#rotating this in my brain. i can't write taylor well enough to write this but what if i could

[lakesbian]

worm infinity train au. your thoughts

you may also be interested in the infinity train worm au! as for worm infinity train au:

perspective character taylor hebert has a dead mom and is chronically bullied at school. her life fucking sucks. she is, although she doesn't fully realize it, severely traumatized and suicidal as a result. one day, as she's heading to school in the morning, she stops and realizes she can't take it anymore. she's not sure if she just intends to skip or do...whatever else, but she can't force herself to take another step towards the building.

at this point, an entire fucking train manifests out of thin air and pulls up directly in front of her. the sign above the door displays where it's going:

ANYWHERE BUT HERE

she boards.

after: 1. waking up in some random place with a glowing green number tattooed onto her hand & wrapping up around her wrist (what the fuck) 2. stumbling out of the first car and realizing she's on some sort of massive train from hell running thru a seemingly infinite wasteland (what the FUCK) and 3. stumbling through several more cars in a more or less blind panic desperately trying to come to grips with whatever is going on here (WHAT THE FUCK, she reiterates to herself in her head)

...she runs into another person! a blonde girl named lisa who seems a little too calm about this whole situation. she's shockingly helpful and calming, and she explains her best guesses about the train and the purpose of the number to taylor.

"so you have a number too?" taylor thinks to ask, noticing for the first time that lisa's gloves & long sleeves are obscuring both of her hands & arms from view.

in what is absolutely not a smooth bit of redirection, lisa informs her that "yep, all of us do," and tips a thumb over her shoulder.

"us?" taylor asks.

at which point lisa leads taylor deeper into the car, introducing her to where the group of other teens she's traveling with are currently camped out. this group is comprised of:

brian laborn: de-facto leader with a number over halfway to his elbow. an amiable, somewhat stoic, and seemingly well-adjusted 17yo--although on closer inspection, he often seems to be masking unease. his number can often be seen going up at seemingly random, and has yet to decrease.

lisa wilbourn: default group advisor. her number is unknown to everyone else in the group. everyone but taylor has already learned not to bother bringing it up, and taylor learns shortly after lisa issues enough jokingly-condescending dismissals of her questions. despite remaining coy about her own history, lisa seems to always have a helpful opinion about the problems of her fellow passengers.

rachel 'bitch' lindt: quick-to-anger and tailed by several variously-doglike non-speaking denizens. it's not quite clear why she's sticking with the group, since she seems to respond poorly to really any direction or attempt at communication, but she's stuck with them nonetheless. has a number up to her elbow, and it gets higher every day.

alec vasil: has a number nearly to his shoulder, which ever-so-often oscillates a few digits either up or down, functionally remaining where it's at. has been on the train longest at 2 1/2 years. he's incredibly blasé about this, shrugging his shoulders and remarking that being on the train is "way more interesting than back home."

(aisha does also eventually join the group, having boarded shortly-ish after brian did. they're lucky enough to stumble into a reunion, which is equal parts relieving and awful for each. good news, you found your sibling! bad news, both of you are stuck on this fucking train! she has the lowest number--still entirely on her hand--and a penchant for being annoying like her life depends on it.)

taylor is integrated into the group, and wacky hijinks, bonding with people you would never hang out with otherwise via shared traumatic experiences, and extremely meandering character development ensues.

this goes a significantly more hopeful direction than worm--while the train fucking sucks, it is at least designed with healing in mind. the undersiders were never meant to be best friends for life, and rare few of them will keep in contact after they exit the train. but while they're on the train, there's a shared solidarity in crawling up from their lowest points side-by-side. for the duration of their time together on the train, they're family.