1.2.2-Shirley-keeldar

ClubNinetyThree: 1.2.2: Nuit sur le navire et sur le passager
We directly continue the parallelism of the ship and the fake peasant from the last chapter in the very title. The structure of this chapter also mimics the previous one — it’s short, it starts out descriptive, it ends with a bang. (And promises a literal one!)

The ship takes the less-traveled, longer route for security — though evidently not safety, since it’s away from all the lighthouses — aiming to make landfall by morning. It’s dark and foggy, the sea is a little rough, but our fake peasant is walking sure-footed around the deck, eating a bar of chocolate. Chocolate! Where did he get that and why isn’t he sharing. With me, I mean, but he isn’t sharing with the crew, either.

Especially when the captain has given up his cabin for him! Because that won’t lead anyone on board — or anyone who happens to capture the ship — to suspect anything fishy at all. (As Pilf’s entry for the previous chapter noted, the deception decidedly doesn’t seem aimed at the ship’s crew.)

Then there’s conversation. Apparently it’s very, very important that no one find out who our fake peasant is. The captain, the second, and the man himself will all die sooner than give out his identity. It has to remain secret — until the moment of explosion. What explosion? A literal explosion, or a metaphorical one? What is happening! Why are these chapters so short!

Commentary
Pilferingapples I think they’re talking about a literal explosion— there is a pretty clearly planned Boom coming up, when they hit the coast (presumably with explosives). Perhaps then it will be the Hour of Unmasking, or such?

and believe me, you wouldn’t want to share the The Peasant’s chocolate unless you’d also like just a big ol’ spoonful of cocoa and oil.(I’d say baking chocolate, but even modern baking chocolate is usually milder than what he’s probably got.) BLEGH. He must be training himself to endure hardship.

Shirley-keeldar (reply to Pilferingapples) That’ll teach me to write club posts while hungry — EVERYTHING sounds appetizing. (I like your energy bar interpretation, too. I don’t suppose it can taste any worse than, say, Red Bull, but then there are people who LIKE the cursed stuff…)

Oh, yeah, I guess there is that whole COAST IN FLAMES deal in the offing.