just-blei

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My take on post-canon Lake except I got kind of carried away

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Okay so I did a tiny Winter Apocalyptic themed au kinda the beginning of the year and later doing a little more content of it on november, I thought showing this now on Christmas would be neat haha

Basically, there is a strong winter that has been increasing, everything got frozen, energy cut off and a storm appearing from time through time.

Jesse and Lake are surviving on their own in this infinite winter, hoping their families are still alive and be able to find them soon. One day both of them were outside looking for supplies, but the storm catches them off guard keeping them trapped in an abandoned house, freezing.

Jesse was the first to pass out by the hypothermia, this panics Lake and desperately goes around the house hoping for something to save him, ANYTHING, they see through a window (half covered by the snow) a group of silhouettes, doesn't know if is an hallucination or actual people... but they break the window and goes outside calling for help until everything goes blurry and pass out.

They suddenly wake up in a warm room without their coats, doesn't remember what happened until they see Jesse beside them, who doesn't seem to wake up. Are they in a shelter?

Yes, they are, in GRACE'S shelter, her family bought one before the never ending winter to save themselves (they got the news before everybody else) but Grace decided to use it to rescue people from the cold.

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not so Christmas related but hey is something

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!! hope you're having a good time with your family and/or friends

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I've had some confusion about whether or not Lake would actually need to eat, or if they even can. I'll try to stick to canon context but some of this is implied/subtext I read into myself. All just theories for fun!

Our first point of reference is during The Parasite Car!

Lake and Jesse encounter a car themed around food! While Lake does look surprised/impressed, Lake often does just... marvel at new cars. Be it food or flowers, they're just amazed with the world! Every new experience is something to marvel at.

In all fairness, however, neither Jesse nor Lake are seen eating during this episode. Despite Jesse's declarations about being hungry. I think it could be noteworthy how Lake doesn't add to Jesse's comment about being hungry, as a way to make conversation or acknowledge their own hunger, but given that the lack of response could mean anything, I'll leave that to your own speculation!

Food is mentioned next during The Mall Car when Grace gives Jesse candy! Neither Lake nor Jesse make much of a deal about grabbing food, but Jesse specifically does try the candy. He doesn't make any offer of it to Lake, which, given how friendly he is seems in character for him to do. If Lake isn't capable of eating, or doesn't need to, it could explain why he doesn't bother offering them any until after he knows what it tastes like.

There's obviously limited mentions of food, though it's curious how much more often food is mentioned in book two versus the other books. Anyways, on to other context clues. This is where I REALLY start reaching.

We don't see Lake eating and they never touch on food during their question times with Jesse, what we DO see Lake do is SLEEP!

And quite a lot for a character who is supposedly being chased and hiding from the authorities! Lake sleeps a lot considering their story line as well as the fact they "aren't human". It's one of the few things we get to see them do that humans have to do to survive. I think it might be intentional that of all things, we only see Lake sleep. Rewinding to The Toad Car, Sieve has a conversation with Jesse, asking why his phone isn't reflective.

"It's really dark in here right now,"

Reflections don't exist without light, they need light to reflect from.

Arguably it'd make more sense for Lake's character to struggle with sleeping given how chaotic and unsure their life on the train can be. Yet they seem totally fine in the first episode, traveling endlessly from car to car without rest. Until it gets dark. While it's possible Lake could still eat (reflection anatomy will be another blurb I go into later, I truly can't help myself), I think its more important to note that they seem to get most of their energy from sleeping and don't seem like they could stay up once a room dims down.

I'd love to hear any other thoughts, but until then, Lake photosynthesis. (Supported by the fact that mirrors are actually tinted green lol)

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colored a scrapped storyboard:3

i cant believe they invented silly

(original storyboard under the more tab)

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Parasite car storyboard redraw part 2!!

sorry for being a long one, I felt motivated to add color instead of a skecth like the previous redraws

(this took me at least three days...)

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Also for anyone wondering where the heck the storyboards came from

They spawned out of thin air man

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Okay but LISTEN

If Jesse already knows about this I bet he has insane theories about how Vampire reflections work and he’s so excited to make a PowerPoint for Lake. There’s no one better to explain his vampire reflection theories to! Lake most definitely has to got answers for him right?

WRONG!!

Lake listens carefully and nods at his points but the resolution is just: huh I never thought about that before. I actually have no idea.

Jesse: *sobbing noises* WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DONT KNOW?! YOU WERE LITERALLY IN THE MIRROR WORLD!

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I am once again thinking about how lake’s journey in infinity train is such an utterly perfect encapsulation of the trans experience and how it genuinely struck me to my core the first time I watched it and has affected me in such a profound way that just thinking about it makes me want to fall to my knees in the middle of fucking tescos

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HELLO I'M BACK FROM DEATH!!!!

I got kinda of an art block and procrastination making aus and very rarely making canon art but after the discovery of the Parasite car storyboards, it got me the urge to redraw just like I did with the Wasteland storyboards

if you didn't know about the boards or didn't saw it here's the full thing

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Art by Leksø Tiger

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i have only been drawing non serious art lately so maybe im just gonna post some of that since i got nothing else to post LOL (drew these with @/ Presliced.bread on instagram)

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new headcanon that one of their favorite ways of spending time together is trying need and weird foods

jesse loves food, he loves weird stuff, lake presumably loves doing dumb shit for fun, and they get to experience all the foods they never had on the train

they get each other weird foreign snacks, lake introduces him to midwestern food, jesse gets lake to try apache recipes

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ITS CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY! THERES MORE DELETED SCENES FROM BOOK 2 AGAIN

They’re both so goofy I’m going to cry

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okay but Lake knows all of Tulip's passwords and logins, they were basically always mirroring her whenever she was at her computer

instead of contacting Tulip like a sane, normal person Lake changes every single one of Tulip's profile pictures to a badly drawn sign that simply reads 'i lived bitch' except for one, which is just their hand giving a shiny metal thumbs up. In some sort of coding community site Lake makes a private post that just has Jesse's phone number in it and it takes Tulip like two days to actually find it

every time Tulip tries to change her stuff back Lake switches it again until she finally finds the hidden phone number and calls

the first thing Tulip does after actually talking to Lake is change her passwords again

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The Crome car

Please, if you haven’t watched infinity train yet, do it, it’s super short and so good I swear!!!

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sooo the fandom found some boards with new lore about reflections!

there's one new thing directly stated by lake:

when a prime dies, they're replaced by an "inert," who's not alive like other reflections. (i wonder how fast theyre replaced? if the reflection has to play dead until the body isn't by a reflective surface and they can be replaced?) technically, this one line is missing from among other lines that made it into the show, so there is a chance they took it out because they decided it wasn't canon anymore

everything else is implied, like lake suggesting reflections probably don't need to eat

(my logic being that anything that needs to eat to survive probably feels hungry, even if that sensation may feel different to them)

lake enjoys food!!! not surprising, i wonder if they'll enjoy less as it becomes not new anymore, or if that's something they'll always enjoy. but them being able to eat (in my opinion) implies that they do have organs, and yes, jesse, probably can go to the bathroom if they eat. (@jesse-cosay pointed that out first lol)

and, while we all pretty much gathered this anyway, lake does mention that they're pretty sure no reflection has ever made it off the train:

(also, don't mind me being sad about all the escaped reflections who were murdered before they ever got to live. and lake's definitely thinking about that, too).

these boards are all by jacob winkler, you can find them here