Infinity Train Blossoming Trail / Tropes A to B

A

• Accomplice by Inaction: One of the themes of the story is that what you do/don't do to people will a massive effect on them.
  • Miss April chides Sara for her callousness concerning Chloe's disappearance, and tells the rest of her class that she's disappointed by their silence on the matter. Once it becomes clear that Miss April severely underestimated the extent of the bullying, and misread the others dragging Chloe into their chats about Pokémon as "an improvement", Professor Cerise accuses her of doing nothing but observing what was happening. This eventually leads to her job being jeopardized, as she's bashed online for overseeing a class full of bullies.
  • Renji admits that he picked up on Chloe's problems, but kept his observations to himself, assuming everything would work out on its own. The Professor furiously accuses him of letting things get so far, while Chryssa stays silent for fear of drawing his wrath as well. For her part, Chloe assumed that Renji and Chryssa were ordered to spy on her and report back anything they learned to her father.
  • As Trip pointed out, Ash's efforts to connect with Chloe didn't go beyond asking her to join on some of their assignments; he didn't look into why she rejected him, or test out other avenues. Ash takes the idea that he could have done more very poorly.
  • Despite their concern over their son's lacking social life, neither of Goh's parents did anything to encourage him to expand his horizons more or spend time with the friend he did have.
  • In Act 2, Parker's frustration over this spurs him to awaken the Unown and take matters into his own hands, as he calls out many of those listed above for their inaction. Eventually, however, he realizes that his own silence helped things reach this point. By helping keep his sister's secrets rather than confiding in their parents or anyone else, he unintentionally contributed to the problem.
• Accusation Fic: You can tell the author has a lot of distaste for how several characters treated Chloe.
  • The first chapter has Chloe reach a Rage Breaking Point and chew out Ash, Goh, and Professor Cerise for being so absorbed into their work and Pokémon that no one actually cares about her.^note Ironically, Journeys would begin tackling this shortly after the author began writing the fic, with Episode 31 even revealing that Professor Cerise is fully aware of his daughter's insecurities.
  • In Chapter 5, Goh calls out all of Chloe's classmates for being more focused on Chloe's battle with Ash than on how she's been missing for a week. The classmate who gets the brunt of this is Yeardley, whom the author specifically notes as making her believe Chloe is the victim of Double Standard in the show.
  • In Chapter 9, Trip tells Professor Cerise, his aides, and Ash that they all were neglectful and ignorant of Chloe's problems in favor of Pokémon. He specifically calls out Professor Cerise (for scapegoating Renji despite being Chloe's father) and Ash (who had all the time to actually try to bond with Chloe) on this.
  • In Chapter 13, all of Chloe's classmates are chewed out for their cruelty, and that their reputations are completely ruined.
  • Act 2 starts to deconstruct this mindset with Parker's unending fury at how people aren't being punished how he sees it, and also because the punishment means nothing if Chloe is not back from her trip on the Train. Eventually, all of Parker's actions not only come to a terrifying result but do more damage to Chloe than perhaps anyone else.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
  • The biggest problem Chloe had faced in the anime when the fic started was that her classmates were pushing her to get a job involving Pokémon. This fic explores all her insecurities and uncertainties about her relationships (especially with Goh) and future goals). The author also isn't afraid to get her hurt during her journey, such as her getting burnt when trying to stop an argument nor is the author afraid of showing how much she's been bullied.
  • Chloe's disappearance leads to several characters guiltily reexamining their actions, from her father sadly realizing that he had been neglecting his daughter to Goh's shamefully accepting that his Mew obsession was a major factor in his friendship with Chloe deteriorating. Speaking of which, while Goh is shown to be hard on himself due to misunderstandings on his part — from thinking it's his fault for Raboot not obeying him, blaming himself for Sobble running away when he asked it to fight Silicobra — he is shown to really beat himself up on Chloe's disappearance here.
  • The reason why Chloe even goes to the lab is much more tragic than in the anime. Presumably it's due to how her father reacted after she learned that she was being bullied in school and snapped after being pushed too many times.
  • Tokio always blamed himself for not being there for Goh due to a fever. After he left that letter in Celebi's shrine, he was taken away by the Train and he got tattooed by the traumatized denizens of the Caligraph Car.
  • Ash now gained a level of this when he realizes that Trip is right; he was nothing more than an intrusion in Chloe's life and never got to know her. The angst does decline about that specific issue later on as he and everyone get more perspective and he and Chloe are able to talk, though new issues crop up.
  • Atticus is shown to be worried underneath the surface since he's worried about what happened to King Aloysius and whether or not his disappearance has to do with The Apex.
• Adaptation Expansion: To the Infinity Train half of the crossover, expanding on many of the ideas that are only briefly touched upon in that show.
  • Far more time is spent in individual cars, with said cars getting explored in-depth. For example, Corginia was briefly explored in "The Corgi Car", but Tulip was more obsessed with getting home and stopping the "Shadow Monster". Here, Chloe spends much more time in the city as an honored guest, visiting a garden, attending a feast, sleeping in the large temple that is Atticus's home, and even washing at a communal bathhouse. Multiple corgis are also seen as being capable of human speech, as opposed to Atticus being to only one seen talking^note The original pilot had another Corgi shouting "Atticus!", however..
  • While we are shown what the passengers go through, we never see how their loved ones are coping with them having vanished, nor their reactions once they return from being gone for weeks or months at a time (outside Jesse and his younger brother Nate in Book 2). Here, the fic regularly cuts to a B-plot focusing on how Chloe's friends and family are reacting to her disappearance.
  • On the Pokémon side of things, the story expands on the incident from Journeys Episode 11 by showing that Chloe being pressured by her classmates wasn't just a one-time thing and how this decision has affected her to the point of not being able to figure out what she could be. It also puts focus on Chloe and Goh's (crumbling) friendship which is never focused on in the anime in favor of Ash and Goh by showing how much of Goh's absence in Chloe's life has affected her self-esteem and self-worth.
  • Ash's accomplishments don't play a big role in the anime — even the fact that he's the first Alola League Champion is never brought up. Here, this is brought up but in a negative way; it makes Chloe feel even worse about herself since she feels like she'll never accomplish anything as great as Ash did and her classmates want to focus more on him than on her.
  • Most of the stuff the Apex did is briefly shown, but the story shows how much of a terror that they are. They traumatized the Caligraphy Car so that when Tokio entered it, they branded him with a zinnia tattoo and then later attacked him with a guitar to the face. Simon slammed a sledgehammer into Trip's eye and tattooed the Apex symbol on his wrist. Simon and Grace were the reason Lexi was Buried Alive and they also bullied Nico by throwing salt into his eyes.
  • The Infinity Train had no way of communicating at all, barring One-One's introduction video and his documentaries on different cars. Here he has an entire internet service and multiple apps like a Clock, Translator, Messenger, and YouTube.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Goh learns about Ash being the Alola Champion prior to Journeys Episode 29; he won't officially learn it until Episode 76.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • Invoked. Chloe's story about the wish-granter transforms its version of Mew into a childishly cruel creature that deliberately curses the protagonist to chase after them forever, drawing pleasure from their pain. Justified as even if Mew isn't actually this, it's how Chloe sees Mew for essentially ruining her friendship with Goh anyway.
  • Professor Cerise is shown to be more hostile and aggressive than his usual mellowness in the anime, although this is justified since his daughter has vanished and all he knows is that this is because of some "other-worldly train" kidnapping her and he's trying to not have a panic attack from it all. He later gets out of this when he reflects on his negligence.
  • Chloe's classmates were, at best, Innocently Insensitive in the anime; not so much here. They've bullied her over their jealousy on how she gets to be with Pokémon all the time, going as far as to dump paint on her and hurting her brother in one instance and doing other horrendous acts all while gloating over it.
• Adapted Out:
  • Because Goh is in such a bad place in episode 33 he never catches a second Pinsir to trade for Kricketina's Heracross. The Heracross still exists in the story but is only mentioned by Ash and Kylie.
  • Being in an even worse place than with Heracross Goh missed out on catching his Wingull during the Feebass/Miltoic episode.
• Adults Are Useless: Let's just say that if there was even one competent adult in this story, Chloe would be much better off.
  • Chloe's father is mostly oblivious to her struggles; it took an incident happening at the school's talent show for him to get an inkling that she was having trouble there, and his solution was to have her come straight to the lab after school. It's eventually revealed that Mr. Bradbury advised him to take his daughter to a counselor, only to go completely ignored.
  • Chloe's mother tried giving her advice, but really wasn't sure about the best way to connect with her daughter. After she runs away, Talia is left wondering how she might have worked harder to reach out.
  • Renji picked up on her struggles, but when she proved evasive about it, figured it was best to just let her stew rather than keep pressing.
  • Miss April knew that Chloe was the odd girl out, and kept records of the bullying, trying to encourage the other teachers to speak up more against it. At the same time, however, she underestimated just how cruel her students could be; when they picked up on Pokémon being a Berserk Button for her, they started talking about them more and more... and Miss April mistook this for them reaching out to their withdrawn classmate.
  • Goh's parents did nothing to address his growing obsession over Mew. Though they worried about his lack of friends, they made no real effort to encourage him to have more of a social life. In fact, they built his Mew Tracker for him — something which not only amplified his obsessive quest, but attracted the attention of at least one online stalker.
  • Professor Cerise's unawareness also extended to his son. This eventually leads to Parker unleashing the Unown, convinced that none of the adults will actually stick to their promises to make things better.
• All for Nothing: Has its own page.
• An Aesop:
  • Friendship and communication is a two-way street. Goh and Chloe's friendship has fractured because both sides have not been willing to open up, and Goh's obsession with Mew aggravated it to the point of it now completely gone. And since he's not willing to change himself, then Chloe will forever be out of reach.
  • Your actions have consequences: every action, good or bad, cannot be undone. Everything that happened to Chloe caused her to snap and believe that no one cares for her or loves her and everyone who truly did realize that they have screwed up big time.
  • You don't owe anyone forgiveness: Chloe cannot forgive everyone who hurt her and they shouldn't be forgiven unless they truly mean it.
  • Adults need to do more to help children, else the children they are supposed to protect will run away and you will be forced to deal with the fallout.
  • Sometimes you just need to try, regardless of your insecurities and doubts.
  • This goes without saying. Be Careful What You Wish For because you just might get it.
• Against the Grain: The entire story revolves around Chloe Cerise not wanting to be into Pokémon like everyone wants her to be (the story having written just before her second focus episode aired) and wants to be able to pursue her love of writing and monsters, not to mention the idea of being to follow her father's footsteps. The story is all about her learning that she can like Pokémon in her way and the sequel admits that she doesn't hate them; she just likes them differently.
• Agent Scully: Professor Cerise rejects Goh's testimony about hearing a train on an empty street, as well as the input of 'Tri_pod', as patently ridiculous. Chryssa immediately points out that Ash's mastery of Aura is similarly "illogical" when he first makes this assertion, with other characters also bringing up equally strange things like psychic powers in later instances. These only serve to make him even angrier and claim no one is taking Chloe's disappearance seriously. He later grows out of it once he realizes what a horrible father he's been.
• Alice Allusion: The train itself is one of these, and the story reinforces it by revealing that Chloe has read Alice in Wonderland five times and has a copy of it on her phone. She even compares the train to Wonderland and actively invokes the trope numerous times. Enough for those references to get their own segment on the fic's Shout Out page.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Chloe uses shampoo in Chapter 3 that is called "Oncidium Sharry Baby" and she's surprised to find that it smells like chocolate despite seemingly being named after a flower (which Oliver, her corgi guide, lampshades). Turns out that it's actually a real flower that truly does smell like chocolate.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: The penguins in the Plush Penguin Car are all different colors, reflecting the ice cream flavors they're based on: Minty is dark green with brown spots, Emperor Neapolitan is brown, white, and pink and Nico — based on sea salt ice cream — is cyan. The Sorbet Sharks are also different colors from red to coffee brown.
• And Then What?: Exemplified in She/The Cyan Desert Car Part 5 when Goh sees a vision of an older him finally catching Mew... after having successfully pushed away everyone who cared about him.
• Arc Words:
  • "My life is a work in progress". This is the phrase Yeardley said as an answer when questioned about who he wants to be in life. While it's regularly repeated in reference to the original context, it also relates to how the Train works: you have to make progress on the train in order to develop yourself.
  • "Disappeared completely and never be/never to be found", in relation to how others' treatment of Chloe lead to her disappearing without a trace and how Chloe herself wants nothing to do with her old life and ventures to become an entirely new person at the cost of her friends and family being afraid for her safety.
  • "Get Together": It's the title of a Madonna song that plays when Lexi and Chloe start their friendship and Ash uses this phrase when he says he will become Trip's boyfriend.
  • "Monster": Everyone, according to Chloe, is into Pokémon (Pocket monsters), while she's ostracized for liking "monsters" (ranging from demons to ghosts and everything in between) to the point of being called "Monster Lover". This also counts to how humans themselves can be monsters; from Chloe's classmates bullying her to the Apex destroying whatever they find in a show of strength.
  • "[I'm gonna kill you] all kinds of dead!": First used by Chloe when Sara pushes her too far; Parker (who was present for the incident) uses the same turn of phrase later. For both, saying this signals moments where outrage threatens to completely overwhelm them.
  • "Normal": What is considered "normal" in the Pokémon world is being into the creatures and Chloe isn't considered "Normal" due to that. The story brings up the idea that you don't need to be into Pokémon to have a happy life and how people who don't have as much enthusiasm for the creatures are marginalized.
  • "Try": Atticus's first piece of advice to Chloe is that she can't rush into things and must take the first step forward. Talia tells Mr. Pepper that Chloe was never told to try again. All Chloe wanted was someone to tell her to take a step forward and try something new. This word is about taking a step forward to doing something instead of being closed off from others.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • Atticus brings one up when Chloe notes how her Yamper and Ash's Pikachu can get along.
    Chloe: He [Pikachu] and Yamper get along well...but Ash and I...we're not compatible...
    Atticus: What do you mean? If they can get along well, why can't you get along with Ash? What is he like?
    Chloe: He's...He's... not into me. He wouldn’t like me at all since Goh is essentially everything I’m not.
    [number rises from 148 back to 151]
  • When Yeardley questions why Chloe's so important to him, Goh gives this:
    Yeardley: What's there to know about her? She's quiet, doesn't talk much, eats lunch by herself. Why is she so important to you anyway?
    Goh: SHE'S MY FRIEND AND YOU GUYS ONLY CARE ABOUT HER LIKING POKEMON AND HER WANTING TO BATTLE ASH AND NOT THE FACT THAT SHE'S GONE?!
  • When Chloe's classmates tell their teacher that they're all jealous and want to have Chloe's life, their teacher turns it all around.
    Miss April: So, let me repeat what you all just said to me and what I’ve observed. You all want to have the life of the girl who was never allowed to speak her mind, to be the girl who you all liked to call ‘Klutzy Chloe’ behind her back or make fun of whenever she had to read something or do an example of a math question on the whiteboard and then you want to be the girl who ran away from home because she felt like no one understood her and let her family worry about her when they found out she’s gone and all of her fellow classmates don’t even care if she got injured or died?
    Sara: [starting to realize how horrible she was] Uh...no?
  • When Ash questions how Trip could be so apathetic in how Goh is to not learn of the Infinity Train's existence, else risking him trying to enter it himself and probably ruin any chance of Chloe getting home:
    Ash: How could you say such a thing?!
    Trip: How could you just sit around and not do anything when Chloe clearly didn’t want anything to do with the Alola League Champion and instead just wanted someone who just cared about her?
  • Near the end of Chapter 10, Chloe wishes that she could always be "like this" (with good friends, having fun embracing her likes, etc).
    Lexi: Well, what's stopping you from being who you truly are?
  • In Chapter 14, Olmec asks Chloe if it ever crossed her mind if anyone ever died on the Train.
  • In Chapter 17, Amelia confronts several members of the Apex and gets them to second-guess themselves by asking them if they ever considered that The Conductor, whom they worshipped, might not take kindly to them destroying the Cars They worked so hard on.
• Armor-Piercing Response:
  • During their argument, Goh answers Chloe's furious demands this way, making matters much much worse:
    Chloe: Where were you when I needed support? When I was alone at school? When everyone picked on me for being 'Klutzy Chloe' or how I wasn't into Pokémon like you were? Where were you... Where were you?!
    Goh: Chasing my dreams, which is something you lack!
  • When Goh is running himself ragged trying to figure out what happened to Chloe, and Ash asks him to take a break, telling him that Chloe wouldn't want to see him like this:
    Goh: What do you know about her?! You don’t know anything about her!
    Ash: And apparently, neither did you.
  • When the Professor rounds on Reiji, blaming him for Chloe's predicament, Trip chimes in with a reminder of how little attention he paid his own daughter:
    Professor Cerise: [gripping Reiji's shoulders] And it [the entire situation of the Train in general] would never have been if you told me about Chloe’s problems in the first place! Do you know what this means?! My daughter is on some otherworldly train where she can be attacked by a cult without any means of defending herself! I mean, it’s not like she was trained in martial arts or the like.
    Trip: [sarcastically] Or the fact that you’d never even consider giving her self-defense classes.
  • In Chapter 16, Serena points out that Goh is hurting from everything going on. Parker disagrees.
    Parker: He’s hurting? I’m hurting too!
    Serena: I know you are. But hurting him to make yourself look bigger isn’t going to help.
    Parker: It’d make me happy.”
    Serena: Then you’ll be no better than the people who hurt your sister.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • When informing Chloe about what's unfolded in Vermillion in her absence during the Cyan Desert Car arc, Trip ends a long list of disturbing events with "[Parker's] making Pikachu eat mustard!"
  • Among the lists of inspirations for Chapter 21, detailing many Surreal Horror elements from WandaVision, films like Strange Circus and Suicide Club and "Firefly Funhouse", the last element is "the authors very annoyed with Goh hogging the spotlight".
• Artistic License – Sports: Subverted in Chapter 13. Yeardley claims that Chloe's team lost the softball game in PE class when he pulled the home base away from her before she touched it, which in real life is considered an obstruction and will result in disqualification. It's revealed that the PE teacher actually did disqualify the team; Yeardley just didn't want to admit to Parker that his 'cunning plan' backfired and how he was about to be beaten by a girl.
• Ascended Extra: Has its own page here.
• Ascended Fridge Horror:
  • All the horror that surrounds the Apex in their home series is brought up here ranging from how the cars of the raided are doing, to people that have been assaulted by them.
  • What would happen if someone with less altruistic means got their hands on the Unown? Arc 2 answers that.
• Author Appeal:
  • Descriptions of food, conversations taking place while people are eating food, lots of references to literature, and characters with macabre interests? That's a Green Phantom Queen story there.
  • In the author notes of Chapter 21, the author lampshades that she can't help but gush about Specter.
• Author Filibuster: A non-political example. The story's narration frequently throws in the author's thoughts on various pieces of media such as Sofia the First and Silent Hill, filtered through the characters. At one point in the Fog Car, Goh has an internal aside where he exposits his opinions on the two Silent Hill movies... having just found out his friend is in potentially mortal danger.
• Author Tract: Act 1 balances out the story of the Red Lotus Trio while also having the author call out the unfair treatment of Chloe, her Advertised Extra status, and the copious amount of unintentional Double Standard in the anime's writing. Thankfully, this gets mostly removed in Acts 2 and 3, with a bigger focus being placed on the story pulling an Internal Deconstruction and bringing Chloe's journey to a close.

B

• Bait-and-Switch:
  • In Chapter 16, Ash gets an email with the first lines wanting to discuss something about a brother. Most people would assume that this is Lillie talking about Gladion (As it's established that he's already been on the Train). The ending of the chapter reveals that it's Paul in the Train so the email is most likely coming from his brother Reggie.
  • Since they were first shown, many readers assumed Goh would be the one to unleash the Unown as Chapter 15 has the Unown react to his despair. Turns out it's not Goh, but Parker who unleashes them instead.
• Bathtub Bonding: Chloe and Atticus are having baths in separate tubs in Chapter 10, which is when Chloe brings up more about her world, her family, and her insecurities.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • Well, Chloe got her wish to live in a world without Pokémon. Though having a loyal animal companion that can spit fire or control lightning would sure be handy against soul-sucking roach dogs and other threats on the train.
  • Along similar lines, Goh tore into her for staying stagnant and not having any drive or ambition. Now she's off on a journey to figure out who she wants to be... leaving him and everyone else behind in the process.
  • Chloe's story about the boy chasing a wish-granting creature deliberately invokes this trope. After the boy accidentally killed his friend, he wished to see her again... but the creature twisted the wish by simply transforming into the friend's form for a few seconds and mocked the boy for not being more specific.
  • Yeardley and Sara wanted Chloe's life to the point of harassing her. After their evil deeds are exposed, their parents grant them their wish: they'll work for Professor Cerise every day after school until Chloe returns home. And readers know that the Professor never sends Chloe out to do research, they'll be stuck in the lab, sitting on a sofa for hours upon end while watching Ash and Goh gush about their adventures.
  • The author notes stated that Chloe wanted to get into Silent Hill (as in play the games)... she's going to actually be entering the eponymous town in Arc 2. As one reader noted, after this entire experience, Chloe will probably not want to play the games.
  • Yeardley wanted to stand out and command attention in a way he hadn't been able to before in his family. He's now infamous for his bullying, and his own Motive Rant is used to twist the knife further, helping ensure his reputation is firmly tanked.
  • Along similar lines, Sara wished to lord over others, basking in her presumed superiority. Arc 2 adds to her Laser-Guided Karma accordingly with UnChloe spurring her to brag about how she manipulated and turned her classmates against Chloe.
  • Chapter 21 has Goh seeing a nightmare as to what would happen if he had Chloe stay as she was. He sees in loving detail that she was Driven to Suicide.
• Be Yourself: When Chloe has doubts about if she'll ever be as good as Tulip from how Atticus talks about her, Atticus advises that Tulip is Tulip and Chloe needs to be able to find and become her best self.
• Betrayal Fic:
  • The story centers around Chloe leaving Vermillion City and the whole Pokémon world behind after being let down by most of her family and peers, going on a life-changing adventure on the Infinity Train while those who hurt her are left to come to terms with the role they played in driving her away. However, the problems involved are shown to be nuanced and complicated, involving a lot of communication breakdowns, with issues and wrongful assumptions on multiple ends.
  • In Arc 2, Goh feels like everyone is betraying him: Chloe has bid him farewell via text and broken off their friendship, Ash is spending more time with Trip, and he believes that people are forgetting about Chloe and focusing more upon others who have also gotten trapped on the Train. Much like with Chloe, his perspective is shown to be skewed based upon his own biases.
• Big "WHAT?!":
  • Goh shouts this when he realizes that his friend Ash is the Alola League Champion.
  • Chloe shouts this when Lexi suggests she gives herself as a reward in the Caucus Race (before he backpedals and says he meant her stories) and again when Lexi says that she should entertain the audience in the Plush Penguin Car with one of her horror stories.
  • Hop shouts this when he learns about Ash, the Alola League Champion.
  • The Red Lotus Trio shout this upon learning of Hazel being a denizen.
• Bittersweet Ending: Has its own page.
• Black-and-White Insanity:
  • Goh suffers from this: as far as he's concerned, anyone who gets between him and fulfilling his goals is automatically working against him. This includes getting upset at others for being worried about other people stuck on the Train, because how dare they not be focused on just Chloe?!
  • Parker descends into this in Arc 2, as his anger at Sara, Yeardley, Goh, and others reaches dangerous levels. The Unown getting involved just makes things much, much worse.
• Blame Game: As the story progresses, we see this being played more and more back in Vermillion City.
  • Goh and Ash argue about how neither of them did anything to get to know Chloe.
  • When Goh confronts Chloe's classmates and accuses them of being responsible for driving Chloe away, Yeardley and several others defend themselves by insisting that as her 'best friend', he should have known her better than any of them did.
  • Professor Cerise is furious upon learning that Renji was suspicious about Chloe having problems and kept it to himself, to the point that he seizes him by the shoulders and gets up in his face while blaming him for her winding up on the Train. Seeing how viciously he turns on her fellow research assistant also convinces Chryssa to keep her own observations to herself, for fear of ending up as another target.
  • The Professor also refuses to accept that his daughter developed macabre tastes all on her own, convincing himself that there must be some third party involved who encouraged her.
  • Trip is quick to blame everyone for all that they did to drive Chloe away, not caring about how he nearly made Ash break down in tears for not giving as much energy to help Chloe like every other girl Ash traveled with.
  • Goh blames his parents for not being there for him and making him have a social life. Kurune shouts back that Goh didn't care about a social life because he was obsessed with Mew.
  • Parker finds himself blameless and blames everyone else for not doing their part to make Chloe happy. The same with Frank, a student from Chloe's class, who states that he's also not part of the bullying (but more because his Asperger's syndrome means he didn't register it and he actually can back it up with evidence). Even after the Unown are gone, he still blames the adults for not doing anything sooner.
• Bland-Name Product: In Chapter 3, Parker is playing on a Swish console.
• Book Ends:
  • For Arc 1:
    • The tale started with Chloe sadly Eating Lunch Alone at school, and it is one of the same old lunches made by her mother. At the end of the Intermission, she's happily having pizza and malasadas with people who care for her.
    • In Chapter 1, Chloe slams Goh's Rotom Phone into a plate of curry in disgust, with Goh angry that she could've broken it. Come the Intermission, that very same Rotom Phone winds up with a cracked screen when Goh threw it in disgust after seeing Chloe's farewell text.
    • In the very same chapter, Ash and Goh bring up all the things they did in Galar to Chloe (Pokémon, battling and curry). The Intermission has both of them realize that they focused on what they did while failing to bring up something Chloe might have liked (learning the legend of Darkest Day).
    • Chloe chews out Goh and her father before breaking down in tears. She calmly texts a farewell to both of them in the Intermission, only starting to cry afterward.
    • Goh accused Chloe of not having a dream. When they text in the Intermission, he apologizes for his words while Chloe points out that she has a dream now.
    • Chloe wished for a world where she and Goh were friends and Ash never existed. During her final conversation with Goh, she admits that she's moved past that dream, no longer willing to keep waiting for his acknowledgment.
    • After Chloe ran away, Professor Cerise cries in the Cerise Lab at how he had failed in being a father. In the Intermission, he weeps in a live video when he confesses to the entire world that he was a horrible father.
    • The first chapter ends with Chloe saying goodbye to Vermillion City. The Intermission ends with Goh's Rotom Phone showing Chloe's final message to him, "Goodbye."
    • The story started after the adventures in the Galar region and Chloe entering the Train. The Intermission hints that, in the Galar region, Leon's little brother might have vanished...
    • Before Chloe woke in Corgnia, she had a dream of when Goh promised to eat her homemade curry one day. When Chloe brings it up in the Intermission, Goh has forgotten about that promise.
  • Other:
    • Chloe enters Azada waving good-bye to Jaden as he heads towards the exit. In the end, she waves good-bye to Titus before she, Atticus, and Lexi leave.
    • The Plush Penguin Car adventure begins and ends with the Red Lotus Trio sharing a laugh.
    • Chloe is reading one of Parker's emails before she, Lexi, and Atticus enter the Hidden Temple. She starts writing her response after the challenge is complete. And in the same car, Atticus asks Lexi for more time to look at the artifacts before stating that he could see them as they leave. When they leave, Atticus declines since they have more urgent business to attend to.
• Both Sides Have a Point: In contrast to Infinity Train, the story likes to show that both sides of an argument are valid.
  • In their fight, Goh and Chloe accuse each other of being the reason why they're not close anymore. While Chloe points out that Goh never replies to her messages and is so obsessed with Pokémon that she gave up trying to talk to him, Goh counters with how Chloe always runs away from spending any actual time with Goh and Ash, especially when Ash constantly asks her to go out with them.
  • When Goh chews out Chloe's classmates for pressuring her to fight Ash, while they ultimately do admit they were being insensitive, they also point out that Goh is also at fault for being completely ignorant of Chloe's feelings when he's supposedly her best friend.
  • When Lexi and Chloe argue about Lexi wanting vengeance on Grace and Simon, Lexi is right that they deserve some retribution for everything they did yet Chloe brings up how while she does want to get justice for how everyone in her life treated her, she doesn't want them gravely injured or dead.
  • Trip and Ash argue on whether or not Goh should learn about the Infinity Train. Ash points out that hiding the truth is just like lying to Goh and he knows that Goh would treat this as a serious betrayal. Trip notes that if Goh learns about it, it will just make him become obsessed with it and potentially have him enter the train himself, thus having two kids in the Train and even less of a chance of Chloe returning if they meet.
  • Likewise, when Trip and Goh have their argument, Trip states he kept the Infinity Train hidden in order to keep Goh in the dark while Goh is mad that Trip tried to keep him ignorant of the potential danger Chloe could be facing.
• Breather Episode: The pattern goes is that while one side is having a relaxing time, everyone else is suffering.
  • "The Plush Penguin Car" is a more relaxed adventure about eating ice cream that comes off the heels of the more emotionally heavy "The Library of Flying Books Car", but half of the A-Plot is dedicated to the Red Lotus Trio retelling the events that just transpired in the far more dangerous adventure Midnight Car. Meanwhile, the B-Plot has the major plot development of Professor Cerise and Ash learning about the Infinity Train from Trip. Then Part 2 makes this car just as heavy as the previous car when it shows Trip's encounter with the Apex, Lexi bringing up the possibility that Nico's friend was killed by them and Chloe's anxiety of telling her stories on stage after a flashback reveals her fellow students mocking her.
  • The Crayon Car Pt 1 has the Red Lotus Trio relaxing after the previous Plush Penguin Car troubles, but it has Chloe note how Goh's absence heavily affected her since he never came to her house to have sleepovers and her fellow female classmates never invited her/purposefully ignored her. Meanwhile, Professor Cerise is in more denial of Chloe's likes, Goh is going through a nightmare and Trip has just confessed his love for Ash.
  • The Crayon Car Pt 2 is a Wham Episode with the only lightness being Ash deciding to get together with Trip whereas the darker parts involve Chloe revealing why she's even going to the Cerise Lab in the first place and Goh reuniting with Tokio and learning of the Infinity Train.
  • The Crayon Car Pt 3 has Chloe relaxing with Lexi. As for everyone else? Professor Cerise realizes that he has been a horrible father, Tokio regales the tale of him being tattooed in the Calligraphy Car, Ash breaks down in guilt when he hears that Goh knows about the Train, and Atticus reveals to Chloe and Lexi about King Aloysius probably being attacked by the Apex.
  • The Hidden Temple Car is mostly a breather after the fallout that was The Canals of Fondue Car and the Intermission with Chloe, Lexi, and Atticus going through a Temple Run. Unfortunately, the ending changes the mood when it's revealed that something happened to Hop and that former Kalos League competitor Alain not only was on the Train but Alex somehow has his Honor of Kalos Medal.
  • After their difficult time in the Temple Run, The Red Lotus Trio are just being asked to showcase their fashion sense for a crowd...and in Vermilion, Goh kicks off his downward spiral when Ash picks Trip over him after they fight, beginning to activate the Unown Box...
• Brick Joke:
  • In Chapter 11, Trip is reeling from all the stories Ash tells him about previous adventures and questions if Ash was going to tell a story of how he became a ghost. In Chapter 13, Ash tells Trip and Parker about the time that he and Pikachu transformed into ghosts.
  • In Chapter 11, Atticus began using "A Gorey Demise" to his name to figure out the ways he could die^note A: drown in a pool, T: freezing to death, I: lost front brakes, C: disease of brain, U: trampled by hooves, S: shot with a bow. In the next chapter, after Chloe warns him that if he keeps any more secrets that she'll write a story where a corgi king is devoured by a hungry demon, Atticus notes that he thought he'd die by freezing, hooves of drowning.
• Broken Pedestal: Downplayed with Trip. A large part of his disappointment in Ash's failure to properly reach out to Chloe stems from how he sees him as an All-Loving Hero, with this striking him as a bizarre lapse. He still holds Ash in high regard overall to the point that he confesses his love for the Pallet Town trainer, despite his harshness when it comes to this particular subject.
• Bullying a Dragon: Played With; after Chloe's violent reaction to the paint can incident, her bullies switched tactics to ones with more plausible deniability. They also dropped the 'Monster Lover' label... only to pick it up again once she's no longer around to defend herself. They end up ruining their lives because of this bullying, and then their minds are going to be gone when Parker gest through with them.
• Buried Alive: A recurring motif of the story is how people try to leave their pasts behind and move forward with dark imagery behind it.
  • In Chapter 1, when Goh makes his Armor-Piercing Response that pretty much caused Chloe to run away and enter the train, the narration states that Chloe looked ready to leave Goh behind in a six-foot hole that he dug himself.
  • Grace and Simon buried Lexi in the garden of his own car for eight years.
  • In response to the torture Lexi went through and how he wants to torture Grace and Simon, Chloe's suggestion is from "The Mariner's Song", which involves throwing them into a hole and have the victims clawing at their graves.
  • In Chapter 10, one of the songs that play out is the opening of Creature Feature's "Buried Alive" which is when Chloe starts becoming more comfortable with herself. In the following chapter, Chloe's phone plays out the Creature Feature cover of "Bury a Friend" which reflects how she is ready to leave Goh behind (with the last lyric being, "Bury the hatchet or bury a friend right now".)
  • After a horrendous sequence of Nightmare Therapy in Chapter 21, Goh gives up on trying to become better so he can fix his relationships with Chloe and dives head first into an open grave, breaking nearly every bone in his body as someone shovels dirt all over him.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday:
  • Discussed in Chapter 6. Chloe notes that the free-riders (Grace and Simon) responsible for Lexi's near destruction might not care about being confronted, or even recognize him as being 'that old book from such-and-such'. Turns out Grace and Simon do remember him as revealed in Chapter 20, and they are not happy to learn that he's out for revenge.
  • Goh doesn't recall his promise to try out Chloe's curry when they were younger, not realizing that Chloe considered it a massive part of their friendship. This proved to be The Last Straw and cements Chloe saying her farewells.
• Bystander Syndrome:
  • In Chapter 7, Renji admits that he knew something was wrong with Chloe but said nothing over the idea that it would pass. Naturally, Professor Cerise is pissed off that Renji never brought it to his attention and indirectly made it easier for Chloe to run away. Chryssa herself is also hit with this too; she doesn't intervene when Professor Cerise chews Renji out (something Renji points out in Chapter 12).
  • Chapter 9 reveals that a lot of the penguins were victims of this when they let the Apex bully and pick on poor Nico.
  • Professor Cerise accuses Chloe's homeroom teacher of not doing enough to stop the bullying his daughter went through, especially when Miss April said that the classmates questioning if she would get into Pokémon "an improvement". Indeed, when the videos get uploaded, a lot of people chew out Miss April the most.
  • UnChloe accuses Ash of having this attitude not just for Chloe but also the two siblings on the beach (Gladion and Lillie) in that if it doesn't involve him, he shouldn't care about getting involved. They later extend this to one of Chloe's classmates Frank (who actually has a justified excuse as he has Asperger's syndrome and thus couldn't tell that this was going on) and Miss April (for just letting the bullying continue under the guise of "the classmates are actually interacting with Chloe by asking if she's gonna become like her dad").

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