Apr 28, 2024
Author's Commentary #9:
Time to talk about Chapter 9: Museum of mummies part 2.
Whelp, they all got mummified. It was obvious from the start, though what wasn't obvious was that Mochi might be a traitor. I'm still going to hold off on going more in depth on Mochi, but before I give her basic bio as well as Bianka's, I first want to talk about the villain, Carl McDonald.
The whole joke about Carl McDonald is that he's meant to be a parody of Col Sanders. His name has further fast food references with his first name being a reference to Carl's Jr., and his last name being a reference to, well, McDonald's. He also hates chicken and is from New Mexico, further increasing the irony that he looks and sounds like Col Sanders. Another fun fact is that his henchman, Jimmy, is a reference to Jimmy John's.
As for the immobilization serum, that, as well as this entire arc for that matter were inspired by the Get Smart episode, "The Mummy". In the episode, protagonist Maxwell Smart finds himself captured and wrapped up like a mummy in order to be smuggled out of the country. He is also injected with a serum that immobilizes him almost instantly, to prevent him from moving around. The serum in Escape Witch is similar to that, but takes 30 minutes to take effect. There is a variation of the serum that takes effect immediately, but low-ranking members of Illumous like Sayuri, don't have access to it. One other thing I'll mention is that this isn't the only one of my novels that the immobilization serum appears in. Now let's talk a bit about Mochi.
名智 望哉 (Myouchi Mochika) is how her name is spelled in kanji.
望哉 means "hope" and "contradiction" while, 名智 means "achievement" and "wise".
Her birthday is August 21st which she shares with Momo Akanegakubo from Shokugeki no Soma. The reason for that is because her character was actually inspired by Momo, and funnily enough, Mochi actually used to be a chef, and a prodigious one at that, before deciding to become a detective.
As for Bianka, 湯詰 美杏香 (Yuzume Bianka) is how her name is spelled in kanji. 美杏香 means "beautiful", "apricot", and "appealing".
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).
Her birthday is September 15th, which she shares with Catherine from Fire Emblem Three houses. The reason for that is that Bianka was loosely based off her.
As for Bianka, she is into women and is ironically a womanizer. The reason she became like this was actually due to her witnessing Reika kiss a woman as part of an undercover mission. The two are biological sisters despite being nearly 10 years apart in age. Their mother died shortly after giving birth to Bianka, which led to Reika being the one to primarily raise her. As such, Bianka idolized her and began imitating her, which resulted in her trying to kiss a girl at school. After maturing and joining the police, Bianka eased up on her skirt-chasing ways, though ended up relapsing after Reika's death. Reika's death also caused her to bleach her hair blonde and spray tan her skin. Her natural hair color is actually chestnut brown, and she is very close with Mochi.
You're probably wondering why I'm talking about Bianka here since she doesn't appear in the chapter or arc. The reason for that is because Bianka was originally going to be part of this arc, and end up kidnapped instead of Serika. However, that was before I finalized Serika's character as back in those stages, she was intended to be more of a side character. In a later draft, Bianka was actually going to come with everyone to the museum, but leave before she could get kidnapped. Since that didn't flow well with the story, I decided not to have her be part of this arc in the first place.
Before I end this, there are two things I want to mention. First, the reason Sayuri changed her plan is because she figured out Yuni is Fubuki's daughter and believes she is just as smart as her. Second, The Mochi here is the same one that appears in Spice of life. That is all I will say regarding that.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
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