Upham

Upham (アップハム, Appuhamu) is one of the Lemures who hijacked the Flying Pussyfoot' in December 1931''' in order to demand Huey Laforet's release from prison.

On the train, Upham is captured briefly by Jacuzzi Splot and his gang, and freed by Elmer C. Albatross. He and Elmer head to the conductor's cabin, and he is stabbed by Lebreau Fermet Viralesque. Elmer saves his life.

In the aftermath, Upham is one of only a few Lemures who are not dead or arrested. Free of the cult, he eventually finds work at Fred's poorhouse by 1935 and befriends coworker Roy Maddock there.

He has a crush on Chané Laforet.

1931
Upham is among the Lemures who double-cross Nader Schasschule, and he is present when Nader's rebellion fails on December 29 in an abandoned warehouse.

During the Flying Pussyfoot incident (Dec 30-31), Upham is captured by Jacuzzi Splot's gang and tied up in one of the freight holds, where he fills them in on the Lemures' siege strategy.

He is freed by Elmer C. Albatross and accompanies him to the conductor's compartment. Arriving after them, Lebreau Fermet Viralesque stabs Upham for standing in his way. Upham manages to stab Fermet in the heart with his own knife, causing the other man to collapse.

Elmer warns Upham to stand back while Fermet regenerates. Once Fermet recovers, he wonders why Elmer of all people is here; Elmer ignores him and tends to Upham's injury.

Upham asks who Fermet is, and Elmer gives Upham Fermet's name - however, he refuses to tell Fermet what Upham's name is, so as to protect him. After speaking with Elmer for a while, Fermet attempts to kill Upham, since Upham has seen his 'real face'. Elmer takes the blow instead - Fermet's knife sinking into his stomach. He manages to manhandle Fermet towards the outside balcony, and attempts to throw him off the train. Fermet tries to drag Elmer down with him, but Upham rescues Elmer from his grasp. Fermet falls alone.

Conductor Claire Stanfield enters the cabin, covered in blood. Spotting the two men, he warns them that they shouldn't enter the conductor's cabin without permission. He notices Upham's injury and asks who he is, but is distracted when a knife pierces through the wall and nicks his ear. Claire exits the car and climbs up onto the roof.

Elmer says that he's going to head back to the dining car, and Upham says he'll go back to the freight hold. He thanks Elmer, and the two of them part ways.

1932
In January, Upham recounts his experience aboard the Flying Pussyfoot to someone Upham believes is a reporter from the Daily Days at the Jane Doe Speakeasy. The reporter is actually an actor who Fermet has fooled into believing he is helping a playwright with his script. Unbeknownst to Upham, Fermet is at a nearby table the entire time, listening to the conversation.

As a consequence, Fermet now knows Upham's name.

1935
By February, Upham is working at Fred's Poorhouse alongside Roy Maddock, where he cooks breakfast for the residents and does lots of maintenance jobs with the hopes of saving up enough money to become a musician. One day in the cafeteria, Roy calls him over from cooking breakfast and introduces him to a new guest called "Goose." Upham is taken aback, since Goose is the name of his old boss - and then realizes that this guest's face is familiar. He tentatively identifies 'Goose' as Nader, his old comrade whom he believed had died back in 1931.

Nader leaps to his feet and presses his fork to Upham's throat, accusing Upham of coming here to kill him on Hilton's orders. Upham objects that he quit the Lemures a long while ago.

Irritated that his meal has been interrupted, Raz Smith stands presses the barrel of his shotgun to Nader's temple while his apprentice looks on. Roy shouts for Smith to drop the gun. Fed up with Smith and Nader both, Alkins smashes his empty whiskey bottle into Nader's face. Nader drops the fork and crumples to the ground. Upham and Roy check on Nader just as he passes out.

They take him to his room and lie him on his bed. Upham reveals Nader's past with the Lemures to Roy while they wait for Nader to wake up. Nader does so with a scream, but quickly calms down and asks Upham if Huey has ordered a bounty on his (Nader's) head, because he can't figure out why he's still alive. Upham explains that he's also abandoned the Lemures and gone into hiding, and that he's never heard of Hilton before. If he was lying, then why is Nader still alive?

Finally convinced that Upham is telling the truth, Nader apologizes for earlier and says that they can just 'call it even,' referring to when Upham and some other Lemures betrayed him in 1931. He adds that he no longer has a grudge against Upham and the other Lemures, since most of them had been murdered on the Flying Pussyfoot, and Goose burnt to a crisp by the railway tracks.

Roy assures Nader and Upham that he won't turn them over to the police, given that he wants to avoid the cops himself. After the conversation dies down, Fred enters the room to check on Nader - who wells up at the unexpected reunion with the doctor. Ladd Russo follows Fred into the room and greets Nader with a grin. Upham and Roy accompany Nader and Ladd down to the cafeteria; Upham leaves to go do maintenance work while Ladd and Nader talk.

Quotes

 * "But I finally realized at that point­­ that bastard was in another world altogether. You know, it's like Captain Hook from Peter Pan. No matter how much he swings that hook of his, he'll never hit you, right? It was the same with me. I was Captain Hook, and he was the kid reading the book and laughing at me.

"And what happens if you don't like Captain Hook? Normally you'd just close the book, but what if the reader's a real selfish brat? All he has to do is rip out all the pages with Captain Hook. That's right. I was ripped out of the story."  (To the fake Daily Days reporter, 1931: Another Junk Railroad - Special Express Episode)

Trivia

 * From Fermet's thoughts, it seems that he has plans for Upham - though what those plans are are currently unknown.