What we are seeing here is a reset and a compensation for the pirate's death. Joshua said it himself. He had put himself at risk. He can't let them see how strong his feelings are for his pet.
Our worst (or best) gaffes stick to us like gaff tape.
When I think of big gaffes, Geraldo Rivera's much hyped The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults on April 21, 1986 and found Al Capone's trash.
I turned up an Interesting result by doing a content search on GA for angst. I got back 73 pages of results and, as far as I looked, they all seem to be exclusively in the Word of the Day. Oddly, the ones I looked at didn't have angst in them.
I conclude this means the Word of the Day must literally be angst.
Our protagonist has fully surrendered, both mentally and physically. He has been claimed by Joshua in a heat of passion, but now it's Joshua who must come to terms with his desires. There is still a dark and uncertain journey ahead.
Ah, Jack's mention of an experiment went in another direction. From his duplicate readings, it seems Jack's gift is quite real. He even hit Danny's nom de plume correctly. It seems whether he wants to or not, he is now part of Ryder's quest.
And so our comedy of errors continues.
Just so you know. Although you'll find some sources which say woodchucks and groundhogs are the same animal, there are subtle differences between them and woodchucks are more widespread.
Not much call for bookkeeping with pirates. There's no profit and loss to worry about when your cargo costs nothing. They just divvy up the spoils and reprovision. It's easy enough to tell if a sailing was successful.