The thing I like best about this is what a marvelously unreliable narrator Fraser is.

Yes! I have a crazy ridiculous kink for unreliable narrators, full stop, but it really does fit here - Fraser thinks he knows what's going on, and in that context, his actions actually do make a lot of sense...he's just, you know, wrong. (and well done you for getting the Dief bit; it's one of my favorite little tiny lines)

Credit for the fish, though, should really go to shoemaster, who held my hand through this whole thing.