See, I needed to do a bit of foreshadowing of upcoming/concurrent plot developments – and since they feature a pronounced nautical context, I wanted to schedule it as close as possible to International Talk-like-a-pirate-day (Sept. 19th), to kill two birds with one stone, so to say.
The erratic workings of Gregory’s magic hat greatly facilitated that. It’s really an extremely convenient plot device, as was Presto’s hat in the original D&D cartoon – you can have it do anything you need it to do, with our even without prompting, then suddenly have it be unable to replicate the same effect the next moment, as the plot warrants. Without having to provide any more cogent explanation than “the ever-changing winds of magic“, or the user’s ever-changing level of competence. Whichever is less capricious in the eyes of the audience.
Connecting the first appearance of the old, salty sea-dog to Talk-like-a-pirate-day also has the advantage of providing some scarce cover for my complete inability to write convincing nautical-flavored dialogue. As long as it’s in connection with the high holy day, it can count as parodistic, rather than just incompetent. I wish there were more holidays like that, I’d look better.
More on Mon…uh, Thursday.