One of my favorite things to think about when it comes to modern fantasy type stories is wonder how the supernatural elements may have influenced myths, legends or aspects of history. In a world that seems just like ours, there are so many little butterfly effects that things like magic or mysterious tech could have caused.
Infinity Train has a bunch of these. The Train picking people up would have definitely influenced history, but I like to think about how the existance of the Mirror World would have influenced things like the existance of vampire stories.
As seen with Tulip at the end if Book 1, if a Reflection ever left their post, their Prime would stop showing up in mirrors. If just a few reflections started to go rogue in the right time period, and people notice thier absence, coming to conclusions based on religious stuff and superstition, then all of a sudden you've got people being wrongfully accused of being a vampire. Over time, stories spread, and a case of a handfull of runaway reflections leaves the common story of vampires not appearing in mirrors.
A similar situation could apply to ghost stories. A Reflection runs off after their Prime dies, before the Flecs can take them to have their memories wiped and get assigned to a new Prime. Having grown attached to the family and friends their Prime left behind, they hang around for a while, watching from afar. Someone catches a glimpse of something that looks like someone who died... boom, ghost story.
Reflection Enforcement, of course, would use this sort of thing happening as an excuse to tighten their grip and use more force to keep any rebellious reflections in line. Eventually, nobody in the Mirror World still remembers a time when the Flecs didn't just jump to sanding at the first offense.
How often do mirrors seem to come up with in stories in relation to souls and spirits? How often do mirrors get used as a way to see into or travel to other worlds? How many stories in this alternate world were directly tied to reflections trying to do the same thing Lake did?
Really fun worldbuilding stuff to think about, and that's just a small part of the series. How did the Train itself change history? What events played out differently? Did it change things for the better? Or did it just make them a different kind of bad?
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I was bored and wrote this. I ain't the greatest writer, I'm more of an artist, so apologies if it sucks lol
Where it all started.
chapter one, the prince's return.
Everything got covered in snow, it looked like it was winter, but it was the middle of August!
Snow was everywhere, gigantic spikes of ice covering and towering houses, ice statues that once used to be people were around, screams of agony by other victims who were dying because of the now headless and animated statues, children running away, others trying to save their loved ones by the many dangers around, it was a mess. What was he thought was gonna be a joyous day, turned into a nightmare.
There he laid, the prince, on the verge of death, with the chains now made of ice, and snow covering the floor entirely.
Despite his energy being gone, he still found some to shiver. He was so so tired, but his body shivered, shook anyway.
He couldn't feel a thing anymore and he what he once knew started to slip from his mind.
His body was numb, he could barely feel it, the more he stayed here, the more he forgot he was on a wall dying.
Where was he again? What was he name?
What even happened?
All he wanted was to sleep, really. He wanted to say sorry to Vanessa, but he has long forgotten why, or maybe he never understood why she was mad in the first place, he thought she liked flowers?
his name has been forgotten along with many other things, in his head there was only that accident that happened not so long ago..maybe a few minutes ago..an hour? He doesn't know. He wasn't counting. All he could think of was the sight of her love turning into that monstrosity upstairs, and for some unknown reason, he still found some tears to cry about it. Not like he had anything else to do. His throat hurt, he couldn't move. All he could do was cry and wait for his death.
And when it came, he almost didn't believe it. it felt like he was reborn again, full of energy, full of emotions and thoughts, so many things that he almost thought he was really just alive, and that whole accident was just a bad dream of his.
but he was wrong, he could tell, as much as he wanted to believe it wasn't real, it was. Very much so.
he could hear screaming, death, he could somehow smell death coming from all places. He looked down at himself, standing, where he once was. No body, for ..some reason, but instead just him. Just his dark purple hands, his dark purple feet, and snow. Nothing else.
He couldn't see himself in the face, but it didn't really matter, he was free.
Sad for him, the door of the basement was closed, the snow was probably covering it to the other side, and it was too heavy for him to push off,
So that meant he had to pass through the manor. But no big deal! He knows the manor like the back of his hand! He can probably just say sorry to Vanessa now, too.
What can go wrong?
...
.....
.........
Everything. Everything can go wrong.
he doesn't know how, but everything went from bad, to horrible. the moment Vanessa saw him, she screamed and started to chase him like a predator would to a pray. He is now hidden under a table, she is roaming around. He is scared. He doesn't know if he's hyperventilating or not. He doesn't know even if he's breathing, but now he just wants to get out.
She's too mad, he can't talk to her, he has to wait.
Also, he doesn't wanna get hurt, not after he finally feels so great!
so he had to wait for Vanessa to get out of the room so he could sprint out of the manor, and that was oddly easy. he didn't even make a sound! maybe because he's not wearing shoes? Is he wearing shoes? He just has some..purple feet. Are those his boots? They were purple right?
Dosen't matter, what matters is what he found outside! He couldn't even recognize his own village!
It was his, right? He remembers wearing a crown, he was a prince or something. So, it must have been his, right?
His kingdom! What has happened!?
he could still see blood around, dead people, headless statues walking around, ice..ice everywhere!
He felt like throwing up, but he couldn't. He felt like crying and even if he was crying, he couldn't feel his eyes tearing up.
he also thought of hiding from those ugly headless statues (he never liked those statues in the first place. They gave him the chills. Now they move and are headless?! the worst!) But they ignored him. They attacked everything but him. Is it because he's the prince? Or because of his weird purple look? (He still hasn't seen his face, he wonders if it looks weird too.)
but again, it wasn't something that really mattered for him, he didn't even wanna deal with those. But instead he ran as fast as he could (he felt oddly light, like if he was floating, but he could see his legs moving like if he was running!) To the village, but there wasn't any chance anyone survived!
Half of the Village was completely covered in snow the ice spread until the bridge and more statues appeared. But they weren't headless or the ones he hated so much, they were..ice statues. the moment it clicked on who these ice statues were, he had to look away and take a breath.
"Alright...alright.. it's-it's fine. Y- t.. it's okay..m-maybe there's.. survivors?..gosh, I hope so." He felt like he was out of breath, but could he be out of breath?
was it because he was crying? Was he even crying? He felt numb for the most part, but unlike in the cellar, this numb feeling felt normal, rather than exhausting.
But to his surprise and relief, thanks to him avoiding making eye contact with the ice statues, he found a small child. He was shaking, he was probably freezing there like the prince did in the cellar.
"Oh, little child! There you are! And I here I thought there was no one else here..uhm...alive." were the ice statues even alive?
The more he talked, the more he got close to the child, and for a moment he thought he could hug them and comfort them, but...
They ran in fear, screaming about a scary ghost or something.
He wasn't a scary ghost! He was the prince of subcon! Prince....the prince! Yeah!
He felt almost offended, but maybe he just didn't look like himself? I mean, maybe he looked super tired or- blue from the cold! he needs a mirror.
But later!! Now his mission was to go after the kid, who knows what they could find there! It could be dangerous! They could trip and get hurt! Or trip and fall and die! Or get eaten by a bear! Or meet those scary spiders that were always around the forest! Or more of those statues!
...
Vanessa wasn't kidding when she said he needs to stop overthinking.
But- whatever!! it's- he can overthink this, the kid might actually be in danger!
So he went after the kid. again with the feeling of floating, but it was easy to get used to it.
He really wonders what he looks like. Maybe instead of blue he's purple? Or maybe it's the lighting? He surely dosen't look good! I mean he was trapped for like..an hour. Ugh, he doesn't know! In that cellar, while he froze to death. Maybe he looks like those ice statues.
But wouldn't that mean they are always awake and conscious like him? he doesn't seem to be covered in ice though?
if he could find a mirror he could - ugh right! He could have seen himself in the mirror in the manor! He was being very sneaky anyway, Vanessa wouldn't have heard him, he's so stupid sometimes! His memory really needs to be checked.
Maybe once this is solved he can go to a doctor, he probably need a doctor, right? I mean, he's purpl-
"STOP RIGHT HERE, YOU GHOUL!"
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