[Report This]Date: December 22 2023 9:15 PM Title: The Orient Express
I know Gloria Chesterfield is a pretty minor character in the grand scheme of things (unless she's not, of course), but I really appreciate the little details you've put into her. She has turned out to be a fun balance between brave, noble journalist and mousy, nervous girl-in-over-her-head. Between that and her, uh, direct approach to gathering information, she makes for a great comedic relief.
I'm also really enjoying the relationship between Emilia and Oklahoma. Emilia has this sort of refined aura about her and comes off as careful and bookish, while Oklahoma is decidedly unrefined, carefree, and action-oriented. This odd-couple style pairing works really well here, with Emilia getting a bit frustrated with Oklahoma's bluntness at times but also leaning on her a bit to get a better understanding of Mika and Chloé.
And it's impressive how quickly Oklahoma has come around to trusting Emilia, as the pilot is far from the trusting type. Even after being mindfucked by Emilia, she's still able to look back at the Neko's actions and look her in the eye and realize that her intentions are pure. And with how protective Oklahoma has become around Chloé and Mika, the fact that she was willing to keep Emilia's secret from them in the first place implies a really deep trust.
Speaking of Oklahoma being really protective, I was a bit surprised to see her reaction when Cécilia tried to eat Mika. I knew she felt close to them, but for her to become so fierce and potentially put herself in harms way for him shows that oftentimes deep-buried sense of loyalty we tend to love in our "rouge" archetypes. I've brought this up a few times now, but it really has been rewarding to see this "B-story" of Oklahoma going from a loner, for-the-money type to a true friend to Chloé, Mika, and (gradually) Emilia play out subtly in the background, poking its head into the main plot here and there.
As I said before, I was pretty curious about how Chloé would take Emilia's Neko repopulation plan, and man was that a strong reaction! She was more upset about that than she was over Cécilia trying to eat Mika. To be fair, he was fine by the time she realized what was happening, while the threat of Emilia "enacting her plan" is technically around as long as she is. Also, Chloé, now confronted with a potential threat to her relationship with Mika, became territorial, almost primal at the thought of having a romantic rival, even if romance isn't part of Emilia's equation. It was interesting to see play out, and we'll see whether that tension has completely boiled over in the coming chapters, I'm sure.
But I like the way you've handled Emilia's assimilation into the group. Mika starts off irrationally (though understandably) bitter about Emilia's role in his past, but that seems to be slowly drifting away, and his interest in history is something I could see them bonding over as the story progresses. Chloé was empathetic but skeptical about the Neko, then furious over the thought of her sleeping with Mika, and then we don't see them really interact after that. And Oklahoma, as noted above, is the closest to her, but in the most carefree, cavalier way possible.
And it was noticeable that when the train pulled out of the station, it was just Mika, Chloé, and Oklahoma sharing a toast, as Emilia isn't quite in that circle yet.
I'm finding Emilia's recollection of history to be pretty fun. I like her throwing out ancient names for Egypt and Istanbul (I personally like the name Constantinople better, although its namesake was just terrible), but her recalling interactions with famous people from history is pretty great. I especially appreciate how these stories involve her being just like any other regular person of the time (I feel like there's a temptation with stuff like this to have the time traveler/immortal rub elbows with these historical figures) and that her opinions of them seem to match those of her contemporaries at the time (her being annoyed at, rather than an awe of, Jessie James and the Sundance Kid, for example). Since her people are always hiding in the shadows, it wouldn't make a lot of sense for them to be so tight with so many well-known people, after all.
And lastly, I was intrigued by Charboneau's "critique" of Higgins. In particular, it was interesting to see how the older merc's perspective on the job contrasts so deeply with Higgins'. I mean, if you ignore the pure evil of what they do, what Charboneau says makes sense: People should love what they do. That also makes me wonder exactly how Higgins got into such a line of work if he didn't feel that way.
But yeah, I ultimately agree with Higgins in the last chapter: If you enjoy a job that calls for murder and violence, there's something wrong with you. And the more we see of Charboneau, the more Higgins seems to not be quite so bad.
Author's Response:
Gloria Chesterfield is fun as comedic relief because of the sheer absurdity, in a world of high magical beings that are completely dismissed by mainstream society she gets the inside scoop by merely asking. The fact that Chloe and Mika didn't just answer all of her questions is probably pretty vexing for her.
Oklahoma has that Han Solo sense for good guys you might say. In the criminal underworld you get screwed over a lot, so a little mind control is okay so long as you made money at the end of it, realizing you're at someone's mercy and they chose to help you is a big trust builder.
Mika and the Nekos is going to be a sore spot for Chloe for a while, obviously with modern technology he doesn't need romantic involvement with them, but Chloe is not of a modern mindset, no matter how much she's learned.
Emilia I figured wouldn't have a high opinion of old west outlaws, having had to deal with them firsthand. Like you said, the contemporaries at the time don't have near the mythologized ideas of these figures.
Higgins and Charboneau chose very different paths to deal with their line of work, cold and forced indifference, vs enthusiastic participation.Higgins isn't a good guy, but he's built up a mental wall around what he does.