Approval of God: Exotos135 of Infinity Train: Boiling Point has written multiple What If? stories of various characters entering the train which Green Phantom Queen has loved. Infinity Train: Thorn Apart, staring Akemi Tsutsuji has become a full blown spin-off.
At least when it comes to the early parts of Blossoming Trail (More or less the entirety of Act 1 and Act 2 up until the Cyan Desert Car), all of the writers hold nothing but deep regret over how it was written, with it coming across as far too mean-spirited and wangst-filled, not to mention the double standards and Protagonist-Centered Morality exhibited by Chloe. That being said, this doesn't prevent Green from repeating much of the same story elements in stories like Melancholy and Crocus, seeing the problem as something that is to be fixed and done better versus avoided being repeated.
Cross fully owns he had come up with the idea that Delia had, on top of the events of Cyan Desert and before, the idea that Pallet Town's dislike of Ash's level of accomplishments over the other children would be part of why she didn't have it in her to forgive Chloe and Parker, but also has found that the idea of her needing a second reason wasn't needed in hindsight and that it was a side effect of the story tryin to correct itself after a first part of Chloe and everyone refusing to forgive anyone for anything.
Creator Breakdown: Green Phantom Queen admitted in Chapter 11 that Chapter 13 and beyond were going to be a lot more depressing than usual due to the effects of her grandmother's passing. Then she added that Chapter 17 and beyond will also become this due to the death of her aunt.
Creator's Favorite: Cross mentions in Cherry Prince and Princess that Ash is his favorite character.
Cross mentions in Cherry Prince and Princess a dislike of Parker shared with much of the readership. Orange Rose Gathering expands on this: Cross considers Parker the character he hates the most with a reason, the character he hates most for a petty reason is Hop, and while he doesn't hate her he does consider Mallow the verse's biggest idiot who made everything worse.
Truth or Dare mentions Cross dislikes Trip, considering him a Satellite Love Interest with a lot less potential roles than other characters (citing how Serena can do contests while Trip's state of retirement means he doesn't have a lot he can do) and citing his inciting of the much disliked guilt complex elements as a reason he dislikes him. He mentions considering that Serena or Mallow could have filled the roles Trip did better (Serena being able to mitigate the angst that Trip helped foster while Mallow would have been a better vector for Infinity Train lore), but notes the Unfortunate Implications of such a change being seen as better, even with the context of why it would be.
Development Gag: In Chapter 7, Trip mentions that one of the cars he visited was a gallery where they could paint a portrait of the most important person on your mind. According to the author's notes, it's referencing a car Chloe would've entered called "The Self-Portrait Car". This would eventually come up in the penultimate chapter.
Follow the Leader: While far from the first Infinity Train crossover fanfic, it's definitely the first one to not only crossover with Pokémon (and Silent Hill to an extent), but do so while deconstructing every single trope related to a particular genre or story, brings out a lot of themes (Double Standard being the most prominent one) and is longer than the average 10+ chapter fic. Naturally, it's great popularity caused several similar stories to pop up, Infinity Train: Boiling Point chief among them.
Chapter 11 is dedicated to the Green Phantom Queen's grandmother, who passed as the chapter was being written.
The ending of Chapter 15 is dedicated to one of the Green Phantom Queen's online friends, GRiDGALAXY, as the last time they talked was on December 31st, 2019 and the author has sadly noted that they're most likely dead at this point.
Chapter 17 is dedicated to Green Phantom Queen's aunt who passed from COVID-related complications.
The author wrote the story because she was annoyed by the lack of Character Development Chloe had been receiving in the anime, and the partly number of fan works exploring the character that didn't involve her just being a side character for Ash/Goh shipping fics (there was only one other Chloe-focused story on AO3 at the time). Episode 29 was coming up around the same time as the first five episodes of Infinity Train Book 3 and the author was itching to make any type of Infinity Train story just for the heck of it. Ironically, the first chapter was posted just days before Episode 29, which turned out to a major Chloe-focused episode that delved a bit into her backstory. She also pointed out the Double Standard moment from Episode 11; when asked about what Chloe wanted to do in life, everyone immediately assumes that she's going to become a Pokémon Trainer or Professor, whereas the student prior to her (a boy) got away with a "My life is a work in progress" without any criticism.
The Official Couple being Trip/Ash is because the author finds them to be an interesting ship and she's not a big fan of Paul/Ash.
In Act 3, the author stated that the Cerise family dynamic was based on Sion Sono's Noriko's Dinner Table, particularly how Talia's obsession with touching up family pictures (where Chloe is seen frowning) with happy smiles to highlight the distance and communication problems between parents and children.
Chloe's interest in Pokémon. In the anime, her lack of interest in Pokémon is seen as a character flaws alongside her indecisiveness and dearth of self-confidence, and is something she is growing out of. In the fic, Chloe not caring about Pokémon isn't treated as such, with the author even saying that exploring how such a character would develop now that she no longer has to deal with the creatures is one of the fun parts about writing the story.
The author assumed that Professor Cerise had no idea about Chloe's personal issues and wrote him as such. It would be revealed in Episode 31 of Journeys that he's completely aware of her insecurities and does take the time to encourage her. Green Phantom Queen posted a note of how relieved she was that the Professor actually cared.
Chloe was shown to be envious of Ash and Goh's friendship in the story. Episode 38 of Journeys has her traveling with them (albeit against her will) but she's shown to get along with Ash.
Moreover, Mew is seen as the catalyst to why Goh and Chloe never talk to each other anymore and most of Chloe's resentment stems from them. Episode 46 of Journeys has Chloe happily tell her dad that Mew is Goh's inspiration.
From what was seen in Episode 2, it looked like Goh never goes to school at all. Thus, this story has him handling his schoolwork online. Episode 49 has him in the school uniform and walking to school along with Chloe, explaining that he goes there for mandatory testing.
Chloe in the story raged about how Goh didn't care about the troubles she had in school, not to mention being insensitive to her problems. Episode 49 has her maturely telling him what was going on, and Goh is actually understanding of her troubles.
Chloe dislikes curry because of it being related to her and Goh's friendship being nonexistent. In Episode 50, she ends up eating curry alongside Ash and Goh.
The fanfic has Chloe not trusting Chryssa and Renji at all. In the anime, Chloe sees Chryssa as a Cool Big Sis.
The entire premise of the fic, that Chloe feels like her father is ignoring her for being so much into Pokemon, would be flipped on its head when the Rocket Radio episode had Professor Cerise feel like his daughter was not spending any time with him anymore because of Eevee.
Chloe is depicted as being bullied at school because of the "what do you want to do with your life?" question. In the anime, she's treated perfectly fine and isn't bullied once.
Many changes in the story had to be worked around due to Book 3, particularly Amelia being the original third member of the party but was swapped with Lexi instead; Amelia would later become the Sixth Ranger.
Chapter 11 has mentions of the brunch having dim sum because of how the author's grandmother passed on, and one of the author's fondest memories were Sunday brunches in Chinese restaurants. In the same chapter, Lexi is reading Nightmares & Fairy Tales because the author herself has two volumes.
Most of the bullying tactics that Chloe's classmates boast about actually happened to the author in real life.
Lexi's origami abilities came from the author constantly watching videos/listening to the OST of Paper Mario: The Origami King.
Green Phantom Queen was supposed to be the one to upload the 'Dreams of Indigo' fake 'sequel', but Shadymissionary (one of the co-authors) does it instead. As he explains, Phantom Queen is currently staying in Myanmar, which is currently going through a military coup and said military has shut down most wireless internet services.
Shrug of God: When asked if James of Team Rocket was a previous passenger on the Train, the author answers that it's up to the reader to decide.
Lexi originally wasn't supposed to be the third member of the trio — the role was originally supposed to be for Amelia — but the author loved his character so much that she added him in. The author would eventually make Amelia the Sixth Ranger to compensate.
Chloe wasn't originally written as a Nightmare Fetishist, but the author found the idea of her being one so compelling and how it would contrast a girl like Chloe herself that she kept it as part of her character.
The author implied in comments that Alain was a passenger on the train. Then the Wham Line and Wham Shot of Episode 14 happens.
Green Phantom Queen: As Owen Dennis once tweeted, "Lol".
April 1st 2021 was rung in with a fake 'sequel' made in collaboration with all three authors, called 'Dreams of Indigo'. Link here.
Word of God: The author likes writing multiple notes about inspirations and fun facts about the characters along with her annoyance on the writers' on how they "write" Chloe.
Word of Saint Paul: Co-writer crossoverpairinglover will occasionally give his own impressions on things in comments to the fans, though he is always careful to clarify he is only the co-writer and not the final word.
Working Title: Chapter 17 was originally going to have the Silent Hill portion called "Who Knows". It was later changed to "Love Psalm".
Unfortunate Implications of such a change being seen as better, even with the context of why it would be.
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