TuLake

TuLake is the family ship between Tulip Olsen and Lake from the Infinity Train fandom.

Book 1: The Perennial Child
In "The Chrome Car", Tulip and her friends enter the titular train car in search of the next puzzle to solve to get to the engine. Since the car is empty save for some chrome structures and reflective surfaces everywhere, Tulip believes the car has no puzzle and tries to leave, only to find the door to next car is locked. Pondering about this, she happens to look down and sees that her reflection is not moving with her, instead having crossed her arms and giving her a stern glance. Tulip's reflection starts to speak, using the echo of Tulip's own voice to tell her that only she can open the door, the car intends for them to briefly switch places. Tulip understand and agrees to switch places with her reflection by spinning on each other's heels into the reflective surface. Upon ending up on the other side, however, Tulip's reflection starts to move on her own, first removing her hair accessories and then breaking the reflection of Tulip's glasses. She explains that she was forced to live Tulip's life with no control of her actions or even her own identity, the car finally offered her a chance to escape.

Tulip's reflection then runs towards the door, hoping to escape her fate for good. However, when Tulip asks other reflections for help, they tell her that they already called the "Mirror Police", who upon arriving tell her that Tulip will get a new reflection, her old one will have to be exterminated. Suddenly feeling empathy for her former reflection, Tulip tries to reason with the police, but they follow a strict code: All "slivers" have to be captured and erased if they refuse to follow the reflection code. With the help of her friends stalling the cops (or "flecs" as they prefer to be called), Tulip manages to find her reflection at the entrance of the Car, but when Tulip asks to switch back in hopes of her avoiding punishment, her reflection refuses. Still trying to leave the Chrome Car, Tulip's reflection soon finds out that she can't leave without Tulip being attached to her feet, defeated, she sits down next to the reflective surface Tulip used to communicate with her.

Tulip uses this opportunity to talk things out with her reflection, as she genuinely tries to help her. Tulip's reflection however calls her a hypocrite for it, considering how she was forced to hear Tulip rejecting help from her own loved ones when she was reflecting her. Tulip admits that she made mistakes, but tells her reflection that she actually does have an idea on how to allow her reflection to leave the Chrome Car with her. The reflection agrees to switching back after hearing this, with Tulip running towards the exit with her reflection at the same time. Tulip then pulls out her Swiss Army Knife mid-run and reflects the reflective surface, giving her reflection a reflection of her own. Her reflection then uses this to jump out of the mirror and the two of them try to leave the Chrome Car, but her reflection has a close call with the Mirror Police that leads to her hair getting cut short before Tulip manages to save her by pulling her out of the car. In the next car, themed after offices, Tulip's reflection thanks her for saving her, with Tulip agreeing to part ways to further reinforce her reflection's wish of gaining a life of her own.

In the last episode of the first book, Tulip walks by a mirror without a reflection, showing that Tulip indeed sacrificed something to save a friend.

Book 2: Cracked Reflection
Tulip's former reflection is now the protagonist. In "The Black Market Car", she cuts her hair completely short by holding it into the trains wheels, dyes the metal chain from the pens in the Office Car black and uses them as a bracelet and buys a shirt to look as little like Tulip as possible to evade detection.

In "The Family Tree Car", the reflection meets a new passenger named Jesse, whom she initially dislikes, only to be forced to spend time with him when they both fall deeper into the tree. Being forced to give a name to the tree, the reflection agrees to let the tree, and Jesse by extension, call her "MT". Due to the tree punishing those who are quarrelsome by absorbing them into it, Jesse forces M.T. to tell her why she refuses to associate with him. M.T. thinks about how she could properly explain her identity to him without revealing that she was someone else's reflection and decides to tell Jesse about her encounter with Tulip, framing her as a childhood friend. Jesse gets the wrong idea and just assumes that M.T. ditched her friend for no reason, but she manages to befriend him anyway after their experiences together.

Later in "The Toad Car", Jesse and M.T. are cornered by the flecs in the titular car, with Jesse furious at her for not telling him that she's a wanted criminal. When the flecs have trouble getting into the car, with M.T. destroying any reflective surfaces and spraying them black to prevent them from getting in, M.T. decides to open up to Jesse and tell him that she used to reflect Tulip. This leads to Jesse finally understanding why she was like this the whole time.

Eventually, thanks to Jesse, M.T. manages to kill the Mirror Police and make it off the train with him. Finally being able to look into a reflective surface with no fear, she renames herself "Lake".

Fanon
TuLake is one of the most popular platonic relationships in the fandom, which is impressive since they only got to interact properly in one episode. Already when only the first book aired, people were hoping they would see how the story of "Tulip's reflection" would continue.

A common idea in the fandom is allowing for Tulip and Lake to reunite, whether in a crisis situation or just catching up with one another. Often, Jesse will serve as a catalyst, with him finding out Tulip's socials and allowing for Lake to get in contact with her again.

The general headcanon is that Tulip and Lake are practically twins, seeing as they are technically related. Often, regardless if Lake gets adopted by the Cosays, she takes on the name of "Lake Olsen" to acknowledge her connection to Tulip without sacrificing her own identity. The potential of selfcest between them has been acknowledged, but isn't very popular.

Fandom

 * FAN FICTION