[quote=@Tatterdemalion]Is this the revenge of the Flood? Did she stir these eyeless things up from her depths? Or is this a depraved indifference, a decision not to lift a driftwood finger as the parasites in her waters seek to drag you down and devour your bones? And, when you get down to it, is there really a practical difference? The propulsion's clogging, and the waters all around you are writhing, and the boards Coleman put together are starting to buckle. Coleman: if you don't do something, and fast, you're going to be going down to meet the Flood a lot sooner than you'd like.
[/quote]

Look, he did [i]not[/i] spend that long socializing with the locals to have his raft torn apart by garbage noodles. So while Lucien tackles the propulsion, he scampers up Sasha--with a quick, "pardon, ma'am," to Jackdaw--and fires up the boiler. Up til this point, he's prioritized a stable platform for her, but if the choice is rocking the boat a little or suddenly being boatless, it's an easy decision.

It's a question of friction, really. The driftwood he bargained for is nailed, screwed, and tied down, variously, and that's basically just different means of holding perpendiculars together. Now, Sasha groans and lays prone on the raft, reaches out all four limbs, and just [i]squeezes[/i] the raft together. The cross beams are robust enough, and he chose square enough timbers, that the additional pressure should be enough to let it hold together.

[Overcome: 10.]