Infinity Train Blossoming Trail / Tropes P to Z

P

• Painting the Frost on Windows: The Peci in The Crayon Car draw everything in the car: flowers, blades of grass, and even the shadows.
• Parting-Words Regret:
  • Goh regrets fighting with Chloe right before she disappeared. Deconstructed, however, in that he convinces himself that their argument was the only reason she ran off, and eventually recants after deciding to blame her for everything that went wrong.
  • Reggie is also struck by this: the last words he exchanged before losing contact with his brother Paul were an argument.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat:
  • While informing her that he expects her to create her own curry recipe, Mr. Pepper "encourages" her by commenting that she's surely got plenty of time to come up with something, due to not being part of any school clubs. Which is only the case because she's not allowed to be, as her father expects her to help with his research.
  • This seems to be a skill shared by his fellow teacher Miss April, as she lays quite the guilt trip onto her class after catching Sara in the act of badmouthing Chloe.
• Pietà Plagiarism: Goh's pose when he finally finds Mew. He cradles the broken Pokemon in his arms, swaddled in cloth, kneeling or sitting on the ground of the room where he's being held. As Mew is commonly viewed as a Messiah archetype within Fanon, Goh's grief over the possibility of it dying on him is symbolized like so.
• Poor Communication Kills: A Running Theme with its own page.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: Both the first and second Bea battles are merged into a single battle with the setting of the first and the outcome of the second.
• Precision F-Strike: On the Pokémon side of things, Chloe, Trip, and Professor Cerise drop words like "Hell" and "Damn" to emphasize their anger. Parker (who is in Kindergarten) calls Patricia a "Dumbass" when he tells her and Chloe's classmates off for how they hurt his sister. Trip says the F word in Chapter 18 in regards to what Parker has become..
  Trip: FUCKING SHITTY BRAT!
• Predators Are Mean: Averted by the Sorbet Sharks, natural predators of the Plush Penguins. Due to the overall saccharine nature of the car they inhabit, the worst they ever due is cause a ruckus at the Potluck event. Despite this, the author claims in her notes that she went with sharks instead of the more realistic seals as enemies to the penguins because they were seen as scarier by general audiences.
• Psychological Horror: While Infinity Train was already a host of this already, Arc 2 ramps it up with Hop and several other trainers trapped in Silent Hill, the reveal as to what happens if a passenger dies on the Train, and Parker and UnChloe trapping everyone in Vermillion into a nightmare of their own...
• Pulling the Thread: When Professor Cerise tries lying to Parker by claiming that Chloe just "went on a journey", Parker immediately challenges this, asking why she wouldn't tell anyone beforehand, or leave Yamper behind.

R

• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Now with its own page.
• Rejected Apology: All over the place, pre-emptively and otherwise. As the fic states, apologies alone aren't enough to fix anything; forgiveness needs to be earned. But that doesn't mean every rejection is automatically justified, either. And it goes both ways, as Parker learns.
• Revenge Fic:
  • The author notes that, in a way, the entire fic is ripping Goh's character apart in terms of how his positive traits are actually critical flaws and show how out of touch he is with Chloe (who is more like an Advertised Extra in the anime).
  • In Arc 2, Parker acts like he's the protagonist of a Revenge Fic/Accusation Fic, especially when he gets the power of the Unown on his side. He ends up showcasing how everything can go wrong in those kinds of stories.
• Revenge via Storytelling: Chloe's story in Chapter 5 is an embellished tale of a boy who chased after a wish-granting creature and ended up killing his childhood friend and cursed to chase after said creature forever. This parallels Chloe's resentment over Goh abandoning her for Mew and shows just how much she hates him. Chloe later reveals she gets revenge on her classmates this way.
• Revisiting the Roots: While set in the Journeys era and using the characterizations and histories of the characters, the general tone of how characters behave and act has a lot more in common with the original series: the dynamic of rough and abusive school environments, broken family dynamics, and character flaws being a lot more prominent and called out harking to the anime's beginnings.
• Rewatch Bonus:
  • Professor Cerise's attitude over Chloe's love of the macabre, and Chloe's anger issues make much more sense once you see the flashback of Chloe reaching her breaking point and beating up her bully with a paint can.
  • After the reader knows that Chloe is into myths and stories, go back to what Ash and Goh said about their adventures in the Galar reason. Those who remember watching Episode 28 will remember that one of the things they did was learn about the story of Darkest Day...but they never tell that to Chloe and only talked about things they liked: battles, Pokémon and eating curry. This only shows how tone-deaf Ash and Goh are to Chloe.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Goh and Professor Cerise are worried that Chloe ran away from home and got kidnapped. They're right on that part, but they assume it was a person who did it, not a train. They later learned that it was because of the Infinity Train...not that does anything to dissuade their fears.
• Ron the Death Eater: A rare In-Universe example: Chloe holds a lot of resentment for Goh, her father, and her classmates, but her resentment for Ash and Mew definitely comes from preconceived biases. For Ash's crime of being an accomplished Pokémon battler and being Goh's new friend, and Mew's crime of being a hard-to-find Legendary Pokémon, they are held as pillars of her inner hate for what they represent to others, despite the fact that neither have directly contributed to any of her current problems (Chloe has met Mew before but Mew has not done anything to her, while Ash has asked Chloe to join him and Goh on multiple occasions, only for her to reject them).
• Rule of Three:
  • The author's notes reveal that she wants to have each car Chloe visits to be at a maximum of three chapters.
  • There's also the Power Trio of Chloe, Atticus, and Lexi.
  • Chloe is filled with resentment towards three specific people in her life: her father, Goh, and Ash.

S

• Sapping the Shapeshifter: Chloe writes a story about a boy searching for a mysterious creature that can grant wishes, but only if forced. After finally finding it, the boy first has to knock the wish-granter out of the air and then grab it; the wish-granter immediately begins shapeshifting in a desperate attempt to escape the boy's grip, choosing forms like blocks of ice or lead that should force the boy to release it. However, in spite of all these transformations, the boy is able to hold it in place long enough to make his wish.
• Sea of Sand: The Cyan Desert Car is a bright blue desert that's traversed via boat.
• Self-Inflicted Hell: What, ultimately, Chloe's problems at the lab were. While her school problems were far from self inflicted, she could have solved her problems at the lab at any time just by accepting Ash or Goh's offers to adventure or talking to any of the adults in the lab. It took her (and the story) a while to admit this in any detail however.
• Serial Escalation: The author states that the Cyan Desert Car will break the usual three-chapters per car trend. The first chapter of the arc even states that it's "A Four-Day Epic". It ends up being six chapters.
• School Bullying Is Harmless: Averted. One of the main reasons Chloe ended up on the Train is due to how Sara, Yeardley, and most of her other classmates treated her. Dealing with this serves as a major Story Arc in Vermillion City, with massive repercussions for all involved.
• Shout-Out: Has its own page.
• Shown Their Work:
  • All the flowers, vegetables, and fruits present in Corginia are those that are safe for dogs to consume. The sole exception is onions, which Atticus immediately notes they can't eat and only grow in memory of Tulip's heroism (as it was her Trademark Favorite Food). Chapter 4 continues this as all the vegetables in the meatball soup and Chef's salad are dog friendly and Chapter 12 has Atticus recite every single thing that dogs are not supposed to eat.
  • The White Knight Eligos from Chloe's story in Chapter 6 sounds like something from a fantasy. Nope, it's a real demon from the Ars Goetia. Later chapters show off more and more of the demons.
  • Not only is The Hidden Temple filled with references from the show, but the artifact is called the Brass Vessel of King Solomon, which many demonologists state is what Solomon kept the original 72 demons of the Ars Goetia in.
  • The author does a lot of research on various myths and lore, ranging from The Sunken Cathedral and the Island of Ys, basing a wish-granter tale on Proteus and Tam Lin and even referencing Ubar, "Atlantis of the Sands".
• Side Bet: It turns out Ash's Pokemon had a berry wager on who he would end up with. Oshawott bet "Anyone but Trip" and is down three Sitrus Berries.
• Skewed Priorities:
  • Played for Drama. When Yeardley first learns that Chloe's run away from home in Chapter 6, he brushes over that to focus on the fact that she actually challenged Ash, and is much more interested in watching the fight — and mocking the mistakes she made during it. The same goes for the rest of her peers who crowd around Goh to pepper him with questions about Ash and watch the fight.
  • When called into a parent-teacher conference, Mr. Pepper completely dismisses the idea that Chloe was being bullied, even snorting at the notion that she was considered 'different' — because she had the audacity of following his recipes step-by-step.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The "Plush Penguin Car" serves as a non-video game example by way of pocket universes, though it trades out the snow in favor of ice cream.
• Slumber Party: In Chapter 11, Chloe states that she's technically having one with Lexi and Atticus in the Hotel Crayola, where they engage in a pillow fight, eating good food, singing, and sharing spooky stories. She then sadly notes that she hasn't had one in years since Goh decided to forget her for Mew and that she's never allowed to other girls' slumber parties either because they "ran out of invitations" or they were purposefully ignoring her.
• Something Only They Would Say: After receiving a strange text from his brother, Leon is only willing to believe it came from him because he called him Lee... and used his old nickname of 'Hoppy', which hadn't been used in years.
• Sophisticated as Hell:
  • Chloe delivers a Badass Boast in the form of a quote to the Erlking followed by an outburst of this nature (which doubles as a Shout-Out to The Owl House):
  Chloe Do not underestimate me, Erlking, for I am, Chloe of the Vermillion. A proud member of the Red Lotus Trio! NOW EAT THIS, SUCKA!!!
  • When Atticus fights Umlaut in The Dead Carnival Car, he begins to speak in rhyme before ending it by saying that Umlaut is "a kiss-ass".
• Space Whale Aesop: As an unintentional side effect of narrative choices, some very odd story reads developed.
  • Also crosses with Accidental Aesop but still manages to hit it: If you don't treat one of your childhood friends like an actual friend, even though you claim that you care for them, one of their relatives will use ancient, reality-warping beings to systematically destroy your very being for not being nicer.
  • If someone hates you just for existing and absolutely refuses to be friends with you no matter what you do or how hard you try, it's entirely your fault for them lashing out at you for not doing enough to be their friend.
• Spotlight-Stealing Crossover: While the story is a Massively Multiplayer Crossover, the Pokémon and Infinity Train elements take center stage, with Silent Hill joining the fray come Act 2.
• Stating the Simple Solution:
  • In the Plush Penguin Car, Nico's shocked by Atticus' suggestion of putting ice cream between the bagel slices as opposed to injecting it, so his skeptical and mocking peers are aware that he's actually making ice cream sandwiches instead of plain bagels. Cara, Nico's best friend, even repeats this after they reunite.
  • Goh questioned Tokio as to why the boy didn't go visit Goh in Vermillion City instead of leaving that letter in Celebi's shrine. Tokio said he considered it, but he got sucked onto the Infinity Train before any of that could happen.
• Stealth Insult: In Chloe's text to Goh in the Intermission, she does this twice:
  • She asks Goh to tell her classmates to Butterfree Unfezant Golbat off.
  • She also requests him to have Mr. Pepper to eat a salad, smoothie, and cake topped with berries. But pay attention to the first letter of each of the berries...
• Stock Shoujo Bullying Tactics:
  • Chloe suffers through having her hard-earned book report thrown into the trash with lunches dumped on it, paint covering her costume, and then thrown onto her ala Carrie, her classmates intentionally ignoring her when she speaks/talks over her and giving her insulting names. Naturally, she's all the happier to go for the Train where she never has to go through that sort of abuse.
  • Other things that happened were: being Picked Last for sports teams, pulling the home base away from her during a game of softball, throwing her bag into the mud, taking empty spots on a full table to themselves, stealing her shoes when she leaves the library so she gets late for class, annoying her in Music Class by blowing on the back of her head, etc. The author notes reveal that many of these tactics were stuff she went through in real life.
• Super Cell Reception: Chloe is capable of receiving (numerous) texts from Goh while on the Infinity Train. Chapters later it turns out that One-One installed a wi-fi system (Infinet) along with other apps specifically for the Train.
• Surreal Horror: Chapter 21 is filled to the brim with this as Goh is taken into "nightmare therapy" to help him confront his issues and face his character flaws.
• Sweet and Sour Grapes: Deconstructed in the finale with Goh. After being painfully forced to accept that his obsession with Mew has caused so much damage, Goh resigns himself to give up his dream as penance for throwing away Chloe...and then a crazy streak of luck puts Mew in his arms just as his friend returns ready to try again. Unfortunately, the notion that all his future efforts are invalid because they still came after he got what he wanted, not to mention the lingering guilt over having things "handed to him" in contrast to Chloe, drives him onto the train.
• Symbolically Broken Object: One in each arc.
  • Arc 1 has Goh's phone, a symbol of his tenuous connection with his former Childhood Friend Chloe. The inciting fight has it dropped into curry when Chloe hits her limit with him, and it is utterly broken after she finally cuts Goh off from her new life.
  • Arc 2 has Chloe's softball bat Silver Night, a symbol of retribution and punishment. Parker uses it to threaten and then torture Yeardley and the other students for what they did, and it quickly becomes excessive and cruel. After the Unown have been neutralized, Professor Cerise has it broken in two to signify that the punishments are over.

T

• Take That!: See here.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Chloe only goes with the idea of fighting Ash under the presumption that it's not going to change a lot about her life. Turns out the aftermath of the match does since it subsequently lead to her chewing out Ash, Goh, and her father before she ends up whisked onto the Infinity Train.
  • When Chloe starts reciting the lines to "The Art of Poisoning" by Creature Feature, two penguins request for her to do something else, like with the alphabet. Chloe obliges...and recites "A Gorey Demise", which is a song with the alphabet that talks about how people died, also by that same band.
  • The end of Chapter 12 has Chryssa question how a box, delivered by Spencer Hale, could cause so much trouble. Chapter 17 demonstrates exactly how in almost exactly the same way it did the first time.
  • When Lucy discusses Chloe's declaration to see the Apex stopped in Chapter 17, Toby repeatedly dismisses the potential threat she, Atticus, and Lexi pose to them, by bragging that "nobody can stop us!" Likewise, Grace and Simon dismiss the Red Lotus Trio as a serious threat and treat them as a "Princess and her null friends living in a fairy tale." Both groups are going to regret this when Chloe of the Vermillion arrives...
• There Are No Therapists:
  • If Chloe was given a therapist or at least someone to talk to about her problems, she'd be more stable. Same with Goh if someone told him to get his head out of those monitors of his and move on from Tokio. Unfortunately, the blame for this is on their parents — Professor Cerise doesn't notice (and Chloe thinks that he's using so much money for Ash and Goh, not knowing about grants and funding) and while Goh's parents show concern, their work keeps them too busy to help. In fact, Mr. Bradbury even said he told Professor Cerise to let Chloe see a counselor. He didn't and Chloe was never treated for her problems. Way to go!
  • This is averted with Trip; even after he got off the Train, his parents made him go into therapy. Tokio also went to therapy also after he returned from his ordeal.
  • Parker should've gotten some therapy for his anger issues. Now all of Vermillion City is going to suffer his wrath thanks to the Unown.
• Title Drop: Chloe mentions the title of the story in her farewell text to Goh:
  "The trail I left, where I am blossoming and growing into my own person...stop following it."
• Titled After the Song: Starting with the Intermission, one of the chapter titles is based on a song from Silent Hill. Each arc is also named after a different song: Arc 1 is "Nothing and Nowhere", Arc 2 is Run Baby Run and Arc 3 is In the Darkness.
• Trapped in Another World:
  • Chloe ends up on the Infinity Train but has no reason to go back home immediately because she doesn't want to confront her father, former best friend, her classmates, or "Black Hole" Ash any time soon. Later chapters reveal that Trip and Tokio were also former passengers on the Train.
  • Mallow and Gladion previously passed by the Train also as revealed in the prequel, Knight of the Orange Lily.
  • Arc 2 ramps it up by revealing Hop, Paul and Alain all trapped in The Fog Car.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: Starting with Chapter 2, the story is divided into two parts: Chloe's adventures on the train and her friends and family desperately trying to find her. Arc 2 expands this by showcasing Grace and Simon trying to make it back to the Mall Car before changing routes to The Fog Car instead.

U-V

• Unishment:
  • Most passengers who got sucked into the train find being trapped there a living hell. Chloe, who doesn't want to go back home, finds it to be the best thing ever.
  • Lexi's punishment for accidentally having Chloe hurt from his fight with Titus is to travel with her until she is ready to go home...that is to say, he gets to spend more time with Chloe and finally have his wish fulfilled to explore the rest of the train.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: See here.
• Viewers Are Geniuses: Many types of mythology and books are referenced throughout the story, and Chloe somehow knows about the Ars Goetia even though she's only ten.
• Villainous Breakdown: UnChloe has a spectacular meltdown when her schemes start falling apart around her, culminating in Parker forcing her to do good deeds against her will, to her fury.
• Villains Want Mercy:
  • In Parker's version of The Little Match Girl, one of her abusive sisters begged to be spared, claiming that she'd been forced to join in the torment. Given that this comes right after she attempted to sneak up and stab the match girl in the back, it's hardly surprising that the only mercy she receives is being blinded so that she won't have to witness her own fiery demise.
  • Sara and Yeardley plead with the Professor to give them a break and not post their written confessions online, with Sara dramatically declaring that she'd rather die than go through such torture. Things only get worse for them once Parker awakens the Unown.
  • All of Class 5-E not named Franklin, due to him not being involved in the bullying and his Asperger's syndrome not making him realize the emotional weight of what's going on, is begging Parker to not attack them. Unfortunately, this falls on deaf ears.

W-Z

• Was Too Hard on Him:
  • After learning some more details of Chloe's life, Trip apologizes to Ash for dumping more responsibility on him than he deserves, and tells him to stop beating himself up for not doing more.
  • When he learns about Miss April's suicide attempt, Professor Cerise rues how harsh he was to her regarding her passivity.
• Weird Crossover: Mixing Pokémon and Infinity Train isn't too crazy, since the former's been crossed over with weirder fandoms. It's when Silent Hill is added does this trope apply.
• We Used to Be Friends: After years of neglect, Chloe and Goh's friendship is strained to the point of decaying away entirely. By the end of Act 1, Chloe has decided it's simply not worth the effort to repair. As the story goes on and both Chloe and Goh, for better of for worse, this idea get revisited, and Chloe suggests trying again ay the end of the story.
• Wham Episode:
  • Chapter 11 brings up three changes to the story: Ash decides to try 'getting together' with Trip, Chloe reveals a critical moment from her past that casts her unwilling apprenticeship in a whole new light, and Goh reunites with Tokio who tells him that he was taken by the Infinity Train.
  • Chapter 14 has Olmec reveal what happens should a passenger die on the Infinity Train, that One-One has tasked the Red Lotus Trio to stop the Apex, what's happened to Hop since he first entered the Train and the implication that something happened to Alain.
  • Chapter 16, or "The end of the beginning" has: 1) Goh wanting to smear Chloe's name and hurt Ash in any way he can, 2) Chloe deciding it's time to send a message about the Red Lotus Trio's goal to topple the Apex, 3) Walter revealing a plan that involves seven embodiments, one of them being Chloe, 4) Hop is to be part of that ritual and 5) that another of Ash's rivals, Paul, is also in Silent Hill as a prisoner for having let an Apex member drown, and is being tortured by Walter.
  • Chapter 17 features Parker reaching his Rage Breaking Point when Yeardley and Sara start 'working' in the lab as part of their punishment. And his desire to see them hurt and see Chloe again is what actives the Unown. Meanwhile, Amelia encounters the Apex and learns that Hazel was one of her former creations / a denizen and Alain has been trapped in Silent Hill this entire time as the representative of Dreams. As the author comments at the end, "Now is the time to panic."
  • Chapter 18 has Parker determined to use the Unown power to make Vermillion City into a playland for his sister, Talia decides that it's time to tell Chloe about what's going on in the hopes of her getting Parker to realize his actions, Ash decides he will leave the Cerise Lab after this mess is over, The Red Lotus Trio welcome Amelia into their group and Paul is now broken into the embodiment of Despair.
  • Chapter 19 has Chloe deciding to accept Ash as a friend when she returns to Vermillion City, her attempts to stop Parker are blocked by UnChloe, Miss April must watch as all of her former students are to be punished in gruesome ways and Grace and Simon finally make their appearance in the story.
  • Chapter 20 and 21 up the ante with the destruction of the Unown and Goh losing his mind after Parker's last wish sends him into a suicide ward.
  • Act 3. Just... just Act 3. It doesn't matter which chapter, they're all a Wham Episode in their own right.
• Wham Line:
  • The end of Chapter 7 has Trip explain that he met with a bunch of monsters while on the train.
    Trip: And they called themselves The Apex.
  • Trip gets another one in Chapter 10 when informs Ash that he loves him.
  • The end of Chapter 11 has Tokio reveal that he was taken by the Infinity Train after he left the letter in Celebi's shrine.
  • The end of Chapter 14 as Henry and Walter are commenting on Hop being "adorable":
    Walter: So was the previous passenger that came from his world. What was his name again...Alan?
    Henry: No, Alain.
  • Two for "The Day of Night / The Elephant Teapot Car Pt 2":
  • First is Hop happy for his gift but notices something off.
    Hop: So cool! What is it?
    Alex: A harpoon-pack, so that you can climb onto higher areas.
    Hop: Cool...wait... what’s that weird symbol on the front?
  • And then the last lines of that very same chapter reveal that Paul Drangea has been imprisoned in Silent Hill, and that Walter is grooming him to become Despair in accordance with some prophecy.
  • The last two words of "Love Martyr / The Cyan Desert Car" reveals the name of that patient Henry talked to: Alain Satavis.
• Wham Shot: Arc 2 has plenty of these to show how high stakes are.
  • In Arc 2's Prelude, Hop is pulled away by Alex before he gets to read the sign of the town he's about to enter. The sign reads, Welcome to Silent Hill.
  • As Henry and Walter discuss Hop and their previous visitor, it's shown that Alex is wearing Alain's Honor of Kalos medal.
  • In Chapter 16, Alex gives Hop a gift — an Apex harpoon-pack.
  • In Chapter 17, what is the first thing The Unown summon for Parker? A gothic princess version of Chloe. And at the very end of the chapter, we see Alain's name on the door holding Henry's patient.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Has its own page.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: A variant. Chloe certainly sees her father often enough thanks to visiting the lab regularly, but putting all his energy towards his Pokémon lab work and his "research fellows" means that Professor Cerise still fails to actually spend any quality time with his daughter. This causes the Professor to realize that he's been a horrible parent but by then it's too late since the end of Part 1 has Chloe send an email stating that she no longer sees the Professor as her father.
• Womanliness as Pathos:
  • As the focus is about Chloe running away from home, the B-plot revolves around how her disappearance heavily affected those around her and makes them look back at how they treated her. From her little brother being her Number 1 fan to her father and mother not knowing anything about her to her Childhood Friend losing his sanity because he can't understand what it meant when he abandoned her for Mew and even Ash is surprised that he couldn't reach out to her because of how she wasn't into Pokémon.
  • Sara's bullying and inability to change caused most, if not all the problems in the story and the repercussions of her actions have affected every single person from her classmates to Chloe's family and now all of Vermillion City once Parker obtains the powers of the Unown.
• Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Age-flipped. Chloe asks this question to her father after she confesses that she's sick of how everyone wants her to be involved with Pokémon, including him.
  Chloe: Why did you have to become a Professor? Why couldn’t you be someone different?!
• The Wild Hunt: Chloe, Atticus, and Lexi encountered this when they traversed through The Midnight Car.
• You Can't Go Home Again: As Act 2 ramps up, it becomes increasingly clear that Chloe won't be coming back to the Vermillion City she left, or even a "better" version of it. If she even comes back there at all considering what The Fog Car has in store for her. Be Careful What You Wish For, Chloe Cerise.
• You Keep Using That Word: Delia admits that for all the time's Ash has said he wants to be a 'Pokemon Master', she's not quite sure what exactly he means, or if he is quite sure what he means by it half the time.

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