceling the plans to stop the Apex and Cage of Flauros.
• Bland-Name Product: In a flashback in Orchid Observer, there's a reference to Samsara Tea Shop, the equivalent of the real-life Nirvana Tea.
• Bloodless Carnage: At the Diorama Car, Sycamore sees a soldier that's missing a leg, but there's no blood or gore to be seen. This is justified, since the soldier's made of plastic.
• Blue Is Heroic:
  • The Windchasers are associated with the color blue. Augustine wears a blue coat and in the fanart for Yuri, he's wearing a blue hoodie (and also has blue hair).
  • Rey Mysterio is frequently associated with blue: his wrestling attire (mask and pants) are blue, he has glowing blue eyes and highlights when he uses his powers and he unleashes fire attacks against Team Flare with are also bright blue. Moreover, Oscar's alter ego as Enygma made him wear a blue wrestling mask and suit, and his last name — "Aciano" — means "Blue botle flower". Oscar's friend, Lio, is depited as wearing a blue cap and a shirt with blue sleeves.
• Both Sides Have a Point:
  • In Den City, Ryoken refuses to let Specter get back on the Train because of how dangerous it is and how Specter returned as a Nervous Wreck. His fellow Knights of Hanoi, Aoi and Emma point out that him going on the Train might be the only way he can finally heal.
  • The prologue of Orchid Observer have Jesse and Lake debate on whether or not they should inform the families of the Apex about the Train. Jesse thinks that they should have some closure while Lake points out that this could accidentally bring the family members onto the Train itself to search for them.
  • In the Cyan Desert Car Chloe and Augustine get into an argument on how to react over Sara causing chaos with the Unown. While Chloe has a point that going to the lows of killing Sara to stop it because she refuses to listen, Augustine states that getting angry to the point of murder isn't worth it.
  • Goh ultimately concludes that both he and Chloe were at fault for their camping trip that was explained in Harvest Moon Car. Chloe was being insensitive when he got a fever, only asking if he can come have more ghost adventures with her. Goh then admits to his parents that he also messed up — the only reason he got sick in the first place was because Chloe warned him multiple times not to chase after a Vivillon floating in the river, which led to him getting sick with a fever in the first place because he was too stubborn to listen and saw Chloe as a whining cowardly killjoy who couldn't chase a dream.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl:
  • This becomes the dynamic between Goh and Gloria when they meet, since Goh's currently in a Heroic BSoD after Chloe's message and Gloria, being a former Passenger, gives him In-Universe Catharsis to at least help his mental problems somewhat. This later becomes reversed during the second half of Act 1, with Goh and Victor hoping to console Gloria after her honesty caused Professor Cerise to snap. In Act 2, this is reversed with Chloe the brooding girl ready to end her life while Goh is the Tough Love gentle boy who convinces her to change her act and find a reason to live again.
• Call-Forward: The attire UnChloe wears — a white coat, purple leggings and a white top hat — will be what the real Chloe will wear in Journeys episode 98.
• Cast Full of Gay: Starting at the end of Act 1/beginning of Act 2, and in a few side stories, there are more and more characters under the LGBTQA+ spectrum, mostly among the non-Pokémon cast members: Specter is demiromantic, Indigo is bisexual, Casimira is lesbian, Tres is a transman, and Ryan and Min-Gi are a couple (meaning Ryan is bi compared to his straight in the original show). Team Riconnetersi consists of asexual Jesse Cosay, female non-binary aromantic Lake, gay Spencer, and "bi-curious" Colette. Among the other half of the series, such characters are limited to Ash and Trip (and Colette who is actually an alternate Chloe.)
• Cell Phones Are Useless: Played With in regards to the Infinity Train and the multiverse. On the one hand, its internal network, the Infinet, allows the Passengers' phones to work and lets them contact their relatives and friends from back in their home dimension. On the other hand, this doesn't really do anything to get the passenger's number lowered, which is the main objective of everybody inside.
• Central Theme:
  • Hope. The Crocus flower is a symbol for hope, reflecting the hope Sycamore has in order to find Alain and his status as a Hope Bringer. Chloe herself has lost all hope of ever getting help, the same with Sycamore's Persona Asher. However, as time goes on, the story begins to question what it means to have hope.
  • Promises. If Sycamore makes a promise, he will do all he can to keep it. Chloe herself has been broken time and time again by people who break their promises so easily and Goh's backstory as to why he can't make friends is because he mistook Tokio getting sick as intentionally breaking a promise they made. The focus is all about building promises and making sure to keep them or at least show the consequences of when you make an empty or false promise. And that both sides need to work together to keep the promise.
  • Like the original Book 3 of Infinity Train, empathy is an important focus. While most attempts to help others are nice, it's Not Quite the Right Thing. What's needed for people to heal is people actively talking and comforting the ones going through a mental health crisis instead of leaving them to stew over their problems and thus aggravating them. Whether it's Professor Cerise assuming that leaving his daughter in the Institute substitutes as therapy, the Hanoi shoving Specter into his room in an attempt to keep him from running away, or Chloe being too wrapped up in her own problems to to try and understand others, these attempts don't actively fix the problems as they are just masking them over. Act 2 focuses on these people seeking help and shoulders to cry on when therapy is not in anyone's dictionary.
  • By the same token, Self-Awareness. There's no shortage of characters who like to claim that their lives are worse than what people see on the surface level. However, nine times out of ten, these turn out to be either the result of the person blowing things out of proportion, misremembering things in a way that makes them look like the victim, or even straight up lies that the person honestly believes as a way to cope with their own narrative. Only those who actually drop these superstitions and become aware of the real situation are ever shown to change for the better, with those who don't become self-aware doubling down and spiraling into their own graves. It's also noted that many characters are shown to be hypocrites and only those who take a good look at themselves can grow.
  • Therapy. It is an understatement on how the cast frequently mentions how therapy is hard to find when others refuse to actually help their loved ones. However, even when therapy is shown to help with some of the problems, it doesn't eliminate all of the problems. The only way for people to get help is if they're willing to work on themselves.
  • Reconciliation: While Blossomverse was focused on spite and blaming, Crocus focuses on people trying to mend their fences with one another. Sycamore and Chloe decide to forgive one another after the fallout of the Cyan Desert Car, Goh and Chloe learn to admit how they both were at fault for their friendship failing, Tokio's biggest lesson is to forgive himself for the Ilex Forest incident, and Specter's biggest wish is to make amends with London for how he treated the wrestler. Reconciliation is not easy or quick, but through admission of one's flaws, it is feasible.
  • Lack of parental figures. Like in Book 3 of Infinity Train, many of the problems are all due to irresponsible adults who don't do more of a job to properly guide their children or properly teach them right or wrong. The little they do ends up being short term solutions and don't get to the root of the problems, whether it's Professor Cerise keeping his daughter in his Institute but never gives her anything to do, Goh's parents shoving him in his room and never making him move on from Tokio, to a teacher who does nothing as bullying nearly leads one of her students to suicide.
• Color Motif: The author notes for the Night Garden Car has the co-author reveal that each of the heroic groups have a color based off of the colors of the French flag. Windchasers are associated with blue, the Red Lotus Uprising (obviously) have red and White Gestalt (again) has white..
• Continuity Cavalcade:
  • In Chapter 5, Sycamore makes notes on numerous cars that were seen in Infinity Train Book 1. In the Graph Car, Sycamore even shouts "I DECLARE BANKRUPTCY!" like Tulip did in the beginning of "The Ball Pit Car".
  • The Skill Crane Car has a references to numerous cars and incidents in the original Blossomverse.
  • The Ninjala Car Part 1 references numerous cars and events from Knight of the Orange Lily and Blossoming Trail.
• Continuity Snarl:
  • Several that came about as a result of how Oak Lore was written by Cross versus the chapters and authors note written by Green and Spinnerite. Oak Lore itself implies that Ash took an airplane to Galar with tickets bought by Gary and went alone, while Crocus proper implies he took the airship and was with at least Goh, who had his own adventure with some Impidimp while Ash and Gary were looking for a Galarian Rapidash, and Gary seemed unware of how Ash got to Galar.
  • In a segment featuring Goh in a segment Cross wrote for the main story, Goh accepted that his team was not happy with Chloe, were going to attack her for her crimes and he'd let them do so, and knew that Golurk gave his punch spot to Ash's Gengar to let him punch Chloe twice. In a segment in the following chapter written by Green and Spinner, Goh was very much against them doing so or having issues with Chloe at all, seemed to have forgotten that Ash's Gengar was also interested in punching Chloe, and had Golurk punching Chloe twice instead of Gengar doing the double punching after being given Golurk's lot for the Chloe punching line.
  • Ash's Rotomphone (and Rotomdex, which does make sense) can't identify a Clodsire, despite the fact that the Rotomphone Pokedex is a worldwide product and would lack the regional limitations of a region-exclusive Pokedex. The co-author admits that she made a mistake in writing the scene.
• Contrived Coincidence: The second chapter of Rey Mysterio vs the Cosmos is based on this trope alone. Oscar bumps into Kaito Goshikida and his notebook falls. Kaito sees the drawing of an infinity symbol in Oscar's notebook before revealing to Zocks that he was a Train passenger once. Then, Zocks finds out that the next Rey Mysterio vs the Infinity comic will have Rey encounter a three-headed dragon who just so happens to be Kaito's denizen partner, Au-san. And then the final line of the chapter reveals that the same dragon — who also moonlights as a barista — is actually Asher's mentor! Lio lampshades this a few chapters later in regards to learning about the Fifth Sun and Team Flare's involvement:
  Lio: I mean, what are the chances Team Flare was coming to our city, and we took their phone of super secret files for an ancient megaweapon that was conveniently in our city?
• Creator Thumbprint: What do psychological horror and food have in common? Green Phantom Queen, of course.
• Crossover Cosmology: The Infinity Train hosts denizens that would essentially be seen as deities throughout human history. Deities, or Numinae, that have been referenced throughout the stories include Zeus, Aphrodite, Hestia, Wepwawet, Anubis, Quetzalcoatl, Inari, and Lugh.
• Dark Is Not Evil: One of the recurring themes is that darkness is scary and terrifying, but it can also be used for good.
  • Asher is Sycamore's Shadow and Chloe gives him an outfit that consists of a black suit and black bird wings (based off the Ars Goetia demon Caim), not to mention that he has Mind Manipulation powers. However, he's an ally to the Windchasers.
  • By the end of Act 1, Chloe's now dressing in a black suit, leggings and hat, along with having the power to summon a demon if she wants to. Yet she's the sweet, cheerful leader of the Red Lotus Uprising.
  • Both Asher and Chloe gain Mirage Pokémon in Murky the Murkrow and Hewie the Houdnoom. Both of them are Dark-types (and both are called "The Dark Pokémon") but function more as pets and loyal allies.
  • Au-san/Auric is usually seen as a black haired barista, but his real form is a massive three-headed black dragon. He was the one who helped Kaito Goshikia tackle the Infinity Train, he has a soft spot for kitties and he ends up being the one who ultimately lets Sara move on from her anger. Not to mention that it's later revealed he's a member of the Goetias.
  • The denizens of the Horrorland Car are frightening but they love having parties and are willing to have White Gestalt feast with them. The terrors that the group go through are essentially harmless pranks that they're willing to reverse.
• A Day in the Limelight: While Sycamore and Chloe are the two protagonists of the Train-side of the story, many of the cars starting in Act 2 have other characters as a focus.
  • The Palimpsest Car is focused on Amelia reuniting with a copy of Alrich and whether she wants to stay or continue her journey.
  • The B-plot of The Harvest Moon Car is all about Goh finally realizing how lost he's been without Chloe in his life.
  • The Horrorland Car puts emphasis on Gladion when he ends up as the only member of White Gestalt not traumatized by Jonathan Chiller's mind games, and whether he wants to get revenge or move forward.
• Deconstruction Fic:
  • Like how the original trilogy deconstructed the unfairness of denizens being abused by passengers and numerous characters having to unleash justice by their own hands, not to mention a dim look at Chloe and Goh's charaterization in the anime at that point, Seeker of Crocus and the side-stories also bring up a question on what it means to deliver "hope" and the extents people will go for it.
  • The status of the Apex is examined here. Grace is annoyed at how she's seen as some monster for murdering Utahoshi and can't stand how people are spiting her without hearing her side of the story in that she's a broken girl who has no clue as to what is going on, and the Apex are little kids struggling to survive a cruel Train that could care less if they live or die. This culminates in her parents disowning her and wanting to burn everything to the ground by getting to Silent Hill.
  • Chloe being the focus throughout Act 1. As she is the poster child of the original trilogy, and Augustine is working on protecting her from the madness that is the Infinity Train, the Apex and the Fog Car this also means that he deliberately witholds well-needed self-help on himself until he eventually snaps, as he puts his own self-worth into making sure she is okay over his own sanity.
  • Most children in the Pokémon world want to be Trainers. Class 5-E all dream of having a Pokémon but they don't have the work ethics or attitudes to work with them. They see Professor Cerise as a meal ticket to adventure and glory and excitement, yet they bully his daughter so that she can give them the Pokémon they want instead of actually confronting them. And Pokémon aren't living beings to them, they're just some shiny toy or fad that will make them blend in with the cool kids. Being a Trainer isn't something you demand to be, but rather a privilege, something they never considered until they lost their rights to be a Trainer.
• Decon-Recon Switch:
  • Goh and Chloe's talk during the Harvest Moon Car does this with the Fair-Weather Friend. Both of them claimed to be each other's friends, but thanks to a variety of factors, including Chloe and Goh's own issues, they barely even qualify as acquaintances by the time the story began, with Chloe's power trip-fueled spite and Goh's spiraling inability to keep his mouth shut not helping things. However, once the two eventually get enough development to break away from their black-and-white mentality, and learn to stop talking and listen to each other for once, they manage to convince each other that they can still make the friendship work.
  • Speaking of which, both Goh and Chloe do this with Odd Friendship. Both of them are not compatible due to their opposite natures, hobbies, and flaws heavily clashing one another, making it hard to understand why the two were ever friends to begin with. But Chloe eventually finds out there shouldn't be any big answer that will magically reveal the truth. They're friends because they're friends. Simple as that.
• Designated Girl Fight: The final battle of Act 1 is this, since out of both teams, there's only one other girl in Red Lotus Uprising besides Chloe, Amelia, who's busy elsewhere, while Sara's side has only Unown and Shadows, who have No Biological Sex.
• Diligent Hero, Slothful Villain: On the Infinity Train, Chloe Cerise busts her ass off to become a hero to the denizens, building her skills from the bottom up with nothing but a donut holer and a fire casting cloak to her name, along with producing videos, photos, and stage productions that rally hope against the darkness of the Apex. In contrast, her bully doesn't even bother to work her butt off and instead manipulates feeble-minded classmates to bully Chloe so she has no choice but to give everyone a Pokémon instead of actually going to Professor Cerise's Institute to get one for herself. This ends up playing out during the final battle of Act 1, with Chloe's skills completely decimating Sara due to the hard work she put into it.
• Doppelmerger: Once Specter reunites with his partner Easter — essentially a copy of Specter himself made from a lightning bolt — their forgiveness and willing to try again makes a new fusion called Harmonious Storm.
• Double-Meaning Title: The "Crocus" can relate to Alain (whose motif is the crocus flower) or the crocus meaning "Hope". So Professor Sycamore either seeks answers to Alain's whereabouts or hope that things will be better in the future.
• Double Standard: As in Blossoming Trail, this trope is in play yet again with Chloe and others being treated in very different ways from others who do the same things. Also as in Blossoming Trail, the issues would be occasionally, but not always, addressed.
  • While recounting the aftermath of the fight against Dr. Yung in the Ninjala Car, the group concludes that Chloe handled the situation better than Ash did, despite both of them having done relatively the same in dealing with it (Fighting the Mirage Pokémon to the best of their ability until an intervention of a third party (Mirage Mew for Ash, the Cloak of Wepwawet for Chloe) helped them save the day). When this is brought up between the two, Ash admits that they're pretty much even.
  • Amelia was the reason why passengers were in the dark about the Train and caused the Apex. But she gets to stay and get her number down while three members of the mostly male White Gestalt are kicked out because of Gladion's mistake to stop the Apex from destroying the Tape Car even though White Gestalt were doing all they can to stop the Apex.
  • Amelia has been on the Train for over thirty years, and has brought complete and utter chaos and hurt who knows how many Denizens and Passengers along the way... and yet people would rather point fingers at Grace, who hasn't even been there for a decade and had no real idea what she was doing, compared to Amelia being very aware but not really caring about it. Moreover, White Gestalt had three of its members kicked out for the plot that almost caused the train to stop due to a fight with the Apex and yet Amelia, once again, has not been punished for creating the Apex and not even lifting a finger to stop them except for the large number on her body. Palimpsest Car has Augustine rip her to shreds over this because Amelia is fully responsible for everything she did and she is nothing but a coward who runs away from her problems.
  • If Professor Sycamore and Chloe appear together to people who know they went missing, the latter must be focused on over the former; the Alolan students gets scolded by Goh when they focus on if Professor Sycamore is doing okay on his trip over Chloe, because an entire city and hashtag focusing on her going missing apparently isn't enough. This begins to die down during Act 2, when Looker asks the Team Rocket trio if they've seen him, implying that his disappearance is being investigated.
  • The story treats Goh, who has a history of mental issues in the Blossomverse, the same way as in the original trilogy: that is to say, most people will call him out over being insensitive and not having done more to help Chloe, and generally view him as a jerk. Chloe, meanwhile, is implied to have a mental disorder here, and is given Adaptational Sympathy by everybody, not only with people being quick to come to her aid whenever people call her out, but even coming close to justifying her more unsavory actions as being her just being different, something Goh doesn't get. Thankfully, Act 2 gives Goh a break while allowing him to tell Chloe that she has no excuse for her own attitude.
  • When Trip proves to be his usual self with Brutal Honesty galore, he's rightfully called out for it and made to leave before his inability to watch his tongue make things worse for everyone. When Gloria proves to be just as brutal in her honesty, even a crossing a line that Trip never did, not only is she comforted about it, but told that she was ultimately in the right and allowed to stay, with no concern over whether she'll repeat the mistake and make the situation even more tense.
  • Goh gets a lot of flak, from Parker and others, about his role in his "breakup" with Tokio. They note that Goh immediately jumped to the conclusion that Tokio had "betrayed him" when he didn't show up, rather than keep an open mind—and so Goh gets the blame for not asking the simple questions that would have prevented the drama between the two. On the other hand, when Parker first hears that Alex Shepherd is on the Infinity Train, he makes a similar snap judgement that Alex can't be trusted because he made a Face–Monster Turn in the Bad End of one spin-off game. Since Parker turns out to be right, he's portrayed as being right not to keep an open mind, and everyone is briefly overcome with guilt for not following his judgment since they had told him to shut up before he could explain himself.
  • When Chloe and Parker are revealed to have some serious revenge fantasies, from Chloe writing stories that has her torture her classmates to Parker wishing to make everybody pay for hurting his sister, the characters act like this is a result of their own incompetence and neglect and that, while the two are wrong, they have a reason to feel that way. When Goh's Pokémon allegedly grab tickets as to who gets to beat up Chloe when she returns for everything their trainer has suffered indirectly or directly because of her, they get called out and made to be solely in the wrong; first by Parker guilt tripping them without meaning to, then by Goh reading them the riot act, all while putting Chloe on a pedestal and tearing himself down. However, Chloe later admits that she deserves this punishment and agrees to it, with Goh supervising it.
  • When Goh chooses to focus on friendship with Pokémon over human ones who truly understand and support him, it's treated as him willingly closing himself off from true social interaction, and something that needs to be called out on. When Chloe focuses more on her friendships with Denizens than humans, it's portrayed as her just enjoying time with people who truly understand and support her, which is perfectly fine. Act 2 has Chloe acknowledging how she was in the wrong and sees Goh's friendship with Pokémon in a more positive light.
  • Augustine gets blamed for what happened in the Palimpsest Car even though he was depressed and not thinking straight. Does Amelia, who spent thirty years as the Conductor and apprentice to One-One, get any' sort of punishment or accusations thrown at her face? Not in the slightest — One-One completely brushes her usurping under the rug and hires her to make the videos that should've been made all those years ago. However, Tres points out that One-One also has some blame for letting the cars do as they wish and not caring for consequences. After all, Amelia has only been Conductor for thirty years, so she should be blamed for what she did during that time span alone.
  • As the story eventually reveals, both Chloe and Goh's parents caused a lot of damage to many people as a result of letting their anger and grief get the best of them. However, while Chloe is given unconditional support from most people, with even her detractors seeing the reason why she did what she did, Kurune and Ikuo are lambasted by their own family for their hands-off parenting. However, Chloe admits that she did do the Fujihachis wrong and vows to make it up to them when she returns and she asks Goh to not wish them onto the Infinity Train.
  • Goh's reactions to Tokio and Chloe disappearing are heavily biased to the latter. If Tokio is gone because he inadvertedly got sick, Goh screams that Tokio is a lying asshole and refuses to uncover the truth for three years. When Chloe ends up disappearing, he suddenly becomes worried for her, to the point he stayed up searching for her for three days.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • One of the things that Professor Sycamore is worried about is if Alain is brainwashed. The reader knows by now that yes, Alain's been brainwashed, and it's been going on for a while...
  • Professor Sycamore decides to not tell Ash about Alain's disappearance... but if he did, he would've learned where Alain would've gone since Trip has arrived at that time with knowledge of the Infinity Train.
  • After talking with his friends, Calem decides to not enter the Sycamore Lab to give the Professor his space...oh he has space all right.
  • Rimuru thinks that Alain's disappearance is based on the Apex. Readers know that the Apex are just a bit player compared to Walter and Henry's schemes to keep Alain with them forever.
  • The Ninjala Car has numerous instances of this, with one of them having Ash question who else is in the Fog Car and shouts "Paul" or how Sycamore states that Alex Shepherd can be trustworthy when readers would already know that he's Pyramid Head.
  • In the Routine Arc, Chloe thinks that the "Paulie" Walter was talking about this prisoner is Paul London both on the basis in that London has actually entered the Fog Car and she assumes prisoner was metaphorical, not literal. Readers will know that it's the trainer Paul, not the wrestler, who is Despair.
  • Due to similarities, particularly in surname and love of demons, some denizens think that Chloe Cerise is a descendant of a passenger named Alec Cerise. Turns out, no, the Chloe on the Train isn't related at all.
• Driven to Suicide:
  • The beginning of Act 2 has Chloe reeling through this, highlighting her depression from everything she's going through, before she almost takes her life at the end of the Harvest Moon Car by asking a dragon demon to behead her. It's only thanks to Goh and Buné that she snaps out of it.
  • Augustine himself almost goes through with it in the Palimpsest Car, but it's only through Pescia Alrich and Tres that he's also managed to be talked down.
• Driving Question:
  • "The Firefly Funhouse Car": "What is the legend of Alec Cerise and what connections does he have to Chloe?"
  • Act 2's main questions are, "Who is Armand and why is he so important on the Infinity Train?" and "How is Armand connected to both Augustine and Asher?"
• The Exile: Most of the White Gestalt (Specifically Gladion, Specter, and Tokio) were kicked out from the Train by One-One and banned from returning after their actions nearly destroyed the train. It's only after a quick string of Freak Out after Freak Out and Sycamore threatening to crush the little bowling ball that he relents.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!:
  • In the first chapter, Calem's friends (Victor and Gloria) react this way when they start piecing together where Alain might've gone...
  • When Amelia answers Simon's question on whether or not she knows of a Milton Finch on the Train, she says she heard rumors of an artist who has made a contract with a demon...and it's a demon she's somewhat in the know of.
• Face/Heel Double-Turn: In Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS Ai was the good guy and Specter was the bad guy before Season 3 made Ai the bad guy and Specter is only a "hero" in name due to being Demoted to Extra. In the Palimpsest Car, Ai cements himself as the enemy while Specter vows to save the Ignis, truly cementing that he's working on bettering himself this time around. Fittingly, there's a wrestler involved between these two.
• Faints in Shock:
  • Sycamore does this after a goblin saves him from a Black Centipede and again when he learns out that the Demon Lord is a blue slime monster. Chapters later, 3/5 of White Gestalt do this when Rimuru turns from slime form to human form.
  • Yuri does this when he learns that gods and demons exit, and later when meeting Paimon who states how Lucifer is also traveling the train. He then faints multiple times when Augustine makes a covenant with Buné.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: While you can probably say this about the Blossomverse in general, this one takes the cake.
  • Aside from the usual stuff that was found in the original trilogy, we now can things as grandiose as gods, demons, a sentient city with a train that has cars based off Japanese mythology, talking cats, a car where you face your shadow, a model diorama car home to a space war, to something mundane as talking bears who perform rimshots en masse. And that's on the train side of things.
  • On the other side, the allies now include talking androids, a supernaturally empowered wrestler, another wrestler with time travel abilities, a third wrestler who gets premonitions, a metal girl (who was originally from the Train), the power of imagination that can be harnessed by those with high levels of creativity/those who survived the Train itself, an agent from a secret organization so secret not even the secret organizations know about them, and digital monsters.
  • The non fantastical passengers this time around include a kid spy, a CEO of a company that specializes in trading cards, a Collector of the Strange holed up in a creepy amusement park, a Rail Enthusiast and a therapist who can enter the Train without having a number tattooed to his palm.
• Felony Misdemeanor: Are you a ten-year-old child who has issues with punctuality and generally limits your texting for quick updates on when you'll arrive? Prepare to have your childhood friend denounce you to everyone she meets as The Oathbreaker because of your "broken promises", and a five-year-old labeling you as a Hypocrite for responding irrationally to a broken promise in your backstory. This gets subverted later on as Goh starts standing up for himself and Chloe and Parker apologize for slandering Goh without getting the facts straight.
• Females Are More Innocent: While this was played with in the original Blossoming Trail, there are a lot more female characters who are guilty of things getting out of control just as bad as the men. The Palimpsest Car has the most female characters involved and, in one way or the other, nearly all of them are at fault for what happened.
• Filibuster Freefall: The beginning parts of Act 1 actually do a decent job avoiding or subverting the many pitfalls common in most Blossomverse stories, principally how Adults Are Useless and the Blame Game being played far more than it should, all the while providing more nuance to a story that was heavily black and white. However, once the second half of Act 1, especially the Cyan Desert Car, comes to a close, these same things end up being added to the front and center once more, with empahsis on how the adults of Vermillion City were useless and just about everyone winding up either blaming somebody or being blame themselves regardless of how much fault they have. Harvest Moon Car has Goh and Chloe vowing to stop this blame game once and for all, with Goh specifically demanding his parents and grandma to stop before things get worse.
• Five-Token Band: Team Ricconettersi consists of Native American Jesse Cosay, female non-binary and non-human Lake, Japanese Spencer (aka alternate Specter) and Colette in her dedicated side story declares she's half Galarian/half Kalosian aka half British/half French. They're also part of the LGBT+ spectrum.
• Fix Fic: A small part of Act 1 is dedicated to retreading and trying to fix many issues Blossoming Trail had in its own first act. While the execution is ultimately hit or miss, several key disasters (Goh being sent to a suicide ward, Parker going insane with the Unown, Ash developing a Guilt Complex, etc.) are successfully averted or at least temporarily halted.
• Flower Motifs:
  • Crocus flowers represent "Hope" which is what Professor Sycamore will bring when he enters. It also relates to Alain's own flower motif being the crocus combined with his last name being related to the plant that creates "saffron".
  • Orchid Observer has Jesse wear an apron with a white orchid on it. White orchids mean "sincerity" and "forgiveness".
• Food Porn: Like in the original Blossomverse, there are plenty of scenes that mostly depict characters eating. Justified because this is one of Green Phantom Queen's staples.
• Foregone Conclusion:
  • Since Aerostar is revealed to be on the Train by the time the Cyan Desert Car is going on, he's going to survive the events of Rey Mysterio vs the Cosmos (which takes place at the halfway point of Act 1). Moreover, in that same arc, Rey texts Tony to do research and Kaito appears at the Cerise Institute at the end of Part 6.
  • Jesse Cosay from Orchid Observer has to survive for him and his team to appear in Act 2 of Crocus.
• Forgets to Eat: In the prologue, Sycamore hasn't had a proper dinner barring some biscuits and cold tea.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When Goh tells Victor and Gloria how Tokio was attacked, Gloria asks if Tokio met up with some strange mirror cops. We later learn from Victor that Gloria's reflection was killed off from them.
  • In the Cyan Desert Car, Aerostar tells Tony that bad things are coming up for Chloe. Sure enough, Sara gets her hands on the Unown...
  • Professor Cerise has to tell Parker in the Ninjala Car that he's not a monster. Cue Sara creating UnCerise...
    • In the same vein, at the end of the Twisted Lab Car, Lexi reassures Chloe that at least it's not her father chasing after her. Come the end of the Cyan Desert Car and now it's Chloe who has to pursue Professor Cerise once he got on the train.
• The Four Loves: Crocus focuses on different types of love.
  • Storge: Yuri's talk with his parents, Chloe learning to forgive her father, and Simon finally talking to his mother and how she and his little sister wish him the best.
  • Philia: Chloe and Goh's friendship, Specter and London's bromance, White Gestalt still staying with Gladion despite their original quest being over.
  • Eros: Amelia letting go of her feelings for Alrick, Specter coming to terms with his feelings for Ryoken.
  • Agape: Augustine's determination to save Alain and how he tends to care for the likes of Yuri, Vaillant, and Chloe. Easter/Specter/Lampetia vowing to protect one another. Chloe's love for Yamper being shared to the mirage Pokémon.
• Fun with Acronyms: In Orchid Observer, Jesse and Lake attend meetings at what is known as the Infinity Train Community House or ITCH.
• Get Out!:
  • After the stress of not having clues to Alain and Officer Jenny stopping the search, Sycamore shouts this to everyone in the lab. It's one of the first signs the professor gets that Alain's disappearance is starting to affect him.
  Sycamore: I SAID TO LEAVE HERE AT ONCE!!! JUST GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!!!
  • Tokio says this to the Nurse Joy who arrives at the cabin he's resting in Ilex Forest, after she reveals that she knows way too much about his Infinity Train trip and she mockingly tells him that he makes too many excuses.
  • A couple of frogs state this to Grace and Simon in the Pond Car.
• Golem: Creatures similar to these, known as Rock Crushers, serve as the very first obstacle that Sycamore faces on the Train.
• Gratuitous Spanish: Frequently used in Rey Mysterio vs The Cosmos. Justified because Rey, Aerostar, and Oscar are Spanish and the show that the story is based off of is a Mexican cartoon.
• Guilt Complex:
  • This was Alain's Fatal Flaw in Blossoming Trail but this now affects Professor Sycamore also, believing that he didn't pursue Alain's problems more or didn't come to stop Alain before Lysandre reared his ugly head.
  • Tokio also has one of these, despite his claims otherwise. While what happened to him wasn't his fault, he seems to have a pathological need to pin the blame on himself regardless of context.
  • Chloe herself develops one of these as Act 2 has her come to realize not only how badly she treated everyone back home, but the sheer lengths of depravity found within the Train that she could fall into if she doesn't work on herself like she's supposed to.
• Halfway Plot Switch:
  • The beginning of the story initially deals with Sycamore entering the Infinity Train and going to look for Alain after learning he might be in danger. Later down Act 1, however, Sycamore ends up breaking mentally and becomes unavailable for the rest of the Act, which deals with Chloe going back home and facing off against the bully who made her life a living hell.
  • As a whole, the story seems like a rewrite of the original Blossoming Trail, but by Cyan Desert Car's end, it's revealed there are a lot more players at hand and a bigger conspiracy than just trying to stop a few kids from entering Silent Hill.
• Healing Potion: Sycamore is given possession of a Full Potion when he accompanies Rimuru to the werewolf village, and is told to use it if he sees someone who desperately needs it, like the village chief. He is later given numerous potions for his travels courtesy of Rimuru.
• Hero of Another Story:
  • Victor and Gloria were once Train passengers whose Denizen partner happens to be the Gentleman Thief Kyler/Indigo.
  • Rey Mysterio was apparently a former Train passenger. Kaito Goshikida is also a previous passenger who met up with the barista/"Au-san"/Auric/Asher's mentor.
  • Omar in the Cyan Desert Car talks about Ryan and Min-Gi, who were on the Train decades ago. They're now retired musicians and married with their first album "Train to Nowhere" having saved the lives of numerous passengers when they entered.
  • Both Colette and Spencer have had plenty of adventures, one being a Cyber Warrior and the other a Tuner, who team up with Jesse and Lake, the protagonists of Infinity Train Book 2.
  • Act 2 has two groups in Armand and Nal and Alec Cerise, both of them having adventures on the Train that laid the foundation for Augustine and Chloe's trips down the line.
• Holier Than Thou: The Cerise kids just love to claim the moral high ground over Goh by accusing him of only caring about people who love Pokemon (i.e., Ash and Tokio) and being a False Friend to Chloe, only highlighting that all Goh cared about her was "she doesn't like Pokemon anymore". Now, no one can deny that Goh does have a lot to learn when it comes to friendship (since he cared more about a boy who he met for one day compared to the girl he's known for three years and sees every single day)... But then again, neither of them showed any concern over the issues Goh was facing over the past few years (such as his parents never being around and having zero friends outside of Chloe) and there was no indication that they were any better friends to him. It just goes without saying that Goh bore all the responsibility for maintaining his and Chloe's relationship - and besides, as he's a Pokemon enthusiast, the Cerise children would consider Goh privileged until proven otherwise. Thankfully, both siblings realize that they also were in the wrong with Chloe admitting that she's also at fault for not seeing Goh's point of view and Parker tearfully apologizing about seeing Goh as a monster.
• Hourglass Plot: Chloe and Goh's friendship in a nutshell. When they were younger, Chloe tried to reach out to Goh but he refused her. In the present, Goh wants to reach out to Chloe, but she refuses. Chloe was the one giving him the homework to which Goh could care less about since he's too focused on his dreams. Now Goh is going to get the sheets while Chloe is too busy trying to escape her suicidal thoughts to even care. Finally, their friendship started to fray when Goh jumped across a river to catch a Vivillon while Chloe has to fish him out. Their friendship starts repairing when Goh vowed that he would stop Chloe from jumping off a rooftop. Chloe hated waiting for Goh while he was off doing whatever he wanted and thought little of her, whereas Crocus is all about Goh waiting for Chloe while she's working on herself.
• Identical Stranger:
  • Calem's attire of a red cap and blue jacket makes Professor Sycamore assume this is Ash, due to the stress and worry over looking for Alain.
  • Lexi's form as Specter makes Shockro terrified in a video the Windchasers watch — because Shockro is mistaking Lexi for the real Specter/Easter who entered the Shock Street Car in the past. In fact, it gets so confusing, that Lexi is forced to change his attire to make it easier to differentiate the two.
  • Lampetia keeps seeing visions of a person who looks similar to Augustine.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming:
  • The first part of the chapter titles are named after Zedd's songs. If any of the song has (Remix) in front of it, it symbolizes how it's adding references to the original trilogy in a way.
  • Rey Mysterio vs. The Cosmos has the titles derived from various Spanish idioms.
  • Orchid Observer has titles named after songs by Italian EDM band Planet Funk. Green Phantom Queen explains that this is to connect with Seeker of Crocus since it's revealed that Augustine is an EDM fan.
• Inexplicable Language Fluency: Kaito is somehow able to read Aztec glyphs just by looking at it. This is probably due to his covenant with Agares, as one of Agares' ability is to let his conjurer read and understand different languages.
• I Just Want to Be You:
  • This turns out to be one of Sara's true motives for bullying Chloe; she wanted to have her life.
  • Harvest Moon Car reveals that Chloe started acting more like Goh/Tokio because she believed it would make him acknowledge her as his friend for once in his life. Goh admits that he doesn't want that anymore and he should've been clear about that from the start.
• Internal Reveal:
  • The Monster City Car Pt 3 has Sycamore learn that Alain was also picked up by the Train. The following chapter has him learn about the Infinet service and of the Red Lotus Trio.
  • The Skill Crane car has Sycamore learn about Alain's whereabouts and the Silent Hill Trio know about Sycamore.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Ash and Trip still get together (albeit Trip leaves the Institute for some soul searching) and Goh still gets called out over his insensitivity to Chloe... And him not going to school...
  • Amelia still figures out how Hazel is with the Apex via looking it up on her phone and noticing Hazel's "number".
  • Despite the changes, the Unown act still plays out but with Sara as the catalyst, not Parker (although he does get to create an UnChloe like in Blossoming Trail).
• In-Universe Catharsis: Gloria has Goh play a game of Smash Bros. Ultimate to vent out his frustrations, with her even going out of her way to make a custom Chloe enemy to further help him, only to join him with a Conductor custom enemy when she's given the bad news.
• It's All My Fault: Self-blame is a focus in Act 1.
  • Sycamore and Mairin both blame themselves for being the reason for Alain's disappearance, but everyone reassures them that's not the case. Sycamore also blames himself for not helping Chloe's problems much later on during the Cyan Desert Car.
  • Goh also blames himself for not seeing Chloe's problems sooner because of his obsession with Mew and his bad habit of making empty promises, but Gloria and Victor tell him there's still a chance to make things right. He ultimately learns that even if his social skills were better, Tokio and Chloe had to make the decision to let go of their faults on their own.
  • Ash, like in the original story, briefly falls into this thanks to the negativity regarding Chloe. Forunately, he gets over it rather quickly.
  • The entire Cerise Institute (Parker and Chloe included) falls into this when they note how they're all to blame for why Chloe ran away from home since they had every chance to talk things out, but didn't.
  • Once he gets his memories back, Gladion repeatedly states this over how his actions nearly destroyed the Infinity Train. In the same vein, Lillie blames herself for Gladion's state because she decided giving him a bouquet of orange lilies was better than just admitting her feelings to him and also states that everything in regard to her trauma and Lusamine not knowing about it is because she never said anything and has no excuse for keeping this quiet for years.
  • Chloe's classmates are beating themselves up for not stopping their actions sooner as it resulted in their lives ruined, their parents ashamed and an unknown future. Parker even wishes that the parents hear their thoughts to help them understand that the children are scared of moving forward.
  • As Chloe is about to end it all, she blames herself for her mistakes in Cyan Desert Car, Palimpsest, and Harvest Moon Car, thinking that she was never good for anything except being a punching bag or to be ignored for not conforming to others' wishes. Buné and Goh help her break out of this mindset and to focus on the progress she made, not the mistakes.
• I Will Find You: A recurring reason for why numerous characters go on their quests on the Train.
  • Professor Sycamore's last words of the first chapter before he enters the Train and his main quest is to find Alain's whereabouts.
  • Specter vows to get back on the Train if it means he'll see Lampetia — who was last reduced to rubble and her heart snatched by an Apex brat — once more. They finally reunite at the beginning of Act 2.
  • By the end of Act 1, Chloe hopes to find her father once she learns that he's on the Train.
  • The Apex leave the Mall Car when they learn that one of their own, Sean, is in the Fog Car.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Many people are varying shades of jerkass, but all of them have valid points.
  • After getting info at the Cerise Lab, Gloria concludes that Chloe is an abuse victim at home, the Institute at school. But she says in such a blunt manner that pisses off Professor Cerise before he breaks down in tears at how he's a horrible person who was only trying to do right and Gloria realizes that she was horrible to call him abusive. Chapters later, Goh concludes that while the analogy was wrong, the basis that no one (not even Goh himself) took the time to see what was going on with Chloe was right.
  • The Nurse Joy who visits Tokio is very smug about what he's gone through, but she makes a valid point that Tokio keeps making excuses for himself even when people tell him how he could've done things differently and refuses to change despite having so much help (for context, Tokio has been taking to therapy whereas Cerise refused it for his daughter in fear of being scammed).
  • Sara spits out a lot of valid points towards her classmates. At any point after the suspension, they could've stopped being assholes to Chloe and make amends with her. Instead, they continued the bullying anyway, so it's all their fault that they got expelled. And she tells Chloe that the reason she hates her is because she is ignorant, so obsessed with her likes and is so annoying.
  • Alighieri is a humongous asshole whom no one, not even his own boss, likes. But the heroes ultimately admit that many of his critiques about Chloe are accurate.
• Just Eat Gilligan: With how much trouble school is shown giving Goh in later chapters, it really does raise the question of why he even bothers to keep his "I only go to school for tests" promise when he can just drop by and pick them up before skedaddling. He has a job at the Cerise Lab, Ash and other trainers don't go to school and they aren't given crud, and nothing about school sounds like it would give him any benefit (it might help Chloe, but that's about it). It would honestly be a better solution for him to drop the promise and just stay as far away from the place as possible. However, it's implied that he can't get away so easily as "Firefly Funhouse Car" reveals that he has a special permission to arrive at school for limited appearances tied to his homework and Harvest Moon Car implies he's on the verge of failing because he hasn't been back for more than two months.
• Kid Hero: At least one kid hero is seen per group: Yuri (age 11), Chloe (age 10) and Tokio (age 10). While Gladion and Specter could theoretically fit into this as well, (with Gladion around age 14 and Specter 16), they fit more into the "teenager" category. Tony Clark (age 11) and Oscar (unrevealed but presumably 10-11) also fit in the category
• Kudzu Plot: The plot was already fairly complicated, trying to weave all three original trilogy stories into a single alternate universe remake slash sequel, but once Act 1 gets into overdrive, the sidestories also end up being added to the main story, meaning the plot includes: Professor Sycamore's train trip, White Gestalt's original trip and return to the Train, whatever Elipzo is trying to do, a repeat of Blossoming Trail's Act 1 for this story's Act 1 in the Pokemon World, the backstory of Rey Mysterio and unsolved conflict with Team Magma, The Apex's slowly being led to Elipzo's hands and trying to find Sean at The Fog Car, Grace slowly being driven insane until she and Simon head to The Fog Car on their own, Chloe flip-flopping between learning her lesson and letting spite and wrath govern her, Rainbow Rocket making an invasion on Alola, events in the Vrains world, other Infinity Train characters getting involved, and Ash Ketchum having a holiday in Galar. Naturally this makes it hard for any plot to get elaborated on in any expedient manner.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler:
  • The reader should already know that Alain's been on the Train for some time — Knight of the Orange Lily reveals he's been around before Gladion entered — and about the events that caused Chloe's class to be outed as bullies that caused her to run away. Moreover, it also brings up hints about the Cage of Flauros that Alain is in and his role as Dreams.
  • Goh drops the reveal on how Tokio got on the Train to Victor and Gloria.
  • Infinity Train wise, Orchid Observer takes place after the end of Book 2, spoiling how Jesse made it out alive and MT also escaped to the real world with a new name: Lake.
  • The story assumes that one is familiar with VRAINS as it brings up late Season 2 and Season 3 spoilers without warning.
  • Simon's neighbor, Edith Finch, died at childbirth which is what happened in her game. It also hints that Milton Finch, her older brother, may or may not be the same king from The Unfinished Swan.
• Later-Installment Weirdness:
  • The Blossomverse is no stranger to LGBTQ themes, but these were fairly minor, with only a few characters like Ash and Trip playing a major role in the story. Crocus goes all out in adding as much representation as possible, with several characters having their orientation changed from whatever it was before to something befitting the group; Specter is now gay, several Denizens identity as non-binary, and so on and so forth.
  • While Chloe was associated with demons, the most representation they got was Chloe's cloak and her ability to summon figments of them in Blossoming Trail. Crocus reveals that the Goetias she loves so much are actual denizens on the Train who shaped history when previous passengers met with them.
• Lethal Chef:
  • Shion, even with her [Chef] ability is a horrible cook. However, Professor Sycamore stated her "soup" was delicious while Garchomp was knocked unconscious. When she cooks again for White Gestalt, the same thing happens except the Pokémon end up dizzy. Specter himself has to fight with her so she doesn't accidentally poison them.
  • Simon makes an offhand comment that he can't even cook instant ramen correctly, with Grace adding that Lucy (the girl with an eyepatch) is better than him than doing so.
• Loss of Identity:
  • As the intro to the story states, Alain's cost for a perpetual slumber via hypnosis has made him lose everything about himself; his name, his Pokémon, thoughts, goals...all that's left is a slumbering shell ready to unleash hell on the Apex.
  • The story eventually deconstructs Chloe's "Chloe of the Vermillion" person as a case of this: before she got on the Train, Chloe was a kind and gentle girl who closed herself off from bullying and perceived insensitivity to her problems. Once she gets on the train, she adopts the persona in order to reinvent herself as a strong, independent woman who wouldn't let people stomp on her again/become the girl that will make Goh notice her...only to get utterly lost in the idea and drive herself further and further away from a trip home. The Harvest Moon Car primarily involves her learning about this and deciding to ditch this false interpretation for her real self.
• The Lost Colony of Roanoke: According to Rey Mysterio vs the Cosmos, the colony of Roanoke got onto the Train to explain how they vanished without a trace.
• Masked Luchador: Rey Mysterio and Aerostar are the more prominent ones with Rey Mysterio vs the Cosmos also bringing up others like Dragon Azteca Jr. and Nightclaw.
• Men Use Violence, Women Use Communication: The Cerise parents have different ways to interact with Chloe and her problems: Professor Cerise cuts the knot by having her go to the Institute as a rest and thus helping to end any attempts of bullying by giving her a place to breathe. Meanwhile, Talia's only contribution is talking to Chloe about "finding something you love and not pushing it". However, the problem comes from that each parent only contributes to one side of what is needed: Professor Cerise is tough but concerned for his daughter yet never seems to talk to her about what's going on, with him admitting that therapy was out of the question. Meanwhile, Talia gives advice but fails to actually do more like go to her husband about her concerns or even get involved in Chloe's interests, focusing on making her daughter smile through illustrations and not trying to be supportive.
• Missing White Woman Syndrome: Carried over from Blossoming Trail, but to a lesser extent; Chloe's disappearance brings the same attention and upheaval as it did in the original story, but Crocus gives people at least something to do other than worry about her all the time, especially when Professor Sycamore agrees to keep her safe. However, this doesn't keep the narrative from chiding people who don't notice Chloe over everything else, like when the Alolan students ask Professor Sycamore if he's okay when they meet at the conference, only for Goh to snap at them that they're being insensitive to Chloe.
• Motifs: Isolation, especially if people are left in empty buildings or with little contact with others. Specter was left in his room without anyone to help him go through his geass-amnesia, Goh was always stuck in his room searching for Mew before he became a research fellow, and while Chloe had a loving family, along with a safe haven in the Cerise Institute, she was still alone because she refused to talk about her problems. Paul is stuck in the Fog Car in an empty room to be tortured. Grace gets herself captured in the Harvest Moon Car, Hazel and Tuba are in a playroom isolated from everything else. The Apex are isolated in the Mall Car and don't know anything outside "survival" since they never bothered to improve themselves and Grace refused to see that her worldview was wrong. This highlights how isolation doesn't necessarily help problems and it's only when there are people who reach out to make connections that they can be better. And those that enforce the isolation are shown to either be flawed or apathetic.
• The Multiverse: While this is explored in other stories in the Blossomverse, this is the first time that different trains are brought up as Augustine gets nightmares of someone murdering the protagonists of the original Blossomverse trilogy and he even ends up during the Darkest Day fiasco of Voyage of Wisteria. Rey Mysterio vs the Cosmos also focuses on the Zenkaigers, who deal with monsters that are based off of different worlds and the Goldtsuiker family comes from a parallel world where everyone is a pirate. In Orchid Observer it's specifically stated that Spencer and Colette are from different worlds more specifically Spencer is an alternate Specter and Colette is an alternate Chloe coming into the Infinity Train World for a certain mission.
• Mundane Solution: The Train was created to make people face their traumas through trapping them in another dimension without any hope of getting back unless that number goes down to 0 and having limited instructions on how to survive the damned thing. What do the protagonists have? Loved ones, and a therapist, talking to them with compassion and empathy. These talks have done a much better job than the Train has done to confront their issues.
• "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: The author is not lying when she states that there's a Zedd song called "Shave It".
• Not Quite the Right Thing: How are many of these troubled people getting help for their problems? Through isolation and barely doing anything that will give them social lives. While it "protects" them from outside forces, it's not actually focusing on the root of their problems. Specter, Chloe, and Goh all have mental issues that are never addressed because the people around them consider shoving them into their rooms as a good therapy substitute and refuse to properly talk to them about what's going on, and thus aggravates their problems.
• One Myth to Explain Them All: Gods and Demons — or the Numinae and Goetias as they are called — are denizens created by the Train with human mythology and stories about them based on passengers who met them in person, presumably explaining why their interpretations varied throughout the years.
• Our Demons Are Different: Demons, or the Goetias, are revealed to be denizens on the Train as Anubis reveals that the Goetia family have been observing Chloe's exploits and that his brother, Wepwawet, is currently married to Marchosias.
• Our Gods Are Different: In the Cyan Desert Car, Chloe encounters Anubis, Egyptian God of the Dead, revealing that numerous gods on the Train are actually denizens with Wyn saying that they're collectively called the Numinae. Lexi points out that this means that the Train has been around for thousands of years and passengers who were picked up from that time probably based off their mythos from seeing these deities up close and personal.
• Our Werewolves Are Different:
  • A village full of them is featured during the Monster City Car, and Sycamore's first Denizen partner is from this village. They resemble bipedal wolves, but as shown with Vaillant, they turned into Little Bit Beastly wolf humanoids when named.
  • Chloe later gets the ability to turn into a werewolf once her heart is opened up to hope and love. She can either turn her whole body into a wolf or she does an astral projection while her real body sleeps.
• Platonic Boy/Girl Heroes: Yuri Ichiro of the Windchasers and Chloe Cerise of the Red Lotus Uprising. When paired together, neither of them show any signs of crushes or Ship Tease. Amusingly, Chloe actually has had a date with another boy (Tony Clark).
• Police Are Useless: Downplayed. The story begins because one Officer Jenny tells Professor Sycamore the search for Alain will have to be stopped due to Absence of Evidence regarding where he went, but it's implied she and her unit did everything they could until they were told to call it off. Later, while the police do arrive late to the Unown incident, there was little they could do to actually stop it, but they do a decent job detaining Sara and her mother once the Unown are dealt with.
• Public Secret Message:
  • Ryan and Min-Gi's first album, Train to Nowhere, became one in regards to connecting to people who might've entered the Train and also acted as a guide for those who accidentally entered it.
  • Rey Mysterio's comic series Rey Mysterio vs the Infinity retraces his own trip during the Infinity Train.
• The Quest: Most of the plotlines on the Train are based around this.
  • The end of the Monster City Car has Sycamore decide to find info on Alain and give support to the Red Lotus Trio.
  • The Red Lotus Trio (later Uprising) also want to end the Apex, and almost every member has their own quest. Atticus wants to know what happened to Aloysius, Lexi wants revenge on Grace and Simon, while Amelia wants to ensure Hazel's safety. The end of Act 1 has another one tacked to Chloe; find her father.
  • White Gestalt's quest is to get back on their feet and properly heal, leaving the Apex threat to the Sycamore and Chloe's groups.
  • The Apex kids are off to save their friend Sean who got lost in the Fog Car while Grace and Simon decide to go to the Fog Car to spite the heroes.
• Relationship Compression: The relationship between Goh and Chloe develops much faster than in the original trilogy. While Blossoming Trail had it in shambles until the near end, and then it took the entirety of Voyage of Wisteria for the two of them to make up and become friends again, Act 1 of Crocus has the two talk and come to the realization they were both at fault over their friendship becoming strained, while Act 2 has the two decide to bury the hatchet and become friends for good after Goh calms down Chloe as she has an episode and she's going to kill herself at the Harvest Moon Car.
• Regained Memories Sequence: White Gestalt go through one of these once their ban on the Train is lifted and their memories get restored thanks to the Windchasers and Red Lotus Uprising.
• Running Gag:
  • Like in most Blossomverse tales, Jaden Yuki has made a name for himself.
  • The Windchasers keep commenting that Lexi looks way too similar to Easter/Specter or people in the Pokémon world say that Specter looks like "Chloe's OC".
  • In Rey Mysterio vs the Cosmos, every time Rey is about to explain how he knows Auric, he gets interrupted.
  • The concept of fans in sporting events showing off signs that passive-aggressively talk about their favorite games.
  • In Orchid Observer, Jesse keeps asking Colette if her job of fighting video game viruses makes her like a Glitch Tech.
  • If someone happens to comment on the closeness between Specter and London, London will make a quip that this can't happen because of the age gap. To note, Specter is around 16 while London is 39.
  • Whenever there's a big performance or public exhibition, there's mentioning of Red Lotus Uprising/Windchasers merchandise and the narration lampshading how the Train manage to produce them so quickly.
• Sadly Mythtaken: The story tries to use Icarus Allusion as a suicide analogy for Chloe, saying how she wants to fly high to the sun before plummeting to her death to escape her troubles. Anybody who's read the original myth will know Icarus fell to his death because he ignored his father's warnings not to fly too close to the sun, causing the wax holding his wings together to melt and send him falling into the ocean. Chloe herself elaborates this to her brother when he brings this up.
• Sanity Strengthening: Act 2 is dedicated to people becoming mentally healthier by confronting their frustrations, anger, and troubles and to better communicate with others. Augustine and Chloe learn to talk things over thanks to Tres. Goh learns to be kind and learn how his No Listening Skills and Leeroy Jenkins attitude has made his parents go overboard in protecting him and turned his friend into a monster because he was he coward who couldn't confess his problems. Chloe learns to connect with her grief hidden beneath her layers of rage. Amelia lets go of Alrich, refusing to live happily ever after with a clone of his when she has work to do. Tokio confronts how his Guilt Complex isn't fixing himself. Simon realizes he has been chasing a lie for years.
• Saying Too Much: While staying over at the Pokemon Center, the Nurse Joy taking care of Tokio ends up revealing she knews a little too much about the Infinity Train to a startled Tokio. It's later revealed that this is because she's a member of Elipzo.
• School Is for Losers: This is Goh's opinion of Vermillion School at least, and the story does little to give him a counterargument; those who attend the school are always shown to be miserable, and would rather be out being Pokémon Trainers than stay any second longer there. However, Act 2 reveals that there are a few students who are okay with going to school and Goh slowly learns that he could've had a better experience if he didn't take it for granted. No one cared enough about him to deliver his worksheets after Chloe left because he's scarcely around for anyone to get to know him better and he never made friends so now he doesn't know the names of anyone whom he could connect with.
• Serious Business:
  • According to Lio, wrestling fans are very passionate about their JRPGs as they like to bring signs to shows and debate about their favorite games in a passive-aggressive manner. This is brought up in Orchid Observer when Spencer and Colette remark that no one has ever talked smack about Bust a Groove yet.
  • Chloe makes a remark that a boy band named Berry Boy Scouts have serious debates over the existence of mint chocolate chip ice cream.^note This is actually Truth in Television; BTS really does have debates over this.
  • The Train takes concerts and performances made by Chloe very seriously. By the time Augustine is performing for the Cyan Desert Car's story festival, there is a crowd that's equivalent to that of a BTS concert!
• Shout-Out:
  • In the Monster City Car's Hall of Heroes, there are portraits of the blue-haired boy with a right hair bang and a teenager in a red jacket with a scythe-like device on his left arm. There's also a portrait of a boy with blue headphones named Neku Sakuraba.
  • How do Gloria challenge Goh to a game of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate? "Settle it with SMASH!"
  • When the Windchasers meet the Red Lotus Trio, one observer states that Augustine will be able to win as he has a giant robot and chicks dig those.
  • Amelia compares herself to Molly Crue getting angry at a unicorn being late in the Fashion Runway Car.
  • Goh's mention of his and Ash's Pokemon taking lots to punch Chloe when she returns, and Gengar specifically getting two, is similar to the gag in the first book of the The Trials of Apollo series where Leo, after returning to camp after setting up his own death and revival and being missing for six months, had all of Camp Half-Blood take numbers to get in line and punch him, and one kid did so twice.
• Shout-Out Theme Naming: Jesse's classmates that he greets in Orchid Observer are all named after characters from Silent Hill 2: there's Angela who has a better relationship with her father, Mary and Laura in a relationship, and Eddie with his pet dog. Meanwhile, his former bullies are named after characters from Resident Evil: Ethan (Winters), Leon (Scott Kennedy), Piers (Nivans) and Lucas (Sera).
• Simultaneous Arcs:
  • Rey Mysterio vs the Cosmos starts at the same time as the Poring Village Car in Seeker of Crocus by virtue of the barista/Auric noting that his apprentice's new name of "Asher".
  • Orchid Observer is set to take place during the Routine arc.
  • The Cyan Desert Arc of Seeker of Crocus takes place during the same time as the Darkest Day arc of Infinity Train: Voyage of Wisteria given that Augustine appears in the Pirate Car and comforts Oleana during her Heroic BSoD.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Two Vivillons changed the course of the story. Calem's Vivillon indirectly led to Augustine spiraling into despair and got him on the Train. A wild Vivillon is the cause for Goh and Chloe's friendship separating when Goh tried to catch one and fell into a river.
• Speculative Fiction LGBT: While there were signs of this in previous Blossomverse stories, this one tends to dip more into LGBT themes than ever before.
  • Specter is gay in this adaptation who crushes on Ryoken whereas everyone thinks that he's crushing on Paul London instead (London has to continuously point out that he's 40 and heterosexual). Green Phantom Queen revealed that Specter is demiromantic.
  • It's implied that Indigo/Kyler Wilton is homosexual as a brief scene of him has him observing a male denizen with interest. It's later revealed that he's bisexual.
  • Marchosias is androsexual — attracted to males and masculinity in general — and bisexual as she's married to Wepwawet but she once dated non-binary yet masculine looking Inari.
  • One of the passengers on the Train is Tres who is a trans man (indicated by the earring and bracelet that has the colors of the transgender flag).
  • Ryan and Min-Gi are revealed to be married, with Ryan turning from straight (as he dated three girls in canon) to bisexual as a result.
  • Orchid Observer has its main quartet falling under the spectrum: Asexual Jesse, Non-binary Aromantic Lake, Gay Spencer and "Bi-Curious" Colette.
• The Stinger: Starting in Act 2, the end of each car has an additional scene.
  • The Palimpsest Car: Ash decides he's going to travel to the Alola Region to see if he can aid in stopping Rainbow Rocket.
  • The Harvest Moon Car: Grace is found in the hands of Elipzo and is ready to bust out when it's time.
  • The Horrorland Car: Aoi Zaisen (as Blue Angel) starts searching for the Ignis only to be met with George Gore demanding she stop.
• There Are No Therapists: Played With. Like in the Blossomverse, many of the problems people have could be solved if therapy was in someone's dictionary, but this time there are actual therapists and discussions on this trope brought up. Tres is a licensed therapist who helps Augustine and Chloe talk about their issues before handing Chloe a medical care app to help her talk with other trauma victims. Tokio mentions he went to a therapist after his initial trip, Victor makes remarks that Gloria took therapy to combat how she lost her reflection and Yuri even suggests that One-One creates a therapy program with the denizens since the Train's views on mental health are heavily outdated. Orchid Observer reveals that the Infinity Train Earth has government programs for returning passengers which Jesse and Lake attend. Unfortunately, getting therapy doesn't necessarily mean getting better. At one point, Specter snaps at Tokio that despite the boy actually getting therapy, he still hasn't let go of the problems that initially got him on the Train, stating that Goh was able to move forward without ever meeting a therapist.
• Title Drop: "Seeker of Crocus" becomes Sycamore's Red Baron.
• Titled After the Song:
  • The chapters for Seeker of Crocus Act 1 come from Zedd songs.
  • The chapters of Orchid Observer come from song titles by the Italian electronic band "Planet Funk".
• Training from Hell: Both Sycamore and Vaillant engage in this with Hakurou as their master in preparation for the next raid as well for the former not to rely on his Garchomp all of the time for his journey. When White Gestalt get on the Train, they end up being trained under Hakurou as well.
• Three Wishes: The climax of the Cyan Deser Car involves Asher turning into an Unown version of Sycamore that Sara intends to use to try get some sort of compensation for all her plans falling apart. The first two wishes he grants as a Literal Genie, while he's a complete jackass for the third.
• Ultimate Universe: While the story takes place during Blossoming Trail it combines aspects and characters from its prequel and sequel.
• Voodoo Shark: In response to the controversial revelation that Lexi was "20 in book years" in Voyage of Wisteria, this story explains that while this is true, the way Lexi ages means he's 10 in human years. However, not only does this explanation make the way Denizens age even more convoluted than it already was, but Lexi being a 20 year old man idolizing a 10 year old girl, which was the main source of the controversy, is still the same as in canon due to retaining his book age, defeating the purpose of the change in the first place.
• Weird Crossover: Rey Mysterio vs The Cosmos is the weirdest crossover from the Blossomverse yet, combining wrestling — Lucha Underground and Rey Mysterio Versus La Oscuridad — with a Super Sentai — Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger — and Pokémon. Moreover, the wrestling bit is mostly based on a cartoon that only had one episode at the time. The Train is also there as a mention, but given everything else, it's relatively lowkey.
• Wham Episode:
  • The Skill Crane Car, while mostly a breather that has Yuri obtain his two denizen partners, ends with someone murdering Ogami, the Big Bad of Voyage of Wisteria by incinerating his soul.
  • The Twisted Lab Car has Sycamore and Yuri having to confront their shadows along with them confronting London about his own experiences.
  • Practically every part of the Ninjala Car is this. Highlights including Goh getting to chew out Chloe for how she's responsible for their friendship falling apart (thus facilitating her Character Development sooner), the Windchasers and Red Lotus Trio meeting one another, and the reveal of Dr. Yung on the Train.
  • The Routine arc brings up the rise of a new villain faction called Elipzo, and that they have agents on and off the Train.
  • The Cyan Desert Car, like in Blossoming Trail, is the arc that changes the story. But it has a big one in part 4. Augustine is taken onto the Infinity Train of the original Blossomverse trilogy during the Darkest Day arc of Voyage of Wisteria, bringing in a multiverse setting that will affect the story.
• Wham Line: After everything that happened in the Cyan Desert Car and Unown attack, everyone can relax right? Well, that's until Augustine reveals:
  Augustine: We're...canceling our plans to stop the Cage of Flauros and the Apex.
• Wham Shot:
  • The end of The Monster City Car Pt 3 reveals that Alain Sativus passed by the car.
  • After everything that happened in the Cyan Desert Arc, a stranger arrives to read a letter at the Cerise Institute. It's Kaito Goshikida, who was last seen in Rey Mysterio vs the Cosmos.
• What If?: "What if Professor Sycamore got sent onto the Train while Chloe Cerise was on her quest to stop the Apex?"
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: A recurring theme in the story.
  • Like with the original Infinity Train, the Apex sees the denizens as playthings and lesser beings that are meant for them to wreak havoc. One member of the Apex, stole the heart of Specter's denizen partner and sees it as a battle trophy — despite the fact Lampetia saved her from dying. Cutie asks Grace how fair it is if that she can use the Killing in Self-Defense excuse to protect the Apex but if a denizen does the same thing, then it's all th e more reason to kill them.
  • Chloe feels horrible about wanting to kill the Mirage Army in the Ninjala Car because they are programmed by Dr. Yung to be evil. She gets her wish to turn them into denizens thanks to her cloak.
  • Oscar has to stop Kaito and Zocks from using their weapons — which are essentially guns — to fight Team Flare's Pokémon because they're essentially animals. So Zocks asks for his little brothers (who are super-deformed robots, it makes context in Zenkaiger) to take their place.
  • A case can be made for the train itself. Despite the hundreds of denizens that have been killed and tortured by the Apex, it never seems to mourn them at all and doesn't show empathy as to how they were squished by the wheels. Titus notes that it's unfair that the "creator" of so many worlds and denizens just doesn't care.
  Marchosias: The Train is there to help passengers at their crossroads, but it has no defenses for all of the denizens crying out for a mechanical abomination that will just ‘replace’ them. After all, if I lose a few strands of fur, do I shed tears over them?
  • Ai wants to live amongst humanity, but Ryoken and the Knights of Hanoi are incense to make sure every Ignis is killed to the point that Ryoken only calls him "Dark Ignis"^note Ryoken did call Ai by his real name in Episode 99 but then reveted back to Dark Ignis at the start of Season 3. Ai himself can't comprehend how Specter gets to have two partners in a living lightning bolt and statue lady despite how he worked for a man who wanted to destroy all of VRAINS for six Ignis. He also has to point out that Specter's wish for a bond with is own Ignis is very shallow since, after all, Specter never even knew he had an Ignis whereas Ai had years to form a bond with his brother.
  • Speaking of Specter, one of the reasons he goes back on the Train is because he wants to see three important people again — London, Easter, and especially Lampetia. Ai doesn't understand how Lampetia is so important to Specter and could care less when she gets injured. White Gestalt begs to differ as all of them get pissed off when Ai mocks Lampetia losing half of her face.
• Worldbuilding: Crocus takes a lot of time and effort to detail not only the numerous cars that the passengers face, but also interweaves numerous aspects of mythology, demonlogy, supernatural lore and alternate worlds that hint that something greater is at play than just a train to nowhere run by a bowling ball.
• Yo Yo Plot Point: Chloe's character development. At first, it seems as if talking with Sycamore helps her open up a little, but she falls back almost immediately when Dr. Yung tempts her with an offer of a Mirage Pokemon to shut up the naysayers back home, which she nearly takes before the Windchasers and her team snap her out of it by talking things out. Then comes a long stretch where it seems that Chloe will learn her lesson, only for her to fall back again as a result of Sara mocking her with a message about her having the power of the Unown, with Chloe's reaction striking Sycamore so badly that he nearly restarts the world out of spite and has to be reset. Then, after that incident is dealt with, it seems like Chloe's lesson will finally stick, but then her phone call with Ash reveals that no, she still believes she's the sole victim and that everybody else is out to hurt her, as she snaps at Ash over how he never cared for her despite it having been made clear that he does, he just didn't know how to properly express it. It takes the events of the Palimpsest Car and getting near beaten to death by street cleaners and talking to an actual therapist before Chloe properly apologizes to Sycamore and seemingly learns her lesson. By the end of the Harvest Moon Car, after a near suicide attempt that is only stopped by Goh being both blunt and reassuring that he always saw her as a friend, she fully resolves to make proper amends.
• You Remind Me of X: Sycamore tells Rimuru that Shion reminds him of Ash Ketchum.

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