…it was mostly in her mind
On The Road With Violet: The Labors Of Hercules
As soon as the turtle starts to stumble and jerk about (and before he actually sees a road pirate), Hercules Dibbs knows exactly what has happened. Somebody has dumped cannonball sized steel spheres on the roadway, hoping to cause Thelma (for that is the name Hercules uses when referring to the turtle) to lose her footing and crash.
“Sonofabitch!”, he says to nobody in particular as he wrestled with various wheels, levers, pedals and knobs in an effort to keep Thelma on her feel. “Come on, sweetheart. Keep yer footin'”
As Thelma pitches rather alarmingly to starboard, Hercules gets a quick glimpse of a large wagon and the thirty or so men swarming off of it and towards the turtle. After yelling a warning to Sir Rupert, he increases his efforts at the controls. He isn’t helped by the road pirates trying to wrap chains around Thelmas feet and neck.
Meanwhile, after losing her footing and first sliding under a chair, then back the other way into a writing desk, Lavender gets up and runs towards the pilot booth. Squealing loudly, she looks up at Hercules.
“Hang on, Miss Pig. I reckon it’ll get rougher before things are done. Pity ya don’t understand human speech, or I’d have ya helping me.”
Lavender, who does indeed understand human speech quite well, thank you, grunts indignantly at Hercules while staring him straight in the eye.
While frantically turning a huge wheel with one hand and pulling hard on a lever with the other, he notices that Lavender does in fact seem to have a rather non-porcine look in her eyes. Nearly human, in fact.
“Alrighty then. If you can understand me, sit on this right hand pedal.”
Without hesitation, Lavender sits on the pedal. With a grunt of surprise, Hercules uses his now free right foot to kick a lever into a new position. For several minutes, the little man and the pig manage to keep the turtle under control. Then, just as things begin to calm down, Hercules hears Nigels warning about the skyship and getting carried off. Grabbing a communications tube, he yells “Perfesser, we got troubles above. Ya might want to bail off, cos I’m gonna go into escape mode.”
Looking down at Lavender, he says, “Same goes fer you, Little Missy. We ain’t fully tested escape mode yet.”
Looking up at Hercules, Lavender gives a grunt and a look that both say, “Bring it on!”
With a hearty laugh, Hercules reaches for a red lever and gives it a pull.
The Dociverse Blog 
My vote was generally a comment that this is supposed to be Violet’s tale, and splitting the narrative away from her would be bad form, Mister Smee. I’m glad to see (for whatever reason) my vote fits with the consensus. :-)