Yeah, the narrative boxes are where my eyes are failing me. I was looking for a gradient that didn't yell out "gradient" but at the same time gave a bit of flow to the background. And the two colors I picked are so close (to my eyes, at least) that on this second page, I couldn't even tell they were grading the wrong (default) way.

I may play with that a bit. Let's assume all the inconsistencies in style and design in this project are just that -- me playing around. Is that plausible?