“Gulls circling o’erhead” is probably not close enough to the wording to be recognized as a reference to The Azores Mystery, which, as it’s a story written by Paul and Nate years ago on Wordperfect, is probably not close enough to general cultural consciousness to be recognized. However, it should be noted that that is what I was thinking about.

Title refers of course to Captain Sparrow. That’s not why I used sparrows–I just picked the most tiny, common, chirpy bird I could think of–but it was a happy coincidence.

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