Characters / Infinity Train: Seeker of Crocus: Specter

Infinity Train: Seeker of Crocus Main Character Page
Windchasers (Professor Sycamore) | Infinity Train (Denizens, Red Lotus Uprising [Chloe Cerise], White Gestalt (Specter), Elipzo) | Pokémon World (Goh Fujihachi, Professor Cerise, Sara Diktaylis) | Den City | The Multiverse

Specter

"I just feel a sense of relief…I was in the dark place for so long...and I fear I might not be able to recover after everything. B-But you guys [London and Easter] are appearing in my life again a-and I get to go back [onto the Infinity Train]. I get to go back''…”

“I promised…to see her again! To save her! I’m not leaving until I see Lampetia one more time!”

Appears in: Seeker of Crocus (Mentioned, First appearance: The Chocolate Car)

A passenger from Den City and part of the Knights of Hanoi, hoping to start anew on the Train for three reasons. 1) To restart his friendship with London. 2) To forgive Easter for all the times he pushed them away. And 3) to rescue Lampetia from the Apex and to see her one last time. He is a member of Gladion's former team, White Gestalt, acting as the brains.

Warnings: Spoilers from The Ninjala Car and The Chocolate Car are unmarked.

---

A-D

• Achilles' Heel:
  • While he's good at Flaw Exploitation and mind-games, to the point he made Lighting go on a Villainous Breakdown, it doesn't work on individuals who are certain of themselves and can plow through without feeling insecure, or if the one's he is giving mind games too is just better. Case in point: Jonathan Chiller out maneuvers him with mind games, making Specter lose his mind once he manages to destabilize Lampetia, Easter and London in one go.
  Tokio: I thought you were the expert on seeing people’s intentions
  Specter: That’s when it comes to people I can exploit a weakness. But this is also stuff from the Train and the Train doesn’t use logic. Or if you’re so stubborn and hold onto your beliefs, then there’s no point in trying to crack the armor than to just pulverize it with a sledgehammer.
  • Specter comes from a world filled with logic, AI not withstanding. So if he's completely out of his element, like in Horrorland Car, then he's not going to be as big of a help in wondering what the hell the Gestalt is supposed to do.
• Actually Pretty Funny:
  • After going through a hellacious experience recalling what he did on the Train, along with having to finally tell Ryoken to shove it, he starts laughing at one of Amelia's bad puns, finally able to find some sort of happiness after so long.
  • He remarks that he has to remember Chloe's remark on Sara being "Princess Dumbass turned into an arrogant blowhard" after the Unown stuff is dealt with.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Specter already had it rough in the original trilogy, with only Tokio having it worse off than him out of all of White Gestalt. But Crocus decides to one-up it by giving him a fear of reflections, have him be isolated in the mansion of the Knights of Hanoi at the hands of the man he loves, Ryoken, and then be assaulted by the past memories of his train trip when that gets restored thanks to One-One to the point he was about to get a knife to his throat.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • Knight of the Orange Lily only focused on his Season 2 self and any of the atrocities he did as a Knight of Hanoi was glossed over. Here, all of his sins from Season 1 are brought up — his biggest ones being his Kick the Dog moments on Aoi Zaisen/Blue Angel — and how people react to them.
  • Act 2 focused on the time he spent with Lampetia prior to meeting the other Gestalt members and explaining how he felt so distant from everyone in the orphanage he grew up in and that he hated hospitals because they made him lonely and reminded him he had no family to call his own.
• Adaptation Name Change: A downplayed example; the English dub spells his name with an "re" instead of an "er", but he goes by the latter spelling instead of the former.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Chloe and Specter didn't really interact that much in the original trilogy as Specter was back in his world by the time she heard about him. In here, not only do they get more interactions together, but his bond with Chloe in Crocus is more akin to a partnership in contrast to the near romantic one they had in Infinity Train: Boiling Point and Melancholy Afterlife. Chloe even tells Augustine outright that she doesn't have romantic feelings for him.
  • In canon, Specter is always loyal to Ryoken, no matter how many atrocities he made. In this story, Specter's loyalty wavers when it's shown that Ryoken doesn't care to listen to his concerns about the Train (which includes seclusion in his room for his hysteria) combined with the fact that he's obtaining feelings of love towards him and Ryoken shoots down that he does not see him in that light (although it's not known if it was towards Ryoken seeing him as a damsel or realizing he's going through gay panic).
  • In the original Blossomverse, his relationship with London would eventually grow into Vitriolic Best Buds, to the point Specter spent days on his computer trying to contact London when Infinet connections stopped working and he he almost made the decisioni to stay on the Train so London didn't end up alone. In Crocus, it's ambiguous as to what's going on Specter's end — somewhere between atonement, loyalty, friendship and perhaps a romance — while London want to work on repairing the damage he did but is quickly warned to approach the situation calmly and repeatedly has to state that he's not gay in the slightest. The author notes reveal that ultimately, it's just a very deep friendship.
  • His relationship with Easter was... complicated, to say the least, in the original Blossomverse trilogy; he basically hated them so much that they only decided to move on near the end of the story they appeared in and, barring one meeting in Wisteria, the two didn't really get along. They get along much better in this story by forgiving each other for their mistakes, to the point that their trust is so strong that they can somehow fuse together.
• Adaptational Heroism: Was a villain when VRAINS started, later upgraded to Anti-Villain throughout Season 2, and finally into a background character by Season 3 due to his seiyuu busy at the time to voice the character. In Knight of the Orange Lily he wasn't a villain (he got on the Train post Season 2 but before Ai returning in Season 3) but he certainly didn't have aspects of a hero as well. Rather, he was dragged along for the crazy ride and only went along with stopping the Apex because he found them disgusting. By the time he returns to the Train in Crocus, he willingly wishes to return to the Train to make amends to all he hurt on the Train, and fully aware that he has done some horrible things in the past.
• Adaptational Intelligence: In canon, you could tell Specter that Ryoken was a moustache-twirling supervillain who eats kittens for breakfast and he'd still find a way to paint him as a good man, but that's due to loyalty to Ryoken and the Hanoi rather than being oblivious. Here, he's at least smart enough to notice when he goes too far and that he can't stay with Ryoken if he refuses to reciprocate that Specter desperately needs help or is in love with him.
• Adaptational Karma: In the original trilogy, principally Orange Lily, nobody brings up his atrocities explicitly nor force him to own up to them. In here, George Gore — he who spitefully destroyed Earth just to get at Playmaker — brings them up in order to ensure Specter doesn't get all high and mighty, reminding him how he has done a lot of terrible things as well.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Or at least niceer than his usual canon self or his Blossomverse self. He's more willing to play nice with others and open up about his problems.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Has no canon love interest but the co-author reveals that he's gay and crushes on Ryoken. Unfortunately, Ryoken doesn't seem to reciprocate (he tells Yuri he doesn't "see Specter that way" but it's not certain if it's either to Specter being a damsel in distress or romantic partner). Author notes for the Palimpsest Car confirms he's demiromantic (in which he can't have a romance with someone unless he formed a deep emotional bond) for Ryoken.
• Adaptational Sympathy: While he gained sympathy points on feeling the death of the Earth Ignis in Knight of the Orange Lily, Seeker of Crocus dives into how much pain he's gone through as he wrestles with most of his memories returning after the Geass, how much losing Lampetia meant to him and his own sexuality clashing with him losing seeing Ryoken as a Broken Pedestal.
• Advice Backfire: Played With. While his advice to Chloe does get through to the girl and convinces her to stop wallowing in spite, it also causes Professor Sycamore to lose all hope in ever being of use to the teams and become insane, believing the world has to be reset in order for things to stop going down the drain constantly. While it's later resolved thanks to Tres, things are still frosty between the ghost and the seeker.
• All Love Is Unrequited: He has a big crush on Ryoken, who not only doesn't reciprocate the love and doesn't see Specter that way — or he could've been telling Yuri he just doesn't see Specter as a "damsel in distress" — but what he does to him after he returns from the Infinity Train borders very closely to a Homophobic Hate Crime.
• Always Someone Better: When it comes to boys who actually confront Chloe about their problems, he's this in terms to Goh. It takes Goh years to realize he's really been a sucky friend to her, but Specter immediately tells her to quit with the meltdowns. Technology wise, while Goh is savvy, Specter is a hacker and former cyber-terrorist. Specter also has shown signs of combat and can work in tandem with Easter, whereas Goh is a Non-Action Guy and struggles getting along with Raboot in some areas.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • When Pandor asks for proof that Specter truly wants to go back on the Train, Specter stabs the plush aqua heart pillow that he used as a security blanket with a maniacal look on his face. Was he showing his seriousness or was it all an act for Pandor to walk off? What muddles it is his reaction to the remains of the pillow and his mental apology for what he had to do.
  • In Horrorland Car, Specter claims his fused state is alive and kept him sane when he gets sealed in a coffin going down a river. Is he saying that Storm is alive or is he hallucinating and stressed over what this car is doing to him? A clue that points to the former is when Specter can electrocute a swarm of bats with his staff...except Easter is currently with Ai at that point. Easter also expresses concern over the recent developments and Specter also senses someone speaking in his head when he mentions how glad he is that Easter came into his life.
• And This Is for...: Before he and Easter lay the final blow on The Arrival Cyberse @Ignister, Specter states that this is for his mother.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Specter is forced to do this so that the tears that come from his confession will be used to cure London. Just as predicted, Ryoken refuses to accept Specter's feelings for him and the Knight of Hanoi ends up howling in anguish.
• Anything but That!: When he reads mysterious text messages that chronicles his thoughts throughout the Train, he mentally screams this when he gets to read his "thoughts" on the Fog Car and how the text messages stated that he was happy that London was going to die (whereas the real Specter was horrified the wrestler was sacrificing himself).
• Ascended Extra: From a former cyber-terrorist in White Gestalt who has no choice but to be dragged along for the ride, to the focus character of the group as a whole as the Cyan Desert Car and end of Act 1 has him connected to both Chloe and Augustine's growth — for better or for worse.
• Author Appeal: As you can plainly tell, co-author Green Phantom Queen really has a thing for the Ghost Knight of Hanoi, and adds a hint of psychological and gothic horror to the mix.
• Badass Normal: Plays this the most straight on the team out of the passengers that compose it. While London has telekinesis and both Tokio and Gladion have their Pokémon, Specter doesn't bring his duel disk with him, leaving him alone with whatever he can find on the Train for safety and his wits to see what makes others tick.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: The Lost Incident had him (at age 6) go through electrocution for six months if he didn't win a duel. Unlike most victims (Yusaku especially), he's the only one who loved it because he thought that Dr. Kougami and the Hanoi were giving him a purpose. This gets inverted by the time he's trapped in the Kougami Manor after his first Train Trip where not only was it not effective, but it made him more determined to leave for the Train for proper healing.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: He served the Hanoi because Ryoken gave him purpose after losing the tree that he considered his monster, but in terms of the Blossomverse, he's close to London because of how the wrestler was willing to die to save Specter's ass despite their frosty friendship, willing to take on Pyramid head and ended up skewered by him. In fact, it's because of London that Specter has the strength to get ready for the Train, his other two reasons are to see Easter and Lampetia again. Easter points out that London should be careful in regards to this, given how fanatically loyal he's been to Ryoken in the past.
  Easter: Remember how he was pleading that he’d do anything to make it up to you during our trek in Silent Hill?
  London: I didn’t ask him anything grandiose though.
  Easter: To you, your words didn’t sound so much. But to him, it's everything.
• Berserk Button: While usually calm, polite and somewhat stoic, if Specter loses his cool, you know things are going down.
  • Don't insult Easter or London, the former because of the regret he had when Easter wanted to help and the latter because the wrestler was his first true friend, ready to sacrifice himself so Specter could leave Silent Hill before Pyramid Head skewered him. It's saying something that he's fine with Grace talking smack until London is brought up.
  • Never compare him to Queen, given all of her atrocities and wickedness.
  • And finally, say any ill will about Lampetia, or hiding any information about her whereabouts, will make him flip his lid. Ai learned this the hard way when he mocked getting injured.
  Ai: (upon noticing how Lampetia lost half her face to his @Ignister monster) Did…did you guys just see that? I mean look at her now, she’s a sight for sore eye! Get it? Eye? Cause she only has one of them now?
  Specter: (pure seething rage) SHUT UP!!! (knocks Ai in the face with his staff)
• Betty and Veronica: With his ghostly appearance, snarky attitude and almost gothic-like backstory of being trapped in a mansion by a cruel prince and beleaguered manservants, he becomes the Veronica to Augustine's Betty. In contrast to Augustine sympathizing with Chloe's problems at home and self-worth, Specter bluntly informs her that her attitude is not going to get anything done and that she also has to start taking responsibility for her actions while still encouraging her that she is a powerful person by her own terms.
• Big "SHUT UP!": His reaction to Ai's cruel pun about Lampetia being a sight for sore eye, after one of Ai's monsters shaved half of Lampetia's face off.
  Specter: SHUT UP!!!!! (starts whaling on Ai)
• Blaming the Victim: He has the gall to claim Professor Sycamore is at fault for his freak out after Chloe not only used him as an emotional punching bag, but blatantly rejects him to his face in favor of Specter. And nobody calls him out over this.
• Book Burning: Amelia once reveals how Specter once tore open a copy of Blue Angel in VRAINS when he dueled Aoi Zaisen as a way to tear her apart (because that particular book was what kept her from falling into despair plus it was a book he resonated with). She also happens to reveal this right next to Lexi...
• A Boy and His X: A knight of Hanoi with a lightning bolt partner and later a statue lady. He stands out as being the only member of White Gestalt with an actual denizen partner.
• Brutal Honesty: He doesn't sugarcoat to Chloe that the reasons that she had problems was because she never spoke up about it. However, he also gives his own sense of encouragement by stating that she is so much better than her idiot bullies will ever be.
• Cerebro Electro: Specter, with Easter's help, can use lightning abilities and is considered The Smart Guy of the White Gestalt, having been part of the cyber-terrorist group "The Knights of Hanoi".
• Character Development:
  • When initially partnered with Easter, he would always call them an "it", even though the lightning bolt openely requested to using "they" pronouns, not to mention that he kicked them out of a window in a rage. When Ryoken starts talking smack about the Train and spits out the same dehumanizing pronoun, Specter quickly starts using the "they" pronoun out of respect and apologizes for the kick.
  • Specter had little to no interest to the Ignis, even his own outside of a moment of asking why he was crying. When he sees Ai going down through a meltdown, he vows to save the Dark Ignis from himself.
• Character Exaggeration: The original Blossomverse shows Specter's bond with London in a light akin to him wanting to make amends for everything he said/did to the wrestler, insisting on staying on the Train so the wrestler wouldn't be lonely. Crocus Specter's feelings for London are at full blown romance/martyrdom.
• Closet Gay: Even after coming to realize how he was in love with Ryoken, he never told anybody back home that he was actually gay. Which, considering how he was effectively tortured once he returned home...
• Cold-Blooded Torture: He was a victim of this in the Fog Car, courtesy of Alex Shepherd/Pyramid Head and his very extremely pissed off denizen partner Easter. The worst part was this was put on himself, for retaliating and kicking Easter out of a window without letting them explain themselves which pressed Alex's Berserk Button on passengers who purposefully abuse denizens.
• Coming-Out Story: While he's still trying to make amends with the people/denizens he hurt, his arc is about coming to terms of his romantic orientation and becoming his own person away from the man who can't seem to understand or read his feelings.
• Commonality Connection: He notes to Ai that he and London carry a singular trait: they did atrocious deeds for an apathetic master. Specter was loyal to Ryoken but Ryoken refused to see that right-hand man was in serious need of help. London murdered his Rabbit Tribe members to a leader who didn't feel sorry about their deaths or even paid attention to the fact that they had gone missing.
  Ai: Oh, so that’s why you two get along so well. Seriously, if you love London so much then just kiss him already!
• Companion Cube: A blue heart shaped pillow ended up keeping most of his panic at bay, due to it remind him of Lampetia's own crystal heart. Kyoko has memories of checking up on Specter asleep with it in his hand and suggests that he brings it on the Train so he has some comfort. He ends up destroying it in front of Pandor to prove that he's serious about leaving for the Train.
• Composite Character:
  • His signs of a mental breakdown are similar to that of Kris Foster from Blossoming Trail and Voyage of Wisteria, particularly since one trait of theirs happens to be their mental states started slipping in something relating to electricity (Zapdos in the Power Plant for Kris and Specter being tortured by Easter). Moreover, they find solace in something soft and plush (Kris has a Helix Fossil plushie, Specter has an aqua heart-shaped pillow)
  • Amusingly, to tie in with Chloe's Heather Mason traits, he has traits of Vincent — both game self and film self but leaning more to the latter: He has the Smith traits of being a smug slimeball who is willing to get a rile out of others if he needs to, but keeps Cooper's ties and closeness to Heather and ends up betraying the life he ever knew (in this case, the Knights of Hanoi) to change. The fact that he's the one who sticks with Chloe plays similar to the end of Revolution 3D when Christopher de Silva tasks Vincent to protect his daughter while he stays in Silent Hill. And speaking of Silent Hill characters, he actually has more in common with the original Henry Townshend than the one on the Train: an isolated man stuck in his room who is mostly an Action Survivor if you disregard his lightning bolt partner.
  • He also has traits of Yusaku Fujiki. He has three reasons for him to go back on the Train, like Yusaku initially listed three reasons for why he does certain things, and he also had his own story arc of getting partnered with a non-humanoid based on them before they gradually see each other as friends (with one of Specter's reasons to get back on the Train is to forgive Easter for how mean he was). In fact, when Ai is going through a rampage, it's Specter who calmly vows to save the Dark Ignis; a role that Yusaku would obtain at the end of VRAINS.
  • Crocus Specter fuses many aspects of Boiling Point Specter, being heavily devoted to someone that nears to an obsession, a mirror motif, and using his gift of gab to convince Chloe to move forward.
• Cry into Chest: When he finally sees Lampetia in the beginning of Act 2, all he can do is wail at how he failed to rescue her from the hands of the Apex while holding her tight.
• Cuteness Proximity: Downplayed since this is Specter we're talking about, but he does open up a little to Goh's Oddish, enough to at least get a handshake with them and even commenting that the shy Grass-type is adorable.
• Dare to Be Badass: He of all people gives one to Chloe — who has hit her low point in in the Cyan Desert Car — that motivates her to move forward more than Augustine's appeals to help her calm down.
  Specter: You are a witch, someone with knowledge, wits, and an astute mind. The only reason people feared you is because they didn’t know you and their bias and insecurities made them the true monsters. But what have you done that these little peons could never do? You have confronted yourself and worked on being the person you wish to be, without anyone's forced expectations on you. Now, are you going to give this monster queen [Sara] the ultimate satisfaction that she has won? Or will you stare her in the face and not even blink?
• Decomposite Character: While Chloe is usually the Heather Mason inspired character, Specter has one thing that Chloe doesn't have — Heather's spectrophobia, seen when he returns from his trip and starts panicking at seeing his reflection mocking him.
• Decoy Protagonist: Specter gets a lion's share of focus out of White Gestalt during the second half of Act 1, but by Horrorland, it's clear that Gladion is the true focus of White Gestalt while he's stumbling over many, many issues of his.
• Defector from Decadence: While a big part of his willing return to the Infinity Train and defection from the Knights of Hanoi has to do with working on himself and getting the help he never got, it's clear that the horrible treatment he got from his former teammates, especially Ryoken, has disgusted him so much he wants to stay away from them, at least for the time being.
• Depraved Homosexual: He's a gay man who also happens to be a former sadistic hacker who was quite giddy about enacting genocide against AI. By the time he's on the Train, the "depraved" part is completely gone and he himself had no idea that he was gay until after he got booted off the train in the first place.
• Didn't See That Coming: He's completely caught off-guard by his attempts to help Chloe causing Professor Sycamore to crack and go insane.
• Didn't Think This Through: Yes, Specter, give Chloe your oh-so wise advice to stop being a bitch right in front of Professor Sycamore, who already tried and failed to do the same. What do you mean he went nuts over it!?
• Disproportionate Retribution: He wants revenge on the person who snatched Lampetia's heart. While this is justified, let's clarify that the person who did it was a little girl. Albeit, this little girl is part of the Apex and she stole Lampetia's heart after Lampetia was shattered due to her saving the girl from being killed, but let's repeat this. Specter wants to beat the shit out of a little girl.
• Dramatic Drop: When he finally reunites with Lampetia in Act 2, his staff clatters onto the sand of the Soda Beach Resort Car.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: If you have someone skilled at analyzing what makes someone tic, you can dismantle their defenses easily. But between Specter's own problems and getting his crutches in danger, he's ineffective against Chiller since he can't find any weakness to him until Lampetia arrives iwith evidence in Act 2.
• The Dreaded: Is apparently this to Shockro from The Shock Street Car. When Shockro sees Lexi enter his House of Shocks (in his "Specter of the Dark Forest" guise), Shockro immediately screams for Lexi to leave before he overloads his machines again. Knight of the Orange Lily revealed that it was Easter (through Specter), who withstood the Electric Torture solely because they loved the feeling of being electrocuted.

E-M

• Easily Forgiven: Despite Specter having unleashed a beatdown on Easter and culminating with him kicking them out of a window in Silent Hill — in his defense, Easter had been somewhat pushy prior to this — the lightning bolt doesn't hold ill will, as they realized that they were trying too much to get close when they should've let Specter had time to grieve and mourn over Lampetia's "death". The same can't be said to his atrocities in Den City however as many of them are quick to remind the cyber-terrorist that he did plenty bad.
• Everyone Has Standards: As he tells Augustine, he has standards. Low ones, but still standards.
  • When someone sends him mysterious text messages about his previous trip, he blanches upon seeing how "he" wanted London to be killed off by Pyramid Head as revenge for destroying Lampetia. For everything London did prior to his sacrifice, Specter never wanted the wrestler dead.
  • For all the atrocities he committed, even he thinks nuclear warfare is a step too far. He's shown vomiting alongside Chloe when Yuri explains what happens if you give a giant spear the Nuclear element.
  Lexi: Isn’t that hypocritical that you’re fine turning people into data to destroy the entirety of cyberspace?
  Specter: It’s within the cybernetic world that’s not going to spread radiation across a city-scale radius!
  • Sara's cruelty really disgusts him, presumably because she never likes to get her hands dirty just like Kitamura from SOLtech in the anime.
  "Well, I’m not into people who don’t like to get their hands dirty and change allegiances without honor."
• Evil Virtues: Downplayed on the "evil" part this time around, but if there's one virtue that he displays, it's loyalty. In his show, he is loyal to the Hanoi cause, to the point he had disgust when Kitamura tried to sell himself out for his safety and was fine with sacrificing himself for the Tower of Hanoi project. And in the story his loyalties are for London and how the wrestler saved him.
• Excellent Judge of Character: Carried over from his show, Specter is really good at reading a person with a single glance. He was able to tell Chloe that she was being way overdramatic and had to start being proactive when shit hit the fan in the Cyan Desert Car and he breaks Sara down by pointing out how she's just really a coward who has to use others to do what she wants. However, the only person he couldn't get a read on was Ryoken. Act 2 also reveals that this has one weakness; should his target outsmart him in this trope or just charge through without hesitation, then he's incapable of breaking their mental defenses.
• Fatal Flaw: Co-dependency issues. Once he gets back on the Train, Specter heavily relies — both physically and emotionally — on Easter, Lampetia, or London as his crutches. If anything happens to any of them, he lets his primal rage loose and is unable to think straight. For example, Rimuru calmly tells Specter that there is no way that Lampetia could be wheeled by the Apex due to her being made of marble^note To compare, the Venus de Milo statue is 26 Tons but Specter still goes through spiraling panic attacks of seeing his former partner be killed off. Horrorland Car reveals what happens if this goes out of hand — with Lampetia, Easter and London out of commission — Specter has to rely on what he has, which is a staff and his wits. Should he fight an opponent that is physically stronger or those who refuse to play his games, he's sunk.
• Fear of Thunder: Gained a fear of this thanks to the geass. It goes away once his memories return.
• Foil:
  • An obvious one to Sycamore. One's a black haired scientist, the other is a white haired hacker. One uses shadows, the other uses electricity. Both of them are on the Train to search for someone, Alain for Augustine and Lampetia for Specter. Sycamore works with Pokémon while Specter's closest non-human companions are the denizens Easter and Lampetia. Also, in a very amusing meta-standpoint, the two of them are the favorite characters of both authors — Sycamore for SpinnerNite and Specter for Green Phantom Queen.
  • To Ai. Ai is...well, an AI masquerading in a human body who wears black, whereas Specter is human and has a white motif. Ai uses his Duel Disk to fight and never gets his hands dirty, Specter will get up close and personal with his weapon or Easter. Ai has taken a Face–Heel Turn, wishing to keep Yusaku as his prisoner after losing his siblings while Specter has taken a Heel–Face Turn who wants to cherish his time on the Train with the people/denizens most important to him. Ai deludes himself to thinking what he's doing is for the sake of love when it's mostly just to protect himself, while Specter is not ashamed that he's doing what he does for the bond he has for Easter, Lampetia, and London and his actions are played altruistically.
• Foreshadowing: Victor tells Professor Cerise and Goh that Gloria has to mime a fear of mirrors to hide the fact that her reflection got sanded down, to which Goh says it's called "Specterphobia" before Victor replies that it's actually "Spectrophobia". When Specter first appears in Crocus, he's writing a journal entry where it's revealed that he's got spectrophobia for real as a result of the geass suppressing most of his memories.
• Gayngst: He's a gay man (confirmed as demiromantic by the authors) who's currently undergoing not only a therapy session to attempt to recover from the horrible torture he went through, but the fact that the man he's in love with might not even feel the same way.
• Glass Cannon: When he has Easter backing him up, Specter is a one-man firework making machine. If he doesn't, just one kick to the stomach and he's out.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: Being kept in his room in the Kougami Manor while Ryoken insists that Specter is hallucinating about the train has not done wonders for his sanity. By the time his memories return, he ends up a screaming wreck that takes the other knights to keep him down before he remembers where the knives are. In fact, the reason he decides to go on the train is that he doesn't go through this again.
• Good Counterpart: To Simon Laurent, as a pale-haled, white wearing teenage boy who is co-leader of a villainous group and both of their names start with an "S". It's also a bit of an in-joke from the co-author who explains that Lexi's form of Specter came from a comment she made to a friend that stated how Specter has more nobler traits than Simon himself. Both of them had different reactions to their partners: the Cat basically abandoned Simon while they were chased by a Ghom (in her words she ran but didn't mean to abandon him) and Simon berated her for abandoning him while Lampetia was killed (by London's hand, and it was by her request) and Specter screams in agony at losing his precious partner. Simon was saved by Grace from the Ghom — who instilled the belief that she's a know it all who knows how the Train works by intentionally getting their numbers up — while London saved Specter from an even worse fate of torture by Pyramid Head and his second partner Easter, only asking him to make amends with those he hurt and to be a better person.
• Grew a Spine: After hearing Ryoken's insults about London, dismissing his wish to have been partners with his Ignis and the ridiculousness of the Train, and knowing now that the Hanoi did nothing to help his issues except pretend that they didn't exist, he decides to screw it and tell Ryoken to shove off right now.
  Specter: I have walked with you towards the Sanzu River for the past ten years without worry. But this is something I am doing not for you, not for the Hanoi, but for myself. If you cannot accept this request of mine, then this is where we must depart. The White Gestalt needs me more than ever and I won’t abandon them.
• Haunted Heroine: A male version of this trope. With his pale features, repressed memories and psychological breakdowns while being trapped in his room within a fancy manor with human caretakers that leave him be and an inhuman nanny, and the lord of this house gaslights him to believe that his nightmares aren't real, one can't blame him for somehow popping out of a Gothic Horror short story when he's first seen in Crocus.
• Headbutt of Love: When he finally reunites with Easter, the first thing he does is hug the lightning bolt, apologize and press his forehead against theirs. When he finally reunites Lampetia, Lampetia does this to him.
• Headdesk: A tragic version; on his first day back in Den City, he ends up banging his head against the wall when Pandor won't give him back a blue heart shaped pillow that he found comfort in — as it's a reminder of Lampetia's crystal heart and his memories have been blocked — before sobbing pitifully.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: He wears a leather jacket on his return trip to the Train.
• He's Back!: After his initial appearances in the story showing him as a shell of his former self, London and Easter's encouragement combined with Ryoken's dismissal has him muster the courage to get back on the Train.
• Horrible Judge of Character: While an Excellent Judge of Character otherwise, his love for Ryoken was so strong that he ultimately failed to see the guy was not only not interested in him in that way, but the sheer lengths he'd go to in order to ensure Specter wouldn't get snatched by the Train again.
• Horrifying the Horror:
  • If there is one thing that scares the crap out of him, it's Alex Shepherd/Pyramid Head. And for good reason, given that this abomination tortured him. When Specter boasts that UnCerise isn't terrifying, the Unown construct forces Specter to face his worse fear — Pyramid Head coming back for him and Easter allied with this monstrosity.
  • In a Played for Laughs version, he freaks out when Rimuru shows him the clip of Chloe incinerating the mirage army back in the Ninjala Car.
  Specter:...just how long have we been gone?!
  • At the climax of the Cyan Desert Car, Specter gets front row seats to Chloe fighting off her bully in a brutal Cat Fight that ends in bitch slaps, fire and Large Ham wrestling-like promos and he does nothing except watch in terror alongside Asher.
• Hopeless Suitor: He has a crush on Ryoken. Ignoring the fact we don't even know if Ryoken himself swings that way, the fact that the man's reaction to Specter's return from the Train borders on a Homophobic Hate Crime makes it clear Specter had no chance of ever winning his heart.
• Hypocrite:
  • He calls out Queen over her horrific destruction and killing of Earth just for the sake of money and George Gore for willingly going along with it out of sheer spite of Playmaker saving his ass from the Tower of Hanoi under the excuse that he hates Playmaker being the #1 Celebrity Duelist of VRAINS. This coming from a guy who gave zero feathers about going along with a plan that would've killed hundreds if not thousands of people in order to destroy only six Ignis (and back then, Specter didn't care about his own). Specter internally notes that George wasn't exactly wrong to point out this hypocrisy.
  • Also, part of what he calls out Queen and George Gore over is how they saw Earth as nothing more than a tool and didn't treat him like a living being. Again, he himself didn't give a damn about the Ignis at all, nor did he ever even try to search them out.
• Hypocritical Humor: He calls Ai a "Gothic sell-out", completely forgetting that he also would fit in the Goth subculture with his silver hair, pale skin, and eerie blue eyes, not to mention that he is constantly being mistaken for an OC created by a Perky Goth.
• Hysterical Woman: A gender-flipped version; Specter's sanity did not handle the stresses of getting out of the Train well, as he became afraid of thunder, his own reflection, and became trapped in his own bedroom due to Ryoken's fear of him just vanishing into thin air (as the Train picked him up on the Hanoi boat) before he broke down into a screaming mess. Emma herself compares him to the protagonist of The Yellow Wallpaper, which was a deconstruction on this trope.
• I Hate Past Me: Reading someone sending him text messages about his adventures on the Train has him regret his assault on Easter back in the Fog Car and horrified at how he wanted London to shut up for getting into his business.
• Incompatible Orientation: He's gay — or rather, demiromantic — and while we have no idea what Ryoken's orientation is, it's made clear he doesn't see Specter that way (or if he does, he's in denial over it).
• Informed Attribute: Played for Laughs. Everyone in the Pokémon World who takes a look at him remark that he looks similar to an OC Chloe created.
• In-Series Nickname: Usually goes by a variation of "Mr. Ghost", "Knight of Hanoi" or "Ghost Knight of the Hanoi" but gets other nicknames in the Cyan Desert Car like "Chloe's OC" and "Mr. Ash Blossom". Lampetia affectionately calls him "Specty".
• I Regret Nothing: He states this in regards to following Ryoken to stop the Ignis to Augustine.
• Ironic Fear: He has a Fear of Thunder when initially seen... when his former Denizen partner was a living lightning bolt.
• Irony:
  • The logical-thinking member of White Gestalt can't think clearly if it involves Lampetia. Despite Rimuru telling him that she's fine and no harm will come to her, despite her being nothing but a gem heart at this point, Specter keeps pointing out worst-case scenarios. For example, he assumes that if Lampetia recovers and gets her human form, the Apex will drag her to the wheels. Rimuru then states that it'll be impossible for the Apex to even drag her to the wheels because she's made of marble.
  • Specter is noted to be an Excellent Judge of Character when it comes to realizing what to say in order to cut deep into people's minds, and most of the people he does this to are those he just met recently, so you'd think he'd be even better with Ryoken, whom he's been with practically since the start of the Knights of Hanoi. In reality, not only does Specter not realize the kind of person Ryoken is, he doesn't realize he doesn't see him in a romantic way until after he's been essentially tortured and isolated by the man.
  • Specter, who was against the Ignis in his series, is the one who vows to save Ai from himself.
  • Specter is at his strongest when he was a villain, gleefully torturing Blue Angel without remorse...yet ironically, the more character development he gets on the train, the more vulnerable he becomes.
• I Will Find You: One of his main motivations is to see Lampetia again, as her heart was snatched by one of the Apex brats. The Act 1 Intermission has Austen Plane give said heart to Ai — as Tiffany is now brainwashed as a sleeper agent and has returned to the Apex — to "fulfill" his quest. In Act 2, the two finally reunite.
• Karma Houdini:
  • A strange case of this. By all means in his show, he's done far far worse than Queen (something that George Gore reminds him and Specter admits that the wrestler has a point), not to mention was part of Gladion's plan that inadvertedly destroyed the Train, but he ends up returning from the Train alive with a second chance to atone for himself and is not the one brainwashed into a sleeper agent by Elipzo. Rather it's George Gore (who, by all means, also got away with his actions that led to Earth's death and never apologized nor fell remorse for what he did.)
  • Ai himself is livid that Specter gets a chance to redeem himself, gets a denizen partner in Easter and can fuse with him (Which is something Ai suggested to Yusaku in their final duel) as it shows that Specter is getting away scot-free while Ai, who has been on the run for five years, has seen his siblings die thanks to Lightning's machinations, and is in fear of losing Yusaku for good, can never have a happy ending.
• Leaving You to Find Myself: Tells it straight to Ryoken that he's going back on the Train to fix himself and there's nothing Ryoken can do or stay to stop it.
• Let Me at Him!: Specter gets into this when UnCerise mocks him over the death of the mother-tree and how Ryoken will never reciprocate his feelings whith only UnSycamore preventing him from going all out.
• Lightning/Fire Juxtaposition: With Chloe in the Cyan Desert Arc. He's a stoic, calm and focused male to Chloe's youthful energetic fire.
• Likes Older Men: Subverted; everyone assumes he crushes on London (reaching 40) but the truth is that he just likes London for being someone who truly cares for his well-being. Ai even lampshades this:
  Ai: I have no idea that you were capable of such childish distractions and being…close…to older men. I honestly shipped you and Blue Angel at times.
• List of Transgressions: George Gore leaves Specter's dirty laundry to dry in front of the man, in an attempt to ensure that former Knight of Hanoi doesn't end up thinking he has any moral high ground due to being allowed a second chance to traverse the Train. Specter himself internally notes that George isn't wrong.
• The Load: Unlike the other members of White Gestalt, Specter doesn't have the proper fighting skills or summons like Pokémon — and even if he did, his Sunavalons were never meant to be a fighting deck anyhow — so at best he's a Non-Action Guy and at worst he's a liability. Hakurou drills it into his head that without Easter, he's pretty much deadweight. Specter himself notes that he's "nothing" in the end and Ryoken honestly has no need for him at this point.
• Love at First Sight: Played straight and played with for these two individuals.
  • Ryoken: Ryoken was the only person who showed Specter any sort of kindness after the Lost Incident and losing the only being he saw as family (the tree that he was abandoned in as a baby). Specter marched towards the Sanzu river for him and willingly sacrificed himself for the Hanoi vision.
  • London: Initially the two were neutral until London was forced to kill his denizen partner, and their relationship was frosty until London willingly sacrificed himself to Pyramid Head if it would mean Specter could escape. This act of kindness is what makes Specter see London as someone to be close to. However, the co-author states that this isn't "love" that Specter feels as it is just "companionship".
• Love Hurts: He crushes on Ryoken, but Ryoken either doesn't notice nor does he care, and Ryoken refusing to see him in "that way" is what causes Specter to leave for the Train. London has to tell him that he needs to be direct to Ryoken if he's ever going to move on with his life.
• Love Martyr: Even as Ryoken fell further and further down the slippering slide, Specter stayed close to him due to holding a pretty strong, unrequited crush on him. Part of the reason he willingly enters the Train a second time is to evolve beyond this so he doesn't let himself be utterly destroyed for a man who won't love him back.
• Love Makes You Dumb:
  • Specter's crush on Ryoken is so intense that it actually blinded him to how far down the man would go to achieve something, and how he simply didn't see him in the same way.
  • Subverted with the Tower of Hanoi, though. He knew what was going to happen with the project and willingly accepted his fate to become part of it when he lost to Playmaker (which Ryoken reciprocated) and did it all out of loyalty for the Hanoi cause.
• Love Makes You Evil: By the same token, the reason he willingly went along with Ryoken's plan and did all the horrific stuff asked of him was because he had a pretty big crush on the man and was loyal to a tee.
• Love Redeems: A big part of his growth is how giving him true love can soften him. Lampetia's unconditional love as his denizen partner, even as he hated how pushy she could be, Easter doing their best to be a wingman when Lampetia was shattered, and London still by his side despite being the one to Shoot the Dog are enough to make Specter open up in ways being with the Hanoi can't.
• Madness Mantra: Aside from "Everything is Fine", his first day back in Den City has him mutter "Give it back" in a panicked voice when Pandor takes the heart-shaped pillow he took to his arms away, afraid that it'll be gone forever.
• Magical Gay: Well "magical" in the sense that he's the only one capable of channeling Easter's lightning powers without adverse effects, and he's the sole LGBT representative of White Gestalt.
• Masculine, Feminine, Androgyne Trio: The Masculine to Lampetia's Femme and Easter's Androgyne.
• Mistaken for Gay: Downplayed; many characters in Den City note that Specter is gay (for Ryoken), but the likes of Ai, Gladion, and Tokio mistake that he's gay for London. London has to repeatedly state there's nothing between them.
• Mirror Character:
  • Surprisingly, he has many parallels to Jesse Cosay from Infinity Train Book 2, since both of their stories involves meeting a female non-human humanoid denizen that helps lead them to gaining a spine and not be subservient to others with the defining moment telling the corrupter that wants them to confirm to shut up right now. The main difference is that MT lives, while Lampetia has been killed and is currently in the hands of the Apex. Both of them are willing to go back on the Train to save them, but Jesse's goal is to bring MT to the real world while Specter wishes to retrieve Lampetia from the Apex child who snatched her heart.
  • In a very weird way, Specter actually is a foil to one of London's former wrestling partners, Brian Kendrick. Both are the light-haired foil who wears white (Kendrick would later wear white in his The Brian Kendrick gimmick) and their friendship/tag-team started because one was saving the other from a monster. In this case, Kendrick was going in to save London from a pummeling from Brock Lesnar while it's London who stands up to Pyramid Head to save Specter. The first time London and Kendrick teamed up, Kendrick left for Japan before returning to the WWE in 2005 — just like Specter left the Train and ended up in Den City before reuniting. On a more humorous note, the first time London and Kendrick teamed up (in 2003), Kendrick had been going by the name of Spanky, like Specter just goes by his alias — both being a one letter word starting with "Sp".
  • He's a mirror to Ash Ketchum, particularly when it comes to their interactions with Chloe. While Ash tried to make an effort to get closer to her, he didn't try to pursue her through other avenues due to Goh's "She's not into Pokémon" being the only advice he could give and he decided to step away when she refused his suggestions, not to mention Chloe had so much resentment towards this "black hole" being more than she ever could. Specter immediately steps forward and talks to her without any hesitation and, while most of his words are tainted with bluntness, he tries to motivate her by stating she's better than the bullies who put her down, and he actually has knowledge of what Chloe has gone through on the Train with Chloe not having as much info about his cyber-terrorist past to have such disgust towards him. Ash gives compliments to Chloe, while Specter is more direct and asks how long she's going to wallow in her pity. They also have partners who can channel electricity — Pikachu for Ash and Easter for Specter.
• Motifs: Mirrors and reflections. Specter gained spectrophobia — fear of mirrors — when he got off the Train and couldn't stand looking at his reflection, believing that it was mocking him. When he first fuses with Easter, he looks at himself through his cellphone (a black mirror). Plus Easter's human form is specifically based on him, so Easter is a mirror image of the Ghost Knight himself.
• Must Make Amends: Is willing to go back on the Train to apologize to Easter, hopes to truly start a friendship with London in order to pay him back for the wrestler risking his life for him, and if he can rescue Lampetia from the Apex child who stole her heart.
• My Greatest Failure: He couldn't save Lampetia from being killed twice-over — the first one by London (by her request as she was heavily damaged at the time) and the second one by fallen shrapnel (due to saving an Apex child from dying and said Apex child returned the favor by snatching her heart for their own) — and he hopes that getting on the Train will help free her from the Apex's grasp. They reunite in Act 2, due to Ai forced to deliver said heart and he's just glad that she's safe, even if he didn't rescue her.
• Mythology Gag:
  • He notes that he's not into people who don't want to get their hands dirty and quickly change sides to save their skins, referencing how he dueled Kitamura in VRAINS who would use AI to fight and was quick to grovel before Specter by being of use to the Hanoi, thus betraying his company.
  • When Sara notes that he's not real, Specter replies he's "as real as reality", which mirrors the dialogue he gives to Blue Angel when they dueled.

N-W

• No Name Given: He's never given a full name in the anime, so he just goes by "Specter". Not even Ryoken has ever given him a full name.
• Non-Action Guy: Specter is not a fighter in the slightest and it makes finding a weapon for him difficult, with Knight of the Orange Lily not even getting his hands dirty until the near end of the story. London hopes to subvert by giving him a Telescoping Staff as his weapon since it's easy to use and he's also getting training from Hakurou. However, despite leaving the fighting to Chloe in the final battle of Act 1, he does make that up with being an Excellent Judge of Character with just the right words to push Sara's buttons and fall into his plans and ultimately takes down her Unown creation as Harmonious Storm.
• Noodle Incident: Prior to meeting Gladion for the first time, he and Lampetia apparently went speed-dating in one car. Specter hated it and Lampetia stated that he did well on rollerskates.
• No Social Skills: Despite his silver tongue when it comes to psychologically breaking people, he sometimes doesn't understand when to filter his words. When he first meets Lillie and Lusamine, he tells the story as to how he and Gladion met — which involved Gladion tackling him and actually looking at his crotch because Gladion thought it was London stalking him because London's sequin crotch pants. He fails to notice how Gladion's sister or mother would react to that sort of sentence while Gladion is also in the chat.
• Oh, Crap!: Specter rarely loses his cool, if he does, then it means big trouble ahead.
  • As he waits for the Train to pick him up, Specter reads a few text messages that read like diary entries about his initial train trip. While the ones about the Toy Brick Car and 400 Rabbits Car sound tame (but with a few inconsistencies), he looks horrified when "he" writes out how he wanted to murder London in the Fog Car, something that the real Specter would never consider.
  • Continuing from that, Specter gets an audio recording...and he also freaks out in silent horror when it's revealed that he just heard someone murder Queen.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: For all the redemption that Specter is trying to work on, he's not in the clean and has a lot of sins on his hands.
  • Once Amelia reveals how Specter once tore a book in half then burned it — in VRAINS, in order to spite and mentally break Blue Angel and saying that she was never anything special — Lexi will not let it go and threatens to ban Specter from entering his car. Worse, the book Specter tore was a copy of Blue Angel (a book that both Aoi and Specter resonated with) so he's essentially destroying Aoi's comfort and telling her she'd never aspire to great heights.
  • George Gore, who also has a lot of sins on his hands, is quick to remind Specter that he's done a lot of atrocities under the Knight of Hanoi and didn't care about the destruction of all the Ignis (and the thousands of people who were being used to fuel the Tower of Hanoi itself) back then.
  • Ai spits out that Specter is nothing more than a coward who will use any trick in the book to get what he wants, citing how he tried to infect Akira with a virus so that Playmaker couldn't unleash a direct attack.
  • Subverted when it comes to him kicking Easter out of the Fog Car. The only time it's ever brought up is when Easter tells Augustine about their trust issues, and Specter himself also admits that was not one of his best moments.
• Only One Name: "Specter" is the only name he goes by. It's not even a real name, but more of a nickname given to him.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Specter having a laugh is nothing new; but it's how he laughs that scares London. After Amelia makes a bad pun about Ryoken not being able to see his "soul-mate" he lets out a true joyful laugh for what seems to be the first time in his life.
  • Pandora is so used to seeing the traumatized Ghost Knight of Hanoi that she's afraid when she sees him smiling and humming a tune to himself.
  • In general, one of his main character traits was his loyalty to Ryoken and the Hanoi's cause. The fact that he's refusing Ryoken and becoming more and more independent for himself shocks the VRAINS cast.
  • Whatever Augustine told him under a Truth geass is so damning that he has a voice crack when he tells Paimon to not bring it up. The words? "Parasitic sycophant". Anything relating to that makes him the one pissed off, and not Easter.
• Out of the Closet, Into the Fire: The fact that he's gay is only confirmed to the Den Citizens moments before he willingly decides to enter the Train once more.
• Performance Anxiety: A flashback in Act 2 reveals he suffered from this, moreso since he's not used to being social and the hospital he's performing at just gives him bad memories of his past.
• Please, I Will Do Anything!: He once begged London — who had just gotten himself stabbed to death by Pyramid Head in a bid to get Specter to confess what was wrong with him — that he would do anything he asked in order to repay him for how he helped him during the trek on Silent Hill and if it would bring him back to life. Easter brings up this moment to let London know how his unfailing kindness has had a notable effect on Specter himself but also to warn him that Specter might go overboard in paying back.
• Power Stereotype Flip: With Easter's help, Specter gains the power to utilize lightning powers. You'd normally expect someone with that powerset to be either highly energetic or an absolute nutcase (that would be more aligned with Easter). However, Specter instead works with his brains and is calm and collected...most of the time.
• The Promise: Has three main ones: go back on the Train to apologize to Easter, go back on the train to truly start a friendship with London, and go back on the train to find Lampetia and see her one more time.
• Properly Paranoid: When Ryu tells Specter that Lampetia's heart will be delivered to him, no questions asked, Specter is immediately against this. He knows that Tiffany is a stubborn little brat who would never freely hand over her "battle trophy" that easily. While Ryu is right that the heart is in good hands, Specter was correct that Tiffany didn't give it by her free will. She was brainwashed by Elipzo to give it back.
  Specter: There is no way that she’d just give it easily. There’s no way Lampetia would let herself be given away by some…greedy jewel thief! Now tell me the truth before I get my second partner to force the truth out of your lying lips!
• Queer Colors: Is confirmed demiromantic by the authors, and the colors for the demiromantic flag include black (his leather jacket), white (his pants and blouse), grey (his hair) and green (his glowing number).
• Queer Establishing Moment: As Specter starts returning to his normal self, Yuri makes an offhanded remark to Ryoken that the leader of the Hanoi is worried for his "beloved Specter" run away at midnight again. Ryoken then points out that he does not see Specter in that way with Specter looking in shock at the response. It's when it sinks into everyone at the video conference that Specter is gay and has been keeping a crush on Ryoken all this time.
• Rage Breaking Point: Barely little phases him, so if something does, it's best you get out of his way.
  • During his training session with Hakurou in Act 2, that has Hakurou really put him and Easter through the wringer to make up for lost time, Specter doesn't get mad until Hakurou calls him a coward that won't get his hands dirty, which is making reflect to how Augustine called him a parasite. Then he (and not Easter) unleashes his rage on the older oni while threatening to hurl him out a window.
  • Upon seeing Lampetia lose half her face, and Ai mocking her for it, Specter unleashes his berserker rage.
  • Having to deal with Tokio's wangst finally makes him snap by asking the boy if Goh is behaving just like him.
• Real Men Can Cook: It's not shown in the story, but he's the one who is willing to take over cooking duties for Shion when White Gestalt reunites in the Monster City Car. He also made dinner for him and Ryoken before he left for the Train and it's mentioned that he made a bunch of malasadas for himself during his hysterical breakdown.
• Reformed, but Rejected: Specter has supposedly turned over a new leaf by the time this story starts, but he has done so many horrible things beforehand that most of the people in Den City aren't willing to put their trust in him again. George Gore even goes the extra mile as to remind him of his previous crimes and how he's not as innocent as he thinks he is (and Specter internally admits that Gore isn't wrong).
• Rescue Romance:
  • Ryoken rescued Specter after the Lost Incident, when Specter could not feasibly return the orphanage he grew up in, the tree he saw as his only companion was chopped down, and the building where he had been tortured for six months was abandoned. Gradually, Specter would develop feelings for Ryoken; feelings Ryoken do not reciprocate.
  • Downplayed. After causing so much trauma by having to murder Lampetia, London did his best to get Specter to open up, and let himself take the brunt of the torture by Easter's dark half and Pyramid Head, to the point that he nearly died to Pyramid Head if it meant Specter can escape. Seeing London's selflessness made Specter do a 180 and he ends up devoted to the wrestler. However London repeatedly reminds him, and others, that this is not a romance.
• Running Gag:
  • In the Cyan Desert Car, he gets commented on looking like Chloe's OC by her mother, her classmates and Goh. Justified in this case because all of them have actually seen Chloe's artwork to get a basis off of.
  • Every time he has a moment with London, someone always has to point out as that it looks very romantic.
• Save the Villain: He's the one who proclaims that White Gestalt will stop Ai from crossing the line, something Ai is unamused with.
  Specter: I understand you’re in pain after you lost your family. And like Lampetia said, I accept that you can’t forgive me now, if ever. But I can’t ignore you after what I had witnessed in the early days of my journey. You have to be stopped, but we’re not going to take your life away!
• Self-Imposed Challenge: In-universe; he deliberately left his Duel Disk behind when he entered the Train. The narration justifies this by stating that he only has one monster good for attacking, and his deck is not made for attacking at all, not to mention how long it takes to set up monsters.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Ryoken's refusal to accept the Train and the fact the Knights of Hanoi just let it happen has Specter declaring that he's leaving Den City to get back on the Train to heal and be with people who actually care for him as a human being.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: Nine times out of ten, he wears a white suit in VRAINS or has a light grey jacket. He ditches the grey jacket for a leather jacket to signify him breaking away from the Knights of Hanoi in order to reunite with the White Gestalt.
• Single-Target Sexuality: The only person he has fallen in love with is Ryoken. Even though he seems to have a second love thing going on with Paul London, it's clearly established to be just a simple bond, with him and Ryoken being endgame. Author notes add that he's demiromantic, in which he can't really form a romance attraction unless he's developed a deep emotional bond with someone.
• Spear Counterpart:
  • He's initially the male version of the poor protagonist of The Yellow Wallpaper when he's first seen, stuck inside his room and having nothing to do but write down his experiences as his sanity starts slipping out of his fingers. Ghost Girl even comments that Specter looks like he got trapped in a room full of "grotesque yellow wallpaper" for weeks.
  • Once his memories return, he's the male counterpart of Chloe: someone who is trapped in a cage without any way of venting out their problems and sees the train as a chance to escape and heal all while having to stand up for themselves towards their loved ones who deny them the help they seek. They also get a partner that is essentially a an expy of himself and are associated with hearts as a Body Motif.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: He's easily got the most focus of the White Gestalt, having not only the most drastic change in personality and circumstances compared to his colleagues, but having the most presence once he returns to the Train and even getting an unique power up in the form of fusing with Easter, creating Harmonious Storm, which puts him ahead of his own teammates, even his leader Gladion.
• Stealth Pun: Specter gained a fear of mirrors when he got off the train, otherwise known as spectrophobia.
• Straight Gay: He's confirmed gay by Green Phantom Queen (technically demiromantic) with a crush for Ryoken but doesn't show any signs of being gay, his feelings towards London not withstanding.
• Subordinate Excuse: He's been Ryoken's subordinate for a very long time. Not because he actually believes in the Knights of Hanoi, though he definitely does, but because he's in love with him and because Ryoken was the one who took him in after he lost his mother.
• The Team Normal: Zigzagged. He's the most normal person in the White Gestalt, as he doesn't have his duel disk with him this time nor does he have any ability of telekinesis and doesn't have the Pokémon Gladion and Tokio carry. However he's actually the one with the biggest connection to denizens since the denizens part of the Gestalt are associated with him.
• Telescoping Staff: Specter's weapon is a size-shifting metal staff which he can split in half to form escrima sticks.
• Token Minority: He's the only LGBT passenger of White Gestalt and of the three heroic groups in general, specifically labeled as demiromantic by the co-author.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: No, you're not misreading things. Once he gets his memories back and the determination to return on the Train, his outlook is much brighter than ever and seemingly goes along with the kookiness of the Train.
• Trauma Conga Line: If we're not counting what happened in his show, he gets one of the worst experiences of White Getstalt.
  • His denizen partner, Lampetia, was killed by London by her request, he had to share space with a very pushy Easter before snapping and kicking them out of a window in Silent Hill that awoken Alex Shepherd's anger at him — since Alex hates those who abuse denizens — and ends up tortured while the other members were dealing with other problems at the time. And the near-destruction of the Train ended up with Lampetia killed again, turned into a crystal heart that one of the Apex children spitefully stole with a taunting laugh. When he returns to his home with most of his memories erased, he's isolated in his room with barely anything to do, trapped with fears of his own reflection and thunder and repeatedly told that there's no such thing as a magical therapy train by Ryoken. When he finally gets his memories back, he's ready to kill himself.
  • And then when we hear his first day back, not only do we see him apologizing over and over when he sees his own reflection, but he gains comfort in a soft pillow plushie that, when Pandor took so she can give him tissues to wipe his eyes, he acts like she'll take it from him before slamming his head against the wall in despair. London himself is horrified to learn this.
• Underestimating Badassery: Played for Laughs. When he and the rest of White Gestalt not named London and Easter learn of what's been going on since their return, he shows little belief in Chloe being a force to be reckoned with. Rimuru calmly shows off her incinerating an army with her fire breath.
  Specter:...just how long have we been gone?!
• Unstoppable Rage: This is the trope to describe his reaction to Ai's tasteless joke on Lampetia — who just lost half her face from one of his @Ignister monsters and he finally has reunited with her — that she's now a sight for sore eye. He quickly goes from shock to kill the AI with the force of a thousand suns.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: By telling Chloe to stop her whining and take matters into her own hands — right in front of Augustine who failed to do that to her sooner — he inadvertedly caused the professor to hit his last straw and looked ready to Restart the World and has lost most of his idealism in the first place. Whoops.
• Weak, but Skilled: Has the least combat abilities and a staff is not a weapon that can kill, not to mention that he doesn't have Pokémon like Tokio or Gladion to support him. What he does have is his mind to expose weaknesses and acts like a conduit for Easter to channel their powers.
• What Does She See in Him?:
  • The fact he holds any sort of emotion towards Ryoken after his first train trip that isn't pure hatred and disgust is quite frankly a miracle, given that the man not only ignored his warnings about the Train, but essentially tortured him by isolating him from everybody else while calling him a madman. Amusingly, Ryoken doesn't understand what Specter sees in London and why Specter is willing to go back to that death trap for a man more twice his age who wears sequins on his crotch.
  • Ai doesn't understand why Lampetia is so important to Specter, unaware that Lampetia was the only companion he had during his first go-around on the Train and her death left him heartbroken.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Zig-zagged.
  • He initially saw the Ignis as a target to be eliminated until he suddenly felt his Ignis, Earth, be killed. Over time, after learning how Yusaku, Takeru and Aoi bonded with their Ignis^note Technically Aqua was the Ignis of Aoi's friend, Miyu but Miyu was in a coma so Aoi was the replacement, that made him question if it was possible for him to bond with his Ignis if given the chance. Ai points out that he's being hypocritical though; he didn't care for the Ignis back then and that his bond is superficial at best.
  • He cared deeply for Lampetia as her deaths utterly shattered him even though he was shown to be quite annoyed with her pushing him to try something new. It says something that one of the things that can sent him into a panic spiral is her safety.
  • When Specter was introduced to Easter, they did not get along well — as Easter came in right around the time Lampetia died and he's going through a grieving process — to the point that their pushy attitude was too much and he kicked them out of a window in Silent Hill while constantly calling them an "it". After realizing his mistakes and some time apart, Specter decides that he wants to try again and respectfully uses "they" to address them.
• Why Are You Looking at Me Like That?: After Specter happily twirls around with Easter — that somehow has him struck with a lightning bolt to the heart and then Easter practically melts and fuses with Specter — he then stares at the White Gestalt members to invoke this trope. Although he's actually questioning — since Easter has taken over to a near perma-fusion state before — if he has "blue in his hair" (which he does).
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
  • He hates mirrors as a result of the geass; more specifically he hates seeing his reflection as he's gained a paranoia of it trying to attack him, stemming from Easter's attempts to talk to him in a mirror.
  • Pyramid Head is his second fear, albeit justified due to how this abomination tortured him. Mentioning his name or even the idea of teaming up with him is a very bad idea.
  Specter: (covering Chloe's mouth) No, no, and no! We are not agreeing to have the Dark Shepherd with us!
  • He also has a more mundane Fear of Thunder, which is notable considering how his former Denizen partner was a living lightning bolt. This one is explained from the geas and having residual memories of Easter's dark half having tortured him.
• Would Hit a Girl: He has no qualms on wanting Tiffany of the Apex to pay for taking his partner away from him.
• Would Hurt a Child: He really wants to punch Tiffany's face in for snatching Lampetia's heart and being an ungrateful bitch who showed no gratitude for the denizen who saved her life.
• You Never Did That for Me: The fact that Ryoken was quick to isolate and torture Specter after his Train trip, and how he doesn't show as much interest in his wellbeing compared to the other Knights of Hanoi, makes Specter realize how badly he misjudged the man and decides to return to the Train for some proper re-evaluation of what he wants.

---

I’m going to restart, I will take my life into my own hands, and I’m going to do it with Lampetia, Easter, and the rest of the White Gestalt!