Collated Accounts of the Infinity Train: A summary
is an Infinity Train One-Shot Fic written by Timeline15. The story is framed as a collection of news reports, interviews, and other writings that have been put together by someone trying to chronicle mankind's knowledge and understanding of the Infinity Train.
This work contains examples of:
- Ambiguous Situation: The author is unsure if the train being described as an "iron serpent" in early accounts reference the train's ability to transform into A Form You Are Comfortable With, or if such depictions were the best people could give before locomotives existed as a frame of reference.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Discussed. Lake's interview has her harshly criticize the train's method of helping people, while even Tulip's more favorable view has her admit to being unnerved by it.You don’t get to just kidnap people because you want them to work through their baggage!
- Cassandra Truth: The existence of the train was this prior to the 21st century, at which point advances in technology helped abductees more easily record evidence of its existence and collate their stories. Until then, claims were dismissed as insane ramblings and delusions.
- Crossover: The last excerpt reveals the Infinity Train and Star Trek universes to be one-and-the-same, being a Captain's Log utilizing stardates that the author sourced from the "Federation".
- Framing Device: The fanfic is written as though it is a research document, with the author's thoughts being interspersed between excerpts from other texts such as letters, newspaper articles, and interviews from throughout history.
- Hooked Up Afterwards: Lake and Jesse, with the former being identified as "Mrs. Lake Cosay" in her interview.
- Recessive Super Genes: The author offhandedly mentions that Lake's metal abilities are present in some, but not all, of her descendants.
- Riddle for the Ages: The crux of the fic. It's been documented throughout human history for centuries, but no one has thus far been able to figure out how it works or where it came from.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: The person interviewing Lake assumes that her metal skin is a result of the train. While this can certainly be said to be the case, it's because she originated from a literal Mirror World on the vehicle, rather than be a normal human somehow transformed by the train. The author even notes that Lake avoiding the subject means she was probably hiding something, but quickly decides that theorizing about it would be off-topic.
