Questionable Questing

And so how does the journalist get drawn into Charlie

He falls in love with her. lol. But on a deeper level she represents all the things he's running from and hates. She's a noble, an industrialist, an imperialist, yet she's nice. She says thank you to her staff, she lets a random Journalist hover over her shoulder as she tours all her factories because she accidentally broke his camera. She openly includes her black bodyguard in her decision making.

It's the contradiction about Charlie that draws him in, and the two have a moment where they both get drunk while talking about politics and she openly and freely admits everything he believes in and has to hide. She's a devil hiding an angel.

She's an idealized god mother queen

The glory of empire paired with sincere passionate love

Exactly and no matter his morals, the Journalist can't help but get sucked in too. lol.

So why does Charlie take to him

Clussy

That's a tad odd

The same morals that she's unknowingly going to corrupt. Or as she puts it, "Have you ever considered that a man who doesn't mind that his woman has an opinion and thinks wealth or skin color doesn't make you inherently superior is in incredibly short supply."

But on a deeper level. She loves her kids. She's happy they've grown up to be responsible, proactive adults. But on some level she misses the youthful naivety. Even her youngest ones, they grow up in these system used to power, wealth, and responsibility, and no matter how Charlie feels about it, all of her kids are forced to grow up very quickly.

Especially with the sheer number of cultists, governments, and otherworldly sports looking to take advantage and tear their family apart for their own gain. So for Charlie, seeing the journalist reminds her of a simpler time.

She wants to be a sugar momma mentor and have a new darling

Exactly, Charlies has been a lot of things. Hopeless romantic, the damsel in distress, a reluctant bride, and she's kind of liking the idea of being the one chasing this time.

When was she the reluctant bride?

That's with the Pirate. He chased her in the beginning and she kept turning him down.

But she and him got into a twisted tangle of feelings later?

The two have a twenty or thirty years long history where they keep crossing paths as they both get heavily involved in the exploration of the newly found America's. With the Pirate going through a whole character arc of eager adventurer wanting to prove himself, blood thirsty mercenary doing anything for gold and glory, to depressed drunkard after getting betrayed by his crew and country.

Finally ending as a repentant preacher with a darker side he tries to control. All along the way Charlie goes from hating him, to pitying him, to in the end finally loving him. With the two forming a strange friendship as despite how much of a moral busybody and rival she is to him, she's also one of the only constants in the Pirates life. And also one of the only girls who's pants he couldn't get in. lol.

Sleep. Talk later