Our reflections are alive!

#1 Lake fan! //She/Her//They/Them// //Latino (Argentina)// //Hobbyist Artist// //💛💙🩶🖤//

[just-blei]

PINNED POST FOR THE BLOG!

Youtube (thinking of doing more content there in a future)

Alt Blog (just for stuff I don't post here for any reason)

BlueSky (may or may not keep posting there)

Instagram (I would give it ONE LAST TRY)

My Art (just everything I drew here)

[johannesviii]

happy month of queer joy that no amount of hate will ever be able to repress forever

[just-blei]

This is a weird way to celebrate Pride Month BUT HEAR ME OUT!

I know not many people had read Jumalanpelko but I'm gonna compare Lake and Viima because THESE TWO HAVE THINGS IN COMMON!!

There is going to be spoilers of Jumalanpelko!!

Both lived in a world/cult just to be someone's reflection/house (concidentally, that someone having she/her pronouns). Not being allowed to be themself.

They had a deadname that only refers their role in their world/cult.

Both had a wish, thought or curiosity of what's outside of their world/cult.

Both did what was considered impossible to escape. In Lake's case, they escaped the train even though they can't get a number or leave through a passenger's exit because of being a denizen, while on Viima's case, he escaped from the cult after death while he wasn't supposed to think or feel as a spirit.

Got their own name after escaping!!

Viima is canonically trans while Lake's story is confirmed or at least heavily implied to be a trans metaphor.

Anyways that's all I know, hope you see my vision lol

[temaru]

hello universe!!! random self-indulgent bullshit from my sketchbook GO!!!!!

[rusted-fairy-wings]

Got a couple moots to watch Book 1 recently and it gave me a bunch of motivation to doodle book 1.

Always have and always will love book 1 <3 Tulip Olsen, you’ll always be famous

[a-che-delat-to]

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO SEASON TWO INFINITY TRAIN YAYYYY

[rusted-fairy-wings]

I've never even seen or heard of infinity train before but I've gone on a rabbit hole and the sheer whimsy you exude while talking about it has tipped me over the EDGE

Give me a quote i won't get until I've seen it :] im very excited I haven't seen a new show in forever

-🧤

Unfortunately, I’m not super surprised? I feel like not a lot of people know about it which is such a shame because it’s hands down one of the best cartoons of recent years. In my admittedly biased opinion, I think it’s one of the best story-driven western cartoons ever. But it’s definitely underrated. I don’t even remember how I stumbled upon it back in 2020, I think I saw fanart on Pinterest or something and thought it looked fun. Very grateful I found it though.

I’m so honored my love for this cartoon has gotten you interested. So hard to pick one quote so here’s a couple that stick with me off the top of my head:

“Sometimes numbers are part of the problem, not the solution, y’know?”

“We have to adapt to the changes in our lives.”

There’s other quotes I’m also obsessed with, but I think these fit what you asked for best :)

I truly and sincerely hope you enjoy, Anon!!! If you’d like the link to watch it on the Internet Archive, feel free to send me another ask!

[sadhoc]

first year in fandom: omg i love these characters.... and the story's so well written.... so much cool fanart and fic, i think i'm going to write some of my own

eleventh year in fandom: au where the character is a little jingle bell for sale on ebay for 8.99

[rusted-fairy-wings]

There’s something really poetic and wonderful I think about the infinity train crew pairing the character who is widely agreed to be a blatant trans allegory with a character who has struggled with toxic masculinity.

I wouldn’t say it’s the largest part of Jesse’s arc or his primary struggle, but elements of it are definitely present with the whole “man test” he put Nate through.

And while I think more broadly Jesse and Lake’s arcs are both so much more complex and have so many more elements than this, I do think it’s rather interesting how much a queer/trans reading adds to book 2. Lake who fights society’s rigid expectations at every turn vs Jesse who conforms to them.

Something something foils and reflections

[temaru]

rymin doge. playing around with different breeds about it! rambling under the cut!

i love stumbling upon the rymin dog crew art. audacious pom ryan and anxious dog min brings me so much joy but also the fact that dog ryan is quite small made me think. i'd been watching a lot of dog agility competition videos and some of my favorites are the papillions and the border collies who straight up trailblaze the whole thing. i've always associated ryan with speed and unbridled energy in my head and while he definitely doesn't have the grace of a borzoi or the like he can definitely flit around like a little motherfucker. i love pom ryan to bits and i still think he's a funny little guy but when i actually think of dog ryan i think of a faster running or herding dog but maybe that's just me. i lean more towards border collie for my actual dog ryan hc but i just love drawing papillion ryan more because i like making the long ear fur look like his scruffy hair!

if i were to solidly headcanon ryan as a dog i'd think of him as a border-pap mix like Nimble! that's just me though

i actually thought dog min was perfect and the first time i saw his downward ears and anxious dog body language i thought to myself "fuuuck. that's perfect". i personally interpreted him as a black labrador retriever but if there's another dog breed he's more like i'd love to hear about it? despite their capacity for all sorts of things iirc black labs are primarily domestic house pets and i thought that fit. i visited a friend who had a big ol labrador that was absolutely TERRIFIED of us and either 1) hid when we came near or 2) stayed glued to her side either to protect her or protect himself we don't really know. and i just feel min would be that kind of dog. a big anxious lapdog baby. I'm pretty set on him as a black lab but i also drew him up as a black alaskan malamute just for funsies, i have no explanation for it other than it's cute.

by the way i'm sure it's obvious but I am ASS at drawing dogs! i suck at anatomical correctness so i just made them silly! which is why they are also pretty inaccurate. will try to get better in the future but i had fun with it!

[rusted-fairy-wings]

Not sure if this is controversial, and this may sound ridiculous and a little silly coming from a Jesslake shipper, but I honestly adore that Infinity Train doesn't really have any canon ships except Amelia and Alrick, who we only see through flashbacks.

In a world where romance is often treated as the end all and be all of all relationships, to me I find it very refreshing to see a show leave so many relationships ambiguous and up to interpretation. Did Grace and/or Simon have feelings for each other before everything went to shit? Are Ryan and Min in love? Do Jesse and Lake have silly teen crushes on each other? Maybe! Maybe not! All completely up to you!

I often get burnt out with or annoyed when media feels the need to push romance onto every single character. Or have characters that are single in agony over being single. It's exhausting, and I just fundamentally disagree with the idea that romantic relationships are more meaningful than platonic or familial ones. So it's really refreshing to me personally that we get to interpret things how we want with Infinity Train. The show makes clear how important characters are to one another, but it leaves the exact nature of various dynamics up to you. And I just find that so refreshing. Any romance in this show is there because you see it.

[jirachiki]

My friend and i watched all of Infinity Train it was fun

[drpicklesart]

I feel like someone has to have done this already but I have too many favorite characters so I just had to make it about infinity train instead

[Image description: traditional art recreation of the "I Think We're Gonna Have To Kill This Guy, Steven" meme with One-One and Tulip from Infinity Train. One-One says, "I'm afraid we'll have to kill this guy, Miss Tulip," and Tulip replies, "Damn," with a straight face. End description.]

[canadiancryptid]

How does the Train decide where passengers start their journeys?

Whenever I start thinking about Infinity Train again, I always find it interesting how the Train seems to have rules about what can exist within a car and how passengers interact with it.

One of these rules is how it decides where to drop off passengers to start their journeys. We've seen 5 passengers after they got dropped off by their pods, and all of them are in a car that's somewhat similar to where they were when they got abducted picked up, and that's at least relatively peaceful in its normal state

Warning: this is gonna be a long one.

Looking at Book 1, Tulip doesn't even realize she's not where she was before until she finds the door. She just wakes up in a snowy landscape and assumes she passed out and dreamed the weird glowing train. Even the giant snowman doesn't seem too strange. The least 'normal' thing in her starting car is One-One, who got dumped there by Amelia and isn't meant to be part of the car. It's quiet, uninhabited, and while certainly cold, she was dressed for colder weather. Sure, the Train picked her up in a forest area, but while the Snow Car may not have as many trees, it has some, and they even seem to be the same type. It's a close enough match that she doesn't even realize she's somewhere else.

Next up we have Jesse. We only see his arrival in a flashback, but we can put the pieces together. We see from his video of the incident with Nate that he was in some sort of grassy, vaguely hilly area with a bunch of trees, and considering he said that he never got to talk to Nate again before the Train took him, he probably stayed in the area to think about what happened and how badly he screwed up. Even if he did head home at some point before the Train picked him up, it's clear he never made it back, and the area around his house still has a ton of massive, grassy hills with trees.

When he wakes up on the Train, he finds himself in the Hill Car.

We know from the Train Documentary about it that its a peaceful car, albeit inhabited by giant birds, and that some of the hills can talk. Comparing the car to where he was before, we see the same kind of hilly, grassy plains, just with seemingly no trees and bigger hills. And if there are giant birds, there's a decent chance there are trees somewhere. It's not a bad match, all things considered.

There's even a piece of crew art on Owen Dennis' Instagram that shows him sitting on a hill contemplating his actions, with the filing cabinet from the incident lying nearby. This art shows fewer trees nearby and bigger hills, making it look even MORE like the Hill Car. Crew Art may not always be a perfect reflection of canon events, but the small differences in the surrounding area only make the parallels even stronger.

Before we see the flashbacks of Jesse's arrival, we see Lake passing by Mrs. Graham getting her orientation video from her pod. We don't know much about her other than the fact she's a lunch lady at Jesse's school, and that she got picked up while still wearing her hairnet and apron. For as many questions as I may have about where she was and why she got picked up at all, there's not really anywhere on earth that looks like that.

At first glance, it might seem like this disproves the idea of any sort of algorithm that decides where passengers start based on where they were picked up, and while yes, it does throw a wrench into it, I wouldn't say it proves that there wasn't one at some point.

When Mrs. Gramm got picked up by the Train, it was well after One-One was back in charge after his period of unwilling absence. It's not hard to tell that his time experiencing a passenger's journey first-hand with Tulip has changed the way he runs things. He started leaving passengers in their pods until they wake up, keeping them safe instead of just dumping them out in the open, and giving them a little orientation video to explain where they are and how things work. While how much this actually helps them adjust to the fact they just got abducted and got stuck in the world's worst therapy program is… debatable, it's clear our little Conductor is trying to work on some pain points he saw with Tulip.

Doing the math, Jesse got there before Mrs. Gramm. He was already on the Train for a while before Lake found him, but she sees Mrs. Gramm just starting off not long before. They both got picked up after One-One started the orientation videos, and if he's only been back in the driver's seat for a few months now, he's likely still working on changing things. The Doily Car is unlike anything on earth, sure, but most importantly, its safe. It's peaceful, there don't seem to be any native denizens that could pose a threat, and it's just generally a decent place to wake up in. There's a good chance that One-One is trying to start prioritizing a safe starting car over a smooth transition.

Tulip's first car had the risk of freezing, even if she was dressed for the cold. Jesse's first car was pretty safe, but there was still the giant bird issue. Mrs. Graham's first car was perfectly safe. The biggest threat in there was Lake, and she was just passing through.

Even with the surreal landscape, the Doily Car actually sort of loosely fits where she may have been before. As previously mentioned, she's still in her work clothes. Doilies are typically used as decorations when serving desserts or other sweet foods. While they aren't the sort of thing you would see in a school cafeteria, they do share a theme of serving food. The attempt to match the context of where the Train picked her up with her starting car is still there, but could you imagine how crazy a cafeteria full of denizens could be? That would only serve to scare her more, if not put her in more danger.

If we look even further back, we find Ryan and Min-Gi. When they got on, the Train was working as it was seemingly intended to. Amelia hadn't taken over, One-One was still One, and yet, the two of them got dumped in a frozen wasteland. You might think this implies there wasn't an algorithm for this sort of thing before Amelia started whispering in One's ear and convincing him to make some changes, but this car is actually a decent match.

The problem is, this car has multiple states, and the ice age obviously isn't the one that fits best.

In the car's "normal" state, when the Erastat dial is set perfectly in the middle, the car reflects a relatively modern city. A little futuristic, perhaps a little alien, but still a 'normal' city. With how long it takes Lake to get to the Number Car, we know the pods can be travelling for a while, so when it sent them off, it probably WAS a modern city. Kez just came in and messed with the dial after the car was selected.

If the modern-day state of the car is what was used to decide where to drop them off, its not that far from where they were before. Its not a perfect match, but it could have been so much worse. The Train doesn't have a lot in the way of modern cities that don't have some big twist. A dial that changes the time era isn't really that wild.

Overall, it seems like the Train has some sort of system that uses where the Passengers are picked up to help decide where it should drop them off. Like most of its other systems, it doesn't do it amazingly, but there seems to be something going on behind the scenes.

The Train is such a fascinating machine to think about. Its one of the many reasons this show always seems to stay creeping about in the back of my mind.

[scribblenator]

hi hazel whatcha got there

[rusted-fairy-wings]

Truly horrific to think about Infinity Train Book 1 from the perspective of Tulip’s parents.

They screwed up. Straight up. They communicated poorly, and Tulip wound up bearing the brunt of the consequences of it. Nobody was perfect in the situation. All three of them are just clearly going through it. Divorce is hard on everyone involved, and it’s clearly shown to be a fresh wound. It’s just a shit situation all around.

And I’m confident in saying I’m sure both her parents felt bad over the ordeal. It’s not fair. It sucks. Yeah, they’re trying, but they’re still learning to navigate these brand new dynamics. At the end of the day, they still screwed up because Tulip has to miss something she really cares about.

But then Tulip runs away. And she doesn’t come back for months. Can we imagine the panic, the guilt they must have felt? Tulip packed a bag; surely they noticed stuff was missing when someone checked her room. As far as they know Tulip actively ran away (true). But they had no way of knowing she was prevented from coming home. Just horrifying to think of the implications of that. They don’t know where she is. She’s disappeared without a trace. Even if authorities tracked her well, she’d still appear to have vanished into thin air upon boarding the train. Tulip is just. Missing. They don’t know if she’s even alive.

And with the added weight of what happened immediately before Tulip disappeared, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume they both held a lot of guilt. That they both felt Tulip disappearing was their fault. That they wondered if things had just been different maybe they’d still have their daughter. We see Tulip has the tendency to take on things outside of her control—maybe that’s a tendency she picked up from one or both of her parents.

I just can’t stop thinking about how scared and distraught they must have been. I can only imagine the relief they felt when Tulip finally came home. All the questions they must have had. How many more questions they must have had seeing how fundamentally Tulip has changed. Like imagine your only daughter who you’d been arguing with last time you saw her comes back after being missing for months and she’s changed and improved that much. It’s just sickening. It’s all off-screen and it still fucks me up.

[cat-or-goose]

<3