"Gee, thanks, Igor."
"No problem. My nose hairs were starting to curl anyway. I think the lettuce is growing hair."
"Oh! Isn't that neat, so're all Babette's pups. Maybe they can help one another." Radar grinned and Igor smiled in pleasant confusion before turning away into the kitchen.
Radar shifted the tray of vegetables he'd gotten from the mess officer up onto a hand, waiter-style, and he was starting to head off towards his zoo when a voice from inside the tent caught his attention. He gave a pause, one foot lifted comically into the air. Father Mulcahy's sermon had begun.
"Oh, boy," he whispered to himself, getting the gist of the preaching, "The Colonel and I have really put ants in his pants, huh? I haven't heard him talk like that since the one time Trapper stole one of his collars and put it on the camp mutt."
"He'll come around, young ward," spoke Bantelhopp,
"And soon, I think, but wait upon't. But you,
"dear Radar, you must likewise fare, and come
"around to what must now be done in life."
Radar groaned, "Guys... not this again, you've told me 10 times already."
"True was it then, and yet true stands it now,
"The corpses to us stand a mighty blow,
"And if with corpses company you keep,
"Ten days times twenty hence, without a peep,
"Without a whisper, bang, or other noise,
"Into the mad world's sane and blackened void,
"Like will you unto them in every way,
"Just so the downfall of once-mighty Fae."
Radar understood. He couldn't NOT understand, try though he might. Still, he shrugged, and continued out around the mess tent, leaving the position of Mulcahy's unseen audience and heading toward the little zoo he'd built up nearby. Not too closeby, of course. He'd seen the chef giving them the eye once or twice.
"You're being all nonsense again, Ban," Radar muttered drily, his head hanging in precognition of the harangue he knew was coming.
"I tell you plain, then, what thou willst not hear,
"Your Henry's sort and yours have never mixed,
"And if too long you will yourself too near,
"In danger will your sorted lot be fixed."
Radar opened Babette's cage and started pulling out some of the less fetid bits of lettuce for her. He gave Bantelhopp a rough shove with a knuckle of a lettuce-bearing hand, bleating gently in disdain.
"Would you quit acting like I'm some kinda kid, Ban? Really! I'm a man, now, I can make my own decisions."
"I know what I'm doing." He added with a sulky air, after a bit of thought, closing his eyes and lifting his stately muzzle into the air.
Opening them again, he found himself looking Babette in her little black, beady eyes. He frowned.
"?uoy od, dab taht s'lenoloC eht kniht t'nod uoY"
Babette chittered, chattered, and squeaked in the following vein, "Colonel? Yes. Something -- SQUEAK! -- happened. He's... No I don't like."
Radar shook his head as he felt Bantelhopp beginning to say something that might be translated as "I told you so."
"That's what you call the, uh, postal-part depression talking." He nodded, and smiled, watching the young ones crawling around friskily at this point. "They just need a little fresh air." He wrinkled his nose at the hideous cages. "I think everybody could use to get out of the house a little bit."
His merry grin grew with every cage latch he undid, and every creature he allowed to run free in the compound.
~
"No problem. My nose hairs were starting to curl anyway. I think the lettuce is growing hair."
"Oh! Isn't that neat, so're all Babette's pups. Maybe they can help one another." Radar grinned and Igor smiled in pleasant confusion before turning away into the kitchen.
Radar shifted the tray of vegetables he'd gotten from the mess officer up onto a hand, waiter-style, and he was starting to head off towards his zoo when a voice from inside the tent caught his attention. He gave a pause, one foot lifted comically into the air. Father Mulcahy's sermon had begun.
"Oh, boy," he whispered to himself, getting the gist of the preaching, "The Colonel and I have really put ants in his pants, huh? I haven't heard him talk like that since the one time Trapper stole one of his collars and put it on the camp mutt."
"He'll come around, young ward," spoke Bantelhopp,
"And soon, I think, but wait upon't. But you,
"dear Radar, you must likewise fare, and come
"around to what must now be done in life."
Radar groaned, "Guys... not this again, you've told me 10 times already."
"True was it then, and yet true stands it now,
"The corpses to us stand a mighty blow,
"And if with corpses company you keep,
"Ten days times twenty hence, without a peep,
"Without a whisper, bang, or other noise,
"Into the mad world's sane and blackened void,
"Like will you unto them in every way,
"Just so the downfall of once-mighty Fae."
Radar understood. He couldn't NOT understand, try though he might. Still, he shrugged, and continued out around the mess tent, leaving the position of Mulcahy's unseen audience and heading toward the little zoo he'd built up nearby. Not too closeby, of course. He'd seen the chef giving them the eye once or twice.
"You're being all nonsense again, Ban," Radar muttered drily, his head hanging in precognition of the harangue he knew was coming.
"I tell you plain, then, what thou willst not hear,
"Your Henry's sort and yours have never mixed,
"And if too long you will yourself too near,
"In danger will your sorted lot be fixed."
Radar opened Babette's cage and started pulling out some of the less fetid bits of lettuce for her. He gave Bantelhopp a rough shove with a knuckle of a lettuce-bearing hand, bleating gently in disdain.
"Would you quit acting like I'm some kinda kid, Ban? Really! I'm a man, now, I can make my own decisions."
"I know what I'm doing." He added with a sulky air, after a bit of thought, closing his eyes and lifting his stately muzzle into the air.
Opening them again, he found himself looking Babette in her little black, beady eyes. He frowned.
"?uoy od, dab taht s'lenoloC eht kniht t'nod uoY"
Babette chittered, chattered, and squeaked in the following vein, "Colonel? Yes. Something -- SQUEAK! -- happened. He's... No I don't like."
Radar shook his head as he felt Bantelhopp beginning to say something that might be translated as "I told you so."
"That's what you call the, uh, postal-part depression talking." He nodded, and smiled, watching the young ones crawling around friskily at this point. "They just need a little fresh air." He wrinkled his nose at the hideous cages. "I think everybody could use to get out of the house a little bit."
His merry grin grew with every cage latch he undid, and every creature he allowed to run free in the compound.
~