--==-- Poetic Interlude --==--
The fickle flood is spent; our thread untwines.
Restful on the swell we drift contented.
Our nascent storm too soon declines:
Its first fervour is abated.
Those first lines are the easiest -
Their novelty ensures.
But more must come: without the rest
The tale will not endure.
Sickly the day is breaking up ahead;
But mordent upon the ebb's rhythm soft
A gathering discord trills, that bears aloft
Our storm renewed, with blacker thunderheads.
--==-- End of Poetic Interlude --==--
The motley PitCrew, inspired or revolted each as befits his disposition towards prententious narcissism, turns toward the gathering storm with a fresh relish. A wild and reckless spirit takes hold of them as with full sail they prepare to face the tempest. Scanning the story for references to himself, Edge Damodred immediately jumps up to give an exposition of "Why Full Sail is so great but also such terribly, terribly hard work"; the rest of the crew groan and force him back down to the galleys, where he may employ his talent for terribly, terribly hard work.
Yet up on the main deck, dissent is brewing. Captain CCS fears a mutiny. It does not help his concentration that the cook, a hearty fellow by the name of Long Jon Rickenbacker, insists on calling all the decks "poop" with such peculiar glee. The captain is distrusted by his crew; they fear his enigmatic acronym conceals a past of pirate commands. So be it; he has his own reasons for discretion. Even as CCS broods upon these troubling thoughts, he is accosted by the cabin-boy Cassius, who appears as one in a state of mortal dread. The captain ushers Cassius into his chamber, whereupon the comely lad reveals......